Nepal.
Mount Everest, 6,500 meters on the snow line.
A mountaineering team camped in the leeward above the glacier. Several members sat around the smokeless fire to rest, check the shooting equipment, and heated the dehydrated beef specially used for the march to replenish their strength.
Not far away, the young guide walked out of the tent and walked towards the edge of the glacier cliff.
He wears a traditional hood, revealing only a pair of deep eyes, and his entire face is covered with yellow bandages from the bridge of the nose down, leaving only a gap in the mouth.
He is only medium in height, but his physique is extremely rare. He has the toughness and sturdiness that are unique to the ethnic minorities living near the snow line on the plateau. He walks on the icefield with steady and solid steps, like a silent and powerful snow leopard.
He walked to the edge of the cliff, looked at the lofty mountain tops surrounded by wind and snow all year round, and leaned over to bow.
"I said he will come out," a mountaineer by the fire adjusted the camera without raising his head: "Salute the mountain every five hundred meters, I don't know if it is their Sherpa tradition, I heard that they Calling Mount Everest Mom…”
"Big Liu!" The captain scolded: "Say less!"
Da Liu smiled indifferently.
Not far away, a female player bit her lip, took a can of beef, got up and walked towards the boy.
"Hey, that... Aga, do you want something to eat? It's going to take a lot of energy for the return journey—"
After the guide finished bowing, he was silent for a moment before turning his head to look at her.
His entire face was hidden behind the bandages, but his brow bones were deep and his eyes were extremely bright, giving him the look of an eagle on a snowy field.
The female team member was startled, only to see him shaking his head, sitting cross-legged on the ice and snow, taking a bite of dry food from his arms.
"Aga..."
"I don't eat your food." The boy's voice was hoarse, "Thank you."
The female player was a little embarrassed, but seeing the black dry food in his hand, which looked like both dry and tough beef products and a bit like rubber, she couldn't help but wonder, "What are you doing? Is this a traditional Nepalese food?"
"No," the young man said without raising his head, "it's snake meat."
"—Snake meat?!"
Several team members turned their heads in surprise, but the young man took a bite of the snake meat as if no one else, and swallowed it almost without seeing how he chewed it.
The female team member was full of shock and curiosity, and wanted to ask further questions, but saw the young man facing the top of the mountain in the distance, as if no one around him existed.
After hesitating for a while, she still patted Paxue and sat down beside him, followed his example and bowed to the mountain in the distance, then leaned down reverently for a while before smiling, "Is this your way of praying?"
The boy stopped swallowing and stared at her with a strange look.
"I... I heard that Mount Everest is as sacred to you as a mother, so... "
"No," the boy said. "In the center of that mountain, my mother's skeleton is buried."
His voice was very low, but everyone was shocked. At this moment, Da Liu, who had previously debugged the camera, suddenly exclaimed, "Look! What is that!"
Everyone looked up in confusion, only to see a light and shadow passing over the snow peak not far away. It was as dazzling as a rainbow in the white world. After hovering in the sky for a few seconds, it rushed with a long tail light. Back to the snow peak!
At that moment, no one dared to believe their own eyes. Even the veteran and prudent captain suddenly got up and said in amazement, "What is that, is it a bird?! Da Liu quickly took a photo-"
"Yes, yes, I took pictures!" Da Liu quickly flipped through the camera just now, then suddenly paused and made a light and inconceivable voice: "This-this is impossible..."
Trembling, he handed the camera to the captain: "This is a peacock..."
The captain was stunned, and everyone gathered around to look at the pictures taken in a hurry just now. They were shocked and speechless.
"It's impossible, how could a peacock live on a snow-capped mountain... This is definitely not a peacock, this is the greatest discovery in the history of ecological research..." The captain was so excited that he didn't know what to say when suddenly a hand stretched out from the crowd , took the camera away lightly and undeniably.
Everyone turned around and saw that the guide flipped through the album, and then pressed the delete button.
"You, what are you doing!" Da Liu was the first to jump up like he was stung by a bee, and he was about to beat him up when he jumped on it: "What are you doing! Give it back to me!"
However, the young guide easily dodged and threw the camera to him, saying, "We must go down the mountain immediately."
Everyone was shocked by this change. Da Liu threw himself on the snow with a bang. He got up and blushed and was about to rush over, but was hurriedly blocked by the captain: "Wait! Guide, why do you want to go down the mountain? We are going to Xuefeng now. Check, you may not understand, this is an unprecedented ecological discovery in human history, if you have religious taboos—"
"Not faith. Can't go."
The captain said in amazement, "Why?!"
