Taking advantage of both masters’ absence, Lu Zheng explored Wan Song Mountain and took a brief trip back to the modern world, making calls to assure everyone he was still alive.
This was the longest he’d ever been absent from the modern world.
Whether it was the flood relief mission or the southern border wedding, Lu Zheng had always found time to return. But this time, he’d genuinely spent over a month playing chess!
If he hadn’t elevated his chess skills to an extraordinary level and developed some genuine interest in it, he might have been sick of it by now.
Even so, he had no desire to touch a chessboard anytime soon. He just wanted some peace.
Despite his cultivation achievements, even if he were to become an immortal, Lu Zheng was still just a twenty-something young man shaped by modern entertainment culture. So…
While both were leisure activities, how could the ancient, intellectual pursuit of chess compare to the mindless fun of reading novels, gaming, or binge-watching dramas?
In short, he hadn’t indulged enough.
He couldn’t stay in the modern world too long. After handling some messages, Lu Zheng crossed back to Wan Song Mountain.
As soon as he returned, a sika deer grazing at the cave entrance was startled, turned, and fled.
Lu Zheng shook his head and continued wandering the mountain.
“Is that a hundred-year-old fleeceflower root?”
Just a few steps in, Lu Zheng spotted a treasure in the shade by a stream.
A blackish-red fleeceflower root, about a foot wide, emitted a faint medicinal fragrance. Though not a spiritual herb, it was a top-grade mundane medicine.
“Good stuff, I’ll take it!”
No kidding. When pine nuts brimming with spiritual energy were treated as snacks, a hundred-year-old herb growing like wild grass in the mountains was clearly beneath Wan Song’s notice.
But Lu Zheng wasn’t picky. Anything unclaimed and valuable went straight into his gourd.
With such a spacious gourd, leaving it empty was a waste. Whether used for medicine, brewing, or selling in the modern world, these herbs would serve their purpose.
Better than leaving them here to be eaten by some random beast.
On previous trips, Lu Zheng had collected wild herbs along the way. His biggest haul was a few vermilion fruits, followed by the occasional century-old herb.
Most of those herbs were sold to Huairen Hall for cash, making Lu Zheng their top VIP client. Whatever he needed, they delivered, which was why he could summon so many herbs with a single call before.
But Wan Song Mountain was clearly different from ordinary deep forests. Thanks to Wan Song’s presence, the spiritual energy here was noticeably denser than in typical regions. Even common spiritual fruits were abundant, let alone mundane herbs without spiritual energy.
Though he’d helped Wan Song, Lu Zheng couldn’t act like a bumpkin and plunder all the spiritual fruits and herbs on the mountain. But mundane herbs were fair game.
In a place like this, mundane herbs could gain a hundred years’ potency in just a decade or so. Wan Song probably wouldn’t even glance at them, leaving them to the mountain’s beasts.
In that case… ginseng, yellow essence, lingzhi, fleeceflower root, notoginseng…
Lu Zheng didn’t bother with herbs under a hundred years old. Even so, a casual stroll through a small corner of Wan Song Mountain yielded sixty to seventy century-old herbs.
That matched his haul from the past two years.
These were just mundane herbs. He also spotted one or two spiritual herbs but held back from taking them.
For one, spiritual herbs were different from mundane ones. For another, Lu Zheng had enough spiritual herbs and elixirs to last him a while.
More importantly, if Wan Song truly solved the dream chess game with his help, Wan Song would owe him a significant favour. Asking for a few spiritual herbs then would be no issue.
So Lu Zheng wasn’t in a hurry, not at all.
After collecting some century-old herbs, he stopped searching and instead headed to scenic spots with wide views, climbing high to take in the grand vistas.
“This scene calls for a poem!”
Lu Zheng gathered his momentum, stood tall on a rock amid the sea of clouds, and… paused for a long while.
“So cringe, I can’t say it.”
…
At the mountaintop, the ancient pine rustled in the breeze, and Song Kaichuan still hadn’t appeared.
Lu Zheng wandered the mountain, and two days passed quickly.
…
March 3, an auspicious day, perfect for all endeavours.
As the sun rose, golden rays filled the sky.
Lu Zheng sat on a large rock at the peak of another mountain, cultivating through the night. The dazzling golden light stirred him, and he opened his eyes.
Nearby, layered peaks rose, with tigers roaring and deer calling in the forests. Far off, the sea of clouds stretched endlessly, with eagles and falcons crying in the sky.
The sun blazed with golden light above, while the mountains and rivers below displayed a thousand forms.
What a boundless, magnificent scene!
“Jade Seal, enhance!”
“Buzz!”
His true qi, vitality, physique, and spirit all improved slightly.
Patting his gourd, Lu Zheng took out a desk, brush, rice paper, pigments, and water.
Holding the brush, he took a deep breath and said again, “Jade Seal, enhance!”
Jade Seal, “…”
“Buzz!”
This time, it was his painting skills. Consuming over a dozen strands of the Light of Fortune, Lu Zheng felt he could rival Xu Beihong.
Without using true qi, he painted with normal speed and strength, letting the brush flow.
Time passed slowly. Though the sun was now overhead and the mountain mist had dissipated, the earlier scene was etched in Lu Zheng’s mind.
…
It wasn’t until mid-afternoon, as the sun began to tilt westward, that Lu Zheng set down his brush and let out a long breath.
On the desk before him was a Chinese painting, seven feet long and four feet wide.
The sun rises, its path ablaze with light.
Mountains, rivers, and seas of clouds, radiant in all directions.
“Good painting!”
Lu Zheng turned to see Song Kaichuan standing not far behind him.
Stroking his beard, Song Kaichuan asked curiously, “Young friend Lu, are you so skilled in painting as well?”
Song Kaichuan wasn’t an expert in painting, but with a thousand years of cultivation and deep insight, he could sense the artistic conception.
Lu Zheng’s painting captured the boundless vitality of mountains and rivers, with the sun’s radiance illuminating all directions.
To express such conception in a painting made it a fine work, and its creator a top-tier painter.
Lu Zheng smiled shyly. “I’ve dabbled a bit.”
But he didn’t say things like “it’s not good, please don’t laugh,” as he’d put effort into this painting, and it was indeed excellent. Too much modesty would seem insincere.
“When did you arrive, Senior?” Lu Zheng asked.
“I arrived in the early afternoon. Seeing you focused on painting, I didn’t disturb you,” Song Kaichuan said. “In a few hours, Old Pine should wake up, so I came out to wait for him.”
