During ablation
Ying Yungui was still immersed in his fantasy happiness, while Shi Youchen had already left the housing area.
The temperature was exceptionally low today, and the wind felt like razor blades, cutting painfully as it blew across my cheeks. Shi Youchen glanced at the time, thinking it was still a little late to leave the house, and that he needed to hurry up.
The area to be patrolled is actually not very large. About six kilometers west of the human living area, there is an abandoned horse farm. After crossing the horse farm and going northwest over half the foot of the mountain, you can see the border security belt of areas 7 and 8.
Within that area, any energy or equipment other than those registered with the association was forbidden from appearing or being used. Furthermore, any advanced product in such an environment required human intervention and protection. Therefore, border cordons like these became one of the "missions" the association could issue, and of course, could also serve as punishment.
As punishment, Shi Youchen was not allowed to use any convenient tools. He could only walk back and forth every day, which took him four or five hours.
Fortunately, although the altitude here is high, the terrain is not rugged. It is almost autumn and the temperature is dropping. There is also a lot of vegetation nearby, so the oxygen content is still sufficient. It is not unacceptable to use walking as a form of exercise.
The border security zone was a cliff, and the scenery below was often obscured by a sea of clouds, making it difficult to see clearly. Within the vast white sea of clouds floated dozens of energy signal devices deployed by the association. His only task was to ensure that none of them had lost their functionality simultaneously.
At noon, Shi Youchen finally arrived at a familiar place, but he found that the sea of clouds today was extremely thin, and he could see the surface clearly with the naked eye.
Below the cliff are still continuous mountains, and among the grayish green, a touch of snow-white is particularly conspicuous.
Shi Youchen looked at the top of the white mountain from afar, and suddenly an idea came to his mind - he wanted to go there and take a look.
Little did he know that the thought gradually turned into a demon in his mind. On his way back, he did not return by the same route as usual, but chose another way down the mountain.
He didn't feel anything unusual when he passed two half-dried lakes on the way, until he went a little further and a small clump of trees that looked particularly lonely and deserted in the wilderness blocked his way.
It was called a forest, but in reality, there were only a dozen bare tree trunks, so thin that they couldn't even hide Shi Youchen's figure. The branches were even more withered, and the small branches snapped like toothpicks.
Shi Youchen's figure disappeared from this side and then appeared from the other side. He was standing at the foot of a deserted mountain.
The cool air blew his hair for no reason. The moment the hair brushed against his skin, Shi Youchen felt that his blood vessels were screaming and spasming. It was too cold, so cold that it was biting.
However, this mountain does not look special from this angle. It stands in front of people like any other mountain range extending from it, and it is tall in every way.
Shi Youchen took a step forward and stepped on a piece of unusually hard ground. His eyes had been looking upwards until he lowered them.
Under his feet was a piece of "dead" grass, the short and hard grass roots were dull and lifeless under the erosion of wind and frost. This was nothing special, but when Shi Youchen looked around -
The vigorous vitality swayed in the cold wind, and the fresh breath of plant life almost rushed into his body.
Only the area under his feet was like the mouth of a volcano, the eye of a storm, the center of a vortex, with the quietest but most lifeless breath.
"This place... seems like I've seen it somewhere before." Shi Youchen thought, his shoulders hunched, and suddenly felt a burning sensation in his chest. The heat erupted instantly, as if to compete with the surrounding cold. As if scalded, he reached under his collar and pulled out a ball of black rope. At the end of the knot was a glass-like key.
It was the one that was carved out from Yan Zhiyuan’s shoulder in 2007.
"Yan Zhiyuan..." Another sudden gust of cold wind blew in his face. Shi Youchen narrowed his eyes, looked at the hot keys in his hand, and remembered something.
Although the area around me is desolate and withered, the small lakes, the woods behind me, and the strange shapes of the land...
It was very similar to the place he "saw" through the last black door in the health consultation center, which was at the foot of the mountain where Yan Zhiyuan killed An She.
Realizing this, Shi Youchen looked at the surroundings again and discovered that the patch of dead grass beneath his feet, which was out of place, was roughly the size of two people standing face to face. Furthermore, the soil wasn't the color of dirt or gravel, but rather a distinct dark red.
It looks like old blood.
"A-choo—" An unexpected sneeze left Shi Youchen feeling dizzy, and the buzzing in his head took a while to dissipate. A strong wind blew through the grove behind him, and the sound of bare branches scraping against the air was like a mountain wail.
There was little sunshine today, and it was about to set. The sky above became even darker, and there was even a hint of the smell of damp earth in the air.
