Chen Shi looked at the large, sculpture-like black snake, his heart filled with awe.
The mindset and state of mind of this massive snake far surpassed those of ordinary mortals, reaching a height that even top-tier cultivators found difficult to attain.
Granny Sha brought him deeper into Ganyang Mountain.
"Granny Sha, you said Ganyang Mountain also has a spirit?"
Chen Shi inquired, "If Ganyang Mountain indeed has a spirit, then just how large would the spirit of this mountain be? What would it look like?"
Granny Sha thought for a moment, shaking her head. "Perhaps there is a spirit, but I have never seen it."
They passed through a mountain stream. By the side of the stream were young girls washing hair. Those were the spirits of the mountain stream, beautiful and spirited, greeting Chen Shi and Granny Sha.
Granny Sha presented a comb to the young maiden, who was utterly delighted and thanked them; the water of the mountain stream also slowed down considerably.
They passed through a tract of woodland. In the woodland were countless spiritual herbs that had grown for I knew not how many years. Numerous bare-buttocked children less than a foot tall ran about under the trees, and upon seeing them, they scattered behind the trees to peek and size them up.
Granny Sha opened the floral cloth on her basket, grabbed a handful of candies, and those little tots came running out babbling incoherently. A great many heads squeezed together, extending chubby, tender, white palms to beg them for candy.
This was the great mountain.
Chen Shi had seen the Ganyang Mountain near Huangpo Village, where ghost and god domains followed one after another, eerie and unfathomable.
Yet the Ganyang Mountain here displayed a different side to him.
Magnificent mountains and rivers broaden one's mind.
After this journey, he felt that this world was unexpectedly so beautiful; only with a broad mind could one encompass this mountain and these objects.
After a long while, they finally reached their destination for this trip.
An ancient, vicissitudinous temple greeted Chen Shi's eyes. Before the temple was a mountain gate, half of which had already collapsed.
The two arrived before the mountain gate, seeing broken bricks and shattered tiles scattered everywhere. The lintel of the mountain gate was also broken, lying off to one side. Chen Shi stepped forward, cleared away the mountain rocks on top, shoveled away the dirt, and managed to barely make out the characters "Mountain Lord."
"This is... the Mountain Lord Temple!"
Chen Shi looked around. The Mountain Lord Temple had one main hall and two side halls. The side halls had already collapsed and no longer existed, but the main hall still stood tall.
A towering ancient tree was intertwined within the dilapidated courtyard, its canopy immensely vast, precisely sheltering this temple and blocking it so tightly that not a breath of light leaked through, preventing the sunlight from shining upon the temple.
Although there was no sunlight shining down, it did not feel chilly here; the temperature was very comfortable.
Beneath the tree was an incense burner with a missing leg, about a zhang long, five chi high, and three chi wide. It looked like a rectangular tripodal cauldron, and the burner was piled high with incense ash, suggesting that the incense burning here must have been exceptionally thriving back in the day.
The air here seemed to be permeated with a strange power. Chen Shi carefully sensed it, yet it vanished once again.
"Extraordinary power!"
He suddenly awoke to the realization. This strange, elusive power was the extraordinary power formed from the vapor of incense. This power could condense divine phases, enabling divine entities in the village such as Godmother to possess miraculous strength!
Only, what was bizarre was that the extraordinary power in this ancient temple was in a stray state, not yet condensed.
Chen Shi sensed it meticulously, only then discovering that the extraordinary power was emanating outward from the incense burner.
"In the past, the incense burning here was far too thriving, causing a massive amount of extraordinary power to condense within the incense burner as well. So much so that even after such a long time since the ancient temple fell into ruin, there is still extraordinary power in the burner that hasn't completely dissipated. Strange, why hasn't it dissipated?" he thought to himself.
Granny Sha stepped forward and planted three sticks of incense into the burner.
Only, the extraordinary power formed by these three sticks of incense also drifted away into the air very quickly.
"The extraordinary power here is too strong!" Granny Sha looked all around in astonishment.
Chen Shi stepped into the main hall. Extraordinary power was also permeating the main hall, even denser than outside.
The desolate mountain temple Chen Shi had encountered last time did not possess such concentrated extraordinary power.
There was also an incense burner inside the hall, and its specifications were not small either, with soot piled high.
