Holding this somewhat warm badge of glory in his hand, Ma Tao still can't believe that this is true, but the reality is in his hands. He cannot help but not believe the truth. The only thing he is not sure about is the owner of this badge. Is it this uncle or his spouse.
"What are you doing? We are all waiting for you?"
Xiao Jinzi came to look for Ma Tao after not seeing him for a long time, only to find him alone in a daze.
"Come and take a look at this." Ma Tao handed him the badge of honor in his hand.
"What is it? Glory badge!! Gold-level one? Where did you get it?" Xiao Jinzi didn't pay attention to it at first, thinking it was a hand toy. When he saw it clearly, he was shocked and turned it over to take a look. Looked at it several times.
"Picked up from the ground"
"Stop making trouble, why can't I pick up this thing? Even if it's such a big piece of gold, it's impossible."
"I really picked it up on the ground. Maybe it belongs to that uncle."
"That expressionless guy! Does he have this thing?" Xiao Jinzi didn't believe it at all. He looked at the golden glory badge in his hand and frowned.
"Did you find anything?" Ma Tao saw his strange behavior and knew that he must have seen something wrong.
"This badge is real, but it must be a long time ago, and it is slightly different from the badge we have now." Xiao Jinzi said, taking out his badge and starting to compare it carefully.
"look!"
Xiao Jinzi pointed to several different engraved parts on the badge and continued, "The font here is larger than ours, and this one, eh? Has the place where the name is engraved been worn away?"
"Otherwise, what do you think I'm struggling with?" Seeing that he finally discovered the problem, Ma Tao glared at him angrily.
"But why did he want to erase his name? This is a symbol of supreme glory." Xiao Jinzi was puzzled, and he didn't understand the purpose of the owner of this badge.
"Maybe the owner of the badge doesn't want people to know, or maybe he wants to forget something?" Ma Tao blinked. After thinking about it, he felt that only these two explanations could make sense.
"Then why didn't he just throw it away? Wouldn't it be better?" Xiao Jinzi turned the gold badge in his hand back and forth.
"You need to ask him about this..." Ma Tao said, looking at the dilapidated cement house with flickering lights.
Does this golden badge belong to Uncle Baichuan? He also knows about water monsters? Who is he? Ma Tao also murmured in his heart.
"Brother Tao, let's go eat first. Sister Lanxi is still waiting for you. You can put this away."
Xiao Jinzi had enough fun and threw the thing in his hand directly back to Ma Tao. This thing was not his own and was of no use to him. He was too lazy to consider these issues.
Ma Tao nodded, put the gold badge in his arms and put it away, and the two of them left the edge of the grove together.
Drinking water monster wine, eating small barbecue, and listening to Xiao Jinzi's drunken bragging, dinner lasted for nearly two hours before it was over. It was the most enjoyable drinking experience in this period of time.
After cleaning up the leftovers, it was already past ten o'clock at night. The lights in Uncle Baichuan's cement house had long been turned off. The room was dark and quiet. He must have gone to sleep.
Xiao Jinzi also drank a lot of wine and became unconscious. Ma Tao helped him into the tent, covered him with a quilt and left.
"Do you want to keep vigil?"
Su Lanxi also drank a little wine, but not much. His face was red and he looked at Ma Tao in confusion.
"Outside, danger may arise at any time. Staying vigil is essential. Go to bed first. I don't want to sleep yet." Ma Tao stroked her hair and looked at her beautiful face. Said to her gently.
"But I want you to accompany me..." Su Lanxi pouted a little disappointed.
"Good boy, you go and have a good rest." Ma Tao couldn't help but said, picked up Su Lanxi and carried her to another tent. The latter hugged Ma Tao's neck.
After coaxing Su Lanxi to sleep, Ma Tao left the tent.
The bonfire has been extinguished, and the surrounding area has fallen into darkness. Only the silver-white moonlight illuminates the earth, covering everything with a layer of mysterious silver sand.
