Chapter 2
Si Yuan had a rare dream. He dreamed of a day long, long ago.
At that time, the Divine Phoenix had fallen, and Si Yuan had just taken over the Kunlun Realm as the new Si Yuan.
At that time, Si Yuan was already able to resist the endless monsters in the Endless Abyss alone, but his heart was not as firm as it is now.
Si Yuan still had a lot of things he couldn't figure out. He didn't understand why his mother and Dongjun chose to perish together, he didn't understand what was there to protect in the human race, and he also didn't understand why Kunlun Jie Si was finally entrusted to him.
At that time, Si Yuan was already able to hide his emotions very well. Unfortunately, confusion is like an ice cube thrown into the water. Even if someone can press it down with their hands every time it floats to the surface, it can't stop the ice cube from floating to the surface forever.
Confusion will be reflected in the moment of silence every time you make a decision.
Dongjun noticed Si Yuan's knot early on, but ultimately chose not to tell Si Yuan anything.
There are many things in this world that you can choose for others, but that does not include the direction to move forward; there are many things that you can deceive yourself about, but that does not include the road under your feet.
Shen Huang is like this, Dong Jun is like this, and Si Yuan will also be like this.
Si Yuan ruled Kunlun Realm for hundreds of years in a daze, until one day, he met a human.
That day, Si Yuan captured a Taotie that was roaming in the south. The beast liked to eat people and had long been the target of Kunlun Jiesi, but it was cunning by nature and hid in the mountains, relying on the miasma of the southern mountains to hide for decades.
When Si Yuan caught Taotie, it was hiding in a swamp.
In the mountains and fields of Lingnan, except for the ferocious beasts that have committed crimes, even a celestial being like Si Yuan is unwilling to set foot easily. But it was in such a place that Si Yuan discovered a human being.
This man was sitting on the shore of the swamp, chewing some herbs to ward off miasma, holding a badly worn carving knife in his hand, and concentrating on carving something on a tortoise shell. He didn't even notice Si Yuan who was not far away from him.
The appearance of a human being in such a place was really a very strange thing. Even Si Yuan couldn't help but look at him twice more - the human was disheveled and ragged, but he wrote like a god, with a sharp light in his eyes, almost crazy.
While carving words on the tortoise shell, he used his fingers to calculate something, mumbling: "Three hundred li, no, I walked 260,000 steps, it should be 370 li. Right, right, 370 li, 370 li..."
A madman appeared in the mountains.
Si Yuan looked at the tortoise shell in the man's hand. There was an animal with a horse's head and a tiger's body carved on it. Although the brushwork was simple and the carving was crooked, it could be barely recognized as a deer.
Monsters like the Deer Shu don't have any special abilities except that wearing their fur can bring prosperity to people's descendants, so they are not considered rare things. To monsters, they are as common as cats and dogs.
But it can be seen that this human was very serious about the painting, even the details of the hair were carefully depicted. He looked at the deer on his tortoise shell with admiration and a satisfied look. Then he used a carving knife to carve a line of small words next to the deer's portrait - "Another three hundred and seventy miles to the east, called..."
The handwriting is neat and beautiful.
At that time, the south was filled with miasma and mountains, with no one living for thousands of miles. A human who suddenly appeared was either looking for death or causing trouble. So Si Yuan went up to the human as usual and asked, "What are you doing?"
The human was startled by the sudden sound. He looked up at Si Yuan with wide eyes, as if he had not expected that there would be someone else here. After realizing that Si Yuan was talking to him, the human stood up, gathered his hair with his saliva-stained palm, and bowed to Si Yuan like a scholar, saying, "Excuse me. I am Tai Zhang, and I am about to write a book."①
Write a book?
At that time, books themselves were a very new concept. In fact, words themselves were considered to be the most rebellious existence.
Cang Jie got a glimpse of the way of heaven and created characters. Ten witches used characters to predict the way of heaven, and thus the human race gained the ability to make the gods fear them. And because of the existence of characters, humans began to spread the truths that were originally only known to the gods and a small number of humans.
