After an unknown amount of time, Lin Dong stood up staggeringly. The tears on his face had dried up, and only numbness remained in his lifeless eyes.
He glanced at Qiu Qianbian who was nailed to the wall, recalled the green light sword and walked towards him step by step...
The world is like a Qiu Qianqiu, and he felt the murderous aura behind him turned into a trembling quail. He begged in a panic:
"Nie Weiwei fought on her own. It has nothing to do with me. Don't kill me. I can give you whatever you want..."
Lin Dongjiu's eyes were filled with fierceness, and the green light sword dragged on the ground, sparking a large number of sparks and making a tingling sound.
"Oops, it seems like I'm a little late. Did I miss something?"
Suddenly, a small cloud of black mist emerged from before Qiu Qian's transformation, letting out a sinister laugh.
Lin Dongjiu stopped and sneered:
"No, senior brother, you came at the right time."
Qiu Qianbian seemed to have grasped a life-saving straw and shouted crazily:
"Chen Hongyi, you're finally here. There's something unexpected here. Come on, save me. Let's work together to kill him!"
"Shut up!"
Chen Yi glanced at him coldly.
Qiu Qianbian's eyes widened and he was about to have a seizure, but thinking of his situation, he tried to slow down his tone and said:
"Chen Hongyi, what do you mean?"
"What's the meaning?"
Chen Yi narrowed his eyes and said with a smile:
"The mission assigned by the Priest of Great Desire has not been completed. Of course, we need someone to take the blame. If you don't die, will I be the one to take the blame?"
"Qiu Hongyi is so smart all his life, doesn't he understand this little bit of truth?"
"you..."
Qiu Qianbian's face was twisted with anger, and he was so shocked that he couldn't speak for a long time.
Chen Yi rubbed his hands and said impatiently:
"Okay, that crazy woman Die Huanyi is going to catch up. If you get on the road earlier, I can step on your body and ascend to the throne without giving you a chance to confess your last words."
"Chen Yi, you dare to kill me, you dare...ah!"
Qiu Qianbian screamed and was beheaded by Chen Yi.
Then, Chen Yi said again: "Junior brother, I have to leave. Of course, although I am not sure that I will kill you before Die Huanyi comes, but if I want to leave, you can't keep me, unless you want to be with me
One life for another.
But, if you are willing to let me go, I can promise you that I will not reveal your information to the Great Desire Priest, especially the secrets hidden in you. After all, this is what I am most interested in, and I don’t want to
Let others get involved."
"As for Die Huanyi..."
Chen Yi paused for a moment and said quietly: "I advise you to kill it after it is used up, so as not to get burned."
Lin Dongjiu glanced at Chen Yi coldly and said:
"Do you think everyone is as cold-blooded as you? Don't worry, I will hide her and ensure that the Great Desire Priest cannot find her. How you explain to the Great Desire Priest then is your business."
"Heh... ok!"
Chen Yi hesitated for a moment and then agreed.
After the agreement was reached, Lin Dongjiu was filled with murderous intent and said: "When we meet next time, I will kill you with my own hands."
"Don't worry, this day won't last long, but whoever kills whom doesn't count..."
After finishing his words, Chen Yi completely disappeared into Suoling Pagoda.
Not long after, a purple light flashed, and Die Huanyi appeared on the twelfth floor. Her hair was messy and her breath was unstable. She must have fallen into Chen Yi's dirty tricks and rushed over in a hurry.
Die Huanyi first looked around cautiously, and after seeing Qiu Qianbian's body at Lin Dongjiu's feet, she breathed a sigh of relief and asked with concern:
"I'm sorry, Master, I'm late. Is Master injured?"
"I'm fine, I just let Chen Yi escape."
Lin Dongjiu shook his head slowly and said, "Let's go."
"good!"
Die Huanyi took Lin Dongjiu's arm and left Suoling Pagoda with him.
...
"Master, it's snowing!"
Outside, the vast land is covered with silver, and large snowflakes are like torn pieces of paper, falling from the sky. The scenery in the distance is hazy and illusive, soaked in the boundless snow curtain.
Vaguely, an evergreen spiritual plant can be seen standing proudly on top of the misty clouds, becoming the last embellishment in this pure white world.
Lin Dongjiu rolled his head, stopped and looked at the hazy sky.
Snowflakes fell into his eyes and melted into mist.
He stretched out his hand as if to catch a snowflake, but the naughty white elf slipped through his fingers, as if time could never be caught, and in the end he could only sigh:
"Yeah, it's such a heavy snow..."
...
