Qingming Festival Season

Thinking this, Lin Xiao took out his copy of the Origin Heart Sutra, entered the cultivation room, and headed straight for Sun Yigao.

Sensing someone approaching, Sun Yigao, who was currently cultivating, opened his eyes. Seeing it was Lin Xiao, he smiled faintly, nodded at him, and then closed his eyes, intending to continue his cultivation.

Seeing this, Lin Xiao also began to meditate beside him.

After a while, having finished practicing his current section, Sun Yigao felt he could move on to the next part. He opened his eyes, flipped open the Origin Heart Sutra, and began to study it.

He saw Lin Xiao beside him leaning over, holding his own Origin Heart Sutra. Seeing the page Sun Yigao was on, Lin Xiao immediately flipped to the exact same spot and said:

"Yigao, look at this. This section, 'I use my original heart, fearless and boundless, with no evil thoughts'..."

The people in the cultivation room cast sideways glances when they saw the two of them huddled together, discussing earnestly.

When did their Brother Xiao, who rarely stepped foot into the cultivation room, become so diligent in his cultivation?

Meanwhile, Lin Ying, whom Lin Xiao had promised to teach properly back at the old Lin family residence, pouted when she saw her third brother seemingly forgetting all about her.

Stinky third brother doesn't keep his word.

Second brother is better.

Pouting her lips in disgust, Lin Ying turned her head away, no longer looking at Lin Xiao, and earnestly began to learn from Lin Yun.

With Lin Xiao's assistance, Sun Yigao's progress was incredibly fast.

By noon, the two of them still felt like they hadn't had enough, but Lin Yun walked over holding Lin Ying's hand and said to Lin Xiao:

"Erlang, it's time to go down the mountain."

Lin Xiao paused, looking at Lin Yun with confused eyes:

"Go down the mountain for what?"

Hearing him say this, Lin Yun was also stunned. His younger brother really was as unreliable as ever.

He said helplessly:

"Didn't our family agree beforehand to go tomb-sweeping for Qingming Festival today?"

Triggered by this reminder, Lin Xiao jolted and finally remembered.

That's right! He had to go sweep his mother's tomb!

Immediately, Lin Xiao couldn't care less about cultivating. He said to Sun Yigao:

"Yigao, I'm heading home first for Qingming. We'll continue tomorrow!"

Sun Yigao nodded, not taking his words about continuing tomorrow to heart. After all, the entire sect knew that their Sect Master rarely cultivated.

Lin Yun and Lin Xiao hurried back to the old Lin family residence with Lin Ying, only to see that the Lin family had already prepared the offerings, as well as a large cloth bag full of paper money, paper ingots, and the like.

The offerings consisted of a whole steamed chicken, a whole piece of blanched pork belly, and a large whole fish.

The fish had been carefully pan-fried in plenty of oil by Old Mrs. Lin until both sides were golden brown, emitting a fragrant, crispy aroma.

The smell made Lin Xiao's stomach rumble with hunger.

Eldest Aunt Lin went into the kitchen and brought out a few warm steamed buns, handing them to Lin Xiao and the other two.

There was no time to eat lunch; they had to hurry up the mountain.

In previous years, their family would go tomb-sweeping for Qingming early in the morning, and it would take up the whole day.

This year, to accommodate Lin Xiao and the others' cultivation, they specifically set aside the morning for them, planning to rush up the mountain at noon and sweep the tombs as quickly as possible.

Without even waiting for the three of them to finish eating, Old Mr. Lin waved his hand and led everyone out.

Xiushui Village had two mountains specifically designated for burials and graves.

They were not in the same direction as the North Mountain, but rather to the southwest, a little distance away from the village.

Their family was considered one of the earlier ones in the village to do their Qingming tomb-sweeping.

Many families in the village usually waited a few days after Qingming to go, because many of the large surnames in the village belonged to the same clan, and they had to wait for the clan leader to coordinate the time for all the families to go together.

Families like Qin Jianghe's, Liu Yunan's, and Hu Liang's were all like this.

Therefore, they didn't encounter many people on the way.

The mountains to the southwest were different from the North Mountain to the north. This area mostly consisted of small, individual hills that weren't very tall. Between each small hill were flat, open green meadows, and some of the villagers' fields were located nearby.

Among those small hills, the highest ones were the two used as graveyard mountains.

The North Mountain, on the other hand, was a continuous mountain range, extremely large.

The vegetation in the North Mountain range was lush, with towering giant trees, and it was rarely visited by people. It was said that there were many fierce beasts deep within the mountain range, making it a true deep forest and old woods.

So, unlike the North Mountain range, where people rarely set foot except to forage for mushrooms and other mountain goods at the foot of the mountain, there were people coming and going from the graveyard mountains from time to time.

This was because some families in the village had fields here, and the villagers usually came here to gather wild vegetables and cut pig grass.

Along the way, the Lin family group occasionally met one or two villagers and greeted them.

Lin Dashan and Lin Dayou each carried items on shoulder poles, one carrying the sacrificial offerings, the other carrying tools like hoes and shovels. Meanwhile, the two little girls, Lin Yan and Lin Ying, would pick a few of any pretty flowers they saw along the way.

Old Mrs. Lin and Eldest Aunt Lin gathered firewood along the way, while the three boys, Lin Xiao, Lin Yun, and Lin Lei, were responsible for carrying the wood they collected on their backs.

Just like that, the Lin family bustled their way up one of the graveyard mountains.

The Lin family's graves were all located halfway up the eastern side of this graveyard mountain.

The first grave at the top belonged to the Lin family's great-grandparents.

Going down layer by layer, Lin Xiao's mother was buried at the very bottom of the Lin family's graveyard.

Upon arriving at the graves, Old Mr. Lin told everyone to put their things down. The adults took hoes and sickles to start clearing the weeds, while the children used their hands to pull weeds and help out on the side.

Lin Yun was working hard pulling weeds nearby. When he turned his head, he noticed that Lin Xiao was a bit distracted and was about to throw the pulled weeds onto their father.

He immediately reached out, took the weeds from Lin Xiao's hands, and threw them aside. Then, he poked him in the waist and asked in a low voice:

"Erlang, what's wrong?"

Poked, Lin Xiao finally snapped back to reality and looked at Lin Yun. He frowned and whispered to Lin Yun:

"I feel like there's something strange around here."

As soon as Lin Xiao arrived near this graveyard mountain, he had faintly felt something unusual, but the feeling was very vague, and he couldn't put his finger on what it was.

But he was certain that it was definitely not his imagination. Ever since he arrived here, that strange feeling had been lingering in his senses.

Every time he had come here in the past, he had never had this strange feeling.

Hearing this, Lin Yun asked in confusion:

"What's strange? I didn't feel anything at all."

Lin Xiao could only shake his head and say:

"I can't explain it, but it's definitely not my imagination. Brother, I think there might be something bad nearby."

Hearing him say this, Lin Yun only felt a chill run down his spine. He swallowed and said somewhat nervously:

"Don't scare me... We come to this graveyard mountain every year, what could possibly be here..."

Lin Xiao sensed carefully again, but still couldn't further discern what this anomaly was. Logically speaking, he was now at the seventh level of Qi Condensation, so his perception abilities should be much stronger...

He thought for a moment and said to Lin Yun:

"There are two possibilities. One is that this thing arrived recently. The other possibility is that this thing has always been here, but because I hadn't cultivated before, I couldn't sense it."