"Actually, we flew all the way here just to save time. As long as we reach our destination, why must we cross over the mountains? The patriarch never required that, did he?"
Li Jing, who had always been a man of few words, looked at Xiao Ying in puzzlement. After a pause, he added on his own, "Couldn't we go around? Wherever there are mountains, there are paths. Surely this isn't the Land of Ten Absolutes? Otherwise, how would those demonic beasts get in and out?"
"Uh..." Everyone froze in surprise, their thoughts momentarily sluggish.
Guihai Canglan also looked at Xiao Ying in confusion and asked, "Exactly! Why can't we take a detour? Did the patriarch give you special instructions?"
Xiao Ying broke into a sweat, the corner of his mouth twitching as he replied, "A detour! Then let's go around!"
Everyone was left speechless. Apparently, they had all fallen into the same mental rut, carried along by habit.
Since none of the island's demonic beasts had attacked or run amok, Xiao Ying and the others simply followed the mountain range at full speed. Their progress was swift. In just over two hours, they spotted a valley entrance more than a dozen li wide. Beyond it stretched a canyon whose end was nowhere in sight, packed with flowers and carpeted in green grass. A jumble of overlapping footprints had trampled out a clear passage, evidently left by demonic beasts.
Purple-red vermilion fruit, humanoid ginseng, ten-thousand-year fleeceflower root, canopy lingzhi, purple jade lotus fruit, flat peach jade trees...
Xiao Ying and the others flew slowly through the canyon, a few feet above the ground. Their breathing quickened and their eyes glittered at the dazzling array of rare medicinal herbs, spiritual plants, and immortal fruits scattered throughout the broad, lengthy canyon.
Although