Chapter 115 The Past of Nüba in Zhuolu.
Three stops and nine similarities, fearing its might for a thousand miles.
A misty haze suddenly rose over the great lake, and the dragon appeared and disappeared amidst the heavy clouds, its scales shimmering like moonlight. It leaped and soared, landing and transforming back into human form in one fluid motion.
Xia Zhu looked at the woman before him, with her black hair reaching the ground, wearing a silver robe, and possessing an arrogant and beautiful expression. He was certain that he had seen her in the Great Void before, but Ying Long had walked straight past him with her head slightly raised, a completely different reaction from when they first met.
She remembered that when Yinglong turned around in the void and saw her face clearly, he was first wary and then suddenly stunned, staring at her face and asking, "Is it you?" He acted as if he knew her perfectly well. But today, Yinglong's reaction was flawless, as if he had never seen Xia Zhu before, whether in a dream or in the past.
She was still pondering how to phrase her words when Yinglong, who had been passing by, suddenly stopped. She stared at Xia Zhu in disbelief, then leaned closer, wrinkled her nose, and sniffed.
This looks like a cat that has been left alone in a hotel.
She craned her neck and sniffed Xia Zhu frantically. Ji Yinxiu, who was standing to the side, didn't expect her teacher to start by checking her friend's nose like that. So she quickly came over and asked cautiously, "Teacher, is something wrong?"
But Yinglong ignored him completely, gripping Xia Zhu's shoulders with an excited expression, his beautiful eyes fixed on her.
"Nüba?" she uttered a name to Xia Zhu.
A name—the tension it brought her was unprecedented. Her heart was pounding, pounding in her chest, almost causing a ringing in her ears. But before she could say anything, Ying Long suddenly poked her coat pocket with a finger, frowned, and asked, "What's in your pocket?"
"What?" Xia Zhu was stunned, but her hand still subconsciously reached into her inner pocket and pulled out the mugwort sachet. "This one?"
Yinglong immediately leaned in, sniffed the mugwort sachet again, and then his eyes lit up like a puppy seeing a bone. Without saying a word, he grabbed the sachet, untied the rope, and poured all the contents into his palm.
She parted the dried herbs with her fingers, took out a dark, square piece, and excitedly grabbed Xia Zhu's wrist.
"Have you ever seen Nüba?"
Xia Zhu's gaze fell on the black cube in her hand. So that's it, Nüba wasn't calling her.
She shook her head and pointed to the object. "I've never seen a female demon. I took this from a dried corpse."
"A mummified corpse?" Yinglong burst into laughter, clutching his stomach. After laughing, his expression softened, and a complex sadness inexplicably appeared in his eyes. Holding the fragment of the corpse, he whispered, "That's not a mummified corpse at all, just the shell that Nüba shed."
After saying that, Yinglong casually pulled Xia Zhu over and led her to sit down on some rocks nearby.
"Tell me quickly, where did you see the shell of the female demon?" Yinglong craned her neck with great interest. When she saw Xia Zhu glance at Ji Yinxiu hesitantly, she realized that there were other guests on the floating island besides the three of them. She quickly waved her hand to invite Feng Feng and the others to sit down as well.
"Come on, come on! It's time for storytelling!" She seemed very happy, her personality quite different from her appearance, more like an innocent and carefree child.
Xia Zhu even suspected that these demon gods were all the same; no matter how long they lived, they could not compare to humans who became worldly-wise in just a few years.
Ji Yinxiu sat down next to the two, and Yinglong slapped him on the back. "Good lad, this is your new friend. You really do need to go out and see Xuanyuan Hill. The people outside are much more interesting than the people here."
The latter was very sincere, with his hands on his knees and his back straight, looking like he was listening attentively to the lesson.
Yinglong glanced at him with disdain, then looked at Feng Feng, who was grinning foolishly beside him, and gave her a speechless expression. "Look, look, he's the most boring person in the entire Xuanyuan Hill."
“Teacher, these are all the friends I mentioned to you before.” Ji Yinxiu introduced the people present to Yinglong one by one. When it was Xia Zhu’s turn, he paused, “This is Xia Zhu. She has some questions she would like to ask you.”
Yinglong nodded with a grin, "Okay, okay, what's on your mind?"
Xia Zhu received an encouraging look from Ji Yinxiu, took a deep breath, and stated her question directly.
Do you recognize me?
"I don't know him." Yinglong said firmly, without any change in the curve of his lips.
Ah, Xia Zhu was a little confused. This was completely different from what she had expected, but perhaps she had asked too abruptly. So she changed her approach.
“Teacher Yinglong, I visited Xuanyuan Hill a few months ago and met you by chance. Do you remember me?”
"I don't remember," Yinglong said with a smile, his eyes narrowed.
Xia Zhu instantly deflated like a punctured balloon, her shoulders slumping. She clearly looked exactly like the person in her dream, and Yinglong obviously recognized her in the dream, so why did he change his tune now?
Seeing her dejected appearance, Ji Yinxiu turned to Ying Long and said, "Teacher, Xia Zhu's background is rather special, and her physiognomy skills... are also quite special. You are very knowledgeable, I wonder if you have heard of her before..."