It might be raining.
The wind and rain in places like this often come suddenly. Shi Youchen's palms were burning as he clenched the keys. He just took another look at the dark red bare land, and then walked up the mountain resolutely.
...
As the last ray of warm light in the sky was completely swallowed by the darkness, a heavy rain began to fall. This was Shi Youchen's second rain on this border garrison, and it was clearly even more unforgiving than the last time, transforming the highland pastures into the misty, rainy atmosphere of a Jiangnan water village.
Shi Youchen stood at the entrance of the cave, looking at the hazy rainy mountain scene outside. The key in his hand was no longer as hot as it was at the beginning. Now it was just emitting residual heat, as if emphasizing its presence from time to time.
Although Shi Youchen had no idea why it suddenly became like this.
The sound of rain and wind washed away everything in the world, and also washed away Shi Youchen's memories of the past period. A sudden surge of wind blew the rain onto his face, and he instinctively closed his eyes and turned to walk inside.
This cave was deeper and brighter than he had imagined. He had already reached a place where he would not be affected by the wind and rain outside, but there was still plenty of light all around.
Shi Youchen scanned the cave walls but found no spot where sunlight could penetrate. He reached out and touched the stone wall, which should have been cold, but the moment he touched it, he felt a tremor like a beating pulse.
However, when he tried to feel it again, the feeling completely disappeared.
This cave, this mountain, or rather, this mountainous area, gave him a very special feeling. It was as if something in the dark was guiding him along the way, reminding him of the specialness of this place.
Shi Youchen's throat was tense, he clenched his left hand a little tighter, and walked deeper with determination.
... "Buzz——" A faint and distant buzzing sound had been ringing in his ears for quite some time, but Shi Youchen did not find the sound annoying. Instead, he felt that it was more like the occasional sound of the tide at a quiet and empty seashore, which made people feel very peaceful.
He had been walking for quite some time, and the light around him was still unusually abundant; he could even see the subtle color differences between the stone walls. The key in his hand had grown completely cold. The rustling sound of footsteps drifted across the cave ceiling, magically blending perfectly with the humming in his ears.
Shi Youchen stood in front of a fork in the road. The roads on both sides seemed to be no different here. Just when he was at a loss as to what to do, he suddenly felt a burning sensation in his palm, forcing him to stretch out his hand.
The glass-like key floated in the air, shook a few times, and then slowly floated towards the fork in the road on the left.
Following the key, Shi Youchen's figure disappeared at the next moment at the intersection on the left. The stone wall on the right moved, tightly blocking the fork in the road, which was not big to begin with.
Shi Youchen, completely unaware of all this, followed the key and walked straight inside. Finally, after passing through a dazzling light, he arrived at his final destination.
There was obviously no way forward, and the key had stopped and landed on a stone platform in front.
Shi Youchen approached the bronze stone platform and discovered it was only a few inches shorter than himself. The key lay on a flat surface with nothing but words carved into its uneven surface, like an open book.
It is called "carved" because the characters are not arranged very neatly, and rough sand can be vaguely seen on the edges of the characters.
Shi Youchen reached out and took the key and put it in his pocket, then found that there was no obvious dust on the stone platform. He could clearly recognize every paragraph of text without brushing off the dust.
"Like all corruptible sins
Humans will fight for things that will eventually decay
Foolishly giving up eternal things
This is a sin against God.
It's the road to doomsday
Only generosity, forever generosity
Only then can time flow again."
The text on the stone platform wasn't long, and it even used the native language of Area 8, so Shi Youchen finished reading it quickly. However, he couldn't understand the meaning of the text, couldn't understand what "the sin of turning your back on God" meant, and couldn't understand what "let time flow again" meant.
Unable to understand, he stood in front of the stone platform for a long time.
Shi Youchen was thinking about the significance of having such a stone platform in such a place far away from the world.
This is obviously not meant for people to see, but if that is the case, why is there a force that guides him here through the key and allows him to see the words on it?
Shi Youchen himself did not notice that during the time he stopped to think, the buzzing sound in his ears had long disappeared. Not only that, even the tiny dust that was imperceptible to the naked eye on the stone wall above his head stopped falling. Everything around him was quiet and silent, and even the light did not change in brightness.
If there was another person present at this moment, he would surely realize with horror that—
The space where Shi Youchen is now has become completely still.
...
...
In a trance, Shi Youchen opened his eyes. He didn't even realize when he fell asleep. There was no stone platform beside him, nor was he in any cave.
Beneath him was the familiar single bed. He returned to the house where he had been living for some time.
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