From one person, they had become two.
Yet their days had not changed much.
Outside, however, the world had long since transformed beyond recognition.
Six thousand years had passed. Because Wang Wu had packed up and taken away all the ruins and leftover materials of Great Desolation City, the site had become a Great Pit spanning a thousand li. Later, it became a basin, and later still, a Great Lake.
The eastern shore of the Great Lake was fertile land, already dotted with the smoke of mortal homes.
To the west and north lay towering mountains and rugged ridges, where wild beasts roamed as they had thousands of years ago. Occasionally, descendants of the Mang Mountain Ancient Bear would still come here to worship with tearful eyes, and a few old bears nearing the end of their lifespans would bury their bones in the Great Pit.
But now, time had wiped away every trace of it all and faded the memories of the past. The prosperity of old had been compressed into a few sentences and buried among piles of yellowed paper. Even if someone read them, they would only pass by in haste.
Time was merciless.
Before Frost Lord came, Wang Wu paid no attention to the changes outside.
After Frost Lord came, they had a very, very small island.
It spanned only a few li. There was a small hill upon it, a clear spring, dozens of assorted trees, and two thatched huts. It even looked rather proper.
Inside one of the huts stood five tiny stone statues. One housed Frost Lord's mother, while the remaining four served as the dwelling places of the Four Clowns.
Back then, Frost Lord had bundled Hao Mao Jun and the five of them together and sent them to the Great Desolation