The moon waxed and waned, and the Dipper shifted with the seasons.
The bright Taiyin star hung in the heavens, clear and luminous, eternal and unfallen.
Checking his map bit by bit, Jiang Yang finally emerged from the Dark Marsh as the moonlit night descended.
Seeing moonlight again felt almost like meeting an old friend. After so long without seeing the sky or sun, a sense of exhilaration welled up in his heart.
Stepping out of the branch-choked Great Dark Cold Marsh and over jagged boulders carpeted in Green Moss, Jiang Yang stopped and looked back.
Deep in the forest, the alligator beast had just let out a sky-shaking howl, with a distinctly miserable note to it.
The miasma roiling in midair also seemed to be settling at last.
"Senior Bai, will that Greenback Alligator chase us out?"
Jiang Yang had only swung his sword once throughout the encounter and was still utterly bewildered, so he asked her.
"It wouldn't dare."
Bai Tang sneered, apparently still nursing her anger.
"I rewarded it with a sword strike just now. The fact that its immortal foundation didn't collapse on the spot was already a credit to its thick hide. How would it dare chase us out..."
The boy had nearly suffered a fright just now, and Bai Tang's indignation had driven her to teach the beast a lesson it would remember.
Had Jiang Yang's meridians not been too frail for a full-scale fight, Bai Tang would have driven a sword straight through that stupid creature's heart.
"Oh..."
Jiang Yang nodded blankly. His limbs felt weak, and he was still savoring the sword strike he had instinctively unleashed.
That strike had been breathtakingly beautiful, containing the turning of the seasons and the succession of withering and flourishing. Like a climber reaching the mountain's