Chapter 99: Brief Peace (Part 2)

  From that day on Qian Dao Lake tour, Shen Bailian felt that his mood had changed. He secretly decided that after finding the daughter of Yuanyou and sending her back to Huanming Realm, he would go to Tianying City to investigate, regardless of whether the Jade Mirror True Person was Shen Zhao or not, no matter how he looked at himself, as long as he fulfilled his mother's last wish.

  After bidding farewell to Murong Ziyuan, he returned to Shouyang. When his sword passed by Mount Huang, he suddenly remembered that Guaxian had mentioned that the last breath of Yun Tianqing and Su Yu was left on a mountain peak in Mount Huang. With a change of heart, his footwork naturally changed, and his head turned towards the mountain, flying into it.

  After many years, he still vaguely remembered that Taiping Village was located near Ziyun Frame. There were only three or four mountain peaks near Ziyun Frame, and it was extremely easy to search for them. With the sword riding the wind, in just a few hours, he had already searched through the remaining mountain peaks, but saw rows of pines like jade, towering mountains, yet there was no sign of human habitation. After passing through a vast sea of clouds, he finally landed on Qing Lian Peak.

  As soon as he stepped onto the peak of Qing Luan, Shen Bailian's gaze fell on the three ancient pines with intertwined roots at the summit. Thirty-eight years had passed, and he had grown from a weak amnesiac youth into a mature man with a weathered face, but those three ancient trees remained lush and green, their gnarled roots deeply embedded in the soil of the mountain peak. The patch of land that was once burned black by fire was now covered with a layer of soft green grass, with wildflowers dotting the grass like stars, fragrant and beautiful, leaving no trace of what had happened there all those years ago. No one would ever know that a woman from the demon tribe had been incinerated there... She was his own mother...

  "Ah Niang..." Shen Bailian called out softly, but the call was instantly blown away by the wind, just like the flying ashes that were swept away by the strong winds thirty-eight years ago, leaving no trace behind.

  After standing under the tree for a long time, Shen Bailong finally noticed that something was different from his memory on the left side of the tree. He walked towards it while recalling his memories carefully. As he pushed aside the grass and stepped into the shadow of the ancient tree, his eyes widened in surprise and delight: at the base of the tree, a small wooden hut had appeared out of nowhere!

  Is someone actually living here?!

  The wooden house leaned against the mountain stone, and more than half of it was nestled in the shade of an ancient tree. The wooden board wall had grown a faint moss mark, and being surrounded by greenery made it unobtrusive. At first, he was preoccupied with old thoughts and didn't notice it. Now that he saw it clearly, he was startled, and without thinking, he took a step towards the house.

  The wooden door of the house was also unlocked, and it seemed that the owner lived alone in the mountains and was not afraid of thieves. Shen Bailian just pushed the door lightly, and it swung open silently, with a faint dust-filled air rushing out. He stood at the entrance and looked inside, and his eyes flashed with surprise again. The wooden house didn't look very big from the outside, but now it seemed even more cramped inside. The curtains were rolled up, and one could see everything at a glance. Perhaps mountain life was simple and austere, and there were only a few pieces of simple furniture in the house, all made of wood, probably taken from this green peak. The only ironware was a large iron stove placed in the outer corner of the room, covered with rust. There wasn't much furniture to begin with, but most of it had been deliberately smashed by someone, leaving only one earthen bed intact and standing upright, while the rest were broken wooden blocks and strips scattered on several dirty animal hides, looking even more chaotic.

  Shen Bailian stood outside the door for a while, waiting until the dust had settled before entering. He walked into the inner room and saw that there were still several animal hides hanging crookedly on the walls and roof. The hides were probably taken from wild boars and tigers in the mountains, suggesting that the original owner of the house was quite skilled at hunting. Shen Bailian looked up at the tiger hide on the roof with a mixture of emotions: Could it be that the owner had only caught a wild monkey? And how did this tiger skin end up here?

  Shen Bailian took a few steps in the house, and casually wiped her hand on the kang, only to see that her hand had picked up a thin layer of dust. It was unclear how long it had been since the house was last cleaned. She thought to herself that someone must have lived here before, but now they were gone.

