Chapter 76: Mountains and Rivers Change, Hearts Are Hard to Calm

As Dou Yuemei's hands pressed against the earth, the tide of roaring beasts, like a receding wave before a cliff face, halted abruptly.

All the beasts that soared through the air, including the shrieking pack of Yin-Yang Twin-Headed Eagles, tumbled like headless flies, bumping into one another or simply fleeing in blind panic.

Those grounded beasts prostrated themselves, trembling uncontrollably.

This was the primal fear instinct, a force even the most unintelligent of creatures could not defy.

For the very earth had begun to tremble!

Yuheng Peak, though not the world's grandest, stood as a majestic peak, its summit lost in the clouds.

Yet, at this very moment, this towering mountain, from its midsection – or more precisely, from where Dou Yuemei's hands touched the stone – began to shake!

Boulders cascaded down, and beasts wailed in terror.

“Yaa… ah!”

Dou Yuemei’s willow-leaf eyebrows furrowed, and her overwhelmingly powerful Dao origin erupted forth.

*Crack, crack! Boom!*

She slowly rose from a half-crouching stance, her hands lifting the very heart of Yuheng Peak, splitting it into two distinct sections!

Compared to the colossal mountain, she was less significant than an ant.

Yet, a frail woman, lifting a majestic mountain, was a sight akin to a celestial being.

This breathtaking spectacle was destined to be etched forever in the memories of countless onlookers!

…

“Alas.”

Suddenly, an ancient sigh echoed, a gentle sigh that seemed to penetrate the hearts of all who heard it.

“Let it be.”

The voice spoke again.

*Boom!*

Dou Yuemei’s hands flew open, the ground beneath them quaked violently, and the severed mountain peak slammed shut!

She stared, dumbfounded, towards the summit of Yuheng Peak, the source of the disembodied voice.

Towering into the clouds, upon the beast-ridden Yuheng Peak, there was actually a person!

And not just any person, but a being of such unfathomable power, such terrifying strength!

“I did not expect you could rely on yourselves to reach this point.”

The voice repeated, “But, let it be.”

This was undoubtedly a being of immense power, having halted Dou Yuemei’s mountain-lifting feat before even revealing himself, a testament to his invincibility.

Yet.

“What the hell are you talking about!” Dou Yuemei, recovering from her initial shock, clenched her fists, the divine seed within her fifth inner palace spinning furiously: “You son of a bitch, who do you think you are? Let us go, we go? Let us stop, we stop?”

Sun Xiaoman, Zhenshan Hammer held aloft, stepped in behind Dou Yuemei.

Li Jianqiu, his peach branch inverted, took his place behind Dou Yuemei.

Zhao Tiehe, limping, positioned himself behind Dou Yuemei.

Yang Xingyong, Shen Nanqi, Huang Azhan, the disciples of the Three Mountains City Daoist Monastery, the soldiers of the Three Mountains City Guard Army, even those cultivators lured by the bounty…

All who remained alive, all who still possessed the will to fight, silently gathered behind Dou Yuemei.

Even in the face of the mysterious figure upon Yuheng Peak, who appeared so powerful, so invincible.

This was a silent… declaration of resolve!

“Alas!”

The ancient voice sighed once more: “Some spend their entire lives and cannot even glimpse the surface of divine ability.”

He continued with a sigh: “You have only traversed halfway through your torso sea, yet you have already had a premonition of your divine seed. You possess greater potential than Sun Heng. What a pity…”

In his words, though numerous cultivators stood upon Yuheng Peak, only Dou Yuemei truly held his attention.

She could not see him, nor could she fathom his actions. Yet, the divine seed within Dou Yuemei’s fifth inner palace, which had been spinning furiously, suddenly became silent, utterly still.

Dou Yuemei exerted her full strength, battling the invisible pressure that held her captive: “What do you know, hiding atop the mountain, consorting with beasts, watching them wreak havoc in one area, even sheltering them? You do not understand his power at all! Even if you are strong, I will only regard you as a weakling. You… old man!”

