(a)

Spring flowers and autumn leaves, summer waterfalls and winter frost. This monster mountain is not short of scenery all year round, and what it lacks is people who appreciate the scenery.

When the ice flowers replace the red leaves and the snow covers the loess, the majestic posture of the Nine Heavens Waterfall will condense into a crystal curtain in the cold wind. The tengus who have a sense of leisure tend to gather in groups on the stone platform behind the ice curtain to enjoy the wonders of this one-season season.

However, it was all the view of the southern side of Yokai Mountain.

What Nalan Twilight and Yakumo Zi were climbing at this time was the north of the Monster Mountain, which was barren, steep, and inaccessible. This place is backlit and leeward all year round, and there is no rain and dew in spring and summer, but it has to face the cold north wind in autumn and winter. Climbing all the way up from the foot of the mountain, Yakumo didn't even see a decent tree, and there were low, withered yellow shrubs all over the place.

Of course, there is still snow, and the snow scene cannot be called. The slopes are too steep, the wind is too strong, the snow is mixed with the yellow sand, it's dirty, rough, and worst of all, it's slippery. Because of the undeveloped sake, the rocks and shallow pits everywhere are like mines, buried under the snow, if you really fall to the ground and roll twice on the ground, it will really not be washed clean in this life.

"Isn't such a difficult environment an excellent place for trial?" Nalan Twilight stepped on the boulder in front of him, looked back at Yakumo Purple, and said with a smile, "Don't you think so, Purple?"

"I ...... Ahem...... I'm going to kill you......"

Purple turned her back to the cold wind, feeling her back frozen into a popsicle in the cold winter whistling, and at the same time, with the strength to feed, she climbed upward. Her face has never been better since the day this winter training began. Seeing her so virtuous, of course, Nalan Yu smiled even more happily.

The two of them are now wearing the same tracksuit, the difference is that the one on Nalan Twilight is clean and spotless, and the one on Purple is dirty and wet, as if it had just been fished out of the stinky ditch. And she herself is unkempt, looking like a refugee, compared with Nalan Twilight, who has smooth blood and radiant face after exercise, it is really a heaven and an underground.

In fact, she had fallen at least two or three times before she climbed here, and she had rolled down a distance of one or two hundred meters alone. Sweat and snow mixed with fine grit, sticking to her back, and being frozen into ice lumps by the bone-eating cold wind, it was so uncomfortable. On top of this, she had to be buried by Nalan from time to time, and endured both mental and physical torture.

She Yakumo Purple is really bad for eight lifetimes, and she has fallen to this step today...... No, just hibernation is worth the pain of purgatory in the tenth life, and the hard work of losing weight is just a "giveaway" in comparison.

Thinking so, she reached out and touched her belly, feeling the fat that was gradually heating up, and then she tightened her brows, gritted her teeth, and took a big step forward.

Suffering that others cannot endure, bearing the weight that others cannot bear, and silently climbing to their own "peak" is the way of life of the great monsters! Those short-sighted miscellaneous fish who are short of sight and who are at ease with a little wealth will not understand this state of mind.

"Oh-"

Nalan Yu looked at Zi's step-by-step posture, but refused to slack off at all, and couldn't help but sigh:

"This snail looks angry!"

If he could say a good word from his foul mouth, it would definitely be a harbinger of the end of the world.

"You kid......"

Purple glared at him fiercely and took the next step. The more the anger burned in her heart, the greater the strength in her legs, and the tiredness and discomfort that the ghost-like haunt wrapped around her weakened a lot.

The monster sage Yakumo Purple turns anger into power and struggles to restore the devil's body of the past.

"When I catch up with him," she thought to herself, "he'll know how to write cruel." ”

However, the next step, however, her front foot stepped on a rocky surface covered with ice, and then it slipped catastrophically......

"Uh-oh...... Wow-"

I have to say that the way she fell down was quite like a snail who failed to climb a wall: she shrunk into a ball, and then began to roll, and wherever she rolled, there was a new starting point.

"Come on, Zi Ma......"

Nalan sighed as she watched Zi's figure disappear into the rolling dust.

"The road ahead is still very long......

(b)

"Hah...... Ha ......"

Purple lay on the flat ground that she hadn't seen for a long time, gasping for breath with difficulty. In addition to stains and sweat, there are many bright red wounds on her body.

How long was the last section? a kilometer, two kilometers? Purple couldn't remember, just as she couldn't remember how many times she had fallen, and she only knew one thing now, and that was that she had finally done it.

The place where she was located was the only flat land on the northern slope of the Monster Mountain, and it was also the only place where she could rest. Climb a little further up, and you will find the Tengu Village at the top of the mountain, but Yakumo Zi doesn't want to go up for the time being, she doesn't want to be seen by anyone until she loses weight, especially those Hachipo Tengu.

If her appearance is seen by the "Heavenly Demon", one of the "sages" who are also Gensokyo, then she is really going to die, on a social level.

Around her, there were many ruins, and empty houses that had not collapsed, but were already dilapidated and crumbling—once a village, but now it was deserted.

