Huangliang, Nantuo.
The color of snow has disappeared far behind.
Although the phrase "Only in the world can one know the autumn is known" means lamenting that Huang Liang's understanding of worldly affairs is far inferior to that of Huai'an, but when placed in Nantuo, it is extremely pertinent, correct and to the point.
In fact, although there was a lot of wind and snow in the north this year, the chill slowly disappeared after entering Nanchu.
People in Jiangluo territory may have seen the tail of the wind and snow. Some children happily swept the light snow on the steps, reluctantly kneaded it into a snow ball, and then took it home as a treasure.
There is no snow in Gaoxin, and the same is true in Nantuo.
It's just a cold autumn heading south.
Then the snow color disappeared in the distance behind.
There was a child standing on the edge of the forest, looking towards the dusk behind the vast forest.
There is the autumn water.
Tail of the River Styx.
A place where twilight never sets in the world.
The child actually wanted to go and have a look, but his parents didn't allow it.
Because there are many monsters over there, although they are not in Qiu Shui, but they are on the faint yellow mountain range above Qiu Shui, in the ancestral land of the monster clan, just like the monster clan in the world many years ago, living in On that ancient and barren black land.
Children are actually very incomprehensible.
Just like the question he asked after being repeatedly warned by his parents.
"Don't go there, they are all monsters."
"But mother, didn't you say that demons and people have coexisted in this town for a long time?"
"It's different, that's their ancestral land."
The child was silent for a long time and asked a very fatal question.
"But we are also monsters!"
The mother, who was a child with two pointed ears, raised her hand and touched his head and said, "But you may not be."
Demons are transformed creatures, not reproducing creatures.
The Great Dao will not give birth to a race that will survive in the world for a long time.
All things must die as long as they are alive. This is the eternal principle.
The child thought that this problem was fatal to his mother, but he did not expect that it would be fatal to him.
So the child never asked these questions again. He only sometimes stood on the edge of the forest and looked at the dusk flowing behind the forest, imagining what kind of big river it was.
Just like today.
As the mother of a demon tribe, he and his father of a human race went to the other side of the town with money early in the morning. Because the Chinese New Year was about to come and the family did not raise pigs, they planned to go to another town to kill a pig and come back.
Of course, a family of three cannot finish one pig, so the leftovers will be smoked into bacon, which can be eaten slowly until the second half of next year.
The child stood quietly in the forest, thinking about bacon and the river on the other side of the forest.
The autumn water should be the color of the fat under the skin of bacon. When it is fried, it will turn yellow and have a crystal bright color - the color of the fried oil.
The child thought for a long time and felt that something was wrong, but he didn't know what was wrong.
So I looked back at the town behind me after a stream passed by. It was early morning, and the autumn fog in the town had not dispersed yet. It was flowing slowly in the air, clinging to the corner of the wall, then turning around and landing on the street corner.
But on the other side of the forest was a dusk scene.
The child stood here as if he were standing in the night between yesterday's dusk and today's morning.
But there is no night, just woods, with cicadas chirping and insects jumping on the dead leaves. If there are noisy frogs in autumn, everyone in the town will be annoyed to death.
Children subconsciously think about autumn. People in Nantuo seem to have no concept of winter.
In fact, this is December 26th, and in a few days it will be the Spring Festival, and then the new year.
Is it the beginning of spring?
The child thought so, but he wasn't sure.
It seemed to have been established, but it seemed not to be, so the child did not pay attention to these things anymore, but walked toward the forest with random thoughts.
It was still early morning in the town.
Killing a pig is a very troublesome thing, so it will probably be a long time before his parents come back with a pig on their shoulders.
It is precisely because of this that the children had the courage to sneak through the forest and take a look.
Because I was worried about meeting those monsters, I broke off a thorny branch from a bush full of weeds in the forest, imagining that this was some kind of magic weapon that was rare in the world, and waved it around all the way towards the autumn water. go.
The twilight in the mountain forest was suspended, and it seemed to be very close. However, after the children walked in, they realized that it was actually very far away.
You have to go through a forest and climb some mountains that are said to have been soaked by the water of the Styx.
Then he walked through a forest full of fiery red maple leaves - his parents didn't tell him what kind of trees were in the forest behind the mountain, this was what the people in the town said.
The child waited until noon before crossing the mountain and stopping on a hillside. He looked at the increasingly dense twilight over there from a distance, as if the sun in the sky was drowned in the water, and then His sad orange blood spread in all directions in those rivers. The color at the edge seen from the other side of the mountain forest was naturally a diluted light color.
So the closer we walked to the river, the more we could see the sun being drowned.
While the child was thinking randomly, he felt that he had been gone for a long time. He didn't know if his parents were already home, and he was a little worried.
But then I thought about it, I've already come this far, and I'm going to get a beating anyway, so why not continue to the end and see.
So the child walked down the hillside along the path that no one had walked for many years, and continued walking forward.
It was not until after passing through some very ordinary autumn woods that the child finally opened his eyes in amazement.
