The sky suddenly brightened, and a faint golden light penetrated the morning clouds, spreading from the horizon and enveloping the mountains.
At the foot of the mountain, the county town that had slept all night began to wake up gradually, and people took to the streets one after another and began their lives day after day.
And on the top of this medium-sized mountain, on the ten-meter-long open space that looks like a bald head, there is a strange boulder lying across.
The boulder was about the height of a person, and the stone had been eroded by wind and rain, presenting a human-like shape.
Not only that, the places on this boulder that have been most severely eroded by wind and rain just happen to correspond to the nine orifices of a person. It can be said to be a natural creation. It does not look like a boulder, but more like a stone man who has not yet developed intelligence.
At this time, if a cultivator passes by this place, he will find that although this stone man has not yet been officially born, he has already learned to use the nine orifices to absorb and exhale the surrounding spiritual energy, and can even use secret methods to gather sunlight and absorb the essence of sunlight in the early morning.
This is definitely not something that a mere stone embryo can do. It must be guided by a person with great supernatural powers to help it develop spiritual intelligence in advance.
In this world, compared to the spirits of birds, beasts, plants and trees, it is the most difficult to make earth and stones become spirits.
Because of this, their potential after becoming spirits is the greatest among all living creatures.
Most of the earth and stone spirits that were enlightened in advance by the great masters became mountain gods and land gods canonized by the Heavenly Court. Some were even accepted by the real great masters as their strong men or even disciples.
And those who have endured enough years and developed spiritual intelligence on their own are even more amazing.
The most typical example is the stone monkey that caused havoc in the Heavenly Palace.
Therefore, once a cultivator with real cultivation passes by this place and discovers the stone man, he will definitely be tempted and take it away.
For this reason, in order to avoid becoming a vassal of a Taoist priest or monk, this stone man only quietly absorbs the essence of the sun and the moon at sunrise and sunset, and in the middle of the night. At other times, he pretends to be unintelligent and unconsciously inhales and exhales spiritual energy to avoid causing too much noise and alarming the practitioners in the Taoist temples around the mountain.
Fortunately, it has been three years since Master Zishan was born into this stone fetus.
During these three years, he was extremely cautious, constantly attracting birds and beasts to linger and enduring the climbing of mosses. Fortunately, he did not encounter any accidents and successfully cultivated to his current level.
Feeling the spiritual light gradually filling his body, Master Zishan felt a long-lost sense of excitement in his heart.
"Seven days, another seven days, and I will be able to trigger the heavenly tribulation, transcend the tribulation and transform!"
By then, he will finally be able to move independently and leave this hellish place full of birds and beasts shit!
At the same time, due to the stone fetus, the disciple-recruiting system that had been shelved for three years can finally be put on the agenda and studied carefully!
Thinking of this, Master Zishan calmed down his excited mood a little and opened the system panel in his soul.
It has been three years since he obtained this damn disciple-recruiting system. In addition to practicing, Master Zishan also often interacts with the system, studies its functions, and explores the secrets behind it.
But unfortunately, this system seemed to be an artificial retardation, and apart from some basic instructions, it was impossible to communicate with him.
And most of the basic instructions have not yet been unlocked.
Currently, there is only one task panel that can be opened, which contains a novice task called [First-time Apprenticeship].
Although this system was far from his expectations, Master Zishan still did not dare to underestimate it.
Because the rewards for this novice mission are so generous!
Simply by accepting a disciple, he would be rewarded with a full hundred years of magical power cultivation.
If Master Zishan could complete it at the stone embryo stage, he would not only be able to transform instantly, but could also directly skip the initial little demon stage and become a stone spirit with a hundred years of cultivation.
With such a level of cultivation, plus the supernatural powers he possesses, it will certainly not be a problem for him to at least survive in the mortal world.
But unfortunately, he can only think about such things now.
After all, among the immortal cultivation geniuses that are favored by Master Zishan, who would be willing to take a stone as his master?
Thinking of this, Master Zishan sighed, and immediately began to look forward to his journey into the human world after his transformation.
At the same time, in the small county at the foot of the mountain, outside Baozhi Hall, a handsome young man carried a medicine basket on his back, picked up a book, walked onto the street, and headed straight towards the back mountain outside the city.
Neighbors and villagers passing by would greet the young man with a smile.
The boy smiled back. His gentle, jade-like, spring-like temperament made all the neighbors who responded feel much better.
"Brother Xu, are you going to the mountains to collect herbs today?"
A slightly amused voice came from the side.
The young man turned his head and looked at the middle-aged scholar who was eating noodle soup at the stall, and nodded with a smile: "Yeah."
"Did you bring an umbrella?" the middle-aged scholar asked, and then explained with a smile, "I saw that Wang Ma's Da Huang was listless today and didn't go out. Maybe it's going to rain."
The young man thanked him warmly, took out a paper umbrella from his backpack and waved it towards the middle-aged scholar.
The middle-aged scholar laughed and waved his hand, signaling the young man not to delay here.
