The Grim Reaper Can't Be Tricked

Wu Yujie: "Where do you get the gold runes now?"

Cen Jin took out four ancient gold coins from his pocket: "Is it?"

Ding Yiqing nodded.

When Wu Yujie saw it, she recognized that it was the ancient gold coin that Cen Jin cheated from Loki and the others, her expression changed slightly, and her tone was heavy: "The kingdom of the dead in the Norwegian Sea, ghost ships, magic paintings, gold coins...there are not so many coincidences in the world. , so you have been calculated."

Cen Jin tossed the gold coin in his hand, pretending to be relaxed: "Now you are also an accomplice."

Wu Yujie: "I think it's still too late for me to turn around now."

Ding Yiqing: "You still have time."

Wu Yujie froze for a moment, frowned and said, "I'm just joking."

Ding Yiqing stared at her, "I'm not joking." Although his tone was cold, his expression was serious.

Wu Yujie hastily zipped her zipper to show that she wasn't joking around, and don't use random excuses to persuade her to leave.

Cen Jin: "The road ahead is uncertain, difficult and unpredictable, but the target is obviously only me and Ding Yiqing. If you leave now, you should be let off."

Wu Yujie raised her hands as a joke: "You two don't want to live in a world of two, so you send me away on purpose." Seeing that the expressions of the two were not relaxed, she could only sigh helplessly: "The exciting adventure that was promised, can't really face it." Let me give up on the unfathomable crisis like the abyss? Unless you also give up together, everyone will go home safely."

Cen Jin stroked his chin and stared at the gold coin thoughtfully: "I feel that even if Lao Ding and I give up now, the other party will not let us go. What's more, they are all here, so we have to go in and take a look."

Wu Yujie: "That's right, it's all here." It's impossible for her to give up her partner and escape alone, absolutely impossible. "Although the comer is not good, we will not necessarily die."

Besides, so what if you die?

By choosing this line of work, she had already accepted that she would die young on the job.

Being able to live to retirement is luck, not being able to live is fate, and any result can be accepted.

She said these words, and then asked: "Don't you think so too?"

Ding Yiqing pursed his lips and smiled, Cen Jin grinned, shrugged, and winked to show that he had nothing to do with Wu Yujie, so the boat continued to sail forward, facing the ugly mermaid that gathered, Cen Jin suddenly turned around: "You just said that the world of two people... ...is it obvious?"

Wu Yujie was even more surprised: "Isn't it obvious? I still think your speed is too slow."

Cen Jin looked up at Ding Yiqing, with apologetic expression on his face: "It's my fault, it's because I was slow."

"?" What do you mean?The old man who Huangmao chased first?Who will go up and who will go down?

Wu Yujie fell into confusion.

Ding Yiqing pressed the back of Cen Jin's head: "Calm down."

Cen Jin giggled, as if he felt that playing like this was very fun.

The tacit understanding between the two of them was full of sourness between lovers, which made Wu Yujie miss her ex-boyfriend a little bit, what was her ex-boyfriend's name?

The ship approached the cliff arch, and at the moment when it was about to return to the original point, Cen Jin suddenly threw a rune gold coin into the sea, and the space was blurred and distorted in an instant. scream.

But for a moment, the ship entered another world.

Five or six meters behind is boundless dense fog. There are tall black ghosts walking around in the dense fog, making roaring noises from time to time. When they try to approach or stay away from the dense fog, they will find that the dense fog is moving away and approaching. Always keep a distance of five or six meters.

A hundred meters ahead was the coast, and the boat docked. The three of them disembarked with the magic painting, and the mermaid was left on board. The dense fog could not make it to the shore, and only covered the boat.

There is a lighthouse on the right side of the port. The main road is paved with stones and winds towards the town in the distance. The town is built on the mountain, and the stone houses from the foot of the mountain, halfway up the mountain to the top of the mountain are scattered and orderly.

Except for the main road paved with stones, the other roads are muddy dirt roads.

It probably just rained yesterday, the road surface is muddy, and there are many puddles, there are one or two thumb-sized silver fish in the puddle, if you squat down and look carefully, you can find that the small fish has a human face, but a mouthful of a beast. teeth.