When theocracy began to decline, writing was born.
Fortunately, there were few people who could read at that time. Despite this, Si Yuan actually found a person among these mountains, and this human was not only literate, but also wanted to write a book.
Si Yuan looked at this bold human. Tai Zhang, who did not carve words, had completely lost his previous frightening enthusiasm. He was enthusiastically explaining to Si Yuan, "A book is something that records what you see and hear, and then shows it to others. What I want to write is a book that covers the mountains and rivers of the Great Wilderness and the sea."
"Oh?" This was a bit arrogant. Even Si Yuan, who usually wouldn't easily express his opinions, couldn't help but ask, "Do you know how big the Great Wilderness and the Sea are in total?"
“It’s not clear yet.”
You dare to make such a boast without even knowing it.
Si Yuan continued to ask: "If it is boundless and has no end, how can you write your book?"
Tai Zhang smiled and said: "The mountains are endless, but my life is finite. I will write as much as I can before I die."
This was so beautifully said that Si Yuan couldn't help but glance sideways: "So how much have you written?"
Tai Zhang scratched his head embarrassedly: "I haven't written much yet. I'm still measuring the distances between these mountains and rivers. I can't write accurately until I finish measuring."
Can the distance between mountains and rivers be measured? When did the human world have such a long ruler?
Si Yuan couldn't help but ask, "What do you use to test it?"
Tai Zhang said as a matter of course: "Of course I measured it with my feet. Every time I walked over a mountain, I used a knot to record how many steps I took. Then I calculated it based on the distance of a single step. Naturally, I could figure it out."
Tai Zhang seemed very satisfied with this stupid idea he came up with, and he smiled happily as he introduced it.
"So how many mountains did you count?"
"Four seats."
There are only four seats.
The mountains in the Great Wilderness are as numerous as the grains of sand in the Ganges. Although Si Yuan has the ability to see through heaven and earth, he cannot guarantee that he can see all the scenery.
But Si Yuan did not pour cold water on Tai Zhang.
After a short conversation, Si Yuan bid farewell to Tai Zhang. He thought humans were amazing, always having some fantastic ideas, but they were just fantastic ideas.
Then, a decade passed, and Si Yuan met Tai Zhang again.
Tai Zhang was very old, carrying a heavy suitcase on his back, walking on the road step by step, his hair was gray and messy, and there was a big hole in his straw sandal, with one toe exposed. It was winter, and the snow in the north fell on Tai Zhang's gray beard, melting and freezing into frost in an instant. He was wrapped in winter clothes, walking alone on a deserted mountain path.
The sky and the earth were pale, Tai Zhang walked very slowly, and only a pair of dark footprints behind him gave the world some different colors.
Si Yuan landed in front of Tai Zhang.
Tai Zhang was not surprised by Si Yuan's sudden appearance, nor was he frightened by the divine power displayed by Si Yuan, nor was he shocked by Si Yuan's ageless appearance.
He is really too old. When people get old, they will be very happy to meet old friends.
Tai Zhang greeted Si Yuan with a smile and said, "Do you still remember me?"
Si Yuan nodded: "Remember, sixty years ago, the mountain of Zhuyang."
After hearing this, Tai Zhang smiled even more happily.
Si Yuan asked: "How is your book going?"
Hearing this question, Tai Zhang put down the heavy box behind him and enthusiastically showed it to Si Yuan. The box was very heavy and made a hole in the snow. Inside it were countless tortoise shells.
"It's almost done." Tai Zhang said, "This is only the northern part. I have sent the eastern, western, southern and central tortoise shells back to the village and asked people to help sort them out."
Tai Zhang's eyes were filled with a satisfied smile, but as he was smiling, he seemed to have thought of something, and then he looked towards the higher mountain in the distance, half sighing and half sighing, "But I don't have time."
Human lifespan is limited, and it would be difficult for him to walk out of .
Tai Zhang asked Si Yuan: "After climbing over this mountain, are there any more mountains?"
