Chapter 118: Extra (1) Winter Mystery

Winter is a monotonous season.

As soon as the snow fell, all the colours were changed to pure white, and when you looked up, there was a blanket between heaven and earth.

In ancient times, winter was the season that people dreaded most.

For the cold of winter means silence and death, no plants, no animals, everything is asleep, only cold and hunger.

Unlike the vibrant spring days, the hot and lively summer days and the rewarding autumn days, winter is a season to be feared and revered.

The winter gods knew all this all along and accepted everything calmly.

"Why do you think they're afraid of you." A mischievous Harujin cupped his chin and looked at his friend with a gentle smile, "You have the best temper, of all of us."

The God of Winter smiled and said it was probably because people were afraid of the cold.

Chun Shen said, "Then why not be afraid of Summer, Zhu Rong is obviously the one with the worst temper."

The Winter God did not speak, but raised his eyes to look at the human world, which was flourishing at the time of the melting of the snow and ice. The people had taken off their heavy winter clothes, emerged from the warmth of their houses, and began to cultivate and reproduce, once again coming back to life.

Ignoring Harukami's shouts, Toujin got up and left, his back showing a bit of despondency, which Harukami could only sigh lightly at.

After the separation of the two realms, the aura of the human realm faded, and there were fewer and fewer non-human traces.

But despite this, the rift left behind when the two worlds were separated is still a huge problem. Back then there were ten of them, guarded by the Ying Long clan and the descendants of the Nv Wa, but as the cracks gradually merged, fewer and fewer passages remained, and finally only one remained.

It is for this reason that this passage has become the focus of attention in both worlds, the last chance for the Candle Dragon.

Candle dragons are also dragons, but they are different from Ying Long in that they are in charge of the affairs of the underworld. What the Candle Dragon likes to eat is a strong desire, and what he likes best he swallows, and what he likes least he swallows, similar to the Ying Long. But the biggest difference between Ying Long and them is that he controls his desire, just like Ao Run and his lover, who he loves so much that he wants to put it on his heart, but still does not want to eat it. If it were Candle Dragon, he would have swallowed them down to the last crumb.

The god of winter does not like to be busy, he prefers to be alone, which is somewhat similar to the silent winter days.

His friends, who were afraid of his loneliness, often came to talk with him, and the days went by.

The Four Seasons are entrusted by Nv Wa to maintain the passage between the two worlds, and now that the Guardian bloodline is growing thin and the Candle Dragon is watching, it is a real headache.

The good news is that there was still some hope and all the gods of the seasons were not too worried, but it was the disease called pollution that threatened the dragons, so the gods of winter found a gap and went into the other world to find out what the pollution was for the dragons.

In the otherworldly world, the Ying Long are nearly extinct and are extremely selective in choosing their mates, so breeding is very poor. The Candle Dragon is the opposite of them, and has only one requirement for a mate: a live one. As a result, there are many of them, but although the numbers are up, the quality is down, and the dragon's lineage is getting thinner and thinner, and even starting to drain.

The Winter Gods have seen Ao Run take out five candle dragons with ease.

The Otherworld was huge, more than a hundred times larger than the Human World, and he was only a weak Four Seasons God in this world of powerful people, so he acted with extra caution. Only the more he explored, the more puzzled he became. He found that Candle Dragon and Ying Long were in a way not that different, if one must say so, in that they could not control their desires.

They eat when they want to, get angry when they want to, kill when they want to, and do not think about the consequences of their actions, like newborn children with only the purest part of their nature. Morality and emotion cannot restrain them; only great power can make them submit.

In Candlewick, the Winter Gods vaguely understood the nature of contamination - the uncontrolled instinct.

It made him think of the human world.

The Human Realm is very attractive to the Candle Dragons, and ever since the two realms were separated, they have been trying to come through the passageway, even going so far as to organise several powerful waves of attacks, causing the gods of the Human Realm to fret. The Winter God at first never understood why they were so enamoured of the Human World, but then he finally figured out that it was desire that was attracting the Candle Dragons.

Unlike the non-humans, who are purely power-driven, humans are weaker and more complex, they gather very close together and in great numbers, but the desires in each human are staggering. These desires are good and bad, yet all are beloved food of the candle dragon.

Especially since the humans were still defenseless and the heat weapons were like plastic toys in front of the candle dragon's hard armour.

So the Candle Dragons are desperate to enter the Human Realm, and now their last chance is before them. Shuifu Village's last passage, if it disappeared again, would mean that the two realms would never have any chance of merging again, which made the candle dragons become restless and plot something vaguely.

