Chapter 1243: The Forest King and Xinna Meng, the Month of Change
Under the Faruna magic machine, the grass was green and Jiang Yi was lying there, falling into a dream.
The dream is made of memories of the Forest King's crown...it is vast and boundless.
The water of life dripped onto Jiang Yi's body, alleviating the pain brought by the darkness and forbidden knowledge. Huan Na's infinite power transformed into a green stream of light, strengthening the fire of life in his chest, making him feel extremely comfortable.
Then, I relax in the understanding of the mysteries of life and purification, and my spirit becomes as light as a feather, floating in my dreams.
"We were born in the green Royal Forest. Our world is under the shade of trees and on the meadows. What is taken from the forest will return to the forest. As long as we follow the laws of heaven and earth, there will be no worries about life and death."
"Because those who follow nature will eventually pass through the maze of the royal forest and reach the boundless wilderness."
The person who spoke was a young girl.
Jiang Yi's consciousness was like a gust of wind. He said nothing, just looking at the story gathered in his memories.
Next to him, a dusky bird flew down.
The girl's name was Xinameng, a name given to her by others. She was not a princess as rumored in later generations, but just an ordinary child born in the forest.
Of course, she is not ordinary now.
This is the forest from long, long ago when the Lord of the Labyrinth still existed.
The original, oldest, palace of the Forest King.
The king's palace is made up of vines, streams, and tree trunks.
Xinamon is the king's attendant and is teaching a child who is lost in the deep forest.
The children listened to her words in a daze.
At this moment, Xinna dreamed of herself, who was once so ignorant.
She smiled, and her memories in this dream turned into another dream.
In the vast forest, a child was lost in this endless maze. The stream in front of him looked so familiar, as if he had just walked past it. The trees in front of him looked so familiar, as if they were just behind him. The birds in front of him looked so familiar, with wounds on their feathers...
There are huge footprints on the ground.
The stream in the footprints reflects the splendor of the sunshine.
She followed the footprints, moving forward step by step.
The birds were whispering and the animals were in a daze.
The human child in front of him seemed to be too brave.
Those are the footprints of the forest king.
Amid the fear of birds and beasts, the child followed the footprints left by the forest king and came to the tiger's garden.
"Ouch——"
The sound was rough and melodious, like thunder in a clear sky, rolling up. In the wind and waves, the grass and trees bent down, and the vines retracted their tiptoes.
The king, wearing a cloak of stripes like fire, was a huge tiger, casting a huge shadow, looking down at the tiny humans in front of him.
The Lord of the Labyrinth, the Master of the Moonlight Water, showed a mocking "cruel" smile, with a bloody mouth beneath his sharp fangs.
"Every beast and every bird has toured my five internal organs before returning to the earth. I am the king of the forest, I have killed many and protected many. Only a villain like you I have not tasted yet."
His tiger roar made the surrounding animals tremble.
But the child only understood human language and did not understand the language of "beasts", so the forest king did not condescend to translate the tiger's roar into human language.
"Ouch."
The innocent child faced the king of the forest. He was not afraid. He did not turn around and run away in terror. He did not collapse on the ground. Instead, he let out the same childish "tiger roar" towards the forest king.
Is it the joy of imitation or the fearless provocation?
The Forest King was not angry, but found it amusing.
In the past, as soon as he opened his mouth, the humans, both adults and children, even the strongest warriors among humans, would hide in their wooden houses.
The beasts in the forest lay prostrate on the ground, not daring to move, the birds flew far away towards the sun, and even the mighty cats with long manes hid in the bushes.
The child's eyes met the huge tiger pupils of the forest king.
She looked up and found that the big cat in front of her was wearing an emerald-gold crown with emerald-gold flowers on it.
"Awooo..." The forest king yawned and roared like a tiger. With a hint of joy in his heart, he said lazily, "You little thing who doesn't know etiquette. Well, then let me teach you the principles of the forest and the language of the forest."
His words became human language.
"From now on, you are my attendant. The palace of the forest will be open to you, and the beasts of the forest will not harm you."
The child was still confused and could not understand what the Forest King said.
She felt like she could understand each word separately, but when they were put together she was confused.
The Forest King turned and left.
The child stumbled after him and entered the king's palace.
So she settled down here, learned the principles and language of the forest, and became the king's first attendant.
Jiang Yi's consciousness transformed into wind and also stayed there, learning the principles of the forest thousands of years ago and the language of the forest king.
It turns out that this memory is the inheritance of the Forest King.
If he realizes something.
At the end of his instruction, the Forest King suddenly smiled and gave a solemn warning.
"Remember, this world is just a dream of the forest. One day you will wake up from reality and come to the boundless hunting ground."
"Where our prey goes, we will one day arrive as well. You should never forget this."
Then, one day, the dream ended.
The child appeared in the vast forest and the vast hunting ground, and the way home appeared before him.
