I know that eternal death is coming, and I am not sad
My wishes are placed in the pine forest
There is the sea below, it looks like a pool from a distance
What follows me little by little is the afternoon sunshine
Human time is over, life is very long
I should rest in between
People passing by said the branches were low
People walking by said the branches are growing
...
The children risked being discovered by their parents and appeared on the banks of the autumn water with a strong sense of mission.
The big demon named Qiu Shui had an extra green bamboo leaf on his white hair. He didn't know where it came from.
But the child did not pay attention to this, but landed on a small canoe on the shore of the autumn water.
It is a very exquisite black boat.
The support with veins like umbrella ribs at the bottom may be made directly from the overturned umbrella trees with all the black leaves in the Youhuang Mountains, but the sides are very narrow, not as wide as the umbrella trees, more like A short boot with the front turned up.
But there was no mast on the ship, and no pennies either.
When I stop quietly on the bank of the flowing autumn water at dusk, I feel like a leaf plucked from the night tree.
Qiu Shui took the sword and stood quietly aside.
The child ran over and raised his hand to stroke the edge of the boat. The rough texture made the child take back the word "delicate".
It turns out that the surface of the ship is not smooth, just because the color is too dark.
In fact, it feels a lot like some tree bark.
Just like the umbrella tree.
Although the child had never touched the umbrella tree, when his hand stopped on the boat, he subconsciously had such an idea.
"Is this your new one?"
The child looked up at Qiu Shui curiously and asked.
Qiu Shui shook his head and said calmly: "No."
"Then where did it come from?"
"It has always been here." Qiu Shui said calmly.
"Where is this? Qiushui?"
Qiu Shui raised his head and looked across the vast twilight towards the human world. The world is also twilight.
Everything is slowly falling towards the night sky.
"No, it's beside me."
Qiu Shui spoke very calmly and looked at the dusk in the world quietly.
"From the moment I was born, when I walked through the world, it followed me every moment. It also follows you."
The child stood there in a daze, not daring to touch the ship again.
Qiushui's eyes fell from the human world to the Youhuang Mountains.
"Have you seen the River Styx?"
Qiu Shui said.
The child turned his head and looked at the river that dripped down from the high mountains to the world, and then turned into this autumn water at the end - this is a big river flowing on a mountain more than 2,000 feet high. .
The child stared blankly for a long time, then nodded in fear.
"The River Styx is above everyone's head. It comes and goes, is born and dies, has a beginning and an end."
Qiu Shui said softly.
"This is not something to be sad about or to be afraid of."
Qiu Shui has never been sad because he is about to die.
One early morning in December, the woman sitting on a high cliff suddenly fell into a trance. A small boat appeared faintly in front of her eyes, and then quickly disappeared.
Then she understood that it was time for her to leave.
So we walked quietly all the way.
People who can face death calmly must be devout believers in life.
Because death is the meaning of life.
If there is nothing, then there is something, which is empty talk.
That's why Li Queyi said the same Taoist truth that people in the world talk about.
As long as there is life, there must be death.
The child stood there blankly, turned back, and looked down at the fallen leaves at his feet.
"Will I do this again in the future?"
"No one wouldn't."
The child stood there in silence for a long time.
There seemed to be bells ringing in the dusk, coming from the distant sky, making a mighty yet misty sound, majestic yet gentle falling to the world.
It seems that it is not a bell, but a collection of all the trivial sounds in the world, such as falling leaves, dripping water, and covering snow.
Or the gentle waves of the ancient spring in all the silence, or the joyful chatting of people in the bustling city.
everything.
Just like all the sounds that people in the world have heard throughout their lives, they have rushed from the years and fallen into this human world.
Before the child had time to listen carefully to the cries and laughter heard in this woman's voice, the woman next to him had already slightly raised some swords.
The tip of the sword, which was originally hanging diagonally behind him, was a little straighter.
The child still didn't understand why Qiu Shui suddenly made such a move.
Then I heard that sound, and there seemed to be some tiny footsteps coming.
The child turned back blankly, and then froze there in shock.
On the bank of the river at dusk and autumn, countless men in black robes stand in the forest.
Maybe it's a human, maybe it's a ghost.
Those flying maple leaves passed through those figures in the dusk.
And all the sounds that fell in the children's ears gradually turned into the sound of countless solemn and powerful chants.
——
The gate of heaven is wide open, and I ride on the mysterious clouds.
Let the wind come and go as a pioneer, and let the drizzle spread the dust.
Are you flying back? Down, the mulberry trees are flying across the sky.
There are always people coming to Kyushu, how can they live forever?
...
Amid the ripples of fallen leaves, another black boat was slowly approaching. There was a tall man standing on the bow of the boat. His large black robes were decorated with complex and ancient patterns.
The child didn't know what was happening and retreated in fear. Qiu Shui raised his hand and took his hand. He held the sword in his hand and looked calmly at the black boat parked in the river.
The chants from both sides of the Taiwan Strait continue.
Qiu Shui just said softly: "Don't be afraid, this is not Da Siming."
This woman with peach blossoms and green bamboo hairpins in her white hair quietly looked at the phantoms up and down the river.
