The fireflies illuminated the path in the woods, making it look like a dream. On the moonless night, Loran Hill walked towards his own small yard with the faint light.
His fingers groped in the dark shadows and touched the cold copper rings and grooves. Loran Hill took out the small copper plate tied to his wrist, wrapped his fingers around it, and pressed it into the groove. A light golden ripple spread from the door, illuminating complex patterns, and then with a slight sound, the door opened.
Holding the things she had received today, she stepped over the high threshold and walked into the courtyard. She turned back and closed the door with one hand.
Looking at the dark courtyard, Loran Hill blinked, and two green flames floated out from his side and landed on the palace lanterns in the courtyard. Then the two octagonal palace lanterns emitted a soft warm light, illuminating the path in the middle and the surrounding buildings.
Pushing open the door of the attic, the air inside was slightly cool.
A burst of chirping was heard, and then two birds flapped their wings and flew towards Luo Lanxier, chirping and circling around her head, and then landed on the birdcage on the side. The two little heads tilted to look at the thing in Luo Lanxier's hand, looking for something to eat.
It seemed that he had forgotten to bring food for the two little guys, and Loran Hill felt a sense of uneasiness and guilt in his heart.
She put the wooden box containing clothes aside, walked into the yard and looked at the surrounding trees.
It should be possible to temporarily ripen ordinary crops now. Loran Hill looked for suitable trees and focused his attention on the tall pine trees nearby.
After making her choice, she took the wooden flute from the house, went to the courtyard and began to play it.
Green butterflies, formed from scattered magical light points, appeared one by one beside Loran Hill. As she began to play the flute, two small birds took off, circling and chirping above the courtyard, curiously watching the girl below.
As Loran Hill played the flute, the butterflies flew up one by one and flocked to the tall pine tree beside them. The green and fluorescent butterflies fluttered on the branches, stayed between the branches, and turned into grains of light sand.
The pine trees integrated into the light sand began to grow buds, then quickly bloomed and produced pine nuts that dotted the branches.
The night wind blew, the branches and leaves swayed, and the pine nuts collided with each other, making a slight wooden sound.
When Loran Hill finished casting the spell, the pine nuts fell down and were gathered by the whirlwind in the center of the courtyard.
Seeing the plump pine nuts forming, the two birds circled happily in the air, and then landed on the stone slabs in the courtyard. Looking at the scattered pine nuts in front of them, the fragrance of leaves and pine nuts also spread in the courtyard.
They pounced over to the pine nuts, their beaks tapping them, cracking the slightly hard shells and letting the pine nuts, with their delicate, oily aroma, slip into their mouths. One of the goldfinch even spitted out wisps of flame, roasting the nuts and enhancing their taste.
The blue dark crow standing by didn't have any fire-related abilities, so it could only watch with envy and continue pecking at the raw pine nuts.
Loran Hill walked over and touched the little guy's head. Then a gust of air came from the ground, lifted some pine nuts and flew into the air. Then, strands of green flames spread and outlined in the air like vines. These flames burned through the pine nuts, evenly penetrating the heat into them. Some of the originally closed pine nuts also cracked open, and the courtyard was filled with the fragrance of pine oil.
Then the roasted pine nuts gathered together again and fell onto the clean stone slabs in the courtyard.
"Eat it, it should taste much better this way." Loran Hill touched the little guy with blue and black feathers, then sat on the bluestone beside him, looking at the two innocent little birds below.
She was a little hungry, Loran Hill thought. Seeing the two birds eating happily, she also picked up a few clean pine nuts, peeling them one by one, blowing away the brown oily skin, and the small white pine nuts fell into her palm.
Leaning on the bluestone in the courtyard, Loran Hill looked up at the starry night sky, ate the nutritious pine nuts one by one, and listened to the night wind and the chirping of insects.
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In the next few days, Loran Hill rarely went out and spent most of his time in his yard.
First, he cleaned the courtyard, removed the accumulated dust, and ventilated it. Then he went to Changwufang to buy some daily necessities to fill the empty courtyard.
After cleaning the yard, Loran Hill began to study the classics.
On a sunny afternoon, by the pond in the courtyard.
Tall pine trees stood outside the wall, part of them extending into the courtyard. Loran Hill lay on a bamboo lounge chair in the shade, flipping through the outer sect texts in his hands. The two birds perched on the pine branches, occasionally glancing at the girl below and the distance, then tucked their heads in, closed their eyes, and dozed off.
The pale yellow pages of the book turned gently, and occasionally the corners were lifted up by the breeze, making a whistling sound. The ink-colored text was clear and neat, telling the origin of Huiluzhou and the origin of the Xiangyu School.
Regardless of which organization or faction, the beginning of its classics never talks about techniques, but introduces the inheritance and origin of its own faction.
Huilu Island originated in ancient times. It is said that a crimson fire giant and a winged dragon fought on the land. After the fire giant died, his body fell here. His head turned into a roaring volcano, and his body became a stream of fire that spread to the surrounding provinces.
The most poisonous and hot stream among them flowed into Huilu Island, burning the green mountains and turning them into a sea of fire. The earth evaporated and gradually turned into white stone hot sand.
This situation lasted for a long time, and the word "Hui Lu" is not auspicious, but a synonym for fire, and the residents living around here suffered greatly.
This situation continued until thousands of years ago, when the Seven Phoenixes Yingtian True Flame Lord stirred up the South China Sea's thousand-layered waves, traversing thousands of mountains and rivers like a celestial river pouring down, extinguishing the fire of the fire and quenching the inextinguishable wildfire. Afterward, the Five-Colored Phoenix sent down yellow mulberry seeds, and a large number of paper mulberry trees grew in the area, absorbing the heat and poison from the ground, solidifying the water and soil, and opening up the dragon veins, allowing the energy of heaven and earth to flow and dissipate the excess heat.
In this way, this place became suitable for living.
To this day, numerous paper mulberry trees still grow throughout much of this prefecture. Their leaves, even after falling, retain their vibrant yellow hue. Some exceptional specimens are known as autumn-yellow paper mulberry trees, and are cultivated by many local factions.
A few days ago, the 'yellow gauze dress' sent to Loran Hill was made of a large amount of bark fiber from these autumn yellow paper mulberry trees. It is not only tough, but also resistant to poison and fire.
Although the ordinary paper mulberry tree is not used for extraordinary purposes, it also has significant uses in other fields. Its inner bark fibers are long and soft, with strong moisture absorption, making it an excellent raw material for making mulberry paper.
The word "缃" in the Xiangyu School means writing, and also refers to books, which also originated from here.
Because it is suitable for papermaking and has extremely abundant raw materials, Huilu Island was a place where many books were printed and produced in the past, and the number of scholars gradually increased. Later, the incense-burning fairy Hong Chun chose this place to establish his sect for this reason.
The expansion of knowledge is inseparable from books. With the printing of various books, the fame of Huilu Continent and the Xiangyu Sect gradually spread, becoming a prestigious sect on the East Dragon Continent for a thousand years. Even after several splits, its reputation has not fallen.
The girl slowly flipped through the pale yellow pages made of mulberry tree, thinking about the distant and changing history in the book.
The afternoon wind blows through the pine forest, the branches sway, the two birds and the man are immersed in the quiet afternoon, and time becomes blurred and colorful.
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