Jin Si discovered that cultivators spent a very long time listening to lectures and studying, even longer than students at a village school in the Mortal Realm. He slept awhile, listened awhile, and drifted through roughly two days in a haze. Many Daoists looked thoughtful or frowned in contemplation, each arriving at their own insights.
He, too, gained a great deal. Difficult passages in several foundational texts that he had never been able to unravel became perfectly clear after just a few words from the True Person.
Though these principles could not immediately send his cultivation soaring, his mind seemed clearer than before, like the ice and snow blanketing the earth melting little by little, revealing soil and tender new shoots.
Lying quietly at the outskirts, he felt the trip had been well worth it.
He was puzzling over a passage he could not understand when he suddenly sensed something and looked toward the stone beneath the old tree. It was empty. The True Person had slipped away without his noticing.
The Sweet Peach had been taken away, too. Jin Si breathed a sigh of relief.
The Daoists rose one after another, preparing to descend the mountain, though some remained seated with their eyes closed in contemplation. Jin Si got up and moved a few steps toward the edge of the clearing, trying not to block anyone's way. The Daoists departed in twos and threes. Some conjured clouds beneath their feet and drifted away upon the mist; others summoned white cranes and flew gracefully off on their backs. Still others took their time, descending the mountain road one step at a time.
The once-crowded clearing grew empty, with only a lingering trace of Dao resonance remaining.
Lin Wei walked over and stood before his enormous head with a smile.
"I'll