At dawn, Black Snake lay coiled in the grass at the fork in the road below the mountain.
Black Snake saw the Abbot and several Daoists slowly descending the mountain road, each carrying a simple pack.
When they reached the junction, the Abbot stopped. He and the Daoists behind him turned toward Black Snake, solemnly clasped their hands, and bowed.
"Take care."
After their farewell, they lingered no longer, turning to walk into the morning mist. Their retreating figures grew ever more distant along the road, until at last they vanished into the vast haze, nowhere to be found.
Black Snake knew there would be no more secretly learning the Abbot's swordsmanship.
The Azure Cloud Monastery had a new Abbot.
The Mountain Gate opened as usual, but the footsteps and voices passing through were unfamiliar. Occasionally, figures sat in meditation on the Stone Terrace, but they were all strangers.
Nothing seemed to have changed. The mountain was still the same mountain, the monastery still the same monastery.
But Black Snake knew that some things truly had become the past.
The new Azure Cloud Monastery became ordinary and unremarkable.
After the Abbot and his companions left, it gradually shed its former spiritual radiance and legends. Pilgrims still came and went, and incense smoke rose as usual.
Now, like countless ordinary Daoist monasteries, the Azure Cloud Monastery was quiet, devoted to tranquil cultivation and the study of the Dao.
Black Snake honored the old agreement, guarding the mountain and waiting for the hundred years to end.
Only now, Black Snake no longer appeared before people, retreating into the deepest reaches of the clouds and forests. Only a few Daoists in the monastery knew that a great black snake dwelled on the rear mountain, but they kept that unspoken understanding, each cultivating their