It was still the forest under the moonlight, and Xiao Chen was still leading the way. The team was larger than before, but still as quiet and silent. Unlike before when everyone was full of fighting spirit and anger, the team now was so calm that it made people feel cold.
When Xiao Chen looked back at the team, he saw Zhang Sicheng struggling forward. His strong body was full of fatigue, and his straight back was bent under the pressure. He was not walking alone, he was carrying Professor Lin on his back.
This man from Northeast China refused to agree with Xiao Chen's suggestion to bury the professor in the mountains. He stubbornly tied him to his back with a safety rope and started on his way home.
Some mountain roads were already very steep, and Zhang Sicheng had a hard time walking. He almost fell several times, but he still refused Shi Hao and Li Tianrui's help and climbed up alone using his hands and feet.
Ye Zi ran to Xiao Chen and whispered, "Teacher Zhang won't be able to return to school like this. How about... grab it and have someone else carry it?"
Xiao Chen shook his head and said, "Don't do anything rash. He is just having trouble getting over the hurdle in his heart. Do you think he is only carrying Professor Lin on his back? He is carrying an entire village of goblins on his back."
"He's a good man, but he's too fussy." Ye Zi sighed, "I'm not as old as you, and I don't have as much experience as you, but I know that we were all on the battlefield just now. We can't look at the things we encounter on the battlefield with ordinary eyes, otherwise we will get stuck in it and go crazy."
Xiao Chen looked at Ye Zi in surprise. He didn't expect her to say such a thing.
"Do you know 'Martial Virtue'?" Ye Zi asked.
"I've seen it in martial arts novels. It probably talks about people who practice martial arts. They should have morals and not use their martial arts to bully others, right? They have to fight in a decent way and their methods can't be too despicable, right?" Xiao Chen asked uncertainly.
Ye Zi smiled and said, "That's just a woman's kindness. If you put it that way, it's no different from what we usually call a good gentleman. Then why do we add the word 'Wu' before the word 'De'?"
"Is that what Sun Tzu said: 'A general should be wise, trustworthy, benevolent, courageous and strict'?" Xiao Chen asked again.
"That's getting close." She looked ahead a little absent-mindedly, as if recalling something. "My family is also a martial arts family. My grandfather once told me that martial arts were born out of war. Wu means fighting, and De is a rule. The so-called martial arts ethics is a code that warriors should uphold. The most important thing is how to view the relationship between me and the enemy. He told me that those who invade my land, kill my people, and harm my interests are enemies. I will not show kindness to my enemies, I will not treat them with courtesy, I will not keep my promises, I will not repay them with compassion, I will only destroy their bodies and cut off their hearts. Sympathy is never something that can be given to enemies."
"Their older generation came from the war years, unlike us." Xiao Chen whispered, "I understand that goblins are our enemies, even those little goblins are part of the enemy. If they have the chance, they will stab me with a knife without hesitation. But I still can't forget their expressions when they fell to the ground, staring at the sky."
Ye Zi's expression softened all of a sudden, and he said sadly: "Senior, actually what I said before was just to comfort you. I haven't gotten over that either in my heart."
"Thank you. If we want to survive, we have to throw away many things. We have been degenerating in the greenhouse of modern civilization for a long time. Sometimes civilization and weakness are like two sides of a coin. After leaving the civilized world, how can we survive without paying some price? Not only do we have to throw away things, but we also have to find some things back. It's just that throwing away things that are integrated into our bones is like scraping bones to heal wounds, which is so painful that it is unbearable. And to find back some things that have been lost for a long time is like catching the moon in the water, which may not be as expected. However, it is you who made me figure these things out. You are amazing, thank you!" Xiao Chen gave Ye Zi a smile, but Ye Zi felt that there were many things in this smile that she didn't understand yet.
Xiao Chen waved his hand to the back, "Everyone, keep working hard. There is an open space not far ahead, up the slope, where we can take a rest."
The uphill road was a bit steep, and Zhang Sicheng was still unwilling to accept help from others. However, he was almost at his limit. When he was about to reach the top, his hand suddenly slipped, his feet softened, and he fell down. Xiao Chen had already reached the top at this time, and he watched him fall down but could do nothing. Shi Hao, who was walking behind him, was also dragged down by him, and the two of them were rolling down the slope of nearly 60 degrees, and a tragedy was about to happen.
