Strong tremors rocked the surface; the underneath of Huang Quan was even more stormy.
Snake Fourth Uncle firmly protected Zhu Hong, as if she was still that spoiled young snakewrapped around his wrist.
Partially visible scales, as hard as iron, loomed underneath his skin, protecting her from therocks and sand falling from all directions.
The underground calmed only after an indeterminate amount of time; the thick, black gas thatobscured one’s knowledge of where they were miraculously began to gradually dissipate. Thosewho survived wearily stuck their heads out from various corners and carefully examined theirsurroundings.
Zhu Hong asked in a low voice: “Fourth Uncle, what is it?”
Snake Fourth Uncle shushed her, released his divine senses, and cautiously scanned thesituation nearby.
Right at this moment, Zhu Hong suddenly made a small exclamation. Snake Fourth Uncleturned his head and saw that the branch of the Da Shenmu, which had grown a third bud for anunknown reason, had gradually began to float out from her hands. Zhu Hong wanted toimmediately chase after it but was grabbed by Snake Fourth Uncle: “Wait, what are you going todo?”
Zhu Hong was a bit anxious: “Shen Wei saved my life. I also agreed with him that I would find aplace to plant it. How could I lose the branch of the Da Shenmu?”
After she said this, she broke away from Snake Fourth Uncle’s hand and ran out as if she was anewborn calf who wasn’t afraid of tigers (t/n fearlessly).
Zhu Hong had only been born for not even several hundreds of years and completely did notknow of various complexities. She had never heard of “Houtu Great Seal” and didn’t know to beafraid, and so rushed out brazenly and fearlessly.
Snake Fourth Uncle hesitated for a moment, but ultimately could not be at ease. He reluctantlytransformed back into two legs and chased after her.
The Shenmu tree branch flew straight to the waters of Wang Chuan. On top of the water, theblack gas had already completely dissipated, revealing the deep, serene, and icy cold WangChuan water underneath. For a moment, the Dashen Mu hovered in the air. Then, it directlydove down.
Zhu Hong was instinctively a bit afraid of the Wang Chuan waters, but she thought of herpromise. After a momentary pause, she steeled her resolves, shifted into the original shape of a python, and with a “putong” sound, also dove down. Snake Fourth Uncle immediately followedafter her.
To the eyes of others, these two snakes were practically throwing away their lives. Although forsome unknown reason, it was currently quiet, who knew what the actual situation was at theGreat Seal? A new round of eruptions could potentially be brewing. To jump down at thistime…wasn’t that looking for death?
Zhu Hong and Snake Fourth Uncle followed the Dashen Mu and sank all the way down. SnakeFourth Uncle’s eyes suddenly flashed; he had a wide range of experience and knowledge and,at this moment, already had an idea in his heart—the direction that the Dashen Mu was sinkingwas exactly the direction of the legendary Ancient Tree of Merits.
Sure enough, not long after, they saw the lofty and withered Ancient Tree of Merits. The AncientTree of Merits, which had been motionless for thousands of years, suddenly stretched out itsdried branches and slowly undulated up and down in the waters of Wang Chuan, shaking gently.The branches brought about light ripples, as if it was welcoming something.
The branch from the Da Shenmu landed next to the Ancient Tree of Merits, burying itself intothe deepest part of the soil.
With a speed visible to the naked eye, it then rapidly took root and sprouted, growing branchesand leaves. Before long, it was already standing straight and covered in rich canopy, contrastingwith the Ancient Tree of Merits next to it.
Following, it reached out a lithe, thin, and long strand like a silk ribbon and tenderly entangledaround the Ancient Tree of Merits that had been withered and dead for thousands of years.Suddenly, Zhu Hong covered her mouth in astonishment—small tender buds started growing onthe dead tree!
The two giant trees continued to grow thick and tall until they were thousands of zhang long,and persisted until they emerged from the turbulent waters of Wang Chuan. The green shadecovered the entirety of the Yan King Hall, which had already been reduced to desolate, brokenwalls. Even then, they continued to flourish. Looking from afar, the crown of the tree seemedfurious in its rolling density, and it was nearly impossible to see the top.
The wounds on Snake Fourth Uncle’s body miraculously healed underneath the tree. His gazefinally landed behind the Ancient Tree of Merits—the Houtu Great Seal rock that had existedbefore was already nowhere to be seen.
The Houtu Great Seal disintegrated, and the land that was pervaded with black gas and thesound of ghosts suddenly broke out in raging fires. The four pillars returned to their originalspots—maybe a new Great Seal would be finished soon, or maybe…
Above ground, Wang Zheng suddenly muttered, “What… is that sound?”
“It’s mountains.” Shennong bowl listened for a moment. “The sound of ten thousand mountainscrying together.”
Wang Zheng opened her eyes wide. “Mountains can cry too?”
Shennong bowl was briefly silent. “They can. Legend says that the mountains cried togetheronly when Pangu fell. Not even when Kunlun Jun’s body became the Guardian Lamp was therea sound like this, probably because at that time it wasn’t truly the complete extinguishment ofbody and soul.”
