"This is… "
The place where they stopped at last was among the vast mountains.
Xiaodong didn't know, but Mo Chen knew, and he didn't forget to observe the terrain along the way: "This is the boundary of Yunzhou, I passed by here before."
"How far is it from here to Tianjian City?"
Mo Chen gave him the answer: "About two thousand miles."
Xiaodong was sweating all over his head: "This guide seems unreliable."
Twenty miles away, it can be said that it is not too far. Two hundred miles away, it can be said to be a small gap. This time, it was more than two thousand miles away, and it was obvious that the vine didn't know the way.
"Don't worry, it has already developed spiritual wisdom, so it won't fail to understand what you said, there must be a reason for it to come here."
Mo Chen took his hand: "Follow it, and walk forward."
After the elder brother said so, Xiaodong continued to walk patiently.
The green vine stopped on a rocky slope, and the whole vine stood upright, swaying, as if a person was looking left and right.
"Here..." Xiaodong stopped after speaking halfway.
He can be sure that he has never been to this place called Yunzhou. Although I have lived in no fixed place and moved around in the past ten years, I have only been in the Central Plains, and I have never been to such a remote place.
But for some reason, this place that should be unfamiliar gave him a sense of loss and palpitations.
Why did the places he had never been before give him a feeling of reunion after a long absence.
He looked up.
It was already midnight, the full moon hung in the sky overhead, and the mountain beams on both sides were quiet and serene, like two black fences. Under the moonlight, the mountains and rivers are vast, and the night wind blows through the treetops, making Lin Tao undulate like the sound of sea waves.
Everything in the field of vision is clearly seen for the first time, but it seems... It has been standing here for thousands of years, old impressions floated up from the bottom of my heart, and many broken and vague memories approached from afar.
What is true and what is false
Xiaodong raised his hand, the boy's palm was white and thin, with slender and distinct knuckles.
In memory... not so.
He remembered.
He used to be a tree.
It was the towering ancient tree that he had seen countless times in his dreams.
The roots of the tree are very deep, and the crown of the tree stretches out like a giant umbrella, covering the sky and the sun. At that time, the branches of the tree were straight and vigorous, the bark was dark black, with thick moss marks on it, and there were green radish vines clinging to the tree.
No one can tell how many years this tree has grown here, the sun rises and the moon sets, and the stars change. The leaves grow and fall, fall and grow, and have experienced wind, thunder, rain and snow for an unknown number of years.
One year, the tree suddenly became enlightened.
It is like a baby who has just landed, looking at the world with innocent eyes, feeling novelty about everything, the dew on the leaves, the rising sun, the blue sky, the passing clouds...
He loved the birds that nested in the trees, the squirrels that hopped on the trees, and every new discovery made him so happy.
It also found itself in company.
The vine that had been with it for an unknown number of years also gave birth to wisdom after him.
One tree and one vine, like a pair of twin brothers, one is ignorant and the other is even more ignorant.
Many years have passed since then, and the tree can take shape.
It didn't turn into the birds and beasts he was most familiar with.
Instead, it turned into a person.
The appearance of the person who once passed under the tree. There are hands, feet, eyes and mouth, everything that a person should have, and everything is missing.
The feeling of transforming into a human form for the first time was clear and vivid, which made Xiaodong suddenly shocked.
He looked at Mo Chen beside him, and said a few words stagnantly: "Brother..."
The green vine wrapped around his feet, as if to remind Xiaodong not to forget it.
Mo Chen quietly stayed by his side, and was not in a hurry to ask Xiaodong's ins and outs.
"who I am… "
Am I a tree, or a person
The memories that followed were more chaotic and fragmented.
Someone discovered this extraordinary ancient tree, and set up formations around it... The aura of the tree was swept and extracted crazily, the tree spirit that had just transformed was imprisoned and bound, and the tree was stimulated to produce flowers, which quickly withered after blooming for a moment .
The tree was uprooted and taken away from the native land where it had grown for thousands of years.
later…
I don't remember it later.
A lot of messy voices and faces, ferocious and greedy expressions, killing and blood... The blood of the Bai family has been sacrificed to the sacrifices from generation to generation, which is the karma owed by the Bai family.
Until... when the dying tree spirit sacrificed for the last time, because of the exhaustion of Bai's blood, he got rid of the suppression and imprisonment of it by the talisman array.
That night, a baby was born in Tianjian City.
Xiaodong stood in the same place without saying a word, and it took a long time before he opened his eyes again.
Mo Chen called him softly: "Xiaodong?"
Xiaodong nodded blankly.
"Eldest brother." After a pause, he said, "I remembered."
Thinking of his past as a tree spirit.
