In addition to self-improvement, Lester was also completely obsessed with the young cat-man Ogman. Although he did not recognize Ogman as the Vastaya cat-man apprentice, Lester was still willing to guide Ogman in fighting. Techniques, and taught the Vastaya boy the parts that could enhance agility and movement, as well as a set of fighting skills suitable for cat people.
For the knowledge and skills taught by Lester, O'Gorman invested 120,000 energy, meditating and training whenever he had the opportunity, but he learned it well, and he couldn't stop shouting "Master, Master, Master."
The fulfilling days passed quickly, and more than a month passed in the blink of an eye.
As the river became narrower and more rapid, the boats approached the dense forests along the coast to avoid the continuous rain and rolling spring thunder.
"It looks like this rain is going to last for a long time."
After tying the boat rope to the thick trunk of the cloudwood, boatman Naler picked up a fallen leaf. The moisture on the leaf veins made the man understand that the road ahead was not easy.
"Will it delay the trip?"
Hiding under the umbrella of a big tree, Lester observed the environment in the dense forest. Except for strange plants with Ionian characteristics and some small animals running around on the branches, he found nothing unusual.
"If this rain can stop within a week, we should be able to make it in time for the Soul Blooming Festival."
Seeing that the rain was getting heavier, everyone stopped thinking about going forward in the rain and settled in the small cabin. Because Lulu and O'Gorman were not too big, the cabin did not seem crowded. Naller and Rice Sitting opposite each other, Lulu and Ogman holding the flower staff faced each other. Counting the blue bird above the head and the flying elf Pixar, all they needed now was a pair of mahjong to play.
"It's still early before dark, let's take turns telling stories, each one telling a story."
Leicester used the simplest but most effective way to lighten the dull atmosphere.
"Great! Telling stories is fun!"
Lulu, who felt bored, took the lead in clapping her hands in approval. O'Gorman also nodded, willing to participate. Seeing that the other three people were focusing on him, boatman Naller hesitated for a moment and nodded.
"Okay, let's start with me."
Since there were children around, Lester chose a more beautiful story.
"When I was still living in the continent of Valoran, I accidentally discovered a very magical place. It was a vast forest, close to the Shining Silver Mountains in the south. There were many rare and rare beasts living in it, which were rarely seen. The people of Knockmooch Plains call it the Forest of Silence."
"It was an early morning. I walked through the forest with mottled beams, stepped on the bluestones and came to the creek, and met an antlerless white deer.
The little white deer also saw me. What's strange is that it didn't seem to be afraid of me. It just glanced at me and continued to drink water. I didn't continue to get closer to the kind-hearted deer, and just watched quietly next to the stream. After a while, another big guy also walked out of the woods. Guess who it is? "
"Is it Big Cat?"
"Not really."
Immediately after Lulu, O'Gorman also expressed his guess.
"The big guy, could it be that he is a bear?"
Lester smiled and shook his head.
"No."
"A magical creature from the forest?"
Shaking his head at Naylor, Lester revealed the answer.
"It's a densely packed army ant colony with a humanoid form, numbering in the hundreds of thousands."
Naller's face became a little strange.
"Wow! That must be spectacular! Did the white deer become good friends with the ants?"
Lulu put her little hands together and looked longingly at Lester, who had a soft face.
"Yes, they merged with the kind-hearted deer, and became the best friends with the white-bone deer, and they will never be separated again. I believe that even if they return to nature and enter the next cycle of life, they will still be there. together."
Naller's face stiffened, he twitched the corners of his mouth, and smiled reluctantly at the man.
This story is as hellish as the man in front of me.
"What a beautiful story... Is it my turn? Well, then I will tell a story about Bandle City.
It was a beautiful afternoon. I accidentally passed through the portal, only to find that my good friend Tristana, the gunner captain of Bandle City, was holding her 'Boom' to confront Mr. Rabbit outside the portal. The scene is really terrible! I can even see the raging fire starting to boom! "
The yordle's bright emerald green eyes are like two flawless green emeralds, and the purple hair sways gently with the owner's raising of hands, expressing joyful emotions.
"Facing the cold and ruthless Mr. Rabbit, Tristana had to brace herself to avoid being hit by the enemy's twitching little nose. In order to prevent the two of them from actually fighting, I had to stand on my side. between the two, and Pixar prevented further conflict."
