[The first issue of the portrait is written by Ni Hong, can you guess who it is? ] I did. 】

The starry sky fell silent, the heat of the day faded behind the horizon, and all that accompanied me was the heartbeat and the calmness of the world.

I entered this desert a week ago, my bags empty, and my heart empty. It's a journey without a purpose, and maybe the end is death, or getting out and going back to all that suffocating everything. My horse was frightened and ran away when the sand swept away for the first time, or rather, I let it go, and the creature should have its own destiny, it can do whatever it wants, and then find a way to save itself.

"How is this holiday arranged?" Xiao Tian asked me.

"Maybe going out to play," I shifted my weight between my feet and put my hands in my pockets, "I'm not going to prepare, I just read some idle books, but things don't necessarily go the way I want to, we've all been through too many vacations." ”

His blue pupils turned inky black in the night, and there was still a lilac smile on his lips and teeth, "Okay, I'm thinking about that desert, you know, I've been talking about that lately, I'm curious." ”

"No," I shook my head, "I don't want to go to the desert unless I'm crazy and I'll lose my heart in the desert, and I won't go near the desert until I lose it." ”

He brushed his bangs and looked a little tired, "That's a pity, have a good holiday." ”

And then...... Then something happened that I should have been unforgettable, but the violent impact washed the fragments of memory into the unknown corner, and I never felt happy again.

Later, I entered this ghost place where only the sun was left except for sand cacti and mirages, and I felt eight points of despair, one point of luck, and one point of confusion.

Rumor has it that there is a lost pyramid in the depths of the Logor Desert, where witches and priestesses have been fighting for centuries. This legend has been circulating in the academy every few years, and just after the ceremony this year, the festive atmosphere made everyone more active and curious, and the explorers poured in, cutting off the outside world from them, and there was no more news.

Maybe it would be better to sink in this endless place, the sea will contain every drop of water, and the warmth and dreams make it no longer scary to be lost.

A fire flattened the entire village and left no one alive.

When I arrived, all that was left was ashes. The village is full of ordinary people, and they have almost no ability to resist in the face of natural and man-made disasters, let alone ...... The aura of imprisoned magic that enveloped the entire village was wanton and unrestrained, and there was no intention of concealing it at all.

In my village, a hundred years ago, I was sent to the magic academy in the far north to practice, and every time I came back with the enthusiasm of returning home. From now on, it's all gone. It's like I'm the only one left in the world.

When I woke up, tears seemed to soak the book that was used as a pillow, and my eyes still touched the endless night, the stars were like dust, and the silent song enveloped my whole body.

After all, I still remembered it, and some memories don't need to be recorded at all, they are unforgettable, and they can't be thrown away. So what am I here for, to bring the legendary powerful witches and priests back to life? Or give me the power to take revenge?

I remember when I was younger, my grandmother liked to collect all kinds of herbs and sort them by smell and color, and she said that each herb was well-intentioned and that people need their strength when they are vulnerable. She was often sick in her early years, and when she was sick, she took her collection of medicinal materials by feeling, and the miraculous thing is that almost all diseases were treated like this, and gradually became a good doctor after a long illness, and she became a well-known doctor.

Later, when she became less sick, she began to observe people's illnesses, and the familiar diseases were naturally cured, and the unfamiliar ones were prescribed new prescriptions according to her intuition. In this way, there will naturally be biased mistakes, and everyone in the village knows the story of grandma, and they will not say anything if they occasionally miss, after all, there is no better doctor than her.

But occasionally, there will be strangers, who are not accustomed to the soil and water and have all kinds of strange diseases, and they come to grandma for treatment in many ways. Grandma never refused, but occasionally she still missed, and some strangers had a good temper and some had a bad temper. I've seen some fierce ones that just smash things.

When I was twelve years old, a stranger, fierce and vicious, wanted to beat someone. I hid behind the door, filled with grief and anger. Then, a flame erupted in his face, and he ran out, and my grandmother and I ran out. At that time, Xiao Tian and his father, who were passing by, recognized my magical talent and brought me into the academy.

"It's okay." Xiao Tian's father was a tall and thin mage, and he sprinkled a circle of light around my house, "No one can hurt your grandma here, believe my dear, when you return from your studies, you can protect the people you love." ”

Xiao Tian looked at me not far away, his blue eyes shining with a carefree glow.