The once ancient tree has been wiped out along with Tianjian City, but as a tree spirit, he has a human body again.
He is not the only one who knows this secret.
Mrs. Yan was very indifferent to him, and she didn't have much affection for him.
She already knew Xiaodong's origin.
This is what Tian Jiancheng owes him, and what the Bai family owes him. The aura of the tree has supported and nourished Tianjian City for many years, and this debt is heavy.
From the day the city was built, it was doomed to collapse and perish. How can there be such a cheap thing in this world? Only need to get without paying? No, everything in the world has birth and death. The ancestors of the Bai family vainly tried to use the innate wood spirit to cultivate, but in the end they died and disappeared, and they could not fly to prove the Tao. Later, no matter how many lifespans and auras the people living in Tianjian City gained, the plundered auras not only made them successful, but also ate them back.
Xiaodong stuttered and told Mo Chen about these things, although he couldn't explain the truth, but Mo Chen could understand.
"I… "
Xiaodong scratched his head: "It turns out that senior brother and I are not real people."
The eldest brother is possessed by a dragon soul, and he is the reincarnation of a tree spirit.
Two people sat beside the pile of rocks, one was talking and the other was listening. The green vine obediently wrapped itself around Xiaodong's feet, as if she was asleep.
Xiaodong gestured: "I remember what the person who hurt me looked like, he was tall, with half black and half white hair..."
"Brother, do you know that I was so tall at that time! I was taller than the mountain beams here! At that time, some mountain people passing by burned incense under the tree and worshiped me, saying that I was a mountain spirit. How could I be a mountain spirit? , I am obviously a tree spirit..."
"There are rabbits making nests under the trees, and several litters are born in a year. The little rabbits are everywhere, and the fluffy balls are rolling and bouncing around..."
Mo Chen was not impatient at all, he quietly listened to Xiaodong's narration.
Probably because too many things came to mind at once, and it was really frustrating not to say them out. Xiaodong's narration was random, some happy, some sad, all mixed together.
Presumably Xiaodong himself didn't figure it out.
"This little vine is also implicated by me, and has been trapped in Tianjian City for so many years..." Xiaodong rubbed his eyes.
After talking for so long, he was sleepy.
"Take a break."
I'm tired, but I don't want to sleep.
He thought of one thing, and suddenly smiled: "Brother, if you were transformed into a dragon, you would be much taller than you are now."
The elder brother in human form is limited even if he is tall, but in the form of a dragon, he can grow to several feet long!
"But if I can still transform into a tree shape, I will be much taller than you!"
Xiaodong is proud to finally find something that makes him stronger than his elder brother.
Mo Chen smiled and nodded: "That's right."
"However, I probably can't change back..."
Xiaodong looked at his hands.
The memory of being a tree came back, but he was no longer a tree. The tree that used to be no longer exists, and there is no residue left. Unlike the elder brother, he can also transform into a dragon.
Xiaodong was a little sad, but he was also relieved for the elder brother.
As the long night passed, the sky overhead became brighter and brighter.
Xiaodong raised his head and pointed suddenly: "Eldest brother, it's dawn."
Yes, it's dawn.
When the sun comes out, the first thing to illuminate is the top of the mountain. The high places are bright, but the valleys are still dark.
This time the sunrise was the same as the countless sunrises in Xiaodong's memory, but also different.
The sun rose little by little, and the light shone on the mountains and rivers.
The elder brother's face and figure seemed to have been plated with a layer of gold.
"Brother, shall we stay here for a while?"
"good."
"Well, I heard that there are many places where dragons appear, and there are other dragon seal stones, dragon heart pools, let's all look for them? We can't find a real dragon, maybe we can find dragon paw prints or something..."
"Um."
"Tell me, if master knows that I used to be a tree spirit, will he be shocked?"
"I can't jump."
Xiaodong froze for a moment, then smiled: "Brother, you tease Master, I will remember it for you, and I will tell Master to go later." No matter how long the road is, if two people walk together, it will not seem lonely or long.
We can walk together for a long, long time.
After a long time, the world has once again turned the sea into a mulberry field, and the world has been turned upside down. Huiliu Mountain was replaced by the second head, the hardworking and down-to-earth Senior Brother Jiang Fanjiang. Generations change, rounds of ups and downs, maybe many years later, there will be disciples of Huiliu Mountain who will proudly mention how many seniors of Huiliu Mountain have been promoted. For example, the founding patriarch Li Zhenren and his Taoist concubine Ji Zhenren, such as Li Zhenren’s first disciple Mo Zhenren and young disciple Yun Zhenren...
Perhaps these legends will eventually be gradually forgotten.
People who come and go are just passers-by in this world, gathering and scattering, year after year.
(End) (To be continued)