The god of winter senses an undercurrent raging beneath the calm waters.

But that was not the worst of it; the worst, a trigram he got after placing the tree elders in the other world.

The tree clan has a very special way of passing on their heritage, that is, the clan members will share all the memories and knowledge they have gained. Other races may lose their memories and inheritance, but not the Tree Clan, and this makes the Tree Clan elders, who have reached an advanced age, usually full of wisdom, the result of gathering the strength of the clan. The most powerful aspect of the Tree Clan, however, is not their memory, but the telling of fortunes.

The Tree People rarely tell fortunes, but every fortune is always accurate.

The tree that the god of winter found was the chief of the tree clan, and it offered to tell the fortune of the god of winter for what he was most worried about.

"The trigrams are not very good." The old tree spoke in a slow and steady voice, rather like an aged old man, "No ...... to be precise, it's very bad."

The Winter God sat on a branch and frowned slightly, "What is the solution?"

The old tree said, "Their bloodline is about to be cut off."

The winter gods froze.

The old tree said, "At most, at most, it will continue for two more generations ...... This is the best possible outcome."

If anyone else had said such a thing, the Winter God would have questioned it, but it was the old tree that spoke.

"Is there any way to break it?" After a long silence, the Winter God could only ask so.

"There is no solution, there is no solution ......" The old tree's words, however, chilled the Winter God's heart as it said, "Xuan Hei, there is no solution to this ...... matter. "

The winter god jumped down from the trunk and circled the old tree, he frowned and did not speak for a long time.

Seeing this, the old tree could only comfort him, saying that there is a destiny between heaven and earth, and that there are some things that cannot be obtained by forcing oneself. Besides, the fusion of the non-human and human realms might not be a bad thing, it might be an opportunity for humans.

"Opportunity?" The Winter God said, "The human flesh is now so weak that if the two worlds do merge, they are just a dish in the mouths of the elves and monsters." Humans were a very resilient race, and the old tree did have a point; there was a chance that they might find life in it, but finding life presupposed being caught in an irreversible death spiral, and the Winter God didn't even dare to think about how many people would die then.

The old tree sighs, but says that there is indeed nothing more that can be done about the Guardian's bloodline, and from the trigrams, the Guardian will disappear completely, and the trigrams are not so specific as to how.

The Winter God was silent for a long time, then suddenly looked up and touched the old tree: "Then you will help me to tell another trigram."

The old tree said, "What else do you want to count?"

The words spilled out of the mouth of the Winter God.

The old tree's face paled at the words, "You ......"

The Winter God said, "I just want to know if there is still a way to break it."

The old tree sighed, and then he did another fortune for the God of Winter, only this time, the luxuriant branches and leaves on his body began to wither rapidly until they spread throughout the canopy. Seeing this, the god of winter hurriedly told the old tree to stop, but the old tree did not speak out again until he had finished.

"There's a method to it." He said, "It's killing me to pry into the heavens, and this time the trigram is simple, just four words."

The winter god said, "Which four words?"

The old tree said, "Broken and broken."

The winter gods froze: "Break and break, what does that mean, does it mean that the two realms must merge?"

The old trees don't understand either.

The winter god thought for a long time, but suddenly thought of something, he said in shock, "I suddenly remembered that there was once a passage that was also broken ......"

The old tree wondered, "Hmm?"

The Winter God said, "The passage was broken by the candle, but the two worlds did not merge."

The old tree said, "How?"

The Winter God said, "It is because that guardian repaired the broken part at that time, and after that the passage disappeared ......" he smiled, "It is indeed broken."

The old tree sniffed but was a little confused, "You are thinking ......"

The winter god rubbed his cheek against the old tree and said old chap, I may be away for a long time, don't miss me, I'll be back to chat with you when I've finished with all this.

The old tree said go ahead and go ahead. The decades of the human race are but a passing time for him, and a sleep might have brought the Winter God back to chat with him.

The god of winter returned to the human realm, by now knowing what he needed to do. He found Ao Run's lover and told her about the fact that their bloodline would be cut off.

Only the gods of winter were more subtle and indicated that it would be possible to stop the accident from happening if they left the area.

"Is it true, will something really happen to them?" Fang Ruhui looked anxious, she had known the God of Winter for several years and knew that although this god was in charge of the harsh winter, he was one of the best-tempered and would not joke about such things, "What should we do then?"

"Get out of here before you get pregnant." The Winter God said, "It's the only way to keep your baby."

