On the banks of the Mallard River six years ago.
night.
Mo Xi stood by the desolate river bank, panting lowly. Jiang Fuli's magic had just dissipated, and he was still dizzy, holding the reversal stone Jiang Fuli gave him tightly in his hand, and his palms were wet with sweat.
He closed his eyes and raised his face against the cool wind.
This is the closest place to the royal capital in the entire Fushui River area. From here, you can see the city of Chonghua, dormant in a majestic and neat manner in the distant night, and its magnificent appearance shimmers in the shadows.
At this moment, the war six years later had not yet come, and Mo Xi knew that at this time, Your Majesty should be instructing Murong Lian to go to Fushui in secret to completely destroy Gu Mang's memory.
Murong Chuyi was still alive, perhaps playing with his blueprints in the refining room.
And I... I was in the North at that time, and I resented Gu Mang's betrayal in my heart, and I didn't even want to come back and take a look at him in person.
There was a dull pain in his heart, but he didn't have much time to feel sorry for himself, at most one hour, he had to use the power soul box of the blood beasts within this hour, and it was possible to change their future.
It was not difficult to find the forbidden army nearby who was responsible for escorting Gu Mang back to the city.
He knew the marching and garrisoning methods of Chonghua soldiers like the back of his hand. It seemed like a solid defense, but to him it was like no one else's land. So after a while, he found the central tent where Gu Mang was being held.
Mo Xi cast a spell to block the tent from the outside world, then walked to the barrier and looked at Gu Mang through the cage-like beam of light. With just one look, the eye sockets were already red.
Brother Gu six years ago, like a wounded wolf dog, covered in blood, curled up in the prison barrier. He was dressed in prisoner's clothes, his hair was disheveled, and he was lying on a dirty felt cushion, sleeping with his eyes closed.
Maybe it was because he didn't sleep deeply, or maybe it was because of his own perception, Mo Xi's movement in the tent was so light that no one paid attention, but Gu Mang was awakened.
Gu Mang opened his eyes abruptly and stood up alertly. The moonlight fell from the open roof of the yurt. He sat in the pure moonlight, and when he saw the face of the person who came, his eyes widened in amazement.
"Mo Xi...?"
However, the two words whispered softly fell into my heart like a boulder.
It was so painful that I couldn't breathe.
"...how could it be you..."
Mo Xi waved off the enchantment beam, passed through the cage cast by the spell, and walked into the beam of moonlight. He lowered his eyes and looked at the prisoner kneeling on the felt blanket.
He wanted to say something to Gu Mang for himself who didn't return six years ago, "I'm sorry, I missed you."
He even wanted to take him away like this and let him go, so that Gu Mang would not have to suffer from two years of humiliation in Luomei Bieyuan and three years of stigma.
He wanted to kneel down, hug Senior Brother Gu, who was living in the moonlight, and wanted to tell him, "Enough, you've done too much, and it's my fault. I hated you and didn't come back from the north." I'm the last person you can trust, but I... But I didn't do anything at the time, I missed everything.
But he can't say.
Only one hour, one chance.
Opportunity to change fate.
Mo Xi closed his eyes, his throat twitched, and he swallowed all the bitterness in his stomach. He knew what he should do to get the soul box immediately and smoothly.
- He must take Murong Lian's place and do what Murong Lian should do tonight.
To get the box loaded with the power of blood beasts.
So he suppressed the trembling in his voice and tried his best to hide the ups and downs in the deepest part of his eyes. He forced himself to calmly said to Gu Mang, "Your Majesty... sent me here."
The light and shadow in Gu Mang's blue eyes flickered and dimmed slightly.
The heart seems to be split by a knife soaked in salt, and the end is bloody.
Mo Xi continued speaking, his voice hoarse. He said the words that should have been told by Murong Lian: "...Gu Mang, you are a traitor to the country."
Gu Mang opened his blue eyes and looked up at the person he used to be the closest to, without saying a word.
"Your Majesty told me that you once wrote a book to him, saying that you used the power of your soul to seal the power of the blood beasts and made a soul box. I hope you can offer it to the king and spare you not to die.... Now I'll get this thing. already."
Every time he uttered a word with difficulty, it seemed like he was smashing his own soul.
After saying these words, Mo Xi couldn't utter any more words for a while. He lowered his eyes silently, unable to look at Gu Mang's expression at the moment.
His voice was hoarse.
"Give me the soul box, and I'll go back to my life."
It was terribly silent in the prison tent, and you could even hear the roar of the wind outside and the footsteps of the soldiers walking back and forth.
After a long time, Gu Mang did not hand over the soul box.
