In the autumn of the fourth year of Emperor Yincheng, in the north of Hanzhou. The travelers stepped forward on the solid ice, with the wind howling above their heads.Looking up, the cold wind wrapped in snow as big as salt grains hit my face, as if it all came from a certain point in the northern sky. Sandulu Hayin is the one who looks up, a Kuafu who is one foot five feet tall.He squinted his eyes against the wind, looking at that point in the sky, thinking that it might be the end of the world, where all the snow and ice was born.It was a gap in the sky, and the extremely cold air outside the sky surged into this piece of heaven and earth, sweeping the entire world.

It had been forty-three days since his brigade had crossed the snow line.At first they rode horses and then walked. Sanduluha Yin estimated that they had advanced 700 miles from the snow line to the north.Then they will walk more slowly, because just yesterday, the last Yebei horse died.The poor animal lost control when crossing a glacier, maybe it wanted to drink the water under the ice layer, maybe it was the deadly cold that made it unbearable anymore, it suddenly broke free from Sandurha Yin's grasp, Jump up and hit your head on solid ice like crazy.Its skull was shattered, and it was the first time that Sanduluhayin saw a horse die like this, and the blood stained a large area of ​​the ice surface red.

"A long time ago, it must not be as cold as it is now. The water can flow, and there is a big river under our feet. What we passed yesterday was just a small tributary of this big river." An old voice echoed in Sanduluhayin's ears. "The big river is two miles wide, and its water volume is as big as the Jianshui in Wanzhou and the Xuesong River in Hanzhou combined. It formed a huge waterfall at the place we just passed, with a width of one and a half miles. The water flowed down from a height of about 500 feet and hit the pool below. The water mist filled hundreds of feet high, and there was a mile-and-a-half long rainbow in the mist. Wasn’t the scenery here very magnificent at that time?”

Sanduluhanyin recalled the road they had just walked, but couldn't imagine that it was the remains of the waterfall.They had just climbed a platform, which suddenly rose on the ice field, about 500 feet high. When they walked under the platform and looked up, they felt that there was a huge wall standing up to the sky in front of them. The person talking to Sanduluhanin was an old man wrapped in a black felt cloak. He was very old, with a hunched back, and he moved forward step by step with a long staff. It was suspected that a gust of wind would blow away his body Thin body.But he was the leader of the brigade, a real leader.From the beginning of the journey, he has always arranged everything calmly, trekking on his own legs like everyone else, without showing a trace of fear.

Sandulha Yin trusted such a leader, only such a strong person understands the meaning of survival and can find a way out in the most difficult situation. "The river... where is the river?" A young man shuffled behind the old man, his feet were flimsy, and he murmured, "I can't see the river..." The young man has a handsome Donglu face, delicate and fair, and looks like a son of a nobleman.Sanduluhayin liked this young man very much.Before crossing the snow line, the young man was the pistachio of the whole brigade. When guarding the fire at night, everyone happily watched him play and sing, and told all kinds of funny jokes and incredible anecdotes.But now the young man couldn't laugh anymore, his face was blue like death, his lips were red and purple, and snowflakes covered his hair and face.His body was already stiff, his arms were folded in front of his chest, and his hands were tightly grasping his cloak like chicken feet. When he moved forward, it seemed that his ankles were tied with dozens of catties of iron shackles.

He stopped, and slowly fell forward: "Teacher, I want to take a rest." Startled, the old man turned around and grabbed the young man's shoulder. "Zi Chan! The river is at your feet!" The old man looked the young man straight in the eyes and shook him vigorously, "Think about it, many people will never see such a wide river in their lifetime, but you have seen it. We are about to approach the front You can’t stop here, you have to go back to Donglu to tell your friends about this big river.” Zichan looked up at the old man, his eyelids slowly drooping: "Teacher... I want to take a rest."

"You can't rest here, Zichan!" The old man slapped Zichan on the face, "Open your eyes!" "Teacher...I can't move anymore...you go, let me rest here..." His blue lips moved, "Teacher, you go...leave me..." His eyes gradually left nothing but blankness: "I'm a little scared...but it's okay." The old man was silent for a while, then took a step forward, held Zichan's head in his arms, and gently stroked his hair: "Don't be afraid, child, I know you have tried your best. You should be proud, go to sleep." "Will God save my soul?" Zichan exhaled whitely.

