Chapter 173 Old Friends

When the wind blew, looking down from the highest point of the mountain, one could see countless verdant trees swaying gently in the wind, like waves. The clouds in the sky were also constantly undulating. Sitting atop the mountain, one could observe the sea of clouds and gaze at the forest waves, feeling as if one were the only being between heaven and earth, forgetting all worries, a state of ineffable bliss.

A golden-yellow bird fluttered with the wind, diligently flapping its wings to maintain stability and balance.

Suddenly, a strand of white hair fell. The bird, struggling to keep its balance in the mountain wind, descended, its claws gently grasping the soft white strand, as if relieved. Then, with a rustle, it fell, its small claws clinging tightly to the white hair, and was gently lifted by a fair hand.

The snow-white-haired girl sat quietly on the mountain, watching the world. Originally, her white hair only reached her shoulders, but now it had fallen to her waist.

Thirty years of gazing at the human world had hardly changed her face. Her eyebrows were serene, her eyes large and deep, like a lightless night. Her face lacked any trace of color. Behind her, a girl wearing a Tanuki (raccoon dog) mask held a jade comb in one hand and gently lifted the soft white hair with the other, helping her to comb it.

"Huan."

The white-haired girl's voice was quiet, without any ripple, even after accompanying her for thirty years.

It was more accurate to say that after expending a great deal of energy, she had fallen into a prolonged state of weakness after emerging. She had spent the remaining part of these thirty years quietly waiting. Jue had only told her some basic knowledge of the human world, and Geng Chen, the First Divine General of Kunlun, had passed away after doing his best to escort them out.

"It's just a pity. I had hoped that Chen Yuan would kill me and be stained with my aura, so that I could also appear in the human world when he was reincarnated and the great tribulation arrived."

When Geng Chen was dying, he felt extremely regretful, but he did not regret his actions.

"You will appear in that era."

The girl wearing the Tanuki mask replied.

Then, as Geng Chen looked puzzled, she stretched out her palm. Qi intertwined endlessly within her palm, but it was not just her own aura. The pure Qi from Kunlun was also entangled with the foundation of the human race, sometimes separating and sometimes reuniting, constantly intertwined and never breaking.

Geng Chen's eyes widened. Finally, he saw the girl reach out and take off the cat mask from her face.

He saw that familiar face, and she said in a gentle tone, "We are engaged."

"Therefore, you will definitely meet us."

The Heavenly God Geng Chen's eyes widened, and he finally laughed several times, closed his eyes, and passed away, without any regrets, to be reincarnated.

Jue recalled the Kunlun martial god who had supported them all the way from the Turbid Kunlun Ruins, escorting them to break out before his serious injuries erupted and he passed away. Thinking carefully, after she awakened in the modern age,

it was Zhang Ruosu, who had an extremely strong karmic connection with Geng Chen, who found her. It was Zhang Ruosu who gave her a modern identity and sent her to the old street, completing the entanglement of karma.

So the fate had already been tied at this time.

All the coincidences were perhaps destined, predestined in the past.

While thinking, she helped the white-haired girl tie up her hair, nodding in response to her call. "Yes, I'm here."

Jue gently turned the wooden hairpin in her right hand, securing the white-haired girl's hair in a high ponytail. She wore a dark blue Taoist robe, with a jade-white inner lining embroidered with flowing cloud patterns, wide robes and sleeves.

Barefoot, she stood on the quiet bluestone, ethereal and otherworldly, seemingly not of the human realm.

The white-haired girl looked at the wind and said,

"Your injuries are more serious."

Jue said nothing more.

When she was in the Turbid Kunlun Ruins, she forcibly manipulated the pure turbid Qi of Kunlun City at that level, inhaling and exhaling it into her body to fight. One of her opponents was at the level of Kai Ming. At this time, she realized that the Heavenly Maidens were both pure and turbid. The aspects of her sisters that occasionally appeared, the red earth for thousands of miles, the murderous intent like water, all represented the turbid Qi gaining the upper hand.