"I can't believe that anyone would build a village in a place like this. Nalan Twilight walked around, returned to Purple's side, and said, "There is no arable land, no clean water source, not even a few intact flat land. In this bird place, there was a landslide and avalanche on the top of the mountain, and I am not exaggerating to say that the whole village was buried and no one survived. If anyone wants to push the limits to survive, they should definitely make their home here. ”

"I guess," he continued, "they must have voted to hang the undercover tengu agent who proposed to build a village here, and then roll up the bunks and move into the human world." ”

Nalan Yu's words eased Zi's exhaustion a little, she took a free breath, and said "hehe" without smiling, and then said:

"That was a long time ago, and besides, this village is not a human village......"

"Oh?"

Her words aroused Nalan Twilight's curiosity, and he squatted down, pricked up his ears, and said with interest:

"I want to hear about it. ”

"Even if you ask me, I can only repeat to you what I read from the book......" Yakumo Zi smiled bitterly, "After all, I'm not a person who witnessed it!"

"It's okay, it's okay to retell. "How much do you know about the history of this abandoned village?"

"You should have heard of the 'ghost' race, Nalan Twilight?" Zi asked.

"I've heard a little. "All I know is that they are powerful, invulnerable, and that they were at war with humans, but then they disappeared. ”

"That's right, disappeared ......"

Lying flat on her back, looking up at the gray clouds in the sky, she continued:

"Actually, Oni used to be the leader of those tengu, or rather, the leader of all youkai. They are the most powerful yokai, and it is not an exaggeration to say that they are the spokesmen of the image of 'yokai'. When the moon is full, they descend the mountain in groups, making great noise, and doing all kinds of evil things, calling them 'Hundred Ghosts Walking in the Night'. ”

"So, what about later?"

"Then they 'disappeared'. Some people say that he was destroyed by heroes, and some people say that he was expelled by his subordinate monsters because he was unpopular with the people. In my opinion, neither of these statements is true. There is no human being who can defeat all the demons on their own, not even the Hakurei shrine maiden, and as for the youkai under them......"

Speaking of this, Yakumo Zi smiled:

"They still miss the era of '100 ghosts walking at night'......"

At this time, with a gust of cold wind sweeping by, a ghostly cry sounded between the wreckage of this abandoned village, which sounded quite lonely and mournful. Nalan Yu casually brushed his wind-blown hair, and then asked:

"What do you think is the real reason?"

"I think, I don't think it matters, really. Those human beings who can only live for a lifetime will ask for an explanation for everything, because it will allow them to die peacefully and securely. Which youkai who can live for hundreds of lifetimes values the 'cause' and the 'passage'? I only know one thing, and I only know one thing clearly, and that is that the ghost has disappeared. As for why they disappeared and where exactly they went, it doesn't matter, I don't care. ”

"Hehe......" Nalan Yu grinned, "that sounds like a good fit for your youkai's logic." ”

"I think it's the logic of your vampires that is puzzling. Yakumo Zi said in turn, "Everything requires a solution, and everything must find the 'source' and 'result', just like animals pursue food and humans pursue wealth, persistently pursuing the primordial power." That endless life is all wasted on love and hate, power and power, ignorance and knowledge-seeking, which are the mundane things that only human beings can care about. One thing, the son of Goari is right, you vampires are not youkai, you are humans in the skin of youkai. ”

"That's because we were all human at one time...... Except for the 'second generation' old guys. Nalan Twilight explained, "Our thoughts, you monsters who have never been human, will not understand. ”

"Maybe......" Yakumo said ambiguously, "Anyway, this used to be a ghost village, and now, it's a ......"

"Meow—"

A cat's meow not far away attracted the attention of both of them. When Nalan Twilight raised his head, he saw a large group of wild cats of different colors, breeds, and sizes, neatly lined up on the dilapidated ancient street, blocking the entire road.

They were squatting in the same position, their tails all facing the same direction, and the hundreds of pairs of cat's eyes of different colors were looking at Nalan Twilight and Yakumo Purple in unison. This formation is really like a small "night walk of a hundred ghosts".

Corrected, it's "Hundred Meow Day".

"You gathered quietly while we were chatting, right?"

Thinking so, Nalan Twilight saw the black cat at the head stamping up with elegant steps.

It was a black cat with amber eyes, significantly larger than other wild cats, and more handsome and imposing. She wears a large brass earring on each pair of big ears that stretch out to the sides, and she sways up and down when she walks, quite like a "black cat boss". However, the most unique thing about it is the tail.

This black cat has two tails.

A cat with one tail is a cat, but a cat with two tails is not, that's called a cat, and a monster is also.

"Well, now, it's a village of wildcats. ”

Zi looked at the two-tailed black cat that was slowly walking and smiled shallowly. Next, Nalan Twilight watched the strange cat, in a burst of white mist rising out of thin air, turning into the form of a girl.

"It's been a long time, Purple-sama! First time we met, this good gentleman! My name is Orange, and I'm the Shikigami of Shiki-sama!"

The black cat girl with two tails bowed deeply in front of Nalan Twilight, and said politely.