CHAPTER 472: CHAPTER 472: OLD HAUNT

In the Taixu Spirit Hub, within the realm of Netherworld Valley, a verdant forest spread across the land. A mild mountain breeze swept through the flora, rustling softly, accompanied by the sound of a distant spring like broken jade flowing through a tranquil valley, highlighting the serenity and solitude of the mountains.

A few unnamed little beasts, seemingly startled, hurriedly dashed out from a nearby bush and scattered. Soon after, the sound of clothes rubbing against scales came from behind the bushes. As the grass leaves swayed, a head emerged from the tall grass beside, followed by a young woman’s upper body rising, and then a long snake tail quickly slithered out from the forest.

The Snake Princess emerged from the thicket, her eyes widening as she looked at this lush place.

She had retracted those terrifying heads in advance, transforming into a half-human form that was no longer as frightening as before. She also mimicked the style of female disciples from Qianfeng Ling Mountain, changing herself into a simple, elegant outfit. If it weren’t for the long tail trailing behind, she would appear almost indistinguishable from a human.

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

However... she searched for a long time and couldn’t find the village from her memories.

The Snake Princess raised her upper body, straining to gaze into the distance of this faintly familiar hillside.

It should have been here—she still remembered the shape of this hillside, remembered seeing the outline of the distant mountain from this angle. On the way here, she even found that mountain spring, drank from it, and found that huge rock near the village where she rested for a quarter of an hour... It should have been here.

The Snake Princess slowly crawled forward, her initial excitement gradually turning to confusion, then unease, and finally evolving into a pensively calm state.

After a while, she finally discovered some remaining traces at the end of the hillside. She saw the roads once more concealed by bush and wild grass, the houses long abandoned for an unknown number of years, and the well that had been filled up.

She thought to herself, "That well was something I helped dig back then."

The sound of scales rubbing against dirt and stones was a soft rustling as she stopped by a large stone cave near the rock wall, silently watching the stone table and stools laden with dust inside the cave, along with a few pieces of scattered broken wood.

"Oh, right, it’s been many years now."

The Snake Princess murmured, slowly crawling into the cave, curling her tail among the broken wood, gazing blankly at the wild grass outside.

How long was she daydreaming?

She didn’t know either.

But suddenly, there were footsteps outside, along with a human scent—a voice that sounded aged came from outside the cave entrance, hesitantly, "Spirit Snake Lady, Spirit Snake Lady, have you returned?"

The Snake Princess was momentarily confused, initially thinking she heard wrong, but then immediately reacted, quickly poking her head out of the cave entrance.

An unfamiliar old man, hunched and bowed, stood beside the cave, peeking around with a basket in his hand.

The old man seemed startled but soon laughed, his face wrinkling into a smile, "It’s really you, it’s really you!"

He walked over, looking quite pleased, while the Snake Princess gazed at this human with perplexity. She couldn’t recall when she had ever seen this face, swiftly searching her memories but finding no match. Yet, the old man’s demeanor clearly showed he recognized her—so she tried harder to remember, finally sniffing when he got closer, vaguely discerning something from his scent.

The scent wasn’t quite the same as her memory either, so she hesitated until speaking, "...Child?"

"Yes, yes, yes—you still can’t remember my name," the old man delighted, almost dancing with joy, "I’m Song Shan, back then the adults called me Little Shan..."

"It’s really you?" The Snake Princess looked at him in surprise, happiness also welling up inside, but soon glanced around and couldn’t help asking, "Where... where did everyone go? How come the village is gone?"

"The people... most of them are no longer here, you’ve been away for nearly two hundred years," the now elderly Song Shan shook his head, "The village, too, was flattened over a hundred years ago."

The Snake Princess slowly lowered her head, "Who flattened it? Why was it flattened?"

"Because of poverty alleviation and reconstruction in the mountain village..."

Snake Princess: "...Ah?"

"Poverty alleviation and reconstruction in the mountain village, you know, the Immortal Masters in the mountain said that even the Eight Gates Star is out of poverty now. We were the only place poor year after year, so they decided to dismantle the entire village and relocate everyone to nearby towns. Now, the youngsters from the village all work in town."

The Snake Princess blinked, her expression turning peculiar after a long time, muttering, "Oh, so that’s... that’s pretty good."

Song Shan laughed, placing the basket he held onto a flat stone at the cave entrance, spreading a blue cloth on the stone, "I heard news that you might be returning these days, so I came here every day to check. Initially, I wanted to bring the younger ones to meet you, but they couldn’t handle hardships and didn’t want to climb the mountain... You haven’t eaten, right? I made this at home myself, I remember you liked eating crispy pastries..."

The Snake Princess looked blankly at this scene, memories resurfacing involuntarily in her mind. In a daze, it was as if she returned to many years ago, back when the village still existed. She remembered the old houses, the crooked little paths, and the children playing at the cave entrance, offering fruits, burning incense, mimicking adults in their game of worshiping the Mountain God—slender and small, the children in her memory were like little dark mountain monkeys, laying a bitten pastry in front of her cave...

