A bean-sized flame jumped on the oil lamp, and the faint light barely illuminated the young man's delicate face.

By the faint light, he carefully wiped one of the grimace masks in his hands. There was also a ring on the table, and the smooth surface reflected the light of a jumping fire, apparently meticulously wiped.

"Brother...... Cold ......"

A little girl's weak voice came from the side of the house, and the boy stopped what he was doing and stood up.

"Nan Nan kicked off the quilt again, did she have a nightmare?" The boy bent down to pick up the quilt and put it over the little girl lying on the bed, and spoke dotingly.

"Hehe, no," the little girl on the bed obediently cooperated with the boy to cover herself tightly, "I dreamed of playing with my brother during the day, and I ...... accidentally."

The boy touched the little girl's head, "It's late, you have to go to bed quickly, otherwise you won't be able to collect medicine together tomorrow." ”

"Well, I'll sleep here."

The boy straightened the little girl's patched quilt and looked around, and in the faint light of the oil lamp, he could see that there was nothing of value in the room.

In a few months, it will be the day of the selection of the Central Immortal Gate. If selected this time...... You can let your sister live a carefree life.

The boy checked the little girl's quilt again, and by this time the little girl had fallen asleep and was smashing her mouth sweetly.

Did you dream of something delicious? The boy thought to himself. He blew out the oil lamp and fell into a deep sleep.

……

Long in ancient times, the first people of the Turks. Proud and self-sufficient, simple and true.

In such a wilderness full of races and fierce beasts, there is such a small village composed of mortals. The sun rises and the sun sets.

Some speculate that behind this small village lies an unimaginably amazing force that secretly shelters the people in the village. However, due to the lack of substantive evidence, this statement eventually became an after-dinner conversation among the villagers.

But for the villagers, there is only one thing that has to do with it. That is the selection of the Senmen recorded in the village chronicles.

Regardless of the men, women and children in the village, they all know that there are "immortals" in this world. Not only can they fly to the sky, but when faced with fierce beasts that the villagers can only avoid, the immortals can make each other fall apart with just a few casual strokes.

In the midst of a dangerous wilderness, this kind of strength is undoubtedly desirable. However, according to the records of the village, the last time Xianmen came to select people was a hundred years ago.

According to the village chronicles, before the selection of the fairy gate, there will be a white bird landing at the door of the village chief's house. The bird will ask the village chief to order the young men and women under the age of eighteen in the village to feed only on vegetation for the next few months, otherwise they will be disqualified.

It is also recorded that young men and women cut their wrists and sprinkle blood on a stone, and if the stone glows, it will be taken away by the immortals.

What happens to those who are taken away, the record is interrupted here.

Later, there is a record that one of the children who was taken away returned to the village in the name of "filial piety", and then left the village with his parents.

However, most of the villagers believe that they have become the free-flying, omnipotent immortals in their eyes.

Just a few days ago, a white bird once again broke the quiet life of the village for a hundred years.

The village chief hurriedly summoned the people in the village, and the boy led the little girl among them. They discovered that it was actually a jade bird made of flawless jade, and its whole body shimmered with a white luster.

In keeping with the account, the jade bird again asked the young men and women to abstain from eating meat for the next few months, and then flew away on its own.

On the way home, the little girl and the young man talked word by word.

"Brother, that bird is so beautiful!"

"When my brother becomes an immortal, I will also make a bird like that for Nannan."

"Hmm...... Will my brother become an immortal? ”

"My brother wants to become an immortal with Nannan."

"Okay, I'm going to become an immortal too, hehe."

......

At night, everything is silent. A bright moon hung high in the sky, sprinkling cold moonlight on the earth.

For the mortals of the mountain village, the night means the end of a day's hard work and a time of recuperation.

But for the beings in this world who know how to cultivate, exhaling essence to the bright moon to cultivate themselves is a necessary part of every night.

In the mountains and forests not far from the village, an old monkey sat on the ground, his eyes flickering between the opening and closing, and wisps of essence turned into white mist and lingered around his body with its breath.

If you look closely, you'll see a squirrel squatting on its shoulder. The squirrel, like its owner, folded its hands and breathed with its eyes closed.

Despite the squirrel's fluffy body and large fluffy tail, the pulsations that come out of its breath make it anyone's sense that it's not something to be messed with.

In the dark night sky, a purple light flashed. The old monkey opened his eyes in an instant, and then disappeared on the spot with a peculiar footwork.

"Hmph...... The Nine Secrets' Word Secrets...... It's not complete, but it's also a big deal. ”

A cold snort came from the air, and Zimang turned into a humanoid creature with dragon horns. Its eyes lit up as it looked around, so frightened that some of the weak spirits didn't dare to gasp.

The humanoid creature with dragon horns on its head ignored it and turned into a hundred-meter-long purple dragon and flew away into the sky.

In this great wilderness, strength is the first law of survival of all things, and every living creature must continue to grow stronger in order to survive in this cruel environment.

In the dead of night, the little girl fell asleep sweetly. The sound of insects and the little girl's breathing mingled in the night, composing a wisp of warmth that still existed in the cruel wilderness.

……

The next day, the morning light was faint.

A faint mist shrouded the entire village, and the village was already faintly populated.

For the mortals living on this land, getting up in the morning to work, ploughing the fields and hunting is also a way of cultivation that belongs to them.

In an ordinary thatched hut in a corner of the village.

"Hello, get up and eat." The young girl's gentle voice woke the little girl from her sleep, and he controlled the heat on the stove while stirring the porridge in the pot with a spoon.