Looking up at the starry night sky, listening to the chirping of crickets around him, Ma Tao took out the badge again and was in a daze.
At some point, a sense of crisis suddenly appeared, which made all the hairs on Ma Tao's body stand up. At some point, people will have a sense of the impending danger, or it can be called a sixth sense. No matter Believe it or not, this feeling has saved Ma Tao several times.
It was a feeling of being stared at by a wild beast, almost subconsciously. Ma Tao put his hand on the newly bought P1911 around his waist, but the sense of crisis suddenly disappeared. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but Ma Tao A dense layer of sweat broke out on Tao's forehead.
"Aren't you asleep yet?" A middle-aged man's voice sounded from behind.
Ma Tao's tense hands slowly relaxed. The voice belonged to Uncle Baichuan. Ma Tao was sure of it.
"I couldn't sleep, so I kept vigil all night. Didn't uncle also stay awake?"
Ma Tao stood up, slowly turned around and looked around. Sure enough, Uncle Baichuan was standing about five meters behind him. His whole person was hidden in the darkness where the moonlight could not reach, and he could only see a vague shadow.
"This habit is tiring, isn't it?" Uncle Baichuan took two steps forward, exposing himself to the moonlight, and looked at Ma Tao with the same expressionless face as he spoke.
"Since it's a habit, it doesn't matter if you're tired or not." Ma Tao looked at him and smiled, but he kept warning in his heart.
"You get busy, I'm leaving." Uncle Baichuan observed Ma Tao for a while, left these words, turned around and left.
"Are you looking for something?"
Ma Tao suddenly spoke, and Uncle Baichuan, who was about to leave just now, was stunned and stopped in his tracks.
"No, I came out to use the toilet."
Uncle Baichuan did not turn around and answered with his back to Ma Tao.
"Your shoes are stained with a lot of mud, which means you have been out for a long time. There is still dew on your pants. The air in the mountains and forests at night is humid. You must have gone into the woods, right? It's so late. What could make you anxious in the middle of the night? Come out?" Ma Tao asked, staring at Uncle Baichuan's back.
In fact, Ma Tao can be said to be curious and scared at the moment. If the uncle in front of him is really a gold hunter, then his combat power, even with bare hands, is definitely better than Ma Tao. If he is not the owner of the gold badge, then he will Even more terrifying, the guy who can kill the gold hunter is definitely a legendary level existence. The last legendary or even epic figures that Ma Tao knows about were all a hundred years ago. These are all from Little V. ’s memory, the only warrior who dares to ask this sentence is that he has never offended him. No matter how powerful a person is, he cannot kill people casually, unless he is a perverted murderer.
"I told you, I came out to use the toilet." Uncle Baichuan still didn't turn around, and kept repeating what he just said, without even changing his tone.
"Are you looking for this?" Ma Tao's palms were sweating, but he still took out the gold badge and threw it to him.
This uncle looked ordinary, but now Ma Tao could clearly feel an invisible pressure. The suppressed Ma Tao had difficulty even breathing.
"This is not my thing. If you like it, just take it."
Uncle Baichuan glanced at the golden badge on the ground, never looked at it again, turned around and left.
At the same time, the coercion suddenly disappeared, and Ma Tao collapsed to the ground unable to move.
It was so terrifying. It was like being on the verge of death all the time and feeling relieved. It was the first time I felt that a person's aura could be so powerful that he could easily defeat his opponent without even fighting. Those few minutes were simply a kind of torture. He even lost the courage to resist. Ma Tao absolutely believed that Uncle Baichuan in front of him could kill him anytime, anywhere without even making a sound.
I blame myself for being stupid, why would ordinary people stay here to guard monsters that need to be suppressed by giant cannons, and even spend so many years here peacefully? These all require strength.
Ma Tao, lying on the ground, couldn't help but breathe heavily, trying to calm his beating heartbeat.