"It's just a shadow of the life and death power he once held in Styx."
The child's heart felt a little calmer, but he was still a little scared when he looked at the figure of the tall man standing in the river.
"Is this something everyone will see?"
the child asked in a low voice.
Qiu Shui said calmly: "No, I can see it because I have seen Da Siming's soul and..."
Qiu Shui's eyes seemed to fall into the distant years.
"Thousands of years ago, I was the daughter of a shaman who worshiped Da Siming."
The child raised his head and looked at the woman beside him.
So why are the singing voices and the singing people as far apart as thousands of years apart?
The shadow in the river suddenly spoke.
The sound did not come from the autumn water, but like the previous bells, it came from all the people, like thousands of trivial sounds, gathered into one sentence.
"You were once our people, Qiu Shui."
The child took a step back again.
Qiu Shui just stood quietly by the river and said calmly: "I don't deny the history thousands of years ago, but when I was born, humans and gods were separated - I am just a citizen of the human world."
"You prayed to me devoutly..."
Qiu Shui calmly interrupted the Shadow in the River's words.
"It was precisely because I once danced on the witch stage that I truly realized that gods and ghosts are the shackles of everything in the world."
"Just like life and death, life and death are nameless and qualityless. They cannot be heard, smelled, touched, or looked at."
"Thousands of years ago, the world regarded you as the embodiment of life and death, the longing for your first birth, and the constraint for your return."
"But life and death exist, and it has nothing to do with the person who takes it."
In the twilight of a river, the shadow of the great commander stood quietly on the bow of the boat, his black robe flying, like the night of death.
The sound of singing across the river is sometimes high and sometimes solemn.
However, the autumn water of the river is peaceful.
The autumn water by the river is also peaceful.
After a long time, the shadow in the river slowly said a word.
"You need to go to the River Styx to truly understand the meaning of prison, my people."
Qiu Shui had heard such a sentence from the mouth of Yao Ji who was still alive in the world.
But this human sword cultivator, who had peach blossoms in his white hair and a green bamboo pin in his hair, just said calmly: "It doesn't matter whether you understand or not."
There is a strong wind blowing in the world, blowing clothes all over the river.
"My hour has come, and my eternal death is at hand."
Qiu Shui calmly looked at the small boat on the shore heading towards the river.
"You need to make way for me."
The shadow that once held the power of life and death stood quietly in the river, and then was slowly torn apart by the wind, like some black smoke clouds, like some rotten rags, dissipated little by little in the river.
"You will understand, Qiu Shui."
These were the last words the child heard.
Then the Qiu Shui boat made waves, and amidst the uproar of the water, it fell into the Qiu Shui river.
The child stood by the river in shock.
Death is abstract.
However, the death by the river is concrete, unfolding everything bit by bit until it becomes a lonely journey against the current.
"Is this death?"
The child stared blankly at the woman heading towards the boat.
Qiu Shui stood at the bow of the boat, facing the twilight breeze of the world, and said softly: "This is death."
The child stood there sadly, always feeling a little wet in his eyes.
The woman at the head of the boat stretched out a hand to him.
"Do you want to see the end of the world?"
The child stood there blankly.
"Is it the River Styx?"
Qiu Shui chuckled and said, "No, the Styx is the end of life and death, and the end of the human world is the sea."
The child has never seen the sea.
Nantuo is the southernmost point of Huangliang, but this southernmost town is still far away from the sea.
"But I followed you, can I come back?"
Qiu Shui smiled and said, "Of course you can, you still need to do me a favor."
Only then did the child remember his original intention of coming here. After hesitating a little, he hugged his magic weapon and followed Qiu Shui onto the small boat.
Qiu Shui handed over the sword that he had held for a long time.
The child stood at the back of the boat, not knowing what it meant. He just looked at the woman at the head of the boat and took the ancient-looking sword.
"What if I accidentally drop it into the ocean?"
The child sat in the stern of the boat with some fear, carefully holding such an ordinary-looking sword - how could such a great human monster carry an ordinary sword?
So the ordinary becomes its unusual place.
The children were very worried.
The boat began to move downstream with the autumn water.
Qiu Shui just stood quietly at the head of the boat, looking towards the end of the rolling mountains.
"If you fall into the sea, don't tell the world that it is in the sea. Sometimes people in the world have too many worries because they know too much."
The child didn't know whether Qiu Shui was joking or talking about these things seriously, so he just held the sword tightly in his arms.
The child didn't know much, so he could hold the sword with peace of mind.
The boat sailed away in the mist and clouds.
Both sides of the bank gradually rose upwards. Not only the Youhuang Mountains, but also the human land east of Qiu Shui continued to rise, gradually becoming a high mountain that stretched away.
And the dusk was rolling down from the mountains on both sides like stones.
Maybe so.
The child thought so.
Otherwise, how could there be so many ripples filled with rays of light in this quiet river?
The child held the sword at the stern of the boat and looked with admiration at the thousands of rippling lights in the gentle waves of the river.
The autumn water is naturally the same color as the long sky.
The child raised his head again and looked at the sky above his head filled with countless smoke clouds.
