Chapter 67: The Faint Old Man (Part I)

The wind shouted, and the snow covered the mountain.

The Qinling Mountains were shrouded in a heavy night.

Thousands of miles of majestic ridges, like a huge Wolong stretching from east to west, with countless peaks and dense forests on its back, all covered with snow at this time, and the three flying frosts in winter dyed thousands of miles of rivers and mountains into a silver white.

Southwest of Qinzhou, Qinling Branch, Yanming Mountain.

The fierce wind and snow covered the sky and the earth into chaos, and the wind mixed with the snow swept everywhere, whether it was the mountain peaks, the wild forests near the mountainside, or the town of Herong at the foot of the mountain, all of them were overwhelmed by the violent cold wind. The town was better, with hundreds of families living in a closed cliff and sleeping in silence, half-tilted hedges and walls that could hold back the wind a little. And in the open area outside the village, as well as on the mountainside, it has become a place for cold winds.

Hundreds of rocks were originally eroded and collapsed from the top of the mountain, large and small, half sunk in the snow, the upper part was covered with white snow, but a black section was exposed in the middle. The fierce wind poured in endlessly from the mountain pass, roaring and rushing in all directions, and these craggy rocks became an obstacle, and after the deafening crash, the backflow of the wind stirred up countless snow and sand, and was swept away by the subsequent fierce wind.

In the direction of Herong Town, on top of a huge horizontal rock suspended three or four feet in the air, another half-human high stone was piled up at this time, as if it had rolled down from the top of the mountain later, and fell right near the edge of the tip of the horizontal rock, shrinking into a small ball, and half covered with snow like other stones.

A cold snap swept over the rocks with a roar, one after another. The stone was like a stream rock standing in the middle of the turbulent stream, constantly being torn apart by the washing. Dense snow particles with a rush of speed. Non-stop slapping on it. The silver sand swirled and danced above it, forming a curtain of white. Sometimes it rises and sometimes it falls, and you can see it from a distance. The wind that poked out of the way was like being shrouded in smoke, and it was white.

There was a clump of hardy grass growing on the top of the rock, and with the turbulent wind, the wisps were already adhered to by the ice crystals and turned white, and when the wind swept over, it rolled up and down, left and right.

The mountain wind is getting stronger. Approaching midnight, the cold between heaven and earth is heavier, and the wind takes advantage of the cold. The encroachment began to be more violent than in the daytime, and the trees below shook like a tidal wave.

A branch broke off at the 'click'.

As if awakened by the sound, the stone suddenly moved slightly, and the snow covering it cracked and slid down, revealing a protruding neck, a hunched back, and a tucked shoulder, which turned out to be a person.

It's a man. Very thin, with pointed blades and well-defined ribs, squatting with arms and knees in the wind and snow. His chin rested on his knee, as if he was thinking about something. It was evident that he had been in this position for a long time, and the snow at his feet had been smoothed. The scattered snow and sand even accumulated into a half-inch thick layer of snow on his back.

His gray hair fluttered unkemptly behind his head, and he didn't have half a strand of hair on his body. But it was as if he couldn't feel the biting chill around him. The dry, dull skin was dull, as if it had just been soaked out of an indigo vat. In the dark, it looked almost indistinguishable from the black rocks around it.

There was no gleam in his eyes, his expression was glazed, and he was staring at a clearing at the foot of the mountain.

It was a place where the children of Herong Town played during the day. Late at night, there was no one left, two simple swings were swaying slightly by the wind, one of them had broken half of the rope and was buried in the snow, and the swing frame was also covered with a thick layer.

Two unrecognizable snowdrifts, standing at intervals, seemed to be molded into the shape of a bodhisattva, with round heads about to take shape, but at the bottom of the snow cave was pulled out by the children, and the inside was full of stones. There are still a lot of dry straws scattered on the ground, one in the east and one in the west, and I don't know whose children took the winter grain of the family's cattle and sheep to waste.

A broken bamboo horse lies alone on its side.

As if remembering something, the man's thin head shrank slightly, his arched back lowered, and the snow sand slid down his smooth back, and the vertebrae looked unusually distinct.

He writes on the snow.

One vertical, one horizontal. Like a puppet manipulated by a machine, his movements were slow and stiff, and he pressed the tip of his index finger deep into the snow, slashing inch by inch, and the broken nails lost their sharpness, but they were still half an inch long. It was just two simple strokes, and it took him four or five times more time than ordinary people to write stiffly, and then he drew a vertical stroke at the end of the horizontal stroke, and a long vertical stroke in the middle.

"Mountain".

The withered finger hovered over the character and did not move again for a long time. In the shrill wind, there were faintly more abnormal sounds, and there were faint, and clear, and gradually dense, and there was a hot liquid rolling down from above the knees, and falling into the snow, seeping into the smooth snow surface, etching into a small hole.

A deep guttural voice came from the knees.

He was crying.

The wild current rolled up one white curtain after another, and behind him it spread out like a long curtain, threatening to cover the heavens and the earth. The furious wind roared desperately, and the cold waves rushed through from behind, striking his back violently, and the snow on his shoulder blades was blown away again. Several vortices swirled around his feet, and the snow was sharpened by the blowing particles of 'rustling', and they swept forward from the gap between his heels, and soon leveled the ground in front of him.

A small snow lizard was startled by the sound of tears falling to the ground, twisted its body, and poked its head out of the snow slightly, it was not far from his toes, its huge pink eyes stared vigilantly, as if it was a little confused and worried, its delicate throat fold gently agitated, just to realize that something was wrong and immediately fled from this place.

However, the danger it feared never came.

The long, low tone of mourning resounded intermittently for a while, and then gradually stopped. On this dagger-like ridge, the shrill howl of the wind was once again the only sound. The snow curtain was still rushing up and down, and the hair was flying in all directions. A person and a lizard were silently facing each other, and after a short while, the voice of Lin Tao on the mountainside weakened a little, and the man slowly moved his index finger, flicked the snow particles, and carefully covered the lizard's little head.

In order not to frighten this timid creature, it took him a long time.

There was still no sparkle in his eyes, but the expression on his face was not as dull as before, but more soft.

It's windy cold outside. It's warmer to hide in the snow.

The sky above was pitch black, and heavy clouds obscured the stars and moon. Time gradually passed, and soon it was the turn of the ugly, suddenly, the wind suddenly changed, and there seemed to be an inexplicable order in a distant place, the man's body suddenly trembled, he roared, and raised his snow-white teeth, as if he was suffering great pain, his arched back stiffened, the muscles of his whole body were tense, and his body was covered with snow.

A faint green light flickered on his forehead, and a few small spells lit up. Dark lines swam out of his hair like snakes, spreading quickly over his head, neck, up his back and shoulders, and then into his skin.

The man suddenly stood up, pursed his lips and let out a scream, his voice was as mad as rage, and it was extremely poignant. He stepped forward heavily, stomped right on where the lizard was hiding, and then jumped off the rock, six or seven feet high, and landed directly on the ground with a sharp fall, without buffer, and then the figure rose and fell, and disappeared into the woods in only a few jumps. (To be continued......)