"God does not save anyone's soul, it only creates and destroys." The old man was still stroking Zizen's hair with one hand, and with the other he took out a short dagger with a blade half a foot long from his leather pouch.The dagger is made of ancient silver, with mysterious and complicated relief patterns covering all metal parts. The old man kissed Zichan's top lightly, and pierced the dagger from there. Sandulhayin watched all this silently from the side. The moment the dagger pierced Zizen's head, there was a muffled "snap" sound, just like breaking an egg.Perhaps the cold had made his skull as brittle as an eggshell.After a while, the blood gushed out, and soon coagulated again.The old man gently put the corpse down, wiped the dagger with a handful of snow, and put the dagger back into the leather bag.

They were at the end of the caravan, and the others did not notice it.Everyone just lowered their heads, looking at their boots moving forward again and again, listening to the whistling of the blizzard. Sanduluhayin helped the old man cover Zichan with snow. The old man took Zichan's crutches and cut off his black cloak?One, tied to the end of the crutch, and the crutch is inserted into the ice and snow under the feet.Sandulu Hayin went up to help, and the snowflakes that had not melted for thousands of years piled up into ice layer by layer, and the two of them took a little effort to insert the crutches.

"Let's go," said the old man. "This is his tomb. Bai Zichan, a descendant of the Bai family. Only the two of us know that he is buried here. Take his luggage." Sanduluhanin took one last look at the simple tomb, the black felt belt fluttering in the strong wind.He was silent for a while, then picked up Bai Zichan's bag and put it on his shoulder.At this time, the old man had turned around and walked forward. "Hurry up, we have to keep up with the people in front." The old man's indifferent voice came from the dense wind and snow. It is not surprising that the old man did Sandulu Hayin like this.They couldn't save Bai Zichan, and no one here could save the other, and it was already very difficult for him to survive.Sandulu Hayin is a Kuafu, Kuafu are familiar with the snow field, where the cold can freeze the blood into ice slag, survival only depends on the blood flowing and the courage in the heart.When Bai Zichan lost his courage, his blood flow would also slow down. There was nothing to keep his body warm. Death would only happen sooner or later. It would be better to end his pain as soon as possible.

