Sounds like some kind of trick?

In order not to waste the old man's energy, Thor did not ask any questions, but nodded solemnly and followed the old man's instructions.

The old man pulled out a strange light blue candle and handed it to Thor, who lit it on the ground.

The candle head was very short, it didn't seem to have much time left, and it was different from other ordinary candles when lit, and it didn't smell like it burned.

"Find a position where you feel relaxed, sit or lie down. ”

Then clear your mind and let go of superfluous distractions. ”

"It's a spiritual technique, similar to the meditation of the mages. ”

"The early stage may not have much effect on your cultivation, but as your strength increases, if one day you are lucky enough to stand at a certain height, you will know that you are your worst enemy. ”

Sol sat casually against the wall, naturally relaxing his body, one leg stretched flat and the other bent, his wrists resting on his knees.

"Close your eyes and start remembering. ”

"I don't know what you've been through, but you'll have to look it up in your own memory. ”

"You need some emotions to help you with it, anger, despair, or fear of life and death. In short, the more intense the emotions, the better. ”

Thor closed his eyes and began to let his consciousness flow.

The persecution of the world, the cold eyes and fists around him, seem to be a reason for anger. There are also those days of loneliness and struggle, and the madness of resolutely dying that occasionally jumps in the bottom of my heart, it seems that it can also be a source of despair.

"It's not enough, it's more intense. ”

The old man's heavy drink suddenly exploded in his ears, and then intermittently guided Thor.

Thor could only frown even more, searching back and forth in his short life, though he wasn't sure what he was looking for.

Very suddenly, a beautiful figure suddenly loomed in the depths of his mind.

And as the figure faded, like a flame burning through the dead grass, Thor felt his consciousness ignite in an instant.

It was the smell of hatred, strong and deep.

The old man's staccato words still rang in his ears, but the voice was getting softer and farther away.

By the time Thor came to his senses, he found himself standing in a strangely wide space.

There was nothing around, and the feet seemed to be stepping on the surface of the lake, and the pure blue of the jewel stretched out towards the vast surroundings, and there was no edge in sight.

The sky and beyond, still a blur of darkness, but there seemed to be some kind of glimmer on the surface of the lake, enough to see the surroundings clearly.

Thor was shocked by the sudden change of scene, but he soon realized that it was a small piece of strange candle head that had some kind of hallucinatory effect, and his own emotions also played a role in it.

Before he had time to think further, Thor suddenly noticed a black humanoid shadow a few paces away in front of him.

The black shadow was very strange, as if it was made up of an ethereal black mist, and it was disembodied.

Is that...... Myself?!

This assumption was unfounded, because the dark shadow had no specific appearance, only height and vague silhouette similar to his own, but Thor's instinct still immediately popped up this strange thought.

As Thor observes the other side, the Shadow suddenly attacks, and Thor notices that he is also using a dagger.

The battle happened so suddenly, and Thor could only pull out the dagger he had with him to deal with it, and he was a little embarrassed in a hurry.

After the fight, Thor found that the opponent also lacked combat skills like himself, and his movements were stiff, but although the black shadow's attack seemed to be disorderly, there was a kind of unending madness.

This kind of inexperienced combat is not exciting, more like two reckless trapped beasts fighting for their lives.

After a fierce collision, two bloody wounds appeared on Thor's arms and shoulders.

At some point in the gap between the dark shadow raising his dagger, Thor finally seized the opportunity to stab his own dagger into the opponent's body. Then he pulled it out with a fierce face, and quickly caused two penetrations in different positions on the opponent's body.

Thor then saw blood-like black smoke flow from the shadow's body, tumbling and falling down the dagger in his hand, but the battle didn't end there.

The shadow's movements only faltered slightly, and then the raised dagger stubbornly slipped into its original trajectory.

Thor was stunned for a moment at such a close distance, and then he suddenly felt an unavoidable coldness run through his throat.

It's a weird feeling.

After a brief chill in his throat, accompanied by an insurmountable pain, Thor even saw blood spurting into the air from the incision in his neck.

Instinctively raising his hand to cover his throat, Thor felt that his breathing began to be difficult, and then the blood overflowed the wound and he could not breathe completely, and finally the whole person fell to his knees on the ground.

In a short moment, he saw countless fragmentary and inspecific images flickering in his consciousness, his vision began to shake, and the whole world around him shattered like a crumbling crystal, and then a tiring darkness swept over .......

"Whew...... Whew..."

In the blink of an eye, Thor was kneeling on the ground of the barn, sweating profusely, holding the ground with one hand and holding his neck with the other, panting violently, like a drowning man who had lucky enough to crawl back to the shore.

