The day Bai Yu set off, it wasn't fully light yet.
She stood at the academy gate with a small bundle on her back, glanced back at the road behind her, and was about to take a step when Shi Yan followed from behind.
"Are you really coming with me?" Bai Yu turned to look at him. "Aren't you going back to your own home?"
Shi Yan tossed another bundle onto his shoulder and said in a flat tone, "I have no home. I've been at the Godwind Academy since I can remember."
Bai Yu was stunned for a moment, and before she could say anything, Shi Yan had already walked in front of her.
Bai Yu watched his retreating figure, blinked, and then followed him. "Alright, that's perfect—I get pretty bored walking alone, just come with me and cheer me up~"
Shi Yan didn't turn around, but he slowed his pace, waiting for her to catch up.
The two walked west along the road leading out of the academy. The morning light stretched their shadows long, one in front and one behind, with two steps between them.
It took seven days to travel west from the college, and the road became increasingly remote, with the mountains on both sides becoming denser.
From a distance, the mountains appear to grow out of the ground, layer upon layer, in varying shades, with the farthest ones so pale they almost blend into the horizon.
Once, Bai Yu passed a stone bridge. The water under the bridge was very clear, and she could see that the Shitou at the bottom of the river had been polished smooth by the water flow. Bai Yu stopped on the bridge for a moment, bent down to look at the water, and then continued walking.
On another occasion, they rested on a mountain ridge and saw an eagle rise from the valley, circle twice in the sky, and then swoop down.
Bai Yu sat on the Shitou for a while, then said, "It shouldn't be far," and continued walking.
She walked ahead, her pace much quicker than in the past few days. She didn't say much, but Shi Yan could tell she was in a good mood.
As Bai Yu walked, she would occasionally hop, kick a small Shitou by the roadside, or reach out to touch the drooping branches and leaves.
Sometimes she would stop to look at the distant mountain ridge, as if to confirm that she still remembered the shape, and then she would walk quickly forward again.
She looked light and agile; if Shi Yan hadn't been following behind, Bai Yu might have already started running.
On the evening of the seventh day of their journey, they rested in an abandoned teahouse by the roadside.
Bai Yu sat on a wooden bench in the teahouse, gazing at the distant mountain ridgeline. After a long while, she finally spoke, "We'll arrive tomorrow."
Shi Yan sat opposite him, unscrewed the stopper of his water bag, took a sip of water, and asked, "Which mountains do you live in?"
"Hmm." Bai Yu nodded, reaching up to tuck a strand of hair that had fallen to the side of her face behind her ear. "Inside the mountains, not the kind where you live at the foot of the mountain, but rather after crossing two mountain ridges and walking through a valley, you reach our village."
What's the name of your village?
"It didn't have a name originally," Bai Yu said. "The locals always called it 'the village on the mountain.' Later, my ancestors discovered that this place was related to the Mountain God, so they gave it a name themselves: ' Mountain-Venerating Village.'"
Shi Yan nodded without speaking. He could sense that Bai Yu's mind was no longer on the matter when she spoke—she was looking back, at that village, the people in those villages, and the years they lived through. He didn't intend to ask any further questions at this moment.
Bai Yu was silent for a moment, then suddenly spoke, "... Did you know that in our Mountain-Venerating Village, the awakened Martial Soul can't return to our bodies?"
Shi Yan put down the water bag. "None of it can return to your body? I thought you were the only one experiencing this."
"It's everyone. Once someone awakens their Martial Soul, it stays attached to them and can't be taken back." Bai Yu stretched out her hand, looking at her palm.
"Most people's Martial Soul is attached to their body surface—like mountain wind, mountain rocks, mountain trees, mountain beasts, and mountain mist. These can all be seen as marks on the skin, and they remain for a lifetime."
She paused for a moment. "For example, when I was a child, I met an elder in the village whose Martial Soul was Mountain Wind. From the day he awakened it, he had a wind pattern on his arm, which has never disappeared for decades."
Yours seems different?