Sandulhayin followed the old man's pace, raised his head, and looked at the snow-white valley in the distance, with snow peaks on both sides piercing into the clouds. He thought that he might still live for three to five days, and his physical strength was about to be exhausted, and the God of Snow Mountain would come to kiss his forehead. Sandulu Hayin is one foot five feet tall, strong, silent, and weighs as much as eight adult Donglu men.Now he carried the team's luggage on his shoulders, and he was already fully clothed. In the luggage were venison, an oilcloth tent for shelter from the wind, and coals for heating.They had no horses left, and if Sandulhain also fell, no one in the brigade could advance ten miles, because no one could carry these things, which were necessary to survive. "Teacher, I still have three days to live, five days at most." He walked to the old man and whispered. "If that's the case, thank you, Sanduluhanin. At that time, I will build a tombstone like Zizen for you." The old man nodded and looked ahead calmly. "Kuafu doesn't need a tomb, please put my body in the snow, facing west." "Do you miss Shangzhou?" "Miss, but I don't regret following the teacher." "I have never regretted following the guidance of the stars, even if no one erected a tombstone for me in the end." The old man said softly, raised his hand high, and patted Sandulha Yin's back as thick as a bear. "If I die, the teacher will turn back to the south. No human being has ever lived in such a cold place, and Kuafu has not persisted for long. We Kuafu are also in awe of the snowy fields in the north of Hanzhou. The shamans said that the people in the extreme north There are gods of snow mountains in the land, and they live at the end of the world." "Do you know what the end of the world looks like?" Sanduluha Yin nodded: "The shaman said that the northernmost part of the world is a huge snow mountain. Its top is connected to the sky. The ice and snow will not melt for a hundred thousand years. No Kuafu can climb that mountain. Neither. The God of the Snow Mountain lives in that mountain." "I've also heard this legend," the old man said lightly, "There is a book in Donglu called "Sushui Jiwen". Yes, the snow mountain will never change for thousands of years. When the wind and snow go south, it turns into water and enters the river. The water of the river enters the sea. The southernmost part of the sea is an abyss called the Star Abyss. It is endless. People fall into it until they die of old age. Even if you become a skeleton, you can’t go to the bottom. The Star Abyss is a huge waterfall tens of thousands of miles wide, where all the water in the world falls, but the Star Abyss can never be filled. The east of the world is like a flame. The sea where the sea is red, the magma flows under the sea, and it is always filled with water vapor. The sun rises from the magma. It is a huge flame with a diameter of thousands of miles. When it rises every day , the whole sea is boiled by it, and the scalding sea water on the surface of the sea raises violent waves for hundreds of miles, the sea water evaporates and becomes a large cloud. And the end of the ocean in the west is a deep black hole, where all the light in the world is swallowed Go in, where the sun, moon and stars are broken into pieces and then fall. The black hole is actually the mouth of an ancient dragon under the sea. It feeds on light and is so greedy that it can never be satisfied." The old man paused: "But those are all fake, made up by people sitting at home imagining things to amuse people." "The teacher knows what the real end of the world looks like?" Sanduluhayin breathed hard, trying to get rid of the powerlessness in his body.He is not flattering, in his mind the teacher is an omniscient person, but some knowledge is too shocking, and the world cannot easily hear it. "The end of the world is a place that we can't reach in our whole life. It is the land of God, and there is also a void." Looking at the snowy valley in the distance, the old man shook his head slightly, "Those who reach there will die first." Sandulu Hayin nodded silently.He couldn't understand it, but he believed that there was some kind of truth hidden in what the teacher said. "If I'm not mistaken, we will see the Daxueshan mountain range through the snow valley ahead. This glacier originated from there before it was frozen." The old man pointed forward, "We came for it." Sanduluhayin nodded, it is a good thing to have a mountain, so they might be able to find a shelter from the wind to rest under the mountain.They can't stop in this open place, the wind and snow are too strong, those who stop will stay here forever like Bai Zichan. "Teacher, what's in the snow-capped mountains?" Sanduluha Yin was a little curious. "There are wolves," said the old man. Sanduluha Yin still couldn't understand the answer, but he didn't ask.No one in this brigade knew what they were looking for when they came to this dead place, and they didn't need to know, they just followed the teacher's footsteps. They are approaching Snow Valley.Looking up, it looks like the entrance of a giant's castle. The snow peaks on both sides form a barrier like a city wall, leaving a gap less than half a mile wide in the middle. The road ahead is flat?The snow also seems to be getting smaller slowly. Sanduluhayin thinks the teacher is right, this was once a huge river that was extremely wide, it was frozen thousands of years ago with the arrival of the cold, and it was completely frozen into a huge piece of ice, it is precisely because of this that they were able to fangs all around. Find this wide, flat road in the midst of a glacier-like glacier.And judging from the terrain, the river is narrowing, so the front should be its origin. The entourage cheered up and picked up their pace, so that maybe they could live another day.In this empty and dead place, life feels lonely and precious. "See what's ahead? The ridge of Daxue Mountain is as gentle as a girl's back." The old man pointed forward. Sanduluhayin squinted his eyes and looked into the distance.Although his gaze was not as sharp as Yuren's, he could vaguely see an undulating arc in the distant whiteness.That is indeed a snow mountain!An extremely majestic snow-capped mountain, even more majestic than the snow-capped mountains in the north of Shangzhou, the mountains are huge and the white snow is holy.Under a ray of light, the Xuefeng group showed a charming pink color, and the Daxueshan Mountain was like a girl who suddenly lifted the veil, showing a gentle smile.The snow stopped, and it was a short moment when the sun penetrated through the gaps in the clouds, sprinkling the unbearable beauty on this barren land. "That's Mount Zhuti, or Holy Maiden Snow Mountain. 