Chapter 22 The accent remains the same, but the people have changed…

Because he was living in seclusion, Venerable Qingyun chose a remote location for his cave dwelling, just one city away from the border line that bordered Leizhen Valley.

Once inside Zhongzhou, there was no longer any worry about environmental threats. Looking across the entire Guanwu Continent, the central region had the most pleasant living conditions and was also the most prosperous.

Even in Yuyan City, the most remote border town, once you pass through the city gate, you can see a dazzling array of shops, where cultivators from various sects and schools use different techniques to move back and forth among the crowds and in the air.

Compared to the vast expanse of the Great Wilderness, it was incredibly crowded with people.

Little Cloud Dumpling was born in the forest and was later sold to the desolate wilderness. If it weren't for the things he saw and experienced along the way that made him familiar with the occasional gathering of people, he would probably be frozen in place now, afraid that some cultivator would not be able to stop in time and hit him.

The two did not stay in Yuyan City for long. After buying some snacks, Li Qingyun forcefully pulled Chang Yubai by the clothes and left the Treasure Pavilion. Her small body had great strength, and she refused to let Master Chang spend money recklessly.

Chang Yubai: Tch.

mean.

Li Qingyun: Heh.

You're so generous; you used the jade to buy candy.

Anyway, Xiao Li Qingyun couldn't understand why the sugar made from the honey collected by the bees was worth 100 spirit jades; it was simply an astronomical price!

"Eating it won't increase your cultivation level, and it's sickeningly sweet." — Li Qingyun commented.

Chang Yubai: "...It's still different from ordinary honey."

The honey collected by the bees is fine and soft, with a dense texture. When you take a sip, it melts like cotton candy, but it transforms into honey juice in your mouth. The juice gathers and solidifies again, turning the originally separate soft candy into hard candy, and then, with the moisture, it softens back into a soft substance.

This change alone is worth savoring.

"Since it can sell for this price, it is naturally recognized by the market, and there are many people who know its value."

Li Qingyun: "Ha, there are just too many suckers."

I don't understand why something that does absolutely nothing to help with cultivation is so popular.

Chang Yubai, however, remained calm and composed: "Cultivation is important, but one should not forget to reflect on one's life."

Li Qingyun: "...Oh."

Xiaoyun was powerless to refute.

This kind of talk is meant to persuade people not to focus solely on cultivation, not to encourage them to play all day. If Chang Yubai could spare one day out of ten for cultivation, then this statement would be quite convincing.

Oh well, even the most precious candy is just something to pass the time; what's the big deal about whether you can eat it or not?

Li Qingyun stuffed another piece into her mouth.

"I can't just watch all 100 spirit jades go into Master Chang's big mouth," Li Qingyun thought angrily.

After passing through Yuyan City, they found themselves in a desolate area. The two changed direction and walked deep into the barren land.

Chang Yubai wasn't in a hurry to bury his master in his pocket. He thought he should take Xiaoyun back to his hometown, back to the village and town that he and his master knew best, and have a meal at the tavern that made the best chicken soup... no, it's not familiar anymore.

The two men's feet crunched over a patch of dry grass, making a crisp cracking sound, and finally stopped in front of a mound of earth.

I'm really not familiar with it anymore.

It turns out that the town Chang Yubai loved to visit was just a field.

It turned out that the tavern where he usually stayed was only overgrown with weeds.

A rabbit burrow was built beside the weeds. The little rabbits had poor eyesight and couldn't smell the scent of the hidden cultivator. Every now and then, a white head would pop out, take a bite of the food stored by the door, and then quickly retreat back into the burrow.

The eagle's angry cry still echoed overhead, resenting how fast the white rabbit had moved; it had disappeared before it could even swoop down.

Li Qingyun was still puzzled.

Why did you stop? Surely you can't have really gotten home yet?

They walked for so long, only to come to this wasteland? What happened to their home?

Tiansha City looks more livable than this place.

Chang Yubai stared at the wild grass in front of him, his mind blank for a long time, before slowly raising his head to look into the distance.

He saw a dense black dot in the distance, and looking as far as he could, he realized it was a village.

He happened to know this village. Once, in order to avoid his master dragging him back too early, he deliberately went to play in a more distant village.

If he wasn't mistaken, the small village with colorful flags fluttering in front of him should be the Crippled Village. In his memory, the village was located on a slope with a peculiar terrain, resembling a cripple who had fallen to the ground, hence the name of the village.

He led Li Qingyun into the village.

"Is this home?" Li Qingyun followed obediently beside her, letting out a sigh of relief. "I knew it! That place was clearly the middle of nowhere, no one could live there."

