“Yang Zanxing.” The calling voice from beside her ear made her wake from the dream, and so those clouds and flowering trees, the man and woman, all disappeared.
Gu Baiying was half-kneeling beside her, frowning as he stared at her.
Zanxing rubbed her eyes and sat up: “Master Uncle.”
Seeing Zanxing awake, he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and asked her, “Can you stand up?”
Zanxing patted the dirt off her body and stood up. Mimi rolled around on the grass ahead, getting covered in grass debris.
“This is…” Zanxing looked into the distance, stunned for a moment.
Gone was the dark, cramped stone chamber, and the world had become vast and open. This was a broad wilderness covered with soft green grass. In the distance, pale-colored mountains rose and fell in continuous ranges. A clear river meandered from the mountains, and the sunlight was gentle, warm, and mild, lazily covering people’s hearts.
If the secret realm of Li’er Kingdom was ethereal and magnificent, this place was tranquil and warm. Like some village isolated from the world, where the people living here were abandoned by time, forever unaware of the passage of years, sealed here.
“It’s a secret realm.” Gu Baiying walked to Zanxing’s side.
“I know it’s a secret realm,” Zanxing said. “Didn’t we enter a secret realm from Li’er Kingdom?”
“Not the previous secret realm,” Gu Baiying looked around: “At least what Zi Luo entered ten years ago wasn’t this secret realm.”
“I understand,” Zanxing looked at him: “You mean this is a secret realm within a secret realm?”
The immortal cultivation path was long and full of strange phenomena. A mustard seed could contain Mount Sumeru, and there could be a world within a dewdrop. Hidden spatial realms, undiscovered by others within secret realms, weren’t unique.
“So we found a great opportunity that others haven’t found?” Zanxing asked: “What’s in here? Cultivation techniques, secret manuals, spirit artifacts, or simply some great master living in seclusion here?”
Gu Baiying was silent for a moment, then said, “I told you, some opportunities aren’t something everyone can bear.” He extended his hand, the silver spear appearing in his palm. Gu Baiying gripped Xiugu tightly, then said to Zanxing again: “Hold your staff ready. No one can say what’s in here.”
Zanxing: “Alright.”
In the secret realm, the dangers hidden beneath the calm undercurrents—Zanxing had just witnessed them. With the Golden Flower Tiger as a lesson, she didn’t dare let her guard down. Gripping the Panhua Stick, she followed Gu Baiying forward.
Along the way, they encountered no dangers, no fierce beasts, no strange plants, and no people.
This place seemed like an uninhabited paradise, quietly beautiful on its own.
They didn’t know how long they walked until they reached near that mountain, at the end of the river. Gu Baiying’s footsteps suddenly stopped. Zanxing asked: “What’s wrong?”
Gu Baiying extended his hand, probing forward: “There’s a barrier.”
Hearing this, Zanxing thought for a moment, gripped the Panhua Stick horizontally, and suddenly swung it forward. The rolling wind in the air ahead seemed to hit an invisible, intangible light screen, violently bouncing her staff back.
It was indeed a barrier.
She raised her head, looking at the blue-gray mountain in front of them: “It seems this is the end.”
This mountain looked quite different from Wudong Mountain. Wudong Mountain was entirely covered with dense forest, but this mountain appeared very barren. At a glance, there weren’t many trees or birds and beasts, just bare blue-gray large stones. However, it was extremely high and steep, and impossible to see the top at a glance.
“Who set up this barrier?” Zanxing looked around suspiciously: “There doesn’t seem to be anyone else here.”
Gu Baiying shook his head, trying to sweep around with his Xiugu spear, discovering that with this stone mountain as the boundary, it was all a barrier. People inside couldn’t get out, and outsiders couldn’t get in either.
He withdrew his spear and looked toward the other direction: “Let’s try that way.”
Zanxing had no objections.
Walking along the mountain foot for half an incense stick’s time, Mimi was already tired and kept pouncing toward Zanxing, trying to get back into the Qiankun Bag. Zanxing tightened the bag to make the cat exercise more for weight loss. Just as she was fighting with Mimi over the Qiankun Bag, Gu Baiying, who was walking ahead, suddenly stopped.
Zanxing followed his gaze.
At the foot of the mountain in the boundless wilderness, a giant tree grew quietly. This tree had a very thick trunk and dense canopy, but it was different from the Dragon Tooth Tree on Wudong Mountain. The Dragon Tooth Tree’s branches were chaotic, growing wildly, savagely, and roughly. Although this tree was dense, it looked exceptionally gentle. From afar, it was like a mass of warm emerald cloud, hanging heavily at the treetop.
In any case, in this wilderness, something different had finally appeared.
Zanxing was also happy and walked closer with Gu Baiying until they reached the giant tree.
This tree of unknown species wasn’t flowering. Its trunk showed a mottled deep brown color, and sunlight filtered through the gaps between branches and leaves like scattered gold flashing. Zanxing reached out to touch the bark—it had a rough, slightly moist texture.
Mimi suddenly let out an “aouu” and ran forward. Zanxing turned her head and saw that about several dozen meters from this giant tree, there was a circle of fencing.
Fencing? Someone lived here? Zanxing exchanged glances with Gu Baiying, and both followed.
In the wilderness, a fence had indeed appeared, and not only that, enclosed within the fence was also a thatched cottage.
This thatched cottage wasn’t large either, with mud-rammed walls and a layer of grass and mud covering the roof. It looked somewhat worn. The grass in the yard had all been pulled up, probably regularly cleaned, and looked very tidy. Zanxing stood outside the fence and called out first: “Is anyone there?”
No one answered.
Just as she was about to call again, Gu Baiying had already walked straight in.
Zanxing: “…”
Mimi happily followed at Gu Baiying’s heels.
Pushing open the door of the thatched cottage, there wasn’t a single person inside.
This thatched cottage looked small from the outside, but inside it was quite spacious. It was divided into two inner rooms and one outer hall. The larger inner room only had a wooden bed-like frame. This wooden bed looked square and angular. Zanxing reached out to touch the corner of the bed and immediately felt its sharpness, suspecting whether someone had just found a piece of wood and carved it out with a knife. There was no pillow or bedding on top either, just like a long bench.
Zanxing left the inner room and looked at the outer hall. On the wooden table in the outer hall were a pot, two cups, and two bowls. However, these cups and small bowls were all made of stone. Looking carefully, they had crooked little pits on them; their shapes really couldn’t be called regular, like someone had hammered them out by hand with pure manual work.
She saw that Gu Baiying had gone to the other inner room and hadn’t come out for a long time. Thinking Gu Baiying had made a discovery, she followed him in. Upon entering, she immediately felt this inner room was particularly different.
The previous room, though large and spacious, had nothing except for a piece of wood that was unclear whether it was a bed or a bench. This room was half the size of that room, but much richer. Against the wall, there was still a wooden bed, but this bed was much narrower than the previous one, and it even had a wooden pillow. The bed was also covered with a grass-woven mattress, so at least sitting down wouldn’t be so hard on the rear end.