Everyone stared at the guide, but they saw that his eyes were firm and unshakable.
"Because our prior agreement is not like this. I will take you here, turn around, and go down the mountain, and this matter is over. Your commission will be paid here. Going up again is not within the scope of the prior agreement, and I will not accept it."
"We can increase the price!" The captain said excitedly: "I'll give you twice, no, five times! Ten times! We have enough oxygen to go to the back of Xuefeng!"
"It's not about the oxygen. If you see that peacock again, you—" The boy pointed to the female team member and said, "Except for her, all of you will die."
His tone was so indifferent that it even made the excited crowd quiet. After a while, the female player pointed to herself, and asked with trembling lips, "Why, why, why?"
"Because you prayed to my mother's skeleton just now." The boy said coldly, "I once swore an oath that anyone who sincerely prayed to my mother on the snowy mountain, I will protect them from dying on the icefield... Others I don't care."
The teenager bypassed them, walked towards the tent, and picked up his equipment bag.
The team members looked at each other, and then looked at the captain with questioning eyes. It seemed that all this was very absurd. Some people asked each other with their eyes. Would you like to follow the appearance of the female team members and make a bow
Without the help of this young man, it would be very difficult for them to go back along the original road, not to mention that this is not a guide they found casually - Sherpas are born children of the Himalayas, and they can climb five or six kilometers on foot since they were young. People who are grazing on the plateau and who have climbed the snow line of more than 8,000 meters will be honored as "the tiger of the snow mountain". The first person to receive this honorary title was Tensing Norgay, who climbed Mount Everest three times with different British mountaineering teams in the 1950s. In honor of this person, there is even a mountain named after him on Pluto. .
Among the Sherpa people, there is another type of people called "Sada".
No one knows the criteria for the selection of "Shada", but in this mysterious clan, "Shada" has a huge position and power, and can command all the Sherpas in a mountaineering team, if the team has " The Tiger of the Snow Mountain" must also obey Shada's orders.
- This young man named Aga is the "Sada" of the Sherpa generation.
The captain hesitated for a moment, and finally couldn't help being excited and excited about the huge discovery, he caught up with the young guide who had already carried the equipment bag: "Twenty times, how? As long as you take us to the back of Xuefeng, I will not only pay you Twenty times your pay, and it's none of your business if anyone on the team dies..."
The boy's bandaged face turned to him, with no expression in his eyes: "No."
The captain didn't give up and wanted to continue persuading, but at this moment, a loud scream came from above their heads, and the boy's complexion changed drastically, and he looked back at Xuefeng!
- I saw a huge peacock flying out of the top of the snow peak. In the shocked eyes of everyone, it spread its colorful tail feathers like gems, and its head and neck were condescending, staring coldly at the human underfoot.
The young man lost his voice: "Shut up—"
However it was too late.
A mocking smile appeared in the peacock's eyes, and a deafening screeching sound appeared in the sky!
- There was a sudden silence in the world, followed by a sour creaking sound from the snow cover above their heads!
"Snow, avalanche..." Someone trembled and uttered a voice, then scattered and backed away, screaming in horror: "Find cover!—The avalanche is coming!"
I saw a blizzard of snow and fog on the top of the distant head. It was silent at first, but then the sound of rolling thunder quickly spread from far to near, carrying more and more huge snow waves and ice cubes, and smashed everyone's heads. come down!
In front of the tent, the boy scolded loudly, and his whole body arched up like an arrow from the string, rushing towards the avalanche.
The captain couldn't believe his eyes - on the ice field at an altitude of 6,500 meters, there are still people who can rush out a few meters away in an instant!
However, a scene that shocked him even more happened in the next second. I saw the young man leap up into the air, break free from his jacket, revealing a tight bunt, backhand with two scimitars from his back waist, and swooped down towards the peacock!
"Maha-"
The peacock instantly transformed into a human, holding a single sword, "Dang!" A volley blocked this groundbreaking blow!
"Don't get in my way," said Maha's glamorous face in the snow without the slightest expression, "-or I'll kill you too."
The young man said sharply: "This is obviously what I want to tell you!"
With a violent force, he forced Maha abruptly back a few steps down Xuefeng!
At this moment, the earthquake swept through the avalanche, setting off a spectacular wave between heaven and earth.
The boy gritted his teeth and turned around, his figure turned into a giant roc bird in mid-air, his golden wings spread out to cover the sky, "Boom!" A loud noise abruptly caught the tens of millions of tons of ice and snow rushing down with his back!
In the next second, it let out a long howl, and its giant claws grabbed a string of climbers on the snow and swooped down to the snow mountain!
·
dark.
groggy.
