Nine Nights Frost

Hunting activities during the Winter Solstice celebrations are held in the Frozen Grove.

Weiyu Mountain is cloudy and cold all year round. Although it only snows heavily in the nine days before the winter solstice, due to the extremely low temperature in the mountain, the snow will not melt in the spring and summer of the next year.Under the accumulation year after year, there are deep ice accumulations in each valley.In such a severe cold weather, ordinary trees cannot survive at all, so the demons figured out a way to select a valley with the thickest ice layer, and carve the ice and snow into the shapes of various trees, gradually forming a A hundred miles of ice and snow forest, this is the later Bingying Qionglin.

At a glance, this ice forest is snow-white without any impurities, very similar in color to the Tanhua City where the Protoss lived.Under the sunlight, the whole forest refracts colorful rays of light, as if it were an illusion. In addition, the ice and snow are crystal clear and can reflect images. People who enter this valley for the first time will easily be confused by the fantasy formed by light and shadow, and lose their direction. Can't find the way back.

I was sitting in the luan chariot pulled by Yiniao. The luan chariot was parked in mid-air directly above the Bingying Qionglin. From this angle, everything that happened in this ice and snow forest could be easily seen.

Seen from the air, the Bingying Qionglin has a regular circular shape, all the trees are arranged in a spiral shape, and the entire forest is surrounded by a light black ring, which is an enchantment to prevent humans from escaping.

Lu Mingchen sat with me in the Luan carriage, but he didn't speak a word.

I looked at his expression and found that he was extremely calm.

The hunting activities below have officially started, and the sound of the loud horn pierced the calm sky. In our sight, countless densely packed colorful dots entered from the entrance of the forest, and then quickly spread to all parts of the forest.

Those were humans who were being hunted.

In the early preparations of Chifeng Valley, the prepared humans will be classified according to their appearance and agility, and they will be dressed in five colors of black, purple, blue, red, and white.

Among the five colors, the black-clothed prey is the first class, the purple-clothed prey is the second class, and in turn, the white-clothed prey is the fifth class.

Catching two fifth-class prey is equivalent to one fourth-class prey, catching two third-class prey is equivalent to one fourth-class prey, and so on, catching 32 white prey is equivalent to hunting one black prey.

Every time Chifeng Valley prepares about a thousand humans to ensure that every demon can gain something.

Before the hunt begins, someone magically imprints a pentagram-shaped brand on the back shoulder of each prey.When hunting, the demons will use a bow and arrow with special magic power. When the arrow hits the prey, it will not cause fatal damage to the prey, but the pentagram originally printed on the back shoulder of the prey will be transferred to the hunter. on the back of the bow, as a voucher for the ranking.

Two hours later, the second horn sounded.

The humans who were put in earlier have been scattered in various locations in the pure white forest.After the sound of the trumpets, the demons swarmed in from the entrance of the forest. Soon after, dots of starlight began to flicker in the colorful ice and snow world reflected by the sun, which was the trace of the pentagram being harvested after humans were hunted.

Then came the screams and cries of human beings, which could be easily heard by us who stayed in the air.

In order to achieve the real effect of hunting, the guards of Chifeng Valley will not tell the prey in advance the fact that "even being shot by a bow and arrow will not be fatal". They all think that being shot by an arrow is a dead end, so when the prey When they entered the Bingying Qionglin, everyone was indeed fleeing desperately for survival.

However, being shot by a bow and arrow with magic power is quite painful even if it doesn't really lose their lives, so the prey will pass out from the pain in a short time, which further enhances the intimidating effect.

I have seen such scenes too many times, so there is not much novelty to speak of.

But other demons have always loved this activity, perhaps because of their sense of superiority when they were gods.

I turned my head and glanced at the human youth beside me, and found that he was not at all moved by the miserable cries that passed by his ears from time to time, but just watched the situation in the Bingying Qionglin intently.

After a while, he suddenly said, "Star Master, what is that?"

"what?"

"It's what unfolded behind that demon." Lu Mingchen pointed to somewhere in the ice and snow.

I took a closer look and saw a demon moving at an unusual speed in the Ice Shadow Jade Forest.His figure was not the size of a grain of rice when viewed from high in the sky, but the long black objects spread out on both sides of his body were as long as a fingernail.

"That's wings," I didn't think much of it, "It's probably because I was eager to win, so I spread my wings at this time."

"Wings? Do all demons have wings?" The young man looked at me in confusion.

I smiled and said, "Naturally, haven't you heard others say it? Black wings are originally a symbol of evil."

