The Peach Orchard's Old Servant

Qiuyang City was not in a mountainous region, but an occasional small hill could still be found there.

Jiang Yiming pedaled his bicycle for five kilometers before finally reaching the foot of the hill. The hill before him was less than a hundred meters tall. Compared with those in Xiangxi, Eastern Guizhou, and Southern Yunnan, it was hardly worth mentioning.

"No matter how small it is, a hill is still a hill. Mountains have been full of venomous creatures since ancient times. Hopefully, this trip won't disappoint me."

He hid his bicycle in the woods nearby and set off up the mountain path, full of hope.

The hill was too small to have any value as a tourist attraction, so only one path had been built. As he followed it, he ducked into the woods by the roadside every few steps to search carefully.

Strangely, after searching for a long time, he found nothing venomous except a few spiders.

Finding no venomous creatures was bad enough, but the real problem was that the hill was swarming with mosquitoes. Within minutes, their bites had left him covered in welts, questioning his life.

"That's not right! Why are there so few venomous creatures on the hill?"

"Did I come at the wrong time? Or is it because I'm too close to the path?"

He thought about it for a long time but couldn't figure out why.

Just then, a loud song suddenly rang out from the hilltop, the voice behind it full of vigor.

Jiang Yiming looked up, but the leaves blocked his view.

"This singing is strange. Even after passing through the woods, it still has enough force to make my ears tingle!"

Realizing that the singer might not be an ordinary person, he gave up looking for Gu worms for the time being and climbed toward the sound.

He walked a long way, but the singing always remained ahead of him.

Only when he reached the hilltop did he finally see the singer—an old man with hair and a beard as white as snow!

That powerful, ringing song had actually come from him!

Jiang Yiming could hardly believe it. He strode over.

When the old man saw him, he stopped singing and broke into a kindly smile. "Little fellow, were you looking for me?"

"Your singing drew me here. You sing beautifully." When Jiang Yiming came closer, he saw that although the old man's hair and beard were white, his face was free of wrinkles. He had something of the look of a white-haired youth.

"Hahaha... My master thinks my singing sounds awful and told me not to sing in the peach orchard. I didn't expect to meet someone who appreciated it up here on the hill." Not a single wrinkle appeared on the old man's face even when he laughed.

At the mention of the peach orchard, Jiang Yiming involuntarily looked toward the foot of the hill, where a vast peach orchard lay!

The orchard covered at least five hundred mu and was perfectly square, as though it had been carefully trimmed. Its four sides were perfectly even, with not a single peach tree sticking out. At its center was an open space, where a large, old-fashioned courtyard residence stood.

"That antique of a courtyard must be a rare sight these days... And what age are we living in? Someone still uses the word 'master'!"

Thinking of this, Jiang Yiming found the old man before him even harder to make sense of.

Seeing that Jiang Yiming was silent, the old man smiled and asked, "What's your name?"

"My name is Jiang Yiming. And yours?"

"Mine... Haha... I've forgotten. Master calls me Old Liu, and after a long time, I forgot my old name." The old man didn't seem to care about his name.

"Old Liu? How long have you been with that... master of yours?" Jiang Yiming was curious how long it would take for someone to forget his own name.

"Nearly a hundred years, I suppose," Old Liu said.

Hearing that number, Jiang Yiming began to wonder if he was talking to a lunatic.

Just then, Old Liu suddenly said, "I'll head back first. You can come visit the peach orchard when you have time."

With that, he stood up. His steps were slow, but he moved swiftly, vanishing into the woods in the blink of an eye.

The woods were at least twenty meters from the rock. The old man had strolled over as though taking a leisurely walk, yet it had taken him less than two seconds!

What bizarre footwork! Jiang Yiming marveled to himself.

He hurried to his feet and gave chase, but couldn't catch even a glimpse of him.

In the courtyard at the foot of the hill, fragrant with the scent of peaches, Old Liu stood quietly behind his master.

His master's hair was even whiter than his, yet he looked more spirited.

"You said you met a strange person during the day?" his master said slowly.

"Yes!" Old Liu explained. "He was a boy in his teens. I sensed a faint aura of Gu worms on him, but I didn't find a single Gu worm."

"Had his qi sea opened?" his master asked.

"It had, but he didn't have a trace of Gu Essence."

"That's strange. His dantian qi sea had opened, yet you couldn't sense any Gu Essence. There are only two possibilities: either his strength is far greater than yours, or he really doesn't have a trace of Gu Essence."

His master raised his teacup, took a sip, and frowned in thought.

Even though they had lived a long time, they could not have known that Jiang Yiming's Gu worms were either cultivating atop the Yellow Gu Lotus Platform or hiding inside the Gu Rearing Box.

The Yellow Gu Lotus Platform and the Gu Rearing Box were both spatial items. They were not in this world at all, so naturally, they could not be detected.

As for the faint trace of Gu worm aura Old Liu had sensed, it was because there was a great deal of Gu Essential Essence in Jiang Yiming's qi sea.

Gu Essential Essence was formed from dead Gu worms and naturally gave off a faint Gu worm aura. Only when it was refined into Gu Essence would that aura disappear.