Li Yan was now walking on this small path full of slender bamboo, with clouds and mist occasionally drifting by. Thinking of the helplessness that the Fragmented Poison Body had brought him more than half a year ago, and then of the pain when he had separated his meridians, he couldn't help but feel a shiver run down his spine. Shaking his head, he seemed to be trying to cast aside these unpleasant things.
He looked up at his surroundings. On the small path he was walking on, another small path would occasionally appear, slanting off to the side. This reminded him of the scene when he was looking for a place to practice immortal arts a month ago.
That day, after he had decided to look for a practice ground outside his courtyard, he had left the courtyard and walked around. But this area was all a residential area. Although the open space between the courtyards was more than a li, he could practice here, but Li Yan had no intention of doing so. After looking for a while, when he walked to the west side behind his courtyard, he found a small path leading to the top of the mountain. So he simply walked along this small path.
This was a small path that wound through a dense bamboo forest. White clouds brushed against the branches and leaves as they moved slowly. Birds would occasionally fly by in the azure sky. He walked and looked for a suitable place to practice, and at the same time, he was experiencing the quiet and ethereal atmosphere here. After walking for a while, he found another forked path. He turned at will and walked over. The forked path twisted and turned in the slender bamboo forest. Just like that, stopping and starting, after about the time it takes to brew half a cup of tea, Li Yan found himself at a dead end.
In front was an even denser interwoven slender bamboo forest. The space between the bamboos was very small, probably only a mouse from home could pass through. Looking around, the open space was not very large either. It was not suitable for practicing here. Li Yan casually shook a few slender bamboos. This was just a casual action without any meaning. He was about to turn back and find another place.
But when his hand touched a slender bamboo, he missed. His palm passed through it as if it had touched a void. He couldn't help but be stunned. He stood still, withdrew his palm, hesitated for a moment, and this time, he pressed his palm against the slender bamboo beside him. This time, he really touched something solid. So, he reached his hand towards the dense slender bamboo forest at the end of the small path again, and again he missed, as if there was nothing there.
This made Li Yan feel strange. He cautiously sent out his divine sense. When his divine sense touched that dense slender bamboo forest, he found a familiar feeling, the feeling he had when his divine sense probed the protective formation in his courtyard. It was instantly bounced back. He couldn't help but be startled.
"How is there an illusion formation here?" Although Li Yan hadn't been cultivating for long, he had read many classics on cultivation in the past half a year or so. He still knew about the types of formations.
Just as he was about to increase his divine sense to probe again, a cold voice rang out, "What are you doing here?"
This abrupt voice gave Li Yan a great fright. On his way here, apart from the birds flying in the sky between the bamboos, it was like a quiet and empty valley. Suddenly, this tranquility was broken, as if all balance had been lost.
He quickly took a few steps back and turned his head to look around. But strangely, there was no one around. Just as he was hesitating, the dense slender bamboo forest in front of him twisted like a wave, and then a tall and beautiful figure appeared from inside.
After this person came out, she stood still and looked at Li Yan coldly. Li Yan looked closely and saw that it was the short-haired, fit Sixth Senior Sister, Gong Chenying. She was wearing a tight-fitting outfit, and the curves of her body were even more prominent and fiery. Her full chest was still heaving slightly, and there were still crystal-clear beads of sweat on her sunny, healthy skin, as if she had just finished practicing.
Looking at this cold young woman who was slightly taller than him, Li Yan was stunned for a moment, then quickly cupped his hands. "Greetings, Sixth Senior Sister. I was just looking for a place to practice in the back mountain. I saw a small path and walked in. It seems I've come to the wrong place. I've disturbed you, Senior Sister. I'll leave now."
Li Yan didn't know what this place was. Could it be this cold senior sister's residence? Didn't she live in the bamboo courtyard? A few questions rose in his mind, but of course, he wouldn't ask them rashly.
