Chapter 472: Old Ground

Within the Void Spirit Pivot, in Nethermist Valley, a stretch of mountain forest was lush and verdant. A cool mountain breeze rustled through the grass and trees, and from the woods came faint rustling sounds, along with the sound of a spring flowing from afar, like broken jade trickling through a secluded valley, making the mountains seem even more quiet and solitary.

A few small, unknown beasts seemed startled and hurried out of the nearby bushes, scattering in all directions. Then, from behind the bushes came the sound of clothing rubbing against scales, accompanied by the shaking of grass leaves. A head first emerged from the tall grass beside the path, followed by a young woman's upper body rising up, and then a long snake tail swiftly slithered out of the woods behind her.

Snake Lady crawled out of the thicket and stared wide-eyed at this lush, verdant place.

She had already withdrawn her terrifying heads in advance, transforming into a half-human form, her posture no longer as frightening as before. Imitating the female disciples of Thousand-Peak Spirit Mountain, she had even transformed a simple, elegant outfit for herself. If not for the long tail dragging behind her lower body, she would have looked almost completely human.

She was afraid of scaring everyone—after all, it had been many years since she had last returned.

But she searched for a long time and couldn't find the village she remembered in her memories.

Snake Lady raised her upper body, trying hard to look far into the distance across this vaguely familiar hillside.

It should be right here—she remembered the shape of this hillside, the silhouette of the distant mountain when viewed from this angle. On the way here, she had even found that mountain spring, drank from it, and found the huge rock near the village, resting on it for a quarter of an hour. It should be right here.

Snake Lady slowly crawled forward. Her expression gradually shifted from initial excitement to confusion, then confusion turned into unease, and finally settled into a contemplative calm.

Then, after a while, she finally discovered some remnants of traces at the end of the hillside. She saw the entrance of a path overgrown again by bushes and wild grass, houses abandoned for who knows how many years, and a well that had been filled in.

She had helped dig that well back then, she thought.

The sound of scales scraping against dirt and stone, rustling and rustling. She stopped beside a large stone cave near a cliff, silently staring at the dusty stone table and stone stools inside, along with a few broken pieces of wood scattered around the cave.

"Oh, right, it's already been many years."

Snake Lady muttered, slowly crawling into the cave. She curled her tail among the broken wood and stared blankly at the wild grass outside.

How long did she stare blankly?

She didn't know.

But suddenly, footsteps came from outside, along with the smell of a person. A voice that sounded elderly came from outside the cave entrance, tinged with hesitation: "Lady Spirit Snake, Lady Spirit Snake, is that you who has returned?"

Snake Lady was dazed, initially thinking she had misheard, but then she quickly reacted and thrust her head out of the cave.

A bent, hunchbacked old man she didn't recognize was standing beside the cave, peering this way, carrying a basket in his hand.

The old man seemed startled, but then immediately broke into a smile, his face wrinkling up: "It really is you! It really is you!"

He walked over, looking quite happy. But Snake Lady only looked at the human in front of her with confusion. She couldn't remember when she had seen this face before. She quickly searched every face in her memory, but none matched. Yet the old man clearly knew her—so she tried even harder to recall. Only when he drew closer did she finally sniff, vaguely identifying something from his scent.

That scent, too, was somewhat different from what she remembered, so even when she spoke, she was still hesitant: "…Kid?"

"Right, right, right—you still can't remember my name," the old man said cheerfully, almost gesticulating with joy. "My name is Song Shan. Back then, the adults used to call me Little Mountain…"

"It's really you?" Snake Lady looked at him in surprise, a genuine happiness rising in her heart. But then she looked around and couldn't help asking, "Everyone… where did they go? Why is the village gone?"

"The… most of the people are no longer here. You've been gone for nearly two hundred years," said Song Shan, now in his eighties or nineties, shaking his head. "The village too—it was leveled over a hundred years ago."

Snake Lady slowly lowered her head: "Who leveled it? Why?"

"Poverty alleviation and relocation of mountain villages…"

Snake Lady: "…Ah?"

"Poverty alleviation and relocation of mountain villages. The immortals in the mountains said that even the Eight Gates Star had been lifted out of poverty, but this place of ours kept getting poor year after year despite efforts. So they simply disbanded the whole village and moved everyone to a few nearby towns. Now the young folks from the village all work in those towns."

Snake Lady blinked, and after a long while, she muttered with a strange expression: "Oh, so that's it… That's good, then."

Song Shan smiled, placed the basket he was carrying on a flat rock by the cave entrance, and then spread a blue cloth that had been covering the basket onto the stone: "I heard word that you might return in the next couple of days, so I've come here every day to check. I originally wanted to bring the younger generations to pay respects to you, but the kids can't endure hardship—they don't want to climb the mountain… You haven't eaten yet, have you? This is something I made at home. I remember you like crispy cakes…"

Snake Lady stared blankly at this scene. In her mind, distant memories surfaced unbidden. In a daze, it was as if she had returned to many years ago, to when the village still existed. She recalled those old houses, the crooked little paths, and the children who placed fruits and burned incense in front of her cave, imitating the adults' games of mountain god worship. In her memory, those children were skinny and small, like dark little mountain monkeys, grabbing a half-eaten crispy cake and placing it in front of her cave…

The trembling, unsteady old man slowly set the cakes on the blue cloth. His arms were thin, his back was stooped—he seemed to have been robust once, but those days were gone, and now he was skinny and small again.

