Chapter 584

"What a pity for this Mount Tianshan..."

The third senior brother, covered in wounds, stood on the clouds, looking at this Mount Tianshan, which was originally covered in snow all year round but was now still burning with raging flames, and could not help but recall the past:

"I remember decades ago, I rode a jade horse with Princess Hua past Mount Tianshan. It was midsummer, the sky was covered in white snow, holy and majestic. Looking from afar below, it was a patch of green, and after walking closer, the grassland was filled with all kinds of wild flowers. It was truly leisurely..."

That was a story of a wandering Daoist and a woman in red.

"It is a pity for the Ancestor's palace and these snow lotuses; what good houses, what good crops," the eldest senior brother sighed as he looked below. "It is also a pity for these celestial soldiers and bean soldier heroes."

"The oldest of these snow lotuses must have grown for a thousand years," the second senior brother also said.

This was the pity of the old farmer and the alchemy scholar.

"Thank you, three friends." The Ancestor of Mount Tianshan was no longer as lazy and wealthy as before, and was equally sorrowful. "If it weren't for you, I would definitely have been captured today."

"Ancestor, please accept my condolences," the eldest senior brother said. "Emperor Zi Xu is determined to eliminate Many Yaoguai, and the Nine Heavens divine beings will not stop making things difficult for you just because of one failure. Ancestor, you must either return to Mount Qianshan with us or continue to find a place to hide. In any case, you cannot stay here."

"It can only be so..."

The Ancestor of Mount Tianshan was very heartbroken and beckoned to her children: "Hurry and take out all the stored snow lotuses and gift them to our friends."

"Ancestor, you are too polite."

The three did not refuse.

The remaining thousand-year snow lotuses were soon taken out.

There were not many left.

However, the three did not complain that it was too little, because the thousand-year snow lotus was only one ingredient among many for the Four Directions Five Elements Golden Core. And although the thousand-year snow lotus was precious, because there was an Ancestor of Mount Tianshan who liked to plant them, it was already easier to find among the many materials. Other things like swallow egg incense, earth spiritual pills, and thousand-year fire ginseng were even harder to find, and might even slowly become extinct—what was more likely to happen was that before the thousand-year snow lotuses in their hands were used up, they would never be able to find swallow egg incense, earth spiritual pills, and thousand-year fire ginseng in the world again.

Many Golden Cores had also become extinct in this way.

"Ancestor, please do not completely clear the roots of the snow lotuses on Mount Tianshan. When my junior brother completes his seclusion and attains the Dao, and cultivates supreme supernatural powers, perhaps he can restore them to their original state."

"Friends, take care! Be careful in everything!"

"Ancestor, please be careful too."

When the three parted, they looked at each other, each with wounds on their bodies.

They were worthy of being Northern True Lord Martial Gods!

Although the long-snake Yili Shenjun did not have the peerless style of the Yili Shenjun Master Fuchi, his combat power was much more fierce than the True Lords under the previous Lord Lord Tianweng. The three of them cooperated, yet they only won by a narrow margin.

On the other side of Mount Fengshan, two Daoists, Luo Gong, and a flower-robed person who was becoming increasingly aged were walking slowly along the ridge of a high mountain, with a literary horse silently following behind.

The whole world was green.

The green grass was like silk, so much so that it was like water; when the mountain wind blew, it rippled, outlining the shape of the wind.

"The world today is indeed completely different," Lin Jue sighed. "Back when we were young, what were most of the Many Yaoguai, ghost, and immortal stories circulating in the world like? Most were scholars burying their heads in study and meeting a fox from next door, most were scholars encountering a female ghost at a lonely grave on a drunken night road, most were righteous officials getting along with Many Yaoguai, and there were divine beings and humans associating as equals..."

When Good Fuyao heard the word "fox," she turned to look at him.

"But now..."