Instead, he said, "Junior Brother Mo... I... I didn't expect it to be you."
"… "
"I thought you wouldn't want to see me again, I thought you wouldn't come back in the north, but I didn't expect you..."
Gu Mang didn't say any more, but these words were like the tip of a needle, stabbing Mo Xi's heart, so he had to use all his energy to prevent him from collapsing at this moment.
Gu Mang sighed and said, "... Forget it. What Your Majesty said, I don't want to argue any more at this moment. He is right, I am indeed a traitor."
"… "
"It's just Junior Brother Mo." He suddenly smiled softly, "If Senior Brother asks you to look at your relationship over the past ten years, please do me one last favor. Will you be willing?"
Mo Xi clearly knew what he needed to do, but he still had to endure the severe heartache. After a moment of silence, he asked, "What do you want me to help with?"
"I can't tell you too much." Gu Mang said softly, "Some secrets are best kept in my heart. If a second person knows too well, the second person will be greatly threatened. ... Mo Xi, it's just that Jane is in the heart of the emperor, even though I have done many things that I can't do to you in the past, I still want to remind you - you have to leave a way out for yourself, Your Majesty is not as credible as you seem ."
After a pause, he saw that Mo Xi did not refute. So he lowered his head, silently chanted the mantra, and cast spells.
In the end, the box that was sealed by Murong Chen and hidden in the golden stage appeared in Gu Mang's palm.
"This is the soul box that your lord asked you to pick up."
Mo Xi knew that, according to what Murong Lian once said, Gu Mang would ask him next, saying that this soul box could be handed over to the emperor, but there was still a key to open the box, so he must keep it, see the opportunity destroy.
Mo Xi waited for Gu Mang to speak. As long as Gu Mang said it and he agreed, he could end this nightmare and go outside to find a place to completely destroy the box, then everything would have a brand new ending.
He waited.
Gu Mang also spoke up. It's just that-
"I ask you to take away a piece of my soul at this very moment tonight, and cast it into a key lock that imprisons this soul box."
Mo Xi suddenly raised his eyes and looked at him in disbelief: "What?!"
Gu Mang stared at his face and repeated, "I want to ask you to take away a piece of my soul with your own hands and cast it into a key lock that imprisons this soul box."
Mo Xi suddenly took a step back.
What, what's going on? How could this be
Gu Mang... Gu Mang, what is he talking about? !
Under the bright moonlight, Gu Mang suddenly smiled faintly.
He rose from the ground, pale ankles in shackles, shackles around his neck and wrists. He had his long black hair hanging down, and a pair of lake-like eyes looked at him quietly.
"Mo Xi." He sighed softly, "I think, I already know where you came from."
"… "
"When you just came in, I thought it was you who came back from the North. But I can't be sure... It wasn't until you showed surprise. I knew... you're not Mo Xi from the North, you're coming back from the future. Mo handsome."
It seemed like the stormy waves were rising, Mo Xi opened his eyes wide—
"How... how could you..."
The chains rattled, and the clean and fair-skinned prisoner came to Mo Xi, raised his head, and looked at Mo Xi's face: "You know what?... When you looked at me, there was no hatred in your eyes, some were full of sadness."
"… "
"So you are the little junior brother who came back by other means after I chose to sacrifice myself, right?"
The pain in his heart was slammed into the soft part, Mo Xi suddenly turned his head away, but he was able to turn his head away, but the tears could no longer be stopped and flowed down dazedly.
"How could you..." More words could not be said, and they all became choked up.
"Fool, don't cry, it's my fault. I knew this day would come." Gu Mang raised his shackled palms and gently held Mo Xi's face, "Mo Xi, in the end it's me. I'm sorry for you. In this world, I want to put you into my life, but I already know when I will choose to die and when my soul will be broken... I can't watch you with me... "
Mo Xi turned around abruptly, his eyes were like torches, but there were wet tears.
"Why do you know?! You clearly... you clearly... "
You are obviously just a person from the past! !
I came back, clearly to change this ending.
"Because when I sympathized with the blood monster." Gu Mang pointed to his blue eyes, "I was seriously ill for seven days and was in a coma. This monster has the ability to predict its own death. After I merged with it, it was actually already I saw my future sacrifice. I also had a precognition dream, and the dream is today's situation - you come back here from the future, holding the reversal stone, thinking that you can change everything."
"But I know it doesn't change anything."
"impossible… !"
Gu Mang shook his head and said, "Mo Xi, the Reversal Stone has no ability to change fate. Ancient books say it's 'no harm to the red dust, and its fate is destined', and that's what it says."
