Go forward ten yards. Counting in his mind, he walked another forty yards to the right. Don't walk too fast, and don't open your eyes. He repeated it over and over in his mind, but he couldn't help but have random thoughts in his mind.
It's time for me to walk to the shore. He tried to touch the ground. It's time for me to leave the land! But he didn't dare confirm.
"Is there anyone?" he shouted, turning his head, "Am I coming?"
"No. You stepped on me." A voice replied. Unfamiliar voices.
York opened his eyes at once. In other words, he came into contact with elements in the atmosphere. This is an experience that ordinary people cannot understand, but it is almost instinctive for Sita. He adjusts his perception of light and turns this information into outlines, colors, distances... and ultimately images. The process didn't take half a second.
He immediately looked at his feet.
A goblin lifted him off and surfaced. She has a human face, but has sharp horns on her head and tiny insect wings extending from her back. When she surfaced, her little wings curled up wetly. disappointing. He would rather see a Beetle than a Fairy of Light.
"Can you turn into a Beetle?"
The goblin glanced at him. "I guess so. But I'm not really a bug. I'm Huyi."
"I think I know," York muttered. He watched her sitting by the pool, wringing out her wings with her hands. It turns out that the lake shore is only a step away.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm trying to change."
Hu Yi looked at him. "Become a human?" Her eyes moved to Sita's nose. "You pinch it pretty well."
"It's easy. That's not what I meant. Do you know about the Spot Contest?"
"This is all you have for entertainment. Indeed, I understand. Goblins know more than you think."
York didn't like that. Granted, Sita didn't have anything to do like Huyi, but the Twinkle Pond was still a paradise: no danger, no infighting, no tricks that could harm others. The range of activities of elemental life is beyond imagination. The energy required for action comes from the gift of the goddess. It is so cheap, abundant, and inexhaustible. If anything can develop in such a peaceful era, it is probably entertainment. We hunt, he thought, we build, we sow and reap, we open new frontiers of the Glittering Pool...
"It's meaningless." She commented, "You just use it for entertainment and don't understand the importance of these activities. After all, Sita doesn't need them. Who spread these things to the pool?"
"Winner of the blob contest," York confided ruefully.
"It must be them."
"Well, only the Spot Contest is interesting," he admitted, "but if you participate in the competition and don't get a place, you won't find it interesting anymore."
Hu Yi shook his wings, stood up, and circled around York. "It's really interesting." She fished out a handful of dark blue light from the pool and put it on her clothes. "I never heard that a brat like you is eligible to participate. Isn't the Spot Competition an audition for the military recruitment?"
"I have memories of the Dawn War," he corrected.
"Left to you by your ancestors. You haven't participated in a fight, have you? You haven't fought to your death."
"Is this necessary? We won't die."
Hu Yi looked surprised.
She pulled away a little and flew to York's head. At this time, she could already see the wider upper water: tributaries merged into thicker tributaries, and the main trunk branched out into small water veins, connected like a spider web, forming a huge and brilliant water network that squeezed each other. A magnificent and illusory castle stands at the end of the horizon, as bright as the sun. Those escaping lights creep quietly and slowly across the plain. Rapids are unnecessary; in the Glitter Pool, time measurement is a form of entertainment, not a rule of survival.
Finally she flew back.
"It looks like it hasn't changed. I thought I took a nap for a thousand years and the elemental tide started again."
"Will someone die in the elemental tide?"
"Of course. Do you think you are the God of Death?" She glanced mockingly, "When the Twinkling Pool returns to Knox, there will be a war in the mysterious realm. This is the case. War makes people lose their lives, and Sita is no exception."
"Why? As long as we don't want to die, we can give birth to new individuals from the fire of the old individuals." Hu Yi is different. These goblins seem to be able to multiply at will, even from one to two. "We are elemental beings, but you are not." This guy doesn't understand us. He doesn't need to listen to outsiders' nonsense. "If you die, you will die, it doesn't matter."
"There are too many ways to solve the elements, and everything has an end, even the sun and mystery." Hu Yi told him, "But since you have determined that Sita's inheritance is very advantageous... There is no doubt that you have other ways to reproduce, York .”
"Born from the elements? I know. This method is too inefficient."
"No matter how low it is, it's still a lot to accumulate. Very few people are satisfied with the life they have. You will keep committing suicide and then reinvent yourself."
"this is not……"
"Oh, dear, of course it is. The meaning of suicide is to give up the life you once had." Hu Yi said, "Do you welcome new companions born naturally?"
The topic changed too quickly. York digested for a few seconds. He felt like she was trying to give him a strange idea, a new perspective. The Lake Fairy's perspective was like that of the legendary moon, something he had never imagined before. It was comforting to be back in his old realm, but York began to imagine a feeling of freedom from comfort.
However, this cannot be accomplished overnight. "Of course we welcome it," he replied.
"Your queen welcomes it too. She prefers the natural birth of Sita to you, doesn't she?"
