The white-haired man never woke up.
Xuanling stayed by his side every day, watching him, looking at his handsome face, smoothing out his head full of white hair with her fingers, and secretly laughing. But he showed no expression at all.
Xuanling remembered his brother's words, as long as the white-haired man's mental power was not novel, then he would not die. But she couldn't sense his presence. No heartbeat, no pulse. Even, no blood.
Would you please wake up quickly? We need you." Brother had examined the man's wounds and told her they were done by the Undead warrior. She had never seen the necromancers and had no idea of their strength. But she could guess that the warriors were not as weak as the Knights of Light. Because they 'killed' the Earth monks.
In her mind, all Earth monks should be as brave as her brother.
"I found this book on you. Was it your friend who put it on you and put it in the coffin? Your friend must have been a monk, too. Do you like the book?"
No answer.
"You must like this book very much. Shall I read it to you?"
The man was as silent as a statue.
"The second one, and I See. I don't read well. You mustn't laugh, okay?" Hanging Bell giggled, her face flushed with laughter.
"The prophet predicts the time to come, while I pay homage to the past.
You still wander in dreams, while I see the long passage of time.
Time goes backward, and all hearts become confused.
Only I exist eternally, and I will stand among you forever. "
Although I can't read those languages, I still feel that I'm not satisfied. The girl shyly lowered her head, "I'll read one more, the last one, and you still can't laugh at me." Fingers flipped through page after page of white paper, "The third, My light. Perhaps you should be able to recite it by now. Then read with me, will you?"
"Only when you look up devoutly can you see my light.
I come from a distant world and stand by your side, but I am far to the ends of the earth.
I will protect you from the gods and make you believe in me.
I will bring you back to our country, to forget the hardships here, to forget the sorrows.
Forget everything and return to our flawless world.
At that time, I will stand among you forever. "
After reading, Xuanling couldn't help laughing again. He closed the book and whispered to the man, "Can you read these poems? I read it several times and still can't understand it. As if it weren't a poem, but the divine language of some religion. Wake up quickly and tell me these poems, will you?"
The candle came in, looked at the white-haired man, frowned and said, "Sister, I think I need to go to the city of Wangshen."
"The city of the Gods? What to do there?" Xuanling couldn't forget what had happened last time in Wangshen City.
That day they saw a stone in front of a house that was nearly as tall as a person, with the word "hide" engraved on it, exactly the same as the stone in their arms, only enlarged many times.
They naively thought that they had finally returned to their own place. So the candle led his sister into the main hall of the house.
In the main hall, a man rushed forward to greet him, and another slightly younger man crouched on the floor in the middle of the hall, scrubbing a small patch of the floor with a damp cloth. Hanging Bell looked curiously and found several dark red patches on the greyish-white wet cloth. On closer inspection, there was also that small patch on the floor.
It was like dried blood.
Hanging bell felt uneasy, pulled his brother's arm, and warily scanned every corner of the main hall.
Then another person came in, an old man in a fiery red robe, just like my brother. He walked in quickly, and the man who had been ready to greet the candle and the bell smiled at the old man.
The candle asked the man, "Excuse me, do we need to hire workers here?"
The man looked at the candle's attire, but the old man said crossly, "No, no, hurry up, don't make me look in the way!"
Xuanling looked at her brother, not knowing why he had suddenly asked such a question. But he gave her a deep look and then pulled her out quickly.
After walking a long way, Shi Zhu looked back and then stopped.
Xuanling muttered under her breath, still angry at the old man's words just now. "What kind of person is this? He speaks so badly. Who does he think he is?"
"We should thank him. He deliberately spoke that way to get us out of there," whispered the candle.
Xuanling didn't understand.
"Did you not feel a very weak spell flow when the old man entered the main hall?" asked the candle.
Xuanling thought about it carefully. Indeed, she felt it at that time. But such a small amount of spell traffic wouldn't do any harm to ordinary people. Not to mention that the brother and sister are cultivators from Earth.
"What does that say?" "Xuanling asked.
"The magic comes from that old man, and I think he must be a great mage, and even, like us, a monk," said the candle.
