Initial Path

They lay on the grass with blank stares, watching the early morning sky gradually transition from pitch black to dark blue, and then slowly turn pale white.

Nourished by the spiritual vein close at hand, the crowd finally recovered from their state of physical and mental exhaustion and numbness.

It had to be said that this kind of work was truly a test of one's endurance.

They couldn't even imagine how much manpower, material resources, and time it would take if mortals were to do such a thing.

But when everyone turned their heads and looked at the distant high mountain under the gradually brightening sky, seeing the winding yet neat stone steps faintly visible among the trees, they suddenly felt a deep sense of satisfaction in their hearts.

This was the result of their painstaking efforts.

In the future, when this mountain peak was fully developed, everyone in their sect would be able to travel back and forth along this mountain path every day.

Near the mountain path were the terraced fields that Lin Xiao had created earlier.

Because of the array formations in the spiritual fields, they still looked like lush and thriving fields at this moment.

From a distance, it was truly a beautiful scene where nature and human effort harmoniously intertwined.

Little Luan and Tuantuan, one chicken and one cat, respectively controlled a few large banana leaves to fan the crowd and cool them down as a token gesture.

Because on normal days, they often saw the elderly folks holding cattail leaf fans under the shade of the trees doing the exact same thing.

So they just copied what they saw.

Meanwhile, because Da Tao's cultivation was too low to control objects like that for the time being, it hustled on its short little legs, running back and forth around the crowd to blow air on everyone one by one.

Sun Yigao also came up to help after finishing his classes in the afternoon. Now, he too was lying among the crowd, enjoying this moment of peace and comfort.

Originally, it wasn't time for classes to start yet.

However, he couldn't resist the students' requests to start classes earlier when they came to give him New Year gifts a few days ago.

Therefore, he had no choice but to start classes a few days early, only giving them a day off on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

Today happened to be the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

Which was the day off for Sun Yigao's private school.

After today, Qin Jianghe would be taking Mother Qin and Tietou's Mother back to Songyang County.

When the sky was fully bright, the crowd finally felt they had rested and relaxed enough, and they sat up from the ground one after another.

Liao Pantu admired the mountain path winding through the trees along the distant cliff.

In his more than five hundred years of cultivation, this was the very first time he had personally built something bit by bit with his own hands.

In the past, the items in his cave dwelling were basically all bought.

Many basic structures in the sect had also already been built by the time he joined.

For over five hundred years, he was either cultivating or amassing wealth by treasure hunting in various secret realms and trading goods.

Back then, it was precisely because of this that he formed a grudge with Yin Xuanzi.

Once, when Liao Pantu was still in the Golden Core realm, the two of them entered a secret realm together and got separated.

Later, in a certain location, Liao Pantu mistakenly took a highly cherished treasure that Yin Xuanzi had left there to anchor an array, assuming it was ownerless, and even sold it.

It was said to be an item left to Yin Xuanzi by his deceased wife.

Because of this, Yin Xuanzi, who was preparing to break through in the secret realm at the time, almost suffered qi deviation.

The first thing he did upon coming out was to search for the whereabouts of that treasure.

However, the black market Liao Pantu had used was simply too reliable; the buyer's information and traces were completely untraceable.

Thus, Yin Xuanzi began his long journey of hunting down Liao Pantu.

With all the back-and-forth clashes, the feud between the two grew deeper and deeper.

Because they were from the same sect and had taken a heavenly oath never to kill a fellow disciple, Yin Xuanzi, in order to punish Liao Pantu whose strength was equal to his at the time, worked hard to improve his cultivation and laid out various schemes.

At that time, Liao Pantu was over a hundred and sixty years old, while Yin Xuanzi was already over three hundred. Originally having no hope of advancing to the Nascent Soul realm, Yin Xuanzi stubbornly relied on his obsession to vent his anger. After taking many life-extending pills, he managed to break through to the Nascent Soul realm within his lifetime.

As a result, just when he was about to go make trouble for Liao Pantu, Liao Pantu also went into seclusion to attempt breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm.

Liao Pantu didn't want his cultivation life delayed by Yin Xuanzi's harassment, so he avoided him as much as possible.

The two of them interacted like a cat playing with a mouse, occasionally going into seclusion.

But Yin Xuanzi did not give up.

Finally, heaven rewarded the persistent.

More than three hundred years later.

Once, Liao Pantu heard that a long-lost pill recipe had appeared somewhere, so he went to look for it. Ultimately, he fell into the inescapable net Yin Xuanzi had set up for him, and then his soul was extracted and divided.

Whenever he thought about this matter, Liao Pantu couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

How was he supposed to know that the item carelessly left on the ground was placed there by that fool Yin Xuanzi? It wasn't like his name was carved on it.

Besides, that guy was usually extremely stingy. He could never bear to take out any of his treasures for him to even glance at. Who the hell would know that a random item encountered in a secret realm belonged to him?

The past was unbearable to look back on.

Liao Pantu withdrew his thoughts, looked at the distant mountain path, thought for a moment, and took out a large stone that looked as if it had been polished by hand for decades.

Its shape was somewhat irregular, yet it possessed an indescribable aesthetic appeal.

Its surface was as smooth as water.

Liao Pantu carried this large stone to the front of the mountain path and heavily set it down beside the path, sinking it three inches into the ground.

Then he turned his head and shouted toward the small mountain spring spiritual vein:

"Sect Master! Come over and name it!"

Seeing this, Lin Xiao hurried over. Looking at the beautiful large stone in front of him, he asked:

"Senior Liao, this stone must not be an ordinary item, right?"

Liao Pantu waved his hand and said:

"This stone is called a Mountain Suppressing Stone. It can consolidate the mountain structure to prevent landslides or unstable foundations. It's not of much great use, so no need to be polite with me. Hurry up, think of a name, and I'll write it."

It wasn't that Liao Pantu was overstepping his bounds, but rather because the three characters for Lingxian Sect on the stone stele next to the thatched hut at the sect's entrance were truly hard to describe. This made him very reluctant to let his Mountain Suppressing Stone be an eyesore due to Lin Xiao's handwriting.

However, he didn't know that those characters were not written by Lin Xiao, but upgraded according to the improvement of the sect's construction level.

The characters were actually considered decent now. If it were the initial thatched hut, the crooked handwriting would have been even more unbearable to look at.

Regarding this, Lin Xiao didn't have much of an opinion.

He had seen Senior Liao's handwriting before; it was exceedingly good, giving off an overwhelming sense of grandeur and majesty.

Having him write the inscription would indeed be very prestigious.

At this time, the others resting by the small mountain spring spiritual vein also hurried over to watch, marveling endlessly at the Mountain Suppressing Stone.

Looking up at this mountain path built by all of their hands, Lin Xiao pondered for a moment and then said to him:

"How about calling it First Path?"

Hearing this, Liao Pantu nodded and said:

"Not bad, concise enough. Are you sure?"

Lin Xiao then asked the crowd:

"Does anyone have any thoughts or opinions?"

Everyone shook their heads one after another.

"No objections, it's fine as long as you decide on the name, Brother Xiao."

"Right, right, whatever name it is, you have the final say, Brother Xiao."

"A name chosen by the Sect Master is naturally good."

...

Everyone chimed in one after another, all supporting Lin Xiao's choice of name.

Seeing this, Liao Pantu drew the peach wood sword issued to him by the sect. Condensing Qi onto the blade, his movements blurred into afterimages. Yet, in the eyes of the onlookers, he appeared to move with profound slowness as he leisurely carved the two characters for 'Initial Path' into the mountain-suppressing stone.