Fighter of the Destiny

The world is relative.

Middle-earth is far away from Atlantis across the ocean. The terrain in the east is higher, and the sky there seems to be getting higher. The clouds and mist rise from the sea and the land, keep drifting towards that place, and finally gather together and stay all year round.

This is the Tomb of Clouds - the tomb of all the clouds in the world.

There is a solitary peak faintly visible in the deepest part of the Cloud Tomb. The top of the peak goes straight into the void, and it is unknown where it leads.

According to legend, the world consists of five continents, each continent has different scenery. Only those powerful beings who have entered the sacred realm can see all the scenery. For ordinary people, legends are just legends. They don't know where the other continents are, they don't know how to get there, and they don't know that the solitary peak in the Cloud Tomb is the passage to other continents.

Naturally, no one has ever seen the scenery above the clouds. Here, the calm clouds spread in all directions like white silk, seemingly without end. Behind the void mirror above is an endless black abyss with countless stars in it.

Suddenly, two stars lit up, getting brighter and brighter. It turned out that they were approaching the mirror at high speed. When the two stars came to the front of the mirror, they could be seen clearly. They turned out to be two groups of sacred white flames.

Spider web-like cracks appear on the mirror that separates the real world from the night sky, and are repaired instantly.

Those two sacred flames have appeared in the real world on the mirror in some magical way. The thin air is constantly fluctuating and deformed by the burning - those are not sacred fires, just its eyes.

The whole world was disturbed by the huge arrival. The light kept refracting, and a mountain-like shadow appeared on the clouds. The space began to arch and deform, as if it might be squeezed apart.

A giant golden dragon appeared between the void and the clouds.

The red sun in the distance was completely obscured by its huge body. The world tens of thousands of kilometers above the clouds became dim because of it. The surrounding temperature dropped sharply. Frost crystals began to form in the clouds, reflecting countless rays of light and turning into strange Like a sparkling crystal mirror. The color of the heaven and earth changes because of this. This is the majesty of the top life.

The golden dragon looked down at the world with indifferent eyes.

It has seen the scenery on the clouds many times.

The golden dragon flew towards the lonely peak on the horizon. When it was about to approach, the terrifying and huge dragon body sank deep into the clouds and mist, and was lost. The endless amount of mist was broken by the terrifying and huge body. The cliffs between the solitary peaks are rugged and extremely steep. There are no plants, not even moss. They are dead and silent, just like a tomb.

Just like this, I flew deep into the fog. After a long day and night, I didn’t know how far I had flown, but I was still in the fog. I didn’t encounter anything else, but I could faintly see moss appearing between the cliffs, and the clouds and fog were thicker than those at the top. It was much thicker, perhaps due to self-squeezing. Many crystals began to form in the clouds, which were water droplets, and the air became moist.

The golden dragon showed no interest in these changes and continued to fly downward.

There are more and more plants in the solitary peak, the clouds and mist are getting wetter and wetter, and the water drops fall on the cliff, gradually turning into countless streams of water as thick as green leaves. Countless thin streams of water gurgled between the cliffs and fell into the mist.

The golden dragon looked at the trickles of water between the solitary peaks, and the expression in his eyes became much more solemn, and the two balls of divine fire became more and more serene - this is the tomb of all clouds and the source of all water.

Countless streams of water fell from the solitary peaks, but it only looked at one of them.

The golden dragon flew silently down the stream in the fog. It went through countless days and nights, and it seemed like it would be repeated endlessly. However, at a certain moment... the fog in front of it dispersed.

Before the clouds and mist, there is the ground.

The lower edge of the cloud and mist is very smooth, completely following the undulations of the ground, perfectly ensuring that there is a distance of five feet between the cloud and mist and the surface, which is exactly the height of a human being. It seems to be designed by the Creator. The five-foot space between the surface and the clouds leads to a distant place. There is faint light in the distance, but the sun cannot be seen. There are countless streams on the surface.

The mist dissipated in front of the huge dragon head, revealing the ground and the creek.

The stream comes from the dew in the solitary peak. It is clear, calm and cold. There is a wooden basin floating in the stream. There are several layers of linen in the basin. There is a baby on the linen - the baby's face is slightly blue and his eyes are closed. He is obviously not too old just after birth. long time.

The mist on the stream bloomed like a flower, with countless petals blooming, crowding, surging, breaking, and making a hissing sound. A golden faucet, bigger than the palace, slowly poked out of the clouds and came to the surface of the stream. superior.