The young man smiled in response, thanked him warmly again, then walked towards the city gate.
After leaving the city and coming to the back mountain, the young man looked at the sky above his head, took out the book from his backpack, and read as he walked.
I was lucky yesterday. I found most of the herbs and they filled my backpack even before I picked them.
Today, when I go into the mountains to collect herbs, I only need to revisit the old place and do not have to search for them, which saves a lot of effort.
Besides, he was very familiar with this road and could walk to the end even with his eyes closed. He could take this opportunity to read more books.
Soon, the young man arrived at the place where he had been yesterday. He was refreshed, put away the book, and walked into the bushes.
When the medicine basket was two-thirds filled, the young man stood up, pounded his aching back, and subconsciously looked up at the sky.
“Tick…”
A drop of rain fell on the boy's handsome face.
The young man was startled for a moment, then he realized something was wrong, and quickly took out a paper umbrella from the basket and opened it.
“Crash——”
There was a sharp sound, and the boy's heart skipped a beat. He quickly put down the umbrella. Sure enough, he found a scratch about a foot long on the right side of the umbrella.
It turned out that the boy was in such a hurry to open the umbrella that he did not notice the branches sticking out from the tree next to him.
When the paper umbrella was opened, the umbrella hit the tree branch and was easily scratched by the protruding twigs.
“This is bad!”
The young man was annoyed and quickly picked up the medicine basket and ran back the way he came with a broken umbrella.
At this moment, God seemed to feel that the foreplay was complete and the main course could begin.
As a result, the original small raindrops quickly turned into heavy rain in just a few seconds.
Countless raindrops fell from the sky, hitting the leaves around the boy and the paper umbrella in his hand, making the already broken umbrella even worse.
The boy was originally running wildly on the road, but seeing the wind and rain blowing in his face, which made the cracks in the paper umbrella even more fluttering, he had no choice but to slow down and walk slowly on the mountain road washed by heavy rain.
“Bad luck…”
"I should have listened to my sister and used the new umbrella she bought."
The young man was walking on the mountain road while holding an umbrella, thinking depressedly.
Suddenly, the boy felt the paper umbrella in his hand sink, and a familiar but ominous voice sounded again.
His eyes widened and he looked up in panic, only to see a black shadow falling from the sky and landing on his paper umbrella. It then used the force to leap forward and pounced on a strangely shaped stone beside the road.
The boy looked carefully and found that the black shadow was actually a young yellow fox.
The rock it ran towards was the so-called Stone Mountain King that the woodcutters talked about with great relish.
The reason why it is called the Mountain King is that its shape is very similar to a bent human being. Whenever it rains heavily, woodcutters going up and down the mountain can always see some small animals taking shelter under the stone.
It was as if the stone bent down on its own initiative, providing a safe haven for the creatures in the mountain.
Thinking of this, the young man suddenly realized that the fox should have come here to shelter from the wind and rain.
"What bad luck!"
The young man smiled bitterly, raised his hands to cover his eyes, and looked at the paper umbrella above his head which was even more damaged.
At this point, after the triple attack of branches, foxes, wind and rain, the hole in the umbrella had expanded to a point where it was irreparable.
The torrential rain finally not only hit my face, but also poured down from the broken part of the paper umbrella above my head.
Feeling the water flowing across his cheeks, the boy sighed, put away his paper umbrella, and hurried forward.
When passing by 'Mr. Ishiyama', the young man suddenly stopped.
He glanced at the water-soaked books in the backpack and felt a little distressed. Then he turned his head to look at the little fox curled up under Ishiyama Jun, using its tail as a mattress. After a little thought, he finally decided to rest here for a while.
The black shadow gradually covered the field of vision, and the little fox was startled and quickly looked up and forward.
The young man, carrying a medicine basket on his back, squeezed into the cramped space in Ishiyama-kun's arms with an apologetic look on his face.
"Sorry, sorry, the situation forces me to do this. I have no choice but to make do with it!"
“…”
The little fox opened its watery eyes, glared at the boy, bared its teeth in dissatisfaction, then stood up and moved to the side.
The young man was slightly startled, then he chuckled and bowed, saying, "Thank you very much!"
Afterwards, the man and the fox squeezed into this small space, quietly waiting for the heavy rain to stop.
At the same time, when the man and the fox were unaware, the spiritual consciousness of Master Zishan covered an area of five meters in radius, his spirit and soul appeared, and he looked with a frown at the handsome young man who was reading a book in his arms.
Two years ago, a female fox had difficulty giving birth at his place. It was only with the help of his spiritual energy that she was able to give birth successfully.
In other words, this little fox was born and raised under the watch of Master Zishan, so he can be considered an old acquaintance of him.
But this young man had only appeared here in recent months. He had no connection or association with him, but he was so shameless as to compete with a little fox for shelter from the rain.
Really...
Master Zishan shook his head and looked up at the sky, hoping that the heavy rain would stop soon.
Perhaps someone heard his thoughts, and the heavy rain actually gradually subsided and then stopped.