Chapter 624: Four Babies Lost and Not Returning

Xu Qing hesitated, looking at the fruit and then at the exquisitely beautiful woman before him. With the Prince by her side and understanding their purpose for being there, he naturally deduced her identity. However, her appearance didn't quite match his memory of her from the northern ice plains; the discrepancy was too significant. Moments earlier, he had been prepared for a fierce battle with the Spirit Treasure. Now, though, Xu Qing glanced at the tree and lost all interest. He respectfully accepted the fruit, saying, "Thank you, Senior." He felt this outcome was perfectly fine.

The Prince offered a helpless smile. He had intended to give Xu Qing some training, but since his third sister had personally offered the fruit, there was nothing he could do.

"Well then, let's go," the Prince said, looking at his third sister. Princess Mingmei glanced at his aged appearance and sighed inwardly, knowing it was merely a facade. Yet, from his expression, she could feel that her younger brother genuinely embraced his current state of being. She reflected that the Prince, once graceful and renowned throughout the world, was now old, and they were all old. "Our prime years were sealed away in a sunless place."

Princess Mingmei shook her head, her own appearance shifting. She transformed into a kind-faced old woman and remarked calmly, "It seems you're quite comfortable in that pharmacy of yours."

The Prince smiled at her words and softly replied, "That little pharmacy is very cozy."

Princess Mingmei became thoughtful. Xu Qing blinked, observing the old man and old woman before him. He had a faint premonition that his pharmacy would soon gain an additional old shopkeeper. The thought of two 'Yun Shen' (Divine Manifestations) residing in an ordinary pharmacy left Xu Qing feeling somewhat disoriented.

Princess Mingmei spoke calmly and began to walk forward. The Prince gestured to Xu Qing. Xu Qing followed, his expression peculiar. He felt he had miscalculated earlier; his pharmacy might house not two but four 'Yun Shen' in the future. "Perhaps," he mused, "as the Prince's siblings are unsealed, it will be renamed." As this thought crossed his mind, even with his usual composure, Xu Qing couldn't help but feel a tremor in his heart as he looked in the direction of his small pharmacy. When he had first opened his pharmacy there, he had never imagined such a situation would arise.

Thus, the three continued their journey: the old man and old woman traveled through the sky, while Xu Qing remained on the ground. They strode across the heavens, while Xu Qing walked through the vast desert. The soft, roaring desert made every step an extreme effort for Xu Qing after he retracted his Purple Moon power. Even a slight misstep would cause him to sink into the sand. Particularly, some sections of sand, once depressed, would exert a powerful suction, making it incredibly difficult for Xu Qing to pull himself out.

In front of his sister, the Prince seemed less decrepit, observing with the unflagging enthusiasm of an old rascal. After a few days of watching, Princess Mingmei waved her hand and lifted Xu Qing out of a patch of desert. Xu Qing felt a bit embarrassed; he had been struggling to climb there for two hours.

"What have you done to this good child!" Princess Mingmei exclaimed, casting a dissatisfied glance at the Prince, who was about to speak. "Are you thinking about the time Father punished you as a child? This iron ball looks familiar; isn't it the one Father tied to you back then?"

Xu Qing looked up at the Prince. He had also noticed that whenever he struggled to climb these past few days, the Prince's gaze held both reminiscence and amusement. The Prince chuckled heartily, changing the subject.

"Third Sister," he began, "the place where Fifth Sister is sealed is quite unique—different from ours. I went to investigate it earlier."

Princess Mingmei, carrying the iron ball, walked towards the sealed area. Xu Qing nodded slightly.

"How so? Fifth Sister isn't sealed in reality," the Prince said, his expression becoming serious, his eyes gleaming strangely, and his voice growing hoarse. "She's sealed within a children's rhyme! Beneath Mount Yongwu in the south, there's a small mountain village. This village has existed for a very long time. Even if it faces disaster and becomes a ghost village, it often reappears after some years. A children's rhyme circulates within the village," the Prince's voice, full of vicissitudes, echoed as he walked forward. "Fifth Sister is sealed within this rhyme. When no one in the world remembers this rhyme, Fifth Sister will completely perish. But our God-Child brother, in his torment of Fifth Sister, couldn't let her die. So, besides remembering it himself, he also arranged for others to remember it. At the same time, using the power of the Crimson Mother, every time this rhyme is recited, it inflicts immense pain upon Fifth Sister, like the agony of flesh being devoured. That small village was chosen because it... it's the residual land of Fifth Sister's bloodline. The people living there are her descendants."

