Chapter 92: Mount Yishan

"Third Shixiong brother, I will be very light!"

The junior sister said to Lin Jue with a serious face.

"What do you mean? Just by relying on this little girl, you can break my perfected 'Mountain God Body-Protection Technique'?"

The burly man in hemp clothes widened his eyes.

Amidst his surprise, he also became interested.

The onlookers all around naturally did not believe it.

Several young and strong martial artists from the pugilistic world earlier, whose skills were not bad, could not break this hemp-clad man's magic. Even if these two Daoists also knew magic, firstly, her senior brother had just failed, and secondly, it was not rare for people who knew magic to be on this mountain these past few days. Half a quarter of an hour ago, a Daoist had also come to try, and he also admitted he couldn't break it, praising the hemp-clad man repeatedly.

How could this little girl possibly do it?

At this moment, the little girl had already stood in front of the hemp-clad man.

The hemp-clad man also lifted his clothes.

From the neck down, he had turned into a stone sculpture again.

"Let's agree on this first! If you can't break it, you must drink a bowl of wine. If you don't drink, you can have your senior brother drink for you!" The hemp-clad man paused, feeling inexplicably fearful in his heart, "You must have a sense of proportion..."

"I know."

The junior sister had a serious expression. She lowered her head and searched up and down on the hemp-clad man's body, finally looking at his belly.

"What are you looking for? Stop looking! Although Shao is a man of the pugilistic world, this is an orthodox Five Elements magic, not pugilistic hard qigong. As long as the spell is cast, it turns into solid stone; there is no vital point!"

"..."

The little girl did not speak, only raising her right hand.

Just when the onlookers all thought she might pull out the long sword with the paste-covered hilt that she was carrying in her other hand, she extended her right index finger and gently poked at the excess flesh on the hemp-clad man's waist.

The force was really not heavy, and the speed was also very slow.

What does this mean?

Everyone was stunned.

Could it be that she wants to tickle him to make him break his technique?

The fingertip touched the stone on his waist.

"Pa..."

A slight sound was heard!

It was like a stone cracking.

The hemp-clad man had turned into a stone sculpture from the neck down, with only his head remaining, so everyone could clearly see that the man, who had been unconcerned just a moment ago, had his expression change abruptly. His brows furrowed instantly, and a look of pain appeared on his face.

The next instant, his whole body immediately returned to flesh and blood, and he hurriedly reached out to cover his waist.

"Hiss..."

The hemp-clad man cried out in pain.

The onlookers were all dumbfounded.

They saw the burly man move his hand away and look down; his waist was already bruised, and even a little blood was faintly seeping out.

Some experienced people in the pugilistic world finally understood that what this little girl was looking for just now was not his vital weakness, but a place that wouldn't matter much even if injured.

"What kind of magic is this?"

The hemp-clad man hurriedly looked at the junior sister.

"Stone-Crushing." The junior sister answered calmly, "A magic specifically for crushing stone. What I practice is the orthodox magic of Mount Yishan."

"Stone-Crushing..."

The hemp-clad man muttered.

He felt a little afraid in his heart, but mostly he felt fortunate.

The reason he came here to let everyone try to break his magic, not hesitating to spend a bowl of wine to add to the gimmick, wasn't it to find a way to crack his own magic?

If he knew it, he would have a way to deal with it.

The pugilistic world is treacherous, and with the changes in the world, it is becoming increasingly dangerous. And this place is the Great Offering of the Yanxia Temple on Mount Mingzhou, one of the grandest festivals of Daoism. With the face of the Yanxia Temple and the gaze of the divine, the vast majority of the pugilistic people who come here have some connections and are relatively gentle in character. Even those who are usually fierce will restrain themselves when they come here. Is there any place more suitable than this to find one's own weaknesses?

If he couldn't find it here, the next time he was found, it might be in a pugilistic struggle.

"Daoist, good skills! Count me as having lost!" The hemp-clad man picked up the wine bowl beside him, drank the bowl of wine in one gulp, and then asked again, "I wonder what the mystery of this Stone-Crushing is?"

"There is no mystery, just bitter practice."

"If someone knows this method, are there any characteristics?"

"No characteristics."

"Is that so..."

The hemp-clad man sighed. Indeed, there are ten thousand magic arts in the world, all wonderful and incomparable. He then still cupped his hands: "Shao will remember this Stone-Crushing method. Thank you, two Daoists!"

"Mount Yishan, Floating Hill Temple."

The junior sister had a serious expression, reiterating it for him.

"Naturally a true temple on a famous mountain!"

The hemp-clad man hurriedly changed his words to praise.

The junior sister then nodded with satisfaction.

"See you again if fate allows."

Lin Jue smiled and returned the salute, then left with his junior sister.

