Chapter 432 - 407: Imparting the Dao, Passing on Knowledge, and Mountain Charms Listen In

North of Yangzhou lies Jingzhou.

The two provinces are separated by the Ten Thousand Great Mountains. So high are these mountains, wreathed in clouds and mist, that even birds find them difficult to cross.

These Ten Thousand Great Mountains are also known as the Yanduan Mountain Range.

What does "Yanduan" mean?

It means that even great wild geese would find it difficult to pass through here.

Within the Yanduan Mountain Range live all sorts of strange beings. Legend has it that there are even Great Demons who have carved out their own kingdoms in the mountains.

As for why a Demon King would be allowed to claim territory within the borders of the Great Zhou, it’s actually not that hard to understand.

The main reason is that the Nine Provinces are simply too vast, filled with all kinds of wondrous and perilous lands where few humans ever tread.

Under these circumstances, the Great Zhou Court’s authority is primarily concentrated in its cities, villages, and places with City God Temples and Ancestral Halls.

As for those deep mountains and great abysses, even if the Court wanted to govern them, it often lacked the manpower to do so.

After all, the matter of mountain creatures isn’t something that can be solved by simply exterminating all the Demon Spirits in a mountain range today and expecting no new ones to ever appear again—

The birth of Demon Spirits can happen at any moment, similar to the emergence of demonic thoughts in the Mortal World.

Just as demonic thoughts and strange phenomena are guaranteed to appear wherever there are people, so too are Demon Spirits guaranteed to be born wherever non-human beings exist.

The Great Zhou Court can rule the cities, but it cannot possibly exterminate every living creature in the wild.

Therefore, it has become an almost natural law that Great Demons will arise in the great mountains.

As long as these mountain-dwelling Great Demons don’t casually leave their domains, don’t harm humans on a large scale, and don’t cause any uncontrollable commotions, the Court can generally coexist peacefully with them, each keeping to their own.

The Big White Goose carried Song Ciwan northward, flying faster and faster. Ahead, the majestic, verdant silhouette of the Yanduan Mountain Range was already visible in the distance.

Song Ciwan stood up on the goose’s back, temporarily pausing her Dharma Transmission.

She opened the Eye of Cyan Nether in her left eye and began to scan the area ahead of her in detail.

The mountains teemed with living beings, their auras tangled and chaotic. The moment Song Ciwan’s gaze swept over them from afar, she felt an indescribable sense of impact.

In places invisible to her naked eye, she saw several semi-corporeal figures. Some had humanoid forms but were covered in green skin. Others had fair complexions, but long, curved goat horns coiled above their heads. There were even some that lacked a humanoid shape entirely, appearing only as clusters of ethereal blue flames floating in the air...

All sorts of strange creatures were gathered together, whispering amongst themselves. "She’s here. She’s almost here."

Their voices held a hint of excitement. "That’s the one, the Celestial Pride of the Human Race! She’s the one who killed the Golden Lion Demon Gu Peng!"

"She seems really powerful. Are we really going to try and stop her?" one complained nervously. "That old willow tree won’t make a move itself but sends us to do its bidding. How are we supposed to do this? Just block her path and demand she hand over Gu Peng’s body?"

The strange beings chattered back and forth, jostling and shoving one another.

One of the green-skinned demons let out a sinister cackle. "Yanduan Mountain, Yanduan Mountain, all who come to Yanduan Mountain will lose their souls. Who told her to take Gu Peng’s body and refuse to return it? And now she dares to pass through here? So what if we stop her directly? I have the Power of Ten Mountains! Let’s see how she’ll withstand that!"

"Hmph, what’s the Power of Ten Mountains? If I entered your dreams, I could lift not just ten mountains, but a hundred, even a thousand, with the flip of my hand."

"Then why don’t you go block her path?"

"..."

The creatures screeched and argued, but when it came to actually confronting Song Ciwan head-on, they all made excuses. Not a single demon was willing to be the one to step forward.

Among the many strange beings, one figure stood out.

At first glance, this figure looked no different from an ordinary human. If one had to make a comparison, it would only be to say that she was exceptionally beautiful.

