Side Story: Undying

A verdant mountain rises into the clouds, with a massive fissure splitting its peak and plunging downwards to a depth of nearly a hundred meters.

A deep blue river stretches endlessly for hundreds of miles, its termination completely out of sight.

Passenger boats ply back and forth across the surface of the water.

Apart from the passenger boats, scattered bamboo rafts adorned with wreaths drift slowly toward the distance.

"Girl Li Yue, do the reincarnation travelers really just go straight to be reborn and never come back?"

An elderly man with gray hair and wrinkled skin sat in a squatting position beside the dock.

Beside him stood a young girl.

Her beautiful long hair was tied back from her shoulders, half-draped behind her.

With a sweet and delicate smile on her exquisite face, she replied, "Don't worry, Great Elder. I swear by the ancestors of this mountain that the reincarnation travelers only go to be reborn; they will never do anything else."

"These are called deliverance talismans. They are the only kind of talismans I know how to draw, and I happen to draw them rather well."

Li Yue scattered a handful of paper talismans into the air.

They fluttered down into the Underworld Dragon River and drifted away with the ripples.

"There are far too many wronged souls in the Underworld Dragon River. There won't be any new ones in the future, but as for the old ones, goodness knows how many months and years it will take for them all to dissipate."

The person currently by Li Yue's side was none other than the Great Elder appointed by Zhang Chang that day! He was the very boatman who had brought Li Yue and Xie Yuan into the mountain and later rescued them.

"Girl Li Yue, as long as no one dies with grievances in their hearts from now on, those from the past will eventually depart. With you performing deliverance like this every day, how many could possibly remain? Besides, with him in the mountain, our Suppressing Dragon Mountain will surely never be invaded by any wandering ghosts and spirits again, and sacrifices in the mountain will no longer be necessary."

Li Yue lowered her head and smiled, looking somewhat shy.

"I'm preparing to enter Changyuan Village. Once I finish performing deliverance for those poor villagers, I'll go to Changyuan Village."

A bamboo platform had been built on the dock, complete with a simple thatched shed.

Inside the bamboo platform, over a hundred corpses were laid out.

Without exception, these corpses had exhausted their lifespans, leaving them withered and aged.

"I'm really having a hard time here, Junior Sister... Constantly hitting me with the Body-Fixation Incantation! Who can possibly endure this? I'm wasting away to skin and bone!"

Wang Erjun complained in a low voice, "To think that I, Master Fat, am a man of immense wealth. Instead of living a perfectly good life, I have to come to this mountain to suffer."

"Alas, who is to blame for this? The longer people live, the more bizarre troubles they stir up!"

The corpses here all originated from within Suppressing Dragon Mountain.

They were all left behind by the ascended ancestor—the father of Zhang Chang and the manifested spirit of Suppressing Dragon Mountain.

His ascension had also been accompanied by the sacrifice of countless human lives.

Li Yue wore a dazed and sorrowful expression.

"Zhang Chang said that Xie Yuan is right here. Once I finish performing deliverance for these people, I will go inside to keep him company. As for you, you can leave once their deliverance is complete. I don't know the Body-Fixation Incantation, otherwise I wouldn't have troubled you."

Wang Erjun's mouth twitched as he muttered under his breath, "I was just complaining a bit. If it weren't for Xie Yuan, I wouldn't have followed you here either..."

Li Yue bit her lip, stood up, and hurled a stone at Wang Erjun.

"With an attitude like yours, no matter how much money you have, no one would ever be willing to marry you!"

"Master Fat is so wealthy that women all over the mountain would throw themselves at me, believe it or not?"

...

There is no concept of time within the mountains.

To be able to see the light of day, to witness day and night—that is time.

There is no time within the mountains.

No light, no night.

No drinking, no eating.

I have no idea how much time has passed.

I only know that the moment I agreed and uttered those two words, my soul and body seemed to have forged an indescribable connection with this Suppressing Dragon Mountain.

A body forged through the transit of a yin fetus truly required neither food nor water.

The elapsed time had certainly exceeded ten days by now.

I am still alive, likely because the ancestor of Suppressing Dragon Mountain bestowed something upon me right before departing.

A thought even crossed my mind.

If I were to wish for this mountain to collapse, it would instantly crumble.

If I were to let this state continue, it would stretch on for countless days and months.

The dark river water churned restlessly, and a gloomy voice echoed endlessly in my ear, repeating over and over for days and numbers of times I could no longer count.

"You should not be trapped here. This is not where you belong. Release me, and we shall both attain liberation. What do you say?"

"You are already beyond death; you do not need to entangle your lifespan with mine any longer!"

"You are a human being; you ought to understand how a human should act far better than that old mountain sprite!"

"Can you really endure this eternal loneliness?!"