Lin Jue stopped and blew a bit of wind:

"What circulates most in the world has become stories of humans and Many Yaoguai falling in love but being rejected by the Heavenly Law and heartlessly torn apart. Righteous officials who are not afraid of ghosts and associate too much with Many Yaoguai and ghosts are also attacked by their colleagues. I don't know when it started, but it seems the divine beings in the sky are a cut above the human world. I really don't know when it started."

"Isn't it from Emperor Zi Xu?"

The flower-robed person with a dog's head said, but paused, instead speaking for Emperor Zi Xu:

"But the human world is indeed much more stable. Many Yaoguai and ghosts are becoming fewer and fewer, whether good or bad, they are becoming fewer and fewer. Nowadays, many commoners in the human world have never seen Many Yaoguai or ghosts, only hearing about them in stories, and some even start not to believe in them. Occasionally encountering one, regardless of good or evil, they are terrified. Haha, from this point of view, Emperor Zi Xu's achievements are not small."

"Yes..."

Lin Jue also nodded.

Thinking carefully about this era, it is truly the exact opposite of the period when the old Lord Lord Tianweng was in power—

When the old Lord Lord Tianweng was in power, he was inactive and lazy. In the peaceful and prosperous times of the human world, one could still see Many Yaoguai and ghosts. Many Many Yaoguai and ghosts admired the prosperity of the human world and yearned for human civilization, running into cities to live among humans. There were even absurd things happening where Many Yaoguai and ghosts disguised themselves as humans to become officials in the imperial court. In troubled times, there were even more Many Yaoguai and ghosts.

There were many good Many Yaoguai, and many evil Many Yaoguai.

In every troubled time, many Many Yaoguai were drawn by blood and baleful energy, taking shortcuts in cultivation. Whenever there was a natural disaster, Many Yaoguai and evil things would take advantage of the chaos to cause trouble. Every time a great Many Yaoguai emerged to cause trouble, it would inevitably harm a region for a long time before being slowly eliminated by the Nine Heavens True Lords and generals who were slow to react.

Emperor Zi Xu, however, is strong and overbearing, and cannot tolerate sand in his eyes.

Therefore, it is difficult to see Many Yaoguai and ghosts in the prosperous human world today. Even if there are any,

they dare not conflict with humans at will, let alone harm people, and dare not enter cities easily.

It is much better in troubled times too.

For example, the previous diversion of the Changhe, or that drought, or the wars at the borders, especially in the north and center, Emperor Zi Xu's core incense-fire lands, Many Yaoguai and evil things were suppressed to death.

If a great Many Yaoguai emerged to cause trouble, celestial soldiers and generals would soon descend.

Therefore, even Lin Jue could only say: "If Emperor Zi Xu could distinguish between good and evil, and not kill everyone with one blow, he would truly be a diligent Heavenly Emperor."

Luo Gong listened in silence and suddenly asked:

"When was Third Shixiong Hua's divine position removed?"

"It's been about ten years," the flower-robed person said. "It's not just this old Daoist; most non-human divine beings in the human world have been deposed one after another; it's just a matter of time. This old Daoist is still doing okay, because I was conferred as a god at the end of the previous dynasty and was personally conferred again by Emperor Luo Gong. Therefore, divine decrees have been issued repeatedly, the Zixiao Palace has submitted memorials many times, and the Ministry of Rites has asked the human emperor. After discussion, they were all rejected."

Third Shixiong Hua did not say much more, but everyone could hear it.

Nine Heavens divine beings will degenerate, and the human imperial court will naturally decay.

Today's emperor is no longer the same as before, and today's imperial court is not the same as it was back then. If officials are muddle-headed, the imperial court is weak, and the emperor is incompetent, they will fear divine beings more.

Since the diversion of the Changhe, the commoners and the civil and military officials of the imperial court blamed the emperor for lacking virtue. After that benevolent and generous emperor issued a self-reproach edict and carried thorns to plead guilty to the heavens, the majesty of the human emperor began to decline step by step. This is something that every dynasty has found difficult to escape; for this dynasty, it has already been maintained for quite a long time.