The five-foot distance between the stream surface and the fog is very narrow for it - the body of the golden dragon is hidden in the fog, and the dragon's head is also partially hidden in the fog, making it look more majestic, mysterious, and terrifying.

The golden dragon looked at the stream quietly.

The wooden basin was still undulating slightly in the stream.

In the tiny wooden basin was an abandoned newborn baby with its eyes closed and its face turned blue.

…

…

The fog gradually dispersed and everything returned to tranquility.

However, the tranquility was only temporary... Deep in the fog, even near the lonely peak, almost at the same moment, countless shrill and panic howls and howls sounded!

What I thought was a silent and lifeless world turned out to be hiding so many birds and beasts. There were sounds of flapping wings everywhere in the fog, the sound of unicorns crashing into huge trees that were thousands of years old, and even a very clear phoenix cry!

An invisible line of fire formed by spiritual thoughts spread from the stream bank to the sky. The wet grass suddenly became extremely dry, and even the water plants in the stream curled up at the edges!

There is still no emotion in the eyes of the golden dragon, it is noble, indifferent, and dominates the world.

It didn't care that all the beasts in the world were running away below the clouds and mist, not even the young phoenix. It just stared at the stream in front of it and the wooden basin on the stream. Hundreds of thousands of streams fell from the lonely peak, and it only stared at this stream; after 30,000 years, it came to this world again, just for the baby in the basin, how could it look away?

A very thin light filament fell slowly. The outside of the light filament was golden, and the inside was sacred white. It seemed to be able to emit light on its own. The front end of the light filament was extremely thin, and the back section gradually became thicker until it was like an arm. The surface Extremely smooth and perfect, especially the sheen coming from deep, which adds to the beauty.

The material of this light filament is like gold and jade. It should feel very heavy, but in fact it is very light. It keeps swaying with the breeze on the stream, as if it is dancing. I want to touch the wooden basin, but in an instant Take back.

That is the whisker of the golden dragon.

At this time, the divine fire in the eyes of the golden dragon was no longer so eternal and stable, and the indifference had been replaced by thinking, as if he was hesitating about something. The front ends of the two dragon whiskers were like gentle fingers, gently touching the edge of the wooden basin on the stream. It seemed like they were caressing, but in fact there was no real contact.

This giant golden dragon has spent an extremely long time and possesses unimaginable wisdom. However, at this time, the wooden basin seems to be a problem that it cannot solve - the emotions in its eyes are becoming more and more... Complex, with desire, vigilance, hesitation, and finally turned into struggle, maybe unintentionally, maybe intentionally, the wind above the stream changed slightly, and the dragon's whiskers that should have been brushing against the edge of the tub gently moved. Trembling, I finally touched the wooden basin for the first time, and even rubbed it under the ear of the baby in the basin!

Just such a slight contact caused extremely drastic changes - the two divine fires deep in the eyes of the golden dragon dispersed with a bang, turning into thousands of stars. In that ocean of stars, there was a naked coldness. And greedy desire!

That desire is praise and emotion.

It is a praise of life and moved by life.

It is the most primitive desire of life.

The giant golden dragon looked at the wooden basin on the stream, opened its mouth, and its breath poured out like broken jade.

The baby in the basin still had his eyes closed, not knowing what would happen next moment.

The stream is shrouded in shadow.

The dragon's breath fell around the wooden basin.

The next moment, the wooden basin and the baby in it will become the food of the golden dragon.

Right now.

One hand fell on the edge of the tub and pulled the tub toward the stream!

It was a hand full of scars, a little thin and small.

Amidst the sound of rushing water, the stream burst, and the hand held the wooden basin and ran desperately to the stream bank.

The owner of that hand is a three- or four-year-old Taoist boy.

The little Taoist boy pulled the wooden basin to the stream bank and hid it between the shore stone and his own body. Then he turned around, drew out the sword from his waist, and looked at the terrifying and huge golden dragon head on the stream surface.

This is a very strange little Taoist boy.

He was blind in one eye and missing an ear. When he was running desperately in the stream, he could see that his legs were a little lame. Looking at his empty sleeves, he only had one hand.

No wonder he could only draw the sword by hiding the wooden basin behind his back.

Looking at the huge dragon head on the stream, the little Taoist boy turned pale and his teeth were chattering, not because of the cold stream water, but because of the fear in his heart.

This was the first time he saw a real dragon. He didn't even know what a dragon was, he only knew he was afraid, but he didn't run away. Instead, he held the thin wooden sword and blocked the basin tightly behind him.

