Grandma Yao curled up in a corner.
Her mental state was extremely poor, her eyes were dim and lusterless, and her entire being looked like a dying person, devoid of any vitality.
In a sense, Grandma Yao’s faith had collapsed, and the trauma she suffered was deeper than anyone else’s.
However, Yu Yi did not think so.
“Grandma, why are you so disheartened?”
Yu Yi walked up to Grandma Yao and asked her.
Grandma Yao looked up at Yu Yi, then lowered her head again, remaining silent.
“Your mission is not yet complete. How can you be so dejected here?”
Yu Yi said indifferently.
“The Evil Spirit has completely dissipated, yet the winter in Cangzhou has still not ended. Have you not realized what this represents?”
Upon hearing these words, Grandma Yao’s eyes suddenly widened.
She lifted her head once more to look at Yu Yi.
Her dry, cracked lips trembled slightly, and she spoke in a raspy voice, “The Mountain God’s Wrath has not yet subsided… The Mountain God… STILL EXISTS!!”
A light seemed to return to her cloudy, dim eyes.
Yu Yi picked up the cane that had fallen to the side and handed it to Grandma Yao, saying, “What kind of secrets exist at the peak of the Holy Mountain? Do you wish to go with this Grandmaster to investigate?”
“I am… deeply grateful!”
Grandma Yao took the cane and stood up unsteadily.
Then, with a thought from Yu Yi, the Fengshen Litter, which had merged into the wind, reappeared in the sky and slowly descended to the ground.
Boarding the Fengshen Litter, Yu Yi and the others ascended to the peak of the Holy Mountain, which stood 1,000 zhang high.
Different from what they had imagined, the peak of the Holy Mountain was desolate and cold.
Aside from the wind and snow filling the sky, it seemed as if nothing else existed.
The four of them walked forward for a distance until they finally saw a huge shadow shrouded in the wind and snow not far ahead.
Upon closer inspection, they were shocked to find that it was actually a giant Ancient Tree that reached straight into the heavens.
Standing beneath the Ancient Tree, the four of them appeared so minuscule.
Yu Yi walked to the Ancient Tree and noticed that the Demonic Qi lingering around it was faintly dissipating.
Clearly, this Ancient Tree had been enduring the erosion of the Wuxiang Demonic Art for the past ten years.
At this moment, it was like a dying elder, ready to pass away at any time.
Yu Yi instinctively reached out and pressed her palm against the Ancient Tree.
At that very moment, memories flooded into Yu Yi’s mind like a tide, and fragments of the past surfaced in her consciousness.
Forty years ago, a Woman in Green followed Grandma Yao to Cangzhou.
It coincided with the arrival of a plague, and the people were left in misery.
To save the people of Cangzhou, the Woman in Green went alone to the peak of the Holy Mountain and buried something deep beneath that Ancient Tree.
Thirty years later—which was ten years before the current timeline—a familiar figure came to the peak of the Holy Mountain.
Yu Yi recognized her instantly.
It was the Original Host.
In her mind, the voice of that Woman in Green seemed to echo, speaking to her: “Cangzhou’s seasons are now as picturesque as a painting, a supreme sight in the mortal world. It no longer needs my protection. Go and take the Azure Wood Jade buried beneath the Ancient Tree, and give it to a future descendant.”
Thus, the Original Host took the buried item from beneath the Ancient Tree, left Cangzhou, and returned to Among the Colorful Clouds.
Later, she bestowed that Azure Wood Jade upon her third disciple.
‘Is the artifact given to the third disciple called the Azure Wood Jade?’
Yu Yi fell into thought.
‘The Heart of the Firm Rock Jade gave Su Cheng the ability to control rock and earth. Could the ability to build halls immune to the Fire and create an entire self-regenerating Mountain Forest be the power granted to her by the Azure Wood Jade?’
‘If the owner of the Azure Wood Jade was that Woman in Green, why did she ask the Original Host to come here and take it? What was her relationship with the Original Host?’
As Yu Yi was thinking this, she suddenly felt a burst of headache.