It took about half an hour to finally arrive at the entrance of the town. The muddy dirt road decreased sharply, and the stone road was vertical and horizontal. It can be seen that the traffic is quite convenient, but the air is always filled with a vague fishy smell.

But here is a distance from the sea, and there is no dried fish at the door of every household, and there is no fish tank for raising fish at the door. I don’t know where the strong fishy smell comes from.

The sky was gloomy, as if it would rain at any moment.

Wu Yujie: "If this is the country of the dead, the silence of the wilderness would fit the characteristics."

Cen Jin stopped at the door of a stone house, looked at the black wall and said, "It's moss."

Wu Yujie: "So?"

Ding Yiqing understood in seconds: "Green plants have life, but this is the country of death, and there should be no life."

Cen Jin stepped forward, about to knock on the door, but was grabbed by Ding Yiqing: "I'll do it."

He knocked on the door lightly, and found that the door was unlocked, screaming and screaming. It seemed that it had been dusty for many years. When he opened it, a lot of dust hit his face, and the smell of decay and fish smell penetrated into his nostrils.

Even though he quickly covered his nose with his hands, he still felt a strong retching feeling stuck in his chest.

Although the stone house is small, it has everything you need. The scale is like a medieval Norwegian stone house. There is a three-story stone tower next to the house, which should be used to store grain and other grains.The house is slightly narrow, with low windows. What is surprising is that there is a toilet behind the house. There are both modern toilets and squatting toilets, which shows that the sewer system in the town is very well developed.

Everything in the room is ordinary, including daily necessities such as beds and quilts, there are blackened vegetables and fruits in the cabinet, covered with spider silk and dust, there are cooked meals on the stove, and a half-finished spinning wheel is placed by the window sill. An open book was placed on the carpet, as if it fell to the ground in a hurry while reading, and I didn't have time to pick it up.

Wu Yujie, who came back from inspecting other stone houses, said: "The other stone houses are similar to this one, ignoring the dust, insect nets and moss, all the decorations in the house show that it has experienced such a moment: it should be eating time, people go home to prepare meals, Women are cooking, men are reading, or fiddling with fishing nets, or doing other things, children are playing at the door, and if there are adult girls at home, they will spin twine on the window sill.

Everyday is ordinary, it should be the same as before, but on a certain day and at a certain moment, something happened that made everyone disappear, they didn't even react, they were still doing what they were doing seriously. "

Ding Yiqing came out from behind the desk, took a piece of paper and said, "The old witch guessed a lot."

Cen Jin: "What clues did you find?"

Ding Yiqing spread out the paper, which was full of scribbled characters, which could be vaguely recognized as rune characters. Only Ding Yiqing was present at the scene who knew some rune characters: "The main idea is that the owner of this room tells his own life. She is a blind prophet and a member of the Hall of Valor. The maid, who was able to see some future by following Odin, left the Hall of Valor blindly, and voluntarily came to live in the Kingdom of the Dead, because of her blindness, her ability to predict was strengthened, and she predicted that a huge disaster would come to her head."

Cen Jin: "Is there any disaster written on the paper?"

Ding Yiqing: "I don't know some words, but it probably means 'the end of the gods'. The poisonous dragon gnawed down the world tree, and the king of the kingdom of the dead pointed his spear of hatred at the protoss at the top of the world tree. Weak human beings became the first victims. "

Norse mythology is in their compulsory courses, so these words are not difficult for them to understand.

The world tree has nine kingdoms, which are distributed on the top, trunk and root of the tree. At the top are the gods and elves. The atrium is the human residence. The country of the world and the gnomes live at the bottom of the world tree, and the poisonous dragon is next to the country of the fog.

The world tree mainly has five races of creatures, protoss, giants, gnomes, elves and humans.

There are two branches of the Protoss, the Asa Protoss headed by the Lord God Odin and the Vanir Protoss headed by the God of the Sea, each occupying a kingdom.

The atrium is where humans live, and there is a tricolor rainbow that leads to the kingdom of the Aesir.

The Kingdom of Fire and the Kingdom of Giants are the kingdoms where giants live, while dwarves and elves occupy a kingdom respectively.

The Kingdom of the Dead is very similar to the Kingdom of the Fog. The former is the resting place of the dead, while the latter is cold and dark with few lives. A few documents record that the Kingdom of the Dead is surrounded by the Kingdom of Mist, while the Kingdom of the Mist is covered with dense fog and poisonous dragons. Entrenched in the country of fog, eating the roots of the world tree.

