Extraordinary Ordinary People

This time, Lin Xiao did not manage to hear any news in the cultivation world about the secret realm where Senior Liao’s soul body was located.

However, before leaving, he had asked Yuan Bi to keep an eye out for any rumors or anecdotes about Golden Core stage secret realms—anything at all—and to pass any information along through the people their sect sent over.

Liao Pantu had no objections either.

After all, being able to recover to the Foundation Establishment stage was something he could not have imagined even a year ago.

Besides, by now, he trusted Lin Xiao.

He believed that Lin Xiao would definitely gather all the pieces of his soul body for him.

For now, though, developing the sect was the top priority. Once the sect grew stronger, how could finding his soul body still be a problem?

In just a few breaths, the ground beneath the three of them had already changed.

Because of what had happened before with Mo Yuanjiao’s father, General Mo, and to prevent Yuan Qing from being dragged off by the Heart Questioning Path the moment he landed without giving Lin Xiao a chance to explain things, Lin Xiao had deliberately chosen the spot in front of the Heart Questioning Path at the foot of North Mountain.

That way, Yuan Qing would not be snatched away by the Heart Questioning Path to have his character tested as soon as he came to his senses.

The moment he regained his bearings, he sensed how different this place was.

The spiritual energy here was actually even thinner than in Yuanling City.

Also, the earthy aura was very strong.

At the same time, the sound of reading came drifting over from not too far away.

He opened his eyes and looked around, finding that this place was completely unlike any city he had ever seen.

Instead, it bore some resemblance to the spiritual farmlands in his own home.

Only, in their spiritual farmland areas, there would not be so many mortals walking about. And over by the small stream at the foot of the mountain, there was a small courtyard where many children were studying.

Right beside them, there was also a mountain path lined with peach blossoms on both sides.

The fragrance of flowers, the sound of reading, and the faint chirping of insects came together like the warm sunlight draped over him, filling his heart with an inexplicable, leisurely comfort.

It was just past noon at this time, which was when the villagers of Xiu Shui Village and the visiting tourists would come out for a stroll after eating their fill.

However, lately, fewer and fewer tourists would actually walk all the way to the foot of North Mountain. Most of them would only take a glance from afar.

Nowadays, aside from the members of the Lingxian Sect, the only ones who regularly passed by the entrance of the Heart Questioning Path were the students of the private school down in the village.

On the stretch of road from North Mountain to the village, it was as if some sort of barrier had been set up. People would only stand far away, gazing over from beyond that line.

Even though the distance was considerable, Yuan Qing could tell that there were a great many people in the distance.

At that moment, those people were all standing far off, staring at them. When they suddenly saw the three of them appear out of thin air, they were all astonished and cried out in excitement together.

“The immortals are out! The immortals are out!”

“Ah! The immortals appeared out of nowhere!”

The tourists, and even some of the villagers of Xiu Shui Village, were extremely stirred up. They cheered and stared at Lin Xiao and the others.

But after a moment, as if something had occurred to them, they quickly withdrew their brazen gazes and changed to furtive glances.

Many other tourists and villagers in the village heard the commotion and came rushing over to watch as well.

“Oh! It’s the young master of the Lin family—I mean, the immortal!”

Someone in the crowd recognized Lin Xiao and shouted out with pride.

“Isn’t that the young master of the Jiang family—I mean, the immortal too!”

“And there’s another one who isn’t from our village, but since he appeared together with Immortal Lin and the others, he must be an immortal from their sect as well!”

Yuan Qing, who was being treated like some kind of fresh spectacle for the first time, looked at Lin Xiao with some confusion, then glanced around at his surroundings.

What was going on?

Was Fellow Daoist Lin some sort of celebrity here?

Yuan Qing turned his head again and looked at the crowd watching them from a distance.

These people… they all seemed to be mortals.

Yuan Qing suddenly realized this.

These mortals were different from the mortals in his impression.

The mortals he remembered mostly lived timidly and cautiously in the cities governed by cultivators.

They would do their best to shrink their presence to the minimum, hoping that cultivators would not even notice them.

Not like now, where they would come to watch, get excited at the sight of cultivators, and refuse to leave, sneaking peeks without much fear at all.

If this were the cultivation world, with so many mortals seeing cultivators appear, they would have long since slipped away without a trace.

Lin Xiao naturally noticed the large crowd of people in the distance who were sneaking glances at them, but since they did not come closer, he guessed that either the village chief or Tuzi and the others had done something about it.

So he did not pay it any mind and led Yuan Qing and Fuzi toward the private school.

Inside the private school, there was a small reception room.

Since it was inconvenient to go over to the village side because of all the onlookers, and Yuan Qing had not yet passed the Heart Questioning Path, this was the only suitable place for a talk.

Yuan Qing followed behind him, not knowing what was going on, and walked into this rustic and charming private school.

As soon as he stepped through the gate of the school, the sound of reading became even clearer.

He felt as if his sea of consciousness had suddenly become a little clearer just from listening.

He glanced at Lin Xiao ahead of him and obediently followed behind without speaking, not wanting to break this strangely comfortable atmosphere.

The first impression this place gave him was ease.

It was different from Yuanling City where he was born, from the Tianxuan Sect where he had stayed, and from every other place he had ever been.

Yuan Qing felt that although he had only been here for a short moment, he already seemed to like this place.

The three of them reached the reception room, and Lin Xiao waved his hand to set up a barrier of isolation before patting the seat beside him and saying,

“Come, Fellow Daoist Yuan, have a seat.”

Seeing this, Yuan Qing knew that it was now convenient to speak. He sat down as directed and asked,

“Fellow Daoist Lin, is this your hometown?”

Because this place did not look like a sect, he assumed that Lin Xiao had not returned to his sect but had brought him to his hometown or something like that.

Hearing this, Lin Xiao smiled somewhat apologetically and said,

“Fellow Daoist Yuan, I apologize, I didn’t clearly explain our situation here before. There’s quite a lot to go over, so let me introduce things one by one.”

“Ahem, first of all—right now, where we are, is a village in the mortal world.”

“A village?”

Yuan Qing was puzzled.

Having only lived in the cultivation world for about a decade, he had no concept of a village. In his mind, apart from cities, there were sects, and everything else was wilderness, places where demon beasts roamed.

At most, there were some so-called hidden families, mentioned only in others’ talk, that did not live in cities but in places nobody knew about.

Seeing his confusion, Lin Xiao drew on various things he had seen and heard during his trips to the cultivation world, and with a quick turn of thought, hit upon the reason.

Then he explained to him,

“This is a feature of the mortal world. It’s a place where groups of people who make their living by farming live together. In the mortal world, merchants and people who do other kinds of work generally live in cities, while most farmers live in villages.”