At this time, dozens of silk threads flew out from Xiao Chen's side at high speed. One end of these silk threads was connected to Morey's hands, and the other end entangled the two people from all angles. The silver-glowing silk threads entangled the two people like insects falling on a spider web. Morey was carried forward by the weight at the bottom. Xiao Chen reacted quickly and hugged him around the waist.
With the help of Xiao Chen, Ye Zi, Li Tianrui and others, Morey stabilized his body, and everyone worked together to slowly pull them both up.
Xiao Chen walked over, untied the rope around Zhang Sicheng's waist, picked up Professor Lin's body, and placed it on a clean open space. Then he said to Zhang Sicheng seriously: "Teacher Zhang, what you should do now is to lead this team well and prevent anyone from having the same experience as Professor Lin. Instead of just pursuing your own relief and peace."
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In the clearing in the forest, several campfires illuminated several figures. Xiao Chen and Ye Zi were using a camping stove to boil water. A small pot was set up, and the water was filled from the mountain stream on the way. The hunter who was rescued walked around the camp for a while, picked some mushrooms and fruits, and handed them to Ye Zi respectfully and carefully, indicating that she could put them in the water to make a pot of mushroom and fruit soup. Morey sat next to the fire, playing with a lighter curiously. Shi Hao and Li Tianrui sat at the two corners of the temporary camp with guns in their hands, watching the surroundings vigilantly and taking on the duty of guarding.
Zhang Sicheng sat cross-legged on the ground, silently guarding Professor Lin's body, not knowing what he was thinking. At this time, Zhao Rui walked over from the fire and came to Zhang Sicheng.
He hesitated for a while, looked at Zhang Sicheng who was keeping his head down and saying nothing, and said in a muffled voice: "Let's bury the teacher under that big tree." Zhang Sicheng looked up at him, then looked in the direction he pointed. At the edge of the camp, there was a tall tree with a thick trunk and a large crown. The most bizarre thing was that its leaves appeared deep purple in the firelight.
Zhao Rui walked to the professor's body and pulled out a dark purple leaf from his jacket pocket. "This is the last new tree species discovered by the teacher before he was arrested. This leaf...isn't it beautiful? The teacher liked it very much and said several times, 'This tree is so beautiful'. He also drew a sketch of the tree and planned to give it a nice name when he returned."
"I can carry him, I want to take him home." Zhang Sicheng said in a low voice.
"That's not our home at all. It's gone long ago!" Zhao Rui seemed to be offended. He said loudly, "The teacher dedicated his whole life to trees. What's wrong with burying the teacher under the tree he loved so that his spirit in heaven can have some comfort? I'm not pitying you. You guy, it would be better if you died of exhaustion!"
He walked to where everyone was stacking bags, pulled out a folding engineer shovel, and then walked under the big tree and started digging. The sound of shoveling soil sounded a bit harsh. Seeing this, Xiao Chen also went to get a shovel and a pickaxe, handed the shovel to Zhang Sicheng, and said, "As a student, he should know his teacher better."
With everyone's joint efforts, Professor Lin was buried under the tree. Zhang Sicheng was convinced, and he covered Professor Lin with the last handful of soil, knelt in front of his grave and kowtowed three times.
Xiao Chen drew out his dagger, slightly infused it with spiritual power, and the dagger was covered with red flames. He carefully carved "Professor Lin Youping's Tomb" on the trunk of the big tree with the dagger. Wherever the dagger touched, the trunk was burned with deep scorch marks.
However, just after he finished writing the word "tomb", a ray of light flashed across the word "tomb" and then slowly returned to normal.
"What's going on? What are you doing?" Everyone was shocked, but the first person to question was Zhao Rui. However, Xiao Chen himself was confused and naturally could not answer this question.
But Morey, who had been watching them, said to Zhao Rui: "You should be grateful to him. This is a simple magic circle that can allow the deceased to return to the embrace of the earth quietly, avoiding being disturbed by animals and preventing the corpse from becoming undead."