The golden dragon looked at the little Taoist boy with an indifferent expression. Only a super strong person who had also entered the sacred realm could see the anger and coldness in the deepest part of its eyes.

The little Taoist boy shouted something, his face was pale and extremely frightened, but he did not let go of the basin in his hand.

The golden dragon became angry, its breath enveloped both sides of the stream, and death was imminent.

The wooden sword in the little Taoist boy's hand fell into the water, and he turned around and took the wooden basin into his arms.

The scales on the golden dragon's body rubbed against the mist, splashing countless sky fires, and the stream began to burn.

At this moment, a middle-aged Taoist priest appeared by the stream.

The middle-aged Taoist looked at the golden dragon on the stream with a calm expression.

The sky fire on the stream suddenly went out.

The golden dragon looked at the middle-aged Taoist and let out a dragon roar!

The dragon's chant is extremely long, as if it will never stop. It is an extremely complex syllable, which sounds like the most complex music, and also like the sound of the most terrifying hurricane in nature, mixed with unimaginable power!

The middle-aged Taoist looked at the golden dragon and said one word.

It was a monosyllabic word, and the pronunciation was extremely weird and difficult to understand. It didn't seem to be human language at all. The fragment seemed to contain endless information, full of ancient meaning!

The golden dragon understood, but it didn't agree.

Then the fog on the stream surged violently.

The dragon's breath was spraying everywhere, and the wet grass and woods beside the stream instantly turned into a terrifying fire scene.

The little Taoist boy had his back to the stream and had no idea what was happening. He lowered his head in fear, closed his eyes, and just held the wooden basin tightly in his arms.

…

…

I don’t know how long it took, but the riverside finally became quiet.

The little Taoist boy plucked up the courage and looked back. He saw that the stream was clear and the fires on both sides of the stream had been extinguished. Only the charred trees and cracked stones told the horror of the previous battle.

A dragon roar came from deep in the clouds and mist. The whistling sound is full of pain, unwillingness and regret. It is telling the whole world to the five continents what deep regrets it has brought about due to its previous hesitation.

The little Taoist boy was startled, holding the wooden basin in one hand, limping up from the stream to the shore, walked to the side of the middle-aged Taoist, and looked timidly into the depths of the clouds.

The middle-aged Taoist stretched out his hand to extinguish the flames on his shoulders.

The little Taoist boy thought of something and lifted the tub with some difficulty.

The middle-aged Taoist took the wooden basin and gently picked up the baby in the basin. The fingertips of his right hand fell on the baby's body through the linen cloth. The next moment, he frowned.

"Your life... is really bad." He looked at the baby wrapped in linen and said with pity.

…

…

In the east of Dongtu Continent, there is a small town called Xining. There is a small stream outside the small town, and there is a mountain beside the stream. There is a temple in the mountain, but there are no monks in the temple. There is only a middle-aged Taoist with two The disciples practice and attain enlightenment here.

The mountain is an unknown green mountain, the temple is an abandoned Buddhist temple, and there are two disciples: the eldest is a Taoist monk, and the younger is named Chen Changsheng.

Xining Town is located in the Zhou Kingdom. The Zhou Dynasty established Taoism as the state religion eight hundred years ago. Until now, during the Zhengtong period, the state religion has unified the world and is even more respected. Logically speaking, the three masters and disciples should live a life of rich food and clothing, but Xining Town is too remote. , that dilapidated temple is even more remote, and rarely visited by people on weekdays, so it can only live a simple life.

Taoists naturally want to practice Taoism. There are countless cultivation methods in the world today, but the Taoism taught by the middle-aged Taoist is completely different from other sects. It does not pay attention to the cultivation experience, ignores the position of the fortune star, and does not care about the tempering of the soul. It just says in one word: back.

Yu Ren has been memorizing Taoist classics since he was a child. Chen Changsheng was forced to stare at those yellowed old books as soon as he opened his eyes. The first thing he recognized was a room full of Taoist classics. After he learned to speak, He began to learn to read, and then began to recite the words in the Taoist classics.

Reciting and practicing it until you can memorize it fluently, this is the life of two little Taoist boys in a ruined temple.

When they wake up in the morning, they are reciting. When the sun is blazing, they are reciting. When the dusk bell breaks the silence, they are reciting. The spring is warm and the flowers are blooming, the summer thunder is shaking, the autumn wind is bleak, and the winter snow is cold. They are on the ridge, by the stream, under the tree, and beside the plum blossoms, holding the Taoist scriptures and reading them non-stop, carrying them on their backs, unaware of the passage of time. Pass away.