And now, the turbid Qi was no longer in the upper hand in her body.

It had already mostly transformed into the purest turbid world Qi. Her power had been completely subverted.

The difference from the past was so great that even Wei Yuan could not see it at a glance. It was just that she was always accustomed to the balance of purity and turbidity. At this moment, the turbid world Qi had broken the past equilibrium, taken the upper hand, and suppressed the flow of pure Qi. In these thirty years, with each passing day, her Qi began to sink a little.

Every year, it would be completely different from the previous year.

At this moment, her power was no longer as light and agile as it used to be, but heavy and profound, like the wind that tears apart all things, representing the pure flow of [Qi]. Jue was doing her best to barely control her temperament, so as not to undergo earth-shattering changes, so as not to explode her own authority like her sister, triggering the surrounding vitality and turning it into disaster.

"I am fine."

Jue took off the mask from her face, and her eyes had changed from clear to deep.

"It's you. Did you finish reading the *Dao De Jing* I brought you before?

You still have to learn the words of the human world. The *Dao De Jing*, the *Analects*, and the *Huainanzi* are perfect for learning to read."

The white-haired girl was expressionless and turned her gaze away.

But Huan still saw a trace of nervousness in the girl's expressionless face and those waveless eyes.

"Didn't memorize it?" the white-haired girl said expressionlessly.

She reached out and touched Huan's black hair.

Seeing that the girl was unmoved.

Then she held Jue's cheeks, leaned over, and rubbed her face against hers. So soft.

She said in a waveless tone, "Jue is the best."

"So good, so good."

"So amazing."

"You, why are you doing this again..."

Jue was helpless and had no way to deal with this white-haired girl. She said, "Forget it, let's go down the mountain with you today. Let's have another cup of tea and see what the human world is like. Perhaps he has already come down the mountain." The white-haired girl did not speak again, but nodded. They waited near Kunlun. There was also a border town here, under the jurisdiction of the Gui Anxi Protectorate, with many merchants and travelers coming and going.

This city near Kunlun was originally a country called Gaochang.

The king of the country had once become sworn brothers with the Tang Dynasty monk Xuanzang decades ago. However, he had stood on the wrong side in the battle between the Tang Dynasty and the Tujue, submitting to the Western Turkic Yipiduolu Khan and blocking the Western Regions trade route.

Then, he was swept away by the Tang Dynasty cavalry and defeated by the famous Tang Dynasty general, Duke Hou Junji of Chen. He died in fear.

Now, the Gaochang Kingdom has become a county in the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty, and Xuanzang has passed away.

The King of Gaochang died in fear.

Even Hou Junji, the famous general who conquered Gaochang, had been involved in the affairs of the Crown Prince and was sentenced to death.

Now even this country no longer belongs to the Li family.

The years of history are like smoke, only the great sun remains, and the Tianshan Mountains do not change. Thirty years ago, the Heavenly Maiden with the Tanuki mask and the white-haired girl with her face as always, ordered a pot of herbal tea and

several dishes in the Gaochang style, listening to the third-generation storyteller around them telling stories. After eating and drinking their fill, the white-haired girl slowly digested her food while drinking tea.

The Heavenly Maiden looked at the distant Kunlun through the gaps in the bamboo curtain.

"Yo, the two guests are here again? Do you still like the taste of our food? The new owner recognized Jue and the white-haired girl's transformed appearance, recognizing them as regulars and greeting them familiarly.

The Heavenly Maiden was lost in thought. The white-haired girl drank tea and said in a clear, quiet voice, "It's not delicious."

The young shopkeeper was stunned. The people of the Western Regions had a fierce folk customs, and he was immediately unhappy and said, "How is it not delicious?!"

"This is not [delicious]."

The white-haired girl said softly, "He made me truly [delicious] food."

"Huh? But you can't say that our food isn't delicious!"