Xu Qing was deeply moved. Princess Mingmei fell silent, her eyes filled with anger and sorrow, for she understood the Prince's unspoken implication. The rhyme, in an insidious way, was unknowingly devouring Fifth Sister. Then, her very flesh and blood were given by the God-Child to them, becoming the food they had consumed over the years. The Prince also fell silent.

If not for considering Xu Qing's endurance, they might have reached their destination in an instant. Their destination was an endless forest, permeated with decay, giving off an aura of withered death. Deep within it, Xu Qing saw a unique peak, roughly eight hundred *zhang* tall, resembling a colossal centipede arching its back and extending its fangs towards the sky. The centipede's antennae were also clearly visible, strikingly lifelike. A sense of dread pierced Xu Qing's heart the moment his gaze met it. He sensed a malevolent aura and a thick resentment that seemed to have accumulated over countless years. This was Mount Black Centipede, as referred to by the Prince.

The sky above was pitch black, with faint wisps of dark mist discernible—resentment formed and never dissipating year-round. Only streaks of lightning continuously flashed, and bursts of thunder echoed everywhere, like the mournful roars of countless beings, venting their unwilling defiance. At the foot of the mountain lay a small village, surrounded by a dried-up fence and built against the mountainside. Its houses were all grayish-black, exuding an ominous feeling, and the ground was dirty and messy. It seemed that because this place was isolated from the world, and the rumbling heavens deterred outsiders, apathy was the normal state of its inhabitants. Furthermore, due to the harsh environment of impoverished mountains and treacherous waters, desolation became the dominant theme. All of this intertwined to create a decay brought by the passage of time.

Only the inherent nature of children seemed to spare them from such worries; they treated the resentment-formed lightning as fireworks. Thus, as lightning ceaselessly streaked across the sky, they hopped and skipped, singing a children's rhyme. Although there were only five or six children, their voices eerily carried far.

"Fourth baby is lost and won't return..."

The rhyme drifted, seemingly possessing a strange power that even the sound of thunder couldn't suppress. It spread beyond the village, reaching the ears of Xu Qing and the other two who had just arrived at the village entrance. Princess Mingmei's expression was complex, and the Prince closed his eyes, pain visible within them. Xu Qing sighed softly to himself.

The Ruler had five daughters and ten sons. According to imperial custom, sons were ranked among sons, and daughters among daughters. As for the "First Baby," that was the Prince. From the Prince's expression, Xu Qing guessed that he might have truly been ill back then. Xu Qing didn't know the exact cause, but he felt it might be related to the Crimson Mother of the Red Moon.

"If you ask why the fourth baby was lost, the first baby knows best, knows best..."

Xu Qing fell silent. The Prince now opened his eyes, gazed at the village, and spoke softly: "Fifth Sister's divine soul has awakened. The way to unseal her is for you, Third Sister, to use your authority to conjure the imprints of everyone who has ever appeared here throughout history, allowing the rhyme that has echoed here for countless ages to continuously drift."

"Xu Qing, this process requires your Purple Moon power. It is the key to opening the sealed area."

"As for me, I will do my utmost to alter the perception of heaven and earth and conceal all fluctuations. Within ten breaths, I'm confident that even if the Red Moon Temple is constantly monitoring, they won't be able to detect us. But it's only for ten breaths." The Prince turned and looked at Princess Mingmei.

A river of time suddenly materialized, flowing through the village. Its waters surged, waves churned, and countless sprays of water splashed, drifting across the land and transforming into innumerable figures. In that instant, all individuals ever born here had their temporal imprints retrieved by Princess Mingmei, and they began to proliferate within the village. The Prince watched the dense, countless figures. All the villagers also emerged from their houses, looking bewildered. At this moment, living souls and deceased spirits gathered amidst the roaring heavens and trembling void. As the River of Time flowed, chants of life and death, hymns of present and past, resonated in all directions.

"Once there was a big baby, with a row of little babies behind him, until one day suddenly..."