............

Nothing was said all night.

After another peaceful night in the wasteland, we prepared to cross the last moat between us and the Holy City, the Cloud Stream.

Because I had never heard of this "cloud stream" before, I also went to the head of the team to chat with the team leader.

According to him, Yunjian can be said to be the most undulating area in the entire wasteland, roughly distributed in a huge circle around the Holy City. Essentially, Yunjian is a large annular rift valley with widths ranging from tens of meters to hundreds of meters long. As for the depth, it's almost bottomless, and almost no one has the ability to reach the bottom of the stream safely - and even if they do survive it, no one can turn back to tell anyone else how deep it is.

At least as far as the eye can see, there is no bottom.

The reason for the name of Yunjian comes from its special natural phenomenon.

Every night, clouds fall from the sky and pour into the streams, forming a giant cloud curtain. The clouds obscured the sky, and the day did not disperse until evening, but it reunited during the night.

This has created a spectacle in the wilderness, and people call it the Cloud Stream.

The clouds of the cloud stream are moving, the outer side is slower, and the inner side is faster, perhaps because of the wind. It is not easy to pass through it, because no normal person can jump dozens of meters away against the oblique wind.

Bridging is the only option. However, normal matter cannot exist on the cloud stream for too long, and will be quickly eroded by clouds and wind.

Therefore, people naturally divide into two methods through the moat of Yunjian -

First, in the evening when the clouds and mist dissipate, when the wind stops and the clouds disperse, use wooden planks and other materials to quickly build a bridge and pass directly.

But this approach didn't work for our team because we didn't have a lot of the materials and skills needed to build this kind of bridge.

So there is only one way left - to build a cloud bridge.

“？”

When I heard this, I immediately became puzzled.

"What kind of bridge is the cloud bridge?" I said I hadn't heard of it at all.

"It's literal." The leader who dug the foundation at the edge of the cloud stream waved the sweat on his forehead: "Due to the blending of clouds in the cloud curtain, some clouds of relatively high purity will be born. ”

"We capture some of these clouds on the periphery, and then we can make them by manually compressing and shaping them. Cloud bricks are lightweight, strong and durable, and will not be eroded away for a while and a half, which is very suitable as a bridge material for passing through cloud streams. ”

"Of course." The team leader added: "A long time ago, when this technique was not discovered, people would make clothes and put them on their bodies and jump in. If you're lucky, if you're blown by the wind, you won't be able to fall, and you may be able to float to the other side. However, this is too dangerous and the success rate is not high, so it is not commonly used. In the past, it was more common to take advantage of the cloudless period to take the fast bridge to pass. ”

I was silent.

Because I was just a companion and had not learned this "very professional" bridging technique, they didn't ask me to join it, they just asked me to stand far away and watch, so as not to be swept up in the disturbance of the cloud curtain.

I obediently stepped away, far away, and sat on the ground to watch them do their work.

"It will be ready by noon." Here's what the team leader said. "Get it all through before sunset."

Sounds like plenty of time.

Just as I was sitting with the black cat about to take a nap, I suddenly heard a strange sound.

The sound was a little noisy and harsh, at first it seemed to come faintly from the clouds, and then it seemed to come from all directions. Strange sounds came like a tidal wave, drowning me in them, washing over my body, my consciousness.

I was stunned by this sudden turn of events.

What happened?

Something huge seemed to peek out of the clouds. Although only a corner of it is exposed, the rudiments of its massive body can still be seen. The part that protruded from the cloud curtain was pitch black, and the indescribable head exuded a terrifying aura, and two round, semi-circular spherical objects were attached to it, which seemed to be its giant eyes. The fluff is stained with an unknown filth, covering the uneven brownish-black epidermis underneath. The place where it should be the mouth is moving, making a strange sound that reverberates through the world.

No, it's something that makes strange noises. Looks like a living thing.

Curious, I stood up, ready to get closer and take a closer look at it.

But as soon as I stood up, I noticed that something was wrong.

The people who were toiling not far away seemed to have no idea of the behemoth, and it was clear that the mouthparts of the thing—or something—were almost touching them.

What's going on? Am I the only one who can see this?

I looked down and saw that the black cat beside me had disappeared at some point, and I didn't realize when she had disappeared.

Very wrong, very wrong.

The unknown being seemed to try to protrude itself completely from the clouds, twitching, as if it was about to break free from some invisible bondage—

With the indescribable twitching, the earth trembled, flying sand and rocks, and the ground cracked. I inadvertently raised my head, and even the sky was torn open one by one!

For a time, the sky fell apart, and everything disappeared.

And then, then I woke up.

Harm, it turned out to be a dream.

Just now I was sitting and napping with the black cat, and I actually fell asleep and had a dream. This time, I didn't enter the source realm, so I'm very lucky.

When I looked down, I saw that the black cat's paws were playing with a small black creature, about the size of a finger.

It looks like an indescribable behemoth in a previous dream, but it's much smaller. It was also making a feeble squirming sound, but it was clearly distracted by the black cat.

“...... What is it. "I reached for the half-dead little thing and put it in the palm of my hand to look at it carefully." ...... Kind of like a butterfly, it has wings. ”

Forgive me for not being able to describe the exact appearance of this thing, because it has actually been inelastically deformed by the black cat, and you can still see her claw marks, and her body that seems to have been flattened is completely invisible.

"Hey, isn't this a cicada?" The leader's job was over, and it was time for the rotation, and he walked over to me and sat down, "If the routing mage was still around, it would be nice to see it—uh, what's wrong with it." ”

...... I pointed to the black cat, saying that she had nothing to do with me. Cicada? ”

"Yes, that's what it should be called. Because they like to devour people's dreams, they are also called dream cicadas. It is generally found near Buddhist monasteries, and Buddhist holy places are even more common. I heard that many eminent monks have come to enlightenment through cicadas, but I don't know if it's true or not. The team leader took a sip of water and said, "It seems that some monks may have too deep obsessions in the process of cultivation, and they are easy to go mad, and the dream cicada can get rid of distracting thoughts by swallowing the dreams formed by the aggregation of these obsessions." There is a Buddhist allusion that seems to be called ......"

"What's ...... called?"

"Oh, remember, 'Do mechanical monks dream of an electric Buddha?' This seems to be a little story of Buddhism. ”

“......”

............