"Ajiu, it's snowing so heavily!"
In a dilapidated alley, a thinly dressed little girl followed a barefoot boy.
The boy's face was sallow, his limbs were thin, as if he had been hungry for several days without eating, and his steps were a little sloppy.
But he walked very fast and turned a deaf ear to the sounds behind him.
The little girl could only follow the boy closely, as if if she took a step slower, the boy would completely disappear from her world around the corner of the alley.
The cold wind blew into the little girl's collar, making her shiver.
"Ajiu, wait for me!"
"Ouch!"
The little girl accidentally tripped over a pebble on the roadside and fell to the ground for a long time.
When the boy heard the noise, he stopped, turned around and asked:
"What's wrong, Dongdong?"
"My foot is twisted..."
The little girl pursed her lips and blinked her eyes aggrievedly.
"You can fall down even when you walk, what a little burden!"
The boy shook his head helplessly. Although he complained, he carefully carried the little girl on his back.
"I'm not a burden!"
Not to be outdone, the little girl stretched out her little hands and hugged the boy's neck tightly, her dependent eyes filled with warmth enough to melt ice and snow.
"Don't talk, don't be afraid of being irritated, we'll be home soon!"
The boy's waist was hunched, and he walked faster in the strong wind.
Just like that, the two little beggars gradually disappeared into the windy and snowy alley.
...
The boy carried the little girl into a small temple that had been in disrepair. The small temple was empty. The clay statue in the center had lost its head. The legs of the altar table below had also been removed.
There was a thin layer of hay, and a tattered but clean bedding rolled up on the grass.
This small temple should be what the little boy calls "home".
The boy first blocked the temple door with a big wooden head, then put the little girl on the simple little bed made of table boards, put a quilt on her, then took off the little girl's straw sandals and gently rubbed her feet.
After a while, the sky gradually became dark, and the cold wind from outside blew in through the broken windows and leaky tiles, making the temperature inside the small temple no different from the outside.
Sometimes when the wind gets stronger, the swaying doors, windows and beams will make creaking sounds, as if the small temple might be blown down by the strong wind in the next second.
The little girl huddled under the quilt and was so frightened that her face turned pale, but the boy's expression remained normal, as if he had long been used to it.
Yes, he has lived in this small temple since he was a child. This is already the fifth year.
It turned out that there were some beggars who lived with him. After a few years, some died of illness and others died of starvation, and finally he was the only one left.
The boy's name is Lin Ajiu. He chose his name blindly. It has no connotation and is just easy to pronounce.
During these years as a beggar, he had been beaten, robbed of food, and deceived. Hungry was the main theme of his life, and loneliness was just the norm.
But he usually hums unknown songs with a faint smile on his face. It seems that enjoying hardship is his only belief in facing misery.
Just a few days ago, the boy begged for food as usual during the day. When he came home at night, he found someone hiding under his quilt.
The boy thought his home had been robbed, but then he thought about it and realized there was nothing to steal...
He opened the quilt and found a sleeping little girl lying under the quilt.
The little girl slept soundly and seemed to be exhausted, so the boy didn't have the heart to wake her up and went to prepare dinner.
Dinner was two roasted sweet potatoes. When the boy roasted the sweet potatoes, the little girl smelled the fragrance and woke up faintly. She was wary when she saw the boy at first, but when she saw the two roasted sweet potatoes in the boy's hand, she couldn't bear it.
She swallowed her saliva and looked at him pitifully.
The boy handed the little girl a sweet potato, and the little girl wolfed it down and looked at him eagerly.
The boy had no choice but to give the remaining sweet potatoes to the little girl...
Just like that, from then on, there was a little follower behind the boy who begged for food with him, the kind that he couldn't get rid of no matter how hard he tried.
...
"Ajiu, I'm so hungry..."
The little girl under the quilt was poking her fingers, as if she was afraid that the boy would be angry, and even the tone of her words was cautious.
"It's been snowing heavily these days, and I can't find anything to eat. I still have half a piece of steamed bun left over from yesterday, so you can make do with it."
The boy took out a paper bag from his arms, opened it, took out the dry steamed buns inside and handed it to the little girl.
"Hehe, Ah Jiu is the best to me!"
The little girl cheered, but she only took a small bite, threw the bun to the boy, and said angrily:
"Bah, bah, bah, it tastes terrible. I don't want to eat it. You can keep the rest for yourself!"
"You're picky about food, and I don't know which family you are from..."
The boy muttered and ignored her. Apparently this kind of thing had happened more than once or twice.
He ate the steamed bun in two bites, got up and made a fire.