Recalling the huge stone statues they saw at the entrance of the cliff, including Jormungandr and Fenrir, and the poisonous dragon Nidhogg, they were surrounded by dense fog and mermaids before entering, and entering the dense fog surrounded is the land they are stepping on, It just fits the country of fog and the country of death in the literature description.

"We were in the country of fog just now, and now we are in the country of death... But isn't the country of fog a lifeless place?" Wu Yujie asked softly.

Cen Jin: "Mermaids can be regarded as alien species, and if they are taken in, they can only stay in the barren land of fog."

Then they talked about the "end of the gods" in the prophecy, also known as the twilight of the gods. The main reason was the endless hatred between the giants and the gods, which led to the outbreak of the final war and the death of the giants and the gods.

In this war of the twilight of the gods, the main god Odin predicted many tragedies, which were finally realized one by one, and the Nordic mythology is also the only myth system among the six major myths in the world that predicts its own demise.

No remains of the World Tree can be found in Northern Europe, but the excavated documents prove that the nine kingdoms of the World Tree exist, and they are distinguished from all creatures on the earth, forming a world of their own.

The World Tree is similar to the Kunlun Mountains and Seas. It has an entrance located on the earth, and inside it is another different space, where other creatures different from the creatures on the earth live.

What is surprising is that the ancient Chinese literature mentions a huge sacred tree named Jianmu, which is located close to the coordinates of the entrance of the World Tree, which is suspected to be proof of the existence of the World Tree.

"The elves and gnomes are the worms on the corpse of the ancestor of the giants. They belong to the demigods and follow the gods. They should participate in the battle of the gods and die in the twilight of the gods. The humans in the atrium will inevitably be involved in the war, and the fire will burn the entire atrium , two humans are left dead."

Ding Yiqing put away the piece of paper and walked towards the bookcase against the wall, looking for more useful clues while popularizing the Norse mythology he knew well: "Gods, giants, elves and dwarfs have other places to go after death, except humans."

"Human undead cannot continue to stay in the atrium, only Haim's Underworld and the Hall of Valor can take them in."

Haim's underworld is the kingdom of death, also known as hell, and its owner is named Hela.

——Hella, God of Death.

"Ordinary human undead were taken in by Hela in the Kingdom of the Dead and provided rooms for the undead to live in. The undead who died in battle were led to the Hall of Valor by Odin's maid."

The Hall of Valor is located at the top of the world tree in the kingdom of the gods, while the kingdom of the dead is at the bottom of the world tree.

"We are now in the kingdom of the dead. These stone houses should be the residences of the undead after death. The main reason for their sudden disappearance is the war of the gods, and the secondary reason is undoubtedly related to the death god Hela."

Hela is the sister of the giant snake Jormungandr and the giant wolf Fenli, and one of the children of Loki. In the desperate battle between the giants and the gods, they chose the giant camp to fight against the gods.

Cen Jin had a sudden thought: "Human undead come from the atrium, can they also go to the atrium from here?"

Ding Yiqing: "Maybe."

Once you reach the atrium, you can pass the rainbow bridge to the kingdom of the gods and elves, and explore whether there are still living beings.

The three of them did not spend too much time in the small town of Stone House, and after confirming that there were no living beings, they set off towards the residence of the Queen of the Kingdom of the Dead as recorded in the literature.Hela's palace is surrounded by mountains, and each mountain has a small stone town built on the mountain. The highest mountain has only one gorgeous palace, like the stars and the moon, and the officials surrender to the king of the dead , Hela stands at the top of the kingdom, overlooking her subjects.

The huge palace is extremely luxurious, but it is also dusty, with cobwebs and moss everywhere, and there is a fishy smell that seems to be absent.

The doors and windows of the palace were closed tightly, and the heavy curtains blocked the sky. It was drowsy and dark. The five-meter-high palace gate was pushed open, and dust poured out. The three of them stepped into the palace hall one after another, and a faint blue will-o'-the-wisp suddenly lit up in the depths. , illuminating the inner structure of the hall.

