The fox spirit pounced forward. He Liansheng’s lips curved into a contemptuous smile. He didn’t even bother drawing his Taoyuan sword, using just his sword intent to force back the attackers. The fox spirit turned and lunged at Xing Shuishui instead.
Xing Shuishui moved unhurriedly, her fingertips lightly pressing against her blade. With a swift thrust, she pierced the fox spirit’s abdomen. The fox spirit was shocked. Xing Shuishui kicked away several more attackers. After several dull thuds, the snow was stained with blood. The remaining fox spirits didn’t dare charge forward.
Du Dizhu looked down on these low-level spirits. He stood by with folded arms, watching the scene unfold with a smile. “Xue Jiuling, your skills have improved quite a bit in these hundreds of years!”
He Liansheng casually grabbed a fox tail and flung it at his face. Du Dizhu had already transformed back into his male form and dodged, but still got splattered with fox blood. He cursed angrily: “Shameless.”
Xing Shuishui answered for him: “Mountain Lord, you flatter me.”
Du Dizhu: “…”
The scene before them was chaos.
Xing Shuishui crouched down and picked up a fox spirit, asking: “Is there someone in your clan called He Tangzhou?”
The fox spirit trembled but remained silent.
Seeing no cooperation, Xing Shuishui pointed at Du Dizhu and said: “Do you know who he is? Du Dizhu, Lord of Wuxiang Mountain, notorious criminal who’s been on Lingshan’s wanted list for thousands of years. He especially loves eating disobedient little spirits like you.”
Du Dizhu laughed in anger: “Can you shut up?”
When they heard He Tangzhou’s name, the fox spirits showed a slight reaction. But upon hearing Du Dizhu’s name, they struggled violently.
Xing Shuishui sensed their emotion wasn’t fear, but excitement. Confused, she loosened her grip on its throat.
The fox spirit, clutching its abdomen, transformed into a young man. Seeing this, his clansmen also changed into human form and rushed forward, their voices trembling.
“Brother Duoji! How are you feeling?”
“They’re so arrogant!”
The lead fox spirit raised his arm to block them, shouting angrily: “Galan Snow Mountain is Cangchuan’s holy ground! You barge in so disrespectfully, disturbing the mountain god – you’ll all die!”
The young man raised his silver sword to the fox spirit’s throat. The spirit instinctively stepped back. The youth’s robes swirled with snow, his features frosted over – his face was beautiful, but terrifyingly fierce.
He Liansheng looked at him with contempt: “Go ahead, call out all the gods and buddhas on this mountain. Let’s see who dies first – me or them?”
The fox spirit was furious.
The fox spirit called Duoji struggled to his feet, coughed several times, and said: “Zhuo Qing, don’t be rude! I believe they didn’t mean to intrude.”
He suddenly pointed at Du Dizhu and said: “And this person – this is who our ancestor has been waiting ten thousand years for.”
The fox spirits’ eyes widened.
Du Dizhu was also bewildered.
Zhuo Qing said: “Brother Duoji, are you sure you haven’t mistaken him? This long-haired man is who our ancestor has been thinking about for ten thousand years?”
Duoji said: “There’s no mistake. That person’s surname is Du, called Du Dizhu.”
He Liansheng gave Du Dizhu an expressionless glance and said sarcastically: “Mountain Lord Du. Is this about love debts? Blood debts? Or money debts?”
Du Dizhu raged: “You’re insane. I’ve never even been here before. The only fox spirits I’ve met were from Qingqiu. How would I know what kind of debt this is?!”
When they mentioned He Tangzhou’s name earlier, these people had reacted, which meant they knew him. Xing Shuishui pulled them apart and said: “Let’s go see and find out.”
Walking with the fox spirits through the endless snowy paths, the scene suddenly opened up before them. A mirror-like lake spread wide, unknown flowers bloomed despite the bitter winter, houses stood in irregular rows, and winding paths twisted complexly – it was like a different world from the outside.
The snowfall was lighter here.
Du Dizhu kept asking along the way: “Hey, kid, who’s your ancestor? What’s your ancestor’s surname? Does that old immortal know who I am?”
The young fox spirit’s hair stood on end hearing this. Duoji patted his ear soothingly and said: “Don’t be rude to guests.”
Xing Shuishui looked around and asked Duoji: “Do you know He Tangzhou?”
Duoji thought for a moment and said: “Previously, a woman from our clan fell in love with a mortal. They had a child who was born sickly, named He Tangzhou. The child was so weak that we thought he wouldn’t live past a month. Unexpectedly, his mother was willing to exchange her life, seeking a life-continuation curse from the Duanmu clan. When our ancestor heard this, she flew into a rage and drove the family out of the snow mountain. We never saw them again.”
Life-continuation curse.
Xing Shuishui repeated silently. So He Tangzhou had used it to harm others.
Duoji asked: “Have you met He Tangzhou outside?”
Xing Shuishui nodded.
Duoji said: “That’s good. He survived then.”
Xing Shuishui was stunned. No one had said he was dead.
Duoji continued: “Young lady, I can see you’re also a spirit. Humans and spirits can’t be together. Our ancestor originally wanted to poison that child, but his mother begged several times, so in the end, they were just driven away.”
After saying this, Duoji felt a chill from a certain direction. He turned his head and met He Liansheng’s death-like stare, his body freezing up.
Du Dizhu said with a grin: “This genius before you, he once disregarded life and death for this little spirit, even pointing his sword at his former master. Be careful what you say, or he might kill you.”
Xing Shuishui looked at him and spoke two names: “Shangguan Houyue. He Lianyu.”
Du Dizhu sneered: “Relationships based on profit are different from you two love dogs.”
Xing Shuishui made an “oh” sound and smiled: “Then what’s going on between you and their ancestor?”
