Outside the gourd, the sky stretched clear for ten thousand miles, and the wind and snow had just subsided.
The once-floating peak had vanished, and the deep valley below, formerly hidden from the light, now saw the sun again.
Sunlight poured straight down, illuminating the dark valley floor.
Jagged rocks filled the valley, vines grew in tangled profusion, and several seemingly bottomless caves could dimly be seen.
Hovering a hundred zhang in the air, Shen Hui kept examining the gourd in his hand, his eyes smiling and his face full of satisfaction.
"At last, it's finished. What should I name it...?"
Just as he murmured to himself, a somewhat familiar voice drifted lazily over from beside him.
"Where did you put the mountain?"
Shen Hui turned his head and discovered that the speaker was Bixi.
Unlike him, however, Bixi was not riding qi through the air. Instead, it had stretched out a long, long neck, bringing its head up from the deep valley to his side.
At the sight, Shen Hui's pupils quaked.
That must be several hundred zhang. Was Bixi's neck really that long?
He promptly recovered, quickly smoothing away his shock and politely cupping his hands.
"You're awake, Senior?"
Bixi's eyelids drooped, its voice thick with drowsiness as it grumbled.
"I wasn't, but you went and brightened the sky. How am I supposed to sleep now?"
Shen Hui remained unruffled and merely smiled.
"You did say back then, Senior, that if I could take this mountain away, it would count as my own ability."
Bixi snorted twice, then drawled lazily.
"You don't need to fence me in with my own words. That mountain wasn't mine to begin with, and I always keep my word."
Shen Hui bowed slightly and cupped his hands toward Bixi again.
"Then allow this