Gong Chenying didn't answer after hearing this, just looked at Li Yan coldly with no expression on her face. Seeing this, Li Yan gave a wry smile, turned around, and walked in the direction he had come from.
"If there's a stone marker at the entrance of a path on this mountain, you don't need to enter. Inside are useful places or forbidden areas of Little Bamboo Peak. In addition, you can only go up for fifty li at most. After that, all the way to the top of the mountain is the largest forbidden area of Little Bamboo Peak. Apart from Master and Martial Uncles, no one else is allowed to enter. But I don't think you have the ability to enter even if you wanted to."
Just as Li Yan turned to walk back, a cold voice came from behind. Li Yan looked back in surprise, but at this moment, apart from the echoing voice, there was no one in front of the bamboo forest. A faint smile appeared at the corner of Li Yan's mouth. It seemed that this Sixth Senior Sister was not as cold as she appeared on the surface. It was just that her words were a bit hurtful.
He thought for a moment. He hadn't found any stone markers or steles before entering this small path just now. Had he overlooked them?
After about the time it takes to brew half a cup of tea, Li Yan was standing on the main road up the mountain again. He looked at a small stone standing at the entrance of a small path that slanted off to the side and couldn't help but give a wry smile. When he had just returned to this fork in the road, he had looked for the "stone marker" that his Sixth Senior Sister had mentioned. After looking around, apart from a stone about a foot high standing here, there were only scattered pebbles on the ground. This stone had no words or pictures on it. It could also be considered to be naturally formed in the mountains.
"No wonder Sixth Senior Sister didn't say 'stone stele' or something, but 'stone marker.' If she hadn't said it, I imagine no newcomer would know about it here."
Li Yan shook his head again. He couldn't understand why Little Bamboo Peak seemed to do everything in the simplest way possible, and some things were so simple that you couldn't figure them out.
Li Yan continued to walk up the mountain. On the way, he saw a few more forks in the road. Among them, three small paths also had similar stones more than a foot high beside them. And he also met many people coming and going from those three small paths. Li Yan didn't know these people. He was a little strange. The only people he hadn't seen on Little Bamboo Peak were his Third Senior Brother and Fifth Senior Brother. So many people shouldn't be the two of them. However, after seeing the symbols on the cuffs of these people, he knew that these people were not from Little Bamboo Peak. Some were from Never-Parting Peak, some were from Lord Lao Peak, and there were also some from Four Symbols Peak and Spirit Insect Peak. This made him feel a little strange. He didn't know what they were doing in these small paths they were entering and leaving. But then he thought again and gave up the idea of going in to explore. What he needed to do now was to focus on his own cultivation.
The people coming and going also saw Li Yan. Seeing Li Yan's unfamiliar face and the very weak spiritual power emanating from his body, they couldn't help but be stunned. But then they saw that Li Yan was wearing the long robe of an inner sect disciple, so he was obviously not a handyman disciple. When they noticed the golden bamboo symbol on Li Yan's cuff, they were just a little surprised and then, after a few surprised glances, they all brushed past him without talking to him.
Li Yan noticed that these people were very well-behaved. They only entered and left through the intersections with stone markers and absolutely did not go to other places. After they came out, they all flew away directly and did not stay on Little Bamboo Peak for long.
Seeing this, Li Yan muttered to himself. Seeing people coming and going here, he walked straight up. He didn't want to find a place to practice immortal arts where there were many people.
Just like that, he walked up for another seven or eight li, and he could no longer see any stone markers beside the small paths. Similarly, he didn't meet a single person here anymore. This gave him some guesses about the places those small paths led to.
So he began to seriously look for a suitable place to practice immortal arts. A quarter of an hour later, he did find a few more suitable places, but he didn't start practicing immediately, because he remembered what his Sixth Senior Sister, who had a body and expression that were opposite, had said: "You can only go up for fifty li." But now there was no one around. For this kind of thing that wouldn't attract other people's attention and could satisfy his curiosity, he might as well walk up a little.
