After displaying such “great” anger, Kunlun immediately reverted to the faint, gentle smile she usually wore and began questioning Little Chuci on exactly where she had gone.
Little Chuci said she had originally been digging in the dirt, playing at unearthing monsters, when she heard a peculiar noise, like something rustling through deep leaf litter. Thinking she’d dug up a new demon, she followed the sound. It was just strange that such a large sound was made by only a tiny snake. Curious, she brought it back.
Kunlun thought for a moment. “That’s odd. No movement on Kunlun Mountain escapes my ears. But this snake… Meng Zhaozhong, have you seen it in the mountains?”
Meng Zhaozhong shook his head.
Kunlun asked Little Chuci again: “Where exactly did you find it?”
Little Chuci giggled, reached out to tug Kunlun’s pinky finger, then dragged her off to the location. The path they took was a scene of utter devastation. Shrubs had been uprooted, lying scattered and sprawling on the ground. Tall Silver Fir Trees looked as if a massive force had forcibly twisted their trunks, bending them in midair into the shape of a lotus flower.
—Mountain Saint, Mountain Saint, save us!
—Little Lord Chu pulled us out! If we aren’t replanted soon, a thousand years of cultivation will be ruined!
—Mountain Saint, if this little tree isn’t straightened soon, I’ll never grow straight again! Please, Mountain Saint, save us!
These trees had all spawned tree spirits. Seeing Kunlun approach, they wailed and wept in unison, their cries echoing across the mountain wilderness. Kunlun Mountain hadn’t been this lively in a very long time.
Kunlun: “…”
Meng Zhaozhong: “…”
Jiang Yang: “…”
Little Chuci looked left, looked right, highly satisfied with her own achievements. Her two ears twitched with gleeful energy. “Heehee.”
The noise was making Kunlun’s head feel like it would split. She rubbed her forehead. “Meng Zhaozhong, you stay here. Replant what needs planting, straighten the trees that need straightening, then head straight back to the courtyard. We’ll return soon.”
Kunlun had initially wondered how Little Chuci, still so small and without her magical power restored, could possibly wreak havoc like before, turning Kunlun Mountain upside down. Upon seeing the place she mentioned—the ground covered in mounds of earth, several impossibly deep pits, with the lingering, residual aura of demonic creatures—she understood.
In the past, when Chuci possessed world-shaking divine powers, she caused trouble herself. Now that she was powerless, she could just command a bunch of big demons and little demons to do it for her. Truly, a prodigious talent.
This “talent” was completely unbothered, holding up her two little arms before Kunlun as if seeking praise.
Kunlun waved her hand gently, cleaning the dirty white cape. Then she crouched down and opened her arms. Little Chuci naturally and automatically wrapped her arms around Kunlun’s neck, clinging to her entirely, and promptly threw the snake in her hand to the ground.
Jiang Yang: “…”
Jiang Yang had been picked up not far from this area of large pits, where the forest was dense enough to almost blot out the sky and sun. Kunlun circled this region once, then stopped on a patch of earth. She took a pinch of soil, smelled it by her nose, and her expression subtly darkened.
—The aura of a great demon with profound magical power.
Jiang Yang was truly unlucky. She hadn’t thought to check her fortune before heading out. Originally, she planned to silently enter Kunlun Mountain, then approach Little Chuci in human form. Who knew this seemingly simple mountain gate would be crawling with demons upon landing? Some little creatures, failing to fly properly in the sky, would fall whole and be swallowed by demons instantly. With her power, she naturally wasn’t afraid. However, upon encountering a fellow demon, her body reacted faster than her mind, reverting to her original form. The demon was scared off, but her cover was also blown.
The only silver lining was that she had long since learned to suppress the size of her original form. Even under instinct, she only revealed one-tenth of her true size. Had she fully transformed, Kunlun back home might have seen her with a single glance, and Meng Zhaozhong could witness exactly what a Cultivated Snake larger than a Divine Dragon looked like.
After being discovered, she simply decided to go all in, shrinking to her childhood size, letting Little Chuci pick her up for the second time.
Anyway, back to the matter. After being tossed aside by Little Chuci, Jiang Yang was picked up by Kunlun instead. Kunlun stared into her amber snake eyes for a long time. Her lips parted, then closed again, swallowing her words.
—Have I seen you somewhere before?
Because she gave her heart to Nuwa to mend the heavens, she treasured her memories from these countless years even more preciously.
