"Could it be, Senior, that you too..."
Gu Xingzhi and Li Niang stared at the old man in astonishment.
The old man sighed and nodded.
After a pause, Gu Xingzhi spoke again.
"Senior, why did you say that once we came from the waterfall, we could no longer leave?"
The old man pointed in the direction they had come from and replied,
"Take a look. Can you still find the path you came by?"
Gu Xingzhi turned around, his brows tightly furrowed.
The path they had taken had changed. The narrow trail was now covered by lush greenery, with not a single footprint in sight, as though no one had ever walked there.
"Why is this happening?" He turned back to look at the old man.
The old man shook his head. "Old Man wore the same expression as you when Old Man first arrived."
"Old Man tried countless times to return, but no matter which way Old Man went, Old Man always came back here, as though Old Man had entered an illusion realm."
"Old Man never gave up. Old Man repeatedly tried every possible method for a hundred years, yet the result remained the same."
"So Old Man resigned himself to fate and settled down here, prepared to muddle through the rest of Old Man's life."
"Old Man stopped cultivating and ate and lived like an ordinary mortal, all so this life would pass more quickly."
"But Old Man was wrong. Even though Old Man no longer cultivated, the dense spiritual energy here still caused Old Man's cultivation to rise on its own."
"Not only did Old Man's lifespan not diminish, it grew longer and longer."
"Do you know how old Old Man is now?" He looked up at Gu Xingzhi, his brows drawn together, his face filled