Du Dizhu: “I’d like to know what’s going on too, damn it!”
He was tired of arguing with Xing Shuishui and kicked the young fox spirit: “Dead kid, are we there yet? If not, I’ll eat you.”
“We’re here.”
Duoji wiped the sweat from his forehead and stopped in front of a small wooden cabin. He knocked on the door and called softly: “Ancestor, the person you’ve been waiting for has arrived.”
There was no movement inside for a long time before a beautiful young woman walked out.
The woman wore brown clothes and had animal teeth and amber bracelets on her wrists. She looked somewhat similar to Duoji.
Duoji: “Sister.”
The woman looked at them: “Come in.”
Xing Shuishui stepped into the dim cabin and smelled a strange fragrance. Just as she noticed something wrong, someone covered her nose and mouth. The youth’s warm breath came close, and she lowered her eyes to stare at his jade-like hand.
This fragrance was poisonous!
She scanned the cabin – it was full of poisonous substances.
On the bed lay a withered person, though “person” might be generous – it was more like a corpse forcibly kept alive.
Xing Shuishui quickly understood the purpose of these poisons.
The woman sat on the bed and said softly: “Since I can remember, I’ve followed our ancestor. Have you heard of an ancient kingdom called Zhongsang that has vanished?”
Du Dizhu suddenly looked up.
Xing Shuishui recalled some rumors about Du Dizhu and looked at him: “I remember before you became Jing Wushuang’s disciple, you were Zhongsang’s ruler.”
The woman smiled: “He was a prince before that.”
“His mother was named Yue Diyin. Ten thousand years ago, she fell in love with Zhongsang’s king and willingly entered the palace as a consort, giving birth to Azhu. Our ancestor was Yue Diyin’s maid. If she hadn’t saved our ancestor’s life back then, our ancestor might have died at the hands of Lingshan cultivators long ago.”
Du Dizhu: “Your ancestor was my mother’s maid?”
Xing Shuishui rarely saw such an expression on his face.
The woman nodded.
“I heard from our ancestor that you grew up in the palace, detached from worldly affairs. But those palace consorts didn’t want you to become the future king. They conspired together, specifically making your mother reveal her spirit form during the sacrifice ceremony, letting cultivators kill her.”
Du Dizhu laughed coldly: “Now that you mention it, I remember… how I walked out of the hall afterward, killed my dear father, and devoured them alive. Come to think of it, their begging sounds were quite melodious.”
His voice echoed in the cabin. The person on the bed stirred – Xing Shuishui heard bones creaking. The hollow-eyed old woman used all her strength to turn over, and the wool blanket rolled onto the floor.
The old woman muttered to herself: “Ayin, our prince… seems… to have really grown up.”
The woman hurried over to cover her with the blanket again, saying: “Everyone back then thought our ancestor died with Yue Diyin on that sacrifice ceremony day. But unfortunately, if Yue Diyin hadn’t been concerned about her, she wouldn’t have fallen for those cultivators’ trap.”
“Fundamentally, our ancestor owed her. So, carrying guilt towards her, she returned here and never left the snow mountain for her entire life.”
The woman looked up at Du Dizhu.
“Spirits live very long lives, so our ancestor waited for you for over ten thousand years, praying to the mountain gods for your safe growth, and heard many later stories about you. Becoming an emperor, a spirit king, a disciple, and finally a supreme being. She wanted to see you but didn’t dare, so she just kept waiting. Waiting for the day you might travel the world and accidentally come to this snowy mountain, giving her the chance to say what she owed you.”
Crystalline tears appeared in the old woman’s eyes, as if remembering something.
“I’m… sorry…”
After these three words, her eyes completely dimmed.
The woman anxiously pushed her.
But she closed her eyes forever, her expression more peaceful than ever before. In the void, she seemed to see Zhongsang’s azure sky and that maiden’s smile.
Du Dizhu, who rarely showed gravity, looked terrible. He ran to the bedside, shoved the woman aside, and shouted angrily: “What are you dying for? Who said you could die? We just met, keep talking!”
Xing Shuishui remembered he’d said before that Jing Wushuang gave him a Gesang flower each year to come to this snow mountain. If he had come even once in these thousands of years, it wouldn’t be so regretful.
But Du Dizhu hadn’t. His personality was too extreme.
So he missed ten thousand years.
Xing Shuishui couldn’t help turning to ask: “He Liansheng, if you don’t find me in these five years, will you keep looking?”
The youth answered without hesitation, his voice calm: “I will. A hundred years, a thousand years, ten thousand years. It’s but a moment. Without you, time would always be wasted.”
Xing Shuishui was stunned, remembering this answer.
She glanced at the corpse and walked to the woman, saying: “Your ancestor’s inner core was damaged before, and she could live this long because she sought the life-continuation curse from the Duanmu clan, right?”
The woman started, then nodded.
Xing Shuishui: “My sister also has this type of curse worm in her body, but it’s not for continuing life – it’s for taking life.”
The woman: “This curse lies dormant in people’s bodies and can extend life, but once it awakens, it takes life. So for these ten thousand years, our ancestor had to guard against the curse worm awakening every day.”
Xing Shuishui: “Is there a solution?”
The woman: “Only the Duanmu clan would know, but something happened to them a hundred years ago and they vanished from the human world. We tried to find them several times for our ancestor’s curse but failed.”
Xing Shuishui: “Others have come to this Galan Snow Mountain before.”
The woman pondered for a moment: “Yes. Several people. We don’t know if there’s any connection.”
He Liansheng said: “Shuishui, let’s go.”
Xing Shuishui’s train of thought was interrupted – whether there was a connection or not, they’d find out when they went to the Duanmu clan.
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