Returning for a Visit

I kind of miss the village chief and the others. I wonder how they are doing now?

Feng Wuhen had often eaten hodgepodge stew in Green Mountain Village. When he was little, he often ate from a hundred households—one bite from this family, one bite from that. Back then, he piled together the food the villagers gave him, mixed it up, and ate it.

The taste had not been very good then. When he was four or five, he asked the village chief to build a stove in his thatched cottage. From then on, whenever he ate, he would pour the food into a pot and cook it again.

Later, when he was seven or eight, he followed someone to town. With those eyes of his, he saw a man's future and helped him out.

That man was the owner of a restaurant. When he learned that Feng Wuhen was an orphan with no parents, his heart softened, and he let him work at his establishment.

He paid him fifty copper coins a month, provided lunch, and packed a large bundle of leftovers for him to take home every day. They were called leftovers, but they were really scraps from the kitchen—radishes, cabbage, eggplant, and green beans. Occasionally, there would even be meat that customers had only touched with a few chopsticks.

Those scraps could not make a dish when stir-fried separately, so Feng Wuhen tossed them all together and stir-fried them. Surprisingly, they tasted fairly good, and he ate that way for many years.

"Senior Brother, once this matter is over, can I go back and take a look at the place where I used to live?"

Qin Xiaoran and the others had already heard his inner thoughts. "Of course you can. Junior Brother Shen, Junior Sister Meng, do you two want to go home and have a look as well?"

Shen Ziheng and Meng Hongying did not want to. They had only been away from home for a short while and had not even enjoyed a few carefree days yet. They did not want to return.

Feng Wuhen was different from them. He had no good family background and had never cultivated before. It had taken him more than a year to travel from a small mountain village to Mount Great Spring, and by now, he had been away from that little village for nearly two years.

"We're not going back. We only left a few months ago and haven't enjoyed many days of freedom yet. No way are we going back!"

Meng Hongying said so, and Shen Ziheng shared her thoughts. They had only left home for a few months, so they did not miss it that much.

"Since neither of you wants to return, why not accompany Junior Brother Feng back for a look? I happen to want to see what kind of place could raise someone as impressive as Junior Brother Feng."

Qin Xiaoran's words embarrassed Feng Wuhen somewhat. Mo Qingran had nearly finished eating and wiped his mouth. "I'm going too. I've been shut away for so long that I want to go out and look around."

Xia Jingcheng and Hua Yichen exchanged a glance. "The two of us won't be going. Our disciples did not contribute much to this matter, so it does not count as completing their training."

"So, we plan to take them elsewhere for some training and will not be going with you."

Hua Yichen continued Xia Jingcheng's words. "I sent a message to those three just now. They have notified the elders of the Dao One Sect to come over. Since they do not know anyone on Mount Grand Mystery, they did not notify anyone there.

"If you are in a hurry, you can set out after eating. Leave what comes afterward to us."

Qin Xiaoran was very familiar with the two of them and trusted them greatly when it came to handling matters, so he agreed at once.

"Then we'll trouble you with what comes afterward. We'll leave after we finish eating."

Thinking that he would soon be able to return, Feng Wuhen was rather excited and began calculating what he should bring back.

I'm going back, so I need to go into the city later and buy some things. What should I buy?

Fashionable cloth, wine, pastries, brown sugar and rock sugar. I should also buy some rouge and face powder for Sister Qiu next door...

Bing Ling's head ached as she listened to the list in his heart. "I'm full. It's light out now, so the market should be open. Let's go buy some things to bring along. We can't go to Junior Brother's hometown empty-handed."

Shen Ziheng and the others rose one after another. After bidding farewell to Xia Jingcheng, Hua Yichen, and their fellow disciples, they used their movement techniques to reach the market.

Meng Hongying and Qin Leyan looked down on the group of men for not understanding women's aesthetics, so they sent them to buy food and drinks. The cloth, jeweled hairpins, rouge, and face powder for the female elders would be purchased by them.

Feng Wuhen and the others bought all kinds of pastries, as well as rock sugar and brown sugar, then bought many eggs.

They had originally wanted to buy some chicks to give the village aunties and older women to raise, but storage rings could not hold living creatures, and they did not know how to care for them. They planned to buy them in the town over there instead.

They then bought some oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea. After having lunch in Radiant Moon City, they set out. Their group traveled by flying boat for eleven days before arriving at the city closest to Green Mountain Village.

Feng Wuhen raised his head to look at the familiar city gate, then stepped inside. He bought some local specialties there, along with many chicks, which he placed aboard the flying boat.

Next, he led Shen Ziheng and the others toward the small mountain village where he had lived. They arrived at the village in the evening. They did not dare fly the boat into it for fear of frightening the villagers, so they stopped three li outside the village.

At that moment, the villagers had just finished dinner and were gathered at the village entrance, chatting about the affairs of every household. As they talked, they began speaking of Feng Wuhen.

Auntie Zhang, who lived behind Feng Wuhen's home, spoke with longing in her voice. "Little Feng has been gone for nearly two years, hasn't he? There hasn't been a single letter from him all this time. I wonder how he's doing. Has he successfully entered an immortal sect?"

When Auntie Cao, her good sister of several decades, heard her worrying over Feng Wuhen, she patted the back of her rough hand and comforted her. "Maybe he hasn't even reached the place yet. The immortal sect Little Feng wanted to join is terribly far from here. He had to earn travel expenses along the way, so there's an eighty percent chance he still hasn't arrived!

"As for the other thing you're worried about, Little Feng is such a smart boy. He'll definitely be able to enter an immortal sect. Have you forgotten how that boy first appeared in our village?"

At Auntie Cao's words, Auntie Zhang recalled what had happened when Feng Wuhen appeared in their village. In all her years, she had only ever seen such a violent storm once.

The wind had been so fierce that it uprooted trees, and even their houses had collapsed. Fortunately, the village chief had led them into a cave in advance, or they would have lost their lives.

Once everything was over, they emerged from the cave and returned to the village to take a look. That was when they heard a baby crying. The entire village followed the sound and ran over, only to find an infant wailing loudly.

All around him were trees that had been knocked down by the wind. Those trees had been scattered in every direction, yet that infant was completely unharmed.

They had found it very strange at the time. Some people even believed the child was inauspicious and wanted to abandon him or drown him.

It was the village chief who stopped them. He said that since the child had survived such a great storm unharmed, Heaven clearly wanted him to live. How could they go against Heaven's will? They kept the infant and named him Feng Wuhen.