"Such a big living person, and you didn't see her?"
Zhang Fan froze on the spot, looking at Li Yishan with suspicion, his brows creased into the shape of the "川" character.
"How could I not see a beautiful woman? Weren't there just the two of us?" Li Yishan stared at Zhang Fan oddly.
"Are you too stressed and seeing things?"
As he spoke, Li Yishan waved his hand in front of Zhang Fan's eyes.
"No… when you stood up, didn't you avoid her?" Zhang Fan grabbed onto the details, his voice urgent.
"I was avoiding the pillar."
"Don't joke around."
Zhang Fan's face darkened a little, the image of that black-clothed girl flashing through his mind.
"You're the one joking… break up and you lose it?"
Li Yishan shot him a look, then threw an arm around Zhang Fan's shoulders.
"You're single now… you should be focusing on making money… buy a car, buy a house… at the very least, get yourself one of those four rings…"
As he spoke, Li Yishan's face showed a meaningful smile: "Ever heard the saying?"
"Young and successful, buy an Audi, and salespeople end up earning your pants!"
"..."
"Why should a grown man worry about having no wife?"
"You really didn't see her?"
"Alright, this is Zhenwu Mountain, don't joke around… The tour bus's leaving soon, the next spot is another ten-plus kilometers away."
Before the words were finished, Li Yishan was already dragging Zhang Fan toward the sightseeing bus.
The mountain road was rugged, ancient lush trees whisking past outside the window.
All the way, Zhang Fan stayed silent, with nothing but that black-clothed girl on his mind.
How could anyone not see such a big living person?
Maybe the hall was too dim, incense swirling everywhere—did he really just missee her?
"Hey, do you think she could be a Fox Immortal?" Zhang Fan muttered.
"Knock it off with the old superstitions… And seriously, what novel or TV show have you seen where a Fox Immortal dares to run into a Daoist Temple?" Li Yishan gave him a sidelong glance, replying coolly.
"You just have too many random thoughts..."
"Observing Heart Peak is just ahead... The geomagnetic field there is different; it can purify one's soul..."
As he said this, Li Yishan leaned close to Zhang Fan's ear.
"The scenery's nice too—a lot of 'mountaineering beauties' like to take pictures there."
"Hmm!?"
"Even the Little Yellow Book says… 'Admire the mountains and waters on Observing Heart Peak, and under the celestial maiden's skirt are long, long legs!'"
"A ticket for 280, and you manage to have 1800's worth of fun."
Zhang Fan shook his head and sighed, silently praying to Emperor Zhenwu that he didn't really know this guy well.
Half an hour later, the tour bus stopped at the Observing Heart Peak gathering area.
Besides the pleasant mountain scenery, the most famous spot here was a palace and temple built hanging onto the mountainside, called Nanxuan Palace. It'd been there for over a thousand years.
"Look over there… supposedly that Peach Wood Sword was left behind by Ancestor Master Chunyang, it's more than six hundred years old now."
Leaning against the railing, you look out to a sheer cliff, and right up there on the barren rock stands a lonely wooden sword, ancient in style, faint cracks visible, marking the passage of time.
"Six hundred years of wind and rain, and it's still standing?" Zhang Fan stared intently at the wooden sword wedged in the cliff, looking quite odd.
Six hundred years… Not to mention a wooden sword, even a metal one ought to have corroded and weathered away.
"It's a 5A scenic spot… gotta have some sort of gimmick… How do you know it wasn't replaced?" Li Yishan whispered.
"Immortals are watching; you said it!" Zhang Fan, hearing this, instantly took a step away.
"..."
Climbing up the mountain, taking in the views, it really did make you feel refreshed, able to forget your troubles for a moment. No wonder in ancient times, when scholars and sages got tired of worldly worries, they loved to escape into the hills.
"Immortals don't ferry those without tribulation… Things were better in the old days—suffer enough and you'll turn into a demon, into an immortal, into a god, into a monster..."
"Nowadays, if you suffer too much, you just go mad." Li Yishan looked off into the distance, unable to help sighing.
"Huh? Look over there..."
