Zhongshan Shenzhu Chi

After the excitement fades, life will always return to normal.

Bathed in the morning sun, Huai Nian coiled atop the mountain, its snake-like body winding and tightly protecting the water-blue five-petaled lotus flower.

Last night, the white fox worked hard, drawing upon the spiritual power of the water to nourish the medium, which had finally been born from Zhongshan and was no longer withered.

But the red stain from blood within the blue flower's heart never faded.

"It should be fine... It's normal for flowers and plants to suck a little blood." The giant snake flicked its tongue, carefully observing the shape, smell, and even the spiritual energy attributes for a long time, but found nothing unusual.

He breathed a sigh of relief and turned to look at his waist, at the wound that the Golden Ape King had torn open with all his might during his desperate counterattack a day ago.

There, the blood and energy condensed into a cocoon, temporarily replacing the muscles while digesting the brilliant golden lightning.

Under the protection and nourishment of the blood cocoon, the granulation tissue grew wildly, filling the gap in the waist area overnight. Now, only the surface scales have not yet grown out.

"My body has also changed... In the past, I would have to be distracted to digest the Golden Ape King's lightning before my wounds could begin to heal."

As Huai Nian watched the scales and tender shoots gradually growing out of the blood cocoon, she pondered why her body was undergoing such changes.

Although the "Three Qi Transformation" technique is powerful, capable of transforming all things once the Yin and Yang vortex is formed, it is clearly a cultivation method of the human race, with the foundation of cultivation being the hundreds of acupoints throughout the human body.

It possesses the body of a serpent and its yin-yang vortex has not yet fully formed. It can only strengthen its physical body and spirit through destruction in order to create a foundation that can perfectly support yin and yang, which is of no benefit to the restoration of its flesh and blood.

Furthermore, in the battle against the Golden Ape King, he exhausted the spiritual power stored within his body in order to resist its thunder, and now he can only rely on his blood energy to heal his injuries.

The back injury should have healed slowly while I was asleep after a good meal.

But why... is it growing so fast now?

What is it that is supplying spiritual energy to help me recover from my injuries?

The great serpent hissed, its voice filled with anguish. It sensed nothing amiss, neither from the lotus flower nor from its own body.

It was as if my recovery from injury was as natural and spontaneous as a seed taking root and sprouting or a tree growing taller.

Huai Nian felt increasingly distressed, and the giant snake hissed again.

So he calmed his mind and stopped thinking.

The mountain monsters recovered from their injuries by eating and sleeping.

Huai Nian, who has lived the snake's life for thirty years, has almost never suffered from insomnia.

In the end, I turned into a snake. Many of my thoughts of wasting my time no longer existed, nor did they seem important anymore.

Life returns to its most basic form: eating is eating, cultivation is cultivation, and sleeping is sleeping.

Once the mind is closed, one immediately falls asleep, consciousness sinks into chaos, and the world turns into nothingness.

In a daze, Huai Nian felt a "hand"... countless "hands", encompassing all things, including humans, demons, plants, trees, soil, and dust.

He gradually channeled the chaotic and disordered spiritual energy that had spread throughout heaven and earth into himself.

The giant snake wanted to see who it was, but those "hands" were one with nothingness, and it could only sense countless points of spiritual energy of various colors converging on the damage to the snake's body.

The most dazzling colors are gold and silver.

They do not participate in repair; after entering the body, they flow along the meridians and eventually converge... swirling and balancing each other.

"This is a reward."

"What?" The giant snake suddenly looked up.

The blazing sun has set, and the bright moon hangs high in the sky.

The white fox sat obediently before him, its eyes filled with worry, and asked softly, "Candle, your eyes...?"

"What eyes?" Huai Nian shook her head, trying to find the voice that had just spoken in her mind.

But it gained nothing, and it could not even remember what it had seen in its dream.

Only the nascent yin-yang energy vortex within his body indicated that he had just had an extraordinary dream.

"Candle, one of your eyes has changed color," the white fox replied.

"It changed color?" Huai Nian asked, puzzled. "You keep an eye on the flower, I'll go check underwater."

"Yes." The white fox nodded.

The giant serpent slowly withdrew its protection from the lotus flower, its massive body winding downwards like a crimson waterfall cascading down the cliff.

At night, the Luo River is still, its surface like a mirror, reflecting the moonlit Zhongshan Mountain.

The moonlight was gentle, its silvery glow spreading across the mountains and fields. The mountains stood silently in response, their reflections dark and unchanging through the ages.

As you get closer, the shape of a snake appears on the water's surface.

A pair of stars, one gold and one silver, outshone all other colors, so dazzling that even the scales on the red serpent's own face paled in comparison.

"This..." Huai Nian murmured, her mind blank for a moment.

It truly has no idea what changes have occurred in its body, nor why these changes have happened.

It was just that the Yin-Yang vortex had taken shape with the help of an unknown entity, so how did my eyes turn into the shape of the sun and moon?

"I need to find some time to go back to the valley and have a good talk with my mother," the giant snake said thoughtfully.

In the entire Zhongshan Mountain, only the Mother Goddess has the ability to do these things without being fully aware of them.

But what exactly is she going to do?

For the past thirty years, apart from being the offspring of the Zhongshan Snake God, she had given him nothing.

Why are you suddenly making so many moves, and you don't want me to know?

Huai couldn't understand.

So the giant snake stopped thinking, bent down into the water, and planned to find some fish to eat.

But underwater, just like on land, it is dark and silent.

The strange light in the red snake's eyes pierced through the murky darkness underwater. Looking around, it could not find a single fish or shrimp, nor any other animal, only countless water plants drifting with the current.

The giant snake remained silent, carefully observing its surroundings underwater, and finally discovered a clue.

It wasn't that there were no fish or shrimp, but rather that all creatures seemed to have hidden themselves in the water plants, silt, and crevices of the rocks because of my arrival.

Seeing this, Huai Nian immediately lost interest in hunting.

Demons like it, having broken free from the shackles of life force and physical blood, are no longer bound by the distinction between carnivorous and vegetarian diets.

Even if you eat dirt, you can still get nutrients.

The giant snake swam downwards, approaching a patch of aquatic plants, and opened its mouth as if to devour them. The fish and shrimp hiding there all fled.

A few fish and shrimp are essentially no different from aquatic plants.

He was about to gulp it down, swallowing the silt and all.

Suddenly, a large bluefish, over a meter long, rushed straight towards them and hovered in their open mouth.

"Um?"

The giant snake turned its head, and the bluefish followed suit.

Turning his head again, the bluefish remained in his mouth, never leaving his side.

The snake's snout pressed down, its four rows of sharp teeth slowly closing. Death was imminent, but the bluefish remained motionless, as if it had already disregarded life and death.

Huai Nian took a bite directly, and with a slurp, the bluefish was sucked into her stomach.

The fish was quickly digested in its stomach. Having just fought a tough battle and not having had a chance to eat, the giant snake felt a rare sense of lingering satisfaction.

Before I could even turn my head, several more bluefish of the same size rushed over.

Huai Nian didn't hesitate and ate them one after another.

After swallowing five snakes in a row, the snake's body swelled up, and the lingering feeling of insatiable desire in its heart was finally satisfied.

"I really need to go back and ask my mother..."

"After the media matures and distribution is completed."