Old Fogey Goes Down The Mountain

What happened to no human traces?! Wei Dedao deceived me!

Wei Xi slowly turned around among these scorching gazes, looking at the continuous and boundless landscape behind him. The road he came from was hidden in the vast forest, it was already difficult to track, yet not far from the side, a magnificent building he had never seen before rose from the ground and caught his eyes.

A coarse and thick rope extended out from the end of the mountain, straight into the mountain top covered by a sea of clouds, connecting to the end of that building. On the rope, a string of terrifying cages full of people were carrying them backwards towards the mountain peak, sliding at full speed. From the open gaps of the cages, a dense crowd packed together can still be seen.

Momentarily, Wei Xi did not dare to act rashly.

On one side, someone suddenly approached. He subconsciously dodged, only to discover that the one who came forward was the woman who was just now peddling cakes.

As far as the eyes can see, all were shining white arms and legs, nearly everyone was sloppily dressed.

Wei Xi’s gaze swiftly paused for a moment when it touched that woman’s chest, and stopped moving downwards, rather he vigilantly stared into her eyes.

“You child.” The woman did not take offense when she was avoided, merely laughingly asked, “Isn’t it hot to wear so much at noon? Still standing under the sun, be careful of a heatstroke. Enter our shack to hide for a while ba.”

As she spoke, she reached out her hand and lifted Wei Xi’s worn out Taoist robe. Sensing that she seemingly had no malice, Wei Xi resisted the idea of stopping her movements and was pulled into the shady and cool snack shack.

The woman poured him a cup of water and asked: “Eat cake?”

Wei Xi’s muscles were still tense, line of sight sweeping past the complete cakes on display on the vendor’s stalls and the fragrance of the steaming heat of the glutinous rice that was diffusing in this corner. These past few days, he was unable to hunt any decent food and was truly terribly hungry.

He still remembered that the other was peddling just now, the food outside required money. Thinking about it, he opened his mouth and said in a hoarse voice: “Ten yuan?”

“Right, ten yuan for one.”

Wei Xi received a reply, yet it was the same as not getting one. What does ten yuan mean?

He did not want to behave too abnormally, so after pondering for a while, he hesitatingly fished out an ingot of silver from his pocket.

The cake-selling woman: “????”

“Wrong.” It seems it’s not ten taels of silver. Wei Xi, not batting an eye, swiftly withdrew the silver ingot and replaced it with a silver dollar.

The other: “………………?????”

First it was a piece of iron, then it was a game token coin. The woman scanned Wei Xi’s patchy Taoist robe, discovering this young man might really not have money, probably a college student who was traveling on a budget. She had a little headache, but shooting a glance at the other’s flawlessly pretty and charming appearance, she couldn’t muster up any anger, so she had to helplessly wave her hand: “Forget it, forget it, there’s no need to pay. You can take it and eat.”

Such a good-looking little boy can’t be seen often and his age was similar to that of her son’s, inviting him to eat a little is nothing.

Wei Xi realized that he made a mistake again the instant he saw the other’s expression when she caught sight of the silver dollar. He immediately became alerted, but didn’t expect that the other would finally give the thing to him for free.

He pursed his lips, scrutinizing the other’s movement, still a little disbelieving. On one side, the woman was carrying something to him, while on the other she was saying some confusing words. What coming out to play, there’s not even a little plan, what even when traveling on a budget one can’t be so poor that they let themselves suffer. Her long-winded enthusiasm was exactly the same as the chatty Wei Dedao’s. Her features were honest, expression mild and although her eyes possessed a little shrewdness, she was not stingy. Generally speaking, she had a quite ordinary appearance, yet her forehead had a few faintly discernible wisps of black qi crawling towards the space between her eyebrows.

Wei Xi finally lowered his eyes and silently took the paper bag the other handed over. Looking over the soft cake in the bag for a while, he suddenly asked: “Are you guys not heading back?”

The woman immediately smiled, using a look like watching at a not sensible child to look at him: “How can we go back so early when doing business? We usually only pack our stalls at 6 or 7, adults work very hard to make money. You’ll understand later.”

Wei Xi didn’t speak, stared at her for a while and took something out.

The proprietress originally thought it was money and even wanted to refuse. Upon a closer look, she discovered that it was a sheet of gray talisman paper and received it not knowing whether to laugh or cry. She set up a stall in front of a religious temple where incense was flourishing, and she had seen a lot of fake mystical stuff so she did not care much about it, conveniently putting it in her pocket: “All right, all right, auntie promised to treat you to eat. You don’t have to give me this and that. Just sit here and rest ba, remember to pour yourself water if you are thirsty.

On the side, there just happened to be a person coming over to inquiry. She finished her talk and could not attend to Wei Xi, hastily stepping forward to greet the customer. After the things were sold out, she turned her head, only then found that the young person in the shack had already disappeared.

