The road in the mountains is difficult.
After climbing over a mountain ridge, the dirt road at your feet stopped, leaving only a deserted path winding down the mountain wall.
There is a steep slope on one side and a bottomless valley on the other side.
At the end of winter and the beginning of spring, the snow is beginning to melt, and the road surface is slippery and muddy. If you are not careful, you will slip and fall.
The group of people walked cautiously, but Jinghui was the only one who kept running back and forth.
She ran to the cliff on the left and squatted down to pull a few stones. Then she jumped to the stream on the right and looked into the pool.
Lu Huan and Hu Cheng were walking in the middle, dazzled by what they saw. Even Green Bamboo couldn't help but look at each other frequently, with curious expressions on their faces.
Finally, Shouyuan couldn't help but speak:
"Stinky girl, don't fall down."
"Can't fall."
Jinghui turned around and patted the mud on his hands:
"I'm looking for spiritual materials to make swords."
"Absurd!"
Shou Yuan scoffed and said plausibly:
"Spiritual materials and spiritual objects are often hidden in places where no one can see them. What matters is fortuitous opportunity. If you can find it like this, wouldn't it make people laugh?"
"That's not necessarily the case."
Jinghui said and ran to the front again, with brisk steps and clothes flying like a restless bird.
After walking for a while, everyone turned a corner and headed down the cliff.
There is a collapsed earth pit on the side of the road, about half a person deep, filled with dead leaves and gravel.
Jinghui paused as he passed by, tilted his head and glanced into the pit, and suddenly said "eh".
"What's wrong?"
Lu Huan dragged Green Bamboo and quickly came over.
Jinghui didn't answer, jumped down into the pit, reached out and dug a few times in the pile of dead leaves at the bottom of the pit.
The dead leaves rustled down, revealing a dark thing underneath.
She pulled hard, and the thing came out of the soil and was heavy in her hand.
It's a stone.
The whole body is pitch black, the surface is rough and pitted, as if it had been burned by something.
Jinghui's eyes suddenly lit up.
She looked over and over for a long time, weighed it again, and suddenly raised her head and laughed:
"Hahaha, it's actually a piece of Meteoric Iron!"
"What?"
"Meteoric Iron!"
Jinghui hugged the black stone and ran to Shouyuan excitedly:
"Senior, you are right. This Meteoric Iron has been buried in a pit for I don't know how many years, but I happened to meet it. This is my fortuitous opportunity."
She said, weighing the Meteoric Iron in her hands, and then nodded with satisfaction:
"Look at the weight, it's more than enough to practice Sword Embryo!"
Shen Hui and Patriarch Baoxue heard the movement, took a look at it, and finally nodded:
"It's indeed Meteoric Iron, good luck."
Jinghui was so proud that he held the stone and turned it over and over.
Shouyuan looked at the stone in her hand, then turned to look at the inconspicuous pit. The corner of her mouth twitched slightly, and she couldn't help but muttered:
"What a blind cat meets a dead mouse..."
"What did you say?"
"Say you're lucky." Shouyuan said angrily.
Jinghui nodded with satisfaction, put Meteoric Iron into Mustard Seed Bag, and everyone continued to move forward.
At this time, nearly a year has passed since everyone in Clear Wind Temple reshaped their bodies.
Everyone's current cultivation level has also reached the late stage of Qi Refining.
The speed is really not slow.
When practicing together, the soul and body complement each other.
The soul determines understanding and character, while the body is related to Root Bone and qualifications.
The body reshaped by Shen Hui with Five-Element Creation Power has excellent qualifications. It was born free from the turbidity of the mortal world and opened Spirit Apertures Root Bone.
Even if the soul has not changed, the physical body has been transformed in this way, and practicing cultivation will naturally be like sailing with the current, getting twice the result with half the effort.
Among them, the one that has changed the most is Fifth Senior Brother Qing Shi.
He originally had mediocre qualifications, but after reshaping his physical body, his cultivation level suddenly became the best among all.
In just one year, we have already reached the threshold of Foundation Establishment.
Dantian is filled with Spiritual Qi, and the Qi in the meridians is flowing. With just one final kick, the barrier can be broken down and the foundation of the road can be built.
But because of this, he inevitably encountered a bottleneck.
On this day, everyone walked to a mountain col. It was getting late, so everyone found a place to rest out of the wind.
Hu Cheng lit a fire, and Lu Huan took out dry food and distributed it to everyone.
Green Bamboo was sitting by the fire, quietly, holding the travel book in his hand and reading through it.
Shouyuan came over, sat down next to her, looked at the travel notes, cleared his throat and said:
"Little girl, I have something to discuss with you."
