Hometown Gazing

Xu Ying and Yuan Qi smelled a meaty aroma from afar, making their already empty stomachs ache even more.

Many strange-looking people were drinking and eating in the tavern. Xu Ying glanced at them from the corner of his eye, his heart filled with awe.

In his peripheral vision, he saw not people, but rows of white skeletons sitting there, eating and drinking. The food on the tables consisted of human hearts, brains, and other things.

Xu Ying and Yuan Qi walked forward amidst the strange gazes of the tavern patrons. A white skeleton in the tavern asked, "Where are they going?"

An old ghost replied, "Hometown Gazing."

"They can't go any further. Once you pass Hometown Gazing and see your hometown, you can never return to the Mortal Realm."

The old ghost muttered, "They should stay here like us, let us eat their flesh and blood, and become lonely ghosts like us, instead of going inside to die..."

The mist ahead gradually thickened. Through the green mist, Xu Ying saw green tiles and white walls. It was a long street, wide and lined with old shops on both sides.

Xu Ying looked at the street, feeling a sense of familiarity, yet he was certain he had never been here before.

Just then, a clear reading voice drifted over. Xu Ying followed the sound and saw it coming from a private school. Xu Ying stood by the window of the school and looked inside. He saw more than twenty children inside, reading with swaying heads.

The tutor was a young man, appearing to be in his early twenties, not yet thirty.

Xu Ying looked at his face and felt it was somewhat familiar, but he couldn't recall when he had seen him.

After a moment, class was over, and the children rushed out of the school in a flurry, extremely boisterous.

The tutor's wife came out, wearing a white dress. She was a quiet and gentle woman, dotingly stroking the little heads of a few children.

Xu Ying felt confused. This woman also gave him a familiar feeling, yet he couldn't remember when he had seen her.

The woman noticed Xu Ying and asked with a smile, "Young man, who are you looking for?"

Xu Ying shook his head and said, "Just passing by. Excuse me, do you know how to get out of here?"

The woman raised her hand and pointed the way for him. Xu Ying thanked her and walked in the direction she indicated.

The woman watched him leave and called out to a mischievous child, "A Ying, don't run too far, it's time for lunch!"

"Got it, Mom!" The mischievous child ran past Xu Ying, bumping his leg.

Xu Ying froze, standing there blankly.

He suddenly turned around, and the private school and the street vanished like dust.

He looked at the child in front of him. The child stopped, turned around, and looked exactly like him when he was a child.

The child smiled, and his figure also dissipated like dust.

In an instant, Xu Ying was in tears.

"A Ying, what's wrong?" The snake demon Yuan Qi noticed him stop and asked, confused.

"I saw my parents."

Xu Ying stood there, and after a long while, he said hoarsely, "But I couldn't recognize them. I couldn't recognize them..."

He dropped the Great Bell, squatted on the ground, covered his face, and sobbed softly, "I can't remember what they look like, I can't remember their names. I just saw them, but I didn't recognize them..."

Yuan Qi leaned beside him, patted the young man's shoulder, and said softly, "A Ying, we should keep moving."

Xu Ying silently stood up and walked in the direction the woman had pointed.

Ahead, the road was difficult and long, a rugged path.

There was also a flat road next to it, but Xu Ying did not take the main road. Instead, he took the difficult path.

"Stop!" A group of deities quickly pursued them near the tavern. Suddenly, a man in grey said sternly, "Hometown Gazing is ahead, let's go around it!"

The man in grey looked young, but he was extremely tall, about thirteen or fourteen feet. He had dragon horns on his forehead and sharp claws on his fingers, unlike a human.

A deity asked, "Senior Stone Dragon Son, what happens if we enter Hometown Gazing?"

The man in grey was a Stone Dragon from the Ningyuan Confucian Temple, and also a divine being.

The Ningyuan Confucian Temple was grand and prosperous, with abundant incense offerings, worshipping the Supreme Sage Teacher. The main hall of the temple had four bronze pillars in front and back, entwined with four stone dragons carved from the hardest stone.

Because the temple was prosperous with incense, these four stone dragons gradually gained divine powers!

The four dragons had absorbed incense for four hundred years and each had achieved extraordinary accomplishments, forging Golden Bodies. The man in grey was named Stone Dragon Son, one of the four stone dragons.