On day 8, there was little water and food left. In fact, experienced mages don't rely much on food, I just prefer this ordinary way of living, relying on everything the sun gives, in the arms of Mother Earth, strong and simple.

The wind around me suddenly stopped, it was very quiet and quiet, my hair stood on end, and a defensive circle slapped on the ground, and after the shooting, I saw the wind spinning wildly in all directions, surrounding me in the middle, crushing the circle, and I was exposed. If this is a naturally occurring storm, all I can say is that the whole world looks like it's going to be against me, if not ......

I lost consciousness.

Tall and wide halls, stone steps, stone seats, moon-white fluorescent stones.

I was alone, lying in the center, looking at the four directions, and my heart was depressed.

A simple storm has left me helpless, my existence and requests may not matter at all, and who will help me.

"You're awake." A crisp voice came, and the sound was like a murmuring spring, and my frustration was slightly soothed.

A girl stood at the door of the main hall, her hands behind her back, her green pupils holding a pool of still water, her eyebrows gently depicting the foggy hidden forest mountain, a verdant, snow-white feet standing naked on the stone ground, like moss carrying a jade statue.

"What's your name?" The girl walked beside me in small steps, a familiar but unreminiscent fragrance lingering on the tip of my nose, and she shook her head, singing nursery rhymes and asking me questions.

"Ni Hong." I replied. By etiquette and my usual curiosity, I should have asked her name, but I wasn't in the mood.

She nodded and continued walking.

The hallway is still spacious, with rooms on one side and the door closed; On one side is the transparent glass garden with many strange plants and plants, among which there are many herbs that my grandmother once regarded as treasures, and sunstones hang above it, and the golden light is warm and comfortable. A sense of intimacy arises.

"Quiet and warm, born according to it, existing in the world, all into my heart."

I muttered, only to be surprised to hear the exact same sentence from the girl's mouth. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, but this is what I "read" from my vision. The mage has a sense of time and space, and I liked it for a while. Through this sense of touch, dead things can also communicate with me, and loneliness is relieved a lot.

At the end of the corridor, in another hall, the door was not closed, and two women sat on a stone bench playing chess, and each time the light changed subtly.

"Well, you can go in." The girl waved at me, and her body became transparent until it melted into the air.

I vaguely guessed where this was, and a line of excitement flashed through my heart, and then I sank into the water and disappeared.

In the New Moon Year, the seal in the center of the continent was loosened, and tens of thousands of resentful spirits escaped.

After the seal was re-strengthened, the resentful spirits that needed to be dealt with had spread all over the world, and the major academies and cities had entered a state of alert. After the end of the war, one race was wiped out, one race declined, and the pain brought by the war was shocking, and the voice of anti-war has been resounding to this day. Those who died have turned into resentful spirits, and they have not disappeared to this day.

I knew very well that ordinary people could not defend themselves against these spirits, so I needed to go back and protect the villagers, as I had thought at the beginning of my quest, to protect the people I loved.

The college does not allow students to leave the hospital, Xiaotian helped me run out, trekked back to the village, fortunately, it did not become a ruin. We drove away all the wraiths, and then set up a large protective array around the village, draining all my energy. After a three-day break, Xiaotian and I returned to the academy, and when he left, he was pale, and his grandmother gave him a few special herbs. I didn't know what kind of herb it was, but I knew that even if my grandmother's herb occasionally made mistakes, at least it wouldn't kill people, not to mention that Xiaotian was a mage, so I didn't ask anything.

"You have a lot of doubts, speculations, guilt, and most importantly, despair."

The priest dropped a son and stroked the wand in his hand, the deep obsidian, and the seal of Donorosoa, a symbol of death. The black robe wrapped loosely around her body, a faint glow looming over it, and eyes deeper than obsidian looked at the chessboard as if melancholy was wandering in it.

Truly. I responded mentally and opened my mouth, but I couldn't get the words out.

The witch was a moon-white robe, with a gold-rimmed pinched cap around her peaked hat, a bracelet and string around her flawless wrists, which swayed gently with a slight ripple-like rhythm when she fell, and a pale gold dress with some runes embroidered on it, and I felt dizzy after a few glances, so I lowered my gaze. Her feet were also unshoeed, with some shallow runes tattooed.

