The Mountain God Manifested? The Mountain Was Moving House

The spirit beasts' first thought was that the mountain was rising.

But very soon,

they realized something was completely wrong.

The distant horizon they had been able to see was rapidly sinking.

Mountains and rivers farther away in the Northern Land gradually came into view.

Their field of vision grew wider and wider.

Their height grew more and more staggering.

A young white beast that lived by a stream pressed close against its mother, looking up at the changing world outside.

It could not understand any of what it saw.

All it knew was that the land it lived on was flying into the sky.

The adult white beast was trembling all over with fright as well.

But the dark golden curtain of light remained steady.

No trees were snapped by the wind.

No young beasts were thrown into the air.

Apart from the world beneath their feet rising, everything was reasonably safe.

The oldest white beast prostrated itself on the ground again.

It had already begun to sense

that the land beneath its feet seemed to possess a life beyond its understanding.

The other white beasts quickly followed suit.

Deep in the woods,

some beings with greater intelligence gradually did the same.

They did not know what to call such an existence.

A mountain god.

An earth spirit.

An ancient deity.

Every name seemed pale.

All they knew was that the home where they had lived for hundreds of years was awakening.

Outside,

the sight was even more astonishing.

Lu Yuan's body, nearly ninety thousand li long, slowly lifted away from the earth.

The ground that had lain beneath him gradually came into view.

It was a depression so vast it was hard to imagine.

It stretched for who knew how many tens of thousands of li.

After bearing Lu Yuan's weight for so long, the many layers of rock had been compressed until they were exceptionally hard.

In some places, smooth crystalline layers had even formed.

As Lu Yuan's body left the ground,

some nearby vicious beasts that had long since fled far away poked their heads out again.

They had lived in the surrounding area all these years.

They had long held this colossal beast, Lu Yuan, in awe.

Yet they had rarely seen him truly rise to his full height.

Now that it was happening,

all the vicious beasts stared, dumbstruck.

A vicious beast nearly a thousand zhang tall stood on a mountain peak.

It raised its head,

higher and higher,

until its neck could tilt back almost no farther.

Lu Yuan's back was still rising.

The shock in its eyes grew stronger and stronger.

"Roar..."

The vicious beast's voice began to tremble.

Several other vicious beasts beside it could not even make a sound.

He was too big.

Usually, Lu Yuan lay on the ground,

large portions of his body covered in rocks and dust.

They could see only part of him.

Now that he had truly risen,

they finally understood just how enormous he was.

A giant fin lifted,

like a whole expanse of sky shifting.

The edge of the fin swept through the clouds,

slicing a vast sea of clouds cleanly apart.

Once his dark golden body had completely left the ground, the once-lofty mountains of the Northern Land instantly seemed small.

Those divine mountains, ten thousand or even a hundred thousand zhang tall, could barely reach the underside of Lu Yuan's belly.

The black-scaled giant python appeared again as well.

The series of great battles between Lu Yuan, the Heaven-Splitting Hou, and Qiongqi had given it quite a fright.

Later, when it discovered that Lu Yuan had fallen asleep, it had secretly moved back nearby.

The reason was simple.

There was less and less Sha Qi around Lu Yuan.

For an intelligent vicious beast like itself, preparing to cultivate further, the environment was actually more comfortable.

When it sensed the disturbance today,

the black-scaled giant python immediately climbed a high peak to watch.

After a single look,

its whole body froze.

"Where is he going?"

A six-armed vicious beast beside the black-scaled giant python, which also had Golden Immortal cultivation, spoke in a low voice.

Its voice, too, was filled with undisguised shock.

How would the black-scaled giant python know?

It could only watch as Lu Yuan swam higher into the sky.

Its golden eyes never left him.

"The Myriad Sha Abyss."

Another deep voice came from behind them.

The Golden Immortal vicious beasts abruptly turned around.

A vicious beast that had once followed the Heaven-Splitting Hou emerged from the mountain forest.