Just like that, he wandered along the way and found a few more good places one after another, especially a platform. The platform was about a dozen zhang in size. A small path led from the forest to the platform. The platform was surrounded by a dense slender bamboo forest on three sides, and the other side was suspended in the air, extending from the mountain peak. Below it was an endless sea of clouds. In the distance, more continuous mountain peaks rose and fell, but only a few peaks could be compared with Little Bamboo Peak. Most of them only had a small mountain tip exposed in the sea of clouds. In the distant sky, clouds rolled and unfurled, making people feel refreshed. One could see all the mountains in a single glance. Li Yan liked it here very much and decided on the spot that this was the place...
Li Yan had already come down from the platform at this time and was still walking up the mountain. He looked at the small path under his feet and felt strange. Why was it that both this main road in the back mountain and the other slanting paths were only wide enough for two or three people to walk side by side? All he could see were endless stretches of small bamboo, giving people a sense of endlessness. He didn't know if it was intentional. This kind of small path made people feel as if they were the only one in the world, accompanied by the sound of the wind and the rustling of bamboo leaves, lonely and solitary.
An hour later, Li Yan looked at the small path that curved again in front and disappeared behind the repeated dense slender bamboo forest. Li Yan didn't feel annoyed. On the contrary, he rather liked the silence of this long journey. He was not a talkative person by nature, and his personality could even be said to be a little solitary.
He calculated the distance in his mind and felt that it should be about fifty li from his Sixth Senior Sister's place. But he still didn't feel any restrictions. Li Yan looked around and planned to turn around that bamboo forest. If it was still like this in front, he would go back. At this time, his heart was already beating like a drum. He was afraid that it would not be good if he really broke into some powerful restriction. After walking for so long, his curiosity was slowly being replaced by reason. But there was always that sliver of lucky curiosity that hadn't disappeared, which was what made him walk here. This could only mean that he was not an adult after all. Youth's curiosity about the unknown could often overcome reason.
Thinking this, he turned around that bamboo forest. He looked up and couldn't help but be stunned. His mind had long been occupied by the endless, repetitive bamboo forest. He subjectively thought that after turning around the bamboo forest, it would just be this small path passing through another bamboo forest and extending upwards again. But at this moment, a huge square appeared in his eyes. There was not a single dark bamboo, and it could even be said to be empty. There was only a tall stone stele standing in the middle.
This stone was not a stone marker, but a real stone stele, about three or four zhang wide and more than twenty zhang high. It had no words or pictures, but it gave people a feeling of overwhelming everything, as if it were a god looking down on all living things. Li Yan only glanced at the stone stele, and his mind was as if it had been struck by lightning. The blood in his chest churned, and the blood in his body seemed to be about to burst out. He was so scared that he quickly retreated. But as he retreated, a sweetness in his throat made him spit out several mouthfuls of blood. It wasn't until he had retreated to the corner of the bamboo forest and could no longer see the huge square that the pressure on his body disappeared completely.
Li Yan rested his hands on his knees, panting heavily, with blood still dripping from the corner of his mouth. At this moment, the huge stone stele still remained in his mind, as if it had occupied his entire mind, towering between heaven and earth. He didn't know what had happened. In his mind, there was only that stone stele and a faint small path behind the stele that extended towards the back of the mountain again.
After panting for a long while, Li Yan finally straightened up, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his hand, his face still showing a mixture of terror and mockery. He had brought this on himself. This could almost be considered suicide, right? Cultivation, cultivation... the power of immortals was unfathomable. He was just a mortal who had just seen the path of immortality. It was laughable that his Sixth Senior Sister had already reminded him, and he still deliberately came here to seek death.
From this point on, Li Yan had a true understanding of cultivation. It was the Great Dao, it was majesty, it was an unknown power.
Li Yan walked down the mountain without looking back. He had a profound understanding of his own insignificance, an ant that could be killed with a single glance. He longed for that power.
The boy had finally grown up.