Chapter 568: Cold Mountain Has Fish
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Countless footprints suddenly appeared in the scorched earth of Ten Thousand Willow Garden, like stars.
The Star Gazer's figure had vanished without a trace, or perhaps had already left Tianliang Commandery.
Zhu Luo gazed into the distance, an extremely complex expression on his face.
He actually went to Cold Mountain?
If it were in the past, he would naturally have rushed to Cold Mountain alongside the Star Gazer at this moment.
Just like those powerful figures on the continent who had received the Heavenly Mechanism Elder's transmission.
But now he was old, wounded, and simply had no way to get there.
Suddenly, a trace of regret arose in him over that incident in Xunyang City last year.
If he hadn't gone to kill Su Li back then, he would have had the chance to kill that man today.
This was what he should have been doing!
Something he should have done even if it meant death!
……
……
The figures flying swiftly toward Cold Mountain were few, but they were all the strongest in the human world.
By the distant Red River's shore, the majestic White Emperor City was utterly silent, everything as usual—the only slightly eerie thing being that cluster of white clouds atop the city wall.
In the imperial palace of the capital, the summer sunlight shone upon Sweet Dew Terrace, those night pearls still dazzlingly bright even in daytime.
The Heavenly Sea Saint Empress stood within that radiance, looking into the distance with an indifferent expression, her thoughts unknown.
In the deepest secluded hall of the Detached Palace, the Pope quietly gazed at the pot of green leaves before him, his thoughts also unknown.
On the snowy plain north of Cold Mountain, even in the height of summer, the wind was bone-piercingly cold, with endless blizzards.
A man stood in the wind and snow; if one didn't walk right up to him, his presence would be impossible to detect.
Because his entire body was white—from his hair to his robes, all white, a chilling white.
……
……
Inside Cold Mountain, the middle-aged scholar looked at the celestial stones floating in the air, no longer speaking with the Heavenly Mechanism Elder atop the peak, and fell silent.
Could this also be a trap set by humans and demons?
The stones in the sky slowly drifted down.
Dozens of stones, bearing moss, water stains, and gravel, floated around his body—a somewhat eerie scene.
The middle-aged scholar raised an eyebrow, a chill emerging from the depths of his indifferent, emotionless eyes.
The solitary, desolate world on his face then erupted with a fierce blizzard.
The wind and snow among the cliffs surged violently, sweeping toward those stones.
A cacophony of shrill cutting sounds rang out as snowflakes landed on the surfaces of the stones.
These celestial stones, sharing the same origin as the Heavenly Book Stele, came from beyond the sky and were no ordinary objects; even divine weapons on the Hundred Artifacts List would struggle to leave marks on them.
The wind and snow that the middle-aged scholar condensed from heaven and earth could easily shred cultivators at the Penetrating Obscurity Upper Realm into pieces, yet they could not shatter those celestial stones. However, the momentum of the stones slowly closing in on him was still blocked by the immense power carried within the blizzard.
By the lakeside on the distant peak, the wrinkles on the Heavenly Mechanism Elder's face grew deeper, and the expression in his eyes became more solemn.
In the present world, only the Heavenly Mechanism Elder was qualified to assess the strength of that middle-aged scholar, for he was the oldest among the Five Sages and the Eight Winds and Rains, hailing from the era of the last wildflower bloom, having personally witnessed that earth-shattering great battle.
He had not expected that the other party, having hidden in Snow Old City for a thousand years, with his injuries perhaps not yet healed, would actually be even more terrifying in realm and power than before.
Separated by over a hundred li, with the aid of the Cold Mountain Celestial Stone Grand Formation, he was still no match for his opponent, and had even suffered internal injuries at the very first encounter. Truly worthy of being recognized as the strongest in demon race history... If not for the emergence of Zhou Duofu in the human world, perhaps a thousand years ago, he would have already become the master of this continent, wouldn't he?
The blizzard and celestial stones continued to clash without cease.
The Heavenly Mechanism Elder's complexion grew increasingly pale; he realized that the Cold Mountain Celestial Stone Grand Formation truly could not trap the other party.
But he had to persist, because if he could keep that middle-aged scholar trapped in Cold Mountain for even a moment longer, powerful reinforcements from the human world might arrive.
Whether it was the nearest Zhu Luo and the Star Gazer, or the fastest Infinite Green, as long as they rushed over, this sudden battle—which could very well alter the continent's situation—might gain a turning point, and the human world might seize the best opportunity in a thousand years.
……
……
The middle-aged scholar knew what the Heavenly Mechanism Elder was trying to do.
He did not believe this was a trap set by the human race, because until last night, neither the Strategist nor he himself had imagined that he would appear in Cold Mountain today.
After losing a move in the Central Plains back then, he had returned to Snow Old City and never emerged again—a thousand years had passed.
A great figure of his realm possessed his own heavenly destiny; his words, actions, and thoughts subtly aligned with the Heavenly Dao, making it difficult for others to scheme him into a trap.
White Emperor City was too far, and he was very certain that Heavenly Sea and the Pope were in the capital.
But if the Cold Mountain Celestial Stone Grand Formation truly delayed him for too long, the situation might indeed change.
He never liked change, because change often meant trouble.
Now it was his turn to make a choice.
Should he seize the time before change occurred, break the formation with all his strength, leave Cold Mountain, and return to his own domain? Or should he stay a little longer and first accomplish that matter?
When the Heavenly Mechanism Elder made the decision to sacrifice those human cultivators and demon experts on the mountain path and by the creek to trap him in Cold Mountain, he must have hesitated.
For him, at this moment, the choice required no hesitation—indeed, it could be said that no choice was needed.
Because in his view, accomplishing that matter would not take much time.
In his eyes, that youth was truly no different from an ant, even if that youth was a cultivation prodigy who had shaken the entire continent.
He no longer paid attention to those celestial stones slowly descending through the broken blizzard, withdrew his gaze, and looked back at the mountain path.
Chen Changsheng and those human cultivators were on the mountain path.
He was very calm, a faint, almost imperceptible smile even tugging at the corners of his lips.
As the middle-aged scholar's gaze fell again, the people on the mountain path were filled with despair.
Liu Qing on the grassy bank by the creek was also in despair.
Even Zhe Xiu and Tang Thirty-Six were in despair.
Chen Changsheng was not. Looking at the middle-aged scholar who smiled without speaking, he even inexplicably thought of someone he shouldn't have thought of at a time like this.
That middle-aged woman who had once sat opposite him drinking tea in the Hundred Herb Garden.
Perhaps because neither of them spoke, he felt that the middle-aged scholar and that middle-aged woman were somewhat similar.
Of course, he knew this must be an illusion.
Because he already knew who this middle-aged scholar was.
He knew what the other party had come for.
On that night when he was ten years old, the senior brother had fanned a palm-leaf fan all night, telling him that only a sage could control their greed and desire for him.
In the years that followed, he had been very careful to hide the strangeness of his body, until in the Zhou Garden, that fragrance was detected by the Roc and Nanke.
The middle-aged scholar was Nanke's father, so perhaps that was how he found out.
And he was certainly no sage.
He was a devil.
Chen Changsheng felt that under the middle-aged scholar's gaze, he was completely naked, lying on a wet chopping board, already disemboweled, covered in blood and filth.
He was not afraid of death, but he truly dreaded this feeling.
He did not want to be devoured like fish and meat.
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(One chapter today.) r1148