Promontory.

In the twilight breeze, two figures appeared there.

The black robes and white clothes flew each other.

The two of them quietly looked at the distant sea.

"Actually, I've always had a question."

The man in white said softly.

"Is the endless ocean farther away, or the sky dome above us farther away?"

The black-robed hunting figure on the side said calmly, "Maybe it's the River Styx that is farther away." ”

The white-clothed figure looked back at the river of return that flowed backwards until it hung over the heads of the world.

There may be a small boat in the river slowly moving upstream.

"I thought you'd send her off."

"Isn't she your junior sister, why don't you go?"

The two looked at each other silently, and neither of them continued to talk about the matter.

Silence fell on the cliff.

The sea breeze blows incessantly, and the sky is like water.

"You've ever been to Rumors?"

The white-clothed figure turned his head and asked slowly.

"Nope."

The black-robed figure replied very simply.

The two of them didn't say anything more, and then their figures were slowly blown away by the evening breeze.

.......

It's actually night.

When the child left Qiushui, his father and mother were looking for him everywhere in the town, and when they saw the child coming out of the forest outside the town, they asked anxiously: "Where have you been, and you are still running around after eating Chinese New Year's Eve?" ”

The child lowered his head and whispered, "Go find my friend." ”

"I said that you don't want to go out and play with others casually, and you don't know how to return home for the New Year."

The child was counted down by his father, and he didn't have any aggrieved looks, just walked quietly with his head down, and when he was almost at the door of the house, he whispered: "She is dead." ”

His father and mother were stunned for a long time, not knowing what this meant.

"New Year's Day, what nonsense, even if you quarrel with others, you can't curse people like this, can you?"

The child didn't say anything more, but walked quietly back into the yard.

Daddy and Mom are still babbling a lot of things behind her.

The child has no heart to listen.

He was a little dazed, a little sad.

So at a loss, he left the sword at the edge of the autumn water, outside the grass house.

He knew what that human demon named Qiushui meant.

Ask him to help look at the sword.

This is the meaning that can be tasted between the lines of those conversations.

The child thought about a lot of things, so he ate in a hurry and went to bed.

"It seems that he did quarrel with his little friend."

Daddy whispered outside the door.

The child lies quietly on the bed, eyes closed.

Maybe it's because he's been through a bit too much lately, and he's going to get some sleep.

I'll go back to Qiushui next year.

The child deliberately thinks of tomorrow as next year.

It's like giving yourself a long time to digest something.

......

The Chinese New Year's Eve in the world may be related to whether someone returns to the Styx by the autumn water, or it may not matter.

Li Qinghua changed into a new blue and white skirt and walked quietly in the alley of fine snow.

Then it stopped on the long street that runs north-south and continues with many towns.

The long street is brightly lit, even if it is a quiet town on weekdays, at such a time, it is still lively, and people are laughing and smiling through the streets.

At the edge of the town, children were playing, and the sky was shining brightly.

The world is incomparably brilliant.

Li Qinghua stood quietly on the street, raised her hand and habitually supported the polished wall beside her, and then leaned her head up, her eyes kept passing through the red lanterns that went away, and fell to the far end of this long street.

When the light of those fireworks shines on the face, it is brilliantly bright.

But it's also lonely.

Li Qinghua watched quietly and waited quietly.

Zhang Xiaoyu is a bastard, and it is Zhang Xiaoyu's business.

Zhang Xiaoyu's non-coming is Zhang Xiaoyu's business.

Li Qinghua wants to wait here, it is Li Qinghua's business.

The stories she had collected along the way, the joys, the sorrows and pains, had not yet been properly told to that person.

Not far away, in the alley, a door opened, and a carpenter had been there for a long time.

Then the door closed.

There are fewer and fewer people on the streets.

The buzz in the town has not diminished.

It's just that those lively Li Qinghua can't see it.

People sit in the lights and are close to their families.

Li Qinghua just leaned lonely against the street wall, looking up as a cluster of fireworks exploded in the night.

"Happy New Year, Zhang Xiaoyu."

Li Qinghua said softly.

......

Zhang Xiaoyu walked on a path outside the town somewhere in the world.