'Zhu Ti' is the language of the barbarians, which means saint. The person who named it probably said that this mountain is like a saint. For tens of thousands of years, she Right here, mysterious, beautiful, and dangerous, ordinary people only know her legend, and will never see her true face." The old man sighed. "Has anyone been here before?" Sanduruhayin asked.If the old man didn't say it, he would think that they were the first people to get here. "Yes, and I went back alive. Otherwise, no descendants would know the name Zhu Tishan." The old man said, "In fact, this name has been passed down among the barbarian tribes for hundreds of years." There was a slight commotion among the retinue ahead.When the old man and Sandulu Hayin looked over, they were also taken aback. They saw a deer. They haven't seen any big animals for more than ten consecutive days.The last time they saw the animals was seven days ago when they heard the sound of water near an ice creek, they chipped away at the ice and saw gray and white fish underneath.They feasted on the fresh fish, and they piled up the bones and burned them for a while without using any charcoal. And now they actually saw a deer.The deer was a species they had never seen before. It was elegant and muscular. Its body was like a large northern horse. It was covered with thick golden hair and hung down to the ice like a yak. ​​Its back was bent into an extremely powerful bow. , looks like an animal that is extremely good at jumping. The pair of big horns on the head are seductively pale golden, and they are extremely smooth, like polished jade. The deer showed no fear of these strange visitors. Its demeanor was like a powerful emperor, and this was its territory.It calmly glanced at the brigade including humans and Kuafu, without much hostility in its maroon eyes, turned its head and left slowly. One of the attendants took off the bow on the back, and shooting the deer would increase their rations for five or six days. The deer seemed to be aware of human intentions, and started to run as it walked. It stepped on the ice and made a loud "dong dong", like a galloping horse.The attendants drew out their bows and chased after them and fired arrows. The oiled beef tendon bowstrings were frozen stiff, and none of the bows could shoot threatening arrows.The deer ran towards Snow Valley, and several strong attendants pulled out their spears from behind. The deer didn't run too fast, and it hadn't left people's sight. There were some strange sounds mixed in the loud noise of "dong dong", and Sanduruhayin glanced around.Sensing danger, he let out a low growl in alertness.The ice underfoot began to tremble, and the trembling gradually intensified, and the newly fallen snow slid on the ice.The entourage chasing the deer also noticed the abnormality. They had already run to the middle of the snow valley, looking around nervously. "Avalanche! Teacher! It's an avalanche!" Sandulu Hayin roared while pointing at the top of the snow peak. The attendants also saw that a large amount of snow was falling down on the snow peaks on both sides, and the entire snow shell was peeling off, rolling up snow dust all over the sky.The avalanche has already taken shape, and millions of tens of millions of snow are about to roll in like a frenzy, and everything in the snow valley will be buried. Sandulu Hayin dropped the bag, grabbed the old man by the shoulders, and wanted to carry him and run away.He might save one more person, he is a braggadocio, he can run as fast as a horse. The old man stretched out his hand to stop him: "Go, leave me alone. Take the longest burden, if you can go back alive, tell the students stationed in Qingrongyuan that I died at the foot of Mount Zhuti." "Teacher." Sanduluhayin knelt down so that he was exactly the same height as the old man, facing each other. "The avalanche will be terrible in this narrow place. You may have to run for several miles or even ten miles to escape. You have to run like the wind! Go, don't waste time." The old man pressed his head, "You If you bring a person, you will die here." Sanduluha Yin grabbed the longest bundle, turned his head and ran towards the direction he came from.He chooses to obey his teacher's orders, even if the teacher dies. "Sandulu Hayin, thank you for sending me here." The old man looked at his back and said softly. In all directions, billowing snow waves gathered towards the old man.The old man sighed softly, feeling the heavy tiredness in his heart.Now alone, without students by his side, he can face his own hesitation and exhaustion.In fact, when Sandulhayin told him that he could only live for three to five days, the old man also estimated in his heart that his physical strength might not last two days.He used to be a person with incomparable power, but now he feels the pain of power exhaustion, otherwise he can save Bai Zichan. "Leibi City, I'm going to die here, after all, I can't go back to Donglu to see the war you started there." The old man thought. He wants to sit down, and he also wants to take a rest, just like Bai Zichan said. He is better than Bai Zichan, he will not be afraid, because a long time ago he thought that he would die like this, lonely and powerless. He slowly closed his eyes. The wind roared around him, and it seemed that beasts and demons were roaring in the wind, about to rush out of the void and tear him apart.The roar was deep and empty, like the howling of a wolf under the moon. "Wolf!" The old man suddenly opened his eyes. He shuddered, he believed that he heard