The trembling old man slowly placed the pastries on the blue cloth, his arms slim, his waist bent—it seemed he was once robust, but those days had passed, and now he was slender and small again.

"You’ve grown old, child."

"And you... don’t seem to look like you did back then, either."

Snake Princess slowly moved beside the large stone, gazing behind the old man: "What happened to the children who played with you way back then?"

The old man paused for a moment, then shook his head slowly: "Dong and Liu Zi left a hundred years ago, Liu Aniu and Sanniang passed over twenty years ago, just leaving me..."

He lifted his head, smiling at the Snake Princess: "The few of us all hoped to wait for your return, and we all found a teacher to learn some basic Daoist techniques. But none of us succeeded much; I was perhaps somewhat diligent, managing to make up for lack of talent with hard work, which led me down the path, allowing me to luckily live these two hundred years—otherwise, today, there’d be no one here to bring you cakes."

Snake Princess fell silent for a while, those names slowly matched up with the equally blurry faces in her muddled memory. She murmured softly in reflection: "I never saw what any of you looked like grown up..."

"You actually did."

Snake Princess lifted her head in confusion.

"We came to see you," the old man said slowly, placing the basket beside the large stone, "When everyone was still around, we would go visit the Qianfeng Ling Mountain every few years. The Immortal Master of the Spirit Mountain took us to see you—but back then, you couldn’t recognize us. Later, when the others were no longer there, I went to see you a few times myself. The Immortal Master there said, although you couldn’t recognize people anymore, regularly seeing familiar faces would help suppress your Heart Demon. True Man Yuanhe also mentioned that when you saw us, you would become much quieter...

"The last time I saw you at the Demon Suppression Tower, you could already speak to people, although at that time you were cursing... but it was only cursing.

"Now, you can recognize me."

The old man smiled, picking up a piece of crispy cake and handing it over: "Have a taste."

Snake Princess hesitated for a moment, slowly and clumsily stretching out her hand, but failing to catch it. The cake fell onto the stone.

"I... I’m still not good at using ’hands,’" she said somewhat embarrassedly, "Old... Yuan He only taught me how to transform my shape, but hasn’t had time to teach me how to use these arms and fingers."

"No worries, no worries," the old man said quickly, then smiled and directly brought the crispy cake to the Snake Princess’s mouth, "I’ll feed you, just like before."

The crispy cake was delicious, the bean paste pastry was also delicious.

The fruit was delicious too.

Of course, these wild mountain fares couldn’t compare to the exquisite fruits and pastries on Qianfeng Ling Mountain, but Snake Princess felt as though she’d not tasted anything so good in many years.

She finished everything in the basket, even drinking all of the homemade wine Song Shan had brought.

Wine brewed by ordinary people was very weak, its taste and contained Spiritual Power were as thin as water for a demon immortal, but she still ended up drunk, dizzy, and told Song Shan many things in one breath.

About Qianfeng Ling Mountain, about the Demon Suppression Tower, about the strange stone sphere at the base of the tower, and the peculiar beings imprisoned in the tower, and those disciples constantly scolded as ’Wayward Disciples’ by Yuan He and Yuanling, and recently a group of strange people called ’travel agency’ who arrived at Qianfeng Ling Mountain...

She actually didn’t quite understand many things; she didn’t know what ’Dark Angel’ meant nor what it meant for an Expert from Boundary Land. She gained enlightenment in the mountain forests, lived life in a small village, and drifted aimlessly in the Demon Suppression Tower for two hundred years. To her, this world was like a chaotic tangle of grass, all jumbled and chaotic.

Yet she never felt anything wrong with it because life has always been this way.

With her understanding, she shared many stories of the Immortal Mountain with Song Shan, who had low cultivation level, talking until the sky darkened.

Song Shan had to leave.

Returning late would inevitably cause worry—ordinary people lived briefly but were prolific, this once dark little boy had now branched out into a whole family as "Old Grandfather."

Snake Princess gazed at the gradually darkening clouds at the horizon, thinking they resembled the Cloud Sea atop Qianfeng Ling Mountain.

"Do you want me to escort you down the mountain?" she looked at the elderly man, "You are quite old now."

"No need, although I’m old, I have some cultivation level, I can treat the mountain trek as a leisurely stroll," Song Shan shook his head but then seemed to recall something, gazing at the ’Spirit Snake Lady’ outside the cave in the dimming twilight, "Do you have a place to go to? If you’re okay with it, you can come to my home."

Snake Princess pondered seriously.

It was almost dark; beneath the distant clouds, several colorful plumes of flame faintly rose. They seemed like fireworks from a nearby town, part of some celebration; it was fired rather early, yet it looked beautiful as it exploded amidst the dimming twilight.

"No," Snake Princess ultimately shook her head, "Knowing you all have lived well after I’ve gone comforts me. Head back, and if there’s ever a chance... I’ll come find you."

Saying this, she thought for a moment and added, "I have a keen sense of smell, I’ll be able to find your home—now, I need to return home myself."