Zu An continued staring at the screen in the sky.
After the Mermaid Queen ascended, Feng Meng spent a while venting his anger before leaving in frustration. Wu Mountain reverted to normal, and nothing else happened afterward.
Zu An was infuriated. That Feng Meng deserves to die!
But now wasn’t the time to settle the score yet. He had to first look for the Mermaid Queen on the moon.
“Where’s the moon?” Zu An asked the Goddess of Wu Mountain. Unlike on Earth, the moon in this world wasn't a planetary body floating in the universe. Similar to how Xihe, the mother of the ten suns, lived in the Scalding Valley, the moon existed in a physical location too.
The Goddess of Wu Mountain spent a moment in thought before replying, “I remember there being a place called the Frost Palace at a remote location in the Celestial Court...”
Zu An nodded in comprehension. The Frost Palace was likely where the moon was, so he began to set off.
The Goddess of Wu Mountain advised him, “A war is raging right now, and there is currently unrest in the Celestial Court. It’ll be extremely risky to head over right now.”
Zu An replied, “I have to make the trip no matter how risky it is. I can’t let her stay there alone.”
He had already shot down the suns. What was there to fear from the moon?
Seeing that he had made up his mind, the Goddess of Wu Mountain said, “Give me a moment.”
She took out a jade bottle and pointed it at the sky. Shortly after, a droplet of moon-white fluid descended from the fog. Zu An widened his eyes at the familiar fluid. “That’s the teardrop from the Mermaid Queen!”
The Goddess of Wu Mountain nodded as she stowed the droplet into her jade bottle. This was the teardrop shed by the Mermaid Queen out of extreme sorrow when she thought that she would never meet Zu An ever again.
“So this is how the Defying Spirit Tear is formed.” Ji Xiaoxi, as a medical expert, swiftly noticed the extraordinariness of the teardrop. “But it’s lacking something.”
The Goddess of Wu Mountain had a worried frown. “We’ll go with you.”
Zu An hesitated but didn’t turn her down. He was worried that if he left them here, another Feng Meng could appear to harm the ladies. So, he quickly made his way to the sacred tree Jianmu with the ladies.
After Zhuanxu severed heaven from earth, this was the only remaining road to the Celestial Court. If one were to simply fly upward, one would only reach outer space and not the Celestial Court.
It didn’t take long for them to return to Jianmu, only to find the passageway sealed. It turned out that after regaining control of the Celestial Court, Zhuanxu had decided to temporarily seal the tree's passage to safeguard against retaliation from Dijun’s subordinates.
Zu An’s heart sank. He hadn’t expected such a thing to happen. I shouldn’t have left the Celestial Court so quickly! But then again, he wouldn’t have known about the Mermaid Queen’s plight if he hadn’t returned to Wu Mountain.
The Goddess of Wu Mountain consoled Zu An, “You don’t need to be too worried. The Frost Palace should be far from the war between the Shamans and the Fiends, so Miss Chang’e is at least safe for the time being.”
Zu An knew that too; it was just that he felt terrible not knowing when the two of them could reunite. He said, “Since I can’t meet her for the time being, I’ll first settle my scores.”
The Goddess of Wu Mountain was worried. “There appears to have been someone behind Feng Meng. Feng Meng is already formidable as he is; his master is bound to be even more so.”
“I already have a rough idea who it is.” Zu An recalled the words Xihe had secretly told him while they were embracing. The doubts he had were slowly unraveling.
“Big brother Zu, I’ll go with you,” Xie Daoyun said. Now that she had made huge advancements in her cultivation, she was confident that she would be able to help.
“I’ll go too.” The Goddess of Wu Mountain was worried about leaving him be.
“I want to go too!” Ji Xiaoxi raised her hand.
Zu An burst into laughter. “You're severely injured, and your soul is impaired. How can you come with me when you’re already struggling as it is?”
Ji Xiaoxi stuck out her tongue and murmured wretchedly, “I’m so useless that I can’t help big brother Zu at all.”
The Goddess of Wu Mountain argued, “It’s too dangerous for you to go alone.”
Zu An pondered briefly before nodding. “You’re right. Let’s return to Wu Mountain first. We need to make some preparations.”
The Goddess of Wu Mountain was hugely relieved to see that he was no longer planning to move recklessly. “All right.”
Xie Daoyun frowned at the sight. Zu An’s proposal to return to Wu Mountain was so smooth that it almost sounded as if that was his home. She had been watching the situation all along, so she was aware of how the two of them had become acquainted.
She still remembered how cold the Goddess of Wu Mountain was when they first met. When did they become so close?
...
The group made their way back to Wu Mountain. Due to her weak soul, Ji Xiaoxi soon fell asleep.
Xie Daoyun told Zu An about what happened after she was transported away by the Nature Jade Plate and unwittingly became the Fiend races’ Saintess Yumen Beiqing. Similarly, she also learned about what had happened recently from Zu An.
She wanted to continue chatting with Zu An, but her soul was also shaken from being possessed by Xihe. Before she knew it, she had also fallen asleep in her lover’s arms.
Zu An carried her to a room and placed her down. He considered lying down too, but he couldn’t sleep at all. Too many things had happened recently. He went out to the cliff where the Mermaid Queen had jumped down from. He looked at the bright moon in the sky. Gong Suyin must be feeling lonely there.
He felt bitter regret at how he had initially avoided her despite her determined advances.
“Are you thinking about Miss Chang’e?” the Goddess of Wu Mountain asked gently from behind.
Zu An turned around. Under the cold moonlight, the Goddess of Wu Mountain looked ravishing. “Goddess, you haven’t gone to sleep yet?”
“Don’t call me 'goddess'. Call me Yaoji instead.” The Goddess of Wu Mountain blinked. “We are friends, aren’t we?”
Zu An understood what she was getting at and replied, “My real name is Zu An.”
“I know.” The Goddess of Wu Mountain chuckled. She tidied up her skirt before sitting down beside him.
“You know?”
“The ladies around you have been calling you big brother Zu. I’m not a fool.”
Zu An felt apologetic. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to deceive you.”
The Goddess of Wu Mountain wasn’t bothered by it. She looked at the moon in the sky and asked, “Miss Chang’e probably isn’t Chang’e either, right? I recall you all calling her the Mermaid Queen?”
“Indeed...” Zu An thought about how they had been through so many life-and-death situations, realizing that it would be heartless for him to continue putting distance between them. Thus, he decided to tell her the truth about their backgrounds.
“I see. You aren’t from this period in spacetime...” The Goddess of Wu Mountain lowered her head contemplatively. The anomalies she had noticed finally made sense, and it made her realize why a droplet was missing from the Defying Spirit Tear...
Zu An wanted to apologize again when the Goddess of Wu Mountain raised her head and looked at him with her beautiful, starry eyes. “Big brother Zu, can you tell me more about you and Miss Pei?”
Zu An was taken aback. He hadn’t expected her to make such a request. I guess she must be curious, given how much they resemble each other.
Thus, he told her how he first met Pei Mianman and everything that had happened afterward.
When she heard about the decades they had spent as a couple in the Yinxu dungeon, the Goddess of Wu Mountain blushed. It reminded her of what she had seen not long ago in an illusion.
Was that really an illusion...