Zhao Rui reached out to the word "tomb" and felt a gentle resistance above the tomb that prevented his hand from moving forward. He pulled his hand back in fear.
"You mean, I drew a magic circle?" Xiao Chen leaned over to take a closer look. The word "tomb" was indeed different from the other words. He could vaguely feel that his spiritual power was attached to it and was constantly running.
"I didn't expect you are such a master. You can carve a magic circle with just a magic sword without any other materials!" Morerao said in surprise.
"I'm just carving some words." Xiao Chen felt even more confused.
"We call this kind of writing 'magic words', which is naturally related to magic. According to legend, the gods have linked this kind of writing with the magical power of the world. If you use strong mental power and special materials to write magic words in a specific font, you will form various magical effects. But you can carve out a pattern with a sword like you do... I have only heard of it in the legends of holy magicians. This requires extremely huge mental power and a deep understanding of magic. Don't you know these things? Are you a wild magician? These things should be very clear to every magician with a heritage."
Xiao Chen then realized that the spiritual power he poured into the dagger was retained in the shape of the characters when he wrote them. He remembered that he felt a little sad when he wrote the word "tomb", so he increased the strength. Unexpectedly, it just happened to meet the requirements of the word "tomb", and it turned out to be a miniature magic circle.
He knew that some things could not be hidden from someone like Morey who really knew the business, so it was better to be honest than to be secretive. He pulled Morey to a corner of the camp, away from other people, and said, "I have indeed just started to learn magic, and I got the scroll by chance. There are many things I don't understand, and I hope you can ask for advice."
"Just came into contact with magic? How is that possible? Did you release that exploding scroll?" This time it was Morey's turn to be surprised.
"That's right."
"Just outside the wall?"
"yes."
"No one else can help?"
"Only Zhang Sicheng shot the scroll in with an arrow."
Morey held his chin with one hand and looked at Xiao Chen repeatedly, as if he wanted to see something from his face.
"Either you are a liar or you are a genius." Morey said with a serious expression, "I am very sensitive to mental power. When you used the scroll outside the camp that day, some of your mental power escaped, and I vaguely felt it. I could detect the violent, grand and profound artistic conception hidden in it. This is not like the temperament of a beginner at all. I feel... you are like an ancient beast that has not yet fully awakened!"
Xiao Chen was also a little surprised to hear such an evaluation, and couldn't help but say: "Why didn't I know that I was so powerful?"
Morey shook his head and said, "Do you think it's so easy to destroy a camp with a scroll? Ordinary low-level magicians can't do it! What's more, the magic you used was not originally written on the scroll, right? You just used the scroll as a carrier to absorb the fire energy, and then simply and violently exploded it. I have only seen such domineering mental power in great magicians."
That's just the uncontrollable part. That kind of power can only be used for destruction, so it doesn't belong to me yet, Xiao Chen thought to himself.
Morey continued, "But after leaving the camp, I never saw you use magic again. Whether it was saving people or digging holes, you couldn't use magic to solve the problem. You knew nothing about magic runes, so I guessed that you were a wild mage without inheritance. Maybe you cultivated a strong mental power on your own, but you don't know how to use magic. I never thought that you were actually a beginner with extremely high mental power."
"According to what you said, my mental power has reached the level of a high-level magician?"
"No, far from it. You lack understanding of magic and even less control over your mental power. It's like a little tiger that can swallow a dead rabbit in two bites with its natural sharp teeth and mouth, but you can't catch a rabbit to eat by yourself."
"But a tiger is still a tiger, right?" Xiao Chen
Morey smiled and nodded, "Yes, as long as I can grow up, I will become a tiger."
Xiao Chen was a little excited. From what Mo Lei said, he seemed to have a high starting point and great talent. And this Mo Lei was much more knowledgeable than the book spirit in the "Shadow Scroll of the Sea of Consciousness". He immediately made up his mind and asked, "Can you teach me?"
"I'm an alchemist who makes magic items and potions, but I should be able to give you some help with the basics of magic. However, I have a condition."
"Please go ahead."
Morey took out the lighter and lit a flame. "I'm very interested in your origins and want to see more of this kind of thing."