How strong Mr. Skeleton's fighting power is, Chen Xian has never been able to figure this out, because he has never seen Mr. Skeleton fighting for his life. When he fought with the worm-body giant on Lingxi Mountain, Mr. Skeleton didn't do his best, because Chen Xian analyzed it afterwards, and based on his feeling...Mr. Skeleton should have kept his hand.
How strong is he
Chen Xian didn't dare to speak too much.
But at least he is weaker than himself, stronger than Lu Yisheng, and probably stronger than Xu Yanan... As for the comparison with Li Daosheng, the leader of the same generation, this is temporarily unclear.
Under the leadership of the old man, Chen Xian and his party continued to climb mountains and ridges in Meishan. They walked for four or five hours before arriving at the "holy place" that the old man called, that is, the place where other villagers came to worship the gods.
This is an extremely large pine forest... I can barely call these plants pine trees.
They have a shape similar to ordinary pine trees, except that the trunk is much thicker, and the wrinkled surface is like the gully on the face of an old man. The dark brown bark shone with an oily sheen in the sun, and one could faintly smell the air. The pervasive smell of turpentine...
These towering giant trees seem to have reached their flowering period, and the branches and leaves of each tree are covered with colorful flowers of different shapes, as if they have included all kinds of flowers from all over the world.
Among the tens of thousands of flowers, Chen Xian and the others saw many flowers that they knew or didn't know, but none of them belonged to the flowers that pine trees should bloom... As far as Chen Xian and the others can recognize now, There are majestic red peonies, elegant and dignified grass violets, and hibiscus flowers with large and colorful flowers, etc., and even the rare fire lily growing in the water.
As soon as you enter the pine forest, you will be filled with the fragrance of flowers. If you don’t look at the weird white sun in the sky, maybe this place looks like a fairyland. Maybe it’s because the forest is too dense, the temperature here seems to have dropped a lot, and you’re back to a A very comfortable temperature.
Ever since they came out of the mud-tiled house, the old man and the child have been walking in front, keeping a distance of about ten meters from the crowd intentionally or unintentionally. Other than that, they didn't speak again, and the two of them, who seemed to be grandparents, didn't have any communication.
This silent atmosphere was extremely depressing, and even affected Chen Xian and his party.
The pine forest, which looked like a fairyland at first, is also rendered strangely by this oppressive atmosphere at this moment. The twisted leaves and branches are like living things, and they are moving automatically without wind from beginning to end, as if they are performing some kind of weird movement. Li Xixi Suo Suo's voice was also deliberately amplified by the silent atmosphere, making people feel uneasy when listening to it.
"Bad taste."
Suddenly, Mr. Skull spoke without warning, as if he had sensed something, his eyes became extremely nervous, holding the umbrella knife in his hand tightly, as if he was facing an enemy.
"What bad smell?" Chen Xian frowned, took a few sniffs and found nothing else, only the slightly pungent smell of turpentine filled his nostrils, "What did you smell? "
"Life born... life lost..."
Mr. Skeleton spoke in a nervous tone, muttering as if he was talking to himself.
"Life and death seem to converge here... like a circle..."
Mr. Skeleton’s words are a little unclear, but what everyone doesn’t know is that Mr. Skeleton himself doesn’t know what he means. I have never seen such a strange place.
It's as if countless people were born here and countless people died, as if a reincarnation that cannot be observed by the naked eye is going on.
In the woods, everyone followed the elderly and children silently. The rugged and long mountain road made them a little out of breath. Except for Mr. Skeleton, everyone else looked out of breath. .
"Chen Xian... I'm so tired..." Mu He led Chen Xian and walked aside. At first she thought about putting it on Chen Xian, or letting Chen Xian carry her on her back, but seeing Chen Xian's tired look In the end, Xiao Muhe had no choice but to give up, pitifully following Chen Xian and complaining from time to time.
Hearing Xiao Muhe's words, Chen Xian glanced forward, and saw that neither the old man nor the child had any intention of stopping to rest their feet. They kept moving forward in the mountains at a steady speed from the beginning to the end, as if they were going to reach their destination in one breath. land…
"How about I carry you for a while?" Chen Xian asked.
