After crossing peaks and rivers and trudging through wild grass and scattered graves for over half an hour, the two reached the entrance to a village. At last, Zeng Mu saw what the village Qidunston lived in looked like.
Mountains enclosed it on three sides, while a river bordered the fourth. From a distance, it had the secluded charm of a paradise untouched by the world, a quiet elegance far removed from worldly affairs.
The village covered an enormous area, almost rivaling the Temple Capital in size. Nestled among mountains, forests, and rivers, however, it had no clearly defined boundaries. As far as the eye could see, the village stretched on.
The houses were scattered, most of them single-story wooden buildings. Looking down from the higher ground at the village entrance, Zeng Mu estimated from their number that there were no more than thirty households and fewer than a hundred residents. It was certainly a village with plenty of land and very few people.
The fields were scattered but neatly tended and thick with crops. None of the homes had fences or boundary walls; they stood as freely as sheep on the grasslands. An outsider could see at a glance that the trust here was something they could never hope to find elsewhere.
"Whew, this place really is lovely."
As he walked, Zeng Mu kept voicing his admiration.
"Fresh air, beautiful surroundings, peace and quiet without worldly troubles, privacy without missing out on neighbors. Growing vegetables, watering flowers, chatting about the world, doing whatever you like-it has everything."
He kept marveling at it. In all this time, this was the first village that had truly amazed him. There was something distinct about the place. Simply walking through it relaxed both body and mind, as though this were a village that