Recorded Across Generations.
For Those Who Come After.
Great as a tiger, with nine human faces, all turned east. It stands upon the summit, guarding the last of the nine wells: the ninth and the deepest. It does not fear injury. The deeper the wound, the swifter it moves; the more blood it spills, the more terrible its fury. An ordinary beast, brought to the brink of death, has little left to fight with. This one is the opposite. Every wound feeds it until the moment it ought to fall becomes the one moment no man can approach it. The harder you strike, the farther you are from killing it. A mighty hunter once fought it for days. He wounded it deeply, each blow deeper than the last. But with every cut, the nine faces burned brighter, and the beast moved faster. In the end, it was the hunter who fell. The nine wells fill of their own accord, year after year. Men take them for mountain springs, never asking why the water never runs dry. They drink, they descend, and they leave the wells behind. No one knows what its heart might grant. No one has ever slain it.
身大如虎，九首人面，皆朝东，立于山巅。它守着最后一口井，第九口，最深的一口。 它不怕伤。刀越深，它越快；血越多，它越狠。寻常的兽，伤到将死便再无还手之力；它却是伤得越重，气力越盛，到了濒死一线，反倒是最不能近身的时候。你打得越狠，就离杀死它越远。 那名强悍的猎人，与它斗了数日。他不是没能伤它。他伤得极重，一刀比一刀深。可每一刀落下，那九张脸就更亮一分，那身躯就更快一分。到最后倒下的，是他。 九口井里的水，年年自满。人只当是山泉，却不知它凭什么满、又是拿什么喂的。爬到这里的人，从没有一个想过：那水，也许正是为他们这样的人备下的。 食其心得何物，无人知晓。不是无人敢说，是从来没有人，能活着走到它身后。
棲 崑崙九門 Mount Kunlun
開明獸身大類虎而九首，皆人面，東嚮立崑崙上。