January.

Winter in the town seemed to come suddenly, and one morning I quietly climbed up the window lattice, and quickly slipped into the house, and the cold gnawed everywhere.

The town is located in the border area of the wooden pavilion, most of them are surnamed Liu, and the wooden houses built by the mountains look solemn and quaint.

The wooden house of Willow Mountain Forest is at the foot of a small hill. At night, the window of the hut was blown open by the cold wind and slammed against the wall, and he had been sitting since he woke up from his dream.

He is now also an old man with gray temples, and his body has been soaked in the river of time for a hundred years, and has become old and full of ravines.

And what made him feel that he had become a mortal and aging year after year was that he often walked alone on the lively streets of the town, and would stop in a daze after a few steps, recalling the high-spirited years of a hundred years ago.

A hundred years ago, there was a kind of soul mist in the world that was transparent and invisible, and all things in the world absorbed the mist into the body, which could refine the body and nourish the soul.

As a result, countless cultivators began to be born in the human world, who mastered various spells, made contracts with demons, and nourished in the three souls. After that, in order to compete for the territory of cultivation, all things caused the world to be full of gunsmoke and corpses.

Later, ten people and demons stood out, divided the world into ten territories, each occupied one of them, proclaimed himself a prince, and ordered that the name of the prince be passed on to future generations. And some people and demons were dissatisfied with this division, so they started a war again, and were finally expelled by the Ten Marquis to a barren land outside the ethereal sea, and the world was finally able to recuperate.

The Marquis of Aoki, who founded the Wooden Pavilion, fell in this battle, so the name of Marquis Aoki was given to Yanagiyama Forest, who was known as a genius of cultivation at the time. Liu Shanlin in the troubled times was originally a talented boy in the town, who knew that one day he suddenly seemed to have an enlightenment, and the cultivation realm was like a mountain torrent, rushing to the top of the mountain, after the fall of the Aoki Marquis, he was elected by the people of the Muge and the Musi to become the new Aoki Marquis.

But after that, the good times didn't last long, and one day the soul mist evaporated in an instant, like a leaf falling on the ground in the middle of the night, silently, all the cultivators became mortals, and the monsters disappeared with it.

Now, a hundred years have passed since the mist evaporated, and the once flourishing Aoki Houliu Mountain Forest has become an old man who is about to die. He returns to the town where his parents died when he was a child, intending to return to dust.

Liu Shanlin thought of this and sighed. A gust of cold wind blew in from outside the window, and he wrapped the quilt tightly, kept rubbing his hands and muttering, "It's cold, it's cold." ”

The old man's slightly trembling and hoarse voice sank into the whirring wind outside the house.

He looked out the window—the vast sky was obscured by heavy clouds, and the light took on a rough matte texture, finely laid on the ground. The huge trees looked eerie in the chaotic light, and the huge trees stood upright like ghosts in the dark night, and the branches stretched out in all directions showed their teeth and claws in the wind.

Liu Shanlin felt even colder.

He put on the quilt, stepped on cloth shoes, and got up to close the window.

The mountains are undulating, the town's wooden houses stand alone in the mountains, and the valley echoes with the harsh sound of the wind. The clouds in the sky were getting thicker, the light was getting darker, and the cold was raging everywhere.

In a few moments, a rumbling sound came from the clouds, hitting the eardrums with a dull and heavy impact. Liu Shanlin felt that the ground was trembling, wrapped his hands tightly in the quilt, got up and opened the door and went out. He squinted his eyes and frowned at the thick clouds in the sky, always feeling as if some giant beast was about to wake up in the depths of the clouds.

The rumbling sound gradually subsided, but the cold wind blowing from somewhere became more and more rampant, and the wooden houses in the willow mountain forest were blown to squeak. Suddenly, a huge thunderclap exploded in the sky and resounded throughout the world. Liu Shanlin felt his heart hit hard, and then beat violently. He looked at the sky, took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, trying to suppress the restlessness and irritability in his heart.

Before the sharp roar had subsided, another silver bolt of lightning fell from the clouds, a piercing buzz echoing in his ears. He kept his eyes open as hard as he could, and saw a crack in the clouds, a golden liquid mist flowing out of the crack, cascading to the ground and then disappearing into the air.

Liu Shanlin rubbed his eyes and saw a few people standing on the top of the mountain not far away, the sky was dark, and Liu Shanlin couldn't see their faces clearly.