"The Star Master, do you have wings too?"

"I am a demon, of course there are."

The human youth pondered for a while, as if he suddenly remembered something, "This is Yuan Yu you mentioned last time?"

I knew he remembered the incident about Bai Shang last time, so he shook his head and said, "No. Yuan Yu only appears when the demons are voluntary, and he only appears when he is extremely happy or extremely painful, and he has something wrong with the demons." Unusual meaning. The one you just saw is just an ordinary wing used by demons to fly, it is much larger than the original feather, and it can repair itself when it is damaged."

As we speak, most of the hunting in the Bingying Qionglin has already been completed.

The number of human beings wearing five-color clothes has decreased significantly, and most of the prey have been shot, and the personnel in charge of the aftermath have moved away from the scene. The light of the pentagram flickers in the white ice and snow world from time to time, like a meteor passing by.

As the sky was getting darker, the results of the hunting had already begun to be seen.

All the demons began to gather in the center of the Bingying Qionglin, and a moment later, a demon spread his wings, surrounded by everyone, soared into the air, and flew towards the direction of our luan chariot.

The hunting winner's request to me and my answer are absolute secrets and cannot be known by a third party, so I sent someone to send Lu Mingchen away before the hunting ended, and I was the only one left in the luan car.

The ascending demon is getting closer, and I can already see the face totem on her black wings, and recognize her facial features.

Lu Mingchen probably has never really seen the wings used by the demons to fly, this is not a pleasant sight.Every time the demons devour a soul, the face of this soul will leave a totem on a feather on the wings of the demons, and some demons with low magic power will directly leave marks on the body.

So if someone can really watch the wings of the demons at close range, they will probably be speechless by the patterns on them.

The winner of the hunt stopped in front of the door of my luan car. She was carrying a huge bow and arrow, and the densely packed pentagrams on the back of the bow were shining brightly in the afterglow of the setting sun.While flapping her slender wings slowly, this demon woman stayed in the air and saluted me slowly.

I smiled: "Su Lan, your performance today is commendable, and I hope to see you continue to do so next year."

Su Lan bowed deeply, her long violet hair fluttering in the evening breeze, "Thank you Star Lord, Su Lan will remember."

I nodded, "Then please tell me, what kind of wish do you want?"

The pupils of the demon woman's beautiful eyes flickered, "Star Lord, can you really say any wish?"

"As long as it is within my ability."

"I think..." The woman bit her lip, "What if... I want to extend the life of a demon?"

"You should know it's impossible."

"Why is it impossible?" She looked at me unwillingly, "Why can the demons help humans extend their lives, but can't help the same race? This is too strange!"

I raised my hand and made a gesture to calm her down, "Do you want me to teach you these things again? You should know that human beings are weak, and it only takes a tiny amount of strength to help them continue their lives. But if the target is a demon race , the energy needed to obtain extra life is astonishingly large, which is not something any demon can do."

"Could it be that you can't even Star Master?" The woman continued to ask, still unwilling to give up.

"Yes, I don't have such power." I looked into the distance, "The demon race is transformed from the god race and inherits the blood of the true god. Who can change the life limit stipulated by him? And who Can you continue the power he provided?"

My words made the woman bow her head deeply.

The sun has sunk into the horizon, night has fallen quietly.

On a moonless night, the stars are in the sky, reflecting the snow-white trees in the Bingying Qionglin, and the snow is shining like stars falling from the sky.

I looked at the dejected face of the demon woman, "Your wish is beyond my ability, you can make another request."

The woman looked up at me again, "Star Master, then I want to ask a question."

"You said."

The demon woman closed her eyes and asked her question in a firm tone: "If you use the forbidden power, what kind of punishment will you suffer?"

The moment I heard the question, I secretly frowned.

When the true god created the world, he divided the spells of this world into nine categories, namely: creation, attack, defense, summoning, healing, prophecy, curse, fear, and corpse.

Under the nine major legal systems, there are five attribute factions of gold, wood, water, fire and earth.

The power of creation belongs exclusively to the true god, and the heaven, earth, mountains and rivers are also produced in his power.

Among the latter three powers, curses include verbal curses, heart curses, and line curses; threats include hypnosis, hints, intimidation, and charm; corpses include driving corpses, planting Gu, and manipulating dead spirits. Forbidden at the beginning of creation.

The protoss mainly manipulate attack, defense and summoning, and these powers still exist after becoming a demon.