Green Bamboo raised his head and looked at him doubtfully.
"Can you lend me your travel diary?"
Afraid that Green Bamboo would not agree, Old Daoist quickly added:
"I observe that your Root Bone is very strange. Although you have never formally practiced it, you have a calm spirit."
"The road ahead is long. Now that you have entered the mortal world, you must practice to protect yourself. If you are willing to let me take a look at it, I will guide you along the way to learn the Qi Refining method and save you three years of detours."
Green Bamboo thought for a while, handed over the book in his hand, pursed his lips and smiled:
"Senior, you can read it if you want. Writing is meant to be read."
Shouyuan chuckled, quickly reached out to take it, turned the page, and read by the firelight.
He read very slowly, word for word, and sometimes read aloud when he read an interesting part.
"Well... three hundred miles westward from Yizhou, we came to Cold Pool. The water in the pool was as black as ink and was bottomless. There were many white bones on the edge of the pool, all belonging to animals and birds. A woodcutter said that there were strange beasts hiding in the pool. They came out in the middle of the night and devoured the moonlight..."
Jinghui came over. "Then what?"
Shouyuan turned a page and continued reading:
"I wanted to watch it, so I hid behind a huge rock on the side of the pool. When I got there, I saw the water surface surging, and something emerged from the bottom of the pool. It was shaped like a cow, with a hairless body, a skin like black iron, and eyes like lamps. It raised its head towards the moon and swallowed the moonlight..."
"What is that?" Hu Cheng also became interested.
"It's not written in the book."
Shouyuan shook his head and turned a few more pages:
"In the spring of the eighth year of Taian, I walked south from Cangzhou, passed Fishermen Commandery, and entered Falling Geese Mountain. There were many bamboos in the mountains, and there were streams between the bamboos. The water in the streams was clear and refreshing, and the drink was sweet."
"After walking for three days, we arrived at a valley. The peach blossoms were in full bloom, and the fallen flowers were colorful, as if they were in a painting. I sat on a stone, watching the petals disappear with the water, and suddenly realized that my whole life was nothing more than this."
Jinghui and Lu Huan came close to each other, tilting their heads to the left and right to read.
Shouyuan turned another page and continued reading:
"We traveled another eight hundred miles and arrived at a place named 'Falling Star Valley'. There were stones in the valley, and there were patterns on the stones, like the marks of falling stars. In the middle of the night, there was a faint light in the stones, like fireflies flowing. I stayed there for three nights, and the light gradually faded and eventually disappeared. I don't know why."
Shouyuan flipped through the travel notes, my mouth felt dry while reading, but I couldn't bear to put them down:
"Going west to the Gobi, you will see thousands of miles of endless yellow sand. The sun burns your bones during the day, and the cold stars fall to the ground at night. Deep in the Gobi, there is a thousand-year-old city. The city wall is half submerged in the sand. The remaining lamps in the city are still there. The wind cannot extinguish them and the rain cannot extinguish them. Occasionally, there are shadows wandering there..."
Jinghui shrank his neck. "Ghost town?"
"I don't know."
Shouyuan turned a page. "I wanted to talk to him, but I opened my mouth and left. I stretched out my hand to touch, and passed through my body. Then I realized that this was the soul of the past, trapped in the old city, I don't know what night it is, and I don't know that I am dead."
"Then what?"
"Then she left."
Shouyuan translated again. "Taian In the summer of the 21st year, I left the Gobi and arrived at Returning Dragon Ferry. The miasma on the river surface persists all year round, and the other side is nowhere to be seen."
"...Scale Clan monsters are hidden in the river, making waves and capsizing countless boats."
Shouyuan shook his head and continued to turn back.
"Go further north and climb Snowfield. Thousands of miles of ice cover all year round, and Ice-Soul Spirit Herb grows on the ground, but it is accompanied by cold and evil winds. If you are not careful, you will freeze to death in the wind..."
Green Bamboo heard this and suddenly interjected:
"The master said that's where her legs were frozen..."
Shouyuan nodded upon hearing this, and then continued to scroll down.
There are many things recorded in the travel notes, but Daoist Yun Su's writing style is very plain, not exaggerating or exaggerating, but just writing down what he saw and heard one by one.
After reading a certain point, Shouyuan's voice suddenly stopped.
"What's wrong?" Green Bamboo asked.
Shouyuan stared at the page, frowned slightly, and then said after a long while:
"Here it is said... Jingze Going west for 1,500 miles, there is a mountain with many evil spirits in it that catch people and eat them."
