Peach Mother Divine Mountain.
The mountain was shrouded in pink clouds, perpetually enveloped in a miasma of peach blossom toxins. Only those wearing a special peachwood token could resist the miasma and move freely.
Among the surrounding mountains, this one wasn’t particularly tall or rugged, yet it was revered as a divine mountain by the people within a hundred miles.
Because atop the mountain stood a divine tree!
The tree was sentient, often manifesting its true spirit, appearing in the mortal world, recruiting followers, passing down immortal techniques, and protecting the region.
Every household had a statue of the Peach Mother, worshipped daily with prayers for blessings.
…
“What a pity. You’ll probably need to pray to a new deity soon.”
Lu Zheng arrived at the Peach Mother Divine Mountain’s territory, pinpointed its location, then sank into the ground.
No covert investigations, no probing for weaknesses. From start to finish, Lu Zheng had no intention of showing himself.
Facing a thousand-year-old demon, any action risked alerting it, possibly provoking an early strike.
Lu Zheng had no desire to test the true spiritual power of this thousand-year-old peach tree spirit.
So, one shot to settle it!
He burrowed underground, quietly moving toward the base of Peach Mother Divine Mountain.
Crossing several small hills, he slowly approached, passing the mountain’s base and stealthily ascending.
The mountain stood over a thousand meters tall. Lu Zheng moved carefully, avoiding rocks, traveling through soil, inching closer to the Peach Mother Divine Tree.
“Hm?”
Lu Zheng halted, not daring to move, sensing a tiny tendril in the soil ahead.
It was a root of the peach tree spirit!
“I’ve reached the range where the peach tree spirit can sense me.”
Calculating the distance, he was about three hundred meters from the tree’s position at the summit. But with over a hundred thermobaric bombs, dubbed sub-nuclear, detonated underground, leveling the mountain should be feasible.
“Let’s do this!”
At a distance beyond the tree’s perception, Lu Zheng began digging cavities in the mountain, placing the thermobaric bombs one by one, forming a network beneath the tree.
The bombs were linked to ensure a chain explosion.
The detonator? The hundreds of kilograms of TNT he’d brought.
To avoid alerting the peach tree spirit, Lu Zheng moved cautiously, using his gourd to remove soil and replace it with bombs, making almost no noise.
One bomb…
Two bombs…
Three bombs…
It took him five or six days to travel, but setting up this explosive network took nearly as long, ensuring enough space for the bombs’ power to fully unleash.
To that end, besides placing bombs, he removed vast amounts of soil and rock from beneath the mountain, aiming to collapse it in one go and shred the Peach Mother Divine Tree’s physical form.
“Good grief, after this, I could join any mountain-digging or road-building crew!”
“Tch, boosting civil engineering efficiency. I’m a genius at infrastructure!”
…
Peach Mother Divine Mountain, Peach Mother Divine Tree.
The tree’s branches swayed, as if sensing unease.
A pink figure appeared in the Peach Mother Temple beneath the tree.
“Greetings, Lady Mother!”
“Greetings, Lady Mother!”
Several cultivators on duty in the temple bowed in respect.
The Peach Mother wore a flowing gown of pink peach blossom silk, adorned with a crimson phoenix feather hairpin, her sleeves fluttering without wind.
Her jade-like face, vermilion lips, phoenix eyes, and delicate brows exuded a dignified, regal aura, her gaze deep as a starry sea, exuding extraordinary pressure.
“Mm,” the Peach Mother nodded. “Has anything happened at the mountain’s base recently?”
The attendants exchanged glances, then shook their heads. “To Lady Mother, all has been calm at the base. Nothing unusual.”
The Peach Mother frowned, her gaze sweeping the temple, then flashing briefly. “Any news from the Four Directions Envoys?”
The Four Directions Envoys had gone to the Central Plains to seize the soul of the Peach Blossom Fairy. Four against one, with her blessed Four Poles Soul-Locking Token, it should’ve been foolproof.
By now, they should’ve captured the soul of that incense deity and returned to the Southern Border, no?
“To Lady Mother, no word from the Four Directions Envoys.”
“Hm?” The Peach Mother’s brow furrowed. Had something gone wrong?
Her Peach Mother Divine Mountain had no enmity with Great Jing’s officials or sects. The envoys shouldn’t have encountered issues before acting.
“Could someone have intervened during their move, saving the Peach Blossom Fairy?”
“Or, after taking her soul, were they intercepted by Great Jing officials on their way back?”
“Is my unease because I can’t obtain the Peach Blossom Fairy’s soul?”
“Send a few more…” The Peach Mother frowned, then stopped herself.
“No need…” She shook her head, her form flickering as she left the temple, reappearing atop the mountain on an eighty-meter-tall peach tree.
Her true form, the thousand-year-old peach tree!
Gazing out, she saw endless mountains stretching hundreds of miles, boundless seas of clouds, beasts roaring in the valleys, birds soaring above, a harmonious, majestic natural scene.
“Am I overthinking?”
Using her tree roots, she sensed the ground and subsurface within dozens of miles, finding nothing amiss.
“Is it really because of that Peach Demon Ghost?”
Logically, capturing Shen Ying was a distant matter, unlikely to affect her so soon or cause such unease.
Yet, finding no other issues, her thoughts drifted back to Shen Ying.
The Peach Mother, ethereal as an immortal, hovered atop the thousand-year-old tree, like a divine queen, inspiring awe in her followers and mortal attendants, who knelt below.
“No! That Peach Demon Ghost is key to my ascension. I’ve hit a bottleneck. Without change, in eight hundred years, my branches will wither, my roots rot, my soul dissipate.
But if I can devour that Peach Demon Ghost, using the ‘Peach Demon’ poem to nourish my form, I’ll achieve a pure yang true spirit, attaining eternal life, roaming the vast world freely!
Four Directions Envoys, don’t fail me!”
…
Meanwhile.
Lu Zheng finished setting up the bomb network, placing the hundreds of kilograms of TNT as the trigger at the bombs’ detonation points, with a timer set.
Ten minutes!
He burrowed away, swiftly leaving Peach Mother Divine Mountain, arriving at a hilltop ten miles away.
Waiting a few minutes, he quietly emerged from the ground, crouching behind a large rock, pulling out a professional camera aimed at the distant mountain.
He glanced at his watch.
“Five, four, three, two, one, boom!”
“Boom!”