The young shopkeeper gritted his teeth and refused to accept it. "Okay, I won't make things difficult for the two of you. It's just that we who cook and handle kitchen utensils are a small martial world, and we more or less fight for a breath.

I'll just ask, who made the dishes?! Who made the delicious food?!"

"Which family, which household, which school? Let's draw a line and compare."

Then the hot-blooded young cook saw the guest lower her eyes. Even with her transformed appearance, for some reason, she gave people a feeling of sadness. She said softly, "I don't know. I've been waiting for him for thirty years."

The shopkeeper, who had been wandering in the wild and unruly world of the Western Regions all his life, had never heard such a faint but lingering sadness.

He was about to retort that you didn't even look thirty years old when the swordsman with the mad mask said, "Sorry for today, this money is for compensation."

"It's just that this dish is indeed not good."

She stood up, pulled the white-haired girl, and said plainly, "It's much worse than your grandfather's."

Then she whispered a word about the old shopkeeper's proud skills thirty years ago. The young cook was stunned, his eyes widened, and his mind was shaken. As they pulled the white-haired girl to leave, they suddenly heard a storyteller in the teahouse next door slap his gavel, clear his throat, and loudly say, "We have already told the story of how the Tang Dynasty monk opened the gates of the chaotic world with a nine-ring tin staff and two alms bowls the size of fists.

"Today, I will tell a new story."

"The Sword Immortal hides from the world for thirty years, and one day enters the city, his hair as white as snow, his sword Qi lasting for thousands of years!!"

"But look here everyone, it's a coincidence!"

"This Sword Immortal Chen Yuan is the Jianghu swordsman who traveled 100,000 miles west with Xuanzang in those days. He is..."

White hair, Sword Immortal!

Down from Kunlun!

Jue and the white-haired girl's footsteps suddenly stopped.

The white-haired girl's eyes widened, and her lips trembled slightly.

"He's back?!"

The chef in the restaurant couldn't help shaking his head and sighing, "Really, first a Buddhist master is said to be a violent monk, good at what zen staff exceeding, and then a sword immortal slashes the city with a sword, immortal for thirty years, it's getting more and more outrageous, really..."

Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly heard the green wind flowing in his ears, and he turned his eyes subconsciously. The swordsman wearing the Tanuki mask and another guest had already disappeared.

He turned his head and said angrily, "Can you tell me something true?! Huh?!" Although what you said is really nice and fun.

"But we still have to tell the truth, I'm talking to you, don't cover your face, are you too ashamed to show your face?"

"Bai Ze?!"

The storyteller lifted the bamboo hat on his head, revealing slightly curly black hair and a handsome face, but in the depths of his pupils, there was a faint purple light.

Clear and peaceful, like the rays of light that occasionally flow over Kunlun Mountain.

This exposed his true identity.

One hand held a candied hawthorn upside down, and the other hand carried a camel skin wine pot filled with sweet rice wine.

Casual, unrestrained.

After being awakened, he grasped the secrets of heaven, and sighed regretfully, realizing that the drink he liked would not be born for hundreds of years, ah no, it would be dried up for many years.

He couldn't help but feel lost. Hearing this, he rolled his eyes, nodded righteously, and lazily said:

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm Bai Ze."

"Look at you, are you not convinced?"

He took a sip of sweet wine, bit a piece of candied hawthorn, and said righteously and domineeringly: I, Bai Ze, tell stories, but I do as I please!

Why would I care about other people's opinions?!

Remember it, my name is Bai Ze!

When you want to take revenge and fight in the future, don't forget this name.

The people listening to the story all said angrily, "I remember you, Bai Ze!"

"Can't hear, can't hear, is such a small voice considered revenge?" "Bai Ze, you son of a bitch!!!"

"Hit him!"

[Bai Ze]'s regional hatred level steadily rises up.

At this moment, a gust of wind had already gone far away.

Down from Kunlun, into Chang'an.

Old friend.

ps: Today's second update