Chapter 4 (Part 1) of the main text, Volume 5

  The Servant from a Past Life

  The next day, during the daytime, the insects were still chirping. As dusk approached, their cries grew louder and more intense, almost deafening. Using the Mirror Pupil Secret Technique to observe, nothing could be seen in the grass thicket, yet the insect calls clearly came from all directions of the grassy sea.

  "Damn it, Gan Ning is really something. Use your lotus eyes to take a look." I picked up a handful of weeds from the ground, crushed them, and there wasn't even a bug's fart inside.

  Gan Ning shook his head: "I can't see either, be patient and wait a bit, the moon is about to come out." As soon as he finished speaking, a dark yellow moon suddenly rose above the mountain peak.

  I was taken aback for a moment, this moon appeared without warning, like a witch's spell, descending like a ghost. The sky suddenly became very dark, like ink. More than half of the moon was blocked by the mountain, revealing only a small part, and the moonlight was not bright, but rather like light smoke, hazy and scattered on the dense grass sea.

  The entire Vanilla Valley floated in the hazy moonlight, as if it would turn into a mirage at any moment.

  The chirping of insects suddenly stopped.

  "Shasha——shasha", the grass sea was like waves, constantly surging upwards. I stared with wide eyes in shock, all the grass was growing wildly, getting taller and wider, soon becoming as tall as trees. It felt as if Ganchen, Haixi and I had shrunk down.

  A tiny insect jumped out from the grass, their heads were very small, bodies with five colors and six colors, legs were thin and long. I saw this kind of bug in the suburbs of Luoyang before, called weaving girl, but the color was emerald green, not as colorful as now. I stared with my mouth open, thousands and thousands of colorful weaving girls kept jumping out, while previously there was nothing in the grass thicket.

  The weaving maidens crouched on the grass tips, their six feet moving swiftly like shuttles, drawing out the grass into strands of shiny silk. Then they wove the silk into strange garments. They worked in silence, heads bent, unceasingly weaving. I held my breath tensely, as if surrounded by an eerie world.

  The moon emerged from behind the mountain, gradually appearing in the valley above. The moonlight suddenly became bright, and the clear light beam penetrated the white fog on the lake, dispersing the smoke and revealing a huge gate on the lake surface.

  On the black signboard, in green large characters: "Dragon Gate". Under the moonlight, the words slowly turned into a brilliant golden color. Behind the Dragon Gate, there was a vast and empty space, nothing could be seen, not even the slightest trace of the Magic Sky.

  "The Tianya will probably be eliminated, get ready." Gan Ning said in a deep voice.

  "Whoosh", at this moment, the weaving girls all flew up, throwing the clothes they had woven into the lake. Water splashed, and dark green strange fish jumped out of the lake, and as soon as the clothes fell on their bodies, they stuck tightly to them. Under the moonlight, the strange fish became colorful. Like a group of fish spirits wearing clothes, they swam towards the Dragon Gate.

  Arriving at the Dragon Gate, "splash splash", strange fish one after another jumped over the high Dragon Gate and disappeared into thin air.

  "It turned out to be the case!" Haiji suddenly said, and before I could understand what was happening, she grabbed my hand and jumped onto the back of a strange fish. Unexpectedly, the strange fish did not resist at all, and obediently let us ride on its body as it sped forward quickly. Gan Zhen also floated up and stepped on another strange fish, rushing towards the Dragon Gate.

  The dragon gate was constantly enlarging before my eyes, the strange fish suddenly jumped high, like a star ball, and jumped over the dragon gate. In an instant, I only felt dizzy, and fell into another world.

  The demon world is like a mysterious painting scroll, slowly unfolding before one's eyes.

  "With a plop", the strange fish under our feet fell from mid-air and landed in a large orange lake. With a flick of its tail, it disappeared without a trace. Haiji and I hastily jumped onto the shore. Gan Zhen also rushed over afterwards. Turning back to look, the place we came from had transformed into a vast expanse of empty space, Xiangcao Gorge and Longmen were nowhere to be seen. There was only a series of strange fish wearing clothes, falling from mid-air one after another, splashing up orange waves."

  The sky was hanging a wheel of fiery red sunset, and the current time in the demon world was actually dusk! The difference in space-time made me feel a little dizzy.

  Standing on the shore, Gan Ning gazed into the distance and said in a soft voice, "We've finally arrived at Mo Yue Tian."

  "This is really too weird! It's like a magic trick!" I shouted, surrounded by the silence of the four sides. The lake was surrounded by shallow hills and a small yellow dirt road, which led to a dense forest at the end, lit up by the sunset, making it very dark. Compared to the dusty world, the colors of every blade of grass and tree here were particularly vivid, as if painted with thick watercolors.

  "You're really naive." Hai Ji smiled and said, "Don't you understand yet? Only on the night of the full moon will the Weaving Maiden appear. Those strange fish put on the clothes woven by the Weaving Maiden and can jump over the Dragon Gate Heaven Abyss. This is the only way to go from the Red Dust Heaven to the Demon Slaughter Heaven."

  Gan Ning nodded: "It should be so. Looking at the sky, Mo Sha Tian is also approaching dusk. We will stay here for a while and observe the passage of Mo Sha Tian returning to Hong Chen Tian, so that we can prepare for the future."

  I couldn't help but praise: "Our lotus beauty is really considerate."

  Hai Ji couldn't help but chuckle: "Lotus Flower Beauty? This nickname isn't bad."

  She gave me a white eye, I was proud of myself, and made faces at her. Before long, the sun set, and a golden moon rose above the horizon. At this time, from deep in the woods, came the distant sound of laughter.

  Noise.?

  "Hide first." Gan Zhen made a quick decision, and we swooped to the back of a small hill, poking our heads out to observe.

  In the distance, dust is flying everywhere, and footsteps are coming one after another. Out of the woods come group after group of monsters. Like a swarm of ants, they march along the small road, shouting and swaggering as they come.

  These monsters have both males and females, some are ugly and some are handsome. Some have long horns and ferocious faces; some spread their wings and fly rapidly in mid-air; some jump up and down like fleas. I stared at the two beauties, never having seen so many monsters gathered together before. In the forest, more and more monsters kept coming.

  The monsters arrived at the lake, looked up at the full moon in the night sky and shouted: "Time is almost here." "This time we will stir up the mortal world, it must be a complete reversal!" "Nine-headed bird, don't cause trouble. The Demon Lord said to follow orders."

  I took a deep breath of cold air, so many monsters entered the mortal world, it's strange if they didn't cause chaos. The moonlight shone on the orange-red lake surface, rippling with waves, in an instant, lightning flashed and thunder boomed, suddenly a torrential rain poured down.

  The night rain poured down, the rain lines thick as white whips, whipping a old cypress tree by the lake into a frenzy. On the lake's surface, a vast expanse of white mist rose up. Strange to say, despite the rain, the moon in the night sky still shone through.

  The rain continued to fall, and the lake water began to rise, getting higher and higher. Although it had long exceeded the lake's shoreline, not a single drop of water overflowed, resembling a thick, crystal-clear pillar that kept rising steadily.

  A majestic gate miraculously emerged from the surface of the lake, with the words "Dragon Gate" carved on it. The fish spirits wearing clothes also floated to the surface and swam towards the Dragon Gate. The monsters shouted and jumped onto the strange fish, one after another leaping over the Dragon Gate.

  The scene before us was magnificent, with countless monsters stepping on strange fish, jumping over the dragon gate, and in the pouring rain, tens of thousands of strange fish jumped continuously, extremely lively. An hour later, all the monsters disappeared to the other side of the dragon gate, and the strange fish also disappeared, the lake water dropped rapidly, and returned to its original state. The dragon gate gradually became a vague shadow under the golden moonlight, and dissipated.

  The torrential rain stopped at the same moment, and the ground was a mess of mud. Everywhere were the strange footprints of monsters, as well as a lot of animal hair and bird feathers. I emerged from behind the mountain slope, gazing out at the empty lake surface, and suddenly said: "It turns out that whether it's from the Demon Realm to the Mortal Realm, one still has to rely on the Fish Spirit leaping over the Dragon Gate Heavenly Chasm."

  Hai Ji's expression turned grave: "The Demon Lord plans to launch a large-scale invasion of the Mortal Realm."

  Gan Ning calmly said: "I paid attention to it, and there are a total of 180,000 demons, not one with weak demon power. These are probably just the first batch of demons rushing to the Red Dust Heaven, and there will be more in the future."

  I spat out my tongue: "Is it going to be a war? The Demon Lord's goal won't be to conquer the entire North, will it?" I heard from Dad that during the Sui dynasty's war at the end of its reign, people were struggling to survive, and many ordinary citizens died. Corpses on the road were even stolen for food. Thinking about the possibility of a war in the North, I couldn't help but feel a little scared.

  Hai Ji remained silent, Gan Ning truly raised her head and gazed at the deep blue night sky where a bright moon hung low, sighing: "Creation, dwelling, decay, emptiness - it's hard to avoid. The Northern Territory is indeed about to enter an era of 'decay'. Let's go, rescue Ju Danmei before Mo Zun returns to Mozitian, then leave as soon as possible."

  Along the small path, we headed towards the dense forest. Gan Ningzhen and Hai Ji had never been to Mo Xiantian before, nor did they know where An Hua Yuan was, so they could only ask for directions when they arrived at a place with demons. I originally wanted to use Blowing Air Wind to take them flying, but Gan Ningzhen said it would be too showy and might reveal their whereabouts, so we had no choice but to walk.

  The forest is very deep and vast, with one piece of woodland stretching to the distant horizon. The moonlight flickers through the gaps in the leaves, and transparent water droplets fall from the high treetops, pattering down onto the neck, cool enough to make people shiver.

  "Achoo!" Just in front of me, an old tree with yellow buds suddenly let out a sneeze, its branches shaking and the rainwater on its leaves splashing everywhere. I, Gan Ningzhen, and Hai Ji were all stunned, it was our first time seeing a tree sneeze, had it become a spirit?

  I cautiously approached, the old tree remained still. I stretched out my hand to touch its branches, and they slightly trembled, making a "heh heh" laughing sound. I found it amusing, so I continued to stroke its branches, causing the leaves to rustle wildly. "Don't tickle me, don't tickle me!" The old tree spoke in a soft voice, just like a person.

  "Look at this tree!" Haiji pointed to a short and stout white-barked tree in the front left, its trunk was round like a person's belly, with a dark yellow navel. The trunk was rhythmically bulging and sinking, accompanied by a series of snoring sounds.

  As far as the eye can see, the entire forest seems to be alive, constantly swaying. Some trees suddenly stretch out their branches to both sides and then slowly droop down, as if stretching a long, lazy waist. Some trees, when we approach, will suddenly bend over, blocking our path, and from the wrinkled tree trunk, a strange voice is vaguely transmitted: "Who? Who?" There are also trees that are closely entwined, their leaves whispering intimately to each other: "Dear, the weather is turning cool, be careful not to catch a cold." "Why are there so many monsters today? It's deafening."