The proprietress was dumbfounded, she asked her husband and son, but both of them were too busy with work and did not notice when the person left. She had to shake her head and laugh in spite of herself, throwing this trifle event to the back of her head.

However, soon she did not have spare time to think much about it because up ahead at Yingzui’s cliff, two tourists suddenly started fighting, the reason seemingly because while fighting for the photography site, they mutually made offensive remarks on the other’s parents.

Fighting on the mountain top was not a joke, especially since there was no guardrail on Yingzui Peak, if one accidentally fell down, their body would be smashed into pieces. The surrounding enthusiastic tourists continuously step forward to try to reconcile them, but the two young and robust men who fought until their eyes were red were unable to be pulled apart. Once the proprietress saw the commotion, she immediately anxiously got up and wiped her hands, hastily going up to persuade them.

“F*** your mother! You try cursing again?!”

“You f***ing want to squeeze me and you’re still f***ing justifying it?!”

“It’s not easy coming out to play for a trip, the mountain gods and Bodhisattvas in this temple are all watching us, everyone takes one step back, there’s no need to turn this into a fuss.”

“Quickly stop it! That’s more than enough!”

The proprietress also grabbed the sleeves of one of them: “Young man, it’s too dangerous here, even if you want to fight, you can’t choose a mountain top! If your families found out, how worried will they be?”

So many people had come to meditate, and the two parties of the dispute had originally already calmed down a little. However, the one in white said something in a fit of pique at this time. The other in green was immediately angered and punched the other in the face again.

Not willing to be outdone, the man in white responded with a kick. As soon as he made the big movement, the meditating crowd appeared to be a hindrance. The two people simultaneously waved away those hands that were pulling them impatiently: “It’s none of your business!”

The proprietress in the midst of the chaos was squeezed aside by an unknown person, and immediately staggered a few steps unsteady, her underfoot suddenly empty.

A wave of panicked screams burst out from the crowd and she looked back amidst the confusion, only able to catch sight of her husband and son at the stall, both ghastly pale, madly shouting and rushing over—

“Juanzi!!!!!!”

“Mom!!!!!!!”

“Ahhhhh!!!! Somebody fell down!!!!!”

The feeling of weightlessness causes one to feel dizzy. The blue sky that originally could only be seen when one raised their heads appeared before her eyes, the mountain breeze whistling past her ears, like a horn of death commemorating the dead.

The proprietress finally realized that it was singing for herself, and she closed her eyes in despair and helplessness.

However, the next second, a strong force came from nowhere and pushed her on the back. Her body was pushed lightly, as if she had grown wings, and thrown straight forward. By the time her consciousness returned, both of her feet had already returned to solid ground.

The proprietress opened her eyes in disbelief, waiting stupefyingly for a few seconds before she felt frightened and directly kneeled down with weak legs in hindsight.

This series of unscientific scenes was unimaginable, the whole screaming crowd was dumbstruck, the pair of father and son at the cake stall rushed to the proprietress’ side, already scared to tears.

The sudden unforeseen event made the two impulsive young people bewildered, frightening them out of their wits by the fact that they almost caused a death. They hurriedly surround her; “Are you alright? Sorry sorry sorry!!!”

The two of them did not fight each other anymore, apprehensively supporting the unexpectedly hurt proprietress by the arm, behaving meekly even in the face of the two father and son’s glare. Because of extreme remorse and unease, the two of them not only meekly supported the person back to the cake stall, they even brought all the things on the stall, finally pooling together another thousand yuan to give to the proprietress as a shock fee.

The proprietress refused. She held her husband and son’s hands that were trembling fiercely, still in a trance. What was going on? She clearly was falling down, her memory could not be faked.

Only then did someone in the crowd watching the excitement react, and a few elderly folks immediately looked excited: “This is the manifestation of Fengyang’s mountain god! The manifestation of the Mountain God Bodhisattva!”

The mountain god’s manifestation? When the proprietress heard this, she lifted her head up blankly, but felt a burst of an unusual heat on her leg. She subconsciously reached out a hand to grab it, only to grab a handful of light ashes from her pocket.

Ashes……

She suddenly remembered something, and her whole body shook, looking back at the direction of the path down the mountain in disbelief.

“It’s not!” A surge of gratitude and awe instantly rose in her mind, and she instantly found the strength to speak, spreading open her hand in front of the people, so excited that her voice was shaking, “It was just now!! The master in Taoist robes just now, he gave me a life-saving talisman!!!”

The tourists looked at the already reduced to ash “life-saving talisman” in astonishment. Not even a few days later, somebody disclosed this matter to the media. The local media came to Fengyang Mountain to interview the proprietress one after another, causing the proprietor’s whole family to have a blessing in disguise, the income of the cake stall soaring. At this very moment, in the mouths of the many tourists at the mountain top, Wei Xi who has already turned into a hermit of noble character, has long reached the foot of the mountain.

