Chen Shi gazed at the large black serpent, which looked like a sculpture, with awe in his heart.
The serpent's mindset and state of being had surpassed that of ordinary people, reaching a level that even top cultivators found hard to attain.
Granny Sha led him deeper into Heavenly Yang Mountain.
"Granny Sha, do you think Heavenly Yang Mountain has a spirit too?" Chen Shi asked. "If it does, how big would it be, and what would it look like?"
Granny Sha thought for a moment, then shook her head. "Maybe it does, but I've never seen it."
They crossed a mountain stream, where a young girl, the spirit of the stream, was washing her hair. She was beautiful and lively, and greeted Chen Shi and Granny Sha.
Granny Sha gave the girl a comb, which made her very happy. She thanked them, and the water in the stream became much calmer.
They passed through a forest filled with many spiritual herbs that had been growing for countless years. Many naked children, not even a foot tall, ran around under the trees. When they saw the visitors, they hid behind the trees, peeking out curiously.
Granny Sha opened the cloth covering her basket and grabbed a handful of candies. The little children came running out, babbling and reaching out their chubby, white hands for the sweets.
This was the mountain.
Chen Shi had seen the Heavenly Yang Mountain near Yellow Slope Village, where spirit realms appeared one after another, mysterious and unpredictable.
But this part of Heavenly Yang Mountain showed him a different side.
The mountains were magnificent, filling him with awe.
After this journey, he felt the world was so beautiful, and his heart was open and vast enough to embrace the mountains and everything in them.
After a long walk, they finally reached their destination.
An ancient, weathered temple appeared before Chen Shi. In front of the temple was a mountain gate, half of which had collapsed.
The two of them stood before the gate, where broken bricks and tiles lay scattered. The gate's lintel had also fallen, lying to one side. Chen Shi moved the stones and cleared the dirt, barely making out the words "Mountain Lord."
"This is... the Mountain Lord Temple!"
Chen Shi looked around. The temple had a main hall and two side halls, but the side halls had collapsed and no longer existed. The main hall still stood.
Tall trees intertwined in the ruined courtyard, their large canopies completely covering the temple, blocking out the sunlight.
Even without sunlight, the place didn't feel cold; the temperature was quite comfortable.
Under the trees was an incense burner missing a leg, about ten feet long, five feet high, and three feet wide, resembling a large rectangular cauldron. It was filled with incense ash, suggesting that it had been a place of flourishing worship in the past.
The air seemed to carry a strange power, which Chen Shi tried to sense, but it vanished.
"Extraordinary power!"
He suddenly realized that this mysterious, elusive power was the incense qi, forming an extraordinary force that could give spirits like his godmother in the village magical abilities.
Oddly, the extraordinary power in this ancient temple was in a free state, not concentrated.
Chen Shi sensed carefully and discovered that the extraordinary power was emanating from the incense burner.
"In the past, the incense offerings here were so abundant that the burner accumulated a lot of extraordinary power. Even after the temple fell into ruin, there's still power left. Strange, why hasn't it dissipated?" he wondered.
Granny Sha stepped forward and placed three sticks of incense in the burner.
But the extraordinary power from these incense sticks quickly dispersed into the air.
"The power here is too strong!" Granny Sha looked around in amazement.
Chen Shi entered the main hall, where the extraordinary power was even thicker than outside.
The last time he encountered an abandoned mountain temple, it didn't have such a dense extraordinary power.
Inside the hall was another incense burner, also large, with piled-up ash.
Chen Shi looked around and saw stone dragons coiled around the pillars and traces of door guardian figures on the doors, though they were blurred.
The roof was decorated with blue porcelain tiles, painted with mythological stories, though it was hard to make out what they depicted.
The front hall had a long beam over two yards long, vermilion red with gold-painted dragons.
In the main hall, the roof was a dazzling gold, with a central dome painted with the Eight Trigrams, surrounded by cloud patterns.
Facing the dome was a towering shrine, two to three yards high, showing how grand the deity once worshipped here must have been.
However, the shrine was now empty, with no deity statue.
The temple was deserted.
"With such dense extraordinary power, the Mountain Lord who lived here must have been very powerful. But why did this place fall into ruin?" Chen Shi was puzzled.
Granny Sha explained, "This temple, and even this mountain, didn't exist before. It appeared overnight. There was a big earthquake at Heavenly Yang Mountain, collapsing houses and breaking trees, causing many deaths. The next day, I found a new mountain peak here. But at that time, I was busy saving people in the countryside and couldn't come to check. I came a few times later but found nothing unusual."
Chen Shi was intrigued. The Mountain Lord Temple also emerged from the ground suddenly?
He stepped outside and looked up at the sky. The large tree's branches and leaves perfectly blocked all sunlight.
Standing in the temple, they couldn't see the sun, and the sun couldn't see the temple!
It was incredible.
The temple seemed to be deliberately avoiding the gaze of the Heavenly True God!
"Can you cultivate here?" Granny Sha asked.
Chen Shi tried to activate the Three Lights True Qi Technique, and starlight poured in, along with sunlight and moonlight from another time and space. It was clear he could cultivate here!
