Chapter 29: Volcano

It was quiet on the Eagle Ridge.

Ye Miwei lay on her back in the grass, gazing at the night sky, while Wen Ci sat silently beside her. The stars were as brilliant as ever, and the blades of grass brushed against her cheek, a sensation that was both ticklish and soft.

"After I die, will you miss me?" Ye Miwei asked out of the blue.

There was a long silence from Wen Ci. When he finally spoke, his tone had returned to its usual state.

"In your dreams."

His voice was as it always was: disdainful and arrogant. "If you were to die, I would head to the capital to host a banquet, celebrating for fourteen days with song, dance, and variety shows. I would have all the people of the city celebrate with me, rejoicing that I have finally been rid of a great burden."

"What a pity. I won't be able to see those fourteen days of performances."

"A pity?"

"You are very nimble with your hands, and you dance quite beautifully."

"What is this? Are you hitting me with a stick only to feed me a date afterward? Did Xie Yuzhu teach you that? You, who fears nothing—how can you feel pity?"

Ye Miwei thought to herself that there was nothing to fear about death. She would not simply vanish; she would continue to exist, living on in different ways and in different places. However, death meant distance; it meant a high wall. It meant that on this side of the world, when she turned her head, she would no longer see certain figures. That was indeed a great pity.

Wen Ci snapped his fingers in front of her. "Stop talking about such baseless things. Tell me, what is actually going on with this mountain?"

She had originally intended to seek out her own Nightmare Beast, but upon arriving in Ningyu, she had suddenly lost interest. She was no longer in a rush to compete with the other immortal cultivators for the beasts; instead, she had spent every night making him roam the mountains with her, burying Azure Crystals everywhere. There must be something that interested her more, something that even overshadowed the Nightmare Beasts.

As if remembering the task at hand, Ye Miwei sat up, grass clippings falling from her clothes. She patted herself down, walked back to where she had just placed a crystal, and began to pace diagonally forward, chanting something under her breath.

"The spiritual fluctuations of this mountain are highly unusual," she said, sparing a sliver of her focus from her calculations to explain.

Ye Miwei had always believed that spiritual power existed in the world in various forms, not restricted to human bloodlines. It could flow through all things and be harnessed by anyone. Even inanimate objects like mountain rocks possessed their own spiritual fields.

Wood can produce fire, oil can produce fire, and so can wine. Humans are like the wood, while spiritual power is the fire. Fire is fueled by wood, but it is not created by wood. Spiritual power may be generated by the human body, but it does not originate from humans.

Wen Ci remembered her telling him this, and he had always assumed it was a universally accepted truth. It was only after he descended the mountain that he discovered this was considered heresy. Since ancient times, all immortal sects had maintained that humans were the heart and spirit of heaven and earth, the soul of all things, and that only human blood could generate spiritual power. Only those who had achieved a certain level of cultivation could command such arts. It was then that he vaguely understood why Ye Miwei had clashed with the other sects during the Great Debate, and why she had lived in seclusion ever since.

Resting his chin on his hand, Wen Ci watched her walk in a perfectly straight diagonal line. "So?"

Ye Miwei stood still on a flat patch of grass, bent down to place one final Azure Crystal and a tree seed, and the roots wrapped around the crystal, drawing it deep into the earth.

This was the last crystal she needed.

"But calculating the spiritual fluctuations of this entire mountain is too complex, and it would take too long for me to finish it alone..."

Ye Miwei straightened up and raised her arms. The 'Myriad Phenomena' device rotating on her wrist slowed to a halt. With a soft click, it suddenly began to spin at ten times its previous speed.

The entire mountain erupted in brilliance. The dozens of crystals buried beneath the soil of Chongdan Mountain trembled, and countless beams of blue light burst from the ground, weaving into a dense, shifting network that influenced and transformed the landscape.

Gale-force winds made the rocks whistle and the trees roar. Ye Miwei’s robes and white hair whipped upward, and the blue symbols and counting rods on the stone appeared to move with a will of their own, dancing frantically. Her grey-black eyes mirrored the rapidly shifting symbols, as if filled with starlight.

"So, I decided to let the mountain calculate the answer for me."

She spoke with her usual, matter-of-fact tone, delivering words that would shock the world.

The mountain was a lattice of blue light, bright as day. Wen Ci’s sleeves fluttered in the gale. Shielding his eyes from the swirling dust, he wasn't surprised, merely sighing, "You really are something. Creating such a massive spectacle—are you trying to summon everyone here?"

The lights from the west, where others had been hunting Nightmare Beasts, began to dim as points of light from all around converged on their location. It was clear that many had seen the phenomenon and were coming to investigate.

Ye Miwei’s voice sounded muffled amidst the flying debris. "What did you say?"

Wen Ci opened his mouth, then closed it, seemingly knowing that arguing with her was futile. He gave a mocking laugh and lowered his hand, the bell on the back of his hand chiming.

"I said, next time you want to cause such a scene, remember to tell me in advance."

As he spoke, a thick fog suddenly permeated the mountain, bright with starlight. Like a beast breaking through the gale, the fog tore through the woods, spreading rapidly from their core and instantly swallowing the mountains, engulfing everyone rushing toward them.

The sounds of commotion rose and fell across the mountain.

"Nightmare Art! It's a Nightmare Master!"

"The whole mountain is affected! How can there be a Nightmare Art of such scale?"

"Who on earth..."

