The crowd in the square dispersed. Chen Meiren returned to the Medicine Garden, and Su Mo returned to Medicine Mountain.
As soon as Su Mo reached Medicine Mountain, he saw Du Pingsheng standing at the door of the Thatched Cottage. The sight of him standing with his hands behind his back left Su Mo momentarily dazed.
Seeing Su Mo return, Du Pingsheng nodded. Then a small stone accidentally slipped from his sleeve and fell to the ground... yet Du Pingsheng seemed not to notice.
Su Mo froze as he looked at the small stone Du Pingsheng had dropped.
It was the very Spirit-Testing Stone from the square that day, only now it had shrunk to a tiny piece.
With his hands behind his back, Du Pingsheng turned and walked into the Thatched Cottage. But as he reached the doorway, he suddenly spoke as though talking to himself:
"The Spirit-Testing Stone can reveal the quality of a person's spiritual roots. At the same time, it can inadvertently make them reveal a trace of an aura that does not 'belong' to them..."
"Those auras that shouldn't appear are better left unseen."
Su Mo shuddered and raised his head to look at Du Pingsheng's back...
With his back to Su Mo, Du Pingsheng shook his head and sighed, murmuring to himself again:
"Fortunately, once someone becomes familiar with the Spirit-Testing Stone, they can completely 'remove' that aura."
With that, Du Pingsheng stepped into the Thatched Cottage, leaving Su Mo standing there in a daze...
A gentle breeze drifted past, lifting Su Mo's long hair into a dance and stirring ripples in his heart.
Su Mo walked over to the Spirit-Testing Stone, slowly crouched, and picked it up from the ground.
He gazed at the Spirit-Testing Stone in his hand, his expression bewildered, and