"Baichuan has such a personality, don't be surprised." Ma Tao was lying on the ground to catch his breath when another woman's voice appeared, almost frightening him to the point where his blood rushed upstream.
Why is this endless? It's so exciting. Do all the masters in this world like to swim at night?
Turning his head slightly, he saw that the lame middle-aged woman he had seen during the day appeared on the other side. She had obviously watched the whole incident there. Uncle Baichuan called her Lingling. He didn't know if it was because she was here. Baichuan The uncle just chose to leave.
"The golden badge is something that many people dream of." A middle-aged woman named Lingling limped and picked up the golden badge that Ma Tao had thrown on the ground, blew it gently with her mouth, and said with a look of regret.
"It's a pity that it is an ownerless thing..."
Not wanting to be looked down upon, Ma Tao struggled to get up from the ground and looked at the middle-aged woman.
"You don't have to try to trick me, young man, I can tell you that this badge belongs to Baichuan."
A middle-aged woman named Lingling caressed the badge as if caressing her own child, but she finally admitted the identity of the owner of the badge.
"Uncle is a gold hunter? But where is uncle's chariot?"
As expected, Ma Tao, who sat up from the ground, was more or less surprised when he heard the news. But then he thought of the chariot and stared closely at the middle-aged woman's eyes, trying to find something. Unfortunately, Finding nothing, the woman's eyes were calm, as if nothing could make her feel special.
"Yes, to be precise, it was once, but we hope it's not a gold hunter..." The middle-aged woman gently touched the pattern on the badge, seeming to be caught up in some kind of painful past.
"Ever? Why do you say that? Wait? Did you just say you???" Ma Tao stood up, patted the soil in his hands, and felt much better. Then he suddenly realized the big words in the words of this middle-aged woman named Lingling. Discover.
"Golden Badge Bounty Hunter, such a noble title, can bring destruction and death, as well as endless competition. Everything you have represents wealth and glory in the eyes of others. Monsters want to kill you, even humans themselves. I also want to kill you." In the middle-aged woman's closed eyes, a few tears appeared in the corners of the wrinkled eyes, flowing down her cheeks, and falling on the gold badge in her hand, crystal clear.
"How is that possible! The gold hunters are so powerful! Who can stop them!" Ma Tao didn't believe what this woman said, but he didn't know how to refute it.
"Yes, the Golden Hunters are so powerful, so proud, so confident, and each one is so unrivaled and perfect. That's why there are competitions, rankings, and life-and-death duels. In the land of smoke and fire, the Golden Hunters The blood is stained red, the chariots are roaring, and the god of death is cheering. Facing the challenge of a gold hunter of the same level, just for a small badge, do you think this is ridiculous?"
"The gold hunter's challenge is to kill each other? How could such a thing happen... If you don't care, you don't have to accept the challenge. Just don't go!!"
"Little guy, you are too naive. If the matter is solved so easily, how can there be a world war? The most terrifying thing in this world is the human heart. If you don't go, our son will not even find his body as a result of not going. As a result, we were so angry that we blew up the gold hunter's chariot, scrapped our own chariot, and even paid more for it."
The middle-aged woman opened her eyes, looked at the badge of honor in her hand, then gave it to Ma Tao with a sad smile and said, "Do you still like this badge?"
"How can a gold hunter do such a thing, using other people's relatives...this..." Ma Tao wanted to say something else, but suddenly he was stunned. He remembered something.
Wolf, that hunter who is also a gold badge level, that strong man who drives a chariot that is stained red with blood, his beloved wife suddenly disappeared without a trace or any news. The wolf searched everywhere to find her. The whole world, right?
Ma Tao looked at the shining golden badge of glory in the middle-aged woman's hand without speaking for a long time.
"Do you still like this thing? Do you want it?" A voice sounded like a magic spell. The three words "want it" kept echoing in Ma Tao's mind. Seeing that Ma Tao didn't take it, the middle-aged woman asked again.