In fact, how could the junior sister's skills compare to this man's? Even if the two of them practiced orthodox Yin-Yang spiritual magic, this man only practiced half a breath-nourishing method, but after more than a year, it certainly couldn't compare to his half-lifetime of bitter work. The difference in attainments in magic was even greater. It's just that the magic arts of the world are inherently mysterious, and they mutually generate and overcome each other.

By this time, the sky was almost dark, but there were still many pedestrians on the mountain, either holding candles or carrying torches, walking down the mountain, forming a long dragon of light.

The little fox took small steps to lead the way, walking toward the bamboo house. Lin Jue looked back at the crowd behind him, and then at the long dragon formed by the fire points down the mountain. For a moment, he was actually somewhat unwilling to return.

Isn't this also a kind of grand gathering?

Lin Jue sighed like this. He turned his head to look, only to see the junior sister also walking while her eyes flickered, as if lost in thought.

"What is junior sister thinking about?"

"Hmm?"

"What are you thinking about?"

"I'm thinking, if only we could meet that stone ghost now. The stone monster that blocked our way at night on the road to Small River Village."

"Yes..."

Returning to the bamboo house, they pushed the door open and lit an oil lamp. The third senior brother was sitting cross-legged in front of the desk, with three coarse bowls placed in front of him. Two bowls were filled with rice and vegetables, and the other bowl was already empty.

"Eat."

The third senior brother didn't even open his eyes: "The food sent by the Smoke Glow Temple one after another is still edible."

The two of them sat over.

By the candlelight, it was a bowl of white rice, topped with some vegetarian dishes. The variety was quite a lot: boiled tofu, roasted dried bamboo shoots, stir-fried green vegetables, braised melon of some kind, and also pickled vegetables and fermented soybeans. The rice underneath was also the standard steamed rice for village banquets, with every grain distinct. All the vegetable juices had seeped into the rice. Although it was cold, the taste was still okay.

It was countless times better than the food at Floating Hill Temple before.

Is this just "edible"?

Lin Jue thought while shoveling rice.

"Put the bowls outside after eating. They said someone would come to collect them in the morning." The third senior brother lay back and said idly, "Tsk, you say some people, are their brains broken? They are already cultivating the Dao and still eat vegetarian. They aren't monks. It makes all our guests have no meat to eat."

"Why do you care about others."

"Sigh..."

The bamboo house was full of the clinking sounds of shoveling rice.

Although this kind of food was simple, it was very comfortable to eat, and it was eaten very quickly. In a few moments, the bowls were empty.

After a while, the three of them lay down separately.

"Want to eat flat noodles..."

The junior sister's voice came from the room on the left.

The third senior brother immediately agreed again.

Lin Jue couldn't be bothered to pay attention to them.

"Hoo..."

A gust of clear wind blew out the oil lamp.

Wooden bed, bamboo mat, the temperature was slightly cool, so there was no need to cover anything. Just lie down and sleep without taking off clothes.

The next morning.

There was a flat piece of land on the mountain, between the bamboo forest and the scattered stones. The ground was paved with old bluestone slabs, and there was a pavilion on the edge.

The mountain path led to this place.

Quite a few people had gathered here at this time.

Most of them were Daoists, and it was unknown whether they had any cultivation, or what they were learning. In short, they were all wearing Daoist robes. Most of these Daoists were sitting cross-legged on the ground, eyes closed in cultivation, with some medicinal herbs and ancient objects placed in front of them.

The two people and one fox followed the third senior brother as they walked past.

Lin Jue couldn't recognize these ancient objects, but looking at them, most of them only had some spiritual charm and couldn't be called powerful magic tools. They were probably objects that had been on the altar for a long time, or had been used for a long time, and had developed spiritual charm or were stained with spiritual energy. Not many could compare to the long sword that the pugilistic man showed off yesterday.

Lin Jue did recognize the medicinal herbs.

Most of them were just some rare medicinal herbs that had grown for years. Those with spiritual charm were very rare, far from being comparable to the heavenly treasures of Mount Yishan.

The level of most of these Daoists should not be high either.

Thinking about it, it was reasonable—

Nowadays, the Spiritual Magic Sect and the Pill Cauldron Sect are weak. Most of the Daoists of the Spiritual Magic Sect seek freedom, and the Daoists of the Pill Cauldron Sect are hidden in the deep mountains. Not to mention the True Immortals of the two sects, even Daoists with high cultivation have their own things to do. How could they casually come to stroll at this Great Offering of the Talisman Sect?

Daoist temples like Floating Hill Temple, which has an orthodox inheritance and relies on Mount Yishan, should be considered very rare.

How many Mount Yishans are there in the world?

And how many Floating Hill Temples are there?

One can only sigh that the Spiritual Magic Sect is weak, so much so that the legends among the people about high-ranking people who walk the world and know magic are becoming fewer and fewer. Sometimes seeing such a person is as rare as seeing an immortal.

