084

When Jiang Huali opened her eyes, Mu Bai was channeling spiritual energy into her from the front.

She blinked and realized she was soaking in a spiritual spring.

Mu Bai must have discovered that she had fainted due to insufficient spiritual power and brought her here.

Seeing that Jiang Huali had woken up, Mu Bai's eyes brightened slightly, and he slowly stopped channeling his spiritual energy.

He leaned closer: "You're awake?"

Jiang Huali nodded, about to speak, when she suddenly realized something.

She slowly turned her head, looking at the hand supporting her shoulder, lost in thought.

"What are you spacing out for?" A deep voice came from above.

Jiang Huali leaned closer to Mu Bai, then turned around and saw a person with black hair and bloodshot eyes.

This person even has the same face as Mu Bai.

Her mind went blank, and she stared at him in a daze.

The ghost chuckled softly and moved closer: "Don't you recognize me?"

Behind her was Mu Bai's hand supporting her shoulder, and in front of her was the ghost with an evil smile; the postures of the group revealed a hint of ambiguity.

"Don't bother her." Mu Bai's slightly warning voice came from behind.

He came to Jiang Huali's side and asked with concern, "How are you feeling now? Are you alright?"

“I’m fine,” Jiang Huali said, looking at the blue headband on his head. “Could you explain this to me first?”

...

"In short, that's about it."

"So, you are one?" Jiang Huali asked.

"You could say that," Mu Bai nodded.

Jiang Huali sat on the shore, her clothes already dried by her spiritual power.

Mu Bai was wearing the clothes she had prepared for him, while the ghost was dressed in a black robe with her hair loose.

She looked at the ghost: "Was it you who fought against Huang Shu and the others with me down the mountain?"

The ghost said, "It's me."

No wonder, she thought it was Mu□□ God splitting apart, but it turns out it's one body with two souls.

They can't really be considered two souls, since according to Mu Bai, they are the same person.

One is him from his previous life, and the other is him from this life; both are incomplete souls.

Jiang Huali: "Then why did you stop showing up later?"

Ghost: "Bored, don't want to come out."

"Then what should I call you?" she asked the ghost.

You can't name them both Mu Bai, how can you tell them apart?

The ghost seemed to read her mind: "My name is also Mu Bai, why do you insist that I change my name?"

"Is it favoritism?" He smiled with a hint of danger.

Jiang Huali: "..."

Unable to find a reason to refute her, she could only look to Mu Bai for help.

Mu Bai smiled good-naturedly and said, "You can call me Ah Bai."

"Tch—" The ghost looked at Mu Bai's smile. This old fox was clearly full of evil intentions, yet he pretended to be so understanding. Who was he trying to fool?

Seeing the relaxed expression on Jiang Huali's face, he immediately felt a sense of crisis.

Just as he was about to speak, Jiang Huali interrupted, "Alright, alright, to be fair, I'll call you Ah Bai—"

She then looked at the ghost: "Can I call you Amu?"

The ghost remained silent, tacitly accepting the title.

“Or I can call you Ahei,” Jiang Huali added.

One has white hair, and the other has black hair; that name is quite fitting.

The ghost's lips twitched as it said, "Calling a puppy."

What a weird name.

Jiang Huali recalled, "I actually did have a dog named Xiao Hei."

“Just call me Amu,” the ghost said unhappily. “Are you comparing me to a dog?”

"What's wrong with the puppy? Blackie is my favorite puppy."

"..."

The group left the hot spring and walked back.

Mount Ling is not very high, it is just a small mountain, but a great many fairies live here.

Perhaps that's why the spiritual energy here is so abundant.

The relationship between fairies and spiritual energy is not one of one demanding from the other. With the existence of fairies, spiritual energy will slowly increase. Fairies absorb spiritual energy to cultivate, and in turn, they will nourish the sacred mountain.

The birth of a mountain god depends on the right time and place.

The original owner has existed for thousands of years. Although it was dormant for a long time, no other mountain god was born during that period.

Only after she dies and her spiritual power dissipates back into the world will the next mountain god be born on Mount Ling.

But before that, there are signs indicating where the next mountain god will be born.

The mission of this world is to protect Mount Ling until the next mountain god is born.

In other words, there are three conditions for completing the mission: first, Lingshan must be at peace; second, Jiang Huali must die; and third, a new mountain god must appear.

Jiang Huali often patrols the mountains, also in order to find signs of the birth of the next mountain god.

In the beginning, a fairy may have been just a flower, a blade of grass, or a grain of soil.

As winter approached, Jiang Huali sensed unusual fluctuations near the spiritual spring.

However, she has not been able to find the source of the fluctuation.

Perhaps because she had soaked in the spiritual spring for a while, and Ah Bai had channeled a lot of spiritual energy into her, she sensed the familiar fluctuations again on the way back.

She stopped and turned to walk to the side.

Although Abai and Amu didn't know why she suddenly changed her route, they still followed behind her.

They came to a cliff.

It was still snowing lightly.

On the edge of the cliff, a green sprout is squeezed among the rocks, swaying in the wind and snow.

Jiang Huali bent down, and some specks of light floated from her hand, flowing into the green sprout.

The green shoots seem to have become more energetic.

Ah Bai looked at the white specks of light and lowered his eyes: "It's so cold, it might be buried by the snow soon."

