I Created the Myth of the Old Ruler

Chapter 103 102. Torii, Corridor

It has just fallen into the night, and the bamboo forest shrouded in dusk is quiet and secluded.

The gurgling stream meanders from the depths of the forest. Under the shadow of the dark and whirling trees, something is spying on the human world. The chirping of insects and the cry of certain creatures constitute the main theme of the forest, but sometimes, silence And embrace everything.

Lu Juan looked at the night sky, under the faint fog, almost no systematic constellations could be seen, only a few stars shining stubbornly.

The moon is hidden in the deeper clouds, and Lu Jian can't even tell whether the monthly pass in this world is round or not.

A festival is being held on the island. A street is full of lanterns. There are various vendors on the street. Some sell apple candy, some fish for goldfish, and some sell masks. people.

Lu Jian walks through it, passing by many men and women in kimonos, the happiness is theirs, and he has nothing.

However, Lu Jian noticed that these people, except for those artists who indulged in joy, looked like local children, girls, and old people, all had a kind of indifference in their eyes, as if they were performing in line with the atmosphere. indifference.

He came to the end of the street, and there was a small road extending towards the bamboo forest. It could be seen that this was the way up the mountain.

The Hejima Shrine at night does not seem to be open to the public, and no one goes up and down the mountain.

Lu Jian saw that at the foot of the mountain, under the red torii gate, Hongye was standing there.

She is still wearing the arrow feather pattern kimono, blue long skirt, and boots, but there is a fox mask hanging next to her head, which adds a bit of pure feeling.

"The bamboo forest at night is very dangerous, especially now."

Seeing Lu Jian, Hong Ye didn't greet her, but turned her head and went up the mountain. She held a lantern in her hand, and the dim yellow light illuminated the road, which was disturbing.

The road up the mountain was a bit bumpy, and the bamboo forest next to it was sparse and quiet.

"Strange, why is there no sound in the bamboo forest?"

It is now the midsummer of the island, but there is no sound in the woods, the streets of the festival are far away, and the whole world falls into silence.

"Don't get caught in the shadows, walk in the light of the lantern."

Hongye reminded me to raise the lantern slightly.

Lu Jian saw that the bamboo seemed to become denser.

This reminded him of the wild grassland in the abandoned capital, those living and wildly growing plants.

Can't help but feel a little intimacy.

When the two walked halfway up the mountain,

I saw a series of torii gates.

This kind of building, which is said to be the gate connecting the two worlds, can be found everywhere on the road up the mountain afterwards, forming a tunnel and making the road even darker.

Walking into the torii gate, Lu Jian seemed to hear something behind him.

He looked back, and in the dark shadow, he seemed to see the red skirt and the white socks stepping on the clogs for a moment.

"That is."

Lu Jian couldn't help but stop, and the lights of the red leaves in front moved a little away from him.

The trouser legs seemed to be pulled by something, and Lu Tian lowered his head.

A pale hand retracted into the shadows.

He felt the darkness around him grow deeper.

In the ear, music came.

Shamisen, shakuhachi, and Wajima-style mournful music are mixed with whispers like chanting.

".Pray to the gods, in this life and in this life, the body is sad, and the floating dream is gone."

As if whispering in his ear, Lu Jian felt his scalp go numb, and turned his head hastily when the whisper disappeared.

But there is only darkness around.

In Lu Jian's field of vision, only the road under his feet and the torii on the road are left. What he can see is only within reach, and beyond, it is quiet and dark.

"Hongye?"

Lu Jian tried to call out, but even his voice was melted into the darkness, and there was no response.

Looking around, he could only roughly see the direction up the mountain.

Beyond the darkness that envelops the road, nothing is known.

"Anyway, he shouldn't be dead yet?"

Lu Jian climbed up, the torii came towards the field of vision, and then went away from the field of vision. These dilapidated buildings seemed to be stained with dirt. Lu Jian didn't know what it was and how the dirt was splashed on it.

In the endless darkness and silence, Lu Jian walked for about 300 heartbeats, but found that he was still between the torii gates.

"Could it be a ghost hitting the wall again?"

Thinking about it, Lu Jian squatted down, picked up a stone and made a five-pointed star mark on the torii gate, and then continued to move forward.

Every step, when the darkness lit up because of the approaching distance, Lu Trian would tense his nerves, worrying that there might be something strange running out of the shadows.

It's like walking at night when I was a child, and there was darkness outside the lights, and I took every step carefully, for fear that something hideous and terrifying would suddenly appear on the road.

He was going to continue walking for three hundred heartbeats, but when he counted to two hundred and thirty-three, Lu Jian stopped.

On the torii gate beside him, he saw the five-pointed star mark he left just now.

And, under the five-pointed star mark, there is another mark.

It was a symbol that seemed to be drawn casually, but was full of strange meanings.

"...There is someone else on this road, and he has found my mark. Is it the red leaf? Or is there something else."

Lu Jian thought about it, he thought for a while, and decided to go down.

Just as he turned his head and started walking down, with the light of the vision ahead, Lu Jian saw that there was a person standing beside the torii gate in front.

The man was wearing a red and white priestess costume, the clothes were spotless, the black hair hung down softly behind his head, and his face was pale, which made Lu Jian think of the Jingliuli doll hanging in the sky that he saw during the day.

She stared at Lu Jian with resentment in her eyes.

"You brought me here?"

Lu Jian stopped and asked a question.

The other party didn't say a word, but slowly took two steps back, submerged into the darkness.

Lu Jian didn't leave this road full of torii rashly. Although it seems that there is only circulation here, it is obviously not a good choice to go out.

He went on down for more than a hundred heartbeats.

Then I saw that there seemed to be signs on the torii gate next to me.

That was Lu Jian's own five-pointed star.

However, Lu Jian originally marked the position of the five-pointed star, which should be facing the downhill road, but now, the five-pointed star is actually facing the uphill road.

"Has the torii changed, or are these hallucinations?"

Lu Jian took a step and looked at the back of the torii gate.

There are shocking scratches on the mottled and peeling red paint surface. Those scratches are not sharp claws, but seem to be scratched by human hands over and over again. Under the peeling red paint surface, there is a richer blood color!

It is conceivable that there may be a witch who got lost on this road. She experienced this repeated reincarnation over and over again, and finally her sanity collapsed and she went completely crazy. She scratched these torii gates with her fingers, and finally left the road and never returned. to here.

The surrounding darkness became more intense, and the temperature of midsummer night made Lu stumble into sweat. The sweat soaked his clothes and stuck them to his skin, which was unpleasant.

Lu Jian suppressed his divergent thinking, and took a few steps forward.

Suddenly, there was a strange feeling under his feet, as if he had stepped on a hard and protruding object, which was definitely not a stone, but something curved and crunchy.

Lu Jian looked down.

There is a mask in there.

*

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