After a while, the orange fire light illuminated the small temple. The boy and the little girl hid under the quilt and stayed together for warmth. Because of the snow, the firewood in the fire was a little damp, and sparks were still crackling outside.
The cold wind was howling outside the temple, but the temple was warm and quiet. The little girl dozed off, and soon fell asleep lying on the boy's shoulder...
"Bang bang bang!!"
Suddenly, a series of rapid knocks on the door sounded. The little girl was startled awake and subconsciously shrank into the boy's arms.
The boy frowned and comforted in a low voice: "Don't be afraid, Dongdong, I'll go take a look."
The boy put on his linen coat, walked to the door, and asked warily: "Who is it?"
"It's me, I'm Ergou, Ninth Brother, open the door quickly!"
Ergou, like the boy, is a little beggar begging for food in Yangtou Town.
Hearing Ergou's voice, the boy immediately moved the big wood on top of the door, opened the door and said:
"Ergou, why are you here so late?"
Ergou looked panicked and did not enter the house, so he quickly said:
"Brother Ninth, Yazi is here. Brother Lu and Brother Tie have all their territory taken away, and their people have been arrested. Take Dongdong and run away!"
After saying that, the two dogs didn't stop, turned around and ran away.
The boy's expression changed and he tightened the rusty dagger on his waist.
The "Yazi" Ergou refers to are actually human traffickers who specialize in catching little beggars like them to make profits.
For these little beggars, not having enough food and clothing is not a terrible thing. What is terrible is being caught and sold into a black mine. That would be the darkest place, and they cannot live without death!
The boy put out the fire and called:
"Dongdong, get up quickly, Yazi is coming, let's go out and hide for a while!"
"Didn't Yazi just come here a few days ago? Why are you here again?"
The little girl quickly put on her shoes and left the small temple with the boy.
"It's winter, and I'm short of money. Winter will come more often."
The boy's face was very calm, at least he didn't show any panic expression.
He has experienced this kind of thing too many times, and he was almost caught a few times.
However, the cunning rabbit still had three holes, so the boy was naturally well prepared.
There is a deep mountain not far behind the small temple. A boy once went into the mountain to cut firewood and found an extremely hidden cave in the mountain.
That cave must have been left by a certain spiritual beast, so he used it as a refuge base, and usually transported some dry food and daily necessities there, just to deal with such emergencies.
As soon as I left the temple gate, the wind and snow blowing in my face were like sharp knives hanging on my face, making it difficult to open my eyes and unable to move.
The most unbearable thing was the biting cold. Even an adult might not be able to endure it for long in such an environment, let alone two little beggars who were already wearing thin clothes.
At this time, a few swaying firelights appeared in the distance, so conspicuous even if the snow fell like a waterfall.
"No, Yazi is here, Dongdong, leave quickly!"
The boy's heart sank, and he ran wildly in the snow that was deep enough to cover his calves, leaving a series of footprints of different depths.
"Ajiu, wait for me..."
The howling cold wind drowned out the children's cries, and the boy suddenly remembered that the little girl's legs and feet were injured and it was difficult to walk, let alone run.
He looked back and saw that except for the approaching firelight in the distance, he couldn't see the little girl anywhere.
"Dongdong!"
The boy slapped his thigh and ran back as hard as he could, shouting at the top of his lungs.
Fortunately, he didn't run far when he saw the little girl falling into the snowdrift, the tears on her face frozen into ice beads.
"I'm sorry Dongdong..."
The boy picked up the little girl on his back, but after just such a delay, the teeth chasing after him got closer, and they could be heard yelling viciously:
"Don't run! When we catch these two bastards, the boys will be thrown into the black mines, and the girls will be sold to the brothels, and they will make a lot of money..."
The boy did not dare to delay at all, and ran hard to the evacuation base with the little girl on his back.
"Ajiu, just leave me behind. You can't escape with me as a burden..."
The little girl looked desperate and whispered.
"Shut up!"
The boy scolded loudly, but he slowed down his voice again:
"Dongdong, how could I leave you behind just because I said you were a burden? We won't be caught. You have to believe me, okay?"
"Okay, I will always believe Ah Jiu..."
The little girl buried her head on the boy's back, tears bursting out of her eyes, but she didn't cry out.
In front of him was the mountain behind the small temple. The boy stepped through the dense forest shrouded in ice and snow, and felt like a fish in water. He turned left and right, and within a short time he was far away from the chasing Yazi.
He was too familiar with the mountain roads here, how could Yazi possibly catch up?