But worldly affairs often go against one’s wishes. The more you want to remember, the faster you forget. A year, two years—you might say you still remember. But after thousands, tens of thousands of years, truthfully, Kunlun had almost forgotten even Chuci’s appearance. She always remembered that Chuci was extremely fond of cleanliness, yet also extremely playful, getting herself covered in mud and grime. And she wouldn’t spare Kunlun either, dragging her to bathe in the waterfall several times a day.
Afterwards, Chuci would shake the water off her body, turn into her original form, just slightly larger than a person, and let Kunlun lean against her warm, furry belly to sleep. Kunlun actually didn’t enjoy playing much, but she loved such quiet moments, so she let Chuci run wild and wreak havoc as she pleased.
If she couldn’t even remember the face of the one she loved, how could Kunlun possibly remember clearly the appearance of a little Cultivated Snake Chuci had picked up from outside one day, fifty thousand years after they’d first met?
When Jiang Yang received Chuci’s summons and feigned joining the gods and buddhas of Heaven in besieging the Demon King, Kunlun had long since vanished. The secret of the Heaven-repair material—that story was known to no one in all the world except Kunlun, Meng Zhaozhong, and Nuwa, who had used the Five-Colored Stone to mend the heavens.
Later generations remembered Houtu and Nuwa, but no one knew what that Divine Lord, sitting in silent solitude on Kunlun Mountain for ten thousand years, had sacrificed back then.
Looking at Kunlun’s dazed, lost expression, Jiang Yang inexplicably felt that this person was truly pitiable. She had met Kunlun before. Kunlun lived on Kunlun Mountain Peak, shrouded in pure air, a place without a trace of evil or filth. Her smile, limpid and bright, was purer than anything in the world. There always seemed to be the fragrance of fresh snow and bamboo on her green sleeves. In the mountains, all the birds would gather and sing around her, and flowers would bloom in succession at her passing.
If seeing Chuci inspired awe and submission from the depths of one’s heart, then seeing her made one involuntarily want to draw close, to love and revere her. Like the clear wind’s love for drifting clouds, like all creation’s love for the earth—simple and sincere.
This person had such charisma. That was why someone as proud and unruly as Chuci would also wish to carefully treasure her in the palm of her hand.
But now it’s not like that anymore, Jiang Yang thought. She seemed… old. Her appearance hadn’t changed, but her spirit was being drained away, strand by strand.
“Kunlun?” Seeing her silent, Little Chuci shook Kunlun’s neck. What she received in return was…
Smack—
Little Chuci: “!”
Jiang Yang: “!”
The King—even if currently the Tiny King—had actually been! Spanked on the bottom!
Should this matter be reported to the Great King in Heaven later or not?
Little Chuci clearly hadn’t reacted yet. She remained dumbstruck for the time it takes an incense stick to burn. Kunlun carried her back, Jiang Yang following behind. What a joke. Even if not for the mission given by the King, just for the spectacle of Tiny King getting her bottom spanked, she had to follow and see.
How very rare!
After a long while, a child’s shriek exploded from the mountain forest, startling birds into flight: “Surname Kun, given name Lun, you actually dared to hit me!!!”
“Surname Chu, given name Ci, so what if I hit you? How many times did I tell you before not to run down the mountain? Don’t run down the mountain! Look how far down you’ve gone. Do you know there was the aura of a great demon back there? At least tens of thousands of years of cultivation. Luckily, it was just passing through. If it had settled on Kunlun Mountain, I might not even be able to suppress it!”
“You hit me, and I’ll still say it. Meng Zhaozhong said a little child like you needs to be properly educated, not left to run wild. Don’t rely on having been the Demon King before to go recklessly provoking others. A tiny little demon whelp like you, if someone swallowed you and hid in the Myriad Demon Grotto, I wouldn’t even be able to find your bone fragments.”
“Hiss—go ahead and bite. Anyway, you’ve bitten through who knows how many of my clothes growing up. My original body is stone; biting me only hurts your own teeth.”
Little Chuci licked the blood off Kunlun’s neck, watched the wound heal at visible speed, then retracted her fangs and docilely lay back down on her.
Jiang Yang thought inwardly: Should I tell the Big King about this segment too?
She was still pondering what to report in Heaven when Kunlun caught her completely off guard.
“Meng Zhaozhong, this Cultivated Snake is yours. You raise her. Weren’t you wanting to see how big it could get? Now you’ll find out.”
Jiang Yang: “…”
Wait, why was this completely different from what she’d envisioned? What happened to being adopted by Tiny King again?
“Thank you, Mountain Saint,” Meng Zhaozhong said. “Looking at your green head, let’s call you Little Green. My name is Meng Zhaozhong, a name given by Mountain Saint. Because my whole body is white, the people in my clan also call me Little White.”