The image of the bounty hunter collapsed in Ma Tao's heart. Yes, people have desires, desires have needs, and needs have possessiveness. This is an endless cycle that cannot be stopped at all. No one can be desireless. Wuqiu, no one can escape this reincarnation, even gods may fall, but Ma Tao always feels that this is wrong. There must be something wrong, but where exactly is it wrong?
The golden badge in the middle-aged woman's hand slowly enlarged in Ma Tao's eyes, getting bigger and bigger. The light of gold symbolized nobility, status and wealth, but it was also like an invisible giant mouth, swallowing up those who tried to peek at these glory and wealth. For all the souls in the world, Ma Tao seems to be able to hear the calls coming from the golden badge. They are temptations, vanity, greed, and endless evil thoughts. But the shining golden light makes it difficult to tell whether they are demons. Still an angel.
Ma Tao's hand slowly stretched out towards the badge, getting closer and closer, and the light on it became more and more dazzling.
Are you also a person who pursues desires? Yes, I am also a mortal with desires. I am no different from most people. Ma Tao, whose eyes are scattered and blurred, really likes this light, really likes it so much.
But just when Ma Tao's hand was a few centimeters away from the golden badge, he suddenly stopped. The middle-aged woman was just a little surprised when she saw Ma Tao grab the badge in the woman's hand.
"Sure enough, most people can't hide from the desire for power..." The middle-aged woman looked at her empty palms and was about to laugh, but found that Ma Tao, who was holding the badge, did not hold the badge as carefully as the previous people. He hid it in his arms, as if he was afraid of being snatched away by others, but he tossed it in his hands, the badge spinning in his hands, shining with dazzling light.
None of this mattered. What was important was that when Ma Tao looked at the golden badge he was playing with, his eyes were as calm as water, and he did not look like he was immersed in desire at all.
"You have no desire?" the middle-aged woman was stunned.
"No! This is impossible! It is impossible for people to have no desires and desires. Even monks have the desire to seek Buddha. This is impossible!!" The middle-aged woman looked at Ma Tao in front of her in disbelief and waved his hands. It seemed that this was the only way. Make it feel real to her.
"Of course I have desires." Ma Tao chuckled, holding the gold badge in his hand and handing it back to the middle-aged woman.
"What do you mean?" The middle-aged woman was stunned as she held the badge.
"You're right. People can't be without desires. I'm also a human being, but my desire is not glory, money, power, or anything else. The reason why I want to become a gold hunter or a legendary hunter is just It’s to prove that his life is not in vain, in other words, it’s to do something meaningful, something meaningful to everyone, I say this, do you understand?” Ma Tao smiled, smiling very happily.
"Is it meaningful to everyone? If I want your chariot, will you give it to me?" the middle-aged woman asked with a cold snort.
"This is a good question. You must be able to distinguish between what is meaningful and what is being robbed." Ma Tao's words made him happy.
"In other words, you have to be able to tell whether your opponent is an enemy or a friend."
"Smooth talker, can the person who killed my son be a friend!! Baichuan killed him!!" The middle-aged woman suddenly shouted angrily at Ma Tao. After Ma Tao saw Uncle Baichuan leaving, he actually appeared. He walked behind her, but Uncle Baichuan did not listen to her words to kill Ma Tao. Instead, he gently put his hand on the middle-aged woman's shoulder.
"Lingling, we..." Uncle Baichuan opened his mouth, which eventually turned into a long sigh.
"If you had given the gold badge to the other party when he proposed a duel with you, your son might not have died. It was you who was blinded by desire in the first place. A real gold hunter would not be a small gold hunter. His badge can prove it! Because he has a heart of gold, bright and eye-catching." Ma Tao looked at the couple without fear.
"A real gold hunter has a heart of gold..." The middle-aged woman kept repeating Ma Tao's last words, completely stunned.
With a heart of gold, light, hope, bravery, and dedication, the words spoken by the boy in front of him completely shocked Uncle Baichuan.