Mu He shook his head, then hugged Chen Xian's arm tightly, like a child who went shopping with his parents until he collapsed, with the words "I'm very unhappy" written all over his face.
At the same time, Li Daosheng, who was walking on the side of the team, seemed to have discovered something suddenly, his eyes widened for a moment, he looked left and right, and finally decided to report the situation to Chen Xian, the "captain".
"There's something on the tree." Li Daosheng quietly came to Chen Xian's side, and whispered, "It's a pattern, every tree has it."
Seeing Li Daosheng's dignified expression, Chen Xian didn't dare to neglect, after all, Li Daosheng was not an ordinary stranger, and what made him nervous to such an extent... was absolutely not ordinary.
Under his guidance, Chen Xian walked to a pine tree calmly, looked up at the bark, and found that there was a very inconspicuous pattern on the trunk, which looked like an Arabic pattern about five meters above the ground. The number 8 is only the size of an adult's palm, and it doesn't look like it was painted on. The whole pattern is concave in the bark...
Judging from the information obtained from the preliminary observation, it does not seem to be made artificially, but looks like the folds of trees formed by the natural growth of trees, but not only on this tree, but also on every tree that can be seen around. Every location has this pattern.
Is this pattern a coincidence that occurred in nature
Chen Xian thought about it silently, but felt that it was unlikely, because these patterns had certain specific details, for example, the lines of the Arabic numeral 8 had bumps and ups and downs, and the overall lines were also thick at one end and thin at the other, like a …
"Ouroboros?" Xu Yanan looked at the pattern on the trunk, with a hint of doubt on his face, as if wondering why this pattern appeared in these places.
Hearing Xu Yanan's voice, Chen Xian came to his senses.
These patterns similar to the Arabic numeral 8 are indeed a mysterious totem or symbol that has been passed down since ancient times.
Ouroboros.
In any ancient record, the patterns of ouroboros are roughly the same, and the image is almost always a snake or a dragon devouring its own tail. Sometimes the whole body forms a ring, and sometimes forms a similar shape. The pattern of the number "8", so the ancients often called it "self-devouring".
According to the analysis of later generations, especially the deciphering of the Bureau of Secrets in recent years, the meaning of this pattern is not only to symbolize "infinity" or "circulation", but also its spiritual manifestation is more in line with the domestic religious science's view on "reincarnation". In the process of self-reference, there is an infinite loop, and the head and the tail are closely connected, just like the close connection between life and death...
"Are these patterns carved by someone?" Xu Yanan asked in a low voice.
"It's not like." Chen Xian shook his head and said with a frown, "Even if it was engraved, it should have been when these trees were very young... Their current surface structure is very stable and natural, at least not in recent years. It was destroyed by external force."
At this time, everyone had followed the old people and children to the depths of the pine forest.
The light here is dimmer than that of the outside world. The hot sun seems to be completely blocked by these dense pine trees, and the sky that can be seen when looking up has also become gaps of different shapes.
After continuing to walk for nearly half a kilometer, everyone came to a vast green grassland.
Since there is no pine forest here as a shelter, the sun can finally fall on the ground as much as possible, and there are vibrant dark green weeds and unknown wild flowers everywhere. In the distance, there are some small-scale landscapes similar to man-made gardens, some flower bushes Brambles or small trees are deliberately pruned to look like humans.
"This place has a good style." Lu Yisheng looked at the "human beings" made of pruned flowers and trees, and couldn't help sighing loudly, "The craftsmanship is quite good, better than the gardeners in our branch!"
Everyone looked at the small landscapes made of flowers and trees and couldn't help admiring, because although those landscapes are made of plants, they contain a trace of indescribable spirituality, as if they are real people, even the pruned body movements They all looked so wonderful.
"Chen Xian."
Suddenly, Mr. Skeleton secretly grabbed Chen Xian, his pale face was disturbing.
"What's wrong?" Chen Xian asked.
"That feeling of dying... seems to be coming from those things..."
Mr. Skeleton suppressed his voice, every word contained an unbelievable meaning, as if he couldn't figure out why he had such a reaction, and at the same time, a panic that made him uneasy suddenly appeared in his heart.
"They seem to be alive!"