Chen Shi looked all around, seeing stone dragons coiled around the pillars of the main hall, and traces of door gods on the portals, only they were blurred and indistinct.
The eaves were covered with blue porcelain tiles, and painted upon the tiles were various mythological stories, though one could not make out what they narrated.
On the ceiling of the front hall was a crossbeam, over two zhang long, vermilion-red, with gilt-painted dragons.
Arriving in the great hall, he saw that the hall's ceiling was a sheet of brilliant gold; it turned out to be a golden roof, and at the center of the golden roof was a caisson ceiling with the Eight Trigrams painted inside, bordered by cloud patterns.
Directly facing the caisson ceiling was a divine shrine two to three zhang tall, exceedingly lofty and majestic, showing just how massive the divine statues enshrined within this temple must have originally been.
However, the divine shrine was now completely empty, with no divine statue present.
This temple had already been emptied.
"Since the extraordinary power here is so dense, the Mountain Lord who used to dwell here back then must have been extremely powerful. Yet why did this place fall into obscurity?" Chen Shi was puzzled.
Granny Sha said, "This temple, and even this mountain, originally did not exist. They popped straight out from the bowels of the earth overnight. Back when Ganyang Mountain suffered a massive earthquake, dwellings collapsed, trees were snapped, and quite a few people died. The next day, I discovered that an extra mountain peak had appeared here. Only, at that time, I was saving people in the countryside and had no time to come and check. Later on, I came a few times as well, but discovered no clues."
Chen Shi's heart stirred slightly. The Mountain Lord Temple had also suddenly sprouted from beneath the earth?
He came outside the hall, raised his head to gaze at the sky, and the branches and leaves of the massive tree in the courtyard precisely blocked out all the sunlight.
Standing inside the temple, they could not see the sun; likewise, the sun could not see this temple!
How marvelous.
This temple seemed as though it deliberately hid from the gaze of the True God from Beyond the Heavens!
"Can you cultivate here?" Granny Sha inquired.
Chen Shi tried to circulate the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art. Starlight arrived in succession, and simultaneously there was sunlight and moonlight coming from another space-time. Clearly, cultivation was possible here!
Granny Sha was also very happy, smiling as she said, "I can rest easy now that you can cultivate. I put you through danger yesterday, and if I couldn't repay you, this old woman would have no face left to see anyone. You cultivate here, and I'll help clean up."
Chen Shi shook his head, saying, "You just go back, Granny. I can cultivate while cleaning."
He circulated the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art while sweeping this main hall.
Seeing this, Granny Sha smiled and said, "Then I'll head back first and bring food over at noon."
Chen Shi felt profoundly apologetic in his heart, and just as he intended to tell her not to come over at noon, Granny Sha had already departed, so he had no choice but to let the matter rest.
After bustling about all morning, Chen Shi finally finished cleaning the main hall once. By noon, Granny Sha indeed came to deliver food: three dishes and one soup, which smelled much more appetizing than Old Chen's household fare.
Chen Shi was overwhelmed with gratitude, devouring the meal voraciously.
Granny Sha watched him with joy, just as though she were looking at her own biological son.
In the afternoon, Chen Shi patched up the damaged parts of the main hall, making it barely habitable. Owing presumably to the shelter of the massive tree canopy, the roof of the main hall had not suffered damage, and thus required no bricklayer for repairs, though certain areas needed whitewashing.
"I won't stay the night here tonight. I'll head back first, and tomorrow I'll carry over some white lime and whitewash the walls."
Chen Shi looked all around, thinking, "And those doors and windows; they also need to be pasted over with thick paper. If any sunlight shines out from inside the hall, I'm afraid this temple won't be preserved either. The two collapsed side halls must also be cleared away, and the courtyard needs tidying up as well."
He left the Mountain Lord Temple and returned by the original route.
Along the way, he encountered those chubby tots playing in the woodland once more, but as evening was approaching, they too grew sluggish. One by one, they took root beneath the trees, burying themselves with only their heads exposed, curiously sizing up Chen Shi.
Chen Shi once again encountered the young maiden by the mountain stream, who was quite shy and secretly peeked at him.
Chen Shi scaled a massive mountain, and the black snake remained coiled atop the peak like a wood-carved, mud-sculpted statue, motionless.