Wang Zheng stood blankly for quite a while before she reacted to the meaning behind hiswords. Whether it was Shen Wei or the Ghost Slayer, she hadn’t had much interaction witheither, but by the time she’d realized it her face was already streaming with tears, to her ownsurprise—she knew in her heart that ghosts could not easily shed tears, but she couldn’tsuppress them no matter what.
Sang Zan sighed, and reached out to take her into his arms.
At that moment, a familiar voice suddenly, softly said, “Foolish girl, what’s with the crying?”
Stupefied, Wang Zheng looked down. Zhao Yunlan had opened his eyes at some point, andslowly got to his feet.
Wang Zheng met his eyes, but suddenly felt there was something ineffably strange; that personwas definitely Chief Zhao who she interacted with daily, and yet it seemed… there was someunspeakable difference.
Her heart seized up wildly—could it be that Shen Wei had really taken away all of hismemories?
However, Shennong bowl looked him up and down with bewilderment for a moment, thensuddenly retreated three steps back, slowly knelt down, and with the utmost deferenceperformed a greeting: “This one pays respects to the Mountain Saint.”
Zhao Yunlan… Kunlun Jun put his hands behind his back, and waved him up as he pleased.
Wang Zheng felt as if the scene before her eyes was blurring, for just then the scrunched andwrinkled windbreaker on the man’s body had flashed into long-sleeved and girded green robes,like the flickering vision of that person who had emerged thousands of years ago in the chaotictimes.
Shennong bowl quietly said, “Master forced down and suppressed the Mountain Saint’sprimordial essence; and when he sent you off into the wheel of reincarnation, he entered into acontract with the Ghost Slayer, which decreed that for generation after generation he would liveor die with the Great Seal. Now, great calamity has come upon the mortal world, and the HoutuGreat Seal had broken down; the Ghost Slayer sacrificed himself for the Great Seal, so allkarma has already been settled.”
The blazing inferno had turned the color of warm orange, its fire reflecting in Kunlun Jun’s eyes.He was silent for a long time before he said, softly, “I know.”
Shennong bowl continued, “The Ghost Slayer was a Ghost King who ascended to sagehood,seeking goodness to attain goodness, and in the end eliminated your…”
“Alright, don’t say any more.” Kunlun Jun didn’t turn his head back, his handsome facegathering an unspeakably deep melancholy. “I know this all.”
Shennong bowl responded by lowering his head with deferential respect. Only after a while didhe go on, “When Master departed this world, he ordered me to oversee the contract betweenhim and the Ghost Slayer. This humble one can now retire with merit gained.”
Kunlun Jun didn’t take notice of him at all, but spread open both hands. In them lay the scaleNuwa had left behind, which had once sustained a small eleven-year reincarnation wheel.Kunlun Jun said lowly to himself, “Shennong, just what exactly did you want to tell me?”
At that moment, a tremor passed delicately through the earth; everyone startled at once, likebirds frightened by the twang of a bow, but only saw the land beneath themselves movingloosely. Then, the top of a great tree suddenly broke through the earth—luxuriant in branch andleaf, jade-green and glistening, as if the leaves bore the dew from another world that drippedupon the ground. The wrinkles of the earth, originally caused by the shattered Great Seal,gradually joined together.
What was permanence?
Why must there be good and evil, right and wrong?
What was life? And what was death?
Kunlun Jun’s faintly furrowed brow finally relaxed a little. He stretched out a hand, just in time tocatch a fallen leaf.
He suddenly asked, “You were the one who transferred Guo Changcheng to the SID?”
Shennong bowl said respectfully, “Yes. When Master was alive, he ordered me to look for aperson without the divine eye, who yet could see through to truth: a nobody, who yet bears greatmerit from Heaven.”
“So that’s how it is.” Kunlun Jun heaved a sigh and softly said, “I understand, many thanks.”
In an instant, Nuwa’s snake scale crumbled to dust in his palm.
Da Qing finally couldn’t help but ask, “Just what is going on?”
Kunlun Jun sat down with legs crossed underneath the Guardian Lamp, and softly stroked theblack cat’s head. “Don’t worry, the Guardian Lamp is still lit.”
With that, he sat as if in meditation and closed his eyes, like the image of a god silent fromancient times to the present. Behind him was a tiny flame that crowned the great lamp.
The little electric rod on Guo Changcheng’s body did not have any reaction—he had no time forbeing horrified or scared, and his mind was blank. In his eyes, there was only the falling ChuShuzhi.
He desperately reached out and, with both hands, grabbed Chu Shuzhi’s arm. With his eyessqueezed shut tightly, he listened to the howling mountain winds roaring past his ears.
Right at this time, Guo Changcheng suddenly felt that his body stopped in its descent.
Guo Changcheng opened his eyes in amazement, only to see that when he fell down, he hadaccidentally broken open the satchel that Chu Shuzhi gave him. The soul-bottles all rolled out, their lids crashing onto the guardrails on either side and shattering. From within, the souls thathe had collected all rushed out.