"Time Curse, Earth Shrinking Spell, Ember Soul Curse." I could see God and pronounce the names. These are some of the spells that I haven't learned yet but know a little about, and I didn't expect anyone to tattoo them on their feet.

The witch seemed to smile, and the next second she appeared in front of me, her eyes were no more than ten centimeters away from me, and her green pupils reminded me of the girl just now, and I couldn't read their meaning at this time.

"It's not polite to read people's spells." The witch said, "But you're smart, and the average student doesn't know that." ”

I looked at her, not knowing what to say.

"You who like to be silent are not pleasant, but what happened is too heavy, and it is understandable." The witch straightened up and teleported back to her place, continuing to focus on the board.

I opened my mouth and heard my own hoarse voice: "You guys...... Know my business? ”

"yes, not only do we know, but we're going to ask you for help." The witch held her cheek with one hand and frowned, looking a little distressed, "Otherwise, ordinary people will not be able to see us." ”

"You're here for two things. The first thing is about your village and the villagers, and the second thing is your friends at the academy, well- I think about it, it's called Xiaotian, isn't it? He had broken into the desert, and indeed many children had been fond of coming in and having a look at it in recent times. ”

"But how can the 'almighty' witches and priests be so good, there are always people who have to pay the price, and the academics turn a blind eye, it's quite helpless."

The witch babbled a lot, and the priest remained motionless, without raising an eyebrow.

I bit my lip, my thoughts a little confused. Pay the price, at what cost? If you want their lives, is it already ......

Little Heaven......

After returning to the hospital, Xiaotian closed the door for a few days. I was too busy studying to be distracted.

The ceremony is a triennial ceremony, and in addition to the dean's speech and various ceremonies, there are some more formal assessments, and those who excel in the assessment can get something unexpected as a reward. Diligence is indispensable in cultivation, and if there are external conditions to reduce the time and energy for penance, naturally no one will refuse.

The college is a three-level study system, and the first level is three years, and I have witnessed two college ceremonies, and the competition is very fierce, so the pressure is not small, and I use my free time to practice every day. Even if it's magic that I can't touch for the time being, I'll go and see it all in general. Grandma said that it's okay for people to bump and bump in life, and they can't always be idle. She often said this with a smile and then went up the hill to find new herbs. I didn't understand it, I saw something respectable in her, and slowly, internalized it into my bone marrow.

I don't know how many days later, Xiaotian came to me. He looked like everything was fine, but he didn't say what had happened in the past few days, and if he didn't say, I wouldn't ask.

It's just that I have a strange feeling that I am a lot more relaxed in the face of him, and the depression I felt when I escaped from the academy before seems to have not appeared.

"It's been a mess out there this year," he said slowly, chewing on the grassroots, "I don't know when we'll be able to deal with those things, and if we can't deal with them, we'll alarm some people, and the cost will be too great." Looking at it from another angle, it can be regarded as an opportunity, at least this year's ceremony will be very interesting. ”

"Hmm." I nodded, my fingers running around my chestnut curls, distracted.

It's a small pyramid, and I need to go in and pick a treasure to bring out.

"It's a test." The witch smiled mysteriously and elegantly, the bell in her right hand touched the bracelet, and the air trembled slightly, "You can cast spells at will, you can take everything along the way, but only one piece is brought out in the end." ”

I don't believe there are no traps in this place, but they do. Water streams, fire grounds, spider swarms, sword formations, and even imprison spells, the high-level kind.

From the moment I walked into the desert, I never thought about coming out alive. From the moment I walked into this pyramid, I was determined to die. In the academy, I majored in the study of magic circles, and I slapped out a magic circle with one palm, and I learned a lot of other scattered things, and I was able to deal with it quite smoothly at the moment of life and death.

The treasures seen along the way are dizzying, and there are many things that the top people in the continent will also covet, which shows that the witch and priest are not simple. But they weren't what I wanted, and even if I had a magic weapon that could destroy a city, it would be useless to find the person I was looking for. What's more, magic weapons are to be raised, I am a little mage, my background is slight, and I can't afford to raise it for the time being.

The most dangerous and tempting is undoubtedly the Heart-Killing Mirror, a legendary magic weapon that can destroy people's hearts and collect all the souls of the world. I quietly watched the demons, ghosts, snakes, gods and the stability of the present world in the illusion, I saw my grandmother and Xiaotian, I saw the tutor and the dean of the academy, and after a moment of nostalgia, I shattered them. If you have no heart, you will not be killed.

