I am still standing here with Him, overlooking the blue sky, looking at the floating world. All living beings are nothing but me.
Chu Tianhe can be considered a native of Jiutian Land, even though his parents both belong to the northern continent. But it doesn't matter, more than three hundred years have made him forget their faces almost completely. He traveled to various countries, frequently traveled on sea routes, and saw all the sights of the world, and finally felt tired.
He suddenly wanted to see the place where he once lived with his mother, so he went back. This place has changed a lot. The entire village has been moved because the sea level in this area has risen. He heard that the island was "alive". He didn't understand the meaning of this sentence in the past, but now he could vaguely feel that it was breathing slowly, and the sea surface was rising and falling accordingly, but it was not so obvious. He moved once when he was very young. He had no memory. He heard his mother tell him. He also moved once when he was ten years old. Later, he left the island to make a living. He came back several times, but he probably moved... He couldn't remember.
But he was very concerned about the place where his mother died, because two years before her death, she and a few scattered fishermen moved back to the beach where Chu Tianhe lived when he was fifteen. He was standing on the beach. Physically speaking, he should be at the spot where the dilapidated little bed was. They use a kind of wood unique to the seaside to build their houses, which is not susceptible to moisture, but the bedding is always prone to mold. Now, as the water came in, the edge touched the toe of his shoe. The rocks on the shore are covered with many barnacles, which are densely packed. In the past, this was a bare area, and no one would let go of the free delicious food.
Time always flies by.
He walked along the shore, moving slowly on the gravel beach, occasionally picking up some colorful shells, like a child. The difference is that after holding it for a while, he will throw it back into the sea, as if it is floating in the water - although this does not work on the sea. There is nothing worth remembering about him, except...
He stood there stunned.
This quiet place that changed his taste at the age of fifteen has now been submerged by the incoming sea water. The terrain in the past was different from the present. It could even be said to be very different, and Chu Tianhe swore that he would never remember it wrong...even though three hundred years had passed.
But from this year onwards, he was unable to leave Jiutian Kingdom.
Was this the name Jiutian Kingdom used to be?
Some things in his memory were blurred or overwritten. Moreover, people around him are going through the same thing without even realizing it. Human beings are fragile and unstable creatures that are easily influenced by the people around them. As the saying goes, three people make a tiger. If there are too many people who deny your opinion, you yourself will become uncertain.
From that day on, even ordinary words gradually became distorted and deformed. Some people could understand it, while others couldn't. The same goes for currency. The gold and silver that were originally used here have disappeared without realizing it, leaving only the unique local minerals.
If it were others, it might be difficult to detect these changes subtly. But Chu Tianhe lived too long and too soberly. Strictly speaking, he is a very egoistic person. This kind of ego can keep people awake and affirmative of self-awareness in extremely rare situations. The pier was abandoned overnight, with only fishing boats that could not cross the sea drifting on the beach. If asked in detail, they couldn't tell the reason. Everything seemed to be somewhere between coincidence and abnormality, just right.
So he found the God of Incense - the false god who had given him the incense to restore his soul.
"You are still alive." At that time, the Gandharva seemed a little surprised.
"You got what you wanted and sat in your current position."
"You are still alone."
"Rather than this, please tell me how to get out of here."
"You can't leave."
The Gandharva didn't tell him much, he just talked about the barrier in a vague way, which was a bit perfunctory. But judging from his attitude, it seemed that there was some wonderful big plan in progress. He seemed proud of it, but he didn't want to say more to Chu Tianhe. Chu Tianhe was not a talkative person, but he was a little irritable because he couldn't act according to his own will.
"Since we are all going to be trapped here, shall I give you a job?"
Finally, the God of Fragrance said this.
After the conversation ended, Chu Tianhe left Xiangyuan. Over the years, he has long become a happy-go-lucky person. Even if his freedom is deprived in disguise, his unhappiness will only be temporary. Since then, he has acquired another identity - the messenger of the gods. This is a boring job. The reason why the God of Incense entrusted it to him was also a little vague. It seems to be related to some kind of prophecy of the incense burner. It is a good thing to stay here. He saw the figure of Chu Tianhe in the mirage of the future, the God of Fragrance said so.
After that, life was uneventful for the next two or three years. He traveled all over this small Nine Heavens Kingdom, meeting all kinds of people again and again. The so-called gods were not special. Instead, he felt that some human characteristics were vividly displayed in them. He showed no respect for those people, and most of the time, he just talked to the acting humans, which was okay. In the past few years, he had walked countless times except for the place where the python god lived, but he didn't even know where Mahulaka was.
