Columbina unconsciously clenched her fists. She urged her power once again, expanding her perception range to its maximum. Her body flew almost clinging to the surface of the turbid river, her senses finely scanning every inch of land beneath the riverbed, not letting slip even the faintest elemental fluctuation.
Coppelia accompanied her silently at her side, her elemental sight fully open, vigilantly monitoring every subtle change in energy within the surrounding environment.
They found two more segments of remains, but the outcome was no different from before.
Columbina slowly approached the segment of snake body they had found last. She reached out, her fingertips gently brushing over those cold, hard scales. "Can they... not come back?"
"No," Coppelia said. "They haven't completely died."
"But we haven't found even a trace of life..." Columbina raised her head to look at Coppelia.
"Let's look again..." Coppelia comforted her while rapidly backtracking through all the scenes of remains she had just seen in her mind, attempting to piece together clues.
Changsheng's residual consciousness must exist in one of the remains.
Suddenly, her gaze sharpened; she had captured the key point she had overlooked!
"That's it!" She abruptly raised her voice. "Where is the head? We haven't found the snake head yet! As long as we find the head, there's still a chance!"
This sentence instantly ignited Columbina's confidence. She immediately pulled herself together and, taking Coppelia with her, began a new round of even more careful searching, not sparing any river bend, shoal, or underwater reef.
Continuing their search downstream along the river channel, at the bottom of a canyon section at the southern foothills of Mount Lingmeng, Columbina's perception finally touched an object that was different from the rest, containing a more complex structure.
The snake head!
She carefully utilized her power to lift that heavy snake head from the silt and chaotic rocks, slowly moving it out of the water and placing it on a relatively flat patch of ground on the riverbank.
Columbina rushed forward impatiently to check. However, on that massive snake head, the golden vertical pupils still retained their majesty, yet they also revealed the same heavy aura of death as the previous remains.
Her heart instantly went cold again.
But she did not give up. She trusted Coppelia's judgment, and she believed that Changsheng was by no means ordinary.
She condensed her perception into a thread, carefully probing deep into the interior of the snake head. Sure enough, at the location of the snake's brain, she sensed a strange "cavity," inside of which quietly hovered a sphere of elemental power!
The light on the sphere's surface was dim, and the elemental power was extremely weak, constantly dissipating, but dissipating abnormally slowly.
"There's something inside!" Columbina's mood instantly turned from cloudy to sunny. She stroked the cold, hard scales of the snake head with both hands, turning back to speak to Coppelia, her voice containing suppressed joy.
But immediately, she faced a difficulty. Looking at this hard skull comparable to a giant rock, she had no way to start. "But how do we get that thing out?"
Coppelia also furrowed her brows, studying it. "If only the Primordial Jade Cutter were still here, we could open the skull directly..."
She tried condensing Geo energy to create a sharp blade, wanting to cut open the skin and flesh and the bones.
However, the Geo construct she created was too fragile. It could not even cut open the relatively soft muscles at the severed cross-section that had lost their vitality, let alone that steel-like adeptal beast skull.
Columbina did not rush her. She just stood quietly to the side, watching as Coppelia sometimes squatted down to examine it closely, and sometimes stood up to try various methods, patiently awaiting her conclusion.
Coppelia stared at the snake head for a long time, her eyes flickering, and finally seemed to make up her mind.
"How about... we just leave it like this," she said, standing up and dusting off her hands.
Seeing Columbina's confused look, Coppelia explained, "I estimate that this snake head form, like the previous remains, is a facade created by highly condensed adeptal energy, not her true form. When the elemental power maintaining this form naturally runs out, the core thing inside will naturally reveal itself. Moreover, this sturdy shell can actually protect the fragile remnant soul inside from external harm right now. If we force it open, and fail to control our power properly, we might hurt it instead."
"But," Columbina said worriedly, "I feel that the power inside is also dissipating very slowly."
"Then we will find a place rich in adeptal energy for it." Coppelia already had a plan. "We will place this snake head there, letting the core inside slowly absorb adeptal energy and accumulate power. Perhaps a few hundred years, perhaps a few thousand years... there will always be a day when it reawakens."
"Leaving it just like this... for so long, will there really be no danger?" Columbina was still uneasy.
Coppelia looked around at the valley that had been ravaged by the flood but where one could still feel a tenacious vitality. She spoke with a tone of certainty, "In this valley, whether humans or mountain beasts, all have deep bonds of friendship with these three adepti. They will take good care of them."
Hearing these words, the last shred of worry in Columbina's heart finally dissipated. she nodded gently. "Then let's do that."
She utilized her power once again, causing that massive snake head to slowly hover upwards.
The two of them searched together among the mountains, finally finding an ideal resting place in a secluded valley rarely visited by humans, filled with misting spiritual energy and flowing water.
They carefully placed the snake head properly, ensuring it could be slowly nourished by the abundant spiritual rhythm of heaven and earth, before quietly departing.
...
Leaving the valley, Columbina asked, "By the way, what about Fujin? Could she also be... Where should we look for her?"
"Follow me." Coppelia's voice was steady, giving her direction.
Under Coppelia's guidance, the two arrived at the west side of Mount Lingying.
Looking up, that Jade Votive, massive as a mountain range, stood towering and majestic, suppressing the center of the river channel. Although the adeptal light flowing upon it had dimmed, it still radiated an afterglow of stabilizing the mountains and rivers.
Coppelia pointed at that massive Jade Votive and analyzed, "Fujin should have cast this Jade Votive from the mountain peak above here, forcibly widening the river channel and channeling the flood. If she exhausted all her adeptal energy because of this..." Her gaze cast toward the still turbulent river surface below. "The most likely place she fell is nearby."
Columbina understood immediately and probed her perception beneath the turbid river water.
Very quickly, deep in the riverbed, she discovered another Jade Votive of similar size.
Unlike the Jade Votive standing upright in the center of the river channel, this one was lying horizontally, resting upon the silt and pebbles.
What caught her attention even more was that in the center position of this recumbent Jade Votive, there seemed to exist an abnormal "depression."
She focused her mind, probing her perception deep into that depression, only to discover that it was not a simple pit; it was quite profound, and her perception could not reach the bottom.
"There is a... very deep hole here." Columbina's voice carried confusion and a trace of unease. "Did Fujin... fall down there?"
Coppelia gazed at that stretch of water and nodded slowly. "A special space exists down there; ordinary means cannot enter it at all." She turned to Columbina. "Don't worry, she won't be in trouble. She has merely exhausted her adeptal energy and fallen into slumber, needing an extremely long time to recover. How could an adeptus who has lived for hundreds of years pass away so easily?"
Columbina was willing to believe her words, but when she thought of that long wait, waves of sorrow still inevitably rose in her heart. She asked softly, "Does she... also need to sleep for several hundred years, or even thousands of years?"
Coppelia nodded silently.
In this moment, that sentence Fujin had once spoken with a smile—"We must cherish every meeting before our eyes"—seemed to ring in Columbina's ears once again.
Back then, she only felt those words were warm; now, she truly tasted the weight of how easily fate passes and how ruthless time can be.
The two fell into a wordless silence for a time, hovering above the surging, ceaseless river water.
____
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