Yu Yi had experienced this kind of headache before, back when she first learned about the Recruitment Assembly.
Sure enough, the fragmented memory from that time surfaced in Yu Yi’s mind.
When Yu Yi first learned of the Recruitment Assembly, seven blurred figures had appeared in her mind.
But at this moment, the back of one person became clear—it was that Woman in Green.
It seemed that in a certain year, Yu Yi had participated in a Recruitment Assembly together with those seven people.
What exactly was their relationship to her?
Were they friends, or —
“Master.”
Suddenly, Su Cheng’s voice pulled Yu Yi back from her distant thoughts.
Yu Yi came to her senses and looked in the direction Su Cheng was pointing.
She found that Grandma Yao was already leaning against the base of the Ancient Tree, her eyes tightly closed.
“Grandma, Grandma, it’s cold here. Get up quickly, Grandma…”
Yun Qianxue knelt beside Grandma Yao, calling out to her over and over again, but Grandma Yao no longer responded.
Yu Yi stepped forward to check and found that Grandma Yao had already passed away.
A faint smile hung on her face, as if her soul had finally found a peaceful place to rest.
“This Ancient Tree is actually the Mountain God she had faith in for so long.”
Yu Yi spoke slowly:
“The Ancient Tree was once granted a certain power, which quelled the plague in Cangzhou and brought the supreme beauty of the four seasons to this land. Later, it no longer needed to use that power to maintain Cangzhou’s beauty, and it could finally rest.”
“Unfortunately, someone from the Ouyang Clan and the Imperial Family of Great Yan harbored evil intentions. They awakened the Sinister Soul buried beneath the Holy Mountain and allowed it to erode this Ancient Tree. It lost the power to maintain Cangzhou’s seasons and could only watch helplessly as Cangzhou was blanketed by winter.”
“Grandma Yao’s departure this time was because she realized the Mountain God was not actually angry, but helpless. She wanted to accompany it on its final journey.”
After hearing this, Su Cheng and Yun Qianxue both fell into a deep silence.
“Then what exactly should be done to return Cangzhou to its original state?”
Yun Qianxue looked at Grandma Yao, who slept forever beneath the tree, and the Ancient Tree that seemed ready to vanish with the cold wind at any moment.
Her expression was exceptionally lonely.
“I think, besides them, there must be many people who hope Cangzhou can return to how it used to be, right?”
“I know what needs to be done,”
Yu Yi said indifferently.
“However, it may take some time.”
Since the Azure Wood Jade could save Cangzhou once, it could certainly save it a second time.
As long as she could find the third disciple who held the Azure Wood Jade, she could end the ten-year winter of Cangzhou and return this land to its former glory.
In a sense, the fundamental reason Cangzhou had endured a ten-year winter was that the Original Host had taken the Azure Wood Jade.
If she hadn’t taken it, the plans of the Ouyang Clan and that person in the Palace might not have succeeded, and the Sinister Soul buried underground might not have been awakened.
If it were the Original Host, she would certainly feel self-reproach for this.
But Yu Yi was different.
She wouldn’t be so foolish as to take the blame upon herself.
The true culprits were naturally the Ouyang Clan and that person in the Palace.
It was simply a coincidence of timing—they had come here to cause trouble just after the Original Host had taken the Azure Wood Jade.
But if that were the case, did the Original Host not realize that Cangzhou was trapped in eternal winter when she came here for the second time five years ago?
If she had noticed it but did not use the Azure Wood Jade to heal Cangzhou again, was it because of selfishness, an unwillingness to “lend” the jade back to Cangzhou, or was there another reason that prevented her from producing the Azure Wood Jade?
Just as more and more doubts filled Yu Yi’s heart, Grandma Yao’s voice echoed in her ear: “Young lady, I seem to see the shadow of an old friend in you.”
Grandma Yao was no longer in this world.
It was as if her soul was speaking to Yu Yi.
‘The shadow of an old friend?’
Yu Yi replied using her Divine Sense.
“If you ever see her, please give her my regards. I really hope she still remembers me…”
Grandma Yao’s voice grew more and more distant, finally dissipating into the horizon.