Not knowing when Xie Zhuo would wake, I stayed by his side until seven days later, when his body seemed to recover and he finally regained consciousness.
Before he woke, all traces of the slaughter from that day had completely disappeared.
Even the charcoal-black marks imprinted on the ground had been cleansed by the pure energy of the ice and snow forest.
This land remained immaculately sacred, as if nothing had ever happened.
After Xie Zhuo awakened, he sat in place for a long time, surveying his surroundings. He seemed to feel that everything was like a dream, his expression revealing some bewilderment.
After quite a while, he accepted reality and lowered his eyes. Just as he was about to stand, something in his bosom made a clear “ding-ding” sound.
Xie Zhuo reached into his clothes and pulled out a handful of objects—they were… a pile of crystal-clear… small stones?
I floated to Xie Zhuo’s hand for a closer look. After a good while, I finally recognized what they were by the patterns on them!
Wasn’t this the prosthetic leg I had when I was a dog?!
But this prosthetic leg seemed to have shattered during the previous chaos, and then somehow transformed into a pile of crystal-clear small stones.
These stones looked exactly like the ice lake. Could it be… they had been assimilated by the ice lake?
But previously, when the Snow Wolf tribe lived here, their tents stuck in the ground weren’t assimilated…
Or perhaps…
I suddenly remembered that before coming here, Zhu Lian, as he was dying, had mentioned—during our second time-space journey with Xie Zhuo, there was a period when Xie Zhuo acted separately from me.
During that time, to ensure that Xiaxia and Xie Xuanqing would never meet, Xie Zhuo carried out a series of plans.
On the day when Xie Xuanqing fought Zhu Lian, at the crucial moment, Xie Zhuo, disguised as a man in black, suddenly attacked, causing Xie Xuanqing to fall off a cliff. Then Xie Zhuo fought with Zhu Lian.
It was precisely because Xie Zhuo ambushed Xie Xuanqing from the shadows that the Evil God gained a moment to breathe. Only then could the Evil God use Zhu Lian’s body to employ the technique of extracting impure energy from mountains and rivers, severely injuring Xie Zhuo.
In the end, Xie Zhuo still defeated the Evil God and sealed Zhu Lian. But that time, he witnessed firsthand the Evil God using his technique, thus realizing the source of the Evil God’s power and how he could return to the world—
By extracting the impure energy between mountains and rivers, refining it into his evil spirit aura.
It was after that that Xie Zhuo would take me to the City of Immortality, back to the Snow Wolf tribe’s ice lake, and then absorb all the evil spirit aura in the world, returning it to the mountains and rivers, thereby resolving the world’s troubles…
I looked at the stones transformed from wooden sticks in Xie Zhuo’s bosom, lost in thought.
This small wooden stick wouldn’t be assimilated by the ice lake, because other things weren’t assimilated either. The only possibility was that the Evil God had extracted the impure energy from inside the small wooden stick.
When the Evil God escaped from Xie Zhuo’s body, needle-like black lightning appeared at Xie Zhuo’s brow.
At that time, I thought it was caused by the evil spirit aura gathered by Zhu Lian’s hatred. Now thinking about it, it seemed more like… the Evil God used his technique when Xie Zhuo was distracted!
He absorbed the impure energy from this small wooden stick, turning it into stone like the ice lake.
And the Evil God used this feeble power to break Xie Zhuo’s restraint on him, then entered Zhu Lian’s body and escaped!
This small wooden stick!
This small wooden stick was evidence of how the Evil God returned to the world!
Realizing this, I felt somewhat elated.
Previously, when Kunlun was in peril, the gods collectively sent my soul back to the past. They had intended for me to return to before Xie Zhuo and I separated, prevent the separation, and then inform Xie Zhuo that the Evil God’s return to the world was because he had borrowed the power of mountains and rivers from this land. To kill the Evil God, the only way was to return the evil spirit aura to the mountains and rivers.
But when the main gods sent me back, something went wrong. They sent me to Xie Zhuo’s childhood, which is why I accompanied him through these years.
I had been unable to find a suitable body to communicate with Xie Zhuo as a human.
Moreover, even if I found a suitable body, I feared I couldn’t make Xie Zhuo believe me…
Concerning the Evil God, the current Xie Zhuo didn’t know me, and I couldn’t provide evidence to prove that what I said was true.
But now, this small wooden stick could corroborate my words!
Xie Zhuo was so intelligent. When the Evil God escaped from his body, he said he was distracted by Zhu Lian and didn’t notice this anomaly.
He just needed someone to point it out to him, and he would understand the connection!
Just like Xie Zhuo before.
Now, I only needed to find a body, then stand before Xie Zhuo and tell him the truth.
Perhaps…
Xie Zhuo could solve the Evil God problem right now! Return all the evil spirit aura in the world to this land, making the Evil God’s soul roll back to his deep-sea seal.
Excited in my heart, I circled Xie Zhuo, wishing my soul could write a few words on the ground to tell him the truth immediately.
But my soul wasn’t that powerful yet. I circled him, unable even to stir a breeze to move his temple hair.
I just watched as Xie Zhuo silently contemplated the small wooden sticks turned to stone in his bosom, then carried the broken stones away from the ice lake step by step.
He returned to his tent.
This was unexpected to me.
The entire Snow Wolf tribe was gone, the tents still stood, but all were uninhabited, the last breath of life completely vanished.
Expressionless, Xie Zhuo brought the stones back to his tent.
He dug a small hole under the tent where he had slept and received offerings for years, then placed all the stones into the pit.
“The Evil God escaped using Zhu Lian’s body,” he said to the pile of broken stones. “I must pursue him, find a way to lure the Evil God back into my body, then take my own life.”