They did not carry human shapes; just like in the bottle, they were luminous and colorful lightclusters. Together with the girl on the bridge, the spirits of seven or eight people connected witheach other, forming a large net that spread down from the suspension bridge, precariouslycatching the two people in the center.
Chu Shuzhi was thoroughly startled. However, he knew that now was not the time for him todawdle on his thoughts. With a low voice, he said thank you and then picked up GuoChangcheng, lightly leveraged himself against the soul net, and leapt up. Following, his toesalighted briefly on the guardrails and he quickly landed on one end of the suspension bridge.Turning his hand, he threw Guo Changcheng into the cave entrance behind him and thentossed out twelve talismans in succession. With a vicious assault, he aimed directly towards thered-eyed ghost tribe that surrounded them. The thunder and lightning of nine days descended,sound first, and transformed the suspension bridge into a high voltage electric fence.
Behind the battle, the souls that formed a net changed into a string of light spots, circling aroundGuo Changcheng.
The body of the unattractive youth suddenly flashed a light orange halo, like the warm light of afire. The souls around him seemed as though they felt something and involuntarily approachedhim.
Guo Changcheng seemed to have a voice in his heart, and he was unable to restrain himselffrom blurting out at that moment: “Su…suppress the souls of the living, calm the hearts of thedead…”
A ray of light came from far away. In the stretching pitch darkness of the human world, that rayof light was first exceedingly faint, but began to burn a wider and wider boundary. At last, itspread to edges of places beyond where the eyes could detect, covering the entirety of the vastland.
The red-eyed ghost tribe, who had gained the upper hand and almost forced Chu Shuzhi backonto the suspension bridge, abruptly screeched. He covered his eyes and backed up multipletimes in succession, dropping down to sit onto his butt on the swaying suspension bridge. Then,he twisted and shriveled up, ultimately melting alive from the burning ray of light.
Chu Shuzhi was shocked, and twisted his head to look towards Guo Changcheng. In thatmoment, he had the illusion that Guo Changcheng’s entire person had become a cluster offlames, the frequency of its flickering coinciding miraculously with the flames spanning the entiregreat earth.
The Corpse King was a bit worried and strode over in large steps. Exploringly, he put his handinto the flickering flames on Guo Changcheng’s body, only to feel that there was a strange typeof temperature within in, not at all burning.
Guo Changcheng couldn’t see the flames on his body and continued to dumbly read out the lasthalf, following the voice in his heart: “…atone the sins of the survivors, reincarnate those whoare unfinished.”
His voice seemed to coincide with something from within the vast land, giving rise to aboundless resonance and reverberation. Chu Shuzhi felt something and lifted his head. He sawthe souls that died in the resort town, the ones that they had looked for all night but couldn’tcompletely gather, drift up from the foot of the mountain one by one to float up to GuoChangcheng.
The book that Guo Changcheng carried on him recorded in detail every description the familiesoffered of the missing persons. It additionally had every small town owner’s respective names,ages, physical features, etcetera.
The souls lined up and each found their own page. Some of them lifted a pen and wrote “giveso-and-so this message” on the side; some saw their lopsided names written by what looks likea children’s handwriting, and seemed to let go of their worries.
At last, they disappeared into the air one by one, forming into countless dots of light and flyingtowards the sky.
A sound like thunder in spring time resonated from the horizon and the sky peeked through thecoverage of dark clouds. Then, from the south, two massive trees broke through the ground atan indeterminate time, surpassing houses, surpassing high-rise buildings…and even surpassingthe grand mountains.
The souls gathered next to Guo Changcheng had almost all left, with the exception of one. Itlanded on the ground and revealed the appearance of the express deliveryman, Feng Dawei.
“Older brothers,” He called out to Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng excitedly, “Thank you both.There is a next life…I believe it. When I am born again, I will once again be the son of myparents and the sibling of my brother…I will spend my time well, live well, and do more goodthings to make up for this life.”
As Feng Dawei spoke, his soul became more and more transparent, until it also scattered intobroken light points and finally floated into the endless cycle of reincarnation.
The light on Guo Changcheng’s body reached peak brightness before it swiftly broke away fromhis body. Like a shooting star, it flew towards the distance.
Sitting at the foot of the Guardian Lamp, the sage of the great wilderness and mountainssuddenly opened his eyes. A ball of fire, as brilliant as the morning sun, landed inside theGuardian Lamp; and the flames, once pea-sized, leapt up a hundred meters.
Kunlun Jun stood up. His hands, pressed to the Guardian Lamp, shone orange from the flames.He kept his back to the others, and as he gazed at the Guardian Lamp there was finally a flashof indescribable apprehension and anticipation.
The shadow of a human figure gradually took shape within the flames and broke away from theblaze to fly out, landing directly in Kunlun Jun’s embrace. That person wasn’t heavy at all, but
Kunlun Jun looked as if he’d used all his strength to catch him and uncontrollably staggered astep—holding that person in his arms, they fell together to the ground. shoots of early spring so easily overlooked by people. The mortals on earth would notremember that there once had passed this sunless calamity.
Just then, the first ray of daylight pierced the black clouds—for dawn had come.
~~END~~
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