Yes, the people in town were right.
This is a maple forest.
The fiery red leaves hang on the branches, shining in the twilight glow, all brilliant.
The forest has clean and tidy paths, perhaps paved with stones many years ago, covered with red leaves, like the blood vomited on the river bank in embarrassment when the sun was drowned.
When the wind blew, the blood flew up again, rushing through the forest and falling to an unknown distance.
The child left the thorny branch at the entrance of the forest, and then stepped on the fallen leaves toward the edge of the maple leaf forest.
In fact, he could already see some autumn water.
Those rays of light floating on the river are slowly falling towards the world in the wind and in the gaps between the red leaves and branches.
When he raised his head, he could still see the extremely tall and silent black mountain range that was not far away - it also looked like it was filled with twilight.
I heard that a long time ago, people firmly believed that the dusk on earth flowed from the tail of the River Styx, flowed behind the forest, and was blown all over the world by the gentle evening wind. world.
Because dusk is the closest to the colors of autumn.
So they called it Qiushui.
Autumn water.
The child thought about this name, and finally walked through the entire forest and stood by the big river.
When those extremely gorgeous and soft colors fall into the eyes, the children finally sincerely believe that the dusk is blowing to the entire world from here.
The autumn water of the river is filled with rays of light, and it moves quietly towards the endless deep ocean further south. When the water ripples, people will feel that this is the missing twilight in a gloomy town, broken early in the autumn water. .
The sun died here.
The child looked up at the sky. There was no sunset on the top of the black earth mountains with invisible peaks.
Just eternal gorgeous smoke clouds flying.
So the sun died here.
When the child was thinking this, he suddenly found a soft water-colored shore, and stood quietly a woman wearing twilight on her body, dragging a waterfall of white hair. There was a peach blossom in her white hair, which was also hidden. holding the end of a sword.
Is it a demon?
The child suddenly regretted leaving the branch of the magic weapon at the entrance of the forest, so he just stood nervously on the shore and backed away cautiously.
But the woman still looked over.
The child stopped and looked at the woman blankly.
He saw Qiushui.
In the eyes of that woman - when those rays of light also fell into those clear eyes.
Yes, it is Qiu Shui.
"Who are you?"
The child was stunned for a long time before asking softly.
Qiu Shui just glanced quietly at the child who appeared by the Qiu Shui for some reason, and then turned back to look at the twilight river in front of him.
"Autumn water."
He is the cliff master in the human world and the Qiu Shui demon of Qiu Shui.
Maybe it was too far away from Gao Ya, too far away from the autumn water a thousand years ago, but the children had never heard of this name, and they just stood there and made random guesses about what kind of human monster this was.
This river is also called Qiushui, and the woman is also called Qiushui.
Then she must be the big demon that the river turned into.
"Did you come down from the mountain?" The child asked uneasily, remembering his parents' instructions.
The woman shook her head.
"Then you want to go to the mountains?"
The white-haired woman still shook her head, but perhaps in order to stop the child from asking any more questions, she turned back, looked at him and said, "I'll go to the other side of the river, do you want to take a look?"
The child stood nervously in the woman's eyes, rubbed his fingers several times, and then nodded when some black mud came out.
Qiu Shui stretched out a hand towards the child. The child hesitated for a long time before slowly walking over and holding the extremely cold hand.
This surprised the child for a long time. He opened his eyes wide and looked at the young-looking woman with white hair next to him.
She couldn't seem to feel any pulse in her hand. Only occasionally, for a moment, could there be some subtle movement of blood surging.
Qiu Shui said nothing, but quietly held the child's hand and walked toward the twilight river.
The child was not surprised. Sometimes there would be people coming and going in the town. When those people passed by, they would sometimes take the bridge by the stream, and sometimes they would step directly across the water.
It seems that as the child grows older and the demonic power in his body becomes stronger, he can do the same.
But he doesn't know how big he needs to be.
The demonic power of a child cannot even be blown by a gust of wind.
The two of them crossed the river and left.
The child let go of the woman's hand and was about to say something when he saw someone walking through the maple forest facing the river.
He stopped not far in front of the two of them and bowed respectfully.
"The demon master wants to meet the cliff master."
Qiu Shui just glanced at him quietly, then held the child's hand again, ignored him, and walked slowly along the long river.
The man stood there hesitantly, looking at the two people's backs, and then followed them.
The two of them walked not far until they finally stopped at a place where the autumn water bypassed the autumn mountain.
There was a trail leading into the forest. Not far from the trail, there was a dilapidated thatched cottage that looked like it might be many years old.
The child followed Qiu Shui and stopped there with some confusion. He saw the woman beside him looking at the thatched cottage quietly, and then said calmly: "If you want to see me, let the demon clan go down the mountain first."
These words were naturally addressed to the demon clan who had been following the two of them.
The man was silent for a long time, then turned and left.
The child looked back blankly and watched the man leave, not knowing what such a sentence meant.
Aren’t the monsters always at the foot of the mountain?