In contrast, Emperor Zi Xu's prestige is getting higher and higher, he is becoming more and more overbearing, and his control over the human world is becoming stronger and stronger.

"Hmm..."

Lin Jue pondered for a moment before saying:

"Third Shixiong Hua is also getting old, and it's not good to always live alone here. Why

not come to my place to be a guest and spend your old age, or go to Mount Ye to keep company with the Mountain Yili Shenjun of Mount Ye and the Many Yaoguai in the mountain? Wouldn't that be much better than now?"

"Why? Is Emperor Zi Xu going to strike at your nine-tailed fox?"

"It's only a matter of time."

"Are you going to use this old Daoist as a target again?" The flower-robed person's eyes popped out. "This old Daoist has also been a proper divine being!"

"..."

Seeing him like this, Lin Jue was very helpless.

The methods of the True Lords under Emperor Zi Xu might be different from those of the True Lord Husheng Zhenjun Baosheng, but they might also find him, and through his identity as both a Many Yaoguai and a former divine being, pick out problems between him and Good Fuyao.

It was just a precaution.

But this senior cares about his face; saying this would likely make him depressed and sad.

Before he could speak, the voice of the junior sister came from the side:

"Third Shixiong brother mainly sees that Third Shixiong is of advanced age, and as the saying goes, having an old person at home is like having a treasure. He just wants to take Third Shixiong over to enjoy life!"

When the flower-robed person heard this, he was already quite happy.

He just turned his head, his eyes rolling in the opposite direction, squinting at them: "Don't try to fool me!"

"Third Shixiong brother told me last time," the junior sister said. "Not just last time, but decades ago, he said that if Third Shixiong Hua were invited to his place, the disciples he took at that time could let Third Shixiong Hua teach them reading and writing, the Unrestrained Technique, 'Persuade the Lord to Frown,' and Third Shixiong Hua's Paper-Cutting Technique."

"Hahahaha..."

The flower-robed person immediately opened his mouth and laughed loudly.

The laughter was shrill, almost like a dog barking.

Several figures blew the wind on the mountain top for a while, overlooking the mountain, and saw several

scholars and refined gentlemen climbing the mountain together. The people on the mountain looked at them, and they looked at the people on the mountain.

From the perspective of these scholars, they probably thought it was just a few ordinary people and an ordinary horse.

However, not long after, some of them dissipated into the wind, some rode clouds back to the mountain, and some rode the literary horse, riding the clouds and wind away.

Almost just a few days later—

A divine general descended to the mortal realm and arrived here.

The divine general was protected by celestial soldiers, with a True Lord watching from behind, entering the mountain cave to search.

However, the cave at this time was already empty, and they only found some rags, cotton wool, some used-up brushes, gnawed wood, and some dog hair.

"Sigh..."

The True Lord could not help but have a headache.

The Northern True Lord generals were all killed in mountains of corpses and seas of blood. If he were asked to go and eliminate Many Yaoguai and demons, he would not hesitate. But being asked to investigate a Lingqing Zhenren who also eliminated Many Yaoguai and demons and had high merit, he inevitably felt a sense of having nowhere to start.

After several days of investigation, he finally managed to imitate the True Lords of the previous dynasty and find a starting point, but he came up empty-handed.

Almost at the same time, a divine officer also arrived, questioning the immortals in the mountain as to why they blocked the Nine Heavens from eliminating Many Yaoguai.

The immortals in the mountain debated with him, parrying every move.

There were True Lords going to the underworld to check on people who had died in Mount Yishan in the past hundred years, and Martial Gods descending to Mount Yishan to investigate Many Yaoguai harming people in the mountain.

If they were not saints, how could they be without flaws?

Mount Yishan is so large, steep, and majestic, with difficult mountain roads; how could there be no one who slipped and fell to their death? With so many Many Yaoguai in the mountain, how could there not be a single evil Many Yaoguai or ghost in thousands of years?

This was just like the Mountain Yili Shenjun of Mount Langtou.