Mountain Recluse

The couple in azure robes waved their hands repeatedly, thanked them several more times, then took the child and leaped into the water.

Ripples spread across the surface, and the three vanished without a trace, leaving only the stream to return to stillness.

"Here, take it."

As she spoke, Lu Huan handed the azure jade scale to Shen Hui.

Shen Hui merely glanced at it and shook his head.

"You keep it."

Lu Huan raised a brow, happily tucked the jade scale carefully into her robes, then, after thinking for a moment, suddenly laughed.

"Do you think that kid will get beaten when he goes back?"

Shen Hui did not answer. He simply raised a hand and drew the Worry-Forgotten Bell he had tossed by the stream back into his palm, giving it a gentle shake.

"Probably. Let's go."

Over the following days, the two encountered several more mountain spirits and wild monsters.

There was a boar demon that blocked the road demanding "toll money," which Shen Hui kicked to death in one blow.

There was also a toad demon that swallowed and exhaled its inner core beneath the moon by a stream at night. When it saw the two passing by, it plunged headfirst back into the water in fright and did not dare show its head again.

There was even an ancient pine growing from a cliff, its roots crawling across half the mountainside. Whenever it saw people, it shook its branches and sent a shower of pine needles rustling down.

Shen Hui stood beneath the cliff for a moment, then cupped his hands toward the ancient pine. The tree actually swayed its branches in return, as though returning the courtesy.

Lu Huan stared dumbfoundedly. After that, whenever she saw a larger tree, she insisted on bowing and