The Taiyin Human Emperor's figure faded away, leaving behind only an expressionless Block Person made of pixels and a young girl dressed in an ancient-style gown.
The girl lowered her head slightly, displaying the reverence of a descendant before an ancestor, and did not raise it for a long while.
Fang Zheng was still busily wandering around. It was only after sprinting through the Void for several minutes that he noticed her. He looked left and right, and the atmosphere became somewhat awkward. He gave a light cough and broke the silence first. "Uh, you can raise your head now. Miss, big sister, fairy maiden... what should I call you?"
Jiang Tingting responded softly before raising her head and answering respectfully, "This junior's surname is Jiang, given name Tingting. Thanks to the grace of the Taiyin Human Emperor, I received the True Scripture of Taiyin. Since you are a friend of the Taiyin Human Emperor, you may address and command this junior as you please."
Looking at this scene that he had only ever seen in television dramas, Fang Zheng felt even more embarrassed. If Block People had toes, he would have wanted to dig out a three-bedroom apartment with them.
He said somewhat awkwardly, "Uh, no need to be so respectful. We're about the same age, we're peers. Just talk normally. This feels pretty weird to me."
Jiang Tingting still replied respectfully, "You jest, Senior. This junior is only 205 years old and merely at the Immortal Platform Second Realm. How could I dare compare myself to you?"
"Huh? You're 205?!" Fang Zheng stared at her face, which looked no older than sixteen or seventeen, and said in shock, "But I'm only in middle school, thirteen years old. Ah, no, counting the MC world, I should be eighteen now. But even if my great-grandmother, who died when I was in elementary school, were still alive, she wouldn't even be eighty!"
"You people from the Cultivation World look way too young, don't you? You're even older than my great-grandmother's great-grandmother." Fang Zheng could not help sighing.
Jiang Tingting was somewhat surprised by Fang Zheng's childlike tone of astonishment.
Although the Taiyin Human Emperor had already informed her through Divine Sense that this Block Person was his friend, he also said that Fang Zheng merely had the temperament of a youth and told her, as a junior, to show him around properly.
She had originally thought that this Block Person senior had cultivated some secret art, much like the Jiang Family's Divine King Jiang Taixu, living a second life and thus shedding his old body to restore both body and mind to youth.
Yet he had actually said he was only eighteen, and that even his deceased great-grandmother had not reached eighty?
To cultivators, that age was far too young, wasn't it?
And if even his deceased great-grandmother had not reached eighty, could it be that this Block Person named Fang Zheng had only begun cultivating in his own generation?
Still, despite her surprise, Jiang Tingting did not ask further questions. She simply stopped acting as constrained as a junior facing an ancestor-level figure.
With a faint smile, she said, "The Taiyin Human Emperor instructed me to show you around properly and make sure you enjoy yourself to the fullest."
"Other than the Jiang Family's restricted areas, you may go anywhere within our territories. Now, allow me to take you, Senior Fang Zheng, to admire some of the finer scenery of the Jiang Family."
Looking at the magnificent spiritual rivers and mountains that could never be found on Earth, Fang Zheng became a little excited as well. He told Jiang Tingting, "Then give me a proper introduction to all the interesting places. I'm going to have a good time."
Jiang Tingting smiled faintly and began leading Fang Zheng on a stroll through the mountains.
Watching the Block Person hop all over the ground on his square legs, his feet never bending, she explained as they walked, "Please look, Senior. We are currently on one of the Jiang Family's many sacred cultivation mountains, Qingming Mountain. The earth veins here are rich in yin energy, which can draw upon the earth-vein yin fire to refine pure yang qi..."
As they traveled onward, Qingming Mountain's terrain resembled a coiled dragon lying in an abyss. Its main peak pierced the clouds, and its summit was sealed beneath ancient ice year-round. Amid the swirling clouds and mist, the sword scars and Dao Patterns left behind by a Jiang Family Sage in ancient times could faintly be seen emerging in the void.
Below the mountainside, thousand-year-old trees densely covered the land. Their cracked bark resembled True Dragon scales, while thick vines coiled around them like horned dragons, even faintly taking on draconic forms.
Mountain streams cascaded down from sheer cliffs. Their mist refracted the sunlight to form seven-colored rainbow bridges. At the bottom of the streams lay unhatched Ice Flood Dragon Eggs, obtained after Jiang Family predecessors slew a Demon Dragon. Every full moon, they emitted a dim blue glow.
To Fang Zheng, the greatest impression these sights left was that they were beautiful.
He was only a middle school student and had not read many books. His Chinese was not particularly good either, so he could not come up with more extravagant words.
He had never traveled far in his life. The only mountains he had climbed were a few small barren hills near his hometown.
After crossing into the MC world, every mountain he saw had been made of pixel blocks. Each one was uglier than the last. They looked decent from afar, but up close, they were simply unbearable to look at.
As for the Law Mighty Pass on the Immortal Ascension Road, although it had all sorts of mountains and trees, those things were absurdly enormous.
After all, Fang Zheng was not a cultivator. The distance he could observe clearly with his own eyes and a telescope was limited.
In the Law Mighty Pass on the Immortal Ascension Road, trees with leaves as large as mountains and mountains as gigantic as planets could only be seen as rough, dark outlines from afar. Up close, there was no scenery to appreciate at all.
Only after the Taiyin Human Emperor brought him here had Fang Zheng finally seen the Cultivation World he had imagined while secretly reading xianxia novels during class.
Although Qingming Mountain was filled with abundant earth-vein yin energy, that yin energy did not extinguish life.
This mountain stood tens of thousands of meters tall and covered hundreds of thousands of square kilometers. It was a supremely spectacular sight that could never be seen on Earth.
Its height alone surpassed Mount Everest several times over, while its area was comparable to that of a medium-sized country.
Rather than a mountain, it was more like a country at high altitude. Countless rare treasures and exotic beasts lived upon it, while every variety of flowers, grasses, and trees flourished.
Although Fang Zheng could not recognize any of those plants, he only felt that the scenery was beautiful everywhere.
When they reached the mountainside, Fang Zheng spotted a kingfisher whose feathers glittered like amethysts, its calls sweet and pleasing to the ear.
Fang Zheng chuckled and activated his floating sprint, rushing toward it. The happily chirping kingfisher turned its head, took one look at the strange-looking Block Person, and was badly frightened. It let out a squawk before hurriedly flying away in panic.
As they continued onward, an Old White Ape over two meters tall, with silver-white fur, slowly approached while carefully holding two large peaches as clear as crystal.
From the ape's kind and gentle face, Fang Zheng could see its cautious desire to please them.
The Old White Ape approached with the peaches and respectfully knelt, seemingly intending to offer them to Fang Zheng and Jiang Tingting.
Seeing that Fang Zheng did not move, Jiang Tingting recalled what the Taiyin Human Emperor had said—that this Block Person senior seemed unable to hold things with his hands—and proactively reached out to accept the peaches from the white ape.
Then she turned her palm over, condensed a drop of Moonlight Essence from the Taiyin Power within her body, and flicked it into the white ape's mouth.
Fang Zheng asked curiously, "Is this big white monkey a monster? How old is it?"
Jiang Tingting explained, "It does not count as a monster yet. At most, it can be called a Spirit Monster. It is the Old White Ape of an ape tribe living on this mountain. Thirty years ago, when I came to cultivate here, I encountered it by chance while taking a walk."
Jiang Tingting put away one peach and gently took a bite. The peach's sweetness spread through her mouth as she said, "Senior Fang, the spiritual peaches on this mountain are not very old, but they are sweet and delicious. It is only a pity that you seem unable to taste them."
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