They walked back in a boat made of corpses. Only then did Luo Binhan notice the ruins of pillars and statues on both sides of the bank. What was once unquestionably grand is now all but a fraction of its base, rooted in the barren, hairless earth. The sky solidified into a color similar to that of the river, and they seemed to be traveling through a tunnel of clouds and mist.
While rowing, Luo Binhan thought of the scene before he fell asleep. He was silent for a long time as he recalled the sky where hellfire was raging.
"What are you thinking about?" Garfield asked.
"Can't you read?" Luo Binhan said. He still rows with his dead man's fingernails.
"Your thoughts are very wandering." Garfield said, "I can feel that your spirit is between the subconscious and the conscious mind. Now you have some thoughts that you don't want to talk to others, or even to yourself. I only see the undercurrent. and hazy emotions, but if you don’t crystallize it into a clear idea, a clear, expressible and communicable form, I can’t check it against the code book I know.”
"You're not very good at reading minds." Luo Binhan said lukewarmly.
His words silenced Garfield for a few minutes. After a while it asked again: "Does that have anything to do with her?"
"Why do you guess so?"
"I detected that your brain waves are in a non-pathological depression, but your nerves are very active, local cortical discharges, a hyperactive response." Garfield said, "...I think that is related to anger. It's very similar. But emotions are more than just physiological arousal. I haven't found a corresponding cognitive source. This is a phenomenon worth studying. I think it should be related to your unformalized thoughts."
Luo Binhan sincerely suggested: "Why don't you think about whether we can join hands and kidnap her, okay? If she has fainted or turned into a stick or something when we find her later, can we look like How can you tie her up? Aren't you just short of food? I think she's quite adaptable."
"I don't think that's a safe idea," Garfield said. They stopped discussing the matter. They sit on the corpse boat and patrol the river with visible or invisible eyes, paying attention to where there are traces of Asabam. Luo Binhan knew that he shouldn't be thinking randomly at this moment, but all kinds of thoughts were gently surging in the fog. He thought of the scimitar and dagger on his waist, which was named "Debovilla's No Regrets" - but Lan Que said that there was a name "Trisday" engraved on it. Suspicions arose in his heart about Yaleriga, and he knew that she was not a woman whose virtue was honesty. Then he thought of the dead giant and the windy cave in his dream. The Pied Piper who took away the child, the old conspirator who appeared in the hellfire, and all the words spoken in the cold winter and shadow fog, all made him tremble in confusion. It wasn't fear, it wasn't awe, he had never felt respect for the mountains or the sky.
"It's getting dark," Garfield said. "Would you like a brighter vision?"
"I can see it." Luo Binhan said. But he didn't know if he was telling the truth. What did he see? There was fog in all directions, and there was no difference between going forward and going back. The past was quarreling fiercely in his head, among which were the voices of his parents, his sister, and Luo Jiaotian's mother. After Zhou Yu disappeared, he chose to seek help from his father. They had a brief heart-to-heart talk at that time, but they hardly spoke to each other for several years before this incident, and the situation did not get better after that. .
But even Yaleriga guessed wrong. He is not waiting for forgetfulness, nor is he waiting for understanding. True good and false evil, as well as all the defenses and rewards and punishments related to them, have been separated from the dark depths of his heart from an unknown moment. He not only wants to forget, but also wants all meaning to disappear - for this reason, how important Lihai City is! It is the starting point of his universe, and the beginning must be the end.
The tiny city on that tiny planet seemed so humble and ridiculous to the stars, but to him, the stars were just bright spots on the black. Even if one of them is alive, is the eye of a monster, or will one day destroy the world - in the end, so what? He doesn't care at all, because nothing in this world is worth caring about. The old conspirator, the roaring giant in red robes, the storm flying in the thunder, those shadows whispering and unwilling to leave, the secrets of the people in the mountains, the ideals and wishes of the restorers, all of them he accidentally The dreams I had glimpsed, as well as the Alliance, or the Fire Thief, or the Sanglian, any existing force, trying to push everything in a certain direction are all meaningless. Going in any direction that you think is right can also be said to be a step closer to the destined death. This boat made of dead people can go anywhere, but in fact it has nowhere to go.