Stone Dragon Son's eyes flickered and he said, "Hometown Gazing is not under the jurisdiction of the Underworld Court. It is extremely mysterious. Legend has it that entering it will allow one to see their hometown. It lies between the Underworld and the Mortal Realm. With the slightest carelessness, one can never return and become a lonely ghost!"

Just then, a voice came, laughing, "I've heard that some dying people hide in Hometown Gazing, placing themselves between the Yin and Yang realms, neither alive nor dead, neither old nor immortal. Trespassing into the territory of these beings is extremely dangerous. These beings will do anything to survive!"

Stone Dragon Son looked towards the source of the voice and saw County Magistrate Zhou Yang leading a group of officials walking briskly towards them.

The two men looked at each other, then averted their gazes.

Stone Dragon Son said, "Xu Ying has entered Hometown Gazing; he won't come out alive. Magistrate Zhou can return and report."

Zhou Yang said calmly, "He has broken the law. We want him alive, or his corpse!"

The two men's gazes met again. Smoke swirled behind Stone Dragon Son's head, the Incense Qi grew stronger, and a golden light gradually appeared on his body, clearly a sign of his Golden Body being activated!

Zhou Yang smiled slightly, composed and relaxed, and said faintly, "The Golden Body of the Underworld Court is still a bit inferior to my Zhou family's Indestructible Diamond Body. Coincidentally, I have cultivated the Indestructible Diamond Body!"

Stone Dragon Son sneered, "Whether the Golden Body or the Indestructible Diamond Body is superior is yet to be determined. Moreover, Magistrate Zhou is still young, to what level can he cultivate the Indestructible Diamond Body?"

Zhou Yang smiled and said, "The second level!"

Stone Dragon Son's pupils slowly constricted, feeling the pressure.

If Zhou Yang had cultivated the Undying Body to the first level, he could still win easily, but if he cultivated it to the second level, it was uncertain who would emerge victorious!

The clash between the two would most likely result in mutual destruction, or even a fight to the death!

Zhou Yang also didn't want to fall out with him, so he proposed, "Since Xu Ying has entered the Hometown Gazing Platform and his fate is unknown, why should we fight to the death? Stone Dragon Son, let's bypass the Hometown Gazing Platform and wait for him on the road ahead."

Stone Dragon Son nodded and said, "Whoever Xu Ying falls into the hands of will depend on luck!" With that, he led his men away.

Zhou Yang watched him leave, his eyes flickering. He looked at the mist-shrouded Hometown Gazing Platform and whispered, "Hometown Gazing Platform, a place rumored to exist between life and death. It's said that many terrifyingly powerful beings hide here when their lifespan is nearing its end. But once they enter, they can never leave..."

Behind him, an official whispered, "My lord, is the legend of the Hometown Gazing Platform true?"

Zhou Yang's expression was uncertain. He chose to go around the Hometown Gazing Platform from another direction and said, "I originally thought it was fake, but then I heard a rumor."

He paused and continued, "This rumor circulated within my clan. It said that our ancestor, the founder of the Zhou family, once faced a certain death crisis. At that time, our ancestor intended to enter the Hometown Gazing Platform to place himself in a state between life and death to evade the calamity. Later, with his heaven-defying intelligence and extraordinary talent, he managed to overcome the crisis and extend his life, thus he didn't have to hide in the Hometown Gazing Platform. It was then that I realized the legends of the Hometown Gazing Platform were all true."

The officials exchanged glances and looked at the misty place. One official murmured, "The criminal Xu Ying entered there, will he really come out?"

Zhou Yang shook his head and said, "He is someone whose lifespan has not yet ended, so perhaps he has a chance to come out. But it's also possible..."

His expression turned somewhat grim, "...that he will be possessed by those beings who are neither human nor ghost, having exhausted their lifespans, and they will take his body!"

The officials couldn't help but shiver.

Within the Hometown Gazing Platform, the mist grew thicker and thicker. The path beneath Xu Ying's feet became increasingly winding and rugged. Below was a bottomless abyss, and above, strange rocks stood like blades and spears. A single misstep would shatter him into pieces!

After crossing the cliff, there was a single-plank bridge spanning between two towering mountain peaks. It was a log, and one had to tread with extreme caution. The log would roll slightly, causing one to fall into the abyss!

Xu Ying took off his shoes, adjusted his breathing, and walked barefoot on the log, sensing the subtle changes in the strength of his soles, moving forward step by step.