The dream in Jiang Yi's eyes was shattered, and he returned to the dream in which Xin Nameng taught the children lost in the forest.
The young girl Xinameng already knows the language of all animals.
In children's nursery rhymes, she can interpret poems from the moonlight. She is the most virtuous girl in the king's court, guarding the quiet forest, the still water embracing the moon, and the boundless hunting ground at the end of the forest in her dreams.
She took in many children who were lost in the forest and never trampled on the wild flowers.
Since that day, she never actually saw the Forest King again.
I just remember everything in that long and beautiful dream.
After completing today's teaching, she left the hut made of grass and vines and picked up a wooden longbow decorated with emerald and gold.
She did not understand the human life of the city dwellers. She only knew that as the king's attendant, she should serve the king and guard the labyrinth for the king. Her life belonged to the forest and to hunting.
Arrows flew through the dense forest, piercing the bodies of animals.
She came to the animal's body, closed her eyes, and prayed and comforted it.
Hunting is the rule of the forest, and she is also a part of the forest. Killing to fill her stomach and survive is the law of nature.
The poaching of city dwellers is not! That is the law of human beings. In order to have a better life, human beings are greedy and plunder and destroy plants and animals endlessly.
Therefore, she taught her children the principles of hunting in the forest and walking in dreams, and told them to love the plants in the forest, because they were the king's garden; and to respect the prey that fell under the arrows, because they were the king's subjects.
Her arrows flew.
The greedy human shed blood and fled with serious injuries.
The stagnant water in the forest was turbid and bright red, and quicksand was spreading among the tree roots on the grass in the forest.
This is primitive hunting, the original rule of the forest, the origin of forest rangers, and the forgotten memory of mankind.
In the eyes of the wounded man who was fleeing, the girl who shot the arrow without saying a word had also forgotten the existence of human language.
Yes! The girl has forgotten the "language". She no longer "communicates" with humans in the same way as with money, interests, and wealth... She only knows how to communicate directly and simply with the creatures in the forest, showing their fangs.
The angry man could not find any trace of the girl and had no choice but to leave the rich woodland.
"This world is just a dream of the forest."
The aging girl looked at the moonlight. The king was the wish lurking in her heart like the moonlight. Now, she was about to wake up.
A child who had also been lost in the deep woods and had entered the king's palace without crushing any fallen leaves had inherited everything from her, and she had taught her everything.
The king is getting old, and a new king will replace him and become the king of the forest.
When the Forest King was born, he was awarded a crown by the King of Plants.
Now, the king passed the "emerald crown" to her, the first girl who followed in the king's footsteps and passed through the maze.
She will pass the crown to the new king of the forest, and then grow old with him.
……
The dream began to change.
A new king of the forest has emerged.
After his succession, the forest began to change according to his image and dreams.
He left the palace of the first king and built his own palace.
He also had his own attendant.
Jiang Yi watched as time accelerated in the forest.
The crown given by the main god of plants and trees is passed down from generation to generation among the kings of the labyrinth.
The same is true for the principles that the attendants master, which are passed on to the next child after another.
Or maybe it's you, us, and all the life in the forest.
This is the "eternal life".
The way of plants and trees is the way of life.
The immortality of the forest king.
Traveling through thousands of years of time and memories, Jiang Yi experienced everything about every generation of forest kings and every generation of forest kings' servants.
Watching palaces rise up one after another and then sink into the forest grass.
The cabin in the woods goes from new to old, from old to new, and then from new to old again... like stars hidden in the forest.
The tributaries of fate began to branch.
Some children have become guardians of the forest and have passed on the language of the forest and the responsibility of protecting the royal land to more people.
Some people, when faced with the great suffering of others, decide to bid farewell to the hunting ground at the end of their lives and become hunters that terrify evil beasts.
Time has come to five hundred years ago.
Although Xinna's teachings had inspired many children, they were now becoming as thin as the blood of a tiger. Her legend had been passed down among the children lost in the forest for a long time, and had changed a lot.
The dark beast has arrived.
Jiang Yi looked up, and the whole dream became dark and terrifying.
The forest at night turned into an endless maze.
And the sky.
In the memory of the people of Teyvat, the moon is always bright and round, like a pearl...
on this day.
They saw another moon.
The moon took the shape of fangs and a grin. It no longer shone through the leaves onto the grass, turning the dew into pearls. Instead, the pale moonlight brought the night of death, turning the streams and dew into blood.
"Moon phase..." This was the second time, no, the third time, the fourth time that Jiang Yi saw such a moon phase.
The first time was in the nameless sword tomb in Mondstadt, in the memories of the past history. The second time was in the memories of Inazuma Kamizakura five hundred years ago. The third time was the war in the Chasm five hundred years ago. The fourth time was at this moment, in Xumi's memories five hundred years ago.
