Don't farm, cultivate immortality!

It seemed that only Zhuang Xing and Xiao An remained in this place; the only sound was the falling snow.

Such a cold day makes one feel sleepy.

Those two boys were snakes transformed into dragons. You know, snakes hibernate. Zhuang Xing wondered if they had gone somewhere to sleep.

Turning this place into a snow-capped mountain might just be to make it colder so people can sleep better.

He thought that the ancestor of the boy, that great predecessor, might be sleeping soundly in the snow-capped mountains.

Even the children under his knees are almost growing dragon horns. That great senior is probably not a real dragon, but perhaps the Yinglong depicted in the relief.

According to ancient records, Yinglong's true form should be tens of meters long and capable of swallowing an entire ox in one gulp.

If it really was Yinglong, what he saw in the main hall should only be a wisp of divine soul attached to the scroll.

Zhuang Xing lay on the stone bed with his eyes closed. He felt more and more that although the senior in the temple had taken human form, he was still very different from ordinary people.

Take the girl with the blue snake tail, for example. When Zhuang Xing talked to her, although she spoke human language, she seemed to have no human emotions and seemed to care about nothing.

Perhaps only people with their temperament could stay in such a cold and quiet snow-capped mountain for hundreds of years without ever leaving their homes.

Chapter 235 Live Your Own Life

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, Zhuang Xing has spent three days in the snow-capped mountains.

For three days, he spent most of his time in the house studying the method of raising ghosts, using his own yang energy to nourish Xiao An's soul.

He memorized the entire method of feeding ghosts with locust wood. He read through the first half of the harmful techniques, tore it off, and burned it as fuel in the brazier.

That method was truly cruel and vicious, not even sparing the dead. It's best not to bring it outside; burning it would be the end of it all.

After three days of rest and recuperation, Xiao An has almost recovered.

The problems Zhuang Xing and Xiao An faced were mostly resolved by now.

He felt a little relieved after the lesion was removed.

But after three days without seeing the female knight emerge from the palace, he couldn't help but feel a little worried.

The virgin said this matter would take about two or three days, and today is the third day.

With nothing to do, he waited in front of the main hall. On the afternoon of the third day, the door of the main hall finally opened a crack, and the young girl pushed the door open and came out.

"Little Taoist priest, what are you doing standing here at the door?" The young girl stopped when she saw Zhuang Xing standing in front of the door. "Is there a problem with the ghost-raising method? Or is there something you don't understand and want someone to teach you?"

"Reporting to Senior, I have already learned the method of raising ghosts," Zhuang Xing said. "Xiao An has been nurtured in the locust tree for three days and is fine now. I was just a little worried about Sister Yan, so I waited for her at the door."

“Don’t worry, the coldness in Sister Yan’s body has been removed,” the maiden said. “Speaking of which, you all deserve some credit for this. In the past, our ancestor used his yang organ to protect Sister Yan from the coldness. The last thing our ancestor asked Sister Yan to find was something that could absorb the coldness in her body. But people like her are so rare that even our ancestor didn’t know what could absorb the coldness in her body. Originally, she could only rely on fate to find it, but she just happened to encounter that yin-yang stone.”

"With the Yin-Yang Stone in your hands, the Yang energy became excessive and the Yin energy deficient. Our ancestors used the stone's suction to draw all the cold energy from Sister Yan's body to the stone, so she will no longer be bothered by the cold."

"May I see Sister Yan?" Zhuang Xing asked.

“She is inside the hall, come with me,” the maiden said.

Zhuang Xing responded and followed the girl into the main hall.

The hall was much colder inside than outside. The yin-yang stone was placed on the offering plate. At this moment, the black and white stone was frozen in a piece of crystal-clear ice. Yan Huai'an stood in front of the stone, his hair loose and falling on his shoulders.

The chilling aura emanating from her was gone, and the stray white hairs had vanished without a trace.

That innate coldness had vanished from her; her eyes were no longer as icy as before. Instead, Zhuang Xing saw a hazy and confused look in them.

In the painting, Yinglong is talking to Yan Huai'an.

When I picked you up, I never imagined that we would have a four-hundred-year-old connection.

“Now that the chill in your body has been completely removed, you no longer need to travel around,” Yinglong said. “Whether you want to stay here or go outside is up to you. From now on, you no longer need to practice the sword techniques and mental cultivation methods I teach you.”

"You can go and live your own life now."

Yan Huai'an touched his face, his gaze fixed on his palm.

"Live your own life..." she whispered, repeating Yinglong's last words.

There was a hint of doubt in her words, as if she couldn't understand what it meant to live one's own life.

Just as Zhuang Xing asked her if she planned to return to Hundred Flowers Valley after finding the last thing, she only said "maybe," without having thought about what she should do next.

“Sister Yan, you are the one I raised, you should stay here.” The maiden interjected, “Now that your ailment is cured, you don’t need to go out anymore. When you get old and can’t walk anymore, I will hold you and breastfeed you, just like when you were a baby.”

Yan Huai'an raised his head and looked at the girl, while Zhuang Xing's gaze met hers.

"Sister Yan, are you going to stay?" Zhuang Xing asked.

He didn't think Yan Huai'an would like this Taoist temple. It was too desolate and cold, with nothing but snow and no one to be seen.

Yan Huai'an glanced at the girl, then at Zhuang Xing, her eyes seemingly veiled in mist, making it impossible to discern her thoughts.

"I..." She opened her mouth slightly, uttering only one word.

She seemed unsure of what to say; she hadn't decided whether to stay or leave.

Instead, she turned back and looked at Yinglong in the painting again.

"Don't I... need to go find something else?"

Yinglong replied, "I've already said that you don't need to ask me about things from now on; you can decide for yourself."

