"Is this where Cai Zhuoxia grew up?" Xiao Hua had a great deal of goodwill toward Cai Zhuoxia, a female cultivator who possessed both unyielding perseverance and the virtue of enduring humiliation and bearing heavy burdens. Looking at this picturesque little town of green mountains and clear waters, he could not help but feel a flicker of curiosity.
Descending from midair, Xiao Hua walked along a fairly broad road, making his way slowly toward the town.
Outside the town stood strange stone carvings and artificial hills. The stone carvings took on every conceivable form: old oxen bent over their plowing, village women with bared breasts nursing children, and groups of children in all sorts of poses, some holding slingshots, some clutching branches, and some carrying little squirrels, all walking ahead in high spirits. The artificial hills were equally peculiar—some large, some small, some tall, some short; some were entwined with vines, while others had babbling streams flowing over them.
Before he had even entered the town, Xiao Hua had already been drawn in by these things he had never seen before.
"Young man... is this your first time in Luyang Town?" A gentle voice sounded from beside a stone statue lying on the ground and gazing up at the sky.
When Xiao Hua turned to look, he saw an old man of around sixty, his face weathered by countless hardships. Holding a long-stemmed pipe, the old man slowly rose from beside the statue.
"Greetings, Elder." Though the old man had no cultivation and appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary farmer, Xiao Hua still cupped his hands in salute. "This... this one is indeed visiting Luyang Town for the first time."
"Oh? Are you looking for someone, or merely passing through on your travels?" The old man took a