"You've gotten so old, kid."

"You… don't look the same as you did back then, either."

Snake Lady slowly moved closer to the big rock, looking behind the old man: "What about the other kids you used to play with?"

The old man paused in his movements and slowly shook his head: "Brother Dong and Sixth passed away a hundred years ago. Liu Aniu and Third Sister passed away over twenty years ago. Only I'm left…"

He looked up at Snake Lady and smiled: "We all wanted to wait for you to come back. We all learned some crude Daoist arts from the masters, but none of us amounted to much. I was at least somewhat diligent, and by making up for lack of talent with hard work, I barely managed to get my foot in the door. I was lucky enough to live these two hundred years. Otherwise, there would be no one to bring you cakes today."

Snake Lady was silent for a moment. Those names gradually matched faces—also vague—in her messy, blurry memories. In her recollection, she murmured softly: "I never saw you all grow up…"

"You actually did."

Snake Lady looked up in confusion.

"We went to see you," the old man said slowly, placing the basket beside the big rock. "When everyone was still around, we would go to Thousand-Peak Spirit Mountain every few years. The immortals there would take us to visit you—but back then, you couldn't recognize us. Later, after they were gone, I went to see you a few times myself. The immortals there said that even though you couldn't recognize people, seeing familiar faces often could help suppress your inner demons. That Elder Yuanhe even said that when you saw us, you would always be much calmer…

"The last time I saw you in the Spirit Sealing Tower, you could already speak to people. Although at the time you were cursing… it was only cursing.

"Now, you can even recognize me."

The old man smiled and picked up a piece of crispy cake, handing it over: "Try it."

Snake Lady hesitated, then reached out slowly and clumsily. But she didn't catch it, and the cake fell onto the stone.

"I… I'm still not very good at using 'hands,'" she said a bit awkwardly. "That Elder Yuanhe only taught me transformation; he didn't have time to teach me how to use these extra arms and fingers."

"It's fine, it's fine," the old man quickly said, then smiled as he picked up the cake and brought it directly to Snake Lady's lips. "Then let me feed you. I've fed you before."

The crispy cakes were delicious, and the bean paste pastries were delicious too.

The fruits were also delicious.

Of course, these rustic offerings couldn't compare to the exquisite fruits and snacks on Thousand-Peak Spirit Mountain, but Snake Lady felt she hadn't eaten anything so good in many years.

She finished everything in the basket and even drank all the wine Song Shan had brought, a flask of homemade brew.

The wine brewed by ordinary people was very weak. For a demon immortal, both the flavor and the spiritual energy it contained were as thin as water, but she still got tipsy, dizzy, and in one breath told Song Shan all sorts of things.

About Thousand-Peak Spirit Mountain, about the Spirit Sealing Tower, about the strange stone ball at the bottom of the tower, about the bizarre creatures imprisoned there, about the disciples on the mountain whom Elder Yuanhe and Elder Yuanling always called 'prodigal brats,' and about those strange people who had recently come to Thousand-Peak Spirit Mountain and were called the Traveler's Society…

She didn't really understand many of these things. She didn't know what a 'Gloom Angel' meant, nor what it meant for an expert from the Borderlands to come. She had attained enlightenment in the mountain forests, spent her days in the small village, and muddled through two centuries in the Spirit Sealing Tower. This world was nothing but a bizarre, chaotic thicket of grass to her—everything was a mess.

Yet she never felt that anything was wrong, because life had always been like this.

Using her own understanding, she told Song Shan, this 'mortal' of low cultivation, many tales about the immortal mountain, until the sky grew dark.

Song Shan had to go back.

If he returned too late, he would inevitably be missed—mortals lived very short lives but were very prolific, and this formerly dark-skinned little kid had now branched out into a large family, becoming a respected 'old ancestor.'

Snake Lady gazed at the clouds darkening in the sky on the horizon and thought they looked a bit like the sea of clouds over Thousand-Peak Spirit Mountain.

"Should I escort you down the mountain?" she asked the old man before her. "You're very old now."

"No need. I have some cultivation after all; climbing over mountains and crossing ridges is just like a casual stroll to me," Song Shan shook his head. But then, as if remembering something, in the fading light he looked at the 'Lady Spirit Snake' in front of the cave. "Do you have somewhere to go? If you don't mind, you could come to my home."

Snake Lady thought about it very seriously.

Dusk was falling. Beneath the distant glow of clouds, a few colorful fireballs faintly rose into the air. They seemed to be fireworks from a nearby town, part of a celebration. The fireworks had been set off a bit early, but they looked beautiful as they exploded against the darkening evening sky.

"No," Snake Lady finally shook her head. "Knowing that you've all lived well after I left is enough to put my mind at ease. Go back. If there's a chance in the future… I'll come find you."

Having said that, she thought for a moment and added, "My nose is very sharp—I can find your home. Now, I have to go home too."