Chapter 140 – A Night of Tight North Wind

It was already nighttime, and the wind and snow were sometimes making and sometimes stopping.

When the wind and snow move, the sound of whistling through the roaming snow field, rolled up thousands of piles of snow, thousands of piles of snow, darkness, such as devouring the place of exile, violent and wild sound palpitatingly non-stop ringing. When the wind and snow quiet, heaven and earth only a silent indifference, like a side of the snow sea containing the storm, miles of clear diffuse cold silver light, sprawling as white jade-like dead snow plains, cold and clear to the extreme.

Abnormally cold icy snow plains, even if the moonlight sprinkled down, seems to be frozen in an instant. But no matter whether the wind and snow were heavy or the sky and earth were calm, the little lights on the side of a highland could not be extinguished, just like the human heart’s longing for the unknown, always stubbornly and firmly waiting there.

The fire pot inside the tent conveyed a rare sense of warmth, blocking out the cold outside, partly because of the excellent effect of the special snow tent in isolating wind and temperature, and partly because the fuel in the fire pot seemed to be particularly resistant to burning, and the fire was not small.

Haitang DuoDuo had already taken off the leather hat that covered most of her face, her cheeks were as red as apples, she was squatting beside the fire pot boiling soup, her brows were slightly wrinkled, hidden worry. Fan Xian, who had long since gotten into his sleeping bag, did not notice her mood.

Already walking north for some days, the weather is getting colder and colder, the daily walking time during the day is getting less and less, most of the time basically hiding in the tent to avoid the snow, however, Fan Xian is not very worried about these problems, he is only calculating how long the fuel and food he carries can still last.

The white bear had long since been reduced to a single skin, and Fan Xian had dried two bear paws by himself. Although Haitang and Wang XIII Lang were very surprised at his leisure, and even more so that he hadn’t forgotten anything like seasoning in his carry-on equipment, the bear paws weren’t very tasty to be honest, and the portions were indeed a bit insufficient.

At the beginning of this expedition to the temple in the far north, the dozens of snow dogs that worked hard to pull the equipment could still forage for food on their own, but now the deeper they went into the snowy plains, the fewer and fewer living beasts they could see, so as a last resort, Fan Xian was forced to use the food that he had prepared. These snow dogs labored hard every day, so Fan Xian naturally couldn’t afford to treat them poorly, but their appetites were just a little too good.

For this trip to the temple, Fan Xian is really well-prepared, preventing snow blindness sunglasses, special fine velvet sleeping bag, the number of pang many supplies prepared, but he is still a little wary, because if you can not find the temple before the summer, once you really have to stay in the far north of the ice plateau for half a year of the night, the food is definitely not enough, may have to start to kill the dog.

Bitter Lotus Sean had relied on eating human flesh to persevere back then, Fan Xian didn’t want to make the same mistake, he turned his head slightly and looked at the begonias beside the fire pit, forcibly suppressing the stabbing pain at his chest, he opened his mouth and said, “Do you want to hear a story?”

“What story?” Haitang’s face was still a little red, and she didn’t look up. Fan Xian smiled and told the story of Sean and Bitter Lotus’ northern exploration of the temple back then, that is, he didn’t even hide the fact that the two old-timers ate human flesh.

Haitang’s face gradually changed after hearing this, as if she couldn’t accept for a moment that her own master teacher had once made such a ghastly choice. A very complicated emotion echoed in the girl’s heart, and after a long moment of silence, she slowly raised her head, looked at Fan Xian with those bright to the core eyes, and said quietly, “Saying all this to me at this time, I’m sure it’s not specifically for the purpose of disgusting me and striking me down, there has to be some reasoning behind it.”

“I found out that you really like those snow dogs.” Fan Xian’s eyes drooped slightly as he said wearily, “And in fact, those snow dogs did help us a lot. But if it really comes to the day when we run out of ammunition and food, we will always have to start eating dog meat, so I hope you can be somewhat mentally prepared now.”

Haitang’s face changed slightly. She in front of Fan Xian, do not need to still end up with the body frame of Beiqi Holy Maiden, TianDaoDao Sect Master, but can naturally flow emotions, she is a girl family, for every day joyfully running snow dog will naturally be incomparably fond of, this month, the dog food basically are her in charge, suddenly heard this, only to know that the original …… Fan Xian from the very beginning of the He realized that Fan Xian hadn’t had a good heart from the beginning, and that the snow dogs that had worked so hard to pull the sled had turned out to be one of his food reserves as well.

However, for this trip to the temple, Haitang had already been prepared for an extremely difficult time, especially after previously hearing about the tragic incident of Master Teacher’s Lord’s eating human flesh back then, she knew that there were priorities, and slightly bowed her head, not picking up on the words, nor did she refute them.