So where is it in the sky and where is it in the river?
The boat broke through the twilight and headed south.
It seems to be very fast, and it seems to be extremely slow.
Until all the light flows unconsciously and slowly escapes between heaven and earth.
The child then realized that this long autumn water, the tail of the Styx, was about to come to an end.
The high mountains on both sides of the Taiwan Strait finally fell silent in the dusk, and the floating glow penetrated the woods, revealing many green colors in the world.
Seabirds with wide wingspan appeared between the sky and the earth, like many leaves falling in the autumn water in the sky, circling, emitting a clear and long song, heading towards the endless end.
When the child lowered his head, the autumn water in front of his eyes finally began to narrow.
The unknown high mountain in the human world and the Youhuang Mountains to the southwest are approaching little by little.
Until a rather long canyon was formed in front.
The child hugged the sword tightly, and unconsciously, his palms became sticky.
"Are we almost there?"
The white-haired woman stood quietly at the head of the boat.
"Yes."
"Have you been here before?"
"I've been here, but I haven't been there."
Qiu Shui said softly.
"Why didn't you go over?"
The child asked in confusion.
Qiu Shui stood quietly at the bow of the boat, as if he was silent or meditating.
Maybe it’s also in memory.
"Because at that time, we were still very young."
The woman who had been standing on a high cliff in the world for a thousand years said softly.
"There are still many things to do, such as practicing and crossing the river."
"So I thought that in the future, when the world is the same, we can come here again and have a good and quiet look at the end of the world."
The children noticed the words in Qiu Shui's words.
Not me, but us.
Who is that person?
In other words, who are those people?
The child didn't know and didn't ask. He just sat quietly at the back of the boat and listened to Qiu Shui telling stories from thousands of years ago.
"It's just that I didn't expect that this wait would last a thousand years."
Qiu Shui said sadly.
"Some people died in Nanyi City, some went to Gaoya, and some became emperors in the human world. So no one mentioned these stories again."
It was as if the sadness in the autumn water made the sky darken.
But no.
It’s just that the boat has already approached the converging mountains.
The twilight here is thin, the glow here is soft, the river here is calm, and the mountains in front cut off the river, just like a quiet flat lake.
What breaks open the lake is a leaf.
The leaves headed towards the canyon.
Then the light in the world dimmed.
The child looked up at the woman at the head of the boat. The twilight that thinly filtered into the tail of the autumn water from above only fell sporadically on the waterfall of white hair.
Like a galaxy at dusk.
The child thought that this scene would last for a long time.
But soon, those skylights followed the sea breeze and fell brightly on the small boat.
The child's eyes widened and he even loosened the sword in his arms.
Qiu Shui also raised his head and looked quietly at the sea in the far south.
The sea in the south, the blue sea, falls like a handful of blue tears in the eyes of those who have missed it for thousands of years.
The white-haired woman stood at the bow of the boat, quietly looking at the sea.
The endless deep ocean is just like the East China Sea, equally boundless.
But she didn't feel far away.
There is nothing at the end of the world.
A vast expanse, with all kinds of people crawling under the corners of the mountains and cliffs that rise toward the sky.
Going along the coast, in an extremely remote place, are many empty buildings built up and down the cliffs.
There were once 800,000 people there.
But now there is nothing.
The child stared blankly at the sea that he had never seen before.
"Are we going to keep going?"
Qiu Shui shook his head and said softly: "It's enough to go here. Going forward is a place that no one in the world can ever finish."
The East China Sea is 490,000 miles long.
And no one knows about the endless ocean.
Even Taoist Saints were not able to complete the journey back then.
Maybe the answer to this world lies in the south.
But it can't be touched, just like the world can never really create a perfect circle.
Qiu Shui turned around.
Only then did the child realize that the woman's face was covered with tears.
Who in the world is not a worldly person?
Children do not know the meaning and emotion contained in those tears.
Maybe he was lamenting the story of his return from the cliff.
Perhaps it is in the world of people lamenting the elusive answer.
The children were just looking at the sea.
But Qiu Shui is not.
In those tears, there are years, feelings, regrets, and sorrow.
After getting off the cliff, he walked back to his hometown and put down the sword in his hand.
Autumn water has truly become autumn water.
The words still seem to echo in my ears - it's time for me to bloom, Qiu Shui.
So this woman, who has turned gray in the years, looks back at the world with tears and a smile.
Me too, Gouqian.
The child stared blankly at the woman looking back with tears in her eyes.
He couldn't understand such a bright smile that was sad but relieved.
But everything in front of me seems to be dissipating, like the clouds and mist when the strong wind comes, like the white snow falling under the sun.
The child finally realized something and stood up hastily.
However, the moment he stood up, he found himself standing quietly on the bank of the first autumn river, holding his sword.
And there was a small boat in the autumn water, heading upstream towards the mountains.
When a person is alive, the great river flows to the world.
When a person dies, the big river flows deep into the Youhuang Mountains.
Then the child understands that eternal death is coming.
He stood on the shore and shouted sadly.
"Where's your sword?"
Qiu Shui's gentle voice came from the dusk.
"Give it to you."
