Gazing at the dirt and stone path that branched off the main road into the mountains, Li Yan took a deep breath. When he had left all those years ago, it was from this very path, sitting in Uncle Guoxin's carriage with a crying Li Shan and Li Yu, that he had departed the place that gave him life. The sound of the carriage wheels and the cries of his mother and fourth sister on the wind seemed to echo in his ears once more.
The two women saw Li Yan standing by the roadside in a daze and couldn't help but exchange a glance. The three of them had put away their magical artifact when they were still a hundred li from the Great Green Mountains, as they had started to occasionally see hunters in that area, making it inappropriate to fly.
After landing, given the world-stunning beauty of Gong Chenying and Zhao Min, Li Yan didn't want to cause any unnecessary trouble, so he had them conjure veiled hats to cover their faces. Only then did they walk out of the Great Green Mountains. By noon, they had reached the main road of Green Mountain Pass. Walking on the main road, the trio's attire was extremely eye-catching. Li Yan and Gong Chenying still wore their dark green robes, while Zhao Min was dressed in white. It drew many sidelong glances from passing merchants and travelers. Fortunately, it was noon, and there weren't many people on the road. After walking for about ten li, they arrived at the entrance to the small mountain village.
Having walked all this way, with their cultivation, the three of them didn't break a sweat. Gong Chenying and Zhao Min also spoke less. Zhao Min, however, looked around with great curiosity the entire way, constantly looking at the flowers and grasses by the roadside and the occasional passerby who glanced at them, her eyes full of wonder.
Although there was spiritual energy in this land, it was almost negligible. What she smelled in her nose was the natural scent of plants and trees mixed with the aroma of the earth. The people she met had not the slightest fluctuation of spiritual energy. Occasionally, a horse-drawn carriage would pass by. With her Divine Sense, she could easily see inside the spacious carriage. An old woman dressed in opulent clothes, her gray hair combed immaculately, was leaning against the wooden wall of the carriage, her body swaying slightly with the movement of the carriage, her eyes half-closed in a nap. Beside her, a maidservant gently waved a silk fan. In the center of the carriage was a wide, low table, and beside the table were several beautiful women. As they joked with each other, one would say, "Hong'er must be lovesick. It must be that Young Master Liu who passed you a silk handkerchief..." and another would say, "Second Sister, you're talking nonsense. Just a few days ago, I saw you go out the back gate with a scented sachet..." "You... you... you shut up, or I'll tear that little mouth of yours..." Amidst the laughter, the women playfully wrestled, occasionally picking up a juicy grape from the table and putting it into their cherry-like mouths. The napping old woman was only pretending to be asleep with her eyes half-closed; her face was covered with a smile. The carriage, with a light shout from the driver, rumbled into the distance...
Those words fell on Zhao Min's ears, and her jade-like, snow-white earlobes immediately burned with a crimson blush. A strange feeling she had never experienced before rose in her heart. Thinking of those women, she couldn't help but think of Gong Chenying, who had been her companion since childhood. Even with the two of them, their days were filled with cultivation, and they might not speak for several days. They were not at all as carefree and unrestrained as the women in the carriage just now. A sense of sadness welled up in her heart.
But then, thinking of the flirtatious words spoken by those women, Zhao Min's heart couldn't help but beat faster. She remembered the scented sachet her mother had given her when she was a child, which she also had with her. She couldn't help but look through the green veil at the back of Li Yan walking in front. And at that moment, for some unknown reason, Gong Chenying seemed to have unintentionally taken her jade-like hand from the side, which startled her. It felt as if her secret thoughts had been discovered. The hand that was being held trembled slightly, and her face flushed red against her will. Gong Chenying also withdrew her gaze from the distant carriage, her heart also stirring with waves.
Along the way, the people Zhao Min encountered were also varied. There were young couples holding farm tools who stared at the three of them with strange eyes when they saw them, as if they were shocked by their otherworldly temperament, their eyes full of envy. Then they would whisper to each other and slowly walk away...
There were also martial artists from the pugilistic world who galloped past on horseback, kicking up dust with a whistle as they rushed into the distance...
