When she came to the willow forest, the old man was standing there looking at the sea of stars. She came to him with a little anxiety, and the old man bowed his head to greet her.
"We can walk around tonight, kid," the old man said.
She agreed, but she didn't know where the old man wanted to take her. They walked out of the willow forest together and shuttled through the withered and solemn forest. The old man put his hands behind his back and walked slowly. The weeds and dead branches in the forest did not give him any obstacles.
"I'm looking at the starry sky here," the old man said. "It's a forgery, but it's exquisite. Do you know its origin?"
She knew for sure because she had witnessed the record of this incident on the carvings on the golden gate of the palace. When the pillars of earth separate the hellfire, from the ashes sprout the germ of all things. The creator selected the essence and gave it his own breath and blood, from which the earliest gods were born. They worked together with the Creator to carve out an abyss in the sky in the far north, from which a celestial spring overflowed. The fire god Endon irrigated his blood in it, forming the stars that shine to this day. Then Vengolas, the god of hunting, cultivated sky whales and star dragons in it. At the end of each day, the sea of stars rises and fills the top of the world.
On the sea of stars, there is a curtain of dew woven by Hema's skillful hands. It changes color with the rise and fall of the sea of stars. This blocks the view of the hellfire on the ground, allowing living beings to sleep peacefully and avoid unnecessary sorrow.
The old man listened quietly to her story with a subtle smile on his face. The peasant girl asked him why he was laughing, and he only said that he was remembering some past events. He told a legend about the realm of death beyond the veil and the river Styx filled with lotuses.
The peasant girl has always been curious about how the old man knew her life experience. She had never been asked to hide anything, so she wasn't nervous, but asked the old man directly.
"I'm here for you," the old man said.
That made the peasant girl very happy, although she didn't know why. No one in the world had spoken to her like this before, not even the king in the gallery. She described the situation in the underground kingdom to the old man, and the old man told her what another palace looked like.
He said that the palace was not underground, but it still had the most exquisite and luxurious decorations in the world. The gardens outside the palace stretch for hundreds of miles and are full of exotic flowers and ancient birds and beasts. Every plant and plant in that garden has magical effects. Sometimes there are two fruits on the same tree, one of which makes people age instantly while the other rejuvenates them; sometimes a solitary flower blooms briefly in the morning, and the dew accumulated in its stamens is enough to poison the entire city.
In the deepest part of that endless dream, guarded by the immortal lion-blood knight, is a jade palace that exudes a hazy halo like the bright moon. Countless doors and windows in the palace change positions at all times. Each window is decorated with ancient animal heads, and each door has a statue of a sage. They chant and sing all day long, repeating all the psalms in history. Sometimes they also speak prophecies and warnings, but the world has no chance to hear them. Only by seeing through their obscure hints can the wise find the black temple hidden in the deepest part. It was hewn from a single block of a rare and ancient stone that swallowed up any light, so no one could describe what it looked like.
The temple never sees the light of day and is the residence of the usurping king. Every inch of the temple's floor is patterned with ancient spells. They have no real image, but they remind people of tides, flower petals, and crawling traces of snakes. They are enough to draw any soul into this strange place from a dream. In the center of the temple is a circular pool covered with dark water lilies. The water in the pool is bright and clear, like the frozen moonlight, but mortals can never reach the bottom. The secret deep in the pool is the body of the Usurping King. Because of the dream of death remaining on the body, the old man once arrived in front of the temple, but left before the other party noticed.
How can you go to so many places? asked the peasant girl. She also reached the end of the world, where the cold ocean and sky ended, a huge abyss with no other shore. She took the flying dragon to ride the wind on the abyss, but she never saw other boundaries. The king had warned it not to stray too far, otherwise it would be lost in the everlasting smoke of Hellfire. Even so, she had never encountered the scene the old man mentioned. But she didn't suspect that the old man was lying, because the old man never showed any malice. A wise person is more sincere. This is the motto of Allendon carved in the palace.