After the illusion is broken, the Heart-Killing Mirror is an ownerless object that can be taken away or used. Its function is to look at the world, find all the realms, and do whatever you want. To put it simply, I can find clues in everything I want. The premise is to do the confession binding, and once I confess the Lord, I have to leave this pyramid because I can only take it out.

I stood for a long time, the Heartkiller Mirror reflecting the cold light in the light of the moonstone, the darkness enveloping me heavily, and somewhere deepest and deepest, I heard my own heartbeat.

That's not the answer I'm looking for.

The layer of confinement spells around the village, the breath on it is [ink], a potion created by my grandmother, she said can refresh the mind, a small bottle can keep the senses and divine sense sensitive for a day, but the materials are very small, and her reserves are not much.

After consulting some books in the courtyard, I found that the function of [Ink] may be more than that, its energy structure is somewhat similar to that of the withering elixir, and the function of [withering rope] is to squeeze mana and increase the power of destruction spells.

So the people who slaughtered the village were the people who could configure the level of [Withered Suo]? As far as I know, there are very few such people in the entire continent, and they are basically hidden in places where ordinary people can't find them, will they go to great lengths to destroy a village full of ordinary people?

When I appeared at the end of the corridor with Xiaotian, the priest was standing in front of the glass window, looking at the plants intently.

"When you only have one chance, you give up the whole village to save him." The priest said dreamily, as if to himself, "Why? ”

I looked up at the side of her face, and there were no wrinkles and no scent of rice, replaced by a sheen that would daunt death. The priesthood is the profession closest to the soul and death, has heard the voices of the ancients, knows the hearts of all people, but she only runs away from herself.

"Because I don't want to indulge in illusions anymore." I said softly, "At least he's real, even if it's a very simple and small truth." You can easily kill us, but I stick to my choice. ”

The priest turned his head, his deep eyes looking straight at me, and there was a transparent light behind her, and the face of the light and shadow changed, the witch, the grandmother, the villagers, and the little girl, and so on.

It's all fake, a boring game created by a man of great power, and I'm the only participant.

The priest's body began to become transparent, and a tear froze in the corner of his eye.

"A hundred years ago, after he left, my heart died."

"I exhausted all the illusions in this world, asked about death, asked about medicine, poured all my heart and soul into creating dreams, and he never looked back at me."

"I'm not hopeful anymore. I can only save my heart. ”

"Whoever goes into the desert, every one loses his heart, and none of them can get it back. Only you...... Only you gave me the answer, I should have accepted it a long time ago......"

Her appearance changed several times, and at last she became a young, tired woman, a countenance that the moon god could not describe, I dare say, and the mere look at those emerald eyes enchanted me. At this moment, she looked at me deeply, her face changed from time to time with joy and sorrow, and at the end, she sighed softly.

"When did you see that...... I should have done it seamlessly. ”

"After I went back to the village to get rid of the evil spirit, you gave him some medicine." I looked away and began to organize my thoughts, "Those medicines are used to ward off evil spirits, but why does my grandmother, a person who perceives herbs by relying on her own understanding and feelings of life, understand this, and why does she happen to understand the ratio of ancient prescriptions...... If I hadn't happened to read an ancient pharmacy book, I think this would have been missed. ”

"Probably when we left the hospital, he was haunted by a powerful spirit...... You are so strong, you naturally have a way to get rid of those things with a wave of your hand, but you don't want to, you just gave some medicine for Xiaotian to overcome by himself. But I have to admit that it was right, he liked it. ”

"A game of more than ten years, a dream that will eventually come to an end, you ruined my family affection and accommodation for nearly twenty years, just to create a qualified chess piece, and then help you find a way to get out......" I shook my head mockingly, "Weak, it's really cheap......"

She looked at me in a complicated way, speechless.

"I'm leaving now." After thinking for a moment, I took a deep breath and looked up into her eyes, "You're not going to stop you, are you?" ”

She waved her hand, and the sound of horses' hooves could be heard in the distance.

I smiled, turned around and hugged Xiao Tian, and looked back from his shoulder, the horse that I had released casually was running towards me.

In fact, there is one more thing I did not say, that the perception of life and nature has always been a talent that I am proud of, and no one is aware of it.