A large flame danced on the oil lamp, and the faint light barely illuminated the young man's delicate face.
With the faint light, he carefully wiped a ghost face mask in his hand. There was also a ring on the table, its smooth surface reflected the dancing firelight, and it had obviously been wiped meticulously.
"Brother...cold..."
The weak voice of the little girl came from the side of the house. The boy stopped what he was doing and stood up.
"My daughter kicked off the quilt again. Did she have a nightmare?" The boy bent down to pick up the quilt and covered the little girl lying on the bed, saying lovingly.
"Hehe, no," the little girl on the bed obediently cooperated with the boy to cover herself up tightly, "My daughter dreamed of playing with her brother during the day, and accidentally..."
The boy touched the little girl's head and said, "It's already very late. Girl, you need to go to bed quickly, otherwise we won't be able to collect medicine together tomorrow."
"Well, I'm going to sleep right now."
The boy tidied the little girl's patched quilt and looked around. Under the dim light of the oil lamp, he could see that there were no valuable objects in the room.
In a few months, it will be the day of selection for the Immortal Sect. If I am chosen this time... I can let my sister live a carefree life.
The boy checked the little girl's quilt again. At this time, the little girl had fallen asleep and was licking her lips sweetly.
Did you dream about something delicious? The young man thought. He blew out the oil lamp and fell into a deep sleep.
…
Long ago, people were born. Be proud and self-sufficient, embrace simplicity and truth.
In such a wilderness where thousands of races and ferocious beasts abound, there is a small village made up of mortals. Work at sunrise and rest at sunset.
Some people speculate that there is an unimaginable and amazing force hidden behind this small village, secretly protecting the people in the village. However, since there was no substantial evidence, this statement eventually became a topic of conversation among the villagers after dinner.
But for the villagers, only one thing matters. That is the selection of the Immortal Sect recorded in the village chronicles.
Everyone in the village, men, women, old and young, all know that there are "immortals" in this world. Not only can they fly into the sky and escape from the earth, when facing ferocious beasts that the villagers can only avoid, the immortals can make them fall apart with just a few moves.
In the dangerous wilderness, this kind of strength is undoubtedly desirable. But according to village records, the last time someone from the Immortal Sect came to conduct a selection was a hundred years ago.
According to the village chronicle, before the selection of the Immortal Sect, a white bird will land at the door of the village chief's house. This bird speaks human words and will ask the village chief to order the young men and women under eighteen in the village to eat only grass and trees in the next few months, otherwise they will lose their qualifications.
The method of selecting immortals is also recorded. Young men and women are required to cut their wrists and sprinkle their blood on a stone. If the stone shines, it will be taken away by the immortal.
What will happen to the people who are taken away, the record is interrupted here.
There is also a record afterwards, in which one of the children who was taken away returned to the village in the name of "fulfilling one's filial piety" and then left the village with his parents. As for where they went afterwards, there is no record left. Based on speculation, there is no way to verify it.
However, most villagers believe that they have become those immortals who can fly in the sky and escape from the earth, and are omnipotent in their eyes.
Just a few days ago, a white bird once again broke the peaceful life of the village for hundreds of years.
The village chief hurriedly summoned the people in the village, and the young man led the little girl among them. They discovered that this was actually a jade bird made of flawless jade, so its whole body shone with pure white luster.
Consistent with the records, the Jade Bird once again asked the young men and women to fast from meat and fish for the next few months, and then flew away on its own.
On the way home, the little girl and the boy were talking to each other.
"Brother, that bird is so beautiful!"
"When my brother becomes an immortal, he will also make a bird like that for my daughter."
"Well... will my brother become an immortal and not have any daughters?"
"Brother wants to become immortals with my daughter."
"Okay, my daughter is going to become an immortal too, hee hee."
...
At night, everything is silent. A bright moon hangs high in the sky, casting cool moonlight on the earth.
For ordinary people in mountain villages, night means the end of a hard day's work and a time to recuperate.
But for the beings in this world who know how to practice, breathing essence into the bright moon to cultivate themselves is a must every night.
In the mountain forest not far from the village, an old monkey sat on the ground, his eyes flickering, and wisps of essence turned into white mist and lingered around him as he breathed and puffed.
If you look closely, you will find a squirrel squatting on its shoulders. This squirrel, like its owner, clasped its hands together, closed its eyes and exhaled.
Although this squirrel has a fluffy body and a big fluffy tail, anyone can tell from the pulse that comes out of its breath that this is not a being that is easy to mess with.
In the dark night sky, a purple light flashed. The old monkey opened his eyes in an instant, and then disappeared on the spot with a strange footwork.
"Hmph... The Secret of the Journey of the Nine Secrets... Although it is not complete, it still gives you a lot of advantages."
There was a cold snort in the air, and Zimang transformed into a humanoid creature with dragon horns. It looked around with sharp eyes, frightening some weak spirits to the point where they didn't dare to take a breath.
The humanoid creature with dragon horns on its head ignored it and turned into a hundred-meter-long purple dragon and flew away through the sky.
In this wild land, strength is the first rule for the survival of all things. Every living thing must continue to become stronger in order to survive in this cruel environment.
In the dead of night, the little girl fell asleep sweetly. The chirping of insects and the little girl's breathing mixed in the night, composing a trace of tenderness that still existed in the cruel wilderness.
…
The next day, the morning light was dim.
A light mist enveloped the entire village, and people in the village could be vaguely seen.
For the mortals living on this land, getting up in the morning to work, plow the fields and hunt is also their way of practice.
In an ordinary thatched house in a corner of the village.
"Nanny, it's time to get up and eat." The boy's gentle voice woke the little girl up from her sleep. He controlled the heat on the stove and stirred the porridge in the pot with a spoon.
