Three Philosophical Questions for Travelers

"It's just that we are like this." Estherite said with a wry smile, "Tree elves won't, they don't have selfish desires—have you ever seen a tree have selfish desires?"

Razor pondered for a while, and then asked: "Let's say, two tree elves are lost in the desert and are about to die of thirst. They have a jug of water, and whoever can drink it can live. What will the elves do?" "

Estelle thought for a while and said, "I don't know, you should ask the diplomat."

So Razor asked the elf diplomat this question, how would two elves dying of thirst share a sip of water?

The diplomat said without thinking, "Of course it's two people and one half."

Razor asked him, "Will no elf have the jug?"

The diplomat shook his head and said: "Because the water does not belong to me, nor does it belong to him. Water belongs to nature. We cannot make things in nature private. Private property is an evil thing, and no one will do it." .”

"But what if someone did that? Do you have an army and police? Can you restrain the perpetrators?"

"We have no army or police, just as we have no desires." The diplomat's smile was so genuine that Razor had to believe what he said.

But Razor still couldn't believe that the tree elves had no selfish desires, so he continued to ask: "Assuming again, one person can only leave the desert by drinking all the water. If two people share it, then neither of them can live. At this time, the elf What will you do?"

"That's really a sad thing." The diplomat said in a deep voice, "Then let us decide by guessing fists."

"This is a matter of life and death, can you guess the boxing game?" Razor reminded.

The diplomat said: "Our ideas about life and death are different from yours. The elves don't have such a strong desire to live, and death is just a return to the roots for us. If the elves want to live forever, they can almost live forever, but most of the elves will live together. They will choose to die in 200 years. They will actively choose to dehydrate and turn into mud. We will bless him. Then its spirit will return to this land and become a ubiquitous spirit to protect us."

Razor was speechless.He admits that elves are great, but he is also convinced that creatures like tree elves should not exist in this world—at least, elves and humans cannot live in peace.Humans will enslave them and kill them.Dara Kasha said that the God of Creation regretted creating the tree elves, saying that they were failures. Razor didn't understand the meaning of this at first, but now he understands a little bit.

The world is cruel, and you cannot survive by compromise alone.

At noon, they ate at the top of the Pantolas. The top of the Pantolas was a slowly rotating huge disc. The restaurant was built on the disc, and they could overlook the whole world when eating here.Razor looked at the scenery from the window, and saw that the elf kingdom stretched as far as the eye could see, the bronze forest was endless, and there were even undulating mountains in the distance.He couldn't help asking: "Are we underground? The tree elves dug such a large space underground?"

Yisruite said: "It is said that this is a secret realm created by the sea people with time and space magic. This place does not belong to this world. The door under the water is the entrance connecting the two worlds."

Razor asked: "Sea people? Are you talking about murlocs? Time and space magic?"

Estherite nodded and said: "Sea people—that is, murlocs, their marine civilization is very brilliant. It is said that they have penetrated the mysteries of time and space, thus creating the huge space of Pantoras. And murlocs They themselves are also hidden in a magical secret realm, and we don’t know where this place is. The murlocs are the civilization of the seabed, and there is a tree elf era separated from us, so we know little about them.”

Razor didn't continue to ask, these things are not his concern.

In the evening, they were invited to participate in the sacrificial activities of the elves.

The elves worship the sky very much, so they are used to holding important events at the highest place.This time the sacrifice was also chosen on the top of the tree in Pantoras.It took them several minutes to get to the top of the water lift, and the elf told them that if they went up too fast, they would get headaches, tinnitus, and possibly nosebleeds.

They were the last to reach the roof of Pantoras, and most of the elves arrived here one step earlier.The rooftop of Pantoras is a square as vast as a wilderness in the suburbs, with artificial clouds and artificial stars and moons not far above the head.The elves have taken root on their own - elves don't sit down a lot of the time, they'd rather find a place to put their roots in that's more comfortable for them than sitting.

There may be more than 10 elves participating in the sacrifice today. There are so many people that their scalps feel numb from the razor.He often hears people say the phrase "one hundred thousand troops", but when he actually sees 10,000 people, he still feels very shocked.Flying at low altitude on the Ebicant, they made their way through the sea of ​​people to the front row.Razor and the others are the heroes of the elves, so when they flew over the sky, the elves cheered. When [-]+ people shout together, the momentum is really awe-inspiring.

Razor looked around, and saw the elves standing next to each other, like a rice field at harvest time.As soon as the wind blows, crowds of people gather, waving hands like shaking millet.

Every face that Razor saw had the same smile on it, everyone maintained order, and everyone waved their arms mechanically with the same range of motion, as if they were machines without thinking ability.

