A profound realization
Meng Qi regained consciousness and found himself naked and transformed back into a sand rat.
The doctor, disheveled and with thorns stuck to his robe, was nearby, looking like he had traveled a long distance overnight.
Was this Dragon Horn Peak?
Meng Qi subconsciously confirmed this place, and he gazed at the massive rock before him, his fragmented memories coming back to him.
Yes, this was the most spiritually abundant place on Shangyun Mountain, and it was his original home.
He had lived here for as long as he could remember.
Although the mountain rock appeared large, the caves where he could take shelter were quite narrow and uncomfortable.
It seemed that from the moment he became conscious of his “existence,” the sand rat had wanted to leave the rock and roam elsewhere.
Unfortunately, Dragon Horn Peak was too high, the sand rat was too small, and the wind outside was too strong. It had kept him trapped there for many years.
Aside from the abundant spiritual energy, he had basically neither eaten nor drunk anything, and many months and years had been spent sleeping directly through it.
–Since he couldn’t leave, all he could do was sleep.
Meng Qi recollected the images in his fragmented memory.
Among the nineteen peaks of Shangyun Mountain, there were many tranquil and picturesque places, but Dragon Horn Peak, aside from rocks and sand, had nothing.
He didn’t know what the doctor’s mountain looked like yet, but his side was definitely bare.
This was rather disheartening.
Wait, Dragon Horn Peak was only a horn, and he was the mountain spirit of Shangyun Mountain. He couldn’t ignore the whole picture.
It wasn’t bare at all!
It was all a coincidence!
With a sense of relief, the sand rat began to use its claws to pat away the dirt on its body. It believed it was behaving elegantly and calmly, but the black carp next to it looked worried.
The reach of the fat rat’s paws is limited, and its coat is pure white, which will turn yellowish and gray when exposed to dust and sand.
The rat carefully patted for a long time, but only the fur on the sides and chest was cleaned.
So what stood in front of Mo Li was a fat rat with a white middle body and grains of sand under its head and belly, let alone its back that couldn’t be scratched by its paws.
The meat trembles whenever it moved, and grains of sand kept falling down.
Mo Li suspected that at this time, if he stuffed the fat rat into a bamboo cup and shook it up and down, then released it, maybe half the cup would be filled with sand.
The sand rat took a few steps closer to Mo Li, looking at him apologetically.
Before it could do anything, a gust of wind suddenly blew, and something flew into the air.
With its tiny black-bean-like eyes wide open, the sand rat rushed forward without hesitation.
–his clothes!
Although Meng Qi had never been consciously aware of it, he had instinctively placed the clothes in a relatively wind-protected corner. As a result, when Meng Qi unintentionally pushed the glowing orb that had fallen out of the sand, the clothes shifted slightly to the side.
The land here is high and the wind is strong, so there are only a few places where you can avoid being blown by the wind, and each sheltered area is very narrow. Even if you just cross the boundary slightly, you will be swept away by the wind immediately.
When he transformed into his original form, the clothes he took off were gone due to an accident, leaving him naked.This had always been Mo Li’s biggest worry.
As a result, this kind of accident has never happened to him until now, but it happened to Meng Qi.
On Dragon Horn Peak, where the wind was strong year-round, had such accidents occurred many times before?
Various thoughts raced through Mo Li’s mind, but he did not stand still. He helped Meng Qi chase the clothes.
–Although the clothes weren’t valuable, they still contained a soft sword inside.
Due to the presence of this sword, the clothes were not immediately blown off the mountainside by the wind. Instead, they rolled clumsily along the mountain path, sometimes hanging in the air and sometimes hugging the ground.
“…”
When the soft sword was not infused with inner energy and not tied around the waist, it was like a stiff measuring tape.
It was much lighter than an ordinary longsword but still had some weight.
The soft sword had transformed into a circular wheel hidden within the clothes, and the strong wind blew it downhill following the mountain’s terrain. A chubby sand rat desperately chased after it, and because it was running so fast, it almost looked like it was rolling.
Mo Li wanted to laugh, but he felt it might not be appropriate, so he suppressed his laughter.
He controlled his inner energy to perform light martial arts, and in a matter of moments, he overtook the sand rat and reached out to grab the clothes.
“Riip—”
Mo Li’s hand ended up with only half a sleeve.
The clothes, bought in the market, had relatively ordinary fabric and couldn’t withstand this series of mishaps.
Mo Li reached out again, and the palm of his hand was filled with the true energy formed by his inner power, causing the clothes, now rolled into a bundle, to shatter into pieces, revealing the outline of the soft sword.
When the inner energy touched it, the soft sword’s blade instantly straightened and landed on the ground with a thud.
The sand rat had arrived just in time, and with its hind legs scratching the ground, it stopped in front of the soft sword.