He said we were home, but we stood in the sun for ages. Sure enough, that big oaf is acting up again. How can he point to a bunch of weeds and call it our destination? Of course, the village in front of us is the place where people can live... uh?

Li Qingyun's smile froze on her face.

Well, the current living conditions look terrible.

Very bad!

When Chang Yubai saw that Xiaoyun stopped halfway through her sentence, he followed her gaze and scanned the surroundings. Judging from Xiaoyun's expression, it wasn't hard to guess that she was shocked by the harsh conditions in the Crippled Village.

This place is certainly not a livable place, especially compared to the crippled village I remember.

In another hundred years, this land will be completely different. Several cultivators with a strong sense of local sentiment will emerge in the crippled village. After gaining influence outside, they will not forget to return to their hometown to build up their old home, making the crippled village quite prosperous. People will always be coming and going, discussing martial arts.

The houses in the current crippled village are leaking, and all that can be seen is barrenness. As for economic development, it will probably have to be left for later.

The master and his apprentice found a place to stay that they could barely manage.

The village's inn could hardly be called an inn; it should be called a picnic spot. It was just a fairly large thatched hut with a sign that said "Food and Drinks Available." Outside, there were two broken wooden tables, each surrounded by four dilapidated wooden benches, all so old they were crumbling.

The inn was run by an elderly man whose temples were seventy percent white. He handed over two bowls of water and placed them on the wooden table. Li Qingyun looked down at the bowls; the water was clear, but a layer of dirt could be seen at the bottom.

Li Qingyun: "..." I don't want to drink.

What kind of hardship did Master live in the past?

Chang Yubai: "..." I don't want to drink.

He has no reason to suffer for his hometown sentiments.

Then he grabbed the bowl in front of Li Qingyun and said, "Why don't you stop drinking for now?"

Li Qingyun nodded quickly.

Then I saw Chang Yubai put a piece of fructose in his mouth to calm his nerves.

Li Qingyun: "..."

Now he's starting to suspect that his master was actually lost and had accidentally brought him to this place.

But what happened next shattered Li Qingyun's assumptions.

The old shopkeeper wiped his sweat, poured a bucket of well water into the water vat, thus completing his task, and walked over to talk to Chang Yubai.

Simple people always love to talk, chatting about anything and everything, passing the time in the end and finding a bit of joy in return.

"You're quite a rare sight, people from out of town. Where are you from?"

The old shopkeeper's voice was so familiar that Chang Yubai was momentarily dazed.

In fact, compared to the distance between various cities in Zhongzhou, Limpy Village and Jiyun Town are practically like family. Although the village and town don't interact much and have little contact, their accents are almost identical.

The local dialect he heard in the crippled village a hundred years ago was exactly the same as the one he remembered.

For no apparent reason, he switched to a rural accent: "I came from the next town, just stopping by for a couple of days before leaving."

"Wow, you can leave the town? That's incredible! Are you a cultivator, young man?"

"I've managed to learn one or two moves by luck, and I'm planning to find a sect to become an apprentice to."

Li Qingyun, who was listening in but was completely confused: ? ? ?

He believed it.

He now firmly believes that Chang Yubai was born and raised on this land.

But Li Qingyun's eyes widened, unable to understand why Chang Yubai had actually lived here, even speaking with such a light accent.

This indirectly shows that Master Chang actually came from a poor and remote area, and relied on his own talent and hard work to develop his real skills!

How inspiring!

How could such an inspiring story have turned someone into such a lazy person?

But this did not stop Li Qingyun from being filled with passion. He was now more confident than ever. He had started from scratch, and Chang Yubai had managed to make it big. He also wanted to cultivate diligently, surpass Chang Yubai, and achieve the ultimate martial arts, so as not to waste this life!

"Oh dear, this child, the kid left behind by my sister's family has been entrusted to me. These days, those of us who don't practice martial arts have no standing. We'd be killed by a cultivator with a single blow."

Li Qingyun's ears automatically picked up on this absurd introduction.

Li Qingyun looked over with a melancholy gaze. Chang Yubai had become addicted to making up stories, pinning an unknown massacre on a child like him.

Chang Yubai spoke vividly, and it was hard to tell whether it was true or just an incredibly imaginative story that made it believable.

"Then what?"

"Then, that bastard was killed by a local hermit immortal."

Chang Yubai was talking about a tragedy that had occurred in Jiyun Town in the future.

The evil cultivators intended to refine souls and draw arrays in Jiyun Town, forging the killing gate within the array, trapping and killing souls with the Ninefold Ghostly Fiend Array, and providing energy for the main array core in the distance.

