Where the white clouds scattered, there was a verdant valley.
The valley was very quiet and full of oddly-shaped vines. From time to time, one could hear the growls of powerful demonic beasts in the forest near the cliff. However, none of the demonic beasts dared to approach this place, because there was a majestic ancient temple here, and also because there were two people living in the ancient temple.
The old man asked in confusion, "You've been living in seclusion for hundreds of years. It's not easy for you to go out. Why are you back so soon?"
The man smiled and said, "It's not like we didn't gain anything. At least we got a glimpse of that young man."
The old man asked, "Did you go there just to see that young man?"
The man replied, "That youth is a disciple of Shang and is highly regarded by Yin. Little Tianhai even specially invited Tianji to visit him, so I can't help but be curious."
The old man said, "You don't look like someone who would return to the mortal world out of curiosity."
The man said, "That youth obtained my notebook and the Heavenly Tome Monoliths, and attracted a night of starlight in the Mausoleum of Books. Many people say that he is very similar to me in the past, so he is naturally different from me."
The old man asked, "Then what did you see?"
The man's expression turned grave as he said, "That young man … is about to die."
The old man was shocked and asked, "Then what should we do?"
The man walked to the front of the main hall of the ancient temple and looked at the dilapidated Buddha. He said, "Everyone wants to go against heaven and change their fate, but they don't know that all karma is within karma. The more they want to change their fate, the more they can't leave the river of fate. I can't see what his fate will be like in the end. In the end, it still depends on him."
"What about Qiu Shan Jun and Xu You Rong? When are you going to take a look? "
"We'll see." The man looked at the sky outside the temple and said, "It's going to rain. Let's finish today's painting quickly."
The exterior of this ancient temple was extremely dilapidated. It was unknown how many years it had been abandoned. The Buddha statues in the halls of the temple were the same. However, the inheritance of the Buddhist Sect had long been lost on the mainland, and ordinary people had never heard of it, so this scene was quite normal. In fact, the fact that this ancient temple could still exist until now was something that no one could understand.
However, the murals on the stone walls of the ancient temple were very complete. Some of them even looked very new. It was obvious that they had been added in recent years.
Those murals were extremely beautiful. It could even be said that it was impossible to find such an outstanding painter in the world today.
If Chen Chang Sheng were to look at these murals, he would definitely be reminded of the portraits in the Pavilion of Ascending Mist.
The old man stood on the wooden frame, holding a paintbrush against the wall in preparation for work. In the end, he could not help but say, "I really should have tried it just now."
The man was sitting on a broken bell in front of the hall, slowly drinking from a pot of spring water. Hearing this, he smiled and said, "I can't beat him."
The elder put down the brush in his hand and looked out of the hall. "Last year, Su Li was outside Xuelao City …"
The man didn't answer the question and just stared into the distance.
The old man sighed in his heart and stopped asking questions.
At the time, the Demon Lord was in Xuelao City and Black Robe was outside, so how could he do anything? How could he do it?
…
…
On the shore of the Red River, at the top of White Emperor City, the cloud slowly descended and then vanished. Whether it was ominous or auspicious was hard to say.
On the Dew Platform, the Tianhai Divine Empress no longer looked north, turning and walking down the platform.
In the depths of the Li Palace, the Pope gazed pensively at the Green Leaf. Neither his posture nor his expression had changed.
The darkness enveloping Mount Han slowly tore apart and then drifted into the distance. The world returned to daytime. By the lake at the summit, the Elder of Heavenly Secrets lightly wiped the blood from the corner of his lips and gazed north into the depths of the snowy plains. A hint of turbidity appeared in his ancient eyes, making it somewhat difficult to see what lay ahead.
A scholar appeared at the southern foothills of Mount Han. The red flower tied to his pinky finger was stained with the dust of several thousand li, no longer as bright as before. A man wearing a bamboo hat appeared in the small town outside the memorial arch of Mount Han. His cheeks, rusted by the sea breeze, were brimming with solemnity. They had come too late. The middle-aged scholar had already left Mount Han, but they did not leave. Together with the two Prefects of the Orthodoxy, each wielding a precious treasure, they vigilantly guarded the perimeter of Mount Han, guarding against any strange movements.
On the long battlefront in the north of the continent, the Great Zhou Northern Army and the cultivators dispatched by the sects and noble clans of the south to reinforce the north received secret orders from the various armies and began to nervously prepare for battle. The demi-human army began to move along the Red River, advancing to the snowy plains to the northwest. On the way, they slaughtered a small demon tribe.
Yet neither the Divine Generals of the Great Zhou Imperial Court that had issued the order to mobilize troops nor the leaders of the sects and noble clans of the south knew why all this was happening. The army headquarters and caves were filled with the sounds of discussion. The atmosphere became abnormally tense, making everyone feel extremely uneasy.
As for the common people of the small village outside Mount Han and the people of the capital, they knew even less about these matters. They cooked, worked, and lived as usual. They had no idea that on this seemingly normal summer day, after a thousand years, the war between the humans, demi-humans, and demons had almost erupted once more.
All this was because … the Demon Lord had left Xuelao City.
He went to Mount Han, and then he left Mount Han.
… …
… …
Very few people knew that the Demon Lord had returned to the Central Plains.
And even fewer people knew that when the Demon Lord left Mount Han and returned to Xuelao City, he had encountered a person in the snowy plains.
Even after a very long time, this meeting would not be known by the common people, yet it was the most important meeting in this entire affair.
They had never met, but they had not met by chance.
That person had been waiting in the snowy plains for the Demon Lord for a very long time.
Wind and snow filled the sky. That person's entire body was white, from his hair to his clothes, from his eyebrows to his lips, everything was white.
It was not a white painted by snow. This white was even whiter than snow, so white that it was terrifying, so white that it was terrifying.
From one thousand years ago to now, there were not many people that could calculate the Demon Lord's return path, wait for him on the road, and even dare to wait for him here.
To be more precise, that person was not a person, but a great demon of world-shaking cultivation.
The White Emperor of the west.
… …
… …
One thousand years ago, the demons had moved south and the continent was thrown into turmoil. Experts emerged in large numbers and left behind countless battles that would go down in history. Of these, the most famous were naturally the battle between Zhou Xuanba and Emperor Taizong in Luoyang, as well as the battle to the death between him and the Demon Lord. There was another battle that was even more secretive, but in terms of the cultivation levels of the two combatants and the intensity of the battle, it was definitely not one bit inferior to the previous two battles. It was the battle between Chen Xuanba and Zhou Dufu, the strongest beneath the starry sky experts in the Garden of Zhou.
With Chen Xuanba's death, Zhou Dufu's disappearance, and Emperor Taizong's life returning to the sea of stars, of the four strongest people of the continent, only the Demon Lord remained. In the following one thousand years, there were no more heaven-shaking battles like those three. There had not even been a battle that approached that level.
Until today, when they met in the snowy plains.
Since they had met, they naturally had to fight.
… …
… …
(I need to prepare for my journey back to the Qing Kingdom. It will probably take around seven days on the road. I need to prepare a draft and am currently working on it. I wish everyone a happy weekend. See you tomorrow.)
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