Bai Yu withdrew her hand and smiled, "Yes, I'm different. My Martial Soul is Wind Chime, something you hold in your hand."
She bent down and took out a small Wind Chime, about the length of a finger, from her waist. It was bronze in color with faint patterns on its surface, shimmering slightly in the setting sun. She held the Wind Chime and gently shook it; there was no sound.
"Did you know that there's an Ancient Wind Chime in the altar room of Mountain-Venerating Village? It's been passed down for hundreds of years. It's said to have been left behind by the Mountain God. Every generation, if someone is chosen, the Ancient Wind Chime will ring by itself. It rang on the day I was born."
Bai Yu paused for a moment, then said, "When I was leaving, the priest called me back and said that the Mountain God had responded."
The Mountain God told me to protect this Wind Chime —it's my own Martial Soul, and also a token given to me by the Mountain God. The power within must be awakened by myself.
Shi Yan looked at the Wind Chime but didn't reply. He knew Bai Yu didn't usually talk about these things, but she was saying it now because she was almost home and had a lot on her mind that needed to be released.
After a while, Shi Yan couldn't help but ask curiously, "Have you ever seen the Mountain God?"
Bai Yu paused for a moment, then shook her head. "Never seen it. But when the Ancient Wind Chime, the whole village can hear them."
Shi Yan didn't ask any more questions.
"In your village, besides you, were there any other people selected?"
Bai Yu put away the Wind Chime, looked up at him, and said, "Yes. When I left, there was another person in the village—four years older than me, named Bai Rong. The Ancient Wind Chime rang when he was born. But when they rang, the Mountain God didn't respond."
"What does it mean that the Mountain God didn't reply?"
Everyone knows he was chosen, but nobody knows what he was chosen to do.
"The successor? The Guardian? Nobody knows," Bai Yu said. "So he stayed in the village, waiting for me to return."
Shi Yan didn't reply immediately. His fingers tightened slightly around the water pouch, but his expression remained unchanged.
"What will happen after you go back?"
Bai Yu looked at him, paused for a moment, and then said, "Let's see if I can take the last step."
She didn't say anything more, and lowered her head to start packing her things. Shi Yan didn't ask any more questions either.
The next day at noon, the two crossed the last mountain ridge.
At the entrance to the canyon ahead, a layer of grayish-white mist flowed slowly along the valley mouth, neither thick nor thin, as if it were encircled by something, neither spreading outwards nor completely dissipating.
Bai Yu stopped before the fog, closed her eyes briefly, as if sensing something. Then she opened her eyes, glanced back at Shi Yan, and said, "This layer of fog at the village entrance was left by the Mountain God. Outsiders can't get in; only the villagers know the way."
Shi Yan looked at the fog and asked, "Can I go in?"
"Just follow me," Bai Yu said. "Pay attention to where I've walked; if you step on the spots I've been, you won't get lost."
After she finished speaking, she stepped into the fog without further hesitation.
Shi Yan followed behind her. The path beneath his feet was sometimes soft and sometimes hard, occasionally stepping on gravel and sometimes on slippery mud, but every step felt solid.
The fog swirled before him, seemingly alive. In some places, it was so thick that he couldn't see the path beneath his feet. He could only stare at Bai Yu's blurry back, following her every step.
Bai Yu walked slowly ahead of him, occasionally stopping to check her direction, and sometimes reaching out to push aside the invisible fog in front of her, as if the fog would automatically part to make way for her.
After walking for about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, the fog began to thin. Light gradually appeared ahead, and the outline of the canyon became clear again.
With the final step Bai Yu took out of the fog, she stood in the sunlight.
At the end of the canyon, the view suddenly opens up. Surrounded by mountains, it shelters a wide-open valley.
Dozens of wooden and stone houses are scattered in the valley, with roofs made of bluish-gray stone slabs and low stone walls surrounding the courtyards.
Bai Yu stood at the valley entrance, not in a hurry to move forward. She stood there for a long time, as if taking a good look at the place.
The wind blows through the valley, carrying the scents of grass, trees, and earth.