He suddenly felt a sense of horror, and he thought to himself: Are these guys really laughing?

Are they all sincere?

Whether it is or not, this is horrible.

The Razor and the Witch-King, XIV

The Razor and the Witch-King, XIV

They landed on the high platform in front.The seven bodies of the Seven-faced God are all merged into one here, and at this moment he has turned into a huge treant over four meters high - it stands there, looking down at everyone, and finally has a bit of a god majesty.

Behind it are the dead of the accident and the huge corpse of the blood dragon.The corpse was soaked in some kind of special potion, which seemed to be able to neutralize the blood dragon's venom and prevent the venom from corroding the surrounding environment.

The corpses of the elves lay on the black soil, covered with flowers and petals.These flowers were presented by their relatives. At least in the custom of presenting flowers to the dead, humans and elves are similar.

People in the audience are still cheering, no one is sad, no one is crying, even if there are relatives among the dead on the stage.

Razor felt all the more strange when he thought that the elves were so indifferent to death.

The seven-faced god showed seven smiling faces, and said to Razor and the others: "Everyone, human friends, please sit here." He waved his hand, and the vines turned into rattan chairs.

Razor and others sat down, and then quietly watched the elves sacrifice ceremony.

The Seven-faced God first gave a long speech in Elvish, but Razor couldn't understand it and didn't bother to understand the meaning. He hated long speeches the most.Estherite translated a few sentences for him, but couldn't translate anymore. Estherite said to him: "The Seven-faced God is speaking in the ancient aristocratic language of the tree elves. I am afraid that even the elves cannot fully understand the meaning. .This language should be used by tree elves when they write poems, which is...too difficult for humans."

After the speech was over, the tree elves began to unleash some kind of magic.Its seven faces lit up, and then its body bloomed, flowers of various colors covered its body, like several interlaced rainbows; at the same time, the elves in the audience sang some kind of The spell came, and gradually, bright flowers grew on the elf's body.

The sea of ​​people turns into a sea of ​​flowers, and when the wind passes by again, the petals are flying all over the sky.The colorful and bright flowers are blown into the sky, turning into colorful flower rain, spinning, floating and dancing beautiful dances in the sky.The air was filled with the scent of various flowers, and Razor felt that his eyes could no longer keep up with the changing colors.

Knightway put her hand on his lap and said, "I just want to dance with you right now."

Razor paused for half a beat and said, "You can't dance here, and I can't dance either."

"I'll teach you later." Netway leaned closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder.

Then the elves began to sing.In the aesthetics of music, humans and elves are obviously in common, because Razor can also feel the beautiful melody in this music. He can feel the grassland, forest, mountains and lakeside from the music, and he can feel more Something metaphysical, but the feeling is hard to describe in words.

At this time, about a hundred elves with musical instruments came onto the stage. These people probably became the band.

While the music was going on, a huge white curtain was raised on the stage; brilliant colors and various light spots appeared on the curtain.These light spots move according to certain rules, sometimes bright and sometimes dark, sometimes forming abstract graphics or symbols.Razor remembered what Netaway had told him: Elves use brightness to convey information.

Razor thought to himself: Maybe in their eyes, this is a meaningful art performance.

But Razor couldn't understand the culture of the elves, and he couldn't distinguish the subtle changes of light and dark, he just looked at it curiously.

Gradually, the light became brighter and brighter, and finally the bright Razor and others could not look directly at it.However, the elves were excited and restless because of this light. He is a creature that eats sunlight, and this strong light may be like strong wine to them.People stomped, cheered, and shook vines and branches.Razor felt that he was out of tune with all this. He looked at the people around him. The Faceless Ranger was playing with the little snake in his sleeve; Isrit had a pensive look on his face, and two orcs stood behind her with serious faces; Pulling a lint protruding from Razor's clothes.

After singing the song and eating the sunshine, it's time to rain.

The rain with a variety of vanilla scents fell from the sky, and the rain also fell on the ground. Although it has some fragrance, it is not slippery or sticky to the touch, just like the cleanest water.Netway tasted a little and said, "It's so sweet."

The rain wasn't too heavy, but it was enough for everyone to drink until their fill.The elves opened their arms in the rain, made a gesture of devout prayer, and whispered some scriptures in their mouths.Happiness and peace are written on everyone's face.

But this made Razor wonder - why were they all so happy?They will turn back to bronze in a few days, and then they will be in a near-eternal sleep. Why is no one in a hurry?Don't they want to live a few more days?

Are elves brainwashed by faith, or are they born that way?Razor is unknown.

But Razor can be sure that this kind of blind happiness that cannot withstand scrutiny is by no means what he wants.