Granny Sha was pleased and said with a smile, "If you can cultivate, then I am relieved. After the adventure yesterday, if I couldn't repay you, I'd feel ashamed. You cultivate here, and I'll help you tidy up."
Chen Shi shook his head. "Granny, you can go back. I can cultivate and tidy up at the same time."
While practicing the Three Lights True Qi Technique, he began to clean the main hall.
Granny Sha laughed, "Then I'll head back and bring you lunch at noon."
Chen Shi felt a bit guilty and was about to tell her not to bother, but Granny Sha had already left, so he let it be.
He spent the whole morning cleaning the main hall. By noon, Granny Sha indeed brought lunch, three dishes and a soup, much tastier than the food at Old Chen's house.
Chen Shi was deeply grateful and ate heartily.
Granny Sha watched him with joy, as if looking at her own son.
In the afternoon, Chen Shi repaired the damaged parts of the main hall. The hall was now barely habitable. Thanks to the tree canopy's cover, the roof hadn't been damaged, so there was no need for a roofer, just some areas needed painting.
"I won't stay here overnight today. I'll head back and bring some whitewash tomorrow to paint the walls."
Chen Shi looked around and thought, "The doors and windows also need thick paper coverings. If sunlight shines through from inside, this temple might not last. The two collapsed side halls need clearing too, and the courtyard needs tidying."
He left the Mountain Lord Temple and retraced his steps.
On the way, he saw the children playing in the forest again. As the sky darkened, they became lazy, each rooting themselves under a tree, burying their bodies and leaving only their heads out, curiously watching Chen Shi.
He met the stream spirit girl again, who shyly peeked at him.
Chen Shi crossed a large mountain, where the black serpent still coiled around the peak, motionless like a wooden sculpture.
He greeted Granny Zhuang by the big tree and passed through.
Before long, he safely returned home. His grandfather had already prepared dinner, and as night fell, the moon slowly opened its eyes, illuminating the earth.
The next day, Chen Shi bought some incense sticks and snacks, packed them in his book box, and set out again.
He went to Hillock Village, greeted Granny Sha, then entered the mountain, offering incense to Granny Zhuang under the big tree. He also lit incense for the black serpent blocking the path and gave the stream spirit girl a bronze mirror. From his book box, he took out some pinwheels and snacks for the children in the forest.
As he walked, he became familiar with these wonderful spirits, then entered the Mountain Lord Temple.
Chen Shi spent five days cleaning the temple inside and out.
While he worked, the children would come to help move bricks and tiles, and the stream spirit girl would bring water to wash away the dirt.
If Chen Shi lost track of time while working, the enormous black serpent would come to the temple at night to guard it, protecting Chen Shi from evil spirits.
They got along very well.
In the courtyard was a release pond, which Chen Shi cleaned. Inside, he found a large turtle shell, like a small boat.
"I wonder how long this turtle lived, but sadly it couldn't survive the years."
Chen Shi cleaned the shell, tapping it to find it hard as iron. When he punched it, it emitted a shimmering light, dispersing his force.
"This seems like a good find."
Chen Shi dragged the shell into the main hall, thinking, "Maybe I can sell it for a good price. I'll save it for my grandfather's retirement, so he won't have to sell talismans anymore."
While clearing the side halls, he found a stone box among the rubble. It was square, with visible seams, but he couldn't open it.
He didn't know what kind of stone it was, but even after hitting it a few times, it remained unscathed, without a scratch.
"I wonder what's inside? Maybe a treasure, or maybe someone carved a stone box to trick fools."
He set the stone box aside, not giving it much thought.
Now that everything was in order, he could finally focus on cultivating.
Chen Shi placed a few incense sticks in the burner, and the air was filled with the strange extraordinary power. Over the past few days, he hadn't forgotten to offer incense, and the power here grew thicker.
With his arrival, the extraordinary power became more lively.
What puzzled Chen Shi the most was that the extraordinary power in the temple didn't dissipate. Normally, without a master, such power would quickly fade, but here it only accumulated.
During this cultivation session, he unknowingly entered a mysterious state, forgetting the passage of day and night.
He didn't know how long had passed when he awoke. After several days of Northern Dipper refinement, his organs felt as strong as steel, and his breathing was long and deep.
His blood flowed like lead and mercury through his veins, holding immense energy.
Blood like lead and mercury, body like iron!
This was a sign of changing true blood, the first step to forming the Sacred Fetus Body in the Three Lights True Qi Technique!
In just a few days of cultivation at the Mountain Lord Temple, he achieved such progress, an astonishing speed!
"Huh?"
Chen Shi opened his eyes in surprise, finding the main hall filled with warm, golden sunlight, gentle yet radiant!
This sunlight was the same as what he saw in the ruined temple, coming from another time and space!
He followed the sunlight and saw the sun of another world.
The sun was in the east, just rising over the horizon.
He finally understood what it meant for the sun to rise!
He gazed greedily at the slowly rising sun, filled with excitement.
A sudden thought crossed Chen Shi's mind: "Can I pass through this light and reach another world?"