Amu stood to the side with his arms crossed and asked Jiang Huali, "Do you like it? You can transplant it in front of the wooden house."

Jiang Huali straightened up, exhaled a warm breath, and turned around, saying, "Let's go."

Amu followed her: "Don't you want that sprout anymore?"

“The snow will eventually melt,” Jiang Huali said.

Because winter always passes.

"Ah—winter is finally over."

Yuanyuan stretched and sat on the stool, swinging her legs.

Jiang Huali lay on the recliner, feeling the gentle breeze.

The mouse circled around Jiang Huali and asked curiously, "Mountain God, when did you make a new chair?"

Jiang Huali opened her eyes and patted the mouse's head: "Ah Bai made this for me."

“Ah Bai? Speaking of which,” Yuan Yuan stood up from the stool, ran to Jiang Huali’s side, and whispered in her ear, “Who is that person who looks exactly like Mu Bai?”

Just as it and the mouse ran up to find Jiang Huali, they bumped into Abai and Amu. They were so frightened that they couldn't speak. They hurriedly ran into the house to call her, but she didn't receive their hints at all and didn't offer any explanation.

Jiang Huali had actually forgotten about that, so she said, "That's Amu."

"Huh?" Yuan Yuan was a little confused. It knew Mu Bai's name. "Then, what is the relationship between that Amu and Mu Bai? Is he also a demon?"

It's bad enough that there's already a human-looking demon like Mu Bai, but now there's another one.

The mouse chimed in, "Do all fairies who turn into humans look exactly the same?"

Yuanyuan retorted, "Who said that? The mountain god doesn't look like them!"

The mouse disagreed: "But the mountain god is not an ordinary demon."

Jiang Huali shook her head and said something that struck them like a bolt from the blue: "He's not a demon, he's a ghost."

"A ghost?" Yuanyuan gripped the edge of the recliner tightly.

"A ghost!" the mouse exclaimed.

Although there are no ghosts on Mount Ling, and they have never seen any ghosts, when Jiang Huali first woke up, she was so bothered by these little demons that she called them together and told them ghost stories.

What kind of ghost eats fairies? What kind of ghost hides in the river? What kind of ghost climbs on your back and wraps its arms around your neck?

In any case, Jiang Huali told all sorts of ghost stories.

For a long time afterward, these little devils didn't dare to come and play with her.

I'm afraid to sleep alone at night because I'm afraid of hearing ghost stories.

“Um,” Yuanyuan grabbed Shushu’s hand, “Mountain God, Shushu and I are going down the mountain to play, so we’ll be going now.”

Before Jiang Huali could speak, the two little fairies ran down the mountain together.

"..." Jiang Huali was amused by their reactions.

A puzzled voice came from behind: "Am I that scary?"

Jiang Huali sat up, turned to look at Amu leaning against the door frame, and said with a smile, "They're just afraid of ghosts."

"Has Ah Bai gone out again?" she asked.

“Yes, she went to patrol the mountain.” Amu walked to her side.

"Why are you out again? Didn't you say you didn't like sunlight?"

Amu paused for a moment and said, "There's not much sun today. I'm feeling bored, is it wrong for me to come out for a walk?"

Jiang Huali looked at the horizon; today was clearly a rare good day.

Amu seemed to realize that his words were untenable, so he changed the subject, saying, "How about we go for a walk?"

Where to?

"Come with me."

Jiang Huali didn't understand, but she still followed Amu.

They arrived at the cliff near the sacred spring.

Jiang Huali was stunned for a moment, looking at the scene before her, and asked, "Did you make this?"

"Mmm." Amu smiled slightly. "Does it look good?"

There was also a hint of tension in his voice.

The cliff in front of us was covered with flowers, all of them unnamed wildflowers. Winter had just passed, and they seemed to have absorbed plenty of nutrients, growing very vigorously.

"It's really good-looking, does Ah Bai know that?"

These are all ordinary little flowers, and it is obvious that they have been grown by human intervention using spiritual energy.

Amu is a ghost and cannot use spiritual power, so he must have used Abai's body.

This place used to be a barren cliff.

Except for that green sprout.

A small path has been specially left on the side for people to walk on.

"Of course he knows, but I water these flowers with my spiritual power every night."

"Why did you suddenly think of doing these things?" Jiang Huali asked.

"Don't you like it?"

As the fusion deepened, Amu's ghostly form became increasingly transparent in the sunlight. Before long, he would disappear and return to his original body.

Jiang Huali followed the path to the edge of the cliff.

A small red flower grew out of a crack in the rock, swaying in the gentle breeze.

This flower is that green sprout.

It was an unexpected stroke of luck; nourished by spiritual energy, the flower's fluctuations became increasingly pronounced. Jiang Huali had a premonition that the mission in this world was nearing its end.

"It's a pity these flowers won't last long," Amu said, standing beside her.

"The flowers will bloom again after they wither, and this place should attract many small creatures in the future," Jiang Huali smiled.

"Just like snow always melts?" Amu turned his head to look at her, then looked down at his translucent hands.

He asked, "Is the lifespan of the mountain god very, very long?"

Jiang Huali turned to look at him: "It's very long."

The original owner had lived for thousands of years, although he had been asleep for a long time in between.

God's lifespan is so long that even memories of Him become distant.

Amu thought.

After he disappeared, will she still remember him?