Human beings will absolutely not and cannot become like this.

If self-deception can be regarded as happiness, then there is no need for everything in the world to pursue a happy life.

After a few minutes, the sweet rain stopped, and the ceremony seemed to be coming to an end.Just when Razor thought everything was coming to an end, colorful clouds suddenly flew from the sky.Razor squinted his eyes and looked into the distance, and saw the cloud getting closer... Gradually, he saw what it was.

That is countless butterflies.

This was an incomparably spectacular scene—colorful butterflies flitted across the sky like swirling snowflakes, dazzled by their fluttering wings.They circled and gradually flew toward the center of the stage.The elves let out bursts of cheers, and the butterflies danced gracefully in the air to respond to people.

A tiny butterfly landed on the back of the razor blade, a black-winged and yellow-spotted creature with elongated antennae and eye-patterns.Razor dared not move his knife for fear of hurting it.

There are millions, tens, or even hundreds of millions of butterflies like this, and they are like white clouds, blue smoke, and rainbows that shatter in the sky.Razor had never seen such a spectacle, and he couldn't help thinking: How did the tree elves control so many butterflies?If elves can control insects with magic, can't they control locust plagues?this is too scary.

The elves are not without destructive power, but they don't want to destroy it, Razor thought.

The butterflies flew towards the corpses, and countless butterflies landed on the corpses, sucking the body fluids of the corpses bit by bit with their mouthparts, breaking them down into dust.People began to chant scriptures again, and the stars and moons above their heads flickered.

So this is the funeral of the tree elves, Razor thought to himself, butterfly burial, this is really romantic.

At this time, he found something strange in the butterfly group.

One butterfly has a different wing shape than the others.

That's more like...a moth?

The Razor and the Witch-King, XV

The Razor and the Witch-King, XV

Razor was sure he saw it.

He saw a different species among the thousands of butterflies.

It was a moth with evil black spots, it was huge, ugly, trying to get out among the butterflies.

The moth pounced on the blood dragon's corpse, and burrowed into it.

Oops!

Razor rushed forward immediately, and the Faceless Ranger was one step ahead of him.The man with the fox mask brushed away the crowd of butterflies, and stabbed the blood dragon's head with a sword.Then the venom sprayed out, and the Faceless Ranger quickly pushed away, the water splashed on the ground, and there was a hissing sound immediately, and a small pit was corroded on the ground.

At this time, the razor also cut down with a single knife, and several butterflies were divided into two by him, but he couldn't control so many.He has to find that evil moth!However, the blood dragon's venom spewed out, and he had to retreat.

The elves screamed, and the seven-faced god asked Razor: "Human, what are you going to do?"

Razor shouted: "You fool, don't you see? There's a moth in there."

The Seven-Faced God looked dazed, but Isrit stood up abruptly and shouted, "It's Ultralan! She wants to resurrect the ferocious demon!"

After she finished speaking, the blood dragon's body suddenly swelled up, and the razor exclaimed, "Run!" Immediately afterwards, the blood dragon's body exploded.

"Boom!" Like a stranded whale, corpse energy erupted from the blood dragon's body.Immediately, potions, venom, and plasma were flying all over the sky, and the butterflies dispersed in an instant, and the butterflies stained with venom turned into pus on the spot; Natway spread out the red mist, turning it into a big umbrella, covering several humans Get in, and everyone will be safe from the deadly venom.However, the other elves were not so lucky. Many of them were splashed with the poison, and died screaming immediately.

Panic begins.

The seven-faced god said that the elves are selfless and will not harm others in order to survive.But at this time, the creature's instinct of fear of death is still exposed.People ran blindly in all directions, like a collapsing dam, a torrent bursting its embankment.Rumbling footsteps, ear-piercing screams, howling...heaven turned into purgatory. 10,000+ people, that is 30 to [-] feet, even if a person only weighs a hundred catties, that is tens of millions of catties - who can stop the force of tens of millions of catties?Anyone who ran slower was immediately trampled into meat.

These harmless elves have no sense of resistance. When they encounter an enemy, they will run away, surrender or simply wait for death.This caused no one to maintain order at the moment, and everyone just ran outside.But here is the top of the pan trust, where can they go?The first elf ran to the edge and stopped, because there was an abyss under his feet, but the person behind him couldn't stop, so he just pushed him down.Then the elves pushed one by one and jumped down. The fear made them lose their ability to think, and they just kept running.As if they were not civilized higher animals, but a group of crazy goats.

