"Had I already walked all the way to South Mountain Monastery?"
The Yanran Mountain Range was rich in Spiritual Qi.
Besides the Dongyuan Sect, one of the Six Great Sects, the Purple Sun Sect and Mystic Wonder Sect were also nearby, along with a host of obscure Small Mountain Sects and small monasteries.
South Mountain Monastery was one of those that local cultivators were relatively familiar with.
It served as a landmark, telling cultivators exploring the mountains that if they headed farther south from here, they would leave the Yanran Mountain Range.
Small monasteries like this were little different from groups of rogue cultivators banding together.
They usually had a dozen or twenty people, and at most, no more than a hundred.
Their abbots ranged from the late Qi Refining stage to Foundation Establishment.
South Mountain Monastery had declined with each generation. By this generation, it seemed that only a cultivator at the peak of the Qi Refining stage remained to serve as abbot.
The abbot's surname seemed to be Lu, and his name was Lu Yuan...
While Song Yan was still in the outer sect, he had accepted many sect missions.
Some were commissions from small sects and monasteries nearby that sought help from the Dongyuan Sect because they lacked enough cultivators.
These included such trivial tasks as collecting low-tier Demon Beast pelts, gathering spiritual herbs for refining low-tier pills, and even helping find disciples who had gone missing.
During one such mission handover, Song Yan had met Temple Master Lu.
He had been friendly and kindhearted, treating the monastery's disciples almost as his own children.
When receiving Song Yan, an outer sect disciple whom no one in his own sect cared about, he had even served him a cup of Spirit Tea.
That was why Song Yan remembered