Inside the tent was quiet, set off the sound of the wind and snow outside the tent was particularly clear, and could even hear clearly just how much snow ragingly pounded on top of the outer skin of the tent, snapping and snapping, one could not rest in peace.

Right at this moment, the sound of footsteps on the snow and ice came from outside the tent. Fan Xian and Haitang’s faces did not change, for they knew who was coming. In this deserted and cold snowy plain, it was absolutely impossible for anyone else to appear other than these three young men whose hearts and wills and physical bodies were strong to the peak of humanity.

Wang Thirteen Lang lifted the door with the wooden bars hanging down and walked in, bringing in a cold wind, the flame in the fire pot abruptly dimmed. This damned snowy plain’s severe cold, even seems to be able to directly freeze those flames with low temperature.

Haitang took out a small black ball from her sleeve and threw it into the fire pot, and the fire in the fire pot finally stabilized. All of this was all special items that Fan Xian had prepared over the years, especially the fire, which had never been broken.

Wang Thirteen Lang stood on the blanket in the doorway and patted away the thick ice and snow on his body, removed the countless layers of towels surrounding his face, and spat out a few words as dry and crisp as ice bumps from his lips that had been frozen a little white, “Alright, go to sleep.”

Haitang was in charge of all the chores of life, this girl family had finally been transformed into a housewife by Fan Xian in this extreme environment, while Wang Thirteen Lang had to be in charge of overseeing the dozens of snow dogs and the erection of the tents as well as the defense work, and by well at this time, he meant that the snow nests outside that were specially constructed for the snow dogs to protect themselves from the wind and the snow had already been taken care of.

In terms of hard work alone, of course Wang Thirteen Lang’s work was a bit more strenuous, and Fan Xian’s eyes narrowed as he said to him, “From tomorrow onwards, you’ll be responsible for feeding those dogs.”

Wang Thirteen Lang nodded and sat down next to the fire pit, taking the bowl of hot soup handed over by Haitang and slowly drinking it, each sip taken with immense care, the sword by his waist dragging on the ground like that, emitting a faint smell of blood.

“To recover, you do need to keep practicing hard, but this place is too cold, so you shouldn’t push yourself too hard.” Fan Xian’s eyes flashed with a hint of apprehension, these days Thirteen Lang Wang was unusually strong practicing his sword in the midst of the roiling snow and wind, fighting against the majesty of the heavens and the earth with his own potential, and this kind of bitter cultivation method really touched and condoned both Fan Xian and Haitang.

They knew that Wang Xulang had a sense of urgency, wanting to recover his arm quickly or to practice with his left-handed sword, yet Fan Xian was always worried about his body.

“Ah Da found a nest of snow rabbits earlier, it’s just that that hole was too deep for them to do anything about it, so I helped them drive those rabbits out.” Wang Thirteen Lang put down the soup bowl, rubbed his face, and shook his head, “By the way, I’m moving my muscles. If it keeps freezing like this, I’m really afraid I’ll be frozen into ice.”

“It looks like we can improve our meals tomorrow.” Fan Xian covered his lips and coughed twice, chuckling as he realized that Thirteen was now getting more and more attached to these snow dogs as well, and he was only afraid that he would need to convince one more person in the future.

He suddenly noticed that Haitang was a bit strange, today’s words were especially few, and her face was always red, and there was always some worry between her eyebrows, he couldn’t help but ask softly, “What are you thinking about, so absorbed?”

Haitang frowned slightly and glared at him, but did not say anything.

On the contrary, Wang Thirteen Lang on the side froze, smiled in an extremely rare manner, re-fastened the towel at his head and face, and walked out of the tent.

Fan Xian was slightly stunned, and after a few moments, he realized why, and couldn’t help but laugh out loud, “Would a living person still let his urine suffocate him?”

This was a vulgar remark, and it also happened to hit Haitang’s heart at the moment, and the girl’s eyes flashed with a slight hint of anger.

Fan Xian had made a thousand calculations, and even counted two years ago that he must drag Haitang and Wang XIII Lang as helpers on his trip to the temple, because he knew clearly that the long journey, the endless darkness of the night, just like those days in his previous life before his hospital bed, the unbearable loneliness would drive one crazy, and back then, Bitter Lotus and Lord Sean were able to survive until the temple appeared under the rising sun, not because they dared to eat human flesh, but because they could each other In a dangerous and unknown journey, the partner is always the most important factor.

However, Fan Xian still missed some details of life, he and Wang Thirteen Lang do not matter, a random jar will be relieved, but did not want to increase the burden of this snowy plain unusually luxurious to prepare an additional tent as a thatched toilet, some days ago, although the cold, but still can resist, these two days suddenly cooled down, and then in the wilderness to facilitate, it will be a little difficult.