  In the midst of Huangshan, near Taiping Village, a wooden house suddenly appeared on Qinglian Peak, which seemed to have been uninhabited for a long time... Shen Bailian almost didn't need to think carefully and had already guessed that this must be the residence where Yun Tianqing and Su Yu once lived in seclusion. The room was narrow, and after turning around for a while, he felt that there was nothing more to see. His footsteps naturally stopped outside, and his gaze fell on the fireplace in the house. He thought to himself: Qinglian Peak is not cold, why did Yun Tianqing and Su Yu need such a large fireplace? But this idea flashed through his mind and he already had an answer: Ah, could it be that Su Yu... She was originally a yin-named woman, and she practiced that kind of yin-cold internal skill. Later on, there was no one by her side to suppress the cold air, and over time, her body naturally became weaker and weaker. The cold air invaded her body, making her extremely afraid of the cold... Yun Tianqing loved her so much, he couldn't bear for her to suffer, so he found such a large fireplace to keep her warm. It's likely that because the cold air was hard to cure, they passed away at a young age...

  He looked around the house again and thought: Who else would have made their old home look like this? Could it be that someone broke in after they died and, finding no valuables, got angry and deliberately made a mess? He couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he thought, so he turned to leave. As he looked around, he suddenly remembered the dark stone cave on the mountain top. Since everything had started from there, he naturally wanted to take a look, thinking that Shen Bailian's footsteps paused, and then walked towards the left side of the wooden house.

  As he walked further, the sound of splashing water became clearer. The wooden house and three ancient pines were on a high ground at the top of the mountain, and when he came around from the left side, he found several bluestone steps roughly piled up, and after walking down to take a look, it was still that big stone, with the water flowing out behind it making a loud noise, seemingly more turbulent than before. On the river surface, there was also an additional stone bridge, built on top of the few bluestones standing in the water back then, but with signs of artificial carving after all. Shen Bailian saw it and knew that this was similar to those stone steps, probably another achievement of Yun Shidi's.

  As I walked over the stone bridge, I saw that a new path had been added to the waist-deep grass thicket, leading straight to the nearby stone cave. The path was not wide, only allowing one person to pass through, but the wild grass on it had been pulled out clean. Shen Bailian looked at it with wonder in her heart, thinking that if Yun Tianqing were still alive and came here every day to tidy up, after his death, the wild grass would have grown back, and there wouldn't be a path left here. But if it wasn't him, who else would have nothing better to do than come and pull out the grass?

  He muttered to himself, but his feet didn't stop, and he walked straight into the stone cave. The cave was still nine turns and eighteen bends, but after a few turns it was pitch black, and Shen Bailian lightly whistled, and the Chunshui sword responded with a soft "ding", the faint blue light emitted by the sword illuminated the stone wall very brightly. He walked a few steps to the left of the mountain cave based on his vague memory, and suddenly exclaimed as he looked forward in the sword light.

  Only a stone gate was carved out of the mountain cave, but the heavy stone door was wide open and did not block anything. The inside was dark and unclear. Shen Bailian's doubts grew thicker, leading Chunshui Sword to walk towards the entrance, gradually getting deeper and finally arriving at the large stone cave he had been to in his childhood. As soon as he stepped in, he felt a chill, although the water spirit pearl that was once hidden in the cave had been taken away many years ago, but the cold air was still icy and bone-piercing like before.

  Shen Bailian's finger pointed to the air and drew an arc, and the Chunshui sword agilely circled in the air, illuminating the scene inside the cave clearly. He took a look and was even more shocked, secretly grateful that he hadn't taken another step forward, or else he would have stumbled to death. The ground was piled with chaotic rocks, as if there had been an earthquake, and at the place where the cold air was strongest, the chaotic rocks almost formed a small hill.

  What's going on here? He was puzzled, and had to carefully step over the rocks in the cave, examining every place where he could set foot. As expected, under one of the rocks, he found a damaged talisman paper. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that the yellow paper had the careless handwriting of Yun Tianqing, who had drawn the summoning talisman of the Qionghua Sect. The remaining spiritual energy on it was still quite strong. He sensed it slightly and nodded in approval, thinking to himself: I didn't expect that after Yun left the mountain, he would have made such progress. In those years when he was on Mount Kunlun, he was often blocked by the talisman of that person outside the house and couldn't get in no matter what, and could only jump with anger. Now, he can actually summon his own talisman spirit!

  Since the talisman spirit was summoned to guard this place, it's likely that there is something very important to Yun Tianqing hidden in this cave. But who could have broken his talisman and made a mess of this place? The treasure might also be...