The evil cultivator could never have imagined that his blade had only just begun to bleed when his own head was already gone.

Who would have thought that a high-level martial arts cultivator would be living in a neglected town in the Central Plains?

Since the evil cultivator could pull out a grand formation targeting the Central Plains, he naturally wouldn't be alone. Chang Yubai killed the younger one and brought in the older one. In one exchange, the two high-level martial arts cultivators fought so fiercely that it shook the heavens and the earth, successfully attracting Venerable Qingyun, who was in seclusion studying the Yuanjue technique.

The moment a Venerable Martial Realm expert makes a move, everything is reduced to ashes in an instant.

The evil cultivators were truly panicked. How could there be a Venerable Martial Realm expert living in seclusion here?

After a lot of fighting, the evil cultivators got nowhere and lost several lives.

Chang Yubai remembered that during that time, his master kept telling him to stay in the cave and not to go out, while Venerable Qingyun dealt with the envoys from the major sects.

Chang Yubai secretly hung a spying talisman on his master and heard Venerable Qingyun using the name of his beloved disciple to make exorbitant demands, claiming that his disciple had fought gloriously and was seriously injured in order to save Zhongzhou. He was so happy that he almost rolled around in his cave.

It's not easy to fleece the major sects in Zhongzhou, but who can blame them when it's Venerable Qingyun, a peak Martial Realm expert, who speaks up?

The envoys from several major sects dared not question the authenticity in front of the Venerable One, let alone break into the cave to demand that Chang Yubai come out to verify the wounds. They could only swallow this bitter pill and take a group of still-breathing evil cultivators back to report.

Even just recalling the past, Chang Yubai couldn't help but smile.

Li Qingyun knew at a glance that this guy had been daydreaming again.

He tentatively tugged at Chang Yubai: "Brother, how long are we going to stay here? What if I don't speak your local dialect?"

"No rush, we won't stay long."

Whenever Chang Yubai said "I won't stay long," it meant that they would not be staying overnight in the area.

Li Qingyun was relieved: "Okay~"

The two sat quietly in front of the crumbling wooden table, one focused on his cultivation, the other lost in thought. Several groups of people from the village passed by, and each approaching footstep attracted Chang Yubai's attention.

He listened to the words that were half familiar and half unfamiliar, as if each one matched someone from his memory, yet it also felt like a dream.

Along the way, a large group of people came to ask for water, and the old shopkeeper was too busy to handle them all. Chang Yubai took the opportunity to wave his hand and send out the two bowls of water on his table.

When Li Qingyun woke up from her meditation, she saw that the water bowl on the table was empty and breathed a sigh of relief.

The peaceful time drew to a close in the evening.

Chang Yubai suddenly remembered something: "Uncle, which shop nearby sells candy?"

The old man chuckled and said it was a lucky coincidence. His family was the only ones in the whole village making candy, and his son would carry the candy around the village early in the morning and return soon.

However, the baskets that came back were definitely empty, because there were still many people buying candy.

After laughing, the old man said, "I have a little left. I'll sell it to you for only three copper coins, so you won't have to make a wasted trip."

Li Qingyun secretly remarked that this currency was quite unfamiliar.

Having heard so much about cultivation, this was the first time Lingyu had ever seen something unrelated to cultivation appear.

Despite the unfamiliarity of these items, Chang Yubai handed them over directly: "Three pieces."

Li Qingyun: ? ? ?

How come it really exists?!

Just how many things unrelated to cultivation are still in your mustard seed space?

"Just eat it, this candy is really delicious. You won't find this taste anywhere else."

Chang Yubai naturally believed it.

He had been eating candy for decades, so if the taste was bad, it wouldn't be able to entice him to continue his persistent plan to escape from his cave.

Chang Yubai put the candy in his mouth, and it was still the familiar taste, unchanged for thousands of years.

He has seen hundreds and thousands of years pass; the environment may change, the people may change, but the taste will not.

Food is sweet when it's meant to be sweet, and salty when it's meant to be salty. Even if the world changes or the era changes, the original taste of the food will still remain unchanged.

The last time he tasted this salty candy, it was from a clean-cut young man with spiritual energy emanating from him. The young man sold him a dozen or so copper coins from a nicely packaged cardboard box.

Now, he took a clean cotton bundle from an old man who wasn't dressed very neatly. The bundle was clean and smelled nice, and it only cost three copper coins.

It's still sugar; it tastes salty at first, then sweet.

The accent is still the same as the one I remember, and the flow of the story has its own rhythm.

Everything was so familiar; everywhere I looked, there were old friends.

Looking around, all I could see were strangers.

A note from the author:

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