Immortals enjoy the same type of spells as Protoss, but their power is weaker.

In fact, the power of medicine and prophecy is also possessed by the gods and immortals, but they don't use it often.Because these two kinds of techniques are expendable, to put it bluntly, they are harming oneself and benefiting others.For example, medical skills, the cost of curing others is to bear 50.00% of the pain.As for the prophecy, even if it is just a magic circle commonly used to transmit messages to each other, it will also be at the cost of losing lifespan.The real prophecy divination that has a predictive effect not only requires the caster to have great strength, but also requires to sacrifice his own life as a sacrifice, even the demons are no exception, so no one has tried it so far.

Now Su Lan asked me such a question, does this mean that she is going to use a forbidden spell?

I said: "In this world, there are indeed people who can't bear all kinds of temptations to use those taboo powers. For example, the 'Sand Witch' of the Jiaolong tribe that haunts the Huanliu uses singing to drive corpses away and drive them to find 'stones'." Lian', there are often immortals who violate the prohibition to practice the last three powers. But the results of this are obvious. The life span of the "Sand Witch" as a dragon is only 20 years, and the speed of aging is even Faster than humans; immortals who have practiced the forbidden art will also be alienated into demons and become aliens."

"Then what if the demons used the forbidden technique?" Su Lan still asked.

I raised my eyes and looked at her deeply, "If the demons did this... there will be no certain consequences, but the rule is that as long as you deviate, you will be punished, and the punishment corresponds to the degree of the deviant. There is never an exception. "

The demon woman raised her head to look at me suddenly, but looked away when she met my eyes.

I slowly stroked the sapphire ring on my hand, "Su Lan, no matter what you plan to do, you must think about everything you may face in the future."

Deviance and punishment, these are the rules made by the true god.

Even he himself was not spared.

Although I know he has never regretted it, not everyone can have his firmness and courage.

＊＊*

Because the winter solstice celebrations are held regularly every year, the duration of each celebration is not long, and there are only five short days before and after.

With the end of the hunting activities, other projects such as throwing pots were successfully held one by one.The last important event of the winter solstice celebration is the ceremony where all demons enjoy the living soul together.

Human beings are individuals with independent lives, with pure white souls at birth.As time goes by, all kinds of negative emotions will gradually accumulate in people's hearts, and eventually even the soul will be stained black.

Before the living souls of humans eaten by the demons, their painful memories will be erased and their souls will be pure.

This ceremony was also held in the main hall of the Temple of Devouring God, but it was different from the welcome dinner on the first day. This time, there were no beautiful singing and delicate dancing. The audience was solemn and solemn, and all the demons wore formal clothes. dresses, sitting in their respective positions.

Eating raw souls is not a pleasant thing.

On the contrary, many protoss would rather give up their lives than become demons because they couldn't bear the disgusting feeling of devouring their souls.

The reason why all the demons were arranged to perform this activity together on the last ceremony of the winter solstice was not to enjoy delicious food, but a vow beyond words.

The demons, who are considered evil by the outside world, carry out this most despicable act of plundering the lives of other races together. This is an unspeakable declaration: We will turn our backs on God and the light together, and live in darkness together. survival.

The container used to hold the living soul is a magical enchantment made in the shape of a crystal ball.

The purified human soul emits a faint white light in the round sphere, flickering from time to time, reflecting the cold and solemn face of every demon.

Su Lan climbed up the steps, knelt down in front of me, and presented the crystal sphere shining with white light in front of me.

I raised my right hand falsely, and the ball rose slowly until it hovered over my chest.

My gaze swept over all the faces of the demons one by one, and stopped for a moment when I reached Sulan's position.

I wonder if she has understood what I said to her that day?

As for the clansmen gathered together today, how many people will come here again next year?

Concentrating my mind, I stretched out my hands and read out the congratulations loudly: "Seven stars live forever, bless my demons with long blessings!"

All the demons knelt on the ground and shouted in unison: "Seven stars live forever, bless my demons with long life!"

I hold the crystal ball and release the magic power lightly. The living soul in the ball turns into a wisp of white smoke and floats into my mouth.

It's still this unbearable taste, sticky and almost nauseating.

I crushed the empty crystal magic ball, and the other demons also finished the ceremony and left one after another after bowing down.

The celebration of the winter solstice is over. Most of the demons will leave Weiyu Mountain tomorrow and go back to their respective territories. They will come here to meet again when the winter solstice comes next year.

The author has something to say: This chapter is not very interesting, mainly to explain the background and pave the way for the following text.