He read slowly, word by word:
"I entered it by mistake and saw that there were many bones beside the mountain road. I felt fear in my heart and turned around to leave. Suddenly I heard the sudden sound of wind behind me and something came out of the forest."
"It looks like a human, more than ten feet tall, with scales all over its body, a mouth like a basin of blood, sharp claws like hooks, and copper coins hanging from its neck. I used a bamboo stick to hold it, and the stick broke. I threw a talisman, and the talisman burned, and the demon retreated half a step. I took the opportunity to escape..."
"I don't know how far away I am when I suddenly see a cliff ahead. Clouds and mist are billowing under the cliff, and I don't know how deep it is. There is a monster behind me and there is no way out. I jump down..."
He turned a page.
"... When I woke up, I no longer knew where I was. The pain all over my body was unbearable, and the bamboo stick was broken into three parts. I struggled to get up, and looked around, but I didn't know where the mountain was. After asking around, no one knew the name of the mountain."
Shouyuan turned to the last page of the travel note, which contained only a few lines:
"Jingzhou Among the mountains, I looked at a peak in the distance, covered with clouds and fog, hanging hundreds of feet in the air, and then I realized that I had encountered a fairy mountain. I wanted to climb it, but I was unable to do it, so I had to give up. So I stopped here, rested for a few days, and stopped moving forward..."
There is a blank space behind it.
Old Daoist closed the book and was silent for a while before asking Green Bamboo:
"What is your master's level of cultivation?"
"Master said that she will never be able to Foundation Establishment in her life."
Shouyuan was startled when he heard this, then looked down at the thin booklet in his hand, opened his mouth, but didn't know where to start.
After a long while, he took a long breath and murmured:
"Qi Refining's cultivation... has traveled to so many places..."
Yes, with Qi Refining cultivation, his lifespan is limited, his spiritual power is meager, it is difficult to protect himself from evil spirits, and he is difficult to escape from dangerous places. Among the avenues of cultivation, he can be said to be the most humble and ordinary.
And the places he just read about are extremely dangerous. Even if monk Foundation Establishment went there, he might not be able to escape unscathed.
But Yun Su, a female crown with Qi Refining cultivation, traveled all over these places alone.
"A narrow escape from death." Old Daoist whispered.
He recalled what he had boasted about, "Heaven Mountain on the snow, Vast Sea on the wind", and now that he thought about it, it actually made him feel a little hot.
Most people in the world practice Daoism for immortality, Divine Ability, and transcendence from the mundane world.
But this Daoist Yun Su seems to be different.
Her cultivation level is mediocre and she has never set foot on the main entrance in her life, but she has never been trapped in the empty mountain.
With a meager mortal body, I go to the mountains and seas and see the world of mortals. I am not afraid of dangers on the road ahead, and I am not afraid of evil spirits blocking my way.
Watch the sunrise and dawn from the top of the mountain, watch the clouds roll in and the stars hang down at dusk, listen to the ebb and flow of the tide by the river, and enjoy the glory of the four seasons in the forest.
What was she thinking when she narrowly escaped death from the monster's claws with Qi Refining cultivation?
Could she have been afraid too?
Have you ever thought about looking back?
Have you ever sat on a rock, looked at the clouds in the sky, and asked yourself, "Why bother?"
But she finally left this time.
I kept walking, and kept walking, until I couldn't walk any further, so I stopped in that Purple Bamboo Temple.
Plant a few cabbage trees, paint a landscape, and teach an apprentice.
Then one cold winter day, I sat cross-legged on the bed and walked away quietly.
Shouyuan closed the book and solemnly returned it to Green Bamboo.
"Your master is amazing."
Green Bamboo took the travel notes and said "hmm" in a low voice.
Shen Hui was sitting aside, and he had been listening when Shouyuan was reading just now.
At this time, he reached out and took the travel note from Green Bamboo, flipped through it casually, turned to the paragraph that Shouyuan had just read, and read it carefully.
That paragraph is about the mountain 1,500 miles west of Jingze.
"... There is a mountain. There are many evil spirits in the mountain who catch people and eat them. I accidentally entered it and was in danger of being captured for food..."
"... The body is covered with scales, the mouth is like a basin of blood, the claws are like hooks, and copper coins hang from the neck..."
"A copper coin hung around the neck?"
"Lost Ferry Ridge?"
Shen Hui wrote down the prescription location in his mind, returned the travel note to Green Bamboo, and then said calmly:
"Get some rest early, we will go out to the mountains tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?"
Hu Cheng looked confused when he heard this:
"Master, we are still more than a thousand miles away from the mountain. What will happen tomorrow..."
"Kingsword."