"Hey, you're just trying to make me look old! Living a long time doesn't mean you've seen everything. What special power you've got, whether it's bringing the dead back to life or reversing time, I swear I've never heard of it!"
Yinglong interrupted Ji Yinxiu directly. After she finished speaking, she noticed that everyone around her was staring at her with strange looks, so she immediately covered her mouth.
"I'm sorry, I can't provide you with any information about your background." Her voice came out muffledly from between her fingers.
Xia Zhu shook her head. No matter what, if Ying Long didn't want to talk about it, there was no way to force her. But from the words, Xia Zhu felt that there must be some connection. The more Ying Long acted this way, the more deliberate she seemed. But deliberateness itself became an answer.
What exactly is involved in her background, and why is she unwilling to reveal even a little bit about it?
She recalled Ying Huo's last words: he said he couldn't interfere.
From this perspective, Yinglong's words seem to convey the same meaning.
She cannot "interfere".
"Alright, alright, knowing everything isn't necessarily a good thing. Tell me quickly, where did you find Nüba?" Yinglong curiously poked his head out, his blinking eyes disrupting her train of thought.
Seeing this, Ji Yinxiu took over the conversation and told her about the corpse of the ugly woman and the long snake.
"Nüchou? Thousands of years ago, some people did call Nüba that."
When Yinglong heard Ji Yinxiu mention the long snake that dreamed of becoming a dragon, he remained indifferent and chuckled, "There will never be a snake in this world that can cultivate into a dragon."
"So how did you become a dragon?" Feng Feng silently raised his hand and asked.
Yinglong glanced at her lightly, "Because I was born that way."
"That's how it happened, teacher. You said this mummified corpse is the shell of Nüba. I think I've heard the name Nüba before. Was she someone you knew?"
"An old friend?" Yinglong's gaze drifted. "Nüba is my best, best, best friend... but I wonder if I still count as one to her..."
"And another thing, this isn't a corpse at all, it's just a shell made of stone." She held up the fragment and waved it in front of them, then suddenly pressed it affectionately against her cheek, saying in a tender tone, "Look, isn't it adorable?"
The moment the stone fragment touched her skin, dragon horns sprouted from Yinglong's head. The silver, coral-like horns emitted a faint glow. She seemed to be briefly lost in memories, and in the memories that belonged only to Yinglong and Nüba, she seemed to never need to hide anything.
“Nüba, stone, shell…” Feng Feng scratched his head and whispered to Xia Zhu, “I think I heard my mom mention that this character was also involved in the Battle of Zhuolu, but I don’t think she had this name…”
“That’s right.” Yinglong interrupted the two of them from their whispers. “Her more well-known name should be Hanba.”
"The drought demon who killed Chi You with me in the Battle of Zhuolu."
Yinglong glanced at Xia Zhu, seemingly unintentionally, with his legs crossed, elbows resting on his knees, and his body slightly tilted towards her.
“Although I can’t tell you the secret about your background, I do have a story here. Would you like to hear it?” Noticing Xia Zhu’s expression, she smiled again. “Don’t be like that. It’s not that I’m deliberately hiding it from you. I really don’t know where you came from, it’s just…”
She rested her chin on one hand, tilted her head, and said meaningfully, "You do feel familiar to me, but that's all."
A thick layer of dark clouds drifted across the horizon, obscuring everything overhead. The sunlight withered, and the temperature dropped slightly. The surrounding lake water became calm and smooth, its surface oily, and the green grass beneath our feet swayed gently. The air grew humid, and a gray line slowly rolled in from the distant mountains, suggesting an impending downpour. In the transition from spring to summer, the weather is always unpredictable.
Yinglong lazily glanced up at the sky, then waved her hand, and a rather rustic waterside pavilion rose up around them, barely covering their heads. She looked at Xia Zhu and said, "How do you people write about the Battle of Zhuolu? Do you say it was a great battle between the Yan and Huang tribes united against Chi You?"
"Legend has it that the Yellow Emperor fought Chi You nine times and was defeated each time. He first asked me to descend to the mortal world to store water, and then ordered Nüba to stop the wind and rain. These accounts are true, but the book never clearly explains who sent me and Nüba down to the mortal world."
After speaking, she smiled slightly and looked at Xia Zhu, as if waiting for her to fill in the rest of her guesses.
Xia Zhu then looked away and gazed at the dragon horns atop Yinglong's head. "It's the chief god," she said.
“That’s right, it was indeed the young… The main god sent the two of us to the Yellow Emperor’s tribe to lend them a hand. History books say that heaven helps those who are obedient and not those who are rebellious. The Yellow Emperor’s tribe was ordained by heaven, while Chi You was a symbol of rebellion and disorder.” She chuckled, “So, in a way, that’s not wrong.”
“Destiny, rebellion…” Yinglong leaned back in the stone chair, finding a comfortable position. Her hand was still supporting her chin, but her gaze slowly focused on a point in the void, and her tone became ethereal. She said, “That happened ten thousand years ago…”
"At that time, I was with the main god, along with Nüba and another..."
"Stinky dog."
The clouds are dense but no rain falls; the distant mountains are a deep blue-green, and the nearby lake is shrouded in gloom. Only in the waterside pavilion, the horn atop the dragon's head emits a faint silver glow, which gradually fades away with each word and phrase.
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