The cakes were delicious, and he carefully put away the paper bag containing the cakes.

The walk down the mountain road was extremely relaxed, because under his feet was no longer the damp and sticky soil from the remote mountains, but the smooth and firm stairs of the scenic spot.

It was hard to imagine what kind of strength was needed to complete such a vast project, yet all the way down, he saw more incredible sceneries.

There were so many people that it was unimaginable, but as far as the eyes could see, they were all dressed improperly. A few women’s clothes were lacking to the point that it was revealing half of their chests or buttocks. Yet, they obviously lived a leisurely and plentiful life and no traces of poverty can be seen in their appearances. Wei Xi from his own vague memory and Wei Dedao’s previous statement, simply could not find any city that had such a wanton and unrestrained atmosphere. He, dressed so tightly, instead became an anomaly among them.

Many people on the road were all playing with all kinds of square pieces, some were holding it in their hands to watch, some were holding it up to their ears and talking to themselves, and more people were holding them up high. Wei Xi glanced at it when he brushed past, inside the square piece unexpectedly showed an image of the crowd in the scenery ahead! And every bit of it was vivid and lifelike.

Wei Xi didn’t know what kind of magic this was and multiple times, he wanted to snatch one to examine it in detail, but he couldn’t determine the actual strength of the people with these amazing magic weapons. In the past, he had listened to Wei Dedao repeatedly mentioning that he was not allowed to do evil in the secular world. In the end, he did not act rashly.

In addition to this, there was still that cable that seemed to pass through heaven and earth.

He could not imagine what kind strength was needed to be able to lift so many cages on the rope, and while there were so many human beings in the cages, make them slide upward backwards.

Wei Xi secretly analyzed, if the person that raised the rope came to fight with him, it would be very difficult for him to have a hundred percent chance of winning.

So the mountain king finally obediently restrained his nature, walking extremely well-behaved all the way. Even when he saw a squirrel climbing a tree by the roadside, he endured not going to catch it.

Who knew that though he did not stir up trouble, when he followed the stream of people to reach the foot of the mountain, he was actively blocked.

The foot of the mountain was covered with a gigantic ceiling made of a strong and hard material, under which stood a fence with a strange shape. That fence was very low, simply unable to guard against people. He could jump over it without any trouble, but the pedestrians that came down the mountain all lined extremely well-behaved in the gaps of the fence and then left in an orderly manner.

So Wei Xi also lined up, but when it was his turn, the fence suddenly issued a sharp dididi sound.

Wei Xi’s pupils shrank, he subconsciously raised his hand wanting to strike it. Who would have thought that a languid voice would suddenly come through from one side: “Ai, why the rush! Swipe the ticket and then go over.”

Wei Xi turned his head, only to see a middle-aged man wearing a hat coming towards him. At the same time, he saw several people in the fence next to him all holding a long and thin piece of paper.

They put that piece of paper on the handrails on either side of the fence, and then the sluice gate in front will quietly open, letting the people pass through.

Wei Xi thought about it, he seemed to have seen this paper before, in the leather bag’s inner compartments the unlucky ghost offered him before being released, which he looked through a few times and then threw away.

The middle-aged man had already arrived in front of him, and scanned him from head to toe. When he saw his strange and tattered clothes, his brows wrinkled and he asked: “Where is your ticket? Take it out.”

Wei Xi said: “Lost it.”

The other’s bearings seemed aggressive, and Wei Xi pondered about the possibility of killing him now or knocking him down and then leaving.

However, just as this idea emerged, he seemed to have already heard Wei Dedao’s endless chatter, hence he still did not move temporarily.

However, the middle-aged man seemed unwilling to let the matter drop so easily. He pressed down on his hat, beginning to question closely: “Lost it? Where did you come from? What do you do? Take out your identification card, what’s your name?

I……Identification card……?

Is it a certificate to prove your identity? Wei Xi suddenly recalled that Wei Dedao seemed to have given him something like this before.

There were so many people around, he did not want to rashly take action without understanding the depth of his opponent, so he still cooperatively pulled it out from the basket on his back, and recalled that the other asked him where he came from and what he does.

To be honest, this question put him in a little trance.

So a moment later, the captain of the tourist security department of Fengyang Mountain Scenic Area received a roll of worn and yellowed paper.

He bafflingly spread out the paper, and countless characters of all sizes clustered together entered his sight. Upon closer look, it was even traditional Chinese characters.

He strenuously identified a few: “Travel……travel permit?”

At the same time, the young man with delicate features, pierced ears and curled hair, yet carried a basket on his back and wore tattered clothes in front of him used a strangely profound and ethereal tone and slowly started speaking–

“I am Taicang sect’s sixty-second sect leader, Wei Xi.”

The security captain: “………………………………”