Chapter 1043: Unbroken Past Twelve

When everything had settled down, She Ji, still shaken, huddled in a small earthen cave deep in the mountains, doing her best to conceal her presence.

Although the thunderclouds had dispersed, She Ji still dared not move. About half an hour later, the soil on one of the cave walls subtly arched, forming the features of an aged face.

“Empress She, it should be safe now.”

“Uh, hoh, hoh…”

She Ji began to gasp for air, clutching her wounds, from which blood continuously seeped.

“Thank you, Old Man Gong, for saving me. Thank you.”

“Ah, I am ashamed, for I could do so little. Empress, if you must thank someone, thank that immortal maiden. Had she not intervened, the consequences would have been dire. She mentioned her sect had some connection to me, but who could it be?”

In the secluded valley, the anxious Mr. Gao finally saw She Ji and the old man return together. Several of She Ji’s subordinates and a few mountain spirits immediately rushed to greet them.

“Empress!” “Mountain God!”

“Empress She, Old Man Gong, how are your injuries?”

She Ji shook her head, dismissed those around her, and sat cross-legged in the center of the valley. A maidservant brought her a pill; after taking it, she closed her eyes to recuperate.

The old man sat down at the stone table with the chessboard, looking somewhat dazed.

“Who could it be?”

“Old Man Gong, are you… alright?”

Mr. Gao looked at the old man with some concern. Although She Ji was wounded and bleeding, she seemed relatively stable, but the old mountain god appeared to be troubled by something.

“I’m fine. The thunder from the Heavenly God of Thunder is truly formidable. A few more strikes, and my old bones wouldn’t have withstood it. Had that immortal maiden not helped, it’s hard to say if Empress She and I would have escaped.”

“Who was that immortal maiden?”

Mr. Gao looked at the old man, but She Ji, whose injuries had somewhat stabilized, spoke first.

“That immortal, she is another who protects Young Master Sun. Tonight, during the lantern festival, she sat at a noodle stall and chatted with me for a while. I had been fleeing for so long, unaware that she was following behind me the whole time. I never expected her to intervene and help me, even concealing my presence.”

The old man felt a slight sense of melancholy upon hearing this.

“So that’s how it is. It seems the immortal maiden’s explanation was just an excuse then.”

Hu Yun, controlling her escape light, flew back to Ning’an County, her mind still replaying the Heavenly God of Thunder’s actions. She recalled her encounter with She Ji and, even more, pondered the mountain god’s unexpected appearance to block the thunder. Would such a minor deity truly block heavenly thunder merely to prevent damage to the mountain terrain?

Then Hu Yun thought about how she had just claimed the mountain god had old ties with her sect—which, of course, was a fabrication. But by saying so, she had more or less implicated herself.

“Oh, what a nuisance, what an absolute nuisance!”

Hu Yun gnashed her teeth and stomped her feet, fuming at herself by the time she reached Ning’an County.

Before she had even descended, Hu Yun already smelled the floral fragrance permeating the county. From above, looking down at the entire county, she saw green leaves and red flowers everywhere amidst the white snow. Hu Yun was momentarily stunned before she flew towards Ju’an Small Pavilion.

As she pushed the door open, Hu Yun began to grumble.

“Oh, Mountain Lord, it’s all your fault! Why did you make me chase her? Do you have any idea what kind of trouble I ran into? Oh, it’s such a hassle!”

“I heard you were the one clamoring to test things out. Why are you blaming the Mountain Lord now?”

“That’s different. I was just…”

Hu Yun stopped mid-sentence. Then, pushing the door wide open, she saw an incredibly familiar figure sitting in the courtyard. Hu Yun couldn’t help but rub her eyes, fearing it was an illusion.

“Sir! You’re back!”

“Little Hu Yun has grown so much.”

Ji Yuan looked at Hu Yun with some admiration, while Lu Shan Jun, standing nearby, chuckled darkly.

“Too bad she was born the wrong gender.”

“If Hu Yun changed her clothes, many women in the world would feel ashamed of themselves.”

Zaoniang also chuckled from the side. Hu Yun clenched her fists, repeatedly telling herself to calm down since she couldn’t defeat either of them. Then, she smiled, transformed into a red fox, and leaped towards Ji Yuan, all while recounting the events she had just encountered.

The people of Ning’an County, unable to fight off their drowsiness, gradually returned home to sleep, and the hustle and bustle of the town slowly subsided.

Inside Ju’an Small Pavilion, Ji Yuan looked up at the sky.

Some remained, some had passed away, some cultivated diligently, and some entered reincarnation. The ways of the world were no longer as Ji Yuan remembered, yet the world also seemed unchanged.

Zaoniang was making date cakes in the kitchen, as Hu Yun and Lu Shan Jun had finished all the previous ones. A fiery red fox slept under the date tree, while Lu Shan Jun, refusing to sit, stood quietly beside Ji Yuan, occasionally glancing at his master from the corner of his eye.

Ji Yuan rested his head on his hand, leaning against the stone table, taking a nap. He was tired again; despite having just awoken from a centuries-long slumber, he still felt drowsy. After a slight tremor, he opened his slightly closed eyes.

“Master, if you’re tired, please go inside and sleep.”

“Indeed, I, Ji, am no longer the boundless grand cultivator I once was. Please, sit.”

Lu Shan Jun shook his head.

“This disciple wishes to stand by Master for a while.”

Since Ji Yuan took him in, Lu Shan Jun reflected that he had spent very little time truly by his master’s side. Now, he wanted to stay longer, especially since even the Azure Vine Sword was not with his master. Although Lu Shan Jun believed his master was unrivaled, he would not leave his side. Even the Divine Mountain of Zhongzhou, which was his duty, was not as important as his master.

Lu Shan Jun looked at Ji Yuan again and saw that his master was resting his head on his hand, seemingly having fallen asleep.

As the saying goes, what one thinks about by day, one dreams about by night. Ji Yuan’s ethereal dream wandered across Shenzhou. He had heard Hu Yun’s narration earlier, and now, in his dream, he had arrived above that range of mountains, as if a single step would encompass the entire world within a small space.

Amidst the sparse clouds, a pair of ancient eyes gazed down upon the land. Mountains and peaks rose in dense arrays, while mountain streams and rivers crisscrossed below.

In that war of old, not only the main battlefields but also various parts of the world saw clashes. Furthermore, the great deities of the world's sacred peaks cast spells that, while not producing destructive aftershocks, were no less potent than moving mountains or filling seas. Coupled with the drastic changes in the world's spiritual energies, the Earth’s ley lines across the land underwent numerous transformations, and the topographical changes in various regions lasted for over two hundred years.

This then led to the new "geographical" pattern where the two realms of Heaven and Earth stabilized yin and yang, the various mountains across the land anchored the world, and the Divine Mountain of Zhongzhou stood at its center.

Although the changes were relatively mild, two centuries of transformation were enough for many nations to redraw their maps, and even led to some conflicts.

Yet, even so, in Ji Yuan’s eyes, the entire vast mountain range faintly resembled a large plantain leaf.

“So, it’s Plantain Leaf Mountain.”

Ji Yuan remembered what Hu Yun had said earlier. Her rambling to bluff the two gods of the Thunder Department seemed to have had a bit of truth to it after all.

A fragrant scent wafted in. Ji Yuan inhaled deeply, opened his eyes, and awoke. Zaoniang had emerged from the kitchen, carrying a plate of freshly made date cakes.