Outside the fantasy world.
The remains of the Temple of Wine.
Above the sacred kiln, the grand verandah-style double-eaves hall has long since collapsed, leaving only a few large pillars pointing straight to the sky, but there are no walls or roof tiles to block it, so the wind comes in, the rain comes in, and insects and birds build nests. Flowers and plants grow.
Time passes.
The Dionysus Kiln has become a small valley. The cliffs on the side of the valley are covered with moss, vines, flowers and plants, and the bottom of the valley is submerged by deep water. But strangely, there is an "island" in the middle of the water, which is very small. , no more than one step square, covered with soft shallow grass and dotted with some seasonal wild flowers.
The stone statue of Dionysus lies here quietly, with moss growing on his clothes and bird droppings on his collar. His toes dip into the water and his eyes look at the small circle of sky above.
It looked like it was slowly dying in time.
Quiet and decadent.
Sudden.
The water surges.
A hand suddenly appeared from the hand, grabbed the Dionysian's ankle, and then exerted force with the palm of his hand, and a figure climbed onto the "island" in embarrassment.
The man first leaned over and vomited heartbreakingly, vomiting out a large amount of a mixture of mud and blood. Then he turned over and leaned on the stone statue, revealing a young and pale face.
It was Li Changan who had escaped from the illusion.
But at this time, there was no joy on his face, and he didn't look like he had escaped.
because.
He was about to die.
Facts have once again proved that it is unwise to confront a Taoist priest who has set down his altar and is fully prepared.
Although he let Yu Mei be blinded by the thunder, he was also seriously injured.
The injuries were not complicated, including multiple fractures, damage to internal organs, excessive bleeding, and wound infection.
Maybe he could be rescued now and survive with his own cultivation, but let alone the fact that Xiaoshui City is in ruins in reality, even nearby places may have become ghost monsters due to natural disasters and man-made disasters. Where can he find anyone to heal him?
Besides, after a hard fight in the illusion and struggling with his hands and feet under the water for a long time, he was completely exhausted. Now Li Changan probably couldn't even climb out of the deep well of the Dionysus Kiln.
That’s all.
Let it be.
I don’t know if the underworld will accept our stowaway soul.
If you accept it, don't rush to send it to reincarnation. You would rather be a peace dog than a person in troubled times.
Not right either.
By the way, I've killed so many monsters, so I have little merit, and I've dealt with heaven and earth. Even if I can't be a god, I can still be a ghost, right?
Judge? Impermanence? Everything is fine, as long as I don't work for Yan Dabeard. I don't want to shovel shit in the shit hell.
While Li Changan was thinking wildly, he suddenly felt bright around him.
look up.
It turned out that the night wind drove away the clouds, revealing the full moon in the sky.
The moonlight is like water, pouring into the Dionysian kiln.
The surrounding flowers and plants are reflected, and the water surface is full of waves.
Li Changan looked at Yuehua, feeling himself gradually declining, and smiled.
What a beautiful moonlight, it is the place where the bones are buried and the corpse is dismembered.
It's a pity that the moonlight was left in the Yujiadi shop in the fantasy world. With such a beautiful scenery on such a good time, I couldn't drink the moonlight when I was dying.
He moved his body into a more comfortable position, and even took the time to joke about the stone statue.
"Bacchus, Bacchus, you are really ineffective at being a god. You can't suppress the demon, but the dying person can't even ask for a glass of water or wine?"
Didn't think about it.
"The Taoist has never prayed to someone, so how do you know if I, the alcoholic spirit, have experienced it?"
"Eh?"
…………
Li Changan was startled by the sudden conversation.
Follow the sound.
Before I saw him, I smelled a special smell.
It was a strange aroma formed by the earthy smell mixed with the smell of old incense and candles.
Li Changan had smelled it once in his memory, and that was when Young Master Yinshi Bailian smelled it from the Pingye City God among the ghosts at the bottom of the lake. But what I smelled at this time was much lighter than what Pingye City God was smelling.
"Ground?"
However, the person who suddenly appeared was a middle-aged scribe, with an illusory figure and disheveled clothes, but not slovenly. There was an air of arrogance about him, just like a statue of Dionysus.