There were also strong men in coarse cloth short sleeves, with three or four-year-old children riding on their necks. The children's bottoms bounced up and down as they called out in their tender voices, "Giddy-up, giddy-up..." The strong man couldn't help but curse with a smile, raising his hand to lightly pat the child's bottom. "Do you think your old man is a beast, you little brat..."
The merchants were also in a convoy of carriages and horses. They were extremely vigilant when they encountered people. From time to time, a rider would circle the carts laden with goods, their gaze sharp as they looked around. Seeing Li Yan's group of three, their guard was also quite high. Seeing that the three of them had no intention of approaching, they swept their gaze over them a few times before continuing on with the caravan.
All these things, Zhao Min had never heard of or seen before. Her beautiful eyes flickered again and again. Even Gong Chenying, upon seeing these things, felt a certain stirring in her state of mind. The long-stagnant Pseudo-Core Realm actually showed a sign of loosening. This couldn't help but startle her.
Li Yan, on the other hand, was eager to get home and was used to all this. Back when he traveled between the Strategist's Valley and Green Mountain Pass, such scenes were a daily occurrence.
Standing at the entrance of the small path, Li Yan's thoughts surged. He took a deep breath and looked back at the two women who had been silent all this time. He smiled faintly, then took a step forward and set foot on the small path. But the moment he stepped onto the path, with his cultivation, he actually felt his hands and feet tremble slightly.
The mountain road was winding, with a mountain wall on one side and green grass on the other. As the three of them walked into it, the sounds from the main road behind them grew fainter and fainter. After a few turns, only the silence of heaven and earth and the sound of their footsteps on the ground remained, along with the "shasha" sound of the foxtail grass growing horizontally on the mountain wall, blown by the wind.
"Did... did you live here when you were young?" As they walked, a crisp voice sounded from behind Li Yan. Li Yan was stunned upon hearing it. It was Zhao Min's voice. She had barely spoken to him on this journey. Most of the time, she was whispering to Gong Chenying. A great deal of the time, Li Yan was meditating alone, which made Gong Chenying feel that she had neglected him a few times and would apologetically take the initiative to say a few words to him.
A smile curved Li Yan's lips. He turned his head and smiled. "We're not far from the mountain village now. Just four more turns ahead, and we'll be there. I used to come here often when I was young, with my third brother and my playmates from the village. We would run wild everywhere, catching fish in the river and birds from the trees. We've been all over the nearby area. This can be considered one of those places. It's just that every time we came out, this place wasn't necessarily the destination. It might have been somewhere else, but once we started playing, we would run all over the place and might have come here from another direction."
Hearing Li Yan say this, even Gong Chenying felt a little envious. She also remembered her own childhood. Although she also lived in the mountains, like Zhao Min, she had no playmates, only the rules of the clan and the constant competition between bloodlines, which forced her to only cultivate constantly.
"Oh, is there such fun in catching fish and birds every day?" Zhao Min looked at Li Yan with some curiosity.
Li Yan couldn't help but smile wryly upon hearing this. He said, "A cultivator can naturally grab things from a distance with a wave of their hand, easily. We were all mortals. And there's a certain fun in catching fish. It's a kind of fun that combines waiting for the right opportunity with success and failure. And you can also use methods like fish traps or blocking off a section of a small river. The process is the most fun. Climbing trees to get birds is also..."
As he was speaking, Li Yan's brows suddenly furrowed. He suddenly looked up at the top of a mountain on one side. At the same time, the two women behind him also raised their heads.
"Why are there cultivators here?" Gong Chenying's voice came over. The three of them had restrained their Divine Sense since they got on the main road, but their powerful cultivation still kept their Divine Sense circling the nearby area.
Li Yan's face darkened. For cultivators to appear here, and so close to his home, what was their purpose? His Divine Sense swept back and forth and found that there was no one else on this mountain road at this time. His figure flashed and disappeared from his original spot. Gong Chenying and Zhao Min's figures also blurred and vanished without a trace.