As if invisible saw teeth were pulling back and forth in their minds, the female team members slowly opened their stray eyes.
"This is… "
She struggled to get up and saw that the surrounding snow field was extremely messy, black boulders and ice cubes turned up all over the floor, and from a distance, it looked like the bloody mouths of countless giant beasts.
"Captain... Da Liu..." She looked around in a hurry, trembling and screamed: "Where are the people? Where are you people? Captain, Da Liu!"
With one hand covering her mouth from behind, the female team member turned back in horror, only to see the teenage guide stand up from the snow, the bandages loosened, revealing a handsome and blood-stained profile.
He only wears bunts, and his naked body parts are extremely delicate, holding a sharp machete in each hand, stamping the ice slag on his feet.
"You..." The female team member gasped in fear, and then asked in a weeping voice after a long while, "You... Who are you? What happened just now?"
The boy looked up and looked forward.
A graceful and tall figure is slowly descending from the glacier. His face is as beautiful as ice sculptures and snow. His long hair covered with broken snow is scattered around his body. on the ground.
"—My name is Garuda..."
The teenager narrowed his eyes, and the machete in both hands emitted a dazzling cold light:
"The one in front is my older brother who has been through a thousand years in the second phase of my middle school."
"Gardura." Maha stood on the snow, tilted his head slightly and smiled: "I haven't seen you for many years, are you welcoming me in this way?"
It's obviously a very ordinary action, but it's a kind of evil that is mixed with beauty, innocence and temptation. Garuda stared at him for a moment, and then sneered: "I haven't seen you for many years, are you visiting me in this way?"
The two brothers looked at each other in the wind and snow, and they couldn't see the excitement of reuniting after a long time on each other's faces. After a long while, Garuda raised his arms and looked at his brother up and down: "I heard that you were beaten up by your father in order to escape from the forbidden cave, and then injured your mother, and finally ran to the sea of blood in hell. Dominate the king... Why, suddenly came to disturb my place of cultivation, shouldn't it be because I miss my brother?"
"Don't be so ruthless, I'm here to send you an application for cohabitation." Maha's expression was innocent: "Do you mind if I live in this mountain for a few years, dear brother?"
Garuda looked at him with some surprise, but Maha's expression had no clue except for his naivety.
His appearance is too rare, Garuda hesitated for a moment, but still refused: "No, I don't want to find human body parts in the snow-capped mountains where the mother's bones are buried every day, you go."
This refusal did not come as a surprise to Maha.
His arm slowly moved from behind to front of him, and sure enough he was holding a long sharp knife, but the smile on his face deepened: "—then, do you want me to drive you out, brother?"
The cold wind suddenly tightened, wrapping the broken snow and whizzing like a sharp blade, and at the same time lifted the corners of the two of them.
Garuda narrowed his eyes, and his eyes flashed with cold light. His handsome face, which was similar to his father, was as cold and ruthless as a knife carved in the wind and snow.
"...So it is." He suddenly said, staring carefully at Maha: "Brother, you are getting older."
Maha's expression changed.
"No wonder even your mother has to lock you in the magic forbidden grotto, and your godhead has been smashed by the thunder—" Garuda lowered his voice, and seemed to find it a little incredible: "Now you must rely on cannibalism. To absorb energy, otherwise, like all things in the six realms, it will quickly deplete with time, grow old, and eventually enter the cycle of death?"
Maha's smile finally completely disappeared from his face.
He stared at his brother fiercely, and Garuda got a positive answer from this expression.
Garuda frowned, as if feeling a little ironic.
"If it is said that your father locked you in the magical forbidden cave, and there is suspicion that he was waiting for revenge because of the conflict between father and son in the early years, then mother should have set up a mechanism to protect you. The role of 'replacement of the godhead'... Wait, how did you escape? It is said that you seriously injured your mother?"
Maha angrily said, "Shut up!"
But Garuda regarded his fierce expression as nothing: "So what are you going to do now, do you think of a way to eat a lot of people every day, or go into the hinterland of the snowy mountain to guard the phoenix skeleton, and use the remaining divinity on the bone to delay exhaustion. ?" He raised his eyebrows in a funny way: "I still suggest you go back to your father, obediently admit your mistake, and go back to the grotto and lock yourself up—"
That scene must be interesting, Garuda raised the corner of his mouth: "At least being locked in the underground city of the human world is better than being in the center of the Himalayas, the only thing in common is that you have Don't think about it..."
"Shut up!" Mohe interrupted him irritably: "I've been back! The caves have been destroyed by Zhou Hui!"