He can naturally hear the excitement of the world, and he can also imagine what kind of picture it is.

He also spent twenty-five years on earth.

So he stopped, looked up and quietly looked at the earthly sky.

In fact, he couldn't see anything, just a piece of blindness.

It's just that it seems to be able to see.

——Zhang Xiaoyu walked cleanly on the brightly lit street in white, looking at the world with a slight smile.

Someone squeezed past him, and he didn't forget to say Happy New Year.

Zhang Xiaoyu didn't know what he was doing.

Maybe he wanted to go back to the Sword Sect and his senior brothers for Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, or maybe he had already finished eating and was planning to find a card shop to play cards.

Then he saw a girl who had been waiting for a long time in the snow on the street.

Li Qinghua looked at him with a smile, stood on tiptoe on the other end of the crowd and waved her hand, and said happily.

"Zhang Xiaoyu, Happy New Year!"

Zhang Xiaoyu laughed softly and remembered.

This is the thirtieth year of the Chinese New Year's Eve of the Great Wind Calendar 1,002.

What did Zhang Xiaoyu say at the time?

"Happy New Year, Li Qinghua."

Zhang Xiaoyu also raised his hand and waved, and said softly.

Then he lowered his hand in the night.

Walk quietly along the path outside town.

......

On the night of December 30, 102, when a dashing white-clothed sword cultivator looked at the bright and happy smile on the soft woman's face, he actually thought about it and stopped.

It's just that.

That night, Li Qinghua was pushed away by the flow of people.

And this night.

Zhang Xiaoyu was pushed away by his own river.

......

Destiny is the interweaving of all choices in life.

......

Beyond the rumors, if Zhang Xiaoyu just walked quietly, he would have to walk a long distance before he could return to the fake capital.

But that sword cultivator who was no longer clean in white clothes was just a passer-by for this fake capital where the wind and snow were still blowing.

Therefore, Zhang Xiaoyu will not come, and there will be no one less or one more light in this once yellow sorghum capital.

Shu He carried his lantern, like an old man who had nothing to rely on, sat on the steps of a street somewhere in the world, and looked at a long street on the bank of the Willow River with great emotion.

There are two people who look like young masters and servants, holding umbrellas, and rubbing shoulders with this old man of Nanchu in the snow.

No one said anything.

Shu He just carried his lantern.

Sometimes look at your own lanterns, sometimes look at the distant mountains in the night of the world.

Someone's boat was almost at the top of the mountain, and then it left the boundaries of the world and truly stepped into the River Styx.

Shu He only looked at it from time to time, but he didn't know if such a woman had really stepped into the River Styx.

The world is moving towards deeper tones in the wind and snow.

On the 30th day of December in the year 103, the Great Wind may be about to flow out of the noise of these people.

The people of the fake capital did not return to the courtyard early, like the people in some mountain towns, to sit with the lights and chat with their families.

It was very lively to stay in the street snow.

Someone is looking at the drip, someone is looking at the night.

Shu He didn't look at anything, carried the lantern, looked at the road under his feet, and quietly walked into the bustle. All the way in the direction of the palace.

The emperor of Huangliang has always had no binding force on the people of the witch and ghost path.

That's why there will be things that will kill wizards in the world tomorrow and dare not take the lead.

Shu He went to the palace, naturally not to meet the useless emperor who could only say yes.

It's about meeting the goddesses of those gods and ghosts.

So he was sincere, pious and solemn, looking at the road under his feet seriously, step by step towards the red wall of wind and snow.

Pedestrians on the road sometimes look at this old man walking on the street with a lantern and look at it in bewilderment.

Sometimes I don't care so much, I just say Happy New Year very sincerely.

Shu He didn't do anything, didn't say anything.

It's like a believer who has been waiting for thousands of years, walking step by step.

His head was just down, but it seemed as if he had knocked in the snow.

His steps were steady, as if he had been holding on all along.

The road to the palace was extremely long.

As if they hadn't seen him, the guards at the palace gate allowed such an old man to enter the palace gate calmly.

All the way through a quiet, clean path covered in snow, stopping under a tall building somewhere.

