Luo Binhan's feet stepped firmly on the bottom of the water, as if he had taken root there. He began to wonder whether this matter had anything to do with him: he and Jing Huang went to see the pelican, and the pirate leader was taken away; he was held hostage by Asabam, and now Dwarf Star guest can't even walk; The crippled Gray Wind, the son of death, or whatever the hell he is, has also mysteriously disappeared without a trace. Is this the normal way life works? Or will his bad luck be contagious to anyone he meets new?
He opened his mouth under the water, and the river water poured into his mouth, but was blocked by the green mucous membrane attached to the mouth of his throat. Garfield's parasite ensured that he would not suffocate, but it was still not easy to speak underwater. He could only use his mind to ask Asabam: Go forward? What's in front? If even the wind disappears in front of them, what benefits can they gain by moving forward?
"Better do what she says," Garfield said. "We can't stay here forever... I'm not sure yet, but I have a feeling. This looks like a place I've heard of once. They call it the Contamination Road. .”
Pollution treatment road. To Luo Binhan, it sounded no different from a sewer. He couldn't help but wonder where this thing was going to lead? Sewage treatment plant? Is this what happened to the wind of death?
The shadow inside him moved again, forcing him to move forward. Luo Binhan was really tired of this feeling of being commanded by a machine, and decided to follow the principles of dealing with alien creatures that he learned when raising huskies - whoever suffers will change. He wished in his heart that Asabam would one day be caught and waved in the hands of a White Tower mage who loved close combat. Then he took off, feeling his way along with the current.
There was almost no light under the river, and there were no plants or animals that could be identified by the senses. There was only the rushing sound of the water in his ears, monotonous and depressing. At first Luo Binhan could still touch some rock walls buried in the water and touch their smooth surfaces, but he seemed to be heading towards a wider river, and soon he no longer even had this entertainment. Neither Garfield nor Asabam spoke, and Luo Binhan was not very willing to talk to these two enemies.
The running water became his best companion, preventing him from feeling that he had melted into the darkness and turned into a disembodied shadow. He just walked silently, and suddenly thought of Bang Bang and Upsilon. An unexplained and intense sadness rose in his chest. He was moved by these two old acquaintances who were not too close, but his more lamentations were not directed at any specific thing. Bang Bang's adventure is over, but his is not. It's hard to say whose misfortune this is. How can there be so little joy and so much suffering in this world? Is this what we were born to suffer?
He thought about this in silence until Garfield said in his mind, "That's better than nothing."
What? Luo Binhan asked.
"Suffering," Garfield said calmly, "is better than having nothing. When you are born, you have everything, and then you gradually lose it. Even so, before you die, you always have more than you died."
Its words made Luo Binhan feel a little interesting. That was not because of the topic itself, but because he found that it seemed to be very contradictory to Garfield's previous attitude. He pointed out that Garfield had once compared death to a good thing, "eternal and sweet sleep" and the like, and now he began to support the idea that living is better.
"I've always been skeptical of both sides," Garfield explained. "You can't know which side is right until you experience it. But I do always wonder - why are we so afraid of death? I've asked many The creatures have consulted their opinions, some are just instincts and have never thought about it; some are concerned about the pain of the process, which makes them just seek a comfortable and painless death; and some are afraid of the unknown results... They don't May I fall into eternal sleep, or fear that I cannot sleep forever.”
At this time, Luo Binhan felt a faint gray flicker in the corner of his left eye. He blinked and caught nothing. He dismissed this as an hallucination caused by long-term water pressure on his eyeballs, and continued chatting with Garfield. He asked what he meant by "the inability to sleep forever."
This time Garfield answered clearly: "Reincarnation."
Why are you afraid of this? Luo Binhan said. He doesn't mind reincarnation at all, whether that's true or not. But then again, he thought the kingdom of eternal sleep didn't sound bad either.
Garfield thought about it for a while, and then said cautiously: "If you are satisfied with your own life form, or if you are very dissatisfied with other forms of life... you will not want to become another existence with different concepts. You may want to Become a star spirit that is freed from material constraints, but will not be willing to become a volcano fly."
Luo Binhan thought for a while. He didn't think there was anything wrong with it.
"I think," Garfield said, "maybe it means you don't recognize yourself enough... If you sincerely believe you're right, you wouldn't want to be any other form - I mean, that Involving essential, permanent loss and change.”
Now Luo Binhan was not happy. He thought he was absolutely right, at least in matters concerning himself. But despite this, if he was given the opportunity to try becoming something else—for example, a pelican that could pinch Jing Huang away—he might not be able to resist the temptation to make mistakes.
"Pelican," Garfield stated dryly, "This is what you want. Not the Stars, gods, rational beings, but the Pelican."
what? Luo Binhan said. He admitted that the pelican's chin was not very beautiful, but how many gods could firmly take Jing Huang away in one mouth? He didn't even need to actually turn into a pelican. Just imagining Jing Huang's expression at that time made him so happy that he almost forgot about Bang Bang and Upsilon.
He was a little too proud that he jumped a few steps along the current. Asabam's hair floated as a result, like a layer of soft gauze folded back. Although Luo Binhan couldn't see the environment clearly, he felt that the strands of hair were darker than the bottom of the water. He could easily distinguish them and couldn't help but brush them away from his eyes.
A pair of white eyes appeared behind the hair, staring straight at him.
Luo Binhan was shocked. Without thinking, he leaned his body back, slipped a few steps on his feet, and almost pressed Asabam to the ground. When he stood firm and looked ahead, there was still nothing but darkness.
"What are you looking at?" Garfield asked.
Didn't you see that? Luo Binhan asked back. He knew that Garfield did not have eyes physically, but this cannibal had completely invaded his head and might be able to use his eyes. That makes it even more important that the two of them see the same thing. He recalled in his mind the eyes he had just seen - very hazy, without much human emotion, like two miniature full moons hanging in the sky. They stood out clearly in the darkness, convincing him that he was not mistaken.
Garfield "sees" the image in his head. But it also pointed out that the same signal did not come from Luo Binhan's optic nerve just now. To put it simply, it did not "see" those moon eyes. Either Luo Binhan was suffering from hysteria, or... something else.
Luo Binhan became nervous. He quickly took out the dagger and at the same time stabbed Asabam behind with his elbow. The light body of the mummy swayed from side to side as he poked it, almost floating in the extremely light current.
"What are you doing?" Asabam said coldly. Her accent now sounded like Jing Huang's.
Luo Binhan couldn't speak to her so freely. He turned his head and pointed at his eyes at her to show that he was facing some kind of terrible hallucination. Asabam moved in the darkness, moving his arms from his neck to his shoulders, as if to give him more room to move.
"This place is connected to dreams." She said, "Keep walking."
Luo Binhan had no choice but to move on. He soon felt that the road under his feet was rising, as if he was walking on a slope. The water became colder and colder, but brighter and slower, until his head suddenly emerged from the water and plunged into a milky white mist of fragrant water. His arm hit a white ball, which made him nervous again. But when he stared at it, he found that it was not an eye, but a snow-white water lily. It is only the size of a palm, but it is extremely beautiful and exudes a calming fragrance.
He raised his eyes and saw that the vast river was covered with snow-white water lilies, swaying between the fragrance and white mist. Luo Binhan looked far into the distance and saw a huge veil-like curtain floating at the end of the fog.