"No. The Queen treats everyone equally."
"Before my last lunch break, I heard that the Queen had begun limiting the number of suicides Sita could commit."
Not suicide. But somehow, York couldn't refute it directly before thoroughly digesting the novel idea in his mind. "We still have the right to survive. Our dead companions will be resurrected, but we must come up with a reasonable cause of death... Well, we can't just start a new life."
"Because that's not a new life." Hu Yi asserted. She crossed her arms in front of Sita and looked at him with mocking eyes. "I am Evan Jielin. I also like real newborns, not tribesmen who come back just because of a small problem. Weak. Greedy! Who likes this kind of guy?" Her description was very sharp. "You didn't pass the Spot Contest. Do you know what's going on outside of the Twinkling Pool?"
"Someone else is coming through."
"So." Hu Yi bent down and made a condescending and triumphant preaching gesture, but his words were very gentle: "Your last life did not belong to you, York. He had another name and another life. According to Knox's custom, He is your kin, your creator. Maybe you should call him father, or mother. It depends on the gender."
"Creator? Lucia created me."
"Lucia created your father's father, the one who was born from nature in the first place. He didn't have time to create you. He gave that job to others."
"I'm not sure..."
“That’s what the winners of the blob contest think.”
York finally figured out his problem. "How do you know what they think?"
"I'm a Laker. I know everything."
He remained skeptical. Maybe you should listen to her opinion clearly before making a judgment. "Humans are different from us, this is what they do, isn't it?"
"Almost all Nox are like this, not just humans. Ultimately, you have nothing like your father's Fire. You just have his memories."
"Isn't memory my soul?"
"Then will you agree with every choice he makes? Or do you have your own ideas?"
"No. He's a warrior." And I couldn't even pass the blob contest. York was a little convinced. "There's no way I'm going to join the Dawn War! They fought against the Evil Dragon and the Legion of Hell, and I'm left to play Cross the River by myself. It's not much fun, to be honest."
Hu Yi frowned. "I don't want to undermine your confidence, York. But you are not four hundred years old yet, and you still have a lot of time. I don't want to see you commit suicide."
"Huh? Suicide? I never thought about it."
"A mentally healthy brat doesn't play thrilling games, I can see that. If you don't have that idea, what are you doing here?"
York followed her gaze. A waterfall fell from the shore, with water splashing and colorful crystal foam. All the brilliance of the glittering pool sinks here, flowing into the unknown world. Originally, he planned to jump down and have a look, but the further he walked, the more scared he became, so he had to close his eyes at a great distance. He thought he had reached the shore, but instead he circled around the waterfall and stood on the head of a lake. "Maybe I'm just window shopping," he lied.
Hu Yi stared at him.
It's hard to describe the look in her eyes. There is more than just mercy in it. York wasn't sure at all what his companions thought about death, but all Sita said so. I have memories of death and rebirth, I have my entire past, and this doesn’t count as starting over? If memory cannot represent the soul, what is the source of consciousness? He seemed to have the answer. Anyway, when I had no memory, when I was born from the elements, I had no life of my own...but the consciousness was there.
"Maybe it's not just... Damn it, it's all your fault for talking nonsense! I really can't do it again now." Sita jumped up to catch her, but Hu Yi quickly dodged it. The tips of her wings brushed York's forehead. "The new fire is not me." Finally, he sat back in frustration. "Well, looks like I just can't pass the blob contest."
"Killing yourself because you lost the game? Just because of this?"
"I don't want to die! I just..."
“…I don’t know how important my life is.”
"I'm afraid that's the case." Sita scratched her hair. "I believed your lies! Only the life I have now belongs to me." He couldn't tell whether it was good or bad. "But it's true that I lost my chance to leave here. Only the winner of the spotting competition can go to Knox."
"Sita who comes back frequently will be tempted by the devil." Hu Yi warned. "Is there no other way?"
"No. I don't know if there is." It is not easy to travel through Knox's order. York knew where the shuttle station was and how to take the stair array, but the problem was that he had no chance to get in. The Twinkle Pool is Sita's kingdom. The sun rises twenty-four hours a day. The outside environment is far worse than here, but there are many new things. Queen Evangelion allowed Sita, who was over seven hundred years old, to leave the kingdom, and the only other way was through conscription. Young Sita compete with each other in a colorful "spot contest" in front of the Queen.
The winner can enter the "Oath Keepers Alliance" and accept employment from alliance members. Their workplace was in Knox, and they had to leave the Glittering Pool.
"You don't want to stay in the Glitter Pool?"
"Stay? I never left." The past days were not so boring, but York knew stories from a world away. It takes place in a wider, more colorful world, where the sun does not have to rise all day long, where the nights are as long as the days, and there are shadows in addition to light. People record time. It is a mysterious realm where the beliefs of gods intersect, belonging to legends and songs. "I remember cities floating in the sky and high walls made of stone. Mortals love flags. But those scenes are not through my eyes. I know their existence, but I cannot experience them personally."
