The Spiritual Land

The verdant mountains stretched on endlessly, and white mist billowed upward.

Deep in the forest, Fang Yuan and the Flower Fox Ferret became two dark shadows, racing along at a speed almost impossible for the naked eye to follow.

This trip to search for spiritual fertilizer was crucial to his martial arts development. He had no choice but to hurry.

Half a day later, the man and beast arrived deep in Qingling Mountain.

"Here, eat!"

Fang Yuan looked up at the sky. Beneath the cover of the dense forest, the sunbeams were no longer dazzling; he could just make out the blazing sun overhead.

The Red Jade Spirit Rice had run out, so he had naturally gone back to eating rice balls made from Pearl Jade Crystal Rice. But for the man and beast whose palates had long since been spoiled, they were pure torture.

The Flower Fox Ferret, for instance, disdainfully pushed the rice ball aside, leaped into a thicket of brambles, and soon dragged out a pheasant with brilliantly colored tail feathers.

"You little glutton!"

Fang Yuan scolded it with a laugh, but still deftly gutted the pheasant and washed it clean in a stream. He added a little coarse salt he had brought along, wrapped it in green leaves, smeared mud over the outside, and set it to roast in the fire.

Before long, a delicious beggar's chicken was ready.

When he cracked the mud seal and peeled away the leaves, an astonishing fragrance wafted through the air.

"Mmm... It melts in your mouth, rich but not greasy. It's so delicious your eyebrows might just fall off..."

This had been a famous dish in his dream-world memories, and Fang Yuan had casually recreated it. The Flower Fox Ferret devoured it with delight, wishing it could go hunt down another pheasant.

"The world in my dreams is real, too..."

Fang Yuan had noticed long ago that his dream-world memories were far too vivid, as though that world truly existed and he had lived there for many years.

"Or perhaps... to use the popular term from that world, it's another kind of 'transmigration.' The difference is that the two sets of real memories have now merged within me. Neither is superior to the other..."

His gaze was clear, and a sense of understanding filled his eyes. "The me standing here now is Fang Yuan!"

"Let's go!"

Once they had eaten their fill, Fang Yuan led the Flower Fox Ferret onward.

No one knew how far Qingling Mountain stretched. It teemed with rare birds and beasts, jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards. Even veteran hunters and herb gatherers did not dare venture too far inside.

But to Fang Yuan and the Flower Fox Ferret, the ravines and clinging vines along the way, as well as the ferocious beasts, were no more than minor inconveniences. Before they knew it, they had passed the farthest point Fang Yuan had ever explored, and were still pressing deeper.

"Roar!"

Just as Fang Yuan continued onward, a mighty roar suddenly rang out ahead. Trees toppled, and a huge tiger with round, glaring eyes and a white forehead leaped into view.

"As expected, the deeper you go into the mountains, the more fierce beasts you find!"

Fang Yuan didn't even blink. His right palm drifted forward and struck the tiger. "Black Sand Palm!"

Black Sand Palm had reached the fifth level and returned to simplicity. Even when he pushed his cultivation to its limit, his palms and arms looked no different from normal; only his palms bore a faint ring of black.

Thud!

With a muffled impact, Fang Yuan's palm struck the tiger squarely on the forehead, knocking it rolling to the ground.

But tigers were vicious by nature. This huge one had thick skin and tough flesh. It rolled over and pounced again, coming up behind Fang Yuan. Its tail rose like a steel whip and lashed his back in a flash.

Riiip!

Fang Yuan's clothes burst apart across his back, scattering like butterflies through the air.

"Hmm? This tiger is no ordinary beast. Even if it isn't a Spiritual Beast, it's not far off from that Mutated Pearl-tailed Snake..."

The skull was the hardest part of its body, but Fang Yuan was still surprised that it could take a blow from his Black Sand Palm head-on.

As for its tail whip?

With Iron Cloth Shirt to protect him, and the tiger already at the end of its strength, Fang Yuan hardly considered it a threat.

He felt his back. He barely felt any pain, but from the Flower Fox Ferret's perspective, a red mark had appeared there before quickly fading away.

"Roar!"

The tiger saw how terrifying Fang Yuan was, immediately turned tail, and ran.

But it had barely taken a few steps before it staggered like a drunken strongman and fell to the ground. Before long, black blood began to seep out.

"The poison from the Mutated Pearl-tailed Snake, combined with Black Sand Palm, really is unbeatable!"

Fang Yuan couldn't help feeling a little moved. "Especially Black Sand Palm. It looks righteous and forthright, but in truth, poison is its main strength. Wouldn't 'Poison Sand Palm' be a better name?"

"It's just a pity about those tiger bones..."

The huge tiger had been poisoned beyond saving, and its flesh and fur had all gone to waste. Fang Yuan couldn't help feeling a little regret as he looked at it.

"Gurgle!"

The Flower Fox Ferret strutted past, its humanlike face wearing a look of disdain.

As far as it was concerned, if meat wasn't made from Spirit Rice or Spirit Tea, could it even be called meat?

"Still... there really is something strange about this mountain!"

Fang Yuan continued onward, his expression growing solemn.

From the Flower Fox Ferret, to the Mutated Pearl-tailed Snake, and now this huge tiger, everything pointed to one thing.

There was something unusual about Qingling Mountain!

Perhaps it had been affected by some mysterious presence.

