A lifetime of dust and trouble

  "That benevolent shore quietly watched the flying snow and said: 'Remember when the Sun God led the four great gods of heaven, the Fire God, the Water God, the Dragon King, and the Queen Mother of the West, to fight against the Demon Realm; The Sun God fought a great battle with the Demon King Xie Ci on Mount Kunlun for three months. In the end, the great Sun God used his divine power to trap the Demon King Xie Ci in the dark forest, and he used his own body as a shield, trapping himself and the Demon King together in the dark forest. From then on, all things in heaven were managed by the four great heavenly gods. However, the Fire God had always wanted to become the second Sun God, so after the Sun God and the Demon King were trapped for 10,000 years, the Fire God launched the greatest coup in the divine realm. He wanted to dominate the entire universe, mainly because he wanted to monopolize the Queen Mother of the West...' 'What?' They all exclaimed in shock, a great heavenly god actually started a divine war for a woman... 'And then?' Flying Snow asked hastily, as if everything was closely related to her."

  Ci An continued: "The Fire God occupied the Western Queen Mother, dominating the entire universe. However, the Fire God's actions gave the Demon King an opportunity to take advantage of. After the Fire God became the ruler of the divine realm, the Demon King cast a curse to reappear in the mortal world after 10,000 years. During the 10,000 years that the Fire God ruled the divine realm, he did not properly govern the divine realm and the mortal world. After becoming the Sun God, he only thought about how to please the Western Queen Mother. Therefore, when the Demon King reappeared after 10,000 years, the power of the demon realm was so great that even the reborn Sun God could not cope with it."

  In Feixue's mind, some scenes had flashed by. She saw a man in all black standing on a mountain top, facing a woman in white. Their faces were unclear, but there was an inexplicable sense of familiarity, as if she had seen them somewhere before, but couldn't quite recall where.

  Ci'an said solemnly to Fei Xue, "And you are the daughter of Huo Shen and Xi Wangmu. When Xi Wangmu gave birth to you, she passed on all her divine powers to you, and then she disappeared into the universe, never to be seen again. No one knows where she went, only that she left behind her divine powers and her mount, the Feng Huang, to you."

  "Why?" Fei Xue's heart felt a sense of abandonment, as if she had been discarded for thousands of years. She felt a deep sorrow.

  "No one knows why Xi Wangmu did this," Ci'an continued. "Only Huo Shen knew that after Xi Wangmu gave birth to you and disappeared into the three realms, he too disappeared. Everyone thought he went to find Xi Wangmu, but no one knows what really happened. Even the current Buddha, the Great Sun Tathagata, cannot sense their whereabouts."

  When she heard this, Fei Xue's inexplicable sadness grew stronger, as if there was a voice in her heart telling her not to believe it. So Fei Xue stood up and coldly asked Ci An: "Why do you know all these things? These should be myths, folk tales made up by people. How can they be true? Why are you so clear about them? Who are you?"

  "It's because I'm not human, nor a demon, nor a god. Back when the Sun God and the Demon King were battling on Mount Kunlun for three months, they created a whirlpool on the mountain. Later, the Fire God tried to win the heart of the Queen Mother of the West by creating the Milky Way with the heavenly water from Mount Tian, but this plan was foiled due to the Water God's resistance. The heavenly water ended up flowing into the whirlpool left behind on Mount Kunlun thousands of years ago. After that, the whirlpool gave rise to a thousand-year-old spirit, and later, under the guidance of the Buddha, I cultivated myself into a half-immortal."

  "Is that you, Lake Spirit?" Flying Snow said calmly, as if she had already known of the lake spirit's existence, just like they were old acquaintances who had known each other for a thousand years.

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