York rolled to the edge of the cliff and put his feet under the waterfall. The surroundings suddenly turned orange-red, as if there were flames burning in the water. Huyi flew onto his stomach.
Suddenly, he felt peaceful. The doubts that plague my mind are no longer clueless. Sita forgot her anxiety and had only one thought swirling in her mind. It doesn't seem that difficult to say it out loud: "I want to pass the game, no matter what method. But I don't know the purpose of doing this. Because Knox has something new?"
"Maybe it's just that living a full life is better than just hanging around."
"It makes sense. The Glitter Pool is too monotonous."
"But there's no other way. You'd better find other fun and survive these hundreds of years."
Her advice couldn't be said to be bad, but after gaining a new understanding of her own soul, the waiting became even more difficult. "If this is my life, then I don't want to waste it at all." York said, "Staying in the Twinkle Pool, my soul is worthless, just a drop of water in the long memory! I want to be like my father, give My new fire... leaves an interesting legacy for my next replacement.”
"Oh, you will. Your ambition is quite special."
"I have memories, and I shouldn't wait until the age of seven hundred like the newly born tribesmen." He pointed out, "But Her Majesty the Queen doesn't seem to make any difference."
"This is actually the difference. The number of you guys who have died and come back to life is limited, because souls who commit suicide frequently are more likely to be seduced by demons." Hu Yi said, "Therefore, using the spot contest to give you goals is a positive guide to prevent you from falling into The danger is to ask for it secretly. Otherwise, a mysterious man like you who changes his profession can go to Knox at will."
incredible. "I can?"
"The Spot Competition selects capable Sita, doesn't it? They go to work for the Oath Keepers Alliance to gain experience and resume. Mystery is the criterion. You don't understand this either?"
No one told him this, and York was stunned for a moment. "I can go to Knox? Really?"
"Maybe there are other places we can go."
So funny. Sitas are proud to have a past because it makes them appear mature and stable. The companions born from the elements are indeed brats and don’t understand anything. Now York found that he was the one who didn't understand anything.
Once you understand these issues, your dreams will no longer be out of reach. Spot contests weren't the only way, York decided. I just have to prove myself. He happily climbed back to the shore and transformed himself into a fairy. "You are so interesting!" For Sita, there was no higher praise than this. "I'm going to repay you, Huyi! I'll do my best. Want to go to Knox with me?"
"What? Knox?" Huyi was surprised, "Oh, no. I won't go. To be honest, I don't like it very much." She saw Sita's confusion. "That's it. I don't like it, and I don't want anything from you in return."
York didn't understand: "But this isn't fair."
"Listen, kid, the greatest fairness between people is that we can respect each other. I have my own ideas. I can choose to accept your reward, or of course I can refuse."
"We are not human."
Hu Yi smiled. "That's true. But you'd better learn to be a human being when you go to Nox. While the elves and dwarves are both good, the humans will like you best. They will, I'll bet."
York thought for a moment. In my father's memory, human beings have their own colors just like Sita. Even at night when there is no sun or light, these colors will not fade away. He determined that they were also Lucia's favored ones. He thought he liked them too. "I can do it too."
"You can hate them too. That's only fair."
"That's right!" Sita replied cheerfully.
"If you really decide," Hu Yi said, "then do whatever you want. You have your life. Remember this. York."
"York Shayne," he corrected. "Does this sound like a human name?"
"It's more like yourself, I'd say."
York felt strangely moved in his heart. my name. he thought. my life. Only one time. Suddenly, he had indescribable expectations for his life. How precious is one life! once! It belongs entirely to me.
He had to go to Knox.
"Goodbye, Huyi. I'm leaving, I'm going to miss you. How can I see you again?"
"It's not necessary...well, I will see you anyway. The fairies have the same feelings. Sooner or later I will be able to find such a bright guy like you in the field of vision of the same kind. It's a matter of sooner or later."
But he was not satisfied. "Are you mistaken? I have many of my kind, but there are too few of you. Even in the Twinkling Pool, I rarely see Hu Yi."
"You can do something big. I pay attention to the news."
"Good idea." York thought carefully and felt that this was feasible. "When I get to Knox, I'll ask your people to bring you news. What's your name? Does Hu Yi have a name?"
"Maybe I have," Hu Yi replied, "but that was a long time ago. The importance of names varies from person to person, just like other things. It's only fair."
"Then I'll call you blue skirt? Red hair?"
"No. I am the red light lake suit, just like you are the orange light Sita. Not to mention the skirt!"
"Then how do I appoint you?"
"It is indeed a problem. I'm afraid it's more difficult to get rid of your idea than to solve the problem." She sighed, "Okay, I remembered it, my name is Bright Hill."
"I remember, Brightshear. Goodbye!"
"Goodbye. York."
The error-free chapters of "Floating Cloud Train" will continue to be updated.