"That's your conscious space, and everything there stems from your hallucinations. The enemy you face is the result of your fiercest emotions, and you will not die in victory or defeat, and he will be your enemy for the rest of your life. ”

"Repetitive sword swinging practice or actual combat training builds physical strength, while 'cohesion' is a special mental technique to find one's weaknesses by fighting oneself. ”

In the end, the old man glanced at Thor with a complicated look, and added:

"I don't know where the hatred in your heart came from or how far it has piled up, but I hope you don't waste the rest of your life on it. ”

Thor was unable to respond to the old man's words for a while, so he could only reluctantly nod.

This kind of mental training was not easy, and it only made him feel a strong dizziness similar to deep hunger in just one time.

It took a long time for Thor to calm down from his violent gasps, and he seemed to have been killed by his own black shadow at the last moment of his consciousness space, and the extremely real illusion of death made him still have lingering palpitations.

In between breaks, Thor sat against the wall and watched the old man on the haystack.

"What are you fighting for?"

In Thor's mind, everyone has their own reasons to fight, some people wield their swords to protect the important people in their lives, some people dream of carving their names on their family crests, and some people are entangled with evil in the dark.

"I don't know!"

The old man gave a reply that Thor had not expected.

With a move of his remaining right hand, the old man lowered his gaze and looked at his palm, as if he was holding a shining and sharp sword there.

"I've dedicated my life to my swordsmanship, but in the end I'm sad to find that it's not the most important thing in my life. ”

The old man's expression was a little stunned, and his thoughts seemed to drift to distant memories.

"When I was seventeen years old, I dreamed of being the first person in my village to destroy dragons. ”

"I walked through the forests for months, following the dragon's tracks in the wilderness, and finally I found the big guy in a valley. ”

"It's a pity that when I faced it, although I felt fearless, I misestimated each other's strength and ended up losing my left hand. ”

When I returned to the village, many people asked me if I would take revenge on it, and I replied proudly, "I will not die. ”

"But actually, I never cared about the dragon again. ”

At the end, the old man stared at the hand that had once held the sword, and his voice gradually dimmed.

"It seems that since then, I have never ...... Nothing has been done. ”

Thor was silent, not knowing what to say.

The old man is about to reach the end of his life, and any comfort at such a moment is meaningless.

A person's life, whether long or short, will definitely not be speechless if he really has a heart, but the old man simply mentioned a certain fragment of his life, and it was still a past that had long been sunk in the river of years.

Obviously, the old man was not satisfied with his life.

Perhaps when the old man faced the dragon at the age of seventeen, he lost not only a hand, but also his sword, the sword of courage.

And that sword was never found in the rest of his life.

A violent cough broke the silence around him.

After a while, the old man pushed the day's food to Thor as it was, and then waved his hand at Thor with a kind smile.

"Take it, there is no point in taking it anymore, I can clearly feel that I am about to cross the line of death. ”

"Thank you for your gifts and companionship these past few days, you and I have said that. ”

"The last moments of my life, allow me to miss them alone. ”

Thor raced through the alleys, running through the darkness.

He suddenly remembered that there were two parchment sacks of ale left at the bottom of the well, which the old man would need, Thor thought.

There's not much left to do.

By the time he ran back to the barn with his drinks, the old man was gone, and only a human-shaped depression was left in the haystack, proving that someone had ever stayed here.

Thor then remembered that he had been concentrating on high-intensity study for the past three days, and had forgotten to ask the old man's name all the time, and the old man had never asked him.

It's like two strangers who don't know each other, meet occasionally, say a few words, and each embark on their own journey.

Thor remembered that he had offered to prepare a cemetery for the old man, but the old man only shook his head flatly.

"I don't need a place to bury bones, at the last moment, I will go to find an enemy, and the warrior should die in battle. ”

Sticks and one-legged footprints stretched out of town in the snow, but Thor didn't follow.

Maybe the old man has gone to seek revenge on the Blighted Demon Serpent at this moment, or maybe he is facing a giant dragon alone, continuing the dream of his youth.

Or maybe he just wanted to leave this world silently.

Who knows?

Standing in the cold and dark alleyway, Thor seemed to see the back of an old and lonely person, pushing open the door with difficulty and shaking away in the snowflakes.

Never again.

Some sadness rolled and spread in Thor's heart, leaving him at a loss.

Holding his heart, Thor silently bowed deeply in the direction the old man had left.

Maybe this world is like this, many people are born without knowing why, many people live carelessly, and many die quietly.