Wang Thirteen Lang walked out, naturally leaving Haitang with a private space, her eyes narrowed slightly as she coldly looked at Fan Xian and said, “If it wasn’t for you, the medicine pot, where would there be so much inconvenience.”

Fan Xian was silent and smiled, of the three people on this trip, he was the weakest, if he were to hide outside the tent in the wind and snow at this time, he would only be frozen into oblivion in no time, he laughed softly and said, “Thirteen Lang went alone, naturally, he is clear about your relationship with me, who is with whom between us, no need to mind this, right?”

It was still a deep and bitterly cold night. The fire in the fire pit was never able to flourish because of the lack of wood and other large materials, the wind and snow outside the tent were still desperately whistling, there was nothing sinister in the surrounding darkness, however, the bitter cold of this world itself was the greatest sinister danger. Three sleeping bags were lined up in a zigzag pattern next to the fire pit, but the three young men in the sleeping bags all had their eyes wide open, refusing to sleep.

It has been a month of trekking on the snowy plains, there is no recreational activities, there is no magic way to pass the time, in addition to traveling is to sleep, it is really boring to the extreme. Three people also sleep to the extreme, if Fan Xian is not because the body is too weak, must be very regret how to bring thirteen Lang this big sun in the side, otherwise at this time hugging DuoDuo say some long time not say some small love words, enjoy a little bit of mouth and hand, also is good.

Dozens of days of sleepless night, the three young people should talk about things basically finished, even Wang XIII Lang childhood bedwetting things were Fan Xian viciously dig out, so the three people had to open their eyes, listening to the sound of the wind and snow whistling outside the tent, as if they were enjoying a musical event.

I don’t know how long the silence lasted, but Fan Xian suddenly opened his mouth and said: ”Like this cold place with snow and wind, when those people traveled to this place, I’m afraid that most of them had already died. It’s remarkable that the three of us are still able to fight it off.”

With him lying head to head Haitang said softly, “Master is the first person to open the mountain to look for the temple, than you know the direction, know the route, naturally to be more arduous and bitter. But the descendants are always better than the predecessors, you seem to know something, always as if you know more than us.”

“Don’t envy me.” Fan Xian closed his eyes and said with a happy smile, “Being able to go to different places and experience different things in life is an extremely rare treat in itself.”

Wang XIII Lang responded, “That’s a good point.”

“Since that’s the case, why don’t the three of us have a joint poetry night talk? In the future, the history books have a cloud, the night of the wind and snow attack, into a …… huge poem, how to cloud, is not it wonderful? Let me start, this is called, a night of the north wind is tight ……”

There was no following, and it was clear that neither Haitang nor Wang Thirteen Lang were willing to indulge this man’s acidic attacks, and there was silence.

Fan Xian coughed twice and laughed, “Too also do not give face.”

“We’re all roughnecks, you want us to accompany you in a poem, it’s you who don’t give us face, and besides, this line was written by that Wind Spice in the Stone Book.”

“I wrote all of the Stone Records, who dares to say that I didn’t write this line?” Fan Xian’s brazen voice rang out in the tent.

The remaining two expressed their disdain with silence. Fan Xian laughed, opening those tired eyes in the dim surroundings, coughing on one side and gasping on the other, “After everything is said and done, we know enough about each other …… But I’ve always been curious, what exactly do you want to do while living in this world? ”

“I want to become a Grand Master and then protect the people of Dongyi City like my Master.” Wang Xulang’s answer was always this strong and direct, confident and unusual.

“A bedwetting brat is not qualified to use such kingly words.”

“I …… “Haitang’s bright eyes looked at the tent at the top and said after a moment of silence, “Since I was young, I grew up in the back of Green Mountain, and then I went to the Upper Capital and started traveling around the world. I just want to carry forward the Qing Shan lineage, sheltering my Da Qi court to be able to live for a thousand years without being invaded by foreign enemies, and the people in my territory to live in peace and work in contentment.”

Her voice suddenly dimmed, “But when my master went, I realized that I was not a Qi, but a hu man …… I am not sure what I want to do anymore, but I think that if Da Qi can be peaceful, and this world can be peaceful, it is always good. ”

“As expected of a closed disciple taught by two old monsters, a casual remark is thinking of the world.” Fan Xian sighed, “Actually, before I met you, I never thought about anything like good war or bad peace.”

“Since Uncle Wuzhu never cared about that, I didn’t care much about it either, I just wanted to keep myself well.” Fan Xian’s tone seemed extraordinarily light, “The more vivid and alive I live, the better, because from the very first day I became aware of things, I always felt that everything around me was just a dream, and that this dream would always have a day to wake up, and this feeling caused me to go about each day very diligently and seriously.”