There are also some rational people who take the elevator, but the elevator cannot accommodate so many people at a time, so the canal is filled with people, and the water ladder is overwhelmed. Soon, the machine will go on strike.There are only groups of people stacking Arhats on top of each other, and corpses that have been trampled to death.

Although the Seven-Faced God has divine power, he doesn't seem to know how to control the situation—they have lived in a gentle atmosphere for too long, and they have long forgotten how to use thunder.

This scene is certainly frightening, but for Razor, something even more frightening is yet to come.

The blood dragon opened its eyes, raised its head, and let out an ear-piercing scream.

Razor had never heard such a terrible sound, and for a moment his mind went blank.After a while, he recovered from the great panic, but by then it was too late.

He saw another slender tongue protruding from the blood dragon's mouth, which looked like a huge earthworm.But that earthworm has teeth, it has a mouthful of sharp, jagged teeth, and its mouth is full of disgusting mucus.At this moment, the earthworm was wrapped around the body of the seven-faced god, biting the face of the tree god with its teeth.

The demigod's seven faces showed pained expressions, but they couldn't make a sound.Razor tried to run to save him, but as soon as he took a step, he fell to his knees.He couldn't move his limbs, and the blood dragon's screams made him dizzy.When he stood up, he saw that the earthworm had automatically cut off the connection with the blood dragon, and that thing was like a snake wrapping around the tree elf's demigod; the demigod's body began to explode, bleed, Swelling... and the blood dragon's body is shrinking rapidly, turning into ordinary blood.

"No!" The Faceless Ranger screamed and rushed up, covering his head with one hand, staggered towards the parasitic demigod, and stabbed the earthworm with his sword.But the face of the demigod roared at him, and Razor felt a sharp pain in his eardrums, and immediately there was a violent wind blowing towards them, making them unable to stand still.Then flames spewed out from the faucet, half of the Faceless Ranger's clothes were set on fire, and he quickly tore off his coat.At this time, the razor saw his skin - half of its skin was human skin, and half of it had many scales. The smooth scales grew irregularly on it, which looked very weird.

The seven-faced god's body swelled more and more, like a terrible water polo.It screamed loudly, and the voices came from the seven mouths, intertwined and terrifying.Immediately, the pantoras shook like an earthquake, the stars and the moon in the sky dimmed, and cold winds blew from all directions... Razor suddenly felt the fear in his heart, which was the instinctive fear of animals, and he hadn't felt this way for a long time.

The seven-faced god was blown to pieces.

Bark, petals, plasma, and pieces of flesh all flew into the sky, leaving only the giant's bones and boiling blood.A huge four-meter-tall skeleton stood there. It had four hands and three legs, and the blood of fierce demons flowed all over its body. The blood dripped on the ground and emitted a "hissing" white steam.

The seven faces of the demigod turned into seven evil spirits—man, woman, old man, child, bird, fish, and dragon. Seven evil souls lingered around the body of the evil god, howling and screaming.

The ground under the feet of the evil god quickly changed color, as if it had been infected with the plague.Black and red cracks quickly spread across the entire land, and all creatures in Pantoras felt this fear: birds soared into the sky, trying to fly away from here, but crashed to death on the artificial sky; goats, wild horses and bulls hurried Running, attacking and biting each other; cowardly apes jumped from the trees one by one, falling to pieces...

Butterflies circle the air and do their last dance for the funeral.

The fleeing elves became even more confused, and they ran out desperately.At this time, the evil god suddenly pointed at the running elves and said, "GA—DONNNN—!"

Its sound is thick, distorted, and has terrible penetrating power, pouring into people's ears like boiling water.After it finished saying this, all the chaos subsided, and the elves who were frantically running for their lives a moment ago turned into immobile trees. They took root in place, and their faces were as stupid as sleepwalkers.

All of a sudden, everything was quiet, and there was only a low, slow cracking sound in the air, like the eve of a landslide, like the end of the world.It was the sound of pan trusts gradually decaying.

Then, one hundred thousand elves repeated together: "GADON!"

There were also more elves shouting from under the Pantoras: "GADONNNN——!" The voice echoed in the Pantoras, making people fearful.

Razor can understand, because it is the ancient alchemy language, "GADON", the word means: surrender.

Then the evil god looked at Razor and the others, and asked, "GADON-MO?"

Razor would rather die than obey the fiend, so he answered sharply:

"UO—GADON!" (Never Surrender)

The evil god let out a piercing laugh, and the seven evil spirits also howled like ghosts and wolves.

The Faceless Ranger smiled wryly and said, "That's all right, we're going to fight the demigod now."

The soldiers showed their weapons, and evil gods and evil spirits attacked them.

The Razor and the Witch-King, XVI

The Razor and the Witch-King, XVI