The moment Lin Ze stepped out of the door, the living room behind him disappeared.
His heart also regained its calm.
At this moment, Lin Ze's feet are a piece of warm black soil.
The light shines down from the top of the head, bright and dazzling, and there is no longer the original shadow in the woods.
The sky is light gray, like an old piece of cotton that has been repeatedly starched, spreading evenly to the end of the field of vision. There is no outline of the sun, and light pours in from all directions, making people feel drowsy and want to lie down and take a nap.
The soil under your feet is very soft. If you step on it, it will sink half an inch. When you pull it out, it will bring out a warm moisture, mixed with the unique bitter smell of tree roots.
Lin Ze stood still and glanced around.
Densely packed black tree trunks extend from the ground, each one as thick as two people hugging each other, pointing straight upward, with no branches or crown visible.
The trunk of the tree is covered with a very thin layer of gray down, which does not feel like bark, but rather like the lanugo of some animal.
He took a step to the side, and a small tremor came from the soles of his feet.
It feels like stepping on a huge drum head, the entire ground is one, and you can feel feedback spreading from the soles of your feet throughout your body with every step you take.
He squatted down and placed his palms flat on the soil.
The frequency of the tremors is very steady, like a heartbeat.
"This forest... is there life? Is it alive?" he whispered.
As soon as he finished speaking, the gray fluff began to slowly squirm on the trunk of the tree nearest to him.
The villi parted to both sides, revealing a vertical crack.
The crack opened to both sides, like an eye opening.
The iris is dark green and the pupil is a thin vertical line.
The eye stared at him for a few seconds, then slowly closed, and the down covered the crack again.
Lin Ze The hairs on the back of the spine stood up.
There is no way out, we can only continue walking inside.
After walking for about dozens of steps, the terrain gradually sank, and the distance between tree trunks became narrower and narrower. In some places, you had to turn sideways to squeeze through.
But unlike the dangerous Black Forest before, walking on the narrow path here was effortless. The tree trunks would bend slightly to avoid him as he squeezed in, and then bounce back to their original positions after he passed.
These trees are making way for him.
Lin Ze stopped and looked around.
Eyes opened one after another on the tree trunks on both sides, one, two, three, more and more as they went deeper, their dark green vertical pupils flashing brightly and darkly among the gray hairs, all looking at him.
Good guy.
He counted them, and there were twenty or thirty of them within his field of vision alone.
No hostility was felt.
Those eyes were just looking at him, as if confirming something.
The terrain ahead suddenly opens up.
A clearing appeared in the middle of the forest. In the center of the clearing stood a stone pillar that was exactly the same as the boundary monument. The difference was that the surface of this stone pillar was clean and free of any slime.
There is a circle of grooves carved into the soil around the stone pillar, and dark green traces remain in the grooves, like mud stains left after being continuously washed and flowed by some kind of liquid.
He walked up to the stone pillar and stretched out his hand to touch the pillar.
When he retracted his hand, his fingertips were stained with a layer of gray powder.
The powder turns into a drop of transparent water after rubbing it twice with your fingertips.
Lin Ze brought it to his nose and smelled it, but there was no smell at all.
The gray powder on the surface of the stone pillar began to peel off automatically, revealing the smooth blue stone surface underneath.
There is a line of text engraved on the stone surface, which is completely different from the runes of the boundary monument that were rubbed before.
Because it clearly says in Chinese characters, "You are here"
Lin Ze was stunned for a moment and blinked hard. He thought he had seen it wrong.
But...
Yes, they are indeed Chinese characters, carved on the stone surface with neat strokes.
"Who are you?" Lin Ze tentatively spoke, speaking in Chinese this time.
He felt that he should still be in an illusion now, and the scene here was probably composed of his own consciousness.
No response.
But the gray sky above his head suddenly darkened, and the dark green eyes on the tree trunks in the distance widened at the same time.
The stone pillar began to glow with green light, spreading outward in circles like ripples.
When the light swept across Lin Ze's feet, he felt his head buzzing.
A strange image crowded into his mind.
The picture is very blurry, as if it is separated by a layer of privacy glass.
The picture shows a vast plain, the sky is very low, and the clouds are gray and white, making people breathless.
There are seven stone pillars standing on the plain, exactly like the boundary monument in front of you, arranged in a ring.
In the middle of the seven stone pillars stands a man in gray robes, with his back to the picture, holding a strange-shaped staff in his hand. It is not the small wooden stick used in later generations, but a real staff that is taller than a man. The staff is covered with gems.
The tip of the staff points on the compacted earth in the center of the seven stone pillars.
The soil under his feet began to surge to both sides, and a hole opened in the earth. Lin Ze saw a large area of roots like blood vessels exposed under the soil, densely intertwined.
The man in gray robe inserted the wooden stick into the center of the crack, muttering something unknown in his mouth.
The roots in the crack began to twitch crazily as if they had been burned, the soil on both sides of the crack surged more violently, and the entire plain trembled with a low roar.
The man in gray robe let go of his staff and took two steps back. His hands were shaking. Lin Ze saw that the joints of his hands were covered with blood and the gaps between his nails were filled with mud.
Then the man in gray robe turned around.
The face is still blurry and only an outline can be seen.
At this point the screen begins to fragment.
It was broken into pieces, like a broken mirror. The soil under the feet disappeared, and the gray sky above the head also disappeared. The whole world seemed to have been turned upside down.
There is only a pure white space around.
There is no distance, no up or down, and you can't even find your own shadow. It's all white on all sides.
"Hello." A voice came from all directions. I couldn't tell the direction or the gender. What was even more amazing was that the voice was in Chinese.
Lin Ze was stunned for a moment, then replied, "Hello?"
"Are you the consciousness of that forest?"
"That's right," the voice said.
"What are those you just showed me?"
"That happened a long time ago." The voice paused.
"That man brought me from far away and planted me in this land. I don't know who I am or where I come from."
"What do you mean?" Lin Ze asked.
"I want to know what I am. I have shown that picture to many people. It seems that only you can see what is in the picture."
Only I can see clearly?
Lin Ze scratched his head. In fact, he couldn't clearly see the true appearance of the picture. He could just barely distinguish the individuals inside and the surrounding environment among the foggy pixels.