"… "
"Nothing in the past can be easily changed. The reason why the three major forbidden techniques are forbidden techniques is precisely because once they really change, the consequences will most likely be the subversion of the entire world. And the reversal stone does not need to pay a price, it is Can change so many lives - do you think that makes sense?"
These words were as cold as ice, and Mo Xi's fingertips were trembling.
"how is this possible… "
"Before I met you, I also thought that maybe the precognition dream was wrong." Gu Mang said, "But now it seems that it is not wrong at all."
Mo Xi raised his head abruptly, the light and shadow in his eyes flickered, like a ghost and a ghost galloping past, he seemed to be extremely sad and almost crazy.
"Then why does Jiang Fuli still give me the stone?! He has already retrieved Shen Tang's memory, doesn't he know the function of this stone?!"
"Mo Xi, Pharmacist Jiang gave you the reversal stone. He knows exactly what the result will be. But if he tells you honestly that you take this stone and go back to the past, you want to fulfill your mission with your own hands and turn mine The soul is cracked, and the key is forged—would you like it?"
"… "
Yes, he couldn't do it, he couldn't agree.
Gu Mang smiled, with a bit of sadness in his smile: "The reversal stone, its real name, is called the Destiny Stone. Heaven and earth were created, destiny is destined, and there is a cycle of reincarnation. It's just that the creation of the world is too grand, and the gods sometimes make mistakes. , so they left reversal stones in the world, these stones can take people back to the past, and let users do some actions that they think can change the future, in fact, it is a scam at all."
"Those who went back to the past just went back and repaired what they should have done at that time, but didn't do it according to the original destiny. So in fact, the same is true for you - Mo Xi, you have returned from the future to today, it seems that It is to change the past, but in fact, within the destiny set by Heaven, you will definitely fulfill the important task Jiang Fuli entrusted to you, and use my soul to forge the key, this is the destiny that this stone needs to be repaired."
Blood cold as frost.
Mo Xi's lips trembled slightly, he wanted to say, you must have made a mistake somewhere, it will never be like this. It's your misunderstanding of the reversal stone, not Jiang Fuli who lied to him.
But when he looked into Gu Mang's eyes, he knew deep down that what Gu Mang said was true.
Yes... If a stone can really change the world and turn the world around, why do you still need divination, and you need to obey the hexagram, give the stone to the destined person, and return to the destined moment
It can't change fate at all.
It is just in accordance with the meaning, in a cycle of time, to repair the mistakes and omissions of the past.
Mo Xi wanted to say something, but he was really tormented by too many emotions. He had endured it until this moment, and finally he could no longer support it. He was almost collapsed in grief. ... I always thought that the people who killed you were from the Liao Kingdom, and the people who dug out your soul were also the people of the Liao Kingdom... But it turns out... but it turns out... "
Tears fell, and he was like an abandoned dog, with a miserable expression, and his eyes were red as he looked at Gu Mang.
Almost frantically raised his head and laughed: "But it turned out to be me?!"
"..." Gu Mang closed his eyes.
"This is my destiny?"
"Tonight, Murong Lian will come to look for you. He once said in our time that he saw you covered in blood and dying. He said that he thought that the interrogators had tortured you too much—in fact, it wasn't at all! It was because of me. I have to do it myself, because when he came I just gouged out your soul! Completed the destiny this stone gave us! Right?!!"
"Ink extinguishes..."
"What do you think of me?! What does heaven and earth think of me?! You can see the future, you have a precognition dream, then you dreamed that after you died, how did I feel! I can't cry, can't I'm in a mess, I can't be sad, I can't even collect your corpse for you!" Mo Xi choked, he held Gu Mang's hand and pressed it against his chest, "Gu Mang! I'm also a living person. Did you know what I'd be like..."
After Mo Xi finished speaking, he lowered his head abruptly, tears pouring down like rain.
Gu Mang had known him for so many years, his little junior brother had never, never cried so sadly, as if all the pain had been paid for.
Gu Mang's heart was full of mixed feelings, but he didn't know how to bridge the gap of fate and wipe out all the suffering.
They can't change that after all.
If he could, he also hoped that it wasn't Mo Xi. He even hoped that he could complete the refining of the key lock himself - but his spiritual core was damaged, so he couldn't do it.
He could only walk over and hug Mo Xi who had lost his brother Gu Mang after returning from the battlefield six years later.
He hugged him, feeling the exhaustion, despair, blood and helplessness on the man. In fact, Mo Shuai of the empire, in his eyes, has always been the kind-hearted teenager in the academy who was beaten with a cane in order to give the poor slave brothers and sisters a meal, sitting alone under the pines and cypresses.