Just then, Zhang Fan tugged at Li Yishan's sleeve, pointing ahead. In the shade, not far away, a small wooded path hid beneath the grass and trees. At the entrance, eight big words were written:
No Entry for Tourists. Passage Forbidden.
"What place is that?" Zhang Fan asked, curious.
"No idea, Zhenwu Mountain is huge; lots of areas haven't been developed, rugged paths, and tourists aren't allowed just anywhere." Li Yishan answered offhand.
"But I've heard there are a ton of Daoist Temples on the mountain—not scenic spots, never open to the public."
"Wanna go check it out?" Li Yishan suggested.
"Didn't you see what the sign said?!" Zhang Fan replied coolly.
"Just pretend you didn't!"
"Good point, let's go."
The two agreed instantly, detoured around the warning sign, and stepped over the overgrown grass onto the hidden shaded path.
The mountain trail wound on, all gravel and mud, way harder to walk than the scenic paths. To make things worse, the farther in you went, the damper and colder the air got, and you could even spot snakes slithering along the walls.
"Now I get why it's forbidden," Li Yishan regretted.
"Let's turn back; there's probably nothing to see ahead."
"There's a Daoist Temple up there..."
Just then, Zhang Fan stopped, pointed ahead.
Li Yishan came up, and sure enough, not far ahead was a Daoist Temple tucked into the wild woods, built like a pile of yellow earth, with a squat entrance, lacking the grandeur of the palace and temples in the scenic area—more poor and rundown than anything.
"Is anyone here?"
Zhang Fan and Li Yishan glanced at each other, then walked straight up.
The dilapidated temple's doors were shut fast, the rusty chains fused into a lump. Peering through the crack, you could just make out an ancient well in the courtyard, clearly abandoned for years, sealed over with stone slabs.
"This place is kinda interesting..." Li Yishan suddenly said.
"What's so interesting?" Zhang Fan didn't get it.
"Ever read Water Margin?"
"Sure, why? You thinking there are Liang Mountain heroes here?" Zhang Fan shot back.
"In the first chapter of the original Water Margin—the old TV series didn't do this—Grand Commandant Hong invited Celestial Master Zhang to the Capital City to pray away a plague, but accidentally broke the seal on the mountain's Demon Suppression Hall, dug out a stone tablet, released the 108 demon stars that had been suppressed underground by it… That's how it all started..."
As he spoke, Li Yishan glanced again at the dried-up well inside the door gap.
"I heard… a lot of famous Daoist mountains might not have a Demon Suppression Hall, but they all have an ancient well—used to hold all the demons and ghosts the Daoists caught over the ages…"
"Who knows, maybe this well is one of those..."
"Feudal superstition! Let's crawl in and have a look!?" Zhang Fan suggested.
"Gentlemen, this area isn't open to visitors."
Just then, a soft and laid-back voice came from behind.
Zhang Fan turned to look, spotting a pudgy middle-aged Daoist behind them, squinting, watching the pair.
"Uh… Well… We got lost…" Li Yishan switched gears instantly, making something up, not worried about karma at all.
"Just head back the way you came… This place hasn't been maintained for ages, the path is slippery—it's dangerous to wander in." The chubby Daoist didn't seem to mind.
"Thank you, Master… May I ask your Daoist title?" Zhang Fan nodded nervously, offering thanks.
"I'm Taoist Pojie…"
"Oh, so you're Po… Po Jie!?" Zhang Fan blurted out.
"Master, is that well inside the legendary Demon Suppression Well?"
Just then, Li Yishan came up, asking curiously.
"Hahaha..."
Pojie laughed, tilting his head back: "Feudal superstitions are useless. Religious teachings are meant to encourage goodness… Cultivating immortality and catching demons—that stuff's just in art and fiction…"
"Gentlemen, trust in science."
Zhang Fan and Li Yishan exchanged awkward looks, quickly saying goodbye to Taoist Pojie and heading back the way they'd come.
Soon, no trace of them remained on the shadowy little path.
Rumble, rumble…
Right then, a deep rumbling sound abruptly echoed from the ancient well in the temple, coupled with heavy clanking of iron chains…
Pojie arched his brow, squinted, peered through the door crack at the well. The next moment, that deep sound finally faded into silence.