He saw his end: he would stay in the boat forever, but it was not an endless escape like a poet. He had no intention of escaping anywhere, to any art or fantasy, and what made him tremble at this moment was the endless contempt for self and others, and the ecstasy of the doomed destruction of this world. What he longed for was not fulfillment or victory, but the end and the never-ending.
"Now I read your mind," Garfield said. "Your nerve firing is erratic. From all indications, you are pursuing self-destruction."
"You didn't understand anything." Luo Binhan said.
Garfield was silent for a while, and finally agreed: "I didn't see you take any action. From the expression of your thoughts, it is obviously a suicidal tendency, which should prompt you to act. You have killed Anything you think is the same kind of thing?”
"Is that important?"
"I wonder where the sin in you comes from."
"Let it go." Luo Binhan said coldly.
The pale and rotten human skin beneath them trembled. Luo Binhan put his hand into the river, but didn't feel any difference in the speed of the water. He looked around again and felt that the scenery on both sides of the strait was very similar to the place where he was ejected - but the scenery here was originally very monotonous, like a cycle of mourning and joy.
The wind died down. The sky was as dark as dusk. He rowed the corpse boat to the shore. Garfield took a green string from his ear, drilled it through the flesh, and fixed it to the remaining pillar on the shore.
"Don't eat the boat." Luo Binhan said. He put the dagger in his mouth, took off his only remaining shoe, and jumped into the river of fog. The river was much deeper than the section he had passed before falling asleep, and he felt as if he was slowly sinking in the void. The light under the river was poor, but he felt an intermittent undercurrent coming from deep. It was the wind rising from below the river.
He swam in the direction the wind was blowing. The time became very long in the darkness, and the harsh quarrels sounded in his ears again. These voices arguing for what is right will never stop and will continue until the end of time. And he dived into the depths of darkness with eyes wide open. Slowly, he felt a suffocation in his chest, and a faint red appeared in his vision. He thought of Li Li, who seemed to be sitting in the darkness next to her, quietly watching him struggling to swim.
"Sir," she said, "resistance is a painful thing. But it is also arbitrary to regard pain as a death tendency."
His hand hit an undercurrent with great force. Luo Binhan quickly retracted his hand and swam in that direction again. He stretched his hand forward vigorously, and his fingertips brushed several slender and silky strands.
"It's her," Garfield said immediately.
Luo Binhan clenched his hands hard. It feels like grabbing a big bundle of silk rope with something neither light nor heavy attached to it. He tugged at it and followed it up onto the river bed - where he could barely swim up. Fortunately Garfield was prepared, mentally directing him to move to the edge until they finally climbed onto the riverbank. As soon as Luo Binhan's face emerged from the river mist, he immediately looked to see what he was holding in his hand. The result was no surprise, it was not a waterweed anyway.
Asabam's eyes have been opened. Half of her hair was pulled into Luo Binhan's hands, and part of her legs disappeared. Other than that, the body appears to be in fair condition. Luo Binhan guessed that she sent out the wind signal underwater. But for some reason, she lay motionless on the ground, not even bending her fingers.
"Amputated from the neck down?" Luo Binhan said, "Can you release me first in the next life-or-death duel?"
Asabam said nothing. Luo Binhan began to drag her to the corpse boat. He vaguely recalled the relationship between the raw materials of this ship and Asabam, but he soon realized that it didn't matter at all. Crossing the river by stepping on the shoulders of those who came before us is undoubtedly a fine tradition of the Gospel tribe, and rounding it off is the traditional spirit of Silence.
Luo Binhan put Assabamu on the bow of the boat. She looked at him with those dark eyes, but said nothing. Luo Binhan thought they really had nothing to say. He grabbed an oar made of a dead man's fingernails and heard Asabam say, "Dragonfly."
He looked back at her. Asabam was still lying where he was and said succinctly: "Silver dragonfly brooch."
Then she closed her eyes as if she had fallen asleep.