There is a whole room in the ruined temple filled with Taoist scriptures. When I was seven years old, I once counted them out of boredom. There are three thousand volumes, and there are three thousand Taoist volumes. One volume may have hundreds of words, or more than a thousand words, the shortest one. The Divine Sutra only has 314 words, but the longest Sutra of Immortality has more than 20,000 words. This is all they have to memorize.

The two brothers kept reciting it, just to remember it, not to understand it. They had long known that the master would never answer any questions they had about Dao Zang. He would only say: "Remember it, and you will understand it naturally."

For those playful and enlightened children in the world, this kind of life is really unimaginable. Fortunately, the green mountains are remote, with few people, and no external objects to linger around. They can concentrate. The two little Taoist children have special temperaments, and they don't find it boring. Carrying it like this day after day, several years passed without realizing it.

One day, the sound of reading that had not stopped for several years stopped. Two children were sitting on a rock, side by side, with a book on their knees. They glanced at the book and then looked at each other, both looking confused.

At this time, they had memorized the last volume, but there was no way to continue because they could not understand it. The words in this volume of Taoist scriptures were very unfamiliar—to be precise, they were very strange. They knew the radicals and strokes clearly. , combined, turned out to be something completely weird. How to read it? What's the meaning?

The two returned to the temple and found the middle-aged Taoist priest.

The middle-aged Taoist said: "The Three Thousand Great Dao, what you are reading is the last volume. This volume has 1,601 words. It is said that the ultimate meaning of heaven is hidden in it. No one has ever been able to fully understand its meaning, let alone you? "

Chen Changsheng asked: "Master, you don't understand either?"

The middle-aged Taoist shook his head and said, "No one dares to say that they really understand, and neither can I."

The brothers looked at each other and felt a little regretful. Although they were still children, they had memorized the Three Thousand Daozang to this day and were only one volume short of being able to complete the task. Naturally they would not be happy. But after all, he is not an ordinary child. He has been accompanying Taoist scriptures since he was ignorant. His temperament is also a little light, and the two of them are about to turn around and leave.

At this moment, the middle-aged Taoist continued: "...But I can read."

From that day on, the middle-aged Taoist began to teach the pronunciation of the last volume of the Taoist canon, teaching the pronunciation word by word. Those pronunciations are particularly weird, very simple monosyllables, but they require the use of a certain muscle in the throat and have special effects on the vocal cords. The request, in short, did not sound like a sound that a normal human being could make.

Chen Changsheng didn't understand it at all. He was just like a little duck, faithfully imitating the pronunciation taught by his master. However, others occasionally remembered the word that his master said to the terrifying creature by the stream many years ago.

It took Yu and Chen Changsheng a long time to finally master the pronunciation of the 1,601 characters, but they still couldn't understand its meaning. They couldn't get an answer when they asked the middle-aged Taoist. At that time, they were already at the last word. It took a whole year to write the scroll, and then they started to read it like before, holding the last scroll in their hands until they could memorize it.

When they thought they had finally escaped the life of apostasy, the middle-aged Taoist priest asked them to read it a second time. The helpless children were forced to start repeating it again, or perhaps it was precisely because of the repetition that this time they read the Taoist canon. On the contrary, it feels much harder, even a little miserable.

It was at this time that they began to wonder, why did the master want the two of them to read these Taoist scriptures? Why not teach yourself how to practice? It is clearly written in the Taoist Scriptures that Taoists should practice Taoism and pursue immortality.

At that time, Yu Ren was ten years old and Chen Changsheng was six and a half years old. It was also in the autumn of this year that a white crane came through the clouds and brought greetings from distant friends and a silk letter. On the silk letter was the birthday and a birthday. A marriage certificate and token - a certain dignitary who was once rescued by a middle-aged Taoist wanted to fulfill the promise he made back then.

The middle-aged Taoist looked at the marriage certificate and smiled without saying a word, then looked at his two disciples. Yu Ren waved his hand, pointed at his blind eye, and refused with a smile. Chen Changsheng looked confused and didn't understand what it meant. He accepted the marriage certificate in a daze, and he had a fiancée from then on.

In the following years, every New Year's Eve, the white crane would break through the clouds and arrive at the scheduled time, bringing greetings from the nobleman in Kyoto and some interesting small gifts to Chen Changsheng.