"Listen to me, stay here and don't go out." The girl stepped forward and took Yan Huai'an's hand.

The girl's eyes gradually transformed into vertical pupils, a pair of blue snake eyes, emanating an invisible majesty from those eerie snake eyes.

"Sister Yan, do you really want to stay?" Zhuang Xing stepped forward.

Yan Huai'an hesitated for a long time. Even though the girl was watching her, she still turned her head to look at Zhuang Xing.

“Sister Yan, where can you stay outside?” the maiden said. “When you were taken in by our ancestors, you were an orphan. Your parents and relatives are all dead. You have no family in this world. Only this place is where you belong.”

Yan Huai'an lowered his head and looked away from Zhuang Xing towards the girl.

“That’s right, staying is the best thing for you,” the virgin said.

“But senior, this should be a decision for Sister Yan to make herself,” Zhuang Xing said.

He felt that if he didn't say something, Yan Huai'an would really stay in the Taoist temple in the snowy mountains.

After all, Miss Huai'an is someone who is very bad at refusing others, especially someone who raised her from childhood.

For three hundred years, she was always listening to others and running around everywhere.

One day, that person suddenly told her that she no longer needed to run around and that she could make her own decisions. It's normal for her to feel confused and unsure of what to do.

Zhuang Xing couldn't make the decision for her, but he knew that Yan Huai'an would sneak up to the baby's side to peek, and that she would practice carving words on bamboo slips.

She tried her best to make herself speak more fluently. While searching for those things, she met a tree spirit in a place called Hundred Flowers Valley. She took up her sword and went up Demon Mountain to rid the people of the tiger demon that was ravaging many places. That year, she stayed in Yidu and secretly killed many demons.

The virgin had never even known about these things.

Chapter 236 The Quest (Part 1)

Yan Huai'an recalled some things from the past.

Valley of a Hundred Flowers... She forgot how far she had traveled before encountering the tree spirit that could take her form.

She was very tired from walking that day, so she found a place to sleep.

When she woke up, she saw a person who looked exactly like her sitting next to her, staring intently at her.

In the past, whenever Yan Huai'an drew her sword, people would look away. Few could look her in the eye when she held her sword. Usually, at that moment, she would have to be prepared to fight. But this person did not dodge, did not run away, and did not have any intention of fighting her.

Yan Huai'an recognized it as a tree spirit. The tree spirit didn't speak, but placed the red fruit it was holding in front of her.

She still remembers the scene very clearly: they sat on moss-covered rocks, clear stream water flowing past their feet, birds perched on branches in the lush green valley, and a few rays of sunlight shone through the gaps in the leaves to her side. She tasted the fruit; it was very sour, but with a hint of sweetness.

The valley was quiet, with few noises and not many people staring at her.

There are no soldiers wielding swords and wearing armor here, nor are there any hideous demons.

The tree spirit took her hand and led her on a walk around the quiet valley. She saw a very tall spruce tree that covered the entire sky.

She was indeed quite tired from walking. At that time, there was chaos and war everywhere, and she didn't want to see many more dead people or encounter man-eating demons, so she rested in that valley for a while.

Even now, looking back, those were very comfortable days, and I miss them.

She lived in a cave under a spruce tree. Tree spirits would often come to see her, but they never spoke.

She didn't speak either. Speaking was a very difficult thing for her. She didn't know why other people could learn to speak so easily, but it took her a lot of effort to learn to say a single sentence.

It took her a long time to learn her first word or phrase.

Even though she had learned some words, she still preferred to express herself through actions. Outside the valley, she usually held a sword, but inside the valley, she rarely held a sword. She preferred to sit by a rock by the stream and stare blankly at the flowing water.

She felt that this was not bad, as if she didn't need to look for those things.

But then a group of people came to the valley. Among them were old people, children, and women. They were dressed in rags and had brought their families with them.

Yan Huai'an had seen people like this before. There was a war outside the valley. When soldiers passed through a village, the villagers had to hand over their food and property as required. Many people had no food and their homes were taken over, which is why they ended up like this.

She had seen it, but she hadn't paid any attention to it. When she saw it from a distance, she would cover her face with her straw hat and walk to a less crowded place.

She didn't want to get involved with the group of people she encountered today. She hid, thinking they would leave after a while.

But the tree spirit shared the fruit from the valley with them.

The group settled in the valley, and the tree spirit would often listen to them speak in the guise of Yan Huai'an. Later, the tree spirit also learned to speak, and she spent even less time with Yan Huai'an.

The tree spirit would come occasionally. She said that those people were refugees and she wanted to take them in. She wanted to give this valley a name. She said she liked flowers and plants, so she would call this valley Hundred Flowers Valley.

The tree spirit that used to sit with Yan Huai'an suddenly became very busy.

The tree spirits helped those people cultivate fields, build houses for them, and broke off branches of their own trees to make weapons and farming tools for them.

Those people raised chickens and farmed in the valley, and gradually they started wearing new clothes.

Yan Huai'an watched all of this unfold slowly from the valley. Sometimes, when evil spirits came to attack, she would draw her sword and leave.

However, she was too lazy in the valley, rarely practicing swordsmanship or mental techniques, and failed to suppress the cold energy.

When she is not diligent enough, her hair will turn snow-white due to the erosion of cold air. If she encounters a powerful demon, she also has a life-saving technique that allows her to use the cold air within her body for her own benefit.

However, she couldn't use it too much, because the more she used it, the stronger the chill would become. Fortunately, the demons she encountered weren't very powerful, so she didn't really need to use this move.

When she slays the demons, the people of Hundred Flowers Valley cheer for her. When the demons don't come, she remains idle, daydreaming in quiet, deserted places.