After running a long way, the boy's hands and feet were so cold that he couldn't control his movements, but he still felt unbearably hot all over. He even wanted to take off his clothes and roll in the snow.
But his reason told him that if he did this, he would die.
"I can't die, I want to survive with Dongdong, I can't die..."
A strong belief arose in the boy's heart, and he gritted his teeth and ran towards the cave.
At the last moment when he fell, he finally ran into the cave with the little girl on his back.
After entering the cave, the boy fell to the ground and gasped. The little girl immediately lit the bonfire in the cave, dragged the boy to the haystack, hugged him tightly, and used her body temperature to warm him.
After a while, the boy's body stopped shaking. He turned around and saw the little girl holding him crying silently. He couldn't help but touched the little girl's head and comforted her:
"It's okay Dongdong, we are safe..."
"Ajiu..."
The little girl couldn't help crying anymore, but she seemed to be afraid that her crying would harm the boy, so she could only keep swallowing more.
"Don't be afraid, Dongdong. If you want to cry, cry. Those bad guys won't be able to catch up with us."
"I won't cry...I don't want to be a burden..."
The little girl wiped her tears and forced out a silly smile.
The boy also smiled. He got up and walked to the pile of debris in the corner of the cave. He rummaged through the boxes and cabinets and didn't know what he was rummaging around.
When the boy turned around again, he was holding a piece of bread in one hand and the other hand behind his back.
The boy handed the pancake to the little girl, but the little girl didn't eat it. When the little girl wasn't paying attention, he spread out his other hand and blew gently on her little face that was red from the cold...
"Ajiu...I'm a little sleepy..."
The little girl shook her head and fell down on the haystack.
"Go to sleep, Dongdong. From now on, you have to take care of yourself..."
The warm orange firelight reflected the boy's calm but resolute face. He covered the little girl with a straw quilt. Finally, he silently glanced at the little girl, put a bundle of hay on his back, and left the cave resolutely.
He didn't want to abandon the little girl, but he knew that their situation was not safe.
Because it was snowing heavily outside, he would definitely leave footprints on the snow that would reveal his whereabouts. Although the violent snowstorm might cover up his footprints, he didn't dare to bet.
If those teeth look carefully, they might still find clues and follow the mark pit to find their way there.
He was dying, but he didn't want to drag the little girl to gamble with him.
After spending many days together, he had actually regarded the little girl as a family member that he depended on for life...
After exiting the cave, the boy blocked the entrance with haystacks, leaving several ventilation openings, and then covered it with a thick layer of snow to blend the cave into the surrounding environment.
Then, he began to retrace his steps and clean up the footprints left outside the cave.
After he cleared a distance of almost a few hundred meters, beams of fire suddenly appeared in his sight.
Sure enough, he caught up... The boy cursed secretly, but felt a little lucky in his heart.
He gritted his teeth, ran in the opposite direction of the cave, and yelled:
"Damn it, Yazi, come after your grandfather and me!"
"Those two bastards are over there, chase them quickly!"
...
The boy didn't know how far he ran. He only knew that he ran out of the dense forest. The blizzard gradually subsided and the sky became brighter.
But the boy couldn't run away. He no longer had the strength to run past the chasing Yazi.
He fell heavily to the ground, and looked at Yazi who was chasing after him with a sack and rope, but the brightest smile appeared on his face.
"Boss, a bitch got away!"
"Forget it, let the brothers take a rest. Let's sell this bastard today first!"
The boy was beaten and kicked by Yazi, his hands and feet were tied, and a sack was put over his head, and he passed out completely.
"Dongdong, you must live well..."
...
As dawn broke, the little girl woke up faintly. She looked around and saw that the cave was empty, leaving only the burnt bonfire on the ground and the endless cold and loneliness.
The little girl huddled up on the haystack, hugging her trembling body, and couldn't help crying anymore:
"Liar...liar!"
"Ajiu... I won't be a burden anymore... Please... come back... don't leave me..."
pity,
No one responded to her anymore.
...
The sack on his head was removed, and the dazzling light made it difficult for the boy to open his eyes. Before he had time to figure out where he was, he heard the sound of thunderbolts and whips and a loud roar in front of him:
"Hurry up, get in line!"
The boy lined up at the back of the queue like a zombie. He glanced in front of him expressionlessly. The people in the queue were all little beggars like him. Someone at the front asked for their names and registered them with a book.
No need to guess anymore, this is a black mine that eats people without spitting out their bones.
When it was the boy's turn, the person who registered asked sternly:
"Name!"
The boy slowly raised his head, something flashed across his eyes, and he replied firmly: