Chapter 67: God, how could he die!

The small animals were not afraid even upon seeing a human arrive.

Eyes the size of mung beans sized up Hu Xiaocao, seemingly judging whether the newcomer posed danger.

Though Hu Xiaocao was not unafraid under the gaze of so many eyes, she could not retreat; thinking of her mother's urgent condition, she felt as if infinite courage had arisen in her heart.

With a thud, she knelt on the ground, her voice choking as she said, "I mean no harm; I have come to see Mountain God Grandfather."

The small animals tilted their heads, not sure if they understood, and simply watched Hu Xiaocao silently.

Seeing that they meant no attack, Hu Xiaocao then dragged the woman and hurried forward.

Those animals then slipped into the nearby bushes; they did not leave, but continued to observe from the shadows.

Individually they posed little threat, but if they all swarmed together, they were still not to be underestimated.

Soon Hu Xiaocao also saw Ye Qin lying on the stone, having finally met the Mountain God as she wished; she finally let go of the rope in her hand and quickly turned her head.

"Mom, look, this is the Mountain God."

However, Hu Xiaocao only saw the woman's pale face and tightly shut eyes; her breath was almost nonexistent, intermittent, and if not for the last breath clinging on, she would have already passed away.

Hu Xiaocao's voice hoarse, she gently shook the woman's body, pleading, "Mom, open your eyes and look."

The woman's breathing grew weaker and more rapid; when she could not draw that final breath, it was the moment of her passing.

Hu Xiaocao had no time to wipe her tears; she hurriedly kowtowed to Ye Qin, thudding sounds echoing, her forehead quickly turning red.

"Mountain God Grandfather, please save my mother; I am willing to exchange my own lifespan, no matter what price I must pay."

Her forehead was rubbed raw, even bleeding where it struck the stone, yet the Mountain God showed no reaction.

Hu Xiaocao finally noticed something off about Ye Qin; she stepped forward and could see more clearly.

Yet she discovered the snake lying on the stone, motionless, as if it had no breath.

Its scales were utterly dull, even taking on a deathly gray hue, as if something clung to them.

Compared to the previous two encounters filled with divinity, what lay before her now seemed merely an ordinary serpent, devoid of any divinity and bearing no relation to the Mountain God at all.

Had she not previously witnessed Ye Qin manifest divine signs, Hu Xiaocao might even have thought she had mistaken the snake.

Hu Xiaocao's eyes widened; she staggered a few steps, nearly collapsing to the ground.

Mountain God Grandfather, what's wrong with you?

She glanced at the woman clinging to life, then at the snake that seemed already dead; her eyes filled with bewilderment and despair.

Hu Xiaocao knew there was no free lunch in the world, so she had prepared herself; even if she had to trade her own life for the woman's, she would not hesitate.

She had already braced for the worst outcome; no one can gain without effort, let alone defy heaven to change fate.

At such a young age, to grasp this principle is already no small feat.

But Hu Xiaocao never imagined that the Mountain God's condition was also poor, even as bad as her mother's.

In her eyes, a "god" is omnipotent.

When mortals face something they cannot resolve, they burn incense and pray to Buddha.

But no one had ever told her that a "god" can also die.

The last spark in Hu Xiaocao's eyes was blown out by reality without mercy.

At this moment she stood alone in place, her shoulders and hands bearing only the marks left by being bound.

Blood continued to flow from her forehead; she looked utterly miserable, like a lone blade of grass no one tends to, standing helplessly in place.

Her mother was dying, Mountain God Grandfather was gone, her last faith shattered; successive blows weighed on Hu Xiaocao so heavily she could barely breathe.

No matter how strong or precocious, she was still just a half-grown child; at this moment she could no longer endure and burst into loud sobs.

However, just as Hu Xiaocao sobbed uncontrollably, failing to notice, the Mountain God's snake tail twitched.

In his dazed state, Ye Qin heard a wail, deeply suppressed and sorrowful, making one's heart ache involuntarily.

Most importantly, the sound seemed to come from very near him and felt somewhat familiar.

Even in his meditative state, Ye Qin could still perceive the outside world.

The snake's pupils narrowed slightly into a vertical slit; the gap was too tiny for an ordinary person to detect, let alone Hu Xiaocao immersed in grief.

The woman's pale face was not far away.

Having just grasped life and death and entered the Third Realm, Ye Qin could clearly sense that the woman had no vitality left, only a heavy deathly aura surrounding her.

This state was even worse than his previous condition.

Vaguely, Ye Qin seemed to see a translucent soul slowly drawing away from the woman's body, yet as if pulled by some inexplicable force, reluctant to depart.

That soul kept glancing toward Hu Xiaocao's position.

A blood-red thread linked Hu Xiaocao and the woman, for they were mother and daughter, connected by blood.

Now that thread flickered faintly, already on the verge of disappearing.

Ye Qin guessed that when the thread ceased to exist entirely, the bond between them would also vanish, meaning the woman would fully succumb to death.

Ye Qin pondered; previously he could not see these things, unsure whether it was due to entering the Third Realm, but his eyes seemed to have undergone some change.

This change would have to be examined in detail later.

As the woman's soul grew fainter, it was nearly about to dissipate between heaven and earth.

"Whoosh!"

Ye Qin slightly lifted his head, opened his mouth, and slowly exhaled a breath into the woman's body.

This breath was the first strand of air he captured when his lifespan was nearing its end, having comprehended the life-and-death Dao, then entering the Third Realm's Heaven-Earth Refining Qi.

Previously Ye Qin thought it ordinary, but later he discovered the marvel of this qi, brimming with immense vitality.

After settling in the chaotic space, it was then refined in the five viscera, continually scouring Ye Qin's bloodline, further expelling impurities from his body; this is also why Hu Xiaocao earlier saw his scales as gray.

The essence of this breath had been fully absorbed, spreading throughout his body—whether bones and blood, meridians, or even the five viscera—all renewed with vitality.

The remainder was of no use to Ye Qin.

Even so, it was not to be underestimated, which is why Ye Qin exhaled it and sent it to Hu Xiaocao's mother.

This is not simple Qi; tracing back to its source, it has an older name rarely heard nowadays—Qi.

The Huangdi Neijing·Suwen states: "Qi gives rise to transformation and growth; when it disperses, form appears; when it spreads, it nurtures proliferation; when it ends, phenomena change."

Qi is the fundamental basis of transformation and growth in the universe and spacetime; the metamorphosis, growth, reproduction, and demise of all things arise from Qi permeating their beginning to end.

The movement and change of Qi is precisely the change in the generation, development, transformation, and demise of all things in the universe.

Qi can permeate air, but air is not Qi; for later generations, this concept is indeed too vague, gradually buried by the river of history.

Moreover, this character is rare and uncommonly used, so later everyone used qi to refer to all gases.

Qi, too, has gradually been forgotten by people, cast behind their backs, with no one remembering its former glory.

But in fact, the two have an essential difference.

(End of chapter)