"War is the father of all, war is the king of all. War makes some gods, some men, some slaves, and some free men."
——Ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus
In the twenty years since I entered Penglai, I have been hungry, eating green pines, and thirsty for drinking springs. I saw it from a distance in our nunnery, and Your Majesty was also the source of immortality at that time. "
——Yu Xiangdou's "Journey to the North" of the Ming Dynasty
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As dust spread everywhere, the collapse of Feisheng Cliff continued until the entire Prince Slope collapsed, and fear enveloped Junzhou City like smoke and dust.
The green giant python soared into the sky, looming through the clouds. It was comparable to a giant tortoise in Xiaopao Mountain. It slammed into the Tianzhu Peak. Regardless of the rocks falling around it, it plunged into the Han River without hesitation and dived into the water.
"Liu Yufei, what did you summon?! Do you want to destroy the world!"
Liu Zhaosun was bathed in golden light and cursed fiercely. After confirming that the eldest princess was brought back to the ground by the giant python, he continued his ascension without looking back.
"Destroy, destroy, destroy everything!"
The world is getting farther and farther away, and no one can stay.
In the past few years in Taizipo, he has transformed into a god and accepted the worship of the world. However, he has already seen through everything and gained insight into the human world.
Since everything will irreversibly move towards vulgarity and cruelty, it is better to destroy it completely now.
Only by bathing in fire can one be reborn.
The final destruction is accomplished by the daughter.
Under the gaze of tens of thousands of horrified eyes, a corner of Wudang Mountain was knocked open by a giant tortoise and snake. A mountain torrent poured down. The collapsed rocks and rubble rolled down the mountainside and fell into the river like raindrops. The Han River was like a boiling cauldron. , gurgling and bubbling. The fish and shrimps in the river knew that the disaster was coming, so they rushed to the shore and jumped onto the river beach.
The sky was covered with dark clouds, and the sky suddenly turned from noon to dusk. I couldn't see my fingers out of my hand, and the river wind roared, rolling up huge waves more than one foot high. Even the dullest person could hardly foresee the impending disaster.
Junzhou City is surrounded by heavy moisture drifting from the river. Even the city walls are covered with moisture. The mist spreads upward from the stone bricks in the corridors of Wengcheng, swirling and transpiration. The streets and alleys are wet, as if there is water. It's going to come out of the ground, or something else.
At dusk, the entire city was submerged by the swollen Han River.
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Until recently (the seventeenth year of Yonghe), Qi Meng went north from Nandu City, went west along the Yangtze River, entered the Han River, and took a boat to the former site of Junzhou Ancient City at the intersection with the Danjiang River - an area that was classified as a forbidden area. ——He soon discovered that he had entered a vast ocean.
The vast sea is just a metaphor, because this place is deep inland and there is no sea. This idiom is only used to describe the vastness of the river.
Qi Meng was attracted by the beautiful scenery along the way. He soon discovered that there were still many ancient fortresses and some shaky and simple cabins remaining on the ridgelines on both sides of the river.
Those fortress wooden houses were once the outposts of the scouts, but they have been abandoned for a long time.
Due to the construction of water conservancy (?), the water level of this water area suddenly increased, and the water surface was almost parallel to the ridge line. This is how Gaoxia Chupinghu is described.
When a person is on a yacht, he looks around and sees everything is deserted. Naturally, there is not a single village in sight.
Everything is green as far as the eye can see, but it gives people an indescribably dangerous atmosphere. Even the most casual travelers will quickly become wary, worried that a strange beast will suddenly rush out from the bottom of the water or behind the ridge in the next second. Prehistoric creatures.
Of course, if travelers are brave enough, they can stop at the cliffs along the river and venture into an abandoned hut or fortress. If they are lucky, they may encounter one or two ancient corpses that have been dried for hundreds of years at the bottom of the fortress...
Most of the time, people can only see the clear, blue river water and the ever-growing century-old trees.
At night, mandrills and owls coo - the empire has done a good job in protecting the environment in the central provinces.
The terrifying screams of mandrills mixed with the whispers of the breeze in the woods made Qi Meng toss and turn in the middle of the night. He couldn't help but wonder:
Is that just the wind whispering?
Who can tell whether those broken twigs are signs of wild beasts or other unknown creatures?
Fortunately, he is an energetic and ignorant explorer.
Maybe he is tired of the hustle and bustle of the city, or maybe he misses his hometown (Qi Meng’s hometown is near this restricted area).
Or maybe he just passed by here by chance.
Surrounding this bottomless water and those eerie ridgelines, abandoned fortress huts, this place was famous long before Qimeng came to this world.
Places like this usually have some very strange rumors - but they are by no means far-fetched ghost legends.
Qi Meng didn't believe in ghosts and gods, just like he didn't believe in the indifferent bureaucrats of the Imperial Council. While studying, he came into contact with news about underground rebels.
Behind the ridge lived half-man, half-animal things. They were so mysterious that they were as banned as the Rebels in the Imperial Annals.
Qi Meng continued to ask the tour guide - if he was not scared to death - for details about the monster. The tour guide shook his head quickly and did not dare to say a word more.
"Go back, I always feel a chill on my back."
"Don't you know? The body of water we just sailed through was once a city. Four hundred years ago, a great flood submerged the city."
"Many people died."
Qi Meng finally gave up and agreed to return to the dock where he started.
The tour guide was relieved and in a happy mood, telling the story of a European missionary three hundred years ago.
"It was the late period of the Queen's rule in Daqi. The empire and Europa were interoperable. A large number of missionaries came to Daqi every year. They were responsible for introducing medicine, astronomy, calendar and other subjects."
The missionary in the story was passing through Xiaopao Mountain to provide assistance to a student in Junzhou. He was rowing and disappeared on the way. The nearby fishermen found the sunken boat by the river and picked up his belongings. All the belongings were found. It's in perfect condition, not even water.
A medicine box, a "Bible", a "Queen of Da Qi's Letter to the World", there are also some carefully preserved and incomprehensible words of missionaries in the book. When translated, they roughly say:
"I was convinced that a monster was following me. My first thought was that it was a bear, but now I had to believe that it was something incredible and scarier than anything in the world. Darkness fell , I believe that I have become a little insane, because I keep hearing strange music and other strange noises, which are by no means natural sounds in nature. There is also a hallucination that bothers me, which makes me hear huge sounds. The sound of footsteps, and I could clearly feel the ground shaking. I also accidentally saw a kind of large footprints more than once, but the shape was different..."