Standing up her small chest proudly, Lulu spoke vividly.
"At that time, Tristana's face was very serious. She said that some kind of terrible creature had attacked the portal, so she seriously suspected that the culprit was Mr. Rabbit, so I turned to look at Mr. Rabbit, who was wagging his nose. , I asked him, and I said, 'Did you attack the teleportation gate?', and sure enough, Mr. Rabbit turned his head away disdainfully and started eating grass, not wanting to pay attention to my question at all, and I understood, teleportation. The fluctuation of the door was not caused by Mr. Rabbit, so how can a person who has done bad things continue to eat with peace of mind?"
"If it's not Mr. Rabbit, then who caused the fluctuations in the portal?"
Lester found the right time to ask a question, which made Lulu become very happy.
He knew that the little guy liked this.
"Yes, this is a puzzle that is difficult to answer, but it is not difficult for me. With the help of Pixar, I quickly found the answer and discovered the truth~"
The little fairy Pix rolled her eyes, folded her hands on her chest, and revealed Lulu's background without hesitation.
"Yes, I found the answer. It was Lulu that you used to shuttle back and forth through the portal, causing the portal to fluctuate, which made Tristana nervously ask a rabbit to answer questions. After all, the safety of Bandle City is at stake. , Tristana always attaches great importance to it and never misses any slightest detail."
Lester took it to heart and smiled impassively.
If he remembered correctly, the Whispering Key was the key to traveling through the portal in Bandle City, and it was confirmed in Lulu's mouth at this moment.
O'Gorman, the cat-man boy, reacted with a blank look on his face for a while, then gradually opened his mouth. After a delay of three seconds, he burst into laughter and figured out the reason.
"Hahaha, after working on it for a long time, it turned out to be you!"
"Hehe, after I apologized to Mr. Rabbit and Tristana, I was forgiven. It's your turn, Uncle Naller. Do you want to tell a story?"
Being watched by the Yodels, Nale nodded, his voice a little heavy.
"Bona Village has always been a peaceful and beautiful village. Under the leadership of the elders, the villagers can obtain enough survival materials by relying on fishing and mountain prey. The boats traveling on the Huanxi River are also our trading partners. We can We exchanged furs and game for some good things from other places, and everything was perfect until twelve years ago, a shadow mage came to our village."
After a pause, the one-eyed boatman lowered his eyes, touched his blind left eye, and continued.
"The shadow mage's name is 'Doppler'. He is a middle-aged man in his thirties. He comes from Zhiyun Province. He traveled north and finally came to our village.
Knowing that Doppler can release shadow spells, the elders kept him and agreed to let him live for a period of time. With the shadow mage, the harvest in our village began to increase, and life began to become better. There is no need for breathing shadows. You can dive under the Huanxi River for a long time to catch hard-to-catch rare freshwater fish, or you can go deep into the Green Forest to search for rare herbs, animals and plants. Everyone thinks that the arrival of Doppler is a good thing, and I and my My wife is no exception. Bona Village completely accepts guests from far away, and Doppler is warm and generous. No one in Bona Village dislikes him. Even the elders who stick to the rules are willing to let Doppler stay for a while. . "
"I thought it would always be peaceful, but on the night of the lunar eclipse, a nightmare came to Bona Village."
Fear began to appear on the man's face, and his only remaining eye seemed to have really seen something terrible, bloodshot and extremely ferocious.
Lester held the frightened Lulu in his arms, hugged Lulu's little face, and gently patted the yordle's back.
Even Winx Pixar is getting serious.
At this moment, Naller didn't care about other people's opinions. He just wanted to use this rare opportunity to express the depression and despair he had suppressed for more than ten years.
"The villagers in their dreams, without exception, all entered a real nightmare, and the owner of the nightmare was Doppler. When the villagers walked blankly in a dreamland full of fog and shadows, the disaster had just begun. At the beginning, a void shadow ghost stared at all of us. Its voice was like the whisper of death, depressing and dull, full of malice towards life, spreading the fear hidden in the darkness.