Chen Shi arrived beside the massive tree, greeted Granny Zhuang, and requested passage through.
Not long after, he returned safely home. Grandpa had already prepared the meal, night had fallen, and the moon slowly opened its eyes, illuminating the great earth.
The next day, Chen Shi deliberately went to buy some incense candles and snacks, placed them inside his book box, and set out once more with the box on his back.
He arrived at Gangzi Village, first greeted Granny Sha, then entered the great mountain, offered incense to Granny Zhuang beneath the massive tree, and lit several sticks of incense for the black snake whose body blocked the mountain road. He presented a bronze mirror to the maiden by the mountain stream, and took out some pinwheels and snacks from his book box to gift to the chubby tots in the woodland.
Having journeyed all the way through and grown familiar with these marvelous spirits, he finally entered the Mountain Lord Temple.
It took Chen Shi five days to tidy up the temple inside and out.
While he worked hard to clean up, the chubby tots would run over to help him carry bricks and tiles, and the stream maiden would haul running water to help him wash away the filth on the ground.
Should Chen Shi lose track of time while working, come evening, that incomparably massive dark black snake would slither before the Mountain Lord Temple, guarding the structure to prevent evil spirits from harming Chen Shi.
They got along exceedingly well.
There was also a pool for the release of living creatures in the courtyard, which had likewise been cleaned up. Chen Shi discovered a very large turtle shell inside it, resembling a small boat.
"This turtle lived for I know not how many years, yet sadly it failed to withstand the passage of time."
Chen Shi washed the turtle shell clean and tapped it with his hand; it was hard as steel, and when his fist struck it, streams of light would actually burst forth, discharging his force.
"This item seems quite good."
Chen Shi dragged the turtle shell up and brought it into the main hall, thinking, "Perhaps I can sell it for a good price. I'll store it away for now, and use it in the future to provide for Grandpa in his old age so he won't have to go out selling talismans anymore."
While tidying up the side halls, he also discovered a stone casket amidst the rubble. It was square and proper, and the splicing lines were visible, yet there was no way to open it.
The stone of this casket was of an unknown variety. Chen Shi struck it a few times, but it remained completely undamaged, not even leaving a single trace.
"I wonder what is hidden within the stone casket? Perhaps a treasure, or perhaps someone simply carved a stone into the shape of a casket to trick fools."
He placed the stone casket to one side and did not dwell on it.
Now that everything was neat and tidy, he could finally cultivate in peace.
Chen Shi planted a few sticks of incense in the burner, and strange extraordinary power drifted through the air. Over these past few days, he had not forgotten to burn incense, and the extraordinary power lingering here grew denser and denser.
With his arrival, the extraordinary power here also grew much more vibrant.
What puzzled Chen Shi the most was that the extraordinary power within the temple did not dissipate. Logically speaking, ownerless extraordinary power would certainly disperse very quickly, yet the extraordinary power inside the temple accumulated more and more instead.
During this cultivation session, he unknowingly fell into a wondrous state, forgetting the revolution of sun and moon, forgetting day and night.
Not knowing how much time had passed, Chen Shi awoke. Having undergone the Big Dipper Tempering over these past few days, his five viscera had been forged as hard as steel, and with every breath he took, his vital breath was long and steady.
The blood flowing within his body moved like lead and mercury coursing through his vessels, and his blood contained exceedingly formidable energy.
Blood like lead and mercury, body like iron!
This was the sign of transforming true blood spoken of in the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art!
Transforming true blood was the first step toward forging the Sacred Embryo Dharma Body!
To achieve such accomplishments after cultivating in the Mountain Lord Temple for a mere few days—the speed was truly astonishing!
"Eh?"
Chen Shi opened his eyes in astonishment, only to see that this grand hall was actually bathed in bright spring light and warm sunlight, presenting a golden yet gentle hue!
This sunlight was identical to the sunlight he had witnessed in the ruined temple that day—it came from another space-time!
Following the sunlight's path, he caught sight of the sun of another world.
The sun was situated in the east, just leaping out of the horizon.
He finally understood what was meant by the rising of the newborn sun!
He greedily gazed upon this rising sun, filled with intense agitation.
Chen Shi suddenly harbored such a thought: "Can I cross through this radiance and reach another world?"
Before you continue