Wolf Mountain.
Thunderclouds churned, and incense offerings surged.
The Divine Dao Grand Formation was mostly restored, with lingering purple lightning faintly visible within it. As the Origin Net representing Li Fire shone upon this place, the last traces of Buddha Land's aura were erased.
Two years had passed since the expedition began. The Divine Department, which had suffered a heavy blow, had finished recuperating, and the True Persons had largely recovered from their injuries as well. The mountain's shattered body knitted together beneath the radiance of Wu Earth, merging into a seamless whole and once again becoming the most conspicuous boundary between the Central Capital and the Origin Capital. Native Liao people were often seen at its foot, most of them tribespeople. Now reduced to slaves, they hauled mountain stones and repaired the formation lines here.
Northern Liao was vast and sparsely populated, with few signs of human habitation. Most of its inhabitants were herders who worshipped shamans and Buddha, forming settlements of varying sizes, nowhere near as prosperous as the great cities and major towns of the Li Kingdom.
A Five-Colored Divine Temple stood on the summit, pouring forth Wu Light and stabilizing the earth's qi. The desolate landscape around it gradually improved, taking on an inexplicable sense of peace.
Beside the temple stood an azure wood divine pillar, ninety feet tall.
A flying fish lay pinned beneath it, enormous in body, with crimson scales and white feathers. A great, bloody hole had been pierced through his belly, and blue-green blood continually seeped from it. Wherever it dripped onto the ground, the grass and trees rotted, turning into decayed soil.
"Bear with it a little longer, fellow Daoist."
A soft call came from nearby, and an old Daoist with refined features and neatly bound hair emerged. He was short