The place the Flower Fox Ferret was leading him to might well be connected to that influence. Perhaps, by a stroke of luck, he would even find its source!

"Gurgle!"

The deeper Fang Yuan went, the more excited the Flower Fox Ferret became, though it also seemed vaguely wary. It extended a paw and gestured at something.

"Does that mean we're almost there?"

Fang Yuan steeled himself and glanced at the sky. The last traces of sunset were about to sink behind the mountains, and darkness was spreading across the land.

"I'll take a look before that last bit of light disappears!"

Gritting his teeth, Fang Yuan followed the Flower Fox Ferret as it pushed aside the dense, forestlike grass.

Whoosh, whoosh!

At some point, the mist around them had thickened and gathered into clouds, obscuring their view.

"This mist... something's wrong!"

It was normal for mountains to be shrouded in mist all year round, but the white fog here was far too dense.

After a few more steps, they could barely see their own hands in front of them. An immense drowsiness crept over Fang Yuan, making his eyelids heavy. Unconsciously, he began to close his eyes and drift into sleep.

"Sleep... just sleep..."

A gentle voice seemed to murmur beside his ear, enchanting and soul-piercing.

"Wait... I can't sleep here. If I fall asleep, it'll all be over..."

His Divine Essence, nearly half again as strong as an ordinary person's, finally proved useful. It let Fang Yuan cling to a sliver of awareness, but that was all.

Though his mind remained faintly clear, his hands and feet felt as if they had been filled with lead. He couldn't move, and even retreating had become a pipe dream.

"Damn it. If I'm falling for this, how did the Flower Fox Ferret get in here before?"

Fang Yuan was bewildered. He could hear the Flower Fox Ferret's anxious cries, but they seemed to grow more distant, fading away little by little.

"Sleep... sleep... once you fall asleep, everything will be fine..."

The drowsiness grew stronger. Fang Yuan's eyelids drooped shut, then snapped open again. He shook his head and gritted his teeth. "Damn it... There's something wrong with this white mist!"

He struggled to sit cross-legged and circulated his Internal Breath to resist it.

But the furnace that usually blazed in his lower abdomen was completely useless against this immense power.

"Sleep... just sleep..."

The voice by his ear grew even more elusive.

Then Fang Yuan suddenly shuddered, and a scene appeared before him.

An old man dressed in white, with white hair, beard, and eyebrows, sat peacefully by a spring, sipping tea as he expounded on the Way. "My Sitting-Forgetting Tea Ceremony is built upon faith and reverence, severing ties, gathering the mind, and simplifying affairs. Only when all four roots are removed can one truly observe, and only then can one reach perfect stillness and seek the Way!"

"The mind is the master of the body and the commander of all spirits. Stillness gives birth to wisdom; agitation leads to confusion. Lost in a realm of illusion, we insist that only what is real is true. Indulging in worldly pursuits, who can discern what is false? Only by experiencing the great dream can one understand the myriad states of human life and the endless cycles of all things. They are merely transformations of the mind, one great dream. Who can know this for themselves..."

"Master!"

As one memory after another surfaced, Fang Yuan realized that his drowsiness had already vanished. He stared blankly ahead.

He could now say for certain that Heart-Questioning Hermit had been no ordinary person!

Nor had he left Fang Yuan with nothing.

This Sitting-Forgetting Tea Ceremony was the most precious gift Fang Yuan had received from him.

"Gurgle!"

"Gurgle!"

Once his mind had settled, the white mist seemed no different from ordinary mountain fog. But the Flower Fox Ferret beside him had grown impatient. It had even dragged over a long banana leaf, on which lay a pool of crystal-clear spring water that radiated cold air.

"You're all right?"

Fang Yuan's eyes shifted, and he immediately understood. "Does the strange power here only affect humans? Or are beasts of simpler minds simply immune to it?"

Clearly, the Flower Fox Ferret hadn't been affected like him on its previous trips here. Otherwise, it wouldn't have brought Fang Yuan along.

"Thanks for the effort!"

Once he had figured that out, Fang Yuan didn't make an issue of it. He drank directly from the banana leaf.

"This water..."

The spring water was clear and sweet, with a chill that sank straight into his lungs.

Fang Yuan had taken only one sip when he shivered. A wave of coolness surged into his crown, and his whole body instantly felt refreshed.

"What a spring! What water!"

Even he couldn't help praising it aloud.

Fang Yuan had drunk plenty of mountain spring water, but he had rarely tasted anything of such quality.

"No, this isn't ordinary spring water anymore. It's a spiritual spring! Spirit Water!"

Fang Yuan fixed a piercing gaze on the Flower Fox Ferret. "Where did this spring water come from?"

"Gurgle!"

The Flower Fox Ferret stood upright and pointed ahead with its little paw.

"That place again!"

Fang Yuan's expression grew solemn.

He had a vague suspicion that the source of all the strange changes in Qingling Mountain lay deep within the mist. The spiritual fertilizer, Spiritual Beasts, and even the spiritual spring had all been affected by whatever was there!

"If that's the case, then I really have to go..."

Fang Yuan rose to his feet, his expression resolute. "A spiritual land, is it?"

A spiritual land was a place favored by Heaven, where Earth Qi gathered. It brimmed with wonders, and rare flowers, exotic plants, rare birds, and strange beasts sprang up in endless succession. It was a blessed land, an immortal paradise—and a vast treasure trove!