Two days ago, some strangers in fine clothes came to the town, and they took a tall carriage and asked for the most luxurious inn in the town. Liu Shanlin heard from the people in the town that a few of them came from the main city of the Wooden Pavilion and were the big names of our Wooden Pavilion. As for what they came for, some people in the town said that they had fallen in love with the daughter of a certain family, some said that it was for the good wood near the town, and some said that it was because some strange things had happened in the town and spread to the main city of Muge, and the Marquis of Muge Aoki sent them to find out...... For a while, the stories surrounding these outsiders became more and more mysterious, and their arrival also brought excitement and joy to the blandness of the town.

Liu Shanlin came back to his senses, put down the quilt, took a thick long jacket and put it on, and stood motionless under the wooden house.

The thunder roared, the cold wind raged, and Liu Shanlin's face was frozen stiff and pale. After a while, the blood in Liu Shanlin's body began to boil, and the flesh and blood seemed to be awakened by something, and began to become hot.

Liu Shanlin blinked, and several people on the top of the mountain instantly disappeared in place and appeared in front of him.

"Meet Aoki-hou." Several people bowed and clenched their fists.

Liu Shanlin raised his hand and motioned for them to get up.

"After a hundred years, the soul mist has finally descended on the world again." One of them said in a hoarse voice, "I've been mortals for a hundred years." ”

Liu Shanlin looked at it with the light of lightning, and the thick clouds cracked a huge crack, and the golden soul mist flowed out of the crack, falling to the ground and spreading out in all directions, covering the entire town in a short time.

Liu Shanlin closed his eyes, and soul mist gradually gathered around his body. He stretched out his right hand, palm up, and slowly clenched his fist. Countless soul mist instantly entered Liu Shanlin's body, circulating and surging in the flesh and bones. Surrounded by mist, the willow mountain forest rose into the air and came to the top of the mountain where several people had stood before, and several people followed.

The top of the hill is actually a cliff, and you can see the whole town from here. Liu Shanlin stood on the edge of the cliff, and several people stood behind him respectfully.

The rich golden soul mist tightly wrapped the willow mountain forest, and the dusty limbs and hundreds of bones were washed by the mist and gradually became full of vitality.

When people practice in the world, they first resonate with the soul mist between heaven and earth, and then lead the mist into the body to open the three souls, so that the three souls are clear and pure. Secondly, open the seven spirits, and those who open the seven spirits reach the realm of the top of the mountain, and can be the prince of the world.

The realm of the willow mountain forest gradually ascended, and the surrounding fog became more and more dense and majestic. The three souls are invisible, hidden in the body, and the soul mist rotates and washes everywhere. The seven spirits are the points around the body, located in the limbs, the top of the head, the neck, and the heart. The mist is like a dragon, rushing through the holes of aging and swimming in it.

When the fog dissipated, the willow mountain forest gradually appeared.

I saw that he was wearing a moire blue robe with a pale yellow robe inside, his hair was tied behind his head, his head was pinned with a hosta, his hair was like a willow branch, and his eyebrows and eyes were like willow leaves. The white hair has turned black, the wrinkles on the face have disappeared, and the rickety body has become erect. He stood on the edge of a cliff, like a personable weak-crowned son.

He turned his back to the people in the main city of the Wooden Pavilion, and his magnetic voice was swept into the cold wind.

"Under the clouds, we are mortal after all. Now that a hundred years have passed, even if the cultivation realm is transcendent, how many hundred years can I live? We cannot transcend samsara, and can only fall into dust one after another with the wielding of the sickle of time. ”

As the words fell, everyone seemed to see his straight back gradually crumbling down, turning into an old man who was about to die, raising his head with difficulty and looking up at the sky.

The man with a hoarse voice before said, "The prince will surely be immortal for a thousand years. The rest of the men followed suit.

After a while, a circle of ripples suddenly rippled in mid-air, and a man in white with wind patterns on his face walked out of it, and he said with a smile on his face: "Mountains and forests, don't come to harm." ”

Liu Shanlin looked up at the man in mid-air, and also smiled, "Don't come unharmed, Brother Fengqing." ”

The rest of the people bowed and said, "Meet the wind rising." ”

The man in white nodded to signal that they didn't have to be restrained, and then put his hands behind his back and said, "A hundred years, when the fog comes again, the world will be lively again." ”

As soon as the words fell, a thunderclap sounded in the clouds, and the crack in the cloud became even more huge, and a majestic soul mist surged down from the gap.

A few old people in the town who have survived to this day have tears in their eyes, look at the vision in the sky, and slowly close their eyes. They made it to this moment after all, but they couldn't hold on any longer.

Their snow-white sparse hair and the wrinkles on their faces were like mountains, and hundreds of years had cut their shells, and even the once invincible cultivators had not been able to escape samsara and sink into the dust.