Whenever a ghost comes, we will be pulled into a strange world. In that world of nothingness, you have nothing, not even time. The only thing that exists is yourself. And every time you exit the world of nothingness, There will always be people who completely disappear into nightmares while wailing. After the third person disappeared, Doppler, who was surrounded by villagers, finally told the truth. "
Naler's voice was full of pain, and the trembling syllables were like a scar being torn open again.
"It turns out that Doppler has long been targeted by the evil creature that can invade dreams. His so-called 'wandering' was just to escape the pursuit of the devil. He wanted to seek effective help, but he always found nothing. Even the warrior monks of Shuoji Temple and Karma of the Hall of Eternal Existence were unable to deal with that evil creature.
In desperation, in order to survive, he chose to find a village to live in when the lunar eclipse night came and the devil was about to approach. In other words, our village was just a sacrifice used by Doppler to delay the evil creatures. From the beginning, We are deceived by terrible and deadly lies, and the gift he gives us with his shadow is the death penalty for our lives to block his attacks. "
Smiling self-deprecatingly, Naller pointed to his blind right eye.
"My wife Sally's life and my right eye were purchased by three rainbow fish and a wild boar. On the day I got the gift, I even felt guilty about the Doppler guy because I was with Sally didn't have anything to give him except ordinary daily necessities. Isn't it ridiculous?
As the demon attacked again, I hugged Sally tightly. What surprised me was that this time Sally did not separate from me, and I did not go to the world of nothingness, but appeared together in Greenland. In the forest, there was a flame-patterned red leopard not far away. Before I knew what was happening, the red leopard rushed towards me and Sally. I was about to push Sally aside and leave alone. Facing the man-eating beast, a push came from my side and I lost my balance. "
The man's voice was deep and full of despair,
“It was Sally who pushed me towards Red Leopard…
I staggered towards the Red Leopard with confusion and sadness, but the Red Leopard slapped me in the face with its claws, which blinded my right eye. After I fell to the ground, the Red Leopard bit Sally. , tore my wife's throat. I looked blankly at my wife who was being eaten, and watched her die. I didn't even know what to do. "
"I don't know how long it took, but I came out of the Green Forest and did not return to the terrible nightmare world and the world of nothingness. I was awakened by the severe pain in my right eye. I sat up from the bed. Lying next to me was a man who had lost his breath. Sally, who was holding my left hand, seemed to be sleeping. There were no wounds on her body, but she was as cold as a piece of merciless snow...
I opened my wife's stiff but determined fingers, got up from the bed, and walked to the mirror.
What I saw were empty eyes that were intact but could no longer see.
In a nightmare, I lost my right eye and my wife lost her life. Because of Sally’s push, I found that even the relationship between myself and my wife had an irreparable rift.
It wasn’t until the next day that I learned that the reason why we were able to escape the shackles of the nightmare was because the Doppler died in the hands of angry villagers. The dream of losing its owner was no longer a dream, and we returned to reality smoothly. And the demon that can travel through dreams and torture souls with evil abilities has also cut off its connection with Bona Village. However, the five people who died in Bona Village can never come back. In anger, Doppler's body was The villagers burned them into ashes in the pyre, and the bone powder was used to comfort the souls of the dead.
I thought my pain came from my wife’s departure, but I found that every time I had a nightmare, I dreamed of Sally’s ruthless push. I wanted to protect Sally with my life, but she betrayed her without hesitation. This is the result that I can never let go of... On every Soul Blooming Day, I will look for the Soul Blooming Flower that belongs to Sally. I want to get the answer she told me personally. I want to know whether... Before the devil attacked, our most beautiful relationship had already had cracks and suspicions. What was the reason that made her willing to use the most heartbreaking way to protect herself, but also to betray the husband who loved her most? I obviously did everything I could She was prepared to die..."
"So, did you get your answer?"
The atmosphere was silent for a long time. Holding Lulu, who was no longer afraid, Lester asked softly.
The man's ferocious expression had returned to calmness, and his face was a little more relieved.
"For more than ten years, I have never found Sally's spirit flower. Perhaps this is the answer I will never get until I die."
Outside the boat, the spring rain was pouring down, and the dripping raindrops slapped on the branches and leaves. The fourth story became hazy and out of reach.
The moonlight shines down gently, held up by the mottled night, and in a trance, sinks deeply into a black dream.