Jiutian Kingdom is like a huge lighthouse, but it is dark and silent. But it just exists like this. People inside can't get out, but people from outside keep coming - and then there is no news. Chu Tianhe had met many outsiders, both good and bad, and he didn't care. One day, a thirty-five-year-old young man visited the God of Fragrance and embarked on the road to Wu Kingdom with him.
Surprisingly, they got lost.
This is unprecedented. Chu Tianhe had walked through the huge dense forest of Jiutian Kingdom countless times, and he knew all the drinkable water and edible food here. As for the method of identifying direction and time, he will never make a mistake. But unexpectedly, he and the young man traveling with him got lost inexplicably.
"You won't lie to me, right?" The young man complained just two days later.
"I don't need to lie to you." Chu Tianhe was not angry. "The money you have can't be used in Jiutian Kingdom. In addition, I don't have anything to covet from you. You and I don't have anything in Wu Kingdom." Conflict of interest.”
The young man stopped talking, but he was still full of doubts.
But no matter what, they couldn't get out of this strange forest sea. The environment felt unfamiliar to Chu Tianhe, and the resources were surprisingly scarce. Although the number of dangerous things has been greatly reduced, the food is definitely not enough for the two of them. They wandered in the forest for ten days with limited water and dry food, and the dry food was exhausted on the fourth day. The rest of the edible things that can be found are even more pitiful. For so many days, not a drop of rain fell from the sky.
As time went by, hunger and hopelessness pushed the two to the brink of collapse little by little.
The young man was complaining, but why didn't Chu Tianhe feel irritable? Sending messages is secondary. Even if he lives forever, if he is stabbed or slowly dies of thirst and starvation like now, he will die sooner or later. Although he has lived for so long, he has not only made enough money, but has even made "a lot of money" - although it is not in the sense of wealth, it is really frustrating to die just like that. The young man from the northern continent was full of complaints. Both of them were obviously hungry, and they didn't know where he got the strength to keep chattering.
Unfortunately this guy was not lucky. He ignored the advice and provoked a beast that he shouldn't have provoked. His foot was bitten and he walked with a limp. Two more days later, the twelfth day, his wound still showed no improvement, and there were even weird maggots crawling in the flesh.
"You can only cut them off," Chu Tianhe said simply. "It will be hard to find them after they turn into pupae. If you wait longer, the adults will completely burrow into your skin. Now they are just moving around the wound."
"No!" the young man shouted, "impossible! You want me to bleed to death and then take away my gold!"
Chu Tianhe realized that his mind had begun to become confused. Because the young man actually knew very well that gold was of no use here, and no matter how much he complained before, he would not be as emotional and wasteful of energy as he is now. This insect probably secretly lays eggs in the wound at night. It only uses its anesthetic to make people lose the sense of pain, but does not cause insanity. Maybe there was another reason for what made him crazy, but Chu Tianhe knew that he was the "slow" type and did not feel this change.
But, I really want him to shut up.
They had all been dehydrated for too long, and their throats were unbearably parched. These days, the two of them are always wandering in the same direction, and the plants that store water have been emptied out for a long time. But the sky stopped raining, which made Chu Tianhe's still human throat feel like burning pain.
At night, the young man suddenly woke up. He used to have to get up every now and then to relieve himself, even though they didn't add many new fluids during the day. Chu Tianhe would be woken up occasionally, and sometimes not. But now he's awake - of course, he doesn't want to be responsible for the food and daily life of this thirty-year-old man like a nanny taking care of his children, and pretends he doesn't see him every time.
But today, he heard a rustling sound.
The young man turned his back and quietly chewed something there. Chu Tianhe's heart tightened, and he felt that something was wrong, because he knew that many people would bite their own fingers after losing their minds in the forest. Moreover, he had also seen those withered bones in the forest, and many people's finger bones had cracks from being bitten by teeth.
He patted the young man on the shoulder, and the man turned around in panic.
There were still remnants of dry food hanging from the corners of his mouth.
"..."
"What a ruthless and unjust person. I didn't abandon you when you were injured. Is this how you repay kindness with revenge? So every night in the past, you were also..."
The young man was embarrassed and frightened. Chu Tianhe stood up and took out the sheath of the short knife he carried with him. He was expressionless and didn't even feel angry, but that didn't mean he would let him go.
"Wait! I, I just, I still have, listen to me, I'm not - I, I'll give you all my money, and... No, no, stop, help! Come here! !save--"
Blood is also a source of fresh water.
