The winds blew across the mountains Bai Yunfei stood upon. Enjoying the breeze as it blew across the face, Bai Yunfei thought hard about what he should do next about this situation.
He was lost, there was no doubt about it. If he could make a few landmarks along the way through, Bai Yunfei should probably be able to make his way back to the others…
And if by chance he did get lost, the others would probably be able to tell from the landmarks where Bai Yunfei was going and find him…
“Alright, let’s try that then!” Bai Yunfei clapped his hands together and looked around the place once again.
A sudden thought struck him. The goal of the villagers coming out this far wasn’t to try and find the lost Bai Yunfei, but to find the materials needed to make another elixir. This was a place none of the villagers had ever gone before. Wouldn’t they be able to find these materials here then?
That got Bai Yunfei looking for these materials as well. His eyes scanned every blade of grass they saw. Inch by inch, the scenery around him was closely investigated until…
“No way?!”
His eyes came to an abrupt stop onto a patch of grass thirty paces away from him. Striding over to it and squatting down, Bai Yunfei parted the blades of grass to take a look at a strange white herb behind it.
This particular herb had three stems and was shaped like chopsticks. They were white in color with equally-spaced ‘segments’. It kind of looked like…the bones of a skeleton.
Bai Yunfei thought back to the briefing elder Zhong gave them all before they made their trek to the mountains. According to the elder, the most important ingredient to make the elixir was something shaped like the herb in front of him.
Was his ‘luck’ really that good!?
Any emotions Bai Yunfei had about being lost was blown away as elation filled him!
“Getting lost was…this was worth it!! If getting lost is what it takes to get some joint grass, then I’m definitely not unlucky! This is good luck!”
Bai Yunfei’s head looked left and right in hopes of even more of this small grass. He could see four separate stalks there, but nothing else. Picking the four, he carefully placed them into a small sack tied around his chest.
He heard from the villagers once before that their last scavenging trip only netted them two stalks of joint grass after scavenging for days. In a single day, however, Bai Yunfei was able to find four of them. There was no way this wouldn’t be considered a ‘good’ contribution to the village…
“That’s good, I just need to wait and meet up with Stone and the others, then we can hurry up ba—”
A strange sound from the mountain behind him caught his attention.
“Crackle…crackle…”
Then he heard something else—the sound of the mountain cracking!”
“Hold on…oh no! Lao Sha!!”
He was skeptical about what that sound could’ve been at first. But as he listened, Bai Yunfei began to realize something terrible…
This sound was coming deep within the hole Lao Sha was digging in!
“Rumble…boom!!”
No sooner did he cry out for Lao Sha did the cave the dog was in start to rumble and the ground beneath his feet start to quiver. All Bai Yunfei could do was watch as the cave Lao Sha was in start to…collapse!
“Lao Sha!!”
Bai Yunfei’s face went white. He was already running for the crumbling cave as he screamed out for the dog…
A small gray shadow flew out from the interior of the crumbling cave. Moving as if unable to see, the shadow stumbled over the rocks and dirt as it made its way over to Bai Yunfei. Upon getting close enough to him, the shadow paused and started to shake its entire body as if to shake off the dirt on it.
“Phew…” All of the anxiety in Bai Yunfei’s body drained away like water down a drain. He didn’t know if he should laugh out of relief or cry from the heavy shock he was experiencing just a second ago. Rather than do either, he simply took out a canteen filled with water to wash off the dusty Lao Sha’s face and eyes so it could see.
“You…you really were trying to dig through the mountain, weren’t you! The mountain nearly collapsed on you…” Bai Yunfei laughed as he patted the dog’s head.
“Woof?” Staring innocently at Bai Yunfei, Lao Sha turned around to trot back to the collapsed cave. Its tail was wagging with excitement as if the dog was pleased with its handiwork.
Bai Yunfei noticed then that the cave Lao Sha dug out from was seemingly hiding something to it. Aside from the plumage of smoke coming up from it, Bai Yunfei noticed that a corridor leading deeper into the mountain was now in full sight.
The way Lao Sha was impatiently trotting for this corridor made Bai Yunfei feel confused, but he decided to follow after the dog.
The corridor was a naturally-forming one and still had plenty of stalactites hanging from its ceiling. Moss was growing everywhere as Bai Yunfei expected from such a place, but there was something about this corridor that Bai Yunfei didn’t expect. There was a faint glow of light coming from the heart of the mountain’s belly and deeper in the corridor. Bai Yunfei reckoned that he’d probably be able to reach the center of the mountain’s belly if he were to head another hundred meters.
Then when he turned the corner…
He entered a cavern far more spacious than he thought. It was completely illuminated by an orange-yellow light that seemed to originate from everywhere. Even the ground! This entire cavern was being illuminated by glowing rocks!
A strange energy seemed to fill this entire cavern. It wasn’t just the light. To Bai Yunfei, this energy seemed to feel almost comfortable to him.
“What…is this?”
He muttered to himself. A memory of some kind seemed to be aching to be released in his mind.
If a soul cultivator was here, they would’ve known what this place was. A vein of primal stones!
Perhaps ‘vein’ was the wrong noun to use. This was the belly of a mountain and not a vein. This place was…a mountain of primal stones!
A mountain made from earth-type primal stones!
And judging from the amount of rich energy radiating from each of the stones, the majority of these stones were probably of the high-quality tier!
A veritable mountain of treasure!
An entire middling school would’ve been able to have all their students train without any problems with the number of primal stones here! It might not be worth much to a Soul King, but a group of Soul Exalts definitely would’ve been ecstatic!
The Bai Yunfei of before would’ve been ecstatic too, had he been here. But the amnesiac that was Bai Yunfei right now didn’t know what else to do but just stare blankly at this place…
Unsure of what it was he was looking at, Bai Yunfei glanced over to Lao Sha. Then his jaw dropped open when he saw….
Lao Sha was looking at these primal stones like a cat who had perhaps seen a fish. Its eyes were practically shining brighter than the stones themselves! It pounced onto a nearby stone the size of a goose egg and then…swallowed the stone whole!
“Lao Sha, what are you doing?!”
Bai Yunfei cried out, but the dog wasn’t listening to him. Lao Sha looked almost at peace here and was trying to eat its fill.
One stone became two, and two became three, but no matter how many stones the dog ate, Bai Yunfei was still speechless.
Lao Sha wasn’t hesitating in the slightest to eat the primal stones here. It hadn’t ‘eaten’ at all for many days now and was practically dying of ‘starvation’. If its owner wasn’t giving it any food, then it’d find its own meals. Who knew it would’ve come across such a happy place like this where it’d be able to eat until it was full like this?
The hunger Lao Sha had was far too great for the dog to restrain itself. The light in its eyes only grew brighter the longer it looked around itself. There were too many things to eat here! Who knew how long this place would be able to sustain it…
Then Lao Sha’s eyes fell upon the center of the cavern, and its eyes grew wide. Like a starved ghoul who’s eyes had first fallen onto a tiny morsel of food to a plump piece of meat, Lao Sha’s entire body began to quiver with excitement!
There was a hole at the center of this cave. It wasn’t very large of a hole, and it was more shallow than it was wide. But a pool of liquid occupied that hole. A pool of liquid that was transparent and shined softly with an orange light…