right!It was the long howl of a wolf, and the howling wind was accompanied by a low howl, not far, definitely not far!Just when he thought he had come to a dead end, he was already close to success. The will is like a revived beast, roaring and jumping up from the bottom of the old man's heart.He felt the power in his body growing.This power is so powerful, it reminds him of many years ago, when he saw his teacher command the blood of the entire battlefield to seep into the soil with one breath, and the brightest flowers bloom from the soil.At that moment, he burst into tears, because he felt the great power in the silence, which swept away vigorously in all directions at the moment the teacher breathed. A huge force that can change everything and reverse everything... is happening! Sandulhayin felt something strange behind him, and even though he knew that he might die if he stopped, he still turned around. He saw the old man dancing on the ice field. Sanduluhayin also saw the shamans of the clan waving their short sticks and dancing slowly under the starry sky to sense the stars in the sky.But there has never been a dance that made him feel this moment, as if a traveler saw the thousand-year-old trees waving their branches in the depths of the dense forest on a silent moonlit night?Dance and sing with a heavenly and graceful voice.That is the ancient dance, the mysterious dance, the heavenly dance... Dance of Gods! At that moment, Sandulu Ha Yin was stunned, he felt a door to the end of the world opened in front of his eyes. The old man straightened his sleeves slowly, the dance was over, and the footprints he left on the snow formed an ancient totem pattern.He stood at the center of the ancient totem, breathing the whole world. The rushing snow wave was already in front of us, and a snow wall several people high was moving rapidly. The old man suddenly knelt down and threw his long body forward, as if paying a respectful gift to a king.Immediately, he pulled out the ancient silver dagger at his waist, and stabbed it in the center of the totem with all his strength.The snow was shaken, and the huge totem was also shaken. After a moment of silence, surging and pure power pierced through the center of the pattern, like an invisible giant sword. The moment the snow wall encountered this force, white waves several feet high were aroused, but it could no longer push forward, and millions of tens of millions of snow were blocked from flying towards the sky, and then fell again. To swallow the old man.In front of the mighty force of nature, the old man is as small as an ant. "Teacher, let me recall... your strength!" the old man said from the bottom of his heart. The old man looked into his memory, and saw the boy in white with his sleeves fluttering again.He stood on the blood-stained battlefield, looking into the distance calmly and indifferently.He does not belong to this bloody slaughterhouse, he is as noble as a god, watching the unreasonable changes in the world from beyond the sky, without sighing or pitying him. "Don't cry, you can change the world." The son turned his head to look at the old man, closed his eyes gently, and took a slow and deep breath. Millions and tens of millions of flower stems drilled out of the soil, green and green, with new green leaves and delicate flower buds, all over the mountains and plains.The moment the young master opened his eyes, the flowers bloomed, and large areas of bright red, pink purple, moon white, sea blue, light yellow... like a painter splashing ink on the entire land. "Don't cry, you can change the world." The young master looked at the old man. That is power, the power of endless life!The old man looked up sharply at the sky.The invisible sword of power burst, and in an instant, a mighty force like a volcanic eruption rushed out in all directions. With enough heat to melt metal, the snow curtain completely exploded and flew in all directions.The snowflakes were melted in an instant, turning into fine mist, and the mist condensed into drizzle in the air, and fell lightly. Sandu Luhayin fell down in the snow and worshiped.The avalanche stopped, and the old man stood in the middle of the two-person snow wall. There was no snow in a circle about one foot in diameter around him, and the solid ice melted into steaming water. Only a small piece of snow where the old man stood was Intact. "Sandulu Hayin, you can come back now, come and give me a hand," said the old man. Sanduluha Yin hurried back, hurriedly pushed some snow down to cover the melted ice, and then carefully pulled the old man to the surrounding snow-covered ground more than a foot higher.The old man brushed off the snow and dust off his cloak, stood in the drizzle, looked up with a smile, and saw a faint rainbow across the midair. He took the long bundle from Sanduluhayin's hand, opened it, and inside was a long staff like a messenger's scepter.The head of the staff is decorated with embossed sterling silver, among the countless intertwined vines, there is a silver star and a sharp moon. The old man leaned on his stick and looked in the direction of Xuegu, and said loudly: "When treating guests from afar, if you don't speak, it will cause an avalanche. Don't you want to hear what the guests want?" The drizzle formed by the snowmelt soon stopped, and at this time Sandulhayin could clearly see the black ridges of the original snow peaks exposed after the avalanche.On the highest point of the ridge, stood a shadow.It was a man as quiet as pig iron, riding on the back of a huge white wolf, and the wind pulled the long fur of the wolf flying like a battle flag.Sandulu Hayin was taken aback, he couldn't believe his eyes.In the extremely northern snowfield where all life was lost, he saw wolves and living people. The man on the back of the wolf and the old man looked at each other several miles away, neither of them spoke or moved a bit.Sanduluhayin couldn't see the man on the wolf's back clearly, but felt uneasy as if he was being watched by a wild beast. Finally, the old man smiled: "Chenyue Cult'Ji' Department taught Changshan Bikong, traveled thousands of miles, and finally met the wolf lord."