It had evidently heard what Qiongqi and Lu Yuan had discussed.

At the mention of the Myriad Sha Abyss, the black-scaled giant python's vertical pupils instantly contracted.

"He's going there?"

"Probably."

The vicious beast looked up at Lu Yuan in the sky.

"Lord Qiongqi told him about it himself."

The expressions of the surrounding vicious beasts all changed.

The Myriad Sha Abyss.

The name itself stood for danger in the Northern Land.

They were unwilling even to go near it.

But when they thought of Lu Yuan's performance over the years,

the vicious beasts suddenly fell silent.

For anyone else, entering the Myriad Sha Abyss was an adventure.

For Lu Yuan...

It probably really was a meal.

While these vicious beasts were of mixed feelings,

Lu Yuan finally rose fully into the heights.

Grand Void Sky Whales were born able to swim through the void, seas of clouds, and chaos.

Lu Yuan was experiencing the sensation for the first time.

His giant fins gently swayed.

The surrounding sea of clouds immediately parted to either side like real seawater.

His body glided forward.

He was not moving particularly fast.

At least, Lu Yuan himself felt quite leisurely.

But to the vicious beasts on the ground, it looked entirely different.

A giant beast nearly ninety thousand li long swam slowly across the sky overhead.

His head had already entered the distant sea of clouds,

while his tail still lingered on the horizon behind him.

His body blocked out vast stretches of sunlight.

A shadow extending for tens of thousands of li moved across the land.

Many of the vicious beasts living in Lu Yuan's path had no idea what was happening at first.

A thousand-zhang vicious beast was lying in a valley, gnawing on its prey.

The sunlight suddenly dimmed.

It looked up.

The flesh in its mouth fell to the ground with a splat.

"Roar?"

The vicious beast looked utterly bewildered.

It looked up,

and kept looking higher.

Finally, its entire body froze.

The sky was gone.

A dark golden "continent" was moving slowly overhead.

Countless vicious beasts in the distance also noticed something was wrong.

At first, there was only a commotion.

Once they could make out Lu Yuan's rough outline, the commotion instantly turned to chaos.

Rumble!

Large numbers of vicious beasts fled in every direction.

Lu Yuan glanced down.

Those creatures below were running even faster than last time.

He felt somewhat helpless.

He had already done his best to restrain his presence along the way.

He had not shown any hostility either.

Yet this was still the result.

"Do I look that frightening?"

Lu Yuan muttered under his breath.

The little creatures on his back, which had only just grown accustomed to flying, tensed up again when they heard his voice.

But after the time that had just passed, they had gradually realized

that this terrifying existence did not seem likely to harm them.

The curtain of light had also been steadily protecting the whole mountain landscape.

Some of the bolder little beasts even poked their heads out of their caves

and looked at the sea of clouds rushing past beyond the curtain of light.

At first, their faces were full of terror.

Gradually,

their eyes filled with obvious curiosity.

The old white beast remained prostrate on the high ground,

its gaze fixed ahead.

It could not see Lu Yuan's head.

All they could see was an ever-widening expanse of heaven and earth.

The "mountains and rivers" they had lived among for hundreds of years were moving.

And they were moving faster and faster.

Some birds even began flying alongside Lu Yuan within the curtain of light.

This had become a mobile habitat in the truest sense of the word.

Lu Yuan paid no attention to the changes on his back.

His attention was fixed ahead.

The deeper he went into the Northern Land,

the denser the baleful Qi in the air became.

At first, there had only been a faint scent.

But after traveling onward for several more days,

Lu Yuan could clearly smell a "fragrance" growing richer and richer.

That familiar hunger stirred within him once more.

His eyes gradually lit up.

"The direction is right."

On the distant horizon,

the once somewhat clear sky had grown dim again.

Vast black clouds loomed over the land.

Baleful Qi surged endlessly between the mountains like a true sea of fog.

Lu Yuan gently swayed his massive fins.

His enormous body continued swimming north.