On the mountaintop, two cultivators in black robes had already stood up from their cross-legged positions and were looking around with uncertainty. Just now, three people had appeared in their Divine Sense, but then the three of them had suddenly lost their aura.
"This... is a cultivator?" one person asked, looking around vigilantly.
The other black-robed person was fully extending his Divine Sense, but besides the distant villagers, there was no trace of the three people from just now. Sweat began to ooze from his face, and he couldn't help but let out a low shout.
"Who is being sneaky here?"
His shout sent a chill down the back of the black-robed person who had asked the question before. He knew that this senior brother was a master in the sect. Seeing the sweat on his forehead, it was clear that he hadn't found the other party at all. He also let out a light shout, "Which fellow Daoist is it? Please show yourself and meet us."
As the two of them asked, they couldn't help but reach for the storage pouches at their waists.
"If it were me, I wouldn't be thinking of taking out my magical artifact." Just as the two black-robed men's hands touched their storage pouches, a cold voice suddenly sounded from one side. Then, to their horror, about two zhang away from them, the space slightly distorted, and a figure suddenly appeared. This figure appeared so abruptly, without a sound, and so close to them. Just as the two were terrified, another voice as cold as bone sounded from behind them. "Are you disciples of the Bloodleaf Sect?"
This voice made the two feel as if they had fallen into an ice cellar. They hurriedly turned around and found two people wearing veiled hats standing there. From the voice, they sounded like women.
But the aura from these three suddenly appeared people made the two's bodies go weak. They had a feeling of meeting the sect's ancestor. The black-robed person who had first shouted, upon hearing the person who asked the question afterward seem to know their sect, relaxed slightly. Bracing himself, he bowed halfway to the three and hurriedly said.
"This junior, Xu Shi of the Bloodleaf Sect, and Wang Wuyi pay our respects to the three seniors."
"So you are indeed from the Bloodleaf Sect. What are you two doing here?" Li Yan's eyes narrowed. He had noticed that the two were wearing the robes of the Bloodleaf Sect, which was why he hadn't attacked immediately. And after seeing the robes of the Bloodleaf Sect, he had already thought of some possibilities.
"Three seniors, we were ordered to guard the family of a cultivator here. This cultivator is from the Malevolent Spirit Sect," the cultivator who called himself Xu Shi hurriedly said. The two of them were masters in the sect, with cultivation levels at the ninth and eighth layers of Qi Condensation respectively. But the aura of the three before them was terrifying. He felt that the other party could take their lives with just a thought, so he hurriedly said it, and also for fear that these three were just passing cultivators who would attack before he could explain clearly, he hurriedly brought out the name of the Malevolent Spirit Sect.
Gong Chenying and Zhao Min, upon hearing this, couldn't help but show a strange look on their faces and looked at Li Yan. Li Yan's heart relaxed after hearing it, just as he had guessed. But he still said coldly, "The family of a Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivator? Why do you need to guard them here?"
Xu Shi, upon hearing the continued questioning, and also hearing the softening of Li Yan's tone, couldn't help but relax. He secretly thought that he had been quick-witted to mention the Malevolent Spirit Sect. Otherwise, it would have been hard to say what would have happened. But he still respectfully kept his head down and, along with Wang Wuyi, continued to answer, "This was ordered by our sect's Bloodleaf Elder four years ago, on the orders of three cultivators from the Malevolent Spirit Sect. We, along with one other sect and two families nearby, are to take turns guarding here, not allowing the two border dynasties to cause any harm here."
"Oh? Then what is the surname of the family you are guarding in this mountain village?" Li Yan's tone became even more relaxed.
"This... this mountain village is all surnamed Li. But this superior sect cultivator was originally a person from the army in Green Mountain Pass. He entered the Malevolent Spirit Sect four years ago." Xu Shi heard Li Yan's voice relax and felt even more at ease. It seemed that no one dared to provoke the name of the Malevolent Spirit Sect. It was just that the questions were strange.
But he didn't know that Li Yan was deliberately asking this. With his caution, it seemed casual, but he was deliberately reconfirming the truth of the two's words.