Into the Mountains to Pay Respects

Early in the morning, after preparing everything, Chen Mo set off with a backpack.

He first visited his grandparents' graves and paid his respects according to local custom. The graveyard lay atop a small hill outside the village. The entire hilltop was relatively flat, and nearly all the older generations of Chen Family Village had been buried there. It could already be considered the Chen Family Village Ancestral Grave. Only after finishing the rites did he set out for Gourd Valley.

Gourd Valley had only one entrance and exit: the road in front of Chen Mo's Old House, which led directly toward it. Once inside Gourd Valley, it was a valley with a narrow mouth and broad interior, stretching over a thousand meters. Both sides were gentle earthen slopes. Twenty or thirty years ago, most of the villagers of Chen Family Village had still lived on the valley's southern slope. Now they had all moved onto the flatlands, and Gourd Valley had become deserted. Weeds and low shrubs grew everywhere, while a stream more than two meters wide ran through the valley and flowed out into a small river in front of Chen Mo's Old House.

This stream had also been where the village children played when they were young. Whenever the summer weather turned hot, all the children in the village would come here to play.

Beyond the first valley lay another one. This valley was bigger and longer than the outer one, measuring roughly over two thousand meters. A winding stream still ran through it, but there were many low-growing plants, mountain rocks, and other obstacles. If anyone wanted to develop this place, they would need to invest a great deal of money.

Chen Mo took pictures as he walked. He needed to keep records of everything so that he could study them properly after returning and determine how best to develop the valley. He already had a rough idea for Gourd Valley, but the specifics still needed to be discussed with professionals.

The second valley was a dead end, with only one entrance. At its deepest point was a pond several hundred square meters in size. A small waterfall cascaded down from the cliff beside it into the pond, which was where the winding stream originated.

The whole valley was actually quite simple, but the area was large. If houses were built in the future, they could be constructed along the slopes, while dams could be built across the valley stream to artificially turn the valley into a lake.

However, Chen Mo still needed to climb over the waterfall and venture farther into the mountains today. He was not merely surveying Gourd Valley; he also needed to pay respects to his master, True Person Xuan Ling Ye Shang.

The place where his master's bones had been buried lay in the direction of Gourd Valley, and he had to cross several mountain ridges to reach it. For Chen Mo, now a practitioner of Cultivation of Immortality, such a short mountain path was child's play.

After crossing four mountain ridges, he arrived at the place where his master's bones rested. Following the old path down into the ravine, he was no longer the same person he had once been. Back then, a height of several meters had seemed like an impassable chasm to him, but now it was as easy as walking on level ground. He leaped down, using the protruding rocks for footholds, and reached the bottom of the ravine in just a few movements.

However, the cave where his master's withered bones had been buried was no longer easy to find, having long since been covered in climbing plants. If not for the large piece of stone that had been used to block the cave entrance and serve as a marker, it would have been difficult to locate.

Arriving before the cave where the bones had been buried, Chen Mo offered incense to his master according to custom and burned some paper money. However, mindful of fire safety in the mountains, he first dug a pit himself and cleared away the surrounding plants before burning it. Yet he had no idea whether his master could even use this paper money. And since his master was an alien, after coming here, was he still under the jurisdiction of the local Ghosts and Gods? Those were not matters Chen Mo could consider, so he could only mutter about adapting to local customs as he burned the paper money and spoke to his master.

Chen Mo himself did not know why such questions had occurred to him. They felt utterly absurd. Yet they had naturally come to mind, and he truly stood before his master's grave, muttering a great many things, leaving him rather speechless.

Still, his master's image in the Transmission Jade Talisman had been no different from the people of Blue Sea Star. He even looked East Asian, which made Chen Mo wonder, Could it be that wherever humans existed in the universe, Chinese people had already claimed the place?

After paying his respects to his master, Chen Mo erased all traces of his presence. He did not want anyone else to know there was a grave here, nor did he want anyone to disturb his master. Using the protruding rocks as leverage, he easily climbed out of the ravine.

Standing on the mountaintop and looking into the distance, he felt somewhat moved. The wisps of cloud and mist in the distance complemented the peaks, creating a rather pleasant view.

But less than a few minutes later, with the mountain wind blowing against him, he heard faint cries for help. Chen Mo froze, then immediately broke into a run toward the source of the cries.

Qin Lixing felt utterly dejected. Although this hiking trip into the Qinling Mountains had a certain purpose behind it, he had never expected something like this to happen.

He was still a student at West City University, currently in his third year. His family was fairly well-off, and he never lacked food or money. As a result, he had developed many hobbies during college, with hiking being one of them.

This time, they had originally planned to hike through the Qinling Mountains for three or four days. Not only was he the leader, having organized a five-person group of three women and two men including himself, but the group also included the girl he admired. Although he had never confessed, practically everyone knew. Anyone who knew them understood whom Qin Lixing liked. Yet the girl was strange. Whether she was pretending not to know or something else, she had never responded to his advances.

This time, he had wanted to use the hiking trip to find an opportunity to confess to her. Yet he had not expected that everything would be fine the previous day, with everyone in high spirits. Today, however, one mishap after another had struck. They had taken the wrong mountain path that morning, and by the time they realized it, several hours had already passed.

Even worse, another Male Student in the group had been carrying a GPS. But when crossing a small river that morning, he had dropped it into the water, and it could no longer be used after getting soaked. They could only retrace their steps, but the more they walked, the less right things seemed. Gradually, they lost their bearings, and some places were impassable, forcing them to take detours.

Fortunately, they had not ventured deep into the mountain area and had only just entered the forest. Relying on their memories, they slowly made their way back. Around noon, Zhang Mei, one of the three girls, twisted her ankle while passing through a mountain gully and could only walk with someone supporting her. That afternoon, Qin Lixing himself had his arm cut open by a rock, and blood poured from the wound. If not for the medicine and gauze they had brought, he might have lost too much blood.

Thus, the five of them supported one another as they tried to make their way out of the mountain area. Yet the long distance, along with the plants and obstructed mountain paths, made progress extremely difficult for the group of five.