Those rushing forward were forced back by the mist. Those who couldn't dodge were swallowed by the nightmare and unceremoniously dumped at the foot of the mountain. For a time, no one could reach the summit.

The disturbance was so great that it even alarmed the villagers below. They watched in terror as blue light shot into the sky, followed by the thick fog, which made the mountains look as though they were covered in a sea of blue clouds. People whispered, wondering which immortals were dueling, while others claimed it was an omen of disaster.

Amidst the panicked crowd, a tall man stopped in his tracks. He wore a black robe of silk with flowing cloud patterns, and gold-threaded ruyi designs adorned his collar and cuffs—a sign of great wealth and status. He wore a veil hat, and as he lifted the black gauze that reached his shoulders, he looked up at the peak with a leisurely air.

"Unconventional and reckless as always. Senior Sister really hasn't changed at all." The man remarked with a smile.

As the black gauze fluttered in the wind, a portion of his neck was revealed. On his skin was a long, thin red mark, like a red ribbon extending from his jaw to his collarbone, resembling a birthmark. After speaking, the man turned and wandered away, a flash of gold at his waist—it was an imperial token.

The anomaly lasted less than the time it took to finish a cup of tea. The blue light faded, and the world returned to darkness and silence.

On the peak, all was quiet. Amidst the lingering fog, Wen Ci clapped his hands. "Is it calculated?"

Ye Miwei nodded. The blue symbols on the stone had stilled, reflecting in her grey eyes.

"This volcano will erupt in ten days."

Half an hour later, a gasp echoed through the small Song family courtyard in the night.

"A volcano? Chongdan Mountain is a volcano? It's going to erupt?" Xie Yuzhu leaned over Ye Miwei’s shoulder, looking at the county records spread across the table.

After her shout, she paused and asked sincerely, "What does it mean for a volcano to erupt? Is it like when Gonggong smashed into Mount Buzhou? Will the pillars of heaven collapse and cause a great flood?"

Clearly, the term "volcanic eruption" was not something seventeen-year-old Xie Yuzhu had ever encountered in her storybooks. However, the hundred-year-old Wen Ci and Ye Miwei, who had read two centuries' worth of records, understood it all too well.

"The sky won't fall, but the mountain will. It won't cause a flood, but it will spew burning molten rock and ash. In terms of destructive power, it should be a hundred times worse than a flood," Ye Miwei replied.

"Is there any spirit tool or technique that can stop it from erupting?"

"The forces of nature are cataclysmic; they are not easily stopped by human hands."

Wen Ci flipped through the records, his expression uncharacteristically grave. "The surrounding villagers are completely unprepared. The last time there was a volcanic eruption in the Nine Provinces was a century ago, a thousand miles away in Xuzhou. According to your calculations, a radius of 120 miles around Chongdan Mountain will be completely destroyed. The people must be evacuated. We only have ten days; it will take several days just to convince them to leave. They won't have enough time to escape the disaster zone."

Ye Miwei looked up at Wen Ci. She pondered for a moment, and just as she was about to speak, Wen Ci pointed at her threateningly. "Don't you dare ask why we should save them! Because, damn it, I want to save them. If you don't, I'm washing my hands of you, and you can go find your Nightmare Beasts by yourself! So swallow that heartless question of yours and help me come up with a plan, right now!"

Xie Yuzhu tried to smooth things over. "Second Master, don't say that. Senior Master must have wanted to save people, which is why she calculated when the volcano would erupt..."

"She didn't." "I didn't."

Wen Ci and Ye Miwei spoke simultaneously, their answers perfectly aligned. Xie Yuzhu awkwardly retreated.

After a pause, Ye Miwei said, "There are about ten thousand people affected in the vicinity of Chongdan Mountain. If we want to save them, we could seek help from the immortal sects and Nightmare Masters. If they use their arts to transport the villagers, it should be enough time."

"Most of these sects and masters are here for the Nightmare Beasts. Once they get the beasts, spirit tools, or Azure Crystals, they will leave. Even if they were willing to help, how would you make them believe a natural disaster is coming? Evacuating such a large population is time-consuming and exhausting. If the disaster doesn't happen, they'll be ridiculed. No one will do something that offers no benefit."

"If I come forward, would they believe me?"

Ye Miwei’s tone was earnest, but Wen Ci’s gaze hardened. "No! Don't even think about it. I can't protect you during the day—they could kill you ten thousand times over!"

"They might not necessarily kill me."

"They would kill you just to prevent you from falling into someone else's hands, or they would capture and exploit you. Given your personality, how could you possibly outmaneuver them?"

"But you want to save the people, don't you?"

"I don't want to have to save you after I save them! Ye Miwei, if you're not afraid of death, at least don't go looking for it!"

As the two went back and forth, Xie Yuzhu interjected.

"But doesn't Senior Master have the Azure Crystals?"

Ye Miwei and Wen Ci looked at her. Xie Yuzhu gestured with her hands. "A granary full of Azure Crystals—that’s a massive incentive."

Coming from a family of merchants, Xie Yuzhu clearly knew how to use bribery. "The price of Azure Crystals in the Ghost Market is incredibly high right now; there is high demand but no supply. Over the years, the immortal sects have reclaimed some of their spirit tools, and with such powerful tools, they must have exhausted their supply of crystals. The Ghost Market is extremely hostile to members of the immortal sects, so they must be desperate for them."