Travel (Part 3)
On the seventh day of his solo journey down the mountain, Lin Shi learned from his experience and avoided the busiest area in Longgu City. Instead, he wandered around the villages and towns further away from Qifeng Mountain.
That day, she traveled to the area bordering Longgu City and the neighboring Yanyue City. Yanyue City was located north of Longgu City. Upon entering the territory of Yanyue City, the style of the houses in the villages and towns changed drastically. They were no longer uniform gray-walled and black-tiled buildings, but instead red-walled and glazed-tile buildings.
Lin Shi spent another ten days traversing the villages and towns of Yanyue City and flying over the mountains within its borders. She discovered traces of sects on two mountains within Yanyue City, but dared not approach. She only sensed the aura of formations from afar before quickly avoiding them, taking a detour without being detected by other cultivators. Knowing her cultivation was low, having only recently entered the Foundation Establishment stage, she dared not venture into the central urban area of Yanyue City. Having explored most of the villages and towns within Yanyue City, she decided to return to Seven Peaks Mountain for a period of secluded cultivation.
Just as Lin Shi was about to leave the territory of Yanyue City and return to Longgu City, an unexpected incident still occurred.
Just as Lin Shi was happily preparing to fly into the territory of Dragon Valley City, her spiritual power suddenly failed. At that moment, her face immediately turned pale, and her heart sank to the bottom. However, she dared not scream, fearing that she would attract ill-intentioned cultivators. She could only fall silently down along with the Demon-Slaying Sword.
Lin Shi hoped that her physical cultivation would work miraculously, preventing her from falling from mid-air and being smashed to pieces, dying a gruesome death. She was lucky; her wish came true, and she didn't die. Unfortunately, she accidentally stumbled into a strange little spiritual realm.
After Lin Shi fell into the Minor Spirit Realm, her spiritual power instantly recovered. As soon as she got up from the ground, she felt a chilling aura, which made her instantly use her spiritual power to raise a transparent protective shield around her, ensuring that she would not touch anything she shouldn't from head to toe.
Lin Shi stared intently, realizing she was standing on the outskirts of a forest. To the left of the forest stretched a vast plain, dotted with rice paddies, wheat fields, neatly planted vegetables, and various unidentified plants. Her gaze drifted forward, and she saw a low hill in the distance. At its foot, scattered like chess pieces on a board, were gray-walled, black-tiled houses. Wisps of smoke rose from the chimneys. Nearby, some residents were working. Separated from the residential area, the plain, and the forest, two rivers flowed gently, their waters calm and crystal clear.
The scene was so ordinary that it looked like a remote village in the mortal world, where the residents seemed to make a living by farming, hunting, and planting.
Before Lin Shi could even relax, she saw the villagers next to the houses in the distance turn into a cloud of black smoke and instantly appear in front of her, surrounding her in a circle of people.
Lin Shi pursed her lips, calmly observing the group of unfamiliar men and women, young and old, standing before and around her, all staring intently at her and the longsword in her hand with excited expressions. The Demon-Slaying Sword in her hand was vibrating incessantly, emitting a dazzling golden light, frantically warning her of the impending danger.
"Young lady, you must be tired from your long journey. Why don't you stay in the village for the night, have something to eat, and leave tomorrow?" A kind-looking middle-aged woman came to Lin Shi's side first and tried to take her arm, but was repelled by the protective spiritual energy shield on Lin Shi's body.
After the middle-aged woman was thrown back, her appearance instantly changed. Her gentle face was instantly covered with black mist, and her eyes slowly turned completely black, the whites of her eyes disappearing entirely. The other villagers around her also changed their expressions instantly, their faces shrouded in black mist, and they all brandished tools such as hoes, sickles, kitchen knives, and machetes, attacking Lin Shi in unison.
It turned out to be just the spirits of dead villagers! No one knew which evil cultivator had killed them. Lin Shi thought to himself, but didn't move, only thickening the spiritual energy shield around him. When the villagers' ordinary tools struck the shield, they were instantly thrown back, tools and all.
The villagers fell to the ground, but quickly rose again, fearless of pain or death, and continued to slash at Lin Shi. Lin Shi saw that they were not very dangerous, so she swung the Demon-Slaying Sword in her right hand a few times. The dazzling golden light went towards the residents surrounding her, instantly turning them into a cloud of white mist and disappearing.
After seeing that the villagers' souls had all disappeared, Lin Shi finished chanting the Rebirth Spell, purified their souls, and then sent them back to the starting point.
After the chilling aura around her dissipated, Lin Shi stood quietly for a while before taking a few steps to the nearby river, squatting down, and placing her sword at her feet. She used the crystal-clear river water as a mirror, adjusting her hair. The clear water reflected a beautiful woman's face; her jet-black hair was piled high in a flying bun, adorned with a hairpin resembling a whistling wind. From her beautiful widow's peak downwards, one could see a smooth, full forehead, thick, arched eyebrows, thick, fan-like eyelashes, beautiful, watery peach blossom eyes, a straight nose, and delicate, rose-petal-like red lips. When her lips parted, one could vaguely see pearly white teeth. Below her beautiful face was a slender, white neck like a swan's, and a graceful, youthful figure—perfectly proportioned. With bright eyes and white teeth, she was captivatingly beautiful; calling her a beauty capable of toppling kingdoms would not be an exaggeration.
Facing the river's surface, Lin Shi brushed some of her loose, dragon-whisker-like hair behind her ears and straightened her hairpin, making the dangling beads shine even more brilliantly, highlighting her refined and ethereal beauty.
Lin Shi's gaze kept drifting to the surface of the river. When she noticed a small eddy appearing on the surface, she swiftly enveloped her arm with spiritual energy and grabbed something from the river. The river immediately surged violently, creating a fountain-like turbulence, but it quickly subsided.
Lin Shi looked closely at the thing in her hand and found that it was an animal that looked like a toad, but its body was as long as a snake and it looked disgusting.
The evil spirit has even taken form! Lin Shi thought to herself, looking at the ugly thing in her hand with disgust. Before the ugly thing could even beg for mercy, she turned her sword energy into countless small swords, piercing it through like a sieve. Then, the blazing golden-red flames burned the ugly thing to ashes, leaving it no time to even scream.
After the ugly thing died, Lin Shi used her spiritual power to transform into water, washed her hands for a while, and then used her spiritual power to pull up the long sword on the ground and hold it in her hand. She walked calmly and quickly to another river, and as she approached, a huge white wave appeared in the river, rushing rapidly upstream into the forest.
Lin Shi's figure moved so fast that his movements were almost invisible. Then, in a short while, he used his longsword to pick up something from another river, exposing it to the sunlight.
It was another ugly thing that had taken the form of an evil spirit! This time, however, it looked more like a real snake, only its entire body was black and it emitted a foul stench. Lin Shi disgustedly used his sword energy to pierce it into a sieve, and then burned it to ashes with golden-red flames.
Lin Shi flew on his sword to the villager's house at the foot of the hill and searched around, but found no living creatures. The villagers' houses showed no signs of having been inhabited for a long time, covered in dust, and many were dilapidated and half-collapsed.
Lin Shi flew back to where she first appeared and explored the plains again, but found nothing unusual. She also re-examined the two intersecting rivers, but found nothing amiss. Finally, only the forest remained to be explored.
"The exit of this little spiritual realm must be inside the forest," Lin Shi thought to herself. She stood there pondering for a while, then slowly walked along the river that ran through the forest, heading deeper into the woods.
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