Xuanling came up with some energy. She and her brother had been looking for a monk who had the black hidden word stone, but they had not found it.
"The old man wrote a word on my back with his qi spell, 'Go.' Then I felt a curved line drawn across my back, from bottom to top. After that, an irregular ring was drawn at the end of the line. Next to the ring, I felt a bit heavier."
"He asked us to leave? Isn't that the place where Earth monks gather just now? But what is the dot loop below the word?"
"I think he wants us to go somewhere." "Shi Zhu said.
"Shall we go back and ask him when he comes out of that house?"
The candle nodded in agreement. The two walked back and stopped a long way from the house, leaning against the corner of the road to hide their bodies.
But they waited for a long time and did not see the old man come out. Some more days passed and still he was not seen.
The candle guessed that the old man might have gone to the place he had drawn to wait for them. But it's just a simple picture. Where is that place?
The bell reminded him if he could find that location on the map.
When they bought a map and unfolded it, they found that the line was the River of No Prohibition and the circle was the Lake of Death. The candle pointed to the side of the lake and said, "the dot he drew on my back is right here, the shore of the Lake of death."
"He wants us to go there?" Hanging bell found the location of the city of Wangshen on the map, "But it's far from here. Brother, shall we go?"
The candle looked at his sister and said, "I'll listen to you."
"No, I listen to you."
"Too many things are lost in our memory, except that we are Earth cultivators, except that we are siblings, except that we have a younger brother who is less than twenty. We know nothing. But where is the Earth? Why are we here? And where is our brother? Sister, we have no way out and keep bumping around. Perhaps the old man really wants to tell us something, and I don't want to give up this hope. Even if it's too vague, I want to hold on to it."
Then they left the city of Wangshen, and along the way they were hunted down by several Dark Knights. The candle, with his sister, walked for a long time in the opposite direction of the Lake of Death until they were completely free from the Dark Knight's pursuit.
Thinking of the Dark Knight, the bell still shuddered a little. Both she and her brother are mages and are struggling against the melee master, the Dark Knight.
"Brother, did you go to Wangshen City to look for that old man?" said the hanging bell to the candle.
Shi Zhu nodded. "We've been here for a long time, but we haven't seen the old man, nor have we found any information about Earth cultivators." He looked at the white-haired man, "Of course, we found him. But it was an accident. I think there seems to be a great secret hidden among the Earth monks. Why did we come here? Why are the Dark Knights and the Dead Warriors chasing us? I want to find the answer."
"I'll go with you, brother."
The candle put his hand on the hanging bell's shoulder and said, "Sister, you stay. If you go, who will look after him? And, don 't forget, be sure to get your brother back."
"Brother, but you can be dangerous on your own..."
"Stop it, my sister. I know it's dangerous, but don't worry, I'll be back. Wait for me here and don't leave."
Xuanling said no more, she knew that once her stubborn brother made a decision, he wouldn't change it. And, as he said, the white-haired men still need care, and their younger brother's fate is now uncertain.
"Sister, you must be strong, you must come back to our home." Shi Zhu combed her sister's hair at the temples.
"Brother, you must be well. Let's go home together." Xuanling's eyes were slightly red.
She whispered in her heart, "Brother, do you know? When you suddenly said you wanted to leave, I was very worried, very worried." As if... As if this parting were..."
"Brother, I won't leave you, nor do I want you to leave me."
"I don't know where my younger brother Yandie has gone. I can't lose my only brother again. Do you remember when the three of us built the castle we ruled together on the beach and made a wish to the sea, the three of us siblings, forever and ever... Be together forever. I grew up slowly, but I always believed that since we said so many "forever" that afternoon, it must be forever."
"Brother, brother, the butterfly disappeared among us. You say, will our forever come true? Will it?"
The next day, the candle woke up early -- in fact, he had not slept all night. He simply packed up a few things and quietly stepped out of the room.
The sky was still greyish-white, and the valley was as dark as night. The mist spread across the mountains and valleys, like a gossamer ribbon, torn into strands by a gentle breeze. Entwined and interwoven in the still chilly air of the early morning. Or twist, like being pulled by a dancer's slender hands, to the music, to the dance steps, to perform a seductive dance.