This morning, as usual, he added to the porridge the medicinal herbs he had collected with his sister a few days ago. Although most of it is sold for livelihood, there will still be a lot of surplus.

The little girl opened her eyes and smelled the aroma of herbs mixed with porridge wafting through the air, and her nose fluttered.

"It's so fragrant, my brother is cooking porridge for Nan Nan to eat again!" She sat up, cleaned up the bed, folded her quilt carefully, dressed herself, tied her horns very skillfully, and came to the young man's side, looking expectantly at the bubbling porridge in the pot.

It is said to be porridge, but in fact, most of it is herbs and edible tubers, as well as a few rice grains. However, the herbs in the pot are faintly shining, making this pot of ordinary porridge exude a refreshing fragrance.

This is just the herbs picked by two children, which is enough to prove the extraordinaryness of this land.

For as long as she can remember, she has been dependent on her brother in this small mountain village.

The only impression I have of my parents is that they have heard from the people in the village that their father came to the village alone with their two siblings, and that the girl was just an infant child. Their father was very energetic and often helped the people in the village to do some heavy work that ordinary people could not bear. However, an accident arose during a hunting trip, leaving only the two siblings.

Even the village elders didn't know about their mother.

So in all her memories, her brother is her only family.

The boy looked at the little girl's thick pigtails with a smile, rubbed her white and red face, squatted down, and adjusted the little girl's pigtails as he spoke.

"Didn't I tell Nan Nan that I should do this first to tie my hair, and then ......" Before the young man's words fell, he was interrupted by the little girl's crisp voice.

"Again! Hehe, Nan Nan actually remembered, I just wanted my brother to tie up Nan Nan again. ”

The boy smiled, skillfully tied the little girl's pigtails, and then tidied up the clothes on her body, touching the rough fabric, and faintly felt a pain in his heart.

He crouched down, held the little girl's cheek, and said:

"Go pick herbs again today, and my brother will take you to nearby Yancheng to buy new clothes, okay?"

When the little girl heard this, her big eyes sparkled, but then she shook her head: "No, no, brother, buy more food, I like my brother's cooking very much, the clothes are old, but you can wear them again, you don't need to change them." ”

Listening to his sister's sensible words, the young man's heart became more and more sour. In recent years, they have made a living by going up the mountains to collect herbs and then sell them to merchants in the village who regularly come to buy them. It is said that they would sell to monks, or "immortals" as they were often referred to in the village.

Although they are taken care of by the villagers, they always give priority to letting their herbs be sold first, but because they are too young, most of the herbs they pick do not meet the requirements of the monks, and they belong to the ordinary grass, so their income is enough to survive.

In fact, the same is true for the rest of the village, as a mortal with no magic power, every time he goes out, it is a gamble, and it is okay to encounter ordinary fierce beasts, and he may still have a way to survive if he runs away.

If you meet a foreign race that knows how to cultivate, even a small earthworm can kill people in an instant.

However, the area around the village is relatively safe, but most of those rare fairy grasses live in dangerous places, and most of them are guarded by strange beasts. If you want to get it, you will have to pay with your life at every turn.

So even if they are taken care of by the villagers, the boy and the little girl can only live such a poor life.

It's just that it's good to be able to not lose your life.

The boy took out a bowl and filled a large bowl of porridge for the girl.

"Brother doesn't have to give so much to Nannan, Nannan is not hungry." The little girl noticed that the boy had given almost most of the rice to herself, and quickly shook her head.

The young man didn't let him go, and said, "Nan Nan wants to grow her body, so eat more, it's okay, the rest of my brother can't eat it." ”

Years of poor life have made Nan Nan well-behaved and sensible, and she can easily see that her brother is coaxing her again, but she knows that if she doesn't eat like before, her brother will follow her and not eat, so that if you can't collect medicine for a day, the two of you will be hungry together.

"Okay, I know." The little girl came to the table with the bowl in her arms, drank all the porridge, burped contentedly, and then went to take the bowl that her brother had drunk and went to the pond behind the thatched hut to clean it.

When the little girl returned, the boy picked up the bronze ring that had been wiped clean last night and handed it to the little girl.

Since he didn't have enough money, the teenager couldn't buy his sister interesting toys and nice accessories. So he made a small ring out of the remaining bronze fragments of the villagers, and through careful polishing, the surface can also reflect the hazy scenery.

The little girl regarded it as a treasure, and even wore it on her hand when she slept, and then the boy persuaded her for a long time, probably because she was really afraid that she would swallow it after she slept, so the little girl reluctantly agreed to take off the ring every night, but the next day she would put it on her hand as soon as possible.

The teenager would carefully wipe it down every night. In addition, he also used the surplus bronze pieces to create a grimace mask for himself, as if crying instead of crying, as if laughing instead of laughing.

But the first time I used this mask to scare my sister, I directly scared my sister into tears, and it took a long time to coax me.

It wasn't until a long time later that my sister gradually accepted that her brother was wearing this grimace mask to play a game of hide and seek with her.

No matter how long it has passed, even if it has been a vicissitude, the bronze ring and the grimace mask are the only sustenance in all the memories of the little girl and the teenager.

At this time, the people in the village were already active. The firewood collector is preparing to dry yesterday's firewood; The hunter stretched his muscles and bones, examining his bow and arrows and spears as if they were treasures; The ploughers carried hoes and talked and laughed with their companions to their fields.

"Oh, let's go."

"Hmmm! I must collect a lot of medicinal herbs today. ”

With the brisk pace of two people, two lively figures, one big and one small, gradually faded away in the morning light shrouded in mist.