He originally wanted to protect him for the rest of his life, but it turned out that in the end, Gu Mang had protected everyone in the world, but he was the only one.
"Senior brother..." After a long while, he heard that Mo Xi was not so intense, but it was more and more dull than before, as if a blaze of fire burned to the extreme, and suddenly died out.
Mo Xi said in an almost empty voice, "I came back... not to fulfill my destiny and hurt you... "
"I know."
"I have lost you in the future."
"… "
Mo Xi choked up abruptly, his tall body bent down and lowered, just like the helpless young man when he stripped away all his support, he said almost silently, "I don't want to lose you again in the past. …”
"I know, Mo Xi, I'm sorry..."
"Why me..."
Gu Mang listened to his beast-like whimper, and tears fell. He hugged his junior brother Mo tightly, and tears silently wet Mo Xi's clothes.
Why did fate choose Mo Xi
In fact, both of them knew it better in their hearts.
Because the person Gu Mang trusted most was Mo Xi, because the only person who could listen to Gu Mang's words and complete this final cruelty was Mo Xi. Because if there is no key lock, soon after the soul box is handed over to the king, the king will be able to obtain the power of the blood beast, and it will not be delayed for three or five years, and Kyushu will be in chaos.
Because in this world, the person who understands Gu Mang best and is most similar to Gu Mang is Mo Xi.
Gu Mang once said that some things must be done by someone, and some sacrifices must be done by someone. When fate finds you, you don't want to be a coward, you are destined to face it.
We all have our own way to go.
And now, that's the way they're going.
Last ride.
No matter whether they are resentful, unwilling, or painful, they are no match for the sobriety engraved in their bones—from the very beginning, they joined the army and became commanders, and they could no longer get rid of their responsibilities.
Gu Shuai is Gu Shuai, not a traitor.
Mo Shuai is not a coward either.
As the coach, there is no such thing as all-powerful, brilliance, only those weights placed in front of them, even if they are in pain, they will still carry it.
This is the general.
"...Do as the reversal stone arranges, Mo Xi." Gu Mang finally said softly, "I know where you came from, there is already a sea of blood. But I believe that it is not the end. If the world is destroyed here, destiny Why would the Stone bring you back here to complete this repair of the past?"
He paused, comforting him, as before when they went to the battlefield together, knowing that the future was unpredictable, but still comforting and motivating him.
Where there is Shuai Gu, there is fire and light.
It makes people feel that this is not the end.
"There's still a turnaround."
Mo Xi murmured in a low voice, his eyes almost blank, "But in that turnaround, was there still you?"
Gu Mang was silent.
He murmured: "Have you foreseen it?"
"..." Gu Mang let go of the hand that was holding Mo Xi, and he stood in front of Mo Xi, all serious and awe-inspiring, "I have a dream that I have had many times. But it's like I wasn't sure until I saw you today. That dream was a precognition dream, and at this moment I can't be sure whether this dream I have repeated is precognition, or because I... I miss you so much."
Having said this, Gu Mang took a deep breath and tried his best, as if he wanted to hand over all the love and light of his life to Mo Xi and put it on his scarred heart.
There was a moist and gentle light in his blue eyes, and he said, "I dreamed that the war was over and it rained, and I found you in the rain."
Perhaps because of small hopes.
Or maybe it's just a craving for a little relief.
Mo Xi was dreaming, looking at those blue eyes and asking, "What about later?"
"Later, I tell you, go home."
"..." Mo Xi pursed his lips, and his eyes became even more moist. He silently lowered his eyes and blinked gently.
"Afterwards, the rain stopped and we went home."
This best dream, like him, couldn't believe it was foretold.
Gu Mang has obviously sacrificed in the future.
But even so, he finally had a little courage in his heart - he loved him so much, as long as there was a little spark of hope, he was willing to start a prairie fire for it.
Mo Xi asked eagerly, sadly, and pleadingly at the same time, "What about the end?"
"Finally, you are with me all the time."
A warm smile appeared on Gu Mang's thin face.
He raised his hand and intertwined his fingers with Mo Xi: "As long as it doesn't end, there is hope for everything. After I sacrificed, you would never have imagined that I could still talk to you like this and hold your hand. hand?"
"… "
"Mo Xi, no matter what the outcome is, you never admit defeat, and so do I. I know that in your heart you also have compassion for all beings and put your family and country first. We have always been together. So, follow the instructions of the reversal stone. Bar."
As he spoke, he stood on tiptoe and gently kissed Mo Xi's lips.
"Life or death, I will always love you and be proud of you."