Exquisite walls and iron pillars carve iron statues of human beings, with their heads protruding, or the upper body lying down obliquely, or half of the body is integrated into the wall, and the other half is outside, and there is an iron cup in their palm or on the top of their head. An oil lamp that does not shed dust, flickering with a faint blue flame.

The facial expressions of the portraits are lifelike, so detailed that emotions, anger, sorrow, and joy can be clearly distinguished. They all face the same direction, surrendering to the ground like one step after another. That direction is facing the Iron Throne on the 99th floor at the end of the palace.

Even the steps are made of black iron, and the two iron thorns are like the railings of the stairs. Behind the railings is a hollowed-out abyss. Both are iron human ladders, like evil spirits crawling back to the ground from hell.

Walking up the iron steps, you can hear crisp footsteps, and the palace is filled with their echoes.

Climbing up the stairs, the more difficult it is, the legs are like falling lead weights, so heavy that it is difficult to move, Wu Yujie is already sweating halfway up, shaking her head and saying that she can't hold it anymore.

"The upper body is resisting my approach. Not only are the legs and feet heavy, but the heart seems to be hit hard by a hammer. There is an illusion of being smashed." Wu Yujie wiped off the sweat on her face and said with a heavy face: "Go, I can only Stop here."

Cen Jin and Ding Yiqing looked at each other, left a bottle of fresh water for Wu Yujie and walked forward together.

When they came to the No.80 iron steps, they finally felt the pain of the heart being beaten, and the pain of the brain being drilled by the hammer also occurred at the same time. Cen Jin used gravity to wrap himself, barely relieving the pain.

"How are you?"

Ding Yiqing supported Cen Jin, her lips were pale: "I can only swallow a little bit, I can feel the power attacking us like a vast ocean, and I can only swallow a drop or two of seawater with all my strength."

"Can you make it to the top?"

"I can, how about you?"

"good."

Both of them knew that each other was not exaggerating. When facing serious matters, they knew the principle of doing what they could, so they supported each other and walked up to the five iron steps of No.90. Go onto the iron platform.

It wasn't until they got on the iron platform that they realized how far they were from the Iron Throne. The platform covers an area of ​​nearly a hundred acres, and the front and back are covered with iron thorns. Behind the Iron Throne, in the thorn forest, there is a winding path leading to an unknown place. It's dark, but you can hear the gurgling water.

"The undead come from the atrium. They need to cross a river, take a bridge, pass through the iron forest, and arrive at the gate of Hela, leading to endless darkness and cold. You can see nine rivers in the underworld, one of which is full of sharp knives. Going forward, it is Hela's palace."

Ding Yiqing stated in a deep voice.

Cen Jin was surprised: "The road to the world is hidden behind the Iron Throne?" He tore off two iron branches, handed one to Ding Yiqing, and used it as a crutch to prop up his back to the Iron Throne, which is about ten square meters in size.

After touching it, it was cold to the bone.

Cen Jin shivered, withdrew his hand, and when he turned around, he saw Ding Yiqing sizing up the Iron Throne as if observing something. After a while, he tried to sit down and looked into the distance, with a strange expression on his face.

Following his line of sight, Cen Jin could only see the panorama of the huge palace, and waved to Wu Yujie below.

Wu Yujie sat on the steps to rest, and greeted lazily back.

"What did you see?" Cen Jin was curious.

Ding Yiqing pulled Cen Jin to sit down and motioned to him: "Look."

Cen Jin followed and was surprised to find that the field of vision had suddenly widened. Previously, he could only see the panorama of the palace, but now he could see thousands of small towns located in the mountains, and every stone house can be seen under his eyes.

"Monitor the high-level VIP throne on the big screen." Cen Jin sighed.

Now I can see the lifeless stone house. It is not difficult to imagine how lively the stone house is with the undead living, and how many interesting scenes you can see when sitting here.

Ding Yiqing's voice was low: "The gods fought, the World Tree collapsed, and the huge waves flooded the land. Eternal darkness enveloped the world, but one world survived the disaster and regained its vitality. The surviving gods and humans took root here."

"Is there any record of the names of the surviving gods?"

"The god of the forest, the god of gardening and vengeance, the two sons of Thor, the poisonous dragon Nidhogg, and the only death god Hella whose whereabouts are not recorded."

All the gods are dead, even the three goddesses of fate who escaped the hatred between the gods and the giants inevitably aged and died in the war, leaving only four gods, the poisonous dragon, and the god of death Hela who has no record of life and death.