The red figure passes through one curtain after another of gauze, the body stirs the white gauze, the white gauze attaches to the body and then brushes over. As the person left, the corners of the veil were lifted by the gentle breeze brought by the person's passing, then dropped and lingered.
"Brother - brother -" a voice as delicate as gauze followed behind.
The candle stopped and turned. Through the thin curtain, he saw his sister running towards him with some difficulty, treading on rocks of all heights. In an instant, his heart seemed to be gripped tightly by a big hand, and something came into view. His eyes were slightly oxygenated. The candle lowered his head and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
"Brother... Are you leaving now?" Hanging bell threw himself into the candle's arms, his tears moistening the clothes on his chest.
"Sister, you shouldn't have gotten up so early." "Go back and have a good rest. Don't send me off," said the candle with some concern.
Hanging bell stubbornly lay in his brother's arms, feeling the sound of something beating in his chest, feeling the warmth that was most longed for there.
"Brother, you must come back." Xuanling said, reluctantly emerging from her brother's arms and staring into those determined eyes.
Shi Zhu clung to Xuan Ling's shoulders and nodded vigorously, "Wait for me, I'll be back, surely. All right, go back, go back."
Let your hand drop and turn around. The cloak spread out like a flag unfurled by the wind. Red fills the face of the hanging bell, like a gentle flame leaping before it.
The candle strode out of the valley without looking back, "Go back, Xuanling, go back, wait for me."
Tears fell on the face and suddenly turned cold. Remember when I was a child, my brother, who had just learned the fire spell, would always raise a ball of fire on cold winter nights. The three children would sit around the flames, snuggling up to each other and talking about some far-fetched but beautiful dreams until they fell asleep.
Once, in the middle of the night, Hanging bell woke up and saw his brother still using the index finger of his right hand to keep the flame alive.
The sensible Xuanling said, "Brother, I'm not cold. Go to sleep."
"But I'm very afraid of the cold." Shi Zhu smiled, his pale and thin face covered with beads of sweat.
The hanging bell wiped the sweat off the candle's face and said, "It will be very tiring to keep casting spells. Brother, take a break first."
The candle still laughed happily, but did not let go of his hand. He said, "I'm not tired. I'm sweating because I'm also afraid of the heat. I'm such a strange person, being both cold and hot." Then he laughed loudly.
But the brother's bitterness was already known, but he refused to speak, so he had to cry secretly countless times.
Childhood was miserable, three children, wandering everywhere. There was no serious father, no loving mother, and no one was willing to look at them even once. But childhood is also happy, with naughty younger brothers and, more importantly, strong elder brothers. With his feeble strength, he created a paradise for the three children.
The red figure vanished, but Xuanling did not return to the little house immediately. For he knew that his brother must have opened the Fire Eye in the mist and must have kept looking back at his sister who was seeing him off in the distance, his most beloved sister.
It was getting brighter and brighter.
Xuanling returned to the house somewhat dejectedly and sat down on the chair made by his brother himself. Everything from childhood flashed through his mind, still so clear.
Suddenly, I stood up, as if I had made up my mind, and took off the big robe wrapped around me. Inside was still the pale purple magic robe - she hadn't slept last night either, two thoughts struggling in her mind, she couldn't make either choice.
If there is no choice, why be torn between them?
She pushed open the inner door and went in. Standing by the bedside, she combed her beautiful white hair for the last time. Hair trickled down from her fingertips, and she said softly, "Friend, I'm sorry I have to make a choice that I won't regret for the rest of my life. Sorry, good luck to you."
She placed the poems of Yazell on her bedside table and put an envelope on the cover of the book.
"Actually, how I wish I could always read to you the poems you like. But I can't do without my brother. My brother is my only, eternal, heaven."
The pale purple figure quickly walked out of the small house and soon vanished into the crevices between the mountains.
In the valley, more quiet than ever, as quiet as a grave that no one pays homage to. The owner of the tomb slumbered for a thousand years.