Shu He stood there quietly, kneeling down with reverence.

When his forehead touched the wind and snow, a chill came from his neck.

So Shu He knew that someone had really walked into the River Styx.

His head rolled down to the side of the lantern, which was sprinkled with blood, very red.

And his body still knelt reverently on the wind and snow path for a long time.

It was an ordinary sword, just as when he fell to his knees, a savage butcher stood beside him, and slashed it with a sword.

It was also a sword that was difficult to reproduce in the world—it was unsheathed and waiting here in a winter wine shop.

Shu He's eyes widened, and he swayed back and forth in the wind and snow.

It's like a clay pot that has fallen by mistake, although it has not been broken, but the red wine inside has spilled out, so it rolls back and forth unwillingly.

So how did that sword cultivator know that he would appear here at a certain moment, through the long street of the world, through the years of wind and snow, bow his head reverently and solemnly, and reveal everything defenselessly?

Shu He once thought that he should at least have the strength to defend against that sword.

How could an old Nanchu Spirit Witch die so simply?

Shu He may have seen his own black boat, maybe not, but after the swaying in the wind and snow finally stopped slowly, he opened his eyes and looked at the top of the tall building.

Above the tall building, a woman in a long black dress stood quietly, perhaps glancing down.

But just looking at the wind and snow.

"Your believers are dead."

Emperor Companion looked down at the pious old spirit witch who had just begun to kneel down and had his neck cut off by the sudden appearance of the sword light.

And Yaoji, who was holding an umbrella on the side, just said calmly: "Yes." ”

Emperor Companion looked at Yao Ji quietly for a long time, and then said softly: "I thought you would at least save him, at least this is a rare pious person in the world." ”

Yao Ji looked down again at the corpse illuminated by a cluster of lights in the wind and snow below.

The face of this Gu Chu god and ghost was very calm.

"What do you think piety is?"

Emperor Companion said softly: "I don't know. ”

Yao Ji quietly looked at the Nanchu Spirit Witch under the tall building, and the sword light had disappeared into the night.

"As he came towards the tall building little by little, he was no longer religious."

"Someone let him see his life and death, so he began to doubt - such a sword is a sword that travels through the years of cause and effect, if the gods and ghosts really hang the curtain on the world, will cover the life and death for the world, then how can the cause and effect of such a sword be self-consistent?"

"Then he began to have the seeds of doubt, and he came respectfully towards this tall building like a devout believer."

Emperor Companion stood aside silently and said slowly: "So for gods and ghosts, people who have no sincerity are not worthy of protection?" ”

Yao Ji quietly looked at the Emperor beside her.

"The benevolence of gods and ghosts is naturally clearly defined, so we will call you our people."

"Isn't he?"

"Of course he is."

Yao Ji was still extremely calm in the face of the emperor's questioning.

"But you need to understand that gods and spirits have mercy on the earth, not on individuals. The conquest between people in the world is a matter that has nothing to do with gods and ghosts, and such things will only start from selfish desires and end up with selfish desires. ”

Emperor Companion laughed softly and said, "So the god of worship is not rich and lucky, nor can he live for 10,000 years." ”

The emperor, who had always liked to say good, turned his head to look at Yao Ji and said quietly, "Then what do people need gods and ghosts to do?" ”

"It is an extremely absurd thing to question gods and ghosts with the selfish desires of the world."

The Emperor couldn't stop smiling, looked at the calm woman beside him, and then stopped laughing, and said slowly: "But Lord God, we are the world, if we don't have selfish desires, then why don't we worship ourselves but worship God?" ”

Yao Ji turned her head and looked at this emperor who had always thought that he was a fool who could only laugh for a long time.

Then he turned back and looked at the brightly lit world.

The world of the first day of January in the year 1004.

"Yes, the world's thirst for gods and ghosts is already thirsting for their own selfish desires, you remind me of the words of a certain Taoist and that little girl in Dazeli - when you see right and wrong, you will enter right and wrong, know good and evil, you will become good and evil, listen to sorrow and joy, you will have your own sorrow and joy, have benevolence, you will have partiality."