Behind him, the Snake Demon Yuan Qi coiled around the large log, inching forward.

They looked down and saw clouds and mist swirling. Below the abyss was a green river, with green bubbles gurgling and rotten corpses floating on the surface.

As each bubble swelled, its surface contorted into the shape of a human head. It grew larger and larger, gradually rising from the river.

"Young man, where do you come from?" The face on one bubble was that of a young maiden, asking Xu Ying with a seductive pose.

Xu Ying did not answer.

Yuan Qi blew a breath at the bubble. The maiden's face on the bubble became increasingly distorted, and she cried out, "I'm going to die! I'm going to die! Ah—"

The bubble burst with a pop, splattering green river water all over Yuan Qi.

Yuan Qi shivered and followed Xu Ying across the single-plank bridge to the other side.

They walked along the mountain path and saw someone standing by the roadside, with three legs, motionless.

Upon closer inspection, they realized it wasn't three legs, but that the person had been nailed to a wooden stake.

Xu Ying and Yuan Qi's scalps tingled. They quietly walked past. The person was not yet dead and trembled, calling out, "Save me..."

Yuan Qi couldn't bear it and asked, "How can I save you?"

"Give me two years of lifespan!" the person shouted.

Yuan Qi said to Xu Ying, "If we give him two years of lifespan, we can save him. We still have plenty of our own, why not save his life?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the trees on both sides of the road suddenly turned around. They were actually three-legged monsters, each with a wooden stake beneath them, making them look like they had three legs. They all shouted, "Give me two years of lifespan, save my life!"

Yuan Qi was startled. Only then did he realize that they were not nailed to wooden stakes, but their bodies were rooted in the earth, and they had grown together with the trees.

Yuan Qi hurriedly followed Xu Ying, no longer mentioning saving anyone.

The two walked on nervously. They saw another person sitting by the roadside, head tilted towards the sky, with vigorous flower stalks growing from their mouth. There were also people standing in the fields like scarecrows, sprouting branches, their forms resembling humans, with visible hearts beating in the center of their rib-like branches.

And so on.

These people used strange Nu Art to extend their lives, often petrifying themselves and turning into plants in bizarre postures.

They walked for a long time and finally saw a house. In front of the house stood a normal person, a burly Bearded Man, who sized up Xu Ying and Yuan Qi with a look of surprise.

Xu Ying boldly stepped forward to ask for directions. The Bearded Man was surprised, "You two are from the Mortal Realm? Who directed you here? This is the only path to survival in Hometown Gazing. Without guidance from an expert, you wouldn't have made it!"

Xu Ying hesitated for a moment, then recounted his arrival at Hometown Gazing and seeing his parents, saying, "If not for our parents' guidance, we surely wouldn't have made it this far."

The Bearded Man was even more astonished, "Hometown Gazing, Hometown Gazing. What you see here is naturally your hometown! Young man, what you saw were events from your childhood. Your parents saw your future seven or eight years ago and guided you to a path of survival! They are truly remarkable experts, truly remarkable!"

Xu Ying was extremely taken aback. In his memory, his parents had died in Xu Family Village, and they were just ordinary people. Where did the expertise come from?

He recalled the faces of his parents he had seen in the Hometown Gazing Platform. Suddenly, his memory flickered, and the faces of his father and mother gradually blurred. They stood in his memory, their faces like blank sheets of paper, without features.

The Bearded Man said, "I can send you out of Hometown Gazing, but I have an enemy coming to find me, and they will be here soon. I had a duel with him in my lifetime, and he came to Hometown Gazing not long ago. Today is the day we agreed upon. You two rest in my room for a while. After I kill him, I will send you away."

Xu Ying and Yuan Qi were utterly shocked.

A duel agreed upon in life, and a battle to the death after death. This Bearded Man truly had a unique heroic spirit.

Xu Ying and Yuan Qi entered the room and saw the Bearded Man take out a sword box taller than a person and stand before it, leaning on the sword box with one hand, standing proudly.

After a moment, the weather turned grim. Fierce winds and heavy rain swept through this underworld, accompanied by lightning and thunder. The sky darkened.

Vaguely, a majestic divine being could be seen standing amidst the dark clouds, shouting, "Yuan Tian Gang, you severed my dragon's neck on Mount Panlong and ruined my cultivation! Today, I will surely slay you and avenge myself!"