  Shen Bailian let out a soft sigh, no longer thinking about it, and took one last look at the dilapidated stone cave before turning around and walking away. Chunshui Jian's clear ring echoed as he followed after her, his green light gradually fading into the distance, and the darkness returned to the cave once more.

  After leaving Qing Luan Peak, Shen Bailian gained nothing and had to temporarily start his journey back. He flew all the way, and in less than half a day, he arrived at Ju Chao Country. The elder, Yu Xiang, saw that he returned in less than a month and was overjoyed. He hastily ordered Yu Yue to pull Shen Bailian away from the chattering, saliva-spraying He Jin. As soon as Shen Bailian entered, before he even lifted his head, Yu Xiang smiled and said: "Bailian, you're back just in time. I have something important to entrust to you. Do you know that these days, our Ju Chao Country has taken in a few more homeless little monsters? Alas, they're all pitiful children who lost their parents at such a young age! Although I want to take care of them, I'm also an old man with declining health, and my energy is limited..." He deliberately let out a deep sigh.

  Shen Bailian smiled wryly and said: "Elder, just speak your mind."

  The old man's eyes twinkled as he smiled and said, "In that case, I'll speak plainly. These children seem to have some connection with you too, so it would be best if you took extra care of them."

  "Origin?" Shen Bailian was puzzled and asked back, turning her eyes to meet several pairs of bright small eyeballs. Then she saw several blue fluffy round balls of fur sticking up, among which one was particularly strange, with a few grass-like feathers growing on its head. When it saw that she didn't retreat, the pair of small eyes narrowed: "Meow~"

  Shen Bailian's eyes widened suddenly, cat demon?

  "Haha, these kids really like you!" Ao Yan laughed loudly and coughed a few times before speaking slowly, "They are all Huaiyao from the Nüluo Rock of Bagong Mountain. You don't know that during those days when you went out, something big happened at Nüluo Rock, and the Huaiyao tribe was killed by some human Daoist priests who came from who-knows-where, leaving only these few little ones to escape with their lives. Alas, if not for this, the Huaiyao tribe would have been exterminated!" As he spoke, his old face sank, "In recent years, it's become increasingly difficult for us demon tribes to survive. Those powerful demons are fine on their own, but we small demons will be chopped up like vegetables by those Daoist priests if we don't stick together! If the Jūqiú Country wasn't hidden underwater, I'm afraid it would also have been destroyed."

  Shen Bailian had not yet spoken, when a soft voice came from underfoot, saying: "Meow... Elder Grandfather is right, we will eventually have to kill all those humans, to avenge Father and Mother!"

  He looked down and saw that the speaker was a small beast with feathers on its back. The little beast had big, round eyes staring at him, trying to make a fierce expression, but its body was round and fluffy, making it look cute instead of scary. Shen Bailian bent down and scooped it up, holding it in his hand, eye to eye, saying: "How old are you, wanting to kill people? Do you know how powerful the human race is, and how many there are? They can even kill your parents, aren't you afraid?"

  That ball of fur twisted in his hand, his eyes rolled back even wider, and his voice grew louder: "No, no fear! Huai Mi is not afraid of bad people, I want to avenge my parents, kill him, kill all the bad people!"

  Shen Bailian shook his head and smiled slightly, using another hand to gently tap the feathers on the back of the ball: "You're called Huai Mi, right? Foolish kid, ordinary humans are still afraid of our demon tribe, where would they dare to provoke us? The demon tribe has both good and evil, so does the human tribe. It's reasonable to avenge one's parents, but it's not right to generalize all humans."

  Huái Mǐ was taken aback for a moment, his two small ears twitching in the fur, and suddenly said: "You're right, humans can be good too! Those people we met at Nǚ Luó Yán helped us, my brother and I are very grateful to them."

  "Good boy." Shen Bailian smiled, "At such a young age, you can already distinguish right from wrong, you will definitely achieve great things in the future."

  Huai Mi's small eyes flashed a hint of shyness, her entire round body suddenly twisted and shrunk into a ball, she was actually shy.

  "Haha, this kid is actually the most sensible among his brothers. I didn't expect him to listen to you." Baoyu smiled with deep meaning, "Baiying, I was still a bit hesitant at first, but since they're so close to you, I'm relieved now. From now on, these few little demons will rely on you to teach them well!"

  "What?!" Shen Bailian was suddenly tongue-tied: "Elder!"