The mountain wind howled, carrying the echoes of her defiance far away.

The voice was silent for a moment before speaking again.

“There are some matters you do not comprehend; I do not fault you. Retreat now; entanglement serves no purpose.”

“I do not wish to be entangled!” Dou Yuemei roared in fury: “But the countless cultivators who perished in battle in my Three Mountains City, the countless people devoured… they do not agree!”

“It involves secrets; you are not yet qualified to know.”

“I am not qualified?” Dou Yuemei laughed, a laugh tinged with anger: “I am the master of the Three Mountains City region! The jade book signed by the emperor’s own hand, the order seal forged by the imperial court, the master of these mountains and rivers, the head of all the people in the Three Mountains City region! Are you telling me now that there are secrets within this Three Mountains City region that I am not qualified to know?”

“The Zhuang State possesses three major prefectures, and Qinghe Prefecture has thirteen cities. You are merely the… temporary steward of one of these thirteen cities, not the head, nor the master! The three thousand li of mountains and rivers of the Zhuang State have but one master, and that is the Emperor! No need for further words; simply accept the decree!”

These words revealed a vast amount of information. The most crucial point was that the presence of these beasts upon Yuheng Peak was implicitly approved by the Emperor of the Zhuang State.

Or perhaps, not merely implicitly approved.

“Hahahaha!”

Dou Yuemei burst into laughter, tears streaming down her face.

“My husband died here, my elder brother died here.

My disciples, my friends, the people I love, the people who love me, all perished here.

My daughter is only fifteen years old, my son only thirteen, yet they both marched to the battlefield, fighting for Three Mountains City!

Now you tell me that Three Mountains City does not belong to me, but to that… dogshit emperor who cares not for the living or the dead here, hidden deep within the palace and never seen, high above and utterly oblivious?”

“You are audacious!” The master of the ancient voice seemed truly angered, a terrifying pressure descending from the mountaintop, dozens of beasts bleeding to death on the spot.

He maintained a semblance of restraint, and the pressure halted before Dou Yuemei.

Yet, the entirety of Yuheng Peak fell into an unnerving silence with this single shout.

In this unsettling quiet, only Dou Yuemei’s particularly desolate voice could be heard: “From the day my man died, I no longer have the right to be timid.”

Once upon a time, she too was a timid and frail woman.

She would be afraid when facing powerful enemies, would shrink back from difficulties, and sometimes, she would even shriek and hide in her husband’s arms at the sight of a mouse.

But after that man perished in battle, she could no longer afford such weakness.

She had to care for a pair of children and shoulder the burden of the entire Three Mountains City.

Did she truly desire to clench her fists and stand on the front lines, did she wish for her voice to become hoarse and her waist to thicken?

Who among them did not long for a peaceful life, to cultivate flowers and play with grass?

But could she?

Dou Yuemei clenched her fists, biting down on her silver teeth, continuously battling the power that sought to restrain her. She did not cease for a single moment.

This time, the ancient voice remained silent for a long period. Then it spoke: “Come up.”

Under the watchful eyes of the surviving cultivators, Dou Yuemei walked towards the mountaintop, alone.

The pack of beasts, suppressed by some unseen force, silently parted a path before her, and she pressed onward.

The heavy clouds in the sky had, at some point, been lifted, revealing a sliver of the crescent moon. But soon, it was shrouded once more.

The night remained resolutely dark.

In the waiting, time seemed to stretch endlessly.

When Dou Yuemei’s figure finally reappeared, all eyes were upon her.

People anticipated, hoped, and also feared, and were uneasy.

As she reached the middle of the mountain, the place where she had lifted the peak earlier, Dou Yuemei seemed to notice the crowd waiting for an answer.

She looked at everyone, then walked down the mountain.

“Disperse,” she said.

Sun Xiaoman’s eyes welled up, for she suddenly realized that her beautiful, fiery-tempered, and seemingly ageless mother, this time, truly seemed to have grown old.