"Cheep, cheep..."
"Quack... quack, quack..."
"Baa..."
"Baa..."
The moment he stepped through the doorway, after a brief stretch of darkness, Xu Taiping first heard chickens and ducks calling, and then a lush green countryside appeared before him.
Looking down and around him, he discovered that he, Elder Zhang, Nanxing, and the others were standing on a hillside thick with wild grass.
The boundless hillside, covered in verdant grass and dotted with yellow and white wildflowers, soothed both body and mind.
On the western side of the slope, a boy lay reading atop an enormous black dog, while a flock of sheep grazed leisurely around him.
Nearby, a flock of chickens and ducks scratched for insects in the grass, cheeping and quacking.
They all seemed to belong to the boy's family, too.
"Hee-hee..."
The boy seemed to have reached an amusing passage in his book. He could not help grinning, then rolled over into another position and continued leisurely reading the volume in his hands.
At the sight, the corners of Xu Taiping's lips, along with those of Nanxing and the others beside him, inexplicably lifted as well.
Although there was nothing particularly special about the scenery before them, and the boy was scruffy, it somehow filled their hearts with peace and warmth.
Especially with the wisps of cooking smoke rising below the hillside, and the occasional cries of street vendors.
"Young master, look behind you."
Just then, Elder Zhang suddenly patted Xu Taiping on the shoulder and pointed behind them.
Xu Taiping immediately turned to look and saw a mountain peak that seemed to have been gilded with a layer of gold leaf, its summit disappearing into the clouds.
"Is this Golden Summit Mountain?"
Xu Taiping blurted out.
To help him quickly identify his location while ascending the tower, the