Yao Ji said calmly, "I didn't understand why he would say such a thing to such a little girl. ”

Yao Ji's gaze fell to the far north of the human world.

"But now I understand that he didn't say it to the person named Wang Xiaohua, but to me."

"He's just like you, satirizing me, satirizing the gods and ghosts. Indeed, the people of the north are smarter than you, and they can see farther. ”

"Perhaps when we first have consciousness from the authority of the River Styx, we are embodied beings who carry the selfish desires of the world."

Yao Ji lowered her head and looked at the cold corpse under the tall building again.

"But you must know that gods and demons are much more to the world than selfish desires. You have to think about it, if, as you say, the gods and ghosts born from the selfish desires of the world ignore the selfish desires of the world, then what do we really care? ”

Emperor Companion stood there silently.

"A Taoist can satirize gods and ghosts with selfish desires, which is naturally a commendable thing, but an emperor who only looks at selfish desires and does not look at the world, are you satirizing me or yourself?"

"Searching for the true meaning is the business of the thinker, protecting the world is the business of the gods and ghosts, and letting your people live in peace is what you have to do. Coexisting in the world, each doing its own thing, this is the essence of the witches, ghosts and gods in those days. ”

Emperor Companion raised his head and looked at Yao Ji in a daze.

He may have understood the reason for the collapse of such a vast era - someone overstepped his duties and upset the balance of such an existence.

"People in the world always attribute the collapse of an era back then to the doting of gods and ghosts on the world." Yao Ji said calmly, "But isn't it the reason why some people's hearts are higher than the sky and try to ask the heavens?" ”

"I do not deny the weakness of the world in the shadow of gods and ghosts. Since I was the god of Gu Chu back then, I naturally saw it much more clearly than you. ”

"But being weak in the world is not a blessing."

"It's like what some people in the North are doing."

"Those who stand low always want to look high, but those who think they are in the mire will never understand that there is nowhere to see when they climb to the top."

Silence fell above the tall buildings.

Emperor Companion didn't say anything more.

Yao Ji turned her head to look at the wind and snow in the world, and slowly said the last sentence.

"You need to go back to the palace and get ready, Your Majesty."

......

By the willow river, there are two people who look like master and servant walking on the bustling street in the wind and snow.

Of course, the wind and snow will not be lively, it is the world that is lively.

The two walked for a long time, and passed by an old man carrying a lantern.

"He looks like he's already raised the money."

After leaving the old man, Yun Zhusheng stood under the umbrella and said softly.

Han Cicada nodded and said, "It should be, otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here so quietly in a daze." ”

The two walked all the way, Yun Zhusheng held an umbrella, held the stove, and stopped somewhere in the Liuhe River.

"The Great Wind Calendar may be over for a thousand and three years."

Yun Zhusheng said softly, quietly watching the lights flowing in the long river of wind and snow.

"Who knows?" The cicada stood aside, quietly looking at the sky.

They didn't go to see the drip, so they didn't know when it would be the beginning of the new year.

Until in the night of the world, among those bright fireworks, suddenly a sword light swept by.

Yun Zhusheng raised his head and looked at the sword light quietly.

The cicada smiled softly, and also raised his head, watching the sword light leave very easily.

"Senior brother."

This disciple of the Flowing Cloud Sword Sect said softly.

Yun Zhusheng turned his head and saw the sincere and bright smile on the face of this sword cultivator who had taken care of him all the way.

"Happy New Year."

It's just that before Yun Zhusheng could respond, a cold stinging sensation came from his heart.

Yun Zhusheng lowered his head, Han Cicada held the sword very steadily, although the smile on his face was sincere, and the blessing was also sincere.

But the sword stabbed coldly into his heart at that happy New Year.

There was a vast sword intent and heaven and earth vitality overflowing above the sword body, and the chill of wind and snow poured into the weak body of this young Daoist.

And then it spreads in all directions.

Yun Zhusheng lowered his head and coughed softly, blood flowing from the corners of his lips.

But he still raised his head, and showed a pale smile in the pain caused by a sword intent that was enough to destroy everything.

"Happy New Year, junior brother."

.......

People sincerely believe in the words Happy New Year.

It's as if the coming year will really be happy.