The old man described to her a strange way of traveling. Outside the sky, surrounded by endless hellfire, people beat steel into sealed ships, and then ignited them with various processed rare ores to sail in the void. The void looks similar to the sea of stars from a distance, but in reality it is quite different. It is vast and endless, and every shining star is as huge as the earth. If you don't know the trick, it often takes hundreds of thousands of years to rely on an iron ship to sail between two shining stars. It was on such an iron ship that the old man fell from the void into the fire and came back to the earth.
The peasant girl was filled with surprise when she heard this bizarre myth. She could hardly believe that there was such a wonderful ship in the world. She asked the old man if he could let her take a look at the void where the iron ship was wandering, and what she got in exchange was an infinitely profound smile.
"I would love to show you, child," said the old man, "I have some ships, enough for me to give you one of them, but the void is dangerous to you. Here, in your father's country, wind and fog Follow your heart, and no external curse can harm you. But if you leave your hometown, these will disappear. You will soon become weak, tired and homesick all day long, until you completely decline. There are only few ways to get you out of here, But it doesn’t have to be exhausting.”
The peasant girl asked again and again, wanting to know how to see the iron ship. Eventually the old man admitted to her that it would require some kind of sacrifice.
"A little sacrifice." He said, "You or others. If someone is willing to replace your destiny and make you an unnecessary person...like a dispensable shadow, you can travel freely through any world. Or you can sacrifice a part of yourself. Hands, feet, heart, and some choose bones. You must lose this part forever and keep it in your hometown, so that you are connected to your hometown. That will still make you tired. And weak, but the degree is much lighter, enough to ride those iron ships back and forth between the stars... And, as a last resort, I heard that some people personally burned their hometown in the fire of the stars. Ah, such determination and ruthlessness, Just to get rid of the constraints of that land.”
They walked through the night and into the wilderness where everything gathered. In the shadow of the wind, the peasant girl seemed to see the things the old man told passing by. She saw the garden, which was as ethereal as its owner, in which every flower and tree was different; the ever-full moon lamp made by Alenden stood in the misty distance, just like the palace with countless doors and windows; Then came the fire-breathing iron ships, silently and swiftly passing through the void.
She imagined it all as if she had actually seen it with her own eyes, even though it was just a mixture of the shadows of tree branches, the cold night mist, and a little dream in her heart. Her mood was like flying out of the abyss for the first time and entering the prosperous spring world. But she also knew in her heart that when the battle to conquer the heavenly beasts was over, she would return to the palace in the cave and sharpen the tip of her spear amidst the roar of dragons and the roar of wind. That will be her destiny until all the light of creation is taken back. At that time the king will fulfill his promise and the gods will return to their old days, and all disasters and pain will cease to exist.
At that time, perhaps the gods will leave the underground and rebuild the kingdom of God on land. Moving the throne in the endless corridor back to the height closest to the sky, she will also bring all the earth dragons, insects, giant spiders, dragon-hunting lizards and flying dragons to the ground, and tame them in places with abundant food. The task was very difficult, and she had not yet figured out how to complete it. Perhaps Wingolas would have another trick by then, because he originally bred these beasts. If the king allows it, she will keep a pair of flying dragons, maybe Liselaeru and Mulekakun, or add Stoneburn, because the dragon with broken wings is too unsociable. She wants to travel the world with them. At that time, she would no longer have to return to the solemn and lonely dark kingdom underground, but would wander in the air forever, looking at the ever-changing and colorful earth.
She was immersed in wonderful expectations and paid no attention to the biting cold wind. The shadowy wilderness of Mulun'en was like a giant's tomb, and she was just like an inconspicuous firefly, quietly watching the new shoots emerge from the wasteland. Of course the frost and blight overwhelmed everything, but the wind also tipped her off, telling her where the seeds had been hidden. Just wait until this long and harsh winter is over and everything will naturally come back.
But suddenly, when she woke up from the quiet and gratifying expectation, she found herself on a strange path she had never seen before. The frost-covered land turned dark, and the fog was thicker than ever. Behind the gray curtain of fog, countless shadows swayed and swayed, all whispering like the wind. In this strange world, only the old man is still familiar to her. He stood beside her, smiling calmly and implicitly.
"This is what I want you to see tonight," he said.
"Where is this?" asked the peasant girl.
"Old days."