Didn't it mean that those on the mountain were just guarding the ancestral land of the demon clan?
Qiu Shui did not explain these things to the children beside him, but quietly looked at the autumn light flowing in front of him, and then headed towards the thatched cottage.
"This is where?"
The child asked with some confusion.
"This is my homeland."
Qiu Shui said softly.
"I lived here many years ago."
Qiu Shui looked at the thatched cottage sadly.
At that time, there was more than just autumn water beside the autumn water.
There are also Gouqian, Shenhe, and those monsters who were forced to stay away from the human world and fled all the way south.
And the lame elk lived under a tree on the mountain, looking at the north of the world with tears in his eyes all day long.
The child looked at the waterfall of white hair behind Qiushui and seemed to understand something.
"Are you very old and about to die, so you come back here to see your hometown?"
Qiu Shui looked down at the child beside him and said with regret, "Yes."
Just like the demon clan wanted to return to the human world before they were willing to die, Qiushui also had to return to Qiushui before they were willing to waste the last period of their lives.
The child was silent for a long time, holding Qiu Shui's cold hand tightly.
"Is it on the mountain?"
Is the mountain my homeland?
The same is true in the mountains.
"Yes."
"Will you go up the mountain and take a look?"
"Won't."
"Why?"
Qiu Shui looked up at the high mountain covered with black soil and umbrella trees, and said slowly, "Because the people on the mountain still have some unresolved hatred in their hearts."
The child finally asked about his previous confusion.
"Isn't the mountain the ancestral land of the demon clan?"
"How come the ancestral land of the demon clan is on such a barren mountain?" Qiu Shui said softly. "It is the prosperous and lively human world that gave birth to the demon race."
"So what's on the mountain?"
Qiu Shui was silent for a long time and said slowly: "The mountain is the land of many stubborn people who are still unwilling to be freed."
Thousands of years ago, thousands of monsters crossed the autumn water, but those were not all monsters.
Some remained.
Looking at the world with fear, I don't know where my fate will go from now on.
Qiu Shui didn't care who the so-called demon lord of this generation was.
Kamigawa didn't pay attention either.
If you would rather stay in the mountains, then you will stay in the mountains forever.
No one forced anything.
The child didn't ask any more questions, but quietly followed the autumn water towards the thatched cottage that had been dilapidated for thousands of years.
The two stood in front of the thatched hut. The child turned to look at Qiu Shui and asked softly: "Do you want to cover it again?"
Qiu Shui nodded.
The child thought for a moment and said, "Then let me help you."
Building a thatched cottage is always a great temptation for children.
Qiu Shui shook his head.
The child thought Qiu Shui didn't believe him, so he said seriously: "My friends and I used to build thatched huts outside the town and play."
"That's not it."
Qiu Shui looked back at the direction the two came from and said slowly: "Your parents are back from outside the town."
The child was suddenly startled and realized that he had forgotten this matter. He just looked at the big river and the distant mountains and forests, and felt a little sad.
It's so far away, how could I suddenly rush back?
Just when he started to feel sad, the sword-like branch he had picked up earlier suddenly passed through the glow and fell into Qiushui's hands.
"So you are a sword cultivator?"
However, the child had forgotten that his parents were almost home carrying the pig. He looked at the branch in the hands of the woman next to him in amazement, but felt that he had asked too much.
The white-haired woman has always held a sword in her hand.
I just don’t know why, but I always seem to have trouble remembering this matter.
Maybe it's because the sword is sometimes hidden under the white hair.
Qiushui didn't say anything, just handed the branch to the child.
"Take it and it will take you back."
The child thought of his parents again.
"Before they come back?"
"Yes."
The child suddenly felt that this scene was very similar to some stories told to children. An adventurous person discovered a secret place, so a person with magical abilities gave him a token, which allowed him to go around without being discovered by the world. In that secret realm.
The child felt very excited when he thought this, and nodded while holding the branch.
"Then can I still hold it and let him take me back?"
Qiu Shui nodded and said, "Yes."
The child felt that a secret and great task was falling on his shoulders. He looked at Qiu Shui sincerely, waiting for her next words.
"In a few days, if you come to Qiushui again, I will ask you to do me a favor."
Indeed it is!
The child was very excited, but showed no emotion on the surface. He nodded solemnly and did not ask how he could help.
What happens a few days later naturally needs to be kept confidential.
Qiu Shui said nothing more.
The child grasped the branch with both hands and imagined that it really became a sword.
So the branch was really filled with twilight sword light.
Then suddenly, he led the child through the autumn water, through the mountain forest, and returned to the edge of the forest when it was still noon.
The fog in the town had dissipated. When the child turned around holding the branch, he saw his parents really carrying a slaughtered pig through the town and walking towards their small yard.
"I'm back for dinner! I'm having pork stewed vermicelli today."
His mother saw the children standing by the forest and shouted happily.
The child hid the branches under a tree in the forest, covered them with fallen leaves, and then ran to the other side of the stream.
"okay!"