"Bacchus?"
The people around him laughed, cupped their hands and said:
"A mere talent is both the land and the god of wine."
After that, he brushed his wide long sleeves across the gap between the two of them, and saw that behind the long sleeves, a bunch of grass grew rapidly and entangled with each other. In a few breaths, they woven into a green wine glass.
He flipped his wrist again, and there was already a celadon wine bottle in his hand.
Click.
A subtle cracking sound reached my ears.
Li Changan followed the sound and looked.
Some fine cracks were found on the sleeves of the stone statue of Bacchus.
The Taoist priest raised his eyebrows.
"What is this?"
As a Taoist priest, speaking to a god in such a tone is not really respectful.
Fortunately, this person didn't take it too seriously. He just tilted the mouth of the bottle and slowly poured the amber liquid into the grass cup.
"Who knows? Maybe it's intestinal medicine, maybe it's a life-saving prescription."
When the wine glass was almost full, he smiled narrowly at the Taoist priest.
"What? The Taoist priest was chattering a lot just now, but now that he has a good wine, he doesn't dare to drink it?"
Li Changan didn't answer.
He silently looked at the man in front of him who claimed to be the God of Dionysus. He carried the aura of a god, but his figure was as illusory as a lonely soul. He watched him fill the wine glass, watched the cracks gradually crawl across the stone statue's body, and finally shook his head and laughed. .
He propped up his remaining body, picked up the wine glass, and drank it all in one gulp.
“Good wine!”
…
The wine enters the throat.
The indescribable warmth and fragrance sink into the chest and abdomen, and a wave of drunkenness also takes the opportunity to rush to the head, making people dizzy and face hot.
A trance.
A large amount of mist evaporated from the water at the bottom of the kiln.
It doesn't take a moment.
Then he surrounded Li Changan, as if he was in a sea of clouds.
The Taoist priest had a thought and looked up. The narrow circle of moonlight above his head had disappeared, replaced by the vast and bright blue sky.
Okay, it’s an illusion again. Why is it this time?
The Taoist priest turned to look at the Dionysus beside him, but the Dionysus remained silent and only pointed downwards.
Li Changan leaned down and saw that the clouds had thinned, and what was under his feet was a small city surrounded by mountains and rivers.
It couldn't be more familiar.
Or Xiaoshui City.
However, the current Xiaoshui is not as exquisite, as clean, as prosperous, as rich as in the fantasy world, and there are no wisterias lingering all over the city.
But it's the same comfort and peace.
But this calm was obviously short-lived and flawed. Li Changan's eyes turned to the edge of the map, where smoke and dust ignited, and an army was coming across the mountains.
"What is this?"
The Dionysian's eyes were filled with nostalgia and compassion.
“The memory of this land.”
…………
After the military disaster swept through.
The surviving people walked out of the mountains and forests where they were hiding, and what was left to them was the devastation and the corpses of their relatives and friends.
The fields were trampled on, the treasury was emptied, and the workshops and buildings were burned to the ground. Corpses piled high, filling ditches and streets.
Just started.
People tidied their fields, repaired their houses, buried relatives and friends, and tried to rebuild their lives on this broken land.
But the world is in chaos, the world is deteriorating day by day, and life will eventually be difficult to continue.
People had no choice but to migrate in tears, leaving their homeland to thatch grass, animals and lonely ghosts.
Gradually.
The fields were overrun by weeds, the houses were inhabited by elk, jackals, and birds, and even the Temple of Bacchus, which had been repaired every year while people were still there, finally collapsed.
The wind and rain poured down.
Just like Xiaoshui gradually sinks into the weeds, Dionysus also gradually sinks into the water.
until……
After countless sunrises and moonsets, an old woman returned to her hometown.
She had gray hair and a stooped figure. Her cheeks were etched with deep exhaustion and a heavy air of death, but her eyes were burning with an inexplicable flame.
Above the clouds, the Taoist priest frowned.
"Yu Mei?"
"No."
Bacchus shook his head.
"It's Yu Mei."
He used cloud energy to write the word "Yu Mei".
"The previous headmaster of Lushan School is the real person."
