Cang Lan left. Eldest senior brother, second senior brother, Xu Hui, and Yu Xuan sat on Su Ming's boat and went to the other side of the River of Forgetfulness. Su Ming's comings and goings on the River of Forgetfulness were like circles in the cycle of life and death.
Time passed, and before anyone knew it, a lot of spring and autumn had left his memories. Su Ming was no longer a middle-aged man. Instead, his hair had turned white, and he had become an old man.
From the distance, perhaps the figure under the setting sun had turned into an old man with a straw hat in a lone boat.
He sat quietly in the passage of time outside the wooden house. One cycle of sixty years passed just like that. From the start until the end, Su Ming did not take even half a step into the wooden house. It was as if the threshold of the wooden house was a ravine that separated the sky and earth. On the other side of the ravine was everything that had awakened, and on the other side of the ravine were the lights from the homes where Su Ming had once sat and meditated while staring at the candlelight.
Winter came very early that year. Snow fell from the sky and covered the ground. From the distance, it was impossible to forget the greenery. The cold brought with it a chill that seemed to be able to freeze everything. However, the never-ending River of Forgetfulness was a firework that could not be frozen no matter how cold it was …
On the other side of the River of Forgetfulness, the other side of the river still seemed to be filled with spring. No one could move, and they could only vaguely see the beauty and brilliance of the flowers.
That river was separated by the cycle of life and death, by the world, and by everyone …
Cold wind howled, and snow fell from the sky. On an afternoon when people lifted their heads and saw that the world was covered in snow, the sounds of horse hooves could be heard charging forth. Based on the sounds, it was not a single person, but a group …
When Su Ming looked over, he saw nearly one hundred thousand people dressed in armor and riding on warhorses in the snow in the distance. They were charging forward, and the person in the lead rode on a purplish-red horse. He was dressed in golden armor, and his scarlet cloak fluttered in the wind. His fur shirt was exposed, and the horse's hooves were embedded with nails to prevent it from slipping, causing the sounds of the horse's hooves to echo in the air. They were not clear, but rather muffled.
Apart from the sound of hooves, there was no other sound among the hundred thousand people. Everyone on the horses silently followed the man in the scarlet cloak in front of them, as if they could follow him through mountains, through worlds, through this life and the next.
This was an army, an army that existed in this world of all living beings. The man at the very front was like a ferocious tiger. His eyes were like copper bells, and when he glared at them, he exuded a powerful aura. It was enough to make the timid tremble and not dare to look him in the eye.
He was clearly a general in the army. He was surrounded by a murderous aura. His left hand held the reins of his horse, and his right hand held a jug of wine. As he moved forward, he continued to drink wine. However, as the wine spread, not only did he not seem drunk, it made his murderous aura even thicker, and a vague heroic aura spread out. The white air he exhaled seemed to fuse with the air the horses exhaled as they ran, causing the army of one hundred thousand to look as if they were covered by a layer of white sand at first glance.
It was especially so for the man. When all the people looked at him, they could not help but imprint his face deep into their minds.
The sounds of horse hooves were not disorderly, and they gradually disappeared in front of Su Ming's wooden house. Su Ming lifted his head and looked at the endless army. He looked at all the faces of the one hundred thousand people, and eventually, his gaze landed on the face of the man at the very front.
The tiger-like man drank a mouthful of wine, but there was not much drunkenness on his face. There was a murderous glare in his eyes as he glared at Su Ming.
Su Ming was also looking at him. When their gazes met, the tiger-like man picked up the jug of wine and took another big swig from it. The breath he exhaled turned into white air, and he let out a loud shout.
"Ferryman, why do you look so familiar? Could it be that you've met your Grandpa Hu before? Tell me, have you met your Grandpa Hu before?!" The burly man's voice was like a thunderclap that reverberated in all directions. The horse beneath him also trembled a few times, as if it was indeed not carrying a person, but a ferocious tiger.
Su Ming smiled, and his smile was filled with happiness. He finally saw Hu Zi and the one hundred thousand Ninth Summit disciples he led. These disciples had once fought in the galaxy with Hu Zi and swept through the universe with him. Clearly, eldest senior brother would not pay attention to the right to choose which disciples from Ninth Summit to go to the other side of the world, and second senior brother had given this right to Hu Zi.
Even though Su Ming had already told Hu Zi about Tian Xie Zi's words and even though Hu Zi had come to understand it, he still chose to accompany the disciples of Ninth Summit in this life until they reached the other side of the world.
Now, he was here.
"Of course I know you. You're my junior brother," Su Ming said softly. He stood up and walked onto the ship. When he turned his head around, he looked at Hu Zi and nodded at him with a smile.
"I've been waiting for you for a long time. Eldest senior brother is there, and so is second senior brother. They're all waiting for you …"
Su Ming's voice echoed in the cold and landed in the tiger-like man's ears, causing him to be momentarily stunned. Confusion gradually appeared on his face, as if the memories of his previous life and his current life overlapped at that instant. His right hand, which held the pot of wine, loosened its grip on it, and it fell to the ground … The porcelain pot shattered, and the wine in it spilled everywhere …
The wine that spilled seemed to have turned into one hundred thousand drops that fused into the snow on the ground …
The man shook his head and seized the air downwards with his right hand. The shattered pot of wine looked as if it had been distorted by time. The wine that had fused into the snow reappeared, and in the end, it turned into a complete pot of wine. When it landed in the man's hand, the one hundred thousand soldiers behind him turned into nothingness and disappeared.