Fang Ruhui believed the winter gods and began to try to express to Ao Run her desire to leave Shuifu Village. At that time, Ao Run and Fang Ruhui were in love, and they were so close to each other that Fang Ruhui sensed something was going on, and naturally she did not want anything to happen to her and Ao Run's child.

This was just the beginning, but then something happened in Fang Ruhui's home that reinforced her desire to leave. What she doesn't realise is that whenever she says she wants to leave, Ao Run's temper becomes violent and she can't even control herself. This rage intensifies until Ao Run is sure she is contaminated.

It was a sunny afternoon and Fang Ruhui was lying in the courtyard when she heard familiar footsteps and opened her eyes to see a face that was completely different from Ao Run's usual expression; her lover's black hair had turned red and a fire seemed to be burning in her eyes.

"Do you want to leave me that badly?" The lover, who grinned with a wide grin and a mouth full of gleaming white teeth, said, "If I eat you up, is it possible that you won't want to leave?"

Fang Ruhui was stunned, she knew Ao Run well and knew that he was not joking at this point.

"Why do you keep wanting to leave me?" Ao Run said, "Wouldn't it be better to just stay here forever?"

Before Fang Ruhui could answer, there was a cracking sound outside the house and it was the God of Winter who arrived and, after some fighting, drove Ao Run away.

It was a good thing that Ao Run was still barely sane enough to fight the winter gods to the death, but instead left in disarray.

"What's wrong with him?" Fang Ruhui asked, dumbfounded.

"He is tainted." The Winter God said, "You're also in a bit of a bad state, I've searched for a doctor for you ......"

Fang Ruhui realised that she was pregnant.

At that time, she knew the word contaminated, but she did not know that a contaminated dragon looked like this. She never understood why Ao Run had been contaminated, and while everyone else was bewildered, only Toujin knew the reason for it.

It turns out that dragons who fall in love with humans can really be easily tainted, the god of winter pondered as he sat on a branch, looking at the humans running and chasing through the grass under the trees, and suddenly he understood why they disliked winter. The snow is soft and freezes together, but turns into hard ice. Like the god who controls the winter, he should have pity on the world as the god of the seasons does, but his mind has no pity after learning of the tragedy he has caused, and even begins to plot what to do next.

Such a god deserves to be disliked.

The winter gods laughed.

After Ao Run's accident, the god of winter disappeared and the other gods of the four seasons could not find him in any case, but at least they were relieved to know that he was still alive.

Fang Ruhui gave birth to a daughter as she wished, but when she was a little older, she forcibly sent her away from Shuifu Village, not wanting her to stay here any longer.

Along with the god of winter, Ao Run disappeared, and he returned once, on the day Fang Ruhui gave birth.

Fang Ruhui heard the roar of a beast in the sky that day. She was weakly holding her baby, thinking that Ao Run had come back to visit her, but instead, she was greeted by his merciless attack. If the God of the Four Seasons had not been standing by, she and the baby would have gone into Ao Run's belly.

At this point, Fang Ruhui was completely done with Ao Run.

However, the days go on, and the children grow up without ever seeing their father. Fang Ruhui is also used to this kind of life, and she finally understands that the reason why Ao Run has become like this is because she has always wanted to leave Shuifu Village.

But Ao Run, as a tenant, cannot leave. So he feels that Fang Ruhui wants to leave him too, and day by day, year by year, his feelings build up and eventually explode.

Fang Ruhui felt ridiculous at first when she realized that dragons were such fragile creatures, that they had such difficulty controlling their desires. Later it was only painful because she couldn't think about how much self-control Ao Run had exercised when she was with her to not show that kind of intense and frightening desire for her.

But it was good that she at least understood and never set foot outside the Water House again.

Fang Ruhui still remembered the words of the God of Winter, and of course sometimes doubted them, but the God had no reason to harm her. It was only when her children grew up, and even married and had children and grandchildren, that Fang Ruhui put the prophecy out of her mind. But little did she know that the prophecy would come true.

It was a sunny summer day when Fang Ruhui's daughter came back to Shuifu Village to visit her, although she had always wanted to take her mother out of the isolated village, but she had always refused, so she had no choice but to come back every year to visit her.

Fang Ruhui received the call a few days ago and was delighted to learn that her daughter was coming home today, preparing a hearty meal as usual and waiting for their return.

But in the end, all she heard was a loud landslide, but she waited for nothing.

The daughter died, in the mouth of her beloved, who swallowed the fruit of their love.

Zhu Rong chose his words very carefully when he said these things, while watching the expression on Fang Ruhui's face, as if he was afraid of provoking her too much, but Fang Ruhui was calm from beginning to end and finally said, "I know, thank you."