Her skin was like jade. As she stood silently beneath a tree, her black hair cascaded to the ground like a waterfall.

The long hair enveloped her graceful, slender body. She wore none of the complex clothing of humans, only a simple, thin white robe.

Black hair, snow-white skin, a white robe, and crimson lips—this starkly simple color palette gave her an exceptionally bewitching aura.

Listening to her companions’ messy, chaotic discussion, she suddenly, at some point, vanished without a sound.

In the sky, Song Ciwan retracted her Eye of Cyan Nether.

She lightly patted the Big White Goose. "Big White, let’s go down. We’ll cross the Yanduan Mountain Range on foot."

The Big White Goose was very obedient. It flapped its wings and quickly descended from the sky, landing directly on the slope of one of the peaks.

The Yanduan Mountain Range was a chain of interconnected mountains.

The peaks were so numerous that, whether one looked forward or side to side, one could not see their end.

Between the mountains were ravines and streams, sometimes deep pools, sometimes creeks, sometimes valleys...

There were also all kinds of strange, deep caves, and many creatures that Song Ciwan couldn’t name leaped through the forest.

Partway down the mountain, a snake suddenly poked its head out of a hole in the ground.

When the Big White Goose landed, the snake’s head instantly recoiled.

"HONK!"

But the Big White Goose stretched out its neck, and with a sudden peck, snatched the snake by its vital spot. With a SNAP, the Big White Goose flung the snake to the ground.

THWACK!

The snake was slammed to its death. The Big White Goose then raised its neck and honked triumphantly.

It then picked up the prey it had just caught and presented it to Song Ciwan.

Song Ciwan was speechless. "..."

One had to know, when the Big White Goose caught the snake, Song Ciwan was still sitting on its back and hadn’t even dismounted.

The Big White Goose had managed to carry her and casually catch a snake at the same time. It was quite the busybody.

"Oh, well," Song Ciwan said with a smile. "Since we’ve come here, we can consider it fate. Big White, let’s start a fire and rest here for a bit. I’ll roast this snake for you."

With that, she dismounted from the goose’s back.

The Big White Goose joyfully placed the snake on the ground in front of Song Ciwan, then bustled about, picking up dry branches with its beak.

Song Ciwan used the branches the Big White Goose brought to build a fire pit. During this time, while gathering branches, the goose also managed to catch two more snakes, a rabbit, and a small deer.

It seemed to have awakened its hunting instincts—

Although, a goose wasn’t native to the mountain forests and shouldn’t have possessed any such instinct for hunting in them.

But Song Ciwan’s recent explanations about spirituality seemed to have instantly flipped some marvelous switch in the Big White Goose’s tiny heart.

At this moment, although the Big White Goose said nothing, the emotions surging in its chest were like crashing waves.

’I feel like I should be doing something,’ it thought. ’Something more! Even more!’

Never mind all the prey it brought; the Big White Goose shrank its body down to the size of a normal domestic goose, then squatted beside Song Ciwan. Seeing her build the fire pit with the branches, it started passing them to her.

A short while later, the fire pit was complete.

Song Ciwan reached out and tapped her finger. A thin wisp of flame shot out from her fingertip and landed on the kindling. The fire instantly flared up, roaring to life.

The Big White Goose tilted its head, watching intently from the side.

Song Ciwan stoked the fire while skinning and cleaning a rabbit, then set it on a spit over the flames.

She chatted idly with the goose. "Big White, do you know why firewood needs to be arranged with space to burn, why you can’t just pile it all together to start a fire?"

The Big White Goose: "HONK HONK HONK!"

The goose didn’t know.

It tilted its head, its small goose eyes twinkling with the light of spirituality.

"HONK HONK HONK!"

’Even though this goose doesn’t know why the firewood has to be arranged that way, this goose remembers very clearly that back home in Su Yang City, Wanwan always built her fires the same way.’

The Big White Goose let out a series of honks.

Song Ciwan could basically understand its goose-language.

Stoking the fire, Song Ciwan lightly patted the goose’s back. "Because everything in this world has its own nature. Some things need to be solid, while others must be hollow. If there is no hollowness, how can the flames travel through? Arranging the wood with gaps gives the fire a path to follow."