“It seems that I just want to use the richness of these details to dilute my fear of waking up from the dream.”

Listening to Fan Xian’s leisurely words, Haitang and Wang XIII Lang fell into silence; they just thought that Fan Xian was lamenting his bizarre and incomparable birth and his light and strange life, but they were unable to know what Fan Xian was truly lamenting.

“Since you’re not willing to wake up from this dream, I’m sure it must be good.” Haitang comforted him.

The corners of Fan Xian’s lips curled up slightly as he smiled and said, “That’s natural, if it wasn’t for the sake of preserving everything that was good in this dream, why would I have self-exiled myself to this shithole of a place, why would I have fought with the emperor’s old man over all of this, and why would I have to allow myself to disguise my bravery and pose as a great righteousness to go into the palace to carry out an assassination, while being careful to maintain the stability of the Daqing imperial court. ”

Is all this, everything after being reborn, really just a dream? The tent was quiet, Haitang and Wang Thirteen Lang were asleep, yet Fan Xian still didn’t sleep, he indifferently opened his eyes and looked at the sky that was cut off from the outside, listening to the sound of the wind and snow that whistled outside the tent, and kept thinking and thinking in his mind.

Having died in that world and come to life in this world, how could Fan Xian not get rid of the fear of waking up from a dream at any time during those years of his childhood, he was afraid that it was all false, he was afraid that he was just in an illusory state of mind, he was afraid that this was a Chumhum show that encompassed the whole world, he was afraid that this was a masterful game and he was just a wisp of mental fluctuation, a stream of data, or hypnotized after being a wooden man.

The real warrior dares to face the real death, and for Fan Xian, who is a human being in his second life, what he used to be really afraid of is that he doesn’t know whether he is really dead or not, and he is afraid that once he wakes up from the dream, he will lie back on top of the hospital bed again and sink into the real darkness, and he will never see this beautiful everything again.

The rivers and mountains, the lakes and seas, the flowers and trees, the beauty.

He shouted from the roof of Tanyuu’s room to collect his clothes, he composed 300 poems in the temple, all of this was based on some kind of unbridled emotion, nay after living in this Qing Guo’s land of rivers and mountains for more than twenty years, having laughed as well as cried, he was finally able to prove that all of this was not a dream anymore.

Although up until this point, he still didn’t know what a temple was, he could be certain that all of this was truly happening around him, and not being conjured up by some god in the underworld.

Because the people in this world are real, the feelings in the world are real, as well as human nature, as well as sadness and joy, there are always things in the world that cannot be faked. If there really was a god who could control all this perfectly, just as God wants light, just as Nuwa wants to play with clay, just as Pangu is tired and resting, then what is the point of going after all this?

The closer he got to the temple, the more and more Fan Xian couldn’t get rid of these questions, and it was only at this time in the night that he gradually thought clearly that he might be asking for an answer to a question on this trip to the temple, but in fact, what he cared about more was still the mundane reality, or at least the sorrows and joys of those who thought that the reality was the life of those people.

For the unknowable, unsearchable, untouchable, unobservable things, in fact, these things are non-existent, this is that world in the physics class once told the content, Fan Xian has always remembered very clearly, he tonight suddenly feel that can be put this definition of physics to the word fate.

No one can change fate, but he can choose not to accept his fate, or ignore this fate, Fan Xian lives in this world, love or hate the people or things in this world, this world must be real, real to the bone, he firmly believe this.

He had not slept a wink of sleep, his true qi was disorganized, and although the yuan qi in heaven and earth was making up for his lack of it as he breathed, the speed was still not fast enough, and as the external cold invaded his mind and spirit, Fan Xian finally fell ill.

When the whistling of the wind and snow outside stopped, when the white light from the snow reflected into the tent, Fan Xian’s cheeks also became extremely pale, two extremely unhealthy reddish hues grew under his eye sockets, and his forehead was burning.

The most feared sickness came at the most bitterly cold moment. Fan Xian lay in Haitang’s warm and gentle embrace, earnestly drinking the medicine he had dispensed, forcibly sustaining his spirit, and said in a hoarse voice, “The medicine pot has something to say.”

“Say it.” Haitang’s brows were all worried, gently wrapping her arms around him and rocking him like a child.

“We can’t stop, let’s keep going.”

“But the snow is so heavy here.”

Suddenly the tent door was lifted open, and Wang XIII Lang poked his head in, his face full of surprise.

Overnight the north wind is tight, open the door snow still floating, however, these snow is from the ground rolled up, the sky is no longer falling snow, only the blue blue blue sky and that round of looking at the extremely cowering sun, the air is still cold, but the snow has finally stopped.