"You ...... shouldn't be too upset." Zhu Rong said.

Fang Ruhui smiled, pulling a strand of hair from her ear: "Well, it's not sad."

Zhu Rong is dumbfounded.

However, Fang Ruhui's body began to weaken rapidly, and it was only two years from the time of the incident to the time of her death.

Her grandson, Lu Qingjiu, returned to Shuifu Village to help her conduct the funeral, unaware that there was someone else who was secretly watching over him while the funeral was taking place.

"Are you still going?" Yin Xun, a good friend, asks cautiously.

"Well, I have to finish school." Lu Qingjiu said, "After that I don't know ......"

"Oh." Yin Xun struggled to comfort her best friend, "You must do well then, take care of your health or grandma will be sad to know."

Lu Qingjiu smiled tiredly at his words. I don't know why, but she refused to leave Shuifu Village, even when she was seriously ill. When his parents had an accident, he had thought of returning here to be with her, but she had forcibly refused on the grounds of her studies.

"You have to at least finish college." Grandma stroked her grandson's hair, her tone full of love, "What's the matter with following me, an old bone in a small mountain village, wouldn't that be a waste of your mother and father's efforts."

Lu Qingjiu could only say that when she finished university, she would come back to stay with her, and that it didn't matter if she didn't leave Shuifu Village, we would stay here for the rest of our lives.

Grandmother sniffed but smiled, she said, "outside is not good, come back to do what, you have success, grandmother will be happy, as for out of ...... that does not matter."

When Lu Qingjiu heard this, he thought to himself that he had to come back. Lu Qingjiu wanted to leave Shuifu Village after graduating from university, but his grandmother refused to allow him to do so, but before he knew it, she was gone.

Not leaving with the old man was one of Lu Qingjiu's greatest regrets in his life, and this regret continued until he returned to Shuifu Village.

The God of Winter waited quietly for all this to happen as he watched the contamination of Ao Run, the tragic death of Fang Ruhui's daughter, the death of Fang Ruhui and the return of Lu Qingjiu to Shuifu Village. It was a strange reincarnation, and he said to those around him, "If I hadn't done this in the first place, wouldn't this have happened instead?"

The child beside him didn't seem to understand the meaning of his words and looked a little confused, and the winter god ...... no, Xuan Yu to be precise, smiled, "Well, you don't understand yet, but that's okay, you will soon."

At some point, the god Winter was also tainted. He did not even realise when and why he had been tainted; he was a god of single-minded feelings, with only his strong love for humans driving him to do this.

Could it be that this feeling is so passionate that it has led to the contamination of his soul? Xuan Yu could not understand, so he simply did not think about it.

Luckily, he soon found a solution to the contamination by splitting his soul in two, leaving the part controlled by his desires to exist as the true Winter God, while he himself was stripped of his powers but preserved his memories.

As soon as the two worlds have merged, the humans will rely on him even more, and he can protect them so that they will no longer fear himself - as for things like not being able to come back to life if they don't believe in being killed when the time comes, it was never in the Winter God's mind.

Not surprisingly, the soul, utterly taken over by desire, does what Xuan Yu expected, he leaves Xuan Yu's side and chooses to work with the Candle Dragon.

Xuan Yu has no more power and his body begins to grow weak, only at the coldest times. Yet he felt a little ridiculous. It turned out that not only the dragons but also the gods were full of desire, and this desire was the source of contamination; even a small bit of unwillingness, when magnified infinitely, was full of destructive power.

Luckily, everything went according to Xuan Yu's plan and Lu Qingjiu returned, as fate would have it, to Shuifu Village.

At this time Xuan Yu understood the meaning of the old tree's trigrams and why the guardians had been cut off in Lu Qingjiu's generation.

Lu Qingjiu is in love with Ying Long Ao Yue, and since they are both males, there is naturally no possibility of offspring. Even if Lu Qingjiu wanted to, with Ao Yue's exclusive nature, the slightest possibility of offspring would be mercilessly wiped out.

"Ah, how interesting." Xuan Yu walked in the wind and snow, but enjoyed the feeling of the cold snowflakes pelting his cheeks, a gentle and compassionate smile on his lips, " Lu Qingjiu, what will you choose in the end."

Lu Qingjiu could choose to save the world or to leave with Bai Yuehu, and of course, Lu Qingjiu's final choice would determine the fate of humanity.

There seemed to be a golden light flashing in the sky, and a red dragon peeping out of it. Xuan Yu stood in the snow and saw a blue ice butterfly dancing and surging towards him.

He closed his eyes, and the smile on his lips, however, grew even wider.

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