The brothers looked at each other for a moment, and Garuda said regretfully: "Oh, it seems that father's heart to want you to die has not changed either."
The wind and snow became denser, and the distant glacier exposed large black rocks after the avalanche. Thousands of miles of snowy plains were in shambles, the wind swept over the large pieces of overturned frozen rock, whimpered as sharp as a whistle, and whistled towards the sky.
Maha's beautiful face was full of haze, and after a while he said softly, "There is another way, maybe you can try it."
He clenched the ice blade and placed it in front of him, showing a dangerous offensive posture: "—it's my brother anyway, if I take away your godhead..."
The air suddenly slammed, like countless strings tense suddenly!
The back of Garuda's hand holding the two knives burst into blue veins, stared at his brother closely, and said coldly after a long time: "You can try it."
·
·
Chu He felt as if he was walking in the never-ending night.
There were no fingers around, and the ground was full of damp mud. He fell down after walking a few steps, then propped up his scarred hands, gritted his teeth and staggered to get up, and continued to move forward.
Where is the goal, and where is the road
He didn't know anything, he only felt that his knees were so painful that he was numb as he fell and got up again and again, and he even lost consciousness in the end.
In the end, when he was almost unable to support it, in the far front of the darkness, a figure that was very similar to himself appeared indistinctly, it turned out to be Maha.
- Maha! Come back to me, my kidnapped child!
Chu He did not know where a force came from, clenched his teeth and ran forward, but then fell heavily to the ground again. This time, his internal organs were almost smashed into countless bloody shards. He spat out a mouthful of blood in the severe pain. He struggled to get up with all his strength, but he saw Maha disappearing in the dark. no way back.
A burning anxiety rose in Chu He's heart.
Don't go there, come back! Maha!
At this moment, another familiar figure suddenly appeared in the darkness, it was Garuda.
- Garuda!
Chu He's heart tightened for a moment, and he immediately called out his second son's name hoarsely. But Garuda only looked back at him, his eyes were very blank, as if he didn't know him, he turned and chased in the direction where Maha left.
Don't go, Garuda!
Don't go into the dark depths, come back!
The figures of Maha and Garuda disappeared into the thick and boundless darkness, Chu He could not stand at all, and the severe pain of his internal organs being torn apart made him cry in despair.
He knelt down trembling, but a dim yellow light suddenly lit up in front of him.
He looked up in amazement, and saw Zhou Hui holding a lamp, standing silently in front of him, as if waiting for him.
—Yes, Zhou Hui, in the end I still have Zhou Hui…
Chu He gasped violently and stood up, desperate, stumbling forward, trying his best to give Zhou Hui a weak and helpless cry.
However, at this moment, another pair of iron pincer-like hands grabbed him from behind.
Those hands were so hard that they couldn't break free, and they were tightly imprisoned and prevented him from moving forward. Chu He desperately tried to break free, anxious and hopeless in his heart, but then his hands seemed to have penetrated into his bone marrow and blood vessels, and a little struggle caused severe pain.
Zhou Hui seemed impatient at last. He took the lamp and turned to the darkness.
- Don't go, Zhou Hui! do not leave me!
However, the call didn't work, Zhou Hui turned a deaf ear, and stepped into the distance like Maha Garuda. The dim and warm light of the star finally slowly disappeared from Chu He's sight.
Chu He cried out in pain, tears fell from his face in series, and his crying was hoarse and not like a human voice. He finally turned his head to see who was holding him, but the next moment, he saw the face of Sakyamuni behind him.
"Why, why..."
Chu He opened his eyes wide in horror, panting violently subconsciously and shaking his head, his face covered in tears was utterly embarrassed: "Let go of me, Shakya... Let go of me!"
However, Sakyamuni is condescending, his face is solemn and majestic, and his eyes faintly reveal a sneer that has been unchanged for thousands of years.
"-what!"
The next moment, Chu He suddenly woke up from the nightmare.
His pupils contracted violently, and for several seconds he stared at the ceiling, his expression blank.
… After a little bit of consciousness came back to the cage, he found himself lying on the big bed in the bedroom, the doors and windows were closed and the curtains were drawn, the room was dark, and his whole body was soaked in cold sweat.
His rapid breathing slowly subsided, barely turning his head to look at his hands.
The left arm has been taken back, the muscles are still very weak and pale, and a bloodstain is formed at the break. It won't take long for the bloodstain to disappear, but the scars of injury will soak into the depths of the bloodline, and it will be difficult to disappear for thousands of years.
His gaze moved up, and his eyes widened slightly in astonishment—
I saw a black iron chain locked on the left wrist, and the other end was dead locked on the head of the bed made of stainless steel.