Chen Changsheng gradually became enlightened and understood what the marriage contract meant. Every night, he looked at the marriage letter lying quietly in the drawer under the starlight. He had some indescribable feelings, thinking about the man who was said to be about the same age as him. The fiancée has some quiet joy, some shyness, and more confusion.

In his peaceful study life, an accident occurred when Chen Changsheng was ten years old. One night, after he recited the 1,601 words of the last volume of Tao Zang for the seventy-second time, he suddenly felt that his consciousness drifted away from his body and began to float in the woods in the green mountains. He fell into a coma and could not sleep. , the body began to emit a strange fragrance.

It's not floral, leafy, or powdery. To put it lightly, it lingers for a long time under the night wind. To say it is strong, it floats into the nose, but it is so ethereal, unlike the fragrance that can appear in the world, elusive and extremely attractive.

The first person to discover Chen Changsheng's condition was Yu Ren. Smelling the strange fragrance, his expression became extremely serious.

In the slightly dark green mountains covered by leaves, there are roaring lions and tigers, dancing cranes and leaping dragons, and the thunderous croaking of frogs that should only appear on summer nights. Deep in the clouds and mist to the east of the green mountains, where no one dares to enter, there is a huge looming The shadow of an unknown creature. Under the greedy and awed gazes of countless beings, Chen Changsheng exuded a strange fragrance and fell asleep with his eyes closed, not knowing when he would wake up.

Yu Ren was fanning desperately beside the couch, trying to blow away the fragrance from Chen Changsheng's body, because the fragrance made him salivate and gave him a very weird and terrifying thought. He had to fan him to get rid of this scent. Thoughts are also blown away.

The middle-aged Taoist came to the side room at some point. He stood by the couch, looked at Chen Changsheng with his eyes tightly closed, and said something that only he could understand: "Where is the cause?"

One night passed.

The moment the morning light fell on the green mountains, the strange fragrance on Chen Changsheng's body suddenly disappeared, and he could no longer smell it. He returned to his former appearance. The thousands of strange beasts in the green mountains and the terrifying figure behind the clouds were unknown. time to leave.

The rest of the group looked at the sleeping junior brother and finally stopped panicking. They breathed a sigh of relief and tried to wipe the cold sweat off their foreheads. Only then did they realize that their shoulders were so painful that they couldn't move because they had been fanning desperately all night.

Chen Changsheng opened his eyes and woke up. Although he slept all night, he knew what happened. Looking at the painful expression of his senior brother, his face turned a little pale and asked: "Master, what's wrong with me?"

The middle-aged Taoist looked at him, and after being silent for a long time, he said, "You are sick."

According to the middle-aged Taoist, Chen Changsheng's illness is due to congenital physical weakness, and the nine meridians in the body cannot be connected. The strange fragrance last night means that the soul cannot continue to circulate and can only be forced to be excreted with sweat. The sweat contains The soul essence that is indispensable to human beings naturally carries a strange fragrance. This is a strange disease.

"Then...can you cure it?"

"No, no one can."

"A disease that cannot be cured...is that life, right?"

"Yes, that's your life."

…

…

Since his tenth birthday, the white crane has never been to Qingshan again. There is no news from Kyoto, and the other side of the marriage certificate seems to have never appeared. Chen Changsheng occasionally stands by the stream, looking to the west, and will think of this. matter.

Of course, what he was thinking more about was his illness, or his fate... He had not become weak. Apart from being a little prone to sleepiness, he looked extremely healthy and did not look like a person who died young at all. He even started to Doubt the master's judgment. But what if Master’s judgment is correct? Chen Changsheng decided to leave the ruined temple and go see the prosperous human world. While he could still see it, he wanted to see the legendary Mausoleum of the Book of Heaven and cancel the marriage.

"Teacher, I have to leave."

"where are you going?"

"Go to Kyoto."

"Why?"

"Because I want to live."

"I said, it's not a disease, it's life."

"I want to change my life."

"In the past eight hundred years, only three people have successfully changed their lives."

"Those are all great people, right?"

"Yes."

"I'm not, but I want to try."

Chen Changsheng will always go to Kyoto. No matter whether he can cure his disease or not, he will always go there, not only because he wants to change his life, but also because the other side of the marriage certificate is in Kyoto.

He packed his luggage, took the small sword handed over by Senior Brother Yu Ren, and turned around to leave.

The fourteen-year-old Taoist priest came down the mountain.

The beginning of a new journey, thank you all