"So the mastermind who created the chaos on the ghost ship and lured us to the Kingdom of the Dead...is Hela?" Cen Jin looked around, looking past thousands of small towns, into the depths of the sea and dense fog, and then looked down at In the abyss below the iron stairs, Hela was not found.

Then he turned his head and looked at the winding path in the thorn forest behind him.

"If it's her, she has already fulfilled her wish, why is she still hiding her head and showing her tail?"

Ding Yiqing thought for a moment, then took out the paper that was hidden in the stone house just now, on which was written the prophecy of the blind woman in the Hall of Valor: "I need time to decipher the prophecy on this paper and guess Hela's whereabouts."

Cen Jin: "What do I need to do?"

Ding Yiqing: "Look for books written in runes, the more the better, I have to learn to read."

Cen Jin raised one eyebrow and had no objection to this. The two got up and left the Iron Throne, returned to the palace below the stairs, and searched for books with Wu Yujie.

As soon as it landed on the ground of the palace, the oppression of the body disappeared instantly, and a sense of relief emerged spontaneously. Wu Yujie thumped her back and exclaimed that it was comfortable.

They found a bookshelf seven or eight meters high at the back of the palace. The shelf was full of books, and they took them all out and put them in front of Ding Yiqing for him to read. Cen Jin lay on the tall pile of books and asked Ding Yiqing how to read.

Ding Yiqing: "Memorize it by rote, guess the content of the overall record from some familiar runic characters, and then deduce the meaning of a certain word." He flipped through the pages without raising his head, and stroked Cen Jin's soft hair: "Time Urgent, with limited resources, we can only use this stupid method.”

Cen Jin: "You tell me what you've been deliberating, and I'll help you record it."

Ding Yiqing smiled: "Then I will trouble you."

Cen Jin scratched his cheek and murmured, "You don't have to be so polite." Although it was polite, it was actually gentle and doting, like a full-fledged older lover, which was too seductive.

Wu Yujie stared intently at an iron statue with half of her body embedded in the wall, and remained motionless. Cen Jin patted her on the shoulder: "What are you looking at?"

"The face of this full-scale iron figure seems to have changed." Wu Yujie hesitated.

Cen Jin was taken aback: "No way?"

Wu Yujie: "I remember her eyebrows were slightly curved before, which was more natural, but now the brows are pushed forward a little."

"..." Cen Jin stared carefully for a long time, his eyes were sore: "I didn't see the difference, did you see it wrong? Hallucinations?"

Wu Yujie shook her head: "I'm more focused on the facial features of people. Her curved eyebrows are well-trimmed and stretched at first, showing a cheerful face, clear eyebrows, and frowning. She frowns suddenly, as if she is asking for help. .”

Listening to her talk, Cen Jin also stared at the iron statue, focused on its eyes and eyebrows, the smell of a large number of dead sea fish rushed into his nose, his brain was filled with thick fog, and his eyes were covered with a layer of smoke. Covered by the mist, it seemed that iron thorns pierced the pupils of his eyes, dripping with blood, and he saw the beautiful girl who was smiling sweetly at him.

The beautiful girl's red lips are lightly parted, her breath is like orchid, her eyes are full of love, and she is singing like a sea monster, luring passing sailors to accompany her on a journey, and making her smile.

The next moment, the beautiful girl's face turned into two pieces, and the sharp knife cut off the head of the iron statue. Cen Jin frowned and stirred the inside of the iron statue, trying to find living evidence from the split head.

Wu Yujie: "Damn it, what are you doing?"

Cen Jin: "It seduces me."

Wu Yujie was even more surprised: "Why? I've been watching it for so long, but it doesn't seduce me. I'm not worthy?"

Cen Jin: "It doesn't like women."

Wu Yujie crossed her arms: "...so it seized the opportunity to seduce a gay guy, laugh to death."

Cen Jin: "But you are right. There is something wrong with these iron figures. They may be living creatures, but their movement mechanism is different from ours."

Wu Yujie looked around the study room. There were iron statues all over the walls and pillars. There were at least a hundred people, not to mention thousands of people in the palace and the stairs below. The expression found that they were alive, maybe they were suddenly attacked, and they still don't know what's going on?