Dragon-Tiger Mountain lay within the jurisdiction of the Liangjiang Jiedushi, but the Earthly Kingdom of God had long since occupied it.
As for this place harboring a transcendent aberration, the Liangjiang Jiedushi had no intention whatsoever of taking it back. He had simply maintained a standoff nearby all this time.
Most members of the Earthly Kingdom of God had now grown content with the status quo. They felt they had obtained everything they wanted and had lost their drive to advance.
The Liangjiang Jiedushi was likewise happy to maintain this standoff with them.
Although minor clashes still frequently broke out between the two sides, there had been no major fighting, and their respective areas of actual control had remained unchanged for a long time.
Now, as the year's end approached, a rare spell of peace had arrived.
They even turned a blind eye when people from the Earthly Kingdom of God came over to buy New Year supplies.
Outwardly, each side fought its own battles, but privately, trade between them had never stopped.
Temperatures in the South of the Yangtze were not particularly low around the New Year, only hovering around freezing, but the damp cold still froze quite a few people to death every year.
"It's already the end of the year, yet even more outsiders have been coming lately..."
In a village at the foot of Dragon-Tiger Mountain, a man putting up Spring Festival couplets watched a group of Westerners enter the village and sighed with apparent concern.
"Westerners don't celebrate our New Year. They're probably planning to head up the mountain. Things always settle down up there around the year's end."
His neighbor immediately guessed the truth.
"I know, but it hasn't been this lively in a long time..."
The man putting up the couplets also looked