There was some sort of understanding on his face. He got down from his horse, picked up the pot of wine, and stepped onto Su Ming's ship to sit at the bow.
At one moment, he was still at the riverbank, but in the next, he had already crossed the River of Forgetfulness and reached the other side. The person at the bow of the ship seemed to be immersed in the cycle of reincarnation. He still sat there with a dazed expression. With the pot of wine in hand, he turned his head around to look at the ferryman at the stern.
"Youngest junior brother …" A murmur tumbled out of the man's mouth, and the sound of raindrops falling on the wood of the ship echoed in the air. Those were not raindrops, but Hu Zi's tears.
Su Ming lifted his head and looked at Hu Zi. There was a smile on his face, and it was filled with blessings. It caused the winter to no longer be as cold as before, and the River of Forgetfulness seemed to have turned into a river in the sky.
"Eldest senior brother and second senior brother are there, but you aren't there …" Hu Zi stared at Su Ming in a daze. He seemed to have heard a few words reaching his ears, but he did not know whether they were in the present or in the past.
"Hu Zi, don't cry …"
In the end, the ship still left. The empty bow of the ship seemed to serve as a contrast to the bleakness at the stern. Hu Zi also stared at the ship leaving into the distance on the other side of the river. Vaguely … second senior brother and eldest senior brother also appeared beside Su Ming. They stared at the River of Forgetfulness with him, as if they were using their gazes … to keep the former Ninth Summit.
Another ten years passed.
A scholar with a bookcase on his back walked through spring. The scroll in his hands seemed to contain words that would last for eternity in the world. Under the afternoon sun, he walked out of the wooden house and stood beside Su Ming.
"The fortune teller said that I lost the other soul in my life. He asked me to continue walking in the direction of the east. I would walk past mountains, rivers, plains, and spring, and I would see a river, a wooden house, and a ferryman who would give me the other soul in my life …
"Is that you?"
Su Ming lifted his head. The bamboo hat covered the sunlight, causing his face to be indistinct in the ancient light. He stared at the scholar before him and the scroll in his hands, and a gentle smile appeared on his face.
This was Chang He. Su Ming had promised him that he would resurrect his wife. He had never forgotten this promise. The promise he made in the past was a cause, and at that moment … Chang He's words were asking for an effect.
"It's me," Su Ming said softly.
"Then where is the other soul in my life?" the scholar asked as he stared at Su Ming.
Su Ming closed his eyes. After a long while, when he reopened them, he answered gently, "In your hands."
The scholar was momentarily stunned. He lowered his head and stared at his hand. There was only the scroll in his hand, and as if he had come to understand something, he opened the scroll. When he looked at it … the words on the scroll disappeared, and they turned into a picture.
There was a woman in the picture, and she looked as if she was alive. She was staring at him with a smile on her face, as if she had been staring at him for thousands of years. It was as if she had been waiting to appear in Chang He's eyes.
"But this … is just a picture." The scholar remained silent for a moment, then lifted his head to look at Su Ming.
"Look at the other side of the river." Su Ming stood up with a smile and walked to the stern of the boat.
The scholar's gaze moved past Su Ming and landed on the other side of the River of Forgetfulness. He could vaguely see a woman's figure staring at him.
As he watched her, the scholar's gaze turned into the smile from his previous life. He got on the boat, and as the boat moved forward in the River of Forgetfulness, the figure became clearer and drew closer. When he reached the riverbank, he got off the boat and stared at the woman. The two of them stared at each other for a long time, and when they turned their heads back together, they could no longer see Su Ming's lone boat on the River of Forgetfulness.
Half of the second cycle of sixty years had passed without them realizing it. Another autumn arrived, and an old man walked into Su Ming's wooden house.
The old man was dressed in a long robe made of sackcloth. His white hair danced in the autumn wind. There were many wrinkles on his face, but each wrinkle seemed to contain an ancient air. He walked to the River of Forgetfulness and stared at it. After a long while, he turned his head around and looked at Su Ming, who had already stood up.
"Many years ago, a scholar came to me. I asked him to head east. He had to walk past mountains, forests, and plains, and he would see a wooden house. There was a person under it, and he was the person he wanted to find." There was a kind look on the old man's face as he stared at Su Ming.
Su Ming stared at the old man, and an expression that was rarely seen on him appeared on his face, as if he was a junior looking at an elder.
"Elder …"
"Let's go. Take me across the river." The old man's expression became even more kind. When he looked at Su Ming, there was a gratified and reluctant look in his eyes, but he did not voice it out. Instead, he sat down at the bow of the boat.
The sun set in the west, and night fell. Stars appeared in the sky, and the boat reached the other side.
"Remember this sky." The elder turned his head around and looked at Su Ming before speaking softly in a profound tone.
"Because this is the night sky that will guide you home … Every single time you can't find your way home, you can lift your head. If you can see the stars in the night sky, you will know … that your home is not far away, and your family … is waiting for you."
Please guarantee the monthly votes! "My fellow Daoists, we've been quiet for the past year. It's been too long since we've had a rush of passion, and we've almost forgotten the feeling at the top of the mountain. This month … my fellow demons, are you willing … to fight against Starting Point with me?!
November is the month of eruption. Let us give Qiu Mo a completion, let us give Qiu Mo a peak!
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