This morning, as usual, he added to the porridge the herbs he had picked out with his sister a few days ago. Although most of them are sold to make a living, there is still a lot leftover.
The little girl opened her eyes and smelled the aroma of herbs and porridge wafting in the air, her nose twitching.
"It smells so good. My brother is cooking porridge for my daughter again!" She sat up, made the bed, folded her quilt carefully, put on her clothes, and tied up her braids not very skillfully. He came to the boy's side and looked expectantly at the bubbling porridge in the pot.
It's called porridge, but it's actually mostly herbs and edible tubers, as well as a few rice grains. However, the herbs in the pot were faintly glowing, making this ordinary pot of porridge exude a refreshing fragrance.
These are just random herbs picked by two children, which is enough to prove the extraordinary nature of this land.
As long as Nannan can remember, she has been living with her brother in this small mountain village.
Regarding the impression of my parents, I only heard people in the village say that their father came to the village alone with his two siblings. At that time, my daughter was just an infant. Their father was very strong and often helped the villagers with heavy tasks that were unbearable for ordinary people. But something unexpected happened while they were out hunting, leaving only two of them, brother and sister.
Even the elders in the village don't know about their mother.
So in all Nannan's memories, her brother is her only family member.
The young man looked at the little girl's thick braids with a half-smile, rubbed her fair and rosy little face, squatted down, and spoke while adjusting the braids for the little girl.
"Didn't I tell my daughter that I should tie my hair like this first, and then..." Before the boy could finish his words, he was interrupted by the clear voice of the little girl.
"Do it again! Hehe, Nannan actually remembered it, she just wanted my brother to tie her up again."
The young man smiled, expertly tied the little girl's braids, and then tidied her clothes. He touched the rough fabric and felt a faint pain in his heart.
He knelt down, held the little girl's cheek, and said:
"I'm going to pick herbs again today, and my brother will take you to the nearby Yancheng to buy new clothes, okay?"
When the little girl heard this, her big eyes sparkled, but then she shook her head: "No, no, brother, buy more food. Nannan likes the food cooked by brother very much. The clothes are a bit old, but they can be worn again. There is no need to change them." ."
Listening to his sister's sensible words, the young man felt increasingly sour in his heart. In the past few years, they have made a living by going to the mountains to collect herbs and then selling them to merchants in the village who come regularly to buy them. It is said that they will be sold to monks, or "immortals" as people in the village often refer to them.
Although they are taken care of by the villagers and their herbs are given priority every time, because they are too young, most of the herbs they pick do not meet the requirements of the monks and are ordinary herbs, so their income is not enough to survive. need.
The same is true for other people in the village. As mortals with no magic power, every time they go out is a gamble. It's okay to encounter ordinary ferocious beasts. If they run away, they may still have a way out.
If you encounter a foreigner who knows how to practice, even a small earthworm can kill someone in an instant.
However, the surrounding area of the village is relatively safe, but most of the rare fairy grasses live in dangerous places, and most of them are guarded by strange beasts. If you want to get it, you have to pay the price with your life at every turn.
Therefore, even if they are taken care of by the villagers, the boy and the little girl can still only live such a poor life.
It's just that--it's pretty good to be able to avoid losing one's life.
The boy took out a bowl and filled a large bowl of porridge for his daughter.
"Brother, there's no need to give my daughter so much, she's not hungry." The little girl realized that the boy had given almost most of the rice to her, and she quickly shook her head.
The young man refused and said, "My daughter wants to grow taller, so it's okay to eat more. My brother can't even eat the rest."
Years of poverty have made Nannan well-behaved and sensible. She can easily tell that her brother is cheating her again, but she knows that if she doesn't eat like before, her brother will follow her and not eat. In this way, she won't be able to collect medicine for a day, and both of them will Everyone will be hungry together.
"Okay, I understand." The little girl came to the table with the bowl in her arms. After drinking all the porridge, she gave a small burp of satisfaction. Then she went to take the bowl her brother had finished drinking and went to the water behind the thatched hut. The edge of the pond was cleaned.
After the little girl came back, the boy picked up the bronze ring that he had wiped clean last night and handed it to the little girl.
Because there is not enough money, the boy cannot buy interesting toys and beautiful accessories for his sister. So he made a small ring using the remaining bronze fragments left by the villagers. After careful polishing, the surface could reflect the hazy scenery.
The little girl regarded it as a treasure and had to wear it on her hand even when sleeping. After the boy persuaded her for a long time, probably because she was really afraid of swallowing it when she went to sleep, the little girl reluctantly agreed to take off the ring every night, but Wear it on your hand the next day.
The boy would wipe it carefully every night. In addition, he also used excess bronze pieces to create a grimace mask for himself, which looks like crying but not crying, and looks like smiling but not smiling.
But the first time I used this mask to scare my sister, I made her cry and she had to be coaxed for a long time.
It wasn't until a long time later that my sister gradually accepted that her brother was playing hide-and-seek with her wearing this ghost mask.
No matter how much time passes, no matter how much the world changes, the bronze ring and ghost mask are the only sustenance of all the memories of the little girl and boy.
At this time, people in the village were already active. Those who collect firewood are preparing to dry yesterday's firewood; those who hunt are stretching their muscles and bones, checking the bows, arrows and spears that they take care of like treasures; those who cultivate the fields are carrying hoes and talking and laughing with their companions before going to their own fields. That field.
"Nanny, let's go."
"Yeah! I must collect a lot of medicinal materials today."
Along with the brisk pace of the two people, the two lively figures, one large and one small, gradually moved away in the morning light shrouded in mist.