Soon, the three of them also found a place to sit down.

They sat on cattail cushions, with two bamboo mats placed in front of them.

The third senior brother sat alone behind one bamboo mat. On the bamboo mat were casually placed some spiritual pills refined in the temple and many heavenly treasures that the brothers had picked in Mount Yishan but couldn't use. He sat there on his own, took out his wine gourd to drink freely, looking extremely leisurely.

Lin Jue and the other shared a bamboo mat.

There was only one thing on the bamboo mat.

It was the leaves of that pill fruit tree.

Although there were two people and one fox, they were divided into three piles in a decent manner, each pile having only ten or twenty leaves. The two sat cross-legged, and the fox also sat upright.

The weather here was better than on Mount Yishan. The morning light passed through the bamboo forest and hit their bodies, feeling warm.

The pugilistic martial artists, tricksters, or strange people in the pugilistic world who came here might use some spiritual and miraculous things they had collected to exchange for money, but Lin Jue and the others naturally wouldn't exchange for money. As for what exactly they wanted to exchange these things for, Lin Jue could only ask the third senior brother.

"The best and most precious thing is, of course, magic."

The third senior brother lowered his head, biting the mouth of the gourd, and said vaguely:

"Besides magic, exchanging for some spiritual wood is also fine; the two of us can use it. Otherwise, exchange for some medicinal herbs or spiritual plants that are not on Mount Yishan. The second senior brother has already written me a list. We don't lack anything else."

Lin Jue nodded.

In this day and age, magic is indeed hard to come by. Many Daoist temples or pugilistic people only know one magic art, passed down from generation to generation, and they can already be considered true Daoists or strange people.

In fact, the third senior brother didn't rely on this place to exchange these things—

Although Floating Hill Temple is not big, because of the tradition of each generation of disciples going down the mountain to spread branches and leaves, it is still very famous in the Spiritual Magic Sect, far exceeding the Immortal Source Temple, which is also on Mount Yishan and has a larger scale and more disciples.

Therefore, they naturally know other famous true temples on famous mountains, but at this time, they haven't arrived yet. After they arrive, they will gather together to communicate and exchange what they have, and naturally, they will have finished exchanging.

At this time, it was just accompanying the two junior brother and sister.

They saw many legs walking past in front of them, often stopping to check carefully, but more stopped in front of the third senior brother.

The exchanges that could be reached were also very few.

It wasn't until the afternoon that a middle-aged Daoist with a beard finally came to Lin Jue and the other. He lowered his head and checked for a long time, seeming to recognize this kind of leaf, and was very interested in it.

"What kind of spiritual plant leaf is this?"

The middle-aged Daoist raised his head, as if testing the two.

"This is a leaf of the divine tree of Mount Yishan. Legend has it that it is the fruit pit left behind by an immortal who lived in seclusion on Mount Yishan. It absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and the essence of the sun and moon in the mountain, and was carefully cared for by the spirits and monsters in the mountain, which is why this unique divine tree on Mount Yishan could grow."

The junior sister said immediately, her expression serious, like reciting a textbook, because the senior brother said it like this at the very beginning. She remembered it after only saying it twice, and in this half day, she had already said it many times:

"This is the leaf of the divine tree."

"Some people in the mountain call it the Dragon Eye Tree, and some call it the Pill Fruit Tree." Lin Jue added.

The middle-aged Daoist smiled upon hearing this:

"You are from Mount Yishan?"

"Yes."

"Floating Hill Peak, Floating Hill Temple?"

"How did the Daoist know?"

"I knew Daoists who went out from Floating Hill Temple before."

"So that's how it is."

"This leaf is very rare. There shouldn't be many pill recipes that match it. It has no use, and there isn't much spiritual charm. It just happens to match the medicinal properties of the pill I want to refine. If I explore it, maybe it can be used for blending." The middle-aged Daoist looked at them, "What do you want to exchange for? You can't open your mouth like a lion. I can still look for other substitutes."

Lin Jue couldn't help but ponder.

He couldn't be sure if this person recognized this kind of leaf, but even if what he said about "the leaf just matching the medicinal properties of the pill he wants to refine and can be used for blending" was true, it probably wasn't that simple.

With medicinal herbs all over the ground, and the third senior brother also having some spiritual plants there, could it be that there were none among them that matched the medicinal properties and could be used for blending? Did he have to come to find this rare object?

However, thinking about it again, he threw away most of these thoughts.

It was a useless thing for himself, and it seemed it couldn't be exchanged here either. Getting what each needs is the best. Worrying about so much now is really annoying. It's better to see what he has first.

Lin Jue was startled when he thought of this last point.

It seems he was somewhat influenced by the third senior brother.