Zhi Chan Zi

Lin Xiao recalled the sorry state of the little tree demons he had encountered in the wilderness.

Hmm… it should be the former.

Not to mention that if every one of these tree demons possessed such a divine innate ability, they would become coveted prizes in the eyes of countless cultivators. Even if they simply used this innate ability normally, there was no way they would have ended up in such a miserable state. Every one of them had only been at the first or second level of Qi Condensation; any ordinary disciple of the Zhenyang Sect could have sent them fleeing with a single fireball.

Just look at Elder Danling. With this innate ability alone, she had managed to build a city filled with cultivators in the middle of this remote wilderness. She was clearly an extraordinarily powerful great demon.

There was one thing that puzzled Lin Xiao, though. He was currently inside the city, yet he had never sensed Elder Danling’s presence at all.

As far as he could tell, this was merely an ordinary supermassive tree. Its only difference from any random tree by the roadside seemed to be that it was absurdly enormous.

Since Zhenyang City was said to be Elder Danling’s true form, standing inside the city was equivalent to standing on her body. At such a close distance, he still couldn’t detect her presence in the slightest. Either her cultivation was far beyond his own, or she possessed some special concealment ability.

But that made sense. If anyone could casually locate Elder Danling, it wouldn’t exactly be a good thing for her.

Even so, the thought left Lin Xiao feeling somewhat uneasy.

When he had climbed to roughly half the height of Zhenyang City, he discovered that there were far fewer cultivators here than below. Quite a few of them were disciples of the Zhenyang Sect.

Most of them, however, hurried along, either heading toward the upper levels or making their way down. They did not linger in this area.

This part of the city was indeed rather desolate. There were no bustling commercial streets, only spacious roads and large patches of woodland.

Lin Xiao found the place quite peaceful. He simply didn’t know what purpose this area served in Zhenyang City.

The noise that had accompanied him along the way had eased here. Rather than continue upward immediately, he decided to rest for a while.

He left the main road and walked into the woods. After passing through them, he discovered that this area was not enclosed by branches and leaves like the lower levels. Instead, it opened directly onto a vast, continuous cliff.

He wondered absentmindedly whether, if someone fell from here, their relatives would come looking for trouble with Zhenyang City, claiming that the Zhenyang Sect had failed to build a wall or consider public safety and demanding compensation or something.

Lost in such thoughts, Lin Xiao reached the edge of the cliff and looked out. Everyone and everything on the ground had shrunk into tiny specks, almost impossible to make out, while the landscape for hundreds of kilometers lay fully visible before him.

The elevation here must have been close to three thousand meters.

Standing at the edge and gazing into the distance, Lin Xiao occasionally caught the scent of grass, wood, and earth drifting from the forest behind him. It made him feel relaxed and refreshed.

It really was a wonderful place.

Perfect for a picnic.

As he thought this, his hands had already pulled out his usual picnic mat and spread it across the ground. He then took more than a dozen different delicacies prepared by Fuzi from his storage ring and arranged them on the mat. After that, he brought out some tea leaves and an extremely miniature clay brazier.

He sat down on the ground, placed the little brazier beside him, and filled it with clear spring water he had brought from the sect. Then he lit a fire and began boiling the water.

Next, he took a low tea table from his storage ring and set it up, filling it with all sorts of tea implements for gongfu tea.

He actually wasn’t very good at making tea. In the past, whenever he drank tea, he would simply toss the leaves into a pot, pour in hot water, and call it a day. At most, he would pour out the first infusion as a way of rinsing the leaves.

Over the past few years, he had occasionally learned a few things from Uncle Ma of the Spiritual Food Hall and had begun paying more attention to the finer details.

Although he still wasn’t very skilled—he understood nothing about appreciating the color of tea or savoring its fragrance—there was a saying that poor students made up for their shortcomings with fancy stationery.

Lin Xiao had somehow managed to arrange a picnic for one person with the grandeur of a feast for an entire group.

After looking around several times to make sure there were no signs saying “No Picnicking Here” or “No Open Flames,” he contentedly lifted the pot of clear spring water that had just finished boiling from the little brazier.

The tea leaves were a special product from Senior Liao’s medicinal garden. They were called Cicada Ganoderma and were said to be among the finest spirit teas in the cultivation world.

The moment the boiling spring water poured into the teacup, an exceptionally distinctive fragrance rushed into Lin Xiao’s nose.

The aroma quickly spread through the surrounding area.

However, Lin Xiao had already set up a simple barrier formation around the spot when he sat down, so the fragrance would not reach anyone else’s nose.

Following the steps Uncle Ma had taught him as best he could remember, he made a rudimentary cup of tea. Then he couldn’t resist downing it in one gulp.

The moment the first cup reached his stomach, a voice came from ten meters to his left.

“What are you drinking?”

Lin Xiao turned toward it in surprise. A teenager who looked about fifteen or sixteen was staring intently at the teacup in his hand, his expression filled with curiosity.

The boy wore an ordinary grayish-white low-grade magical robe, and his long hair was simply tied into a high ponytail. He had delicate, handsome features, but neither his appearance nor his voice revealed whether he was male or female.

Most importantly, Lin Xiao had not sensed this person’s arrival in the slightest. He could not see through their cultivation, either.

Seeing Lin Xiao staring at him in surprise without answering, the teenager froze for a moment before belatedly realizing that he ought to introduce himself.

“My name is Qingle. Sorry for disturbing you so abruptly. I smelled something incredibly fragrant and became curious about what you were drinking.”

Lin Xiao glanced down at the empty cup in his hand. He placed it on the tea table, then took out a fresh cup from his storage ring. He poured in a little more than half a cup of tea and used his spiritual power to float it over to Qingle.

“Greetings, Fellow Daoist Qingle. My name is Lin Xiao. This spirit tea is called Cicada Ganoderma. It was given to me by an elder of my family,” he replied.

Qingle looked at the hot tea hovering before him. The fragrance rushed into his nose, and his eyes seemed to brighten. He reached out with both hands and held the cup.

“Thank you.”

Then, imitating the way Lin Xiao had just drunk his tea, he tilted his head back and emptied the cup in a single gulp.

After the tea entered his stomach, whether from delight or from being overwhelmed by the flavor, his cheeks visibly flushed red.

“This Cicada Ganoderma is so delicious. I’ve never drunk water this good before.”

Lin Xiao was skeptical of that statement.

The teenager opposite him looked young and guileless, but this person had been able to smell the Cicada Ganoderma through the barrier formation Lin Xiao had set up beforehand. They had also appeared ten meters away without making the slightest sound or giving off the faintest trace of aura. If they hadn’t spoken, Lin Xiao would never have realized that someone had appeared beside him.

For someone to remain completely undetectable to him at such a close distance, they either had some extraordinary treasure capable of concealing every movement and trace of their aura, or they were a mighty cultivator whose cultivation was far beyond his own—perhaps at the Void Refinement realm or higher.

Even Liao Pantu, who was at the Deity Transformation stage, could not accomplish something like this.

How could someone like that never have tasted good spirit tea?

Lin Xiao was ninety percent certain he didn’t believe it. He reserved the remaining ten percent for circumstances he had not yet thought of.