Nature still exists. There are mountains beyond mountains, new wildernesses beyond wildernesses, and more seas beyond the four seas.
At that time, Si Yuan did not answer this question directly, but only said to Tai Zhang: "It is okay to write to this point."
It is okay, but is it really okay?
After hearing this, Tai Zhang remained silent for a long time. He was hunched over and looked shorter than when he was young. The wind and snow over the years were like a chisel in his hand, writing chapters of stories on his face that no one could understand. Time had made his eyes cloudy, but when he was about to die, his eyes were still as firm as they were back then.
Tai Zhang stared at the mountain in front of him in a daze. After a moment, he smiled.
Tai Zhang said, "That won't work."
After all, Tai Zhang never made a second choice.
Tai Zhang continued to move forward.
The snow was still falling, and the footprints behind him were slowly covered by the falling snow. The world was the same as when he came, but it seemed that something had changed.
At the end of the dream, Si Yuan heard Tai Zhang say, "Remember to read my book in the early spring of next year."
That was the first time that Si Yuan understood what kind of race he was protecting: small yet powerful, fragile yet stubborn.
…
"Si Yuan! Si Yuan!" A shout rang in Si Yuan's ears.
Si Yuan came to his senses and found that he had rarely fallen asleep at the annual meeting.
Over the years, the annual meetings have been nothing new. In the end, they always become a game of comparison among the combat teams - "How many rebellious monsters did Combat Team 2 kill this year? Four hundred? Not bad. What? What about Combat Team 1? Not much, not much. We only killed four hundred and one."
This happens every year, and my ears are covered with calluses.
It was Master Yu who woke Si Yuan up. Apparently, the logistics team, which had been invisible for a long time, had something to say.
"Si Yuan, the logistics team can't survive if they don't recruit cleaners. The fungus people have been gone for a hundred years. The last application quota was given to the combat team. This time it should be our turn. If it goes on like this, the entire Immigrant Household Investigation Bureau will be buried in dust."
The application letter for the Foreign Household Investigation Bureau is issued every fifty years, usually to make up for the loss of the combat team. There is only one letter at a time, so that all monsters can fight for it. The Foreign Household Investigation Bureau only wants the strongest ones.
Donghuang Taiyi, who was standing by, nodded and said, "Let's recruit. It just so happens that the combat team has not lost any personnel in the past 100 years, so we don't need to recruit anyone. Let's add the cleaning position to this application."
Thank God, it was finally the logistics team’s turn.
The Rain Master was obviously very happy to receive the promise. He jumped up impatiently and said as he ran out, "Then I will send my application to the Mountain and Sea Realm."
Although this year we are recruiting cleaners, Yu Shi expects that the form of the application should be the same as in previous years and will not change much.
Unexpectedly, Si Yuan called out to Master Yu and said, "Send this year's application to the human world."
The gears of fate often turn without sound. When all the major events happen, the cause may be just a small thing: such as trying to find an old book in a thick pile of garbage, but failing; such as taking a road home that you rarely take that day and seeing a recruitment notice by chance; such as having an ancient dream in a boring meeting just now...
Si Yuan wondered whether humans today were still like Tai Zhang, shining brightly in their short lives.
The human world?
The Rain Master was stunned for a moment, and seemed a little hesitant: "Aren't there only humans in that place? Will it work? The human we recruited last time died not long after. I thought he must be very powerful to be able to snatch the application letter from the big monster, but who knew that he would die at the hands of the drought demon he raised."
Si Yuan did not answer this question, but just said something without any context: "Human's perseverance is enough to deter all monsters."
Perseverance? Aren’t you talking about cleaning?
But in a flash, Yu Shi thought of the toilet that looked like a crime scene and shuddered: "Indeed, perseverance is important."
…
The human world tonight is as peaceful as it was yesterday, except for a new inconspicuous job advertisement on an inconspicuous pillar, waiting to be taken down by a human being in the near future.
① There are actually many opinions about the author of Shan Hai Jing. I chose one that is less verifiable and is not a setting from past or present life.