Fragments of clothing were flying in the air. The rat looked up and then a piece of cloth fell and covered its head.
Meanwhile, the scattered debris of clothes and loose stones along the mountain path had also been brought down by the running duo. With a loud crash, the sand rat was buried beneath it.
Worried, Mo Li hurriedly went to dig it out.
Meng Qi then tossed aside the torn cloth covering its eyes, his mood heavy.
Mo Li was helping him brush off the sand and dust on his body. Because Meng Qi had been chasing after the sword, his demeanor, style, and grandeur, which he had displayed while confessing his feelings to his beloved last night, had all vanished.
Not to mention that he suddenly went crazy in the middle of the night, abandoned the doctor and ran across several mountains.
Meng Qi was a little depressed. He was under the impression that his illness had improved significantly, but in reality, it had not.
When he noticed that the foolish little glowing orb still had presence, it was as if a string in his heart had snapped. If Liu Dan had unluckily appeared in front of him just now, Meng Qi couldn’t be sure he would have been able to restrain himself.
Looking at the sand rat sitting on the ground in a daze, Mo Li coughed dryly. He first put away the soft sword and then put the bag on the ground.
“Find something to wear first.”
After saying that, he turned around.
Meng Qi silently changed back and opened the bag to find some clothes.
He knew that Mo Li, who was a true gentleman, would never sneak a peek. Moreover, he had already seen it, so there was no need for the doctor to be interested in him.
Mo Li distinguished the rustling sound of clothes behind him, looked at the huge rock in the distance, and thought about the incorporeal shiny ball. Is it the small dragon vein born from Shangyun Mountain?
Mo Li couldn’t feel that the ball had any self-awareness.
As a tree, the dragon vein of Silang Mountain are more spiritual than it.
“Doctor.” Meng Qi interrupted Mo Li’s thoughts.
This time Meng Qi honestly took out his clothes without touching Mo Li’s.
Mo Li, with his back still turned, glanced at Meng Qi and then shouldered his bag again without returning the sword.
Meng Qi hesitated, wanting to say something but then stopped himself.
He didn’t know if Mo Li “confiscated” the sword to prevent any accidents from happening again or if it was because of the sword’s name.
–Did accepting “Zhongqing (heartfelt)” imply accepting Meng Qi’s heartfelt love?
Meng Qi thought about what had happened today and sighed, shaking his head. How could it possibly be the latter?
“Doctor, I’m very sorry. I didn’t expect… it to still be alive,”
Meng Qi said. No matter how silly a mountain spirit was, it was still a mountain spirit. Even if he despised it, he couldn’t just send it back to be “born” again.
Meng Qi thought about the time he seriously discussed with Mo Li how their kind could have children, and the answer was absurdly funny. At that time, how could he have thought that actually, mountain spirits are born from the ground itself.
No need for birth!
“Probably because of severe trauma, the source was damaged, and it hid here to recuperate.”
Mentioning this made Meng Qi very annoyed.
Dragon veins have a strong sense of territory, and that piece of rock and stone was where the “sand rat” came into the world.
Initially, when a “thief” that devoured spiritual energy appeared in Shangyun Mountain, the Taijing dragon vein was displeased. This time it was more extreme, as their homeland was occupied.
Meng Qi, unable to act rashly for fear of scaring away the round creature, had to block it back in.
Meng Qi told Mo Li how stupid that little sand rat was, remarking on how such a clumsy mountain spirit hadn’t been captured by Taoists was just luck.
Mo Li shook his head, “Taoists believe in the existence of dragon veins but can’t imagine them growing legs and wandering around, so why would they come to catch them?”
Meng Qi felt doubtful. Although he was convinced that mountain spirits were dragon veins, every time the doctor mentioned dragon veins, he felt like he had forgotten something important.
Strange, what could it be?
“The spiritual energy in Shangyun Montain is abundant, and it’s good for branch veins to produce mountain spirits,” Mo Li remarked.
Qimao Mountain wasn’t so lucky, sitting at home without going out, yet catching a chubby baby.
Without a chubby baby, catching a small fish at the foot of the mountain would also be nice.
Mo Li thought about his hard work in the mountains, planting ginseng, raising white foxes, caring for giant snakes, hoping they would turn into demons, but all in vain. Meanwhile, Meng Qi did nothing, and a small dragon vein grew in his field.
It’s really frustrating when comparing oneself to others.
“Let it grow in the spiritual cave on its own,” Mo Li sighed.
Meng Qi cooperatively extended his hand for Mo Li to check his pulse, probably the third time that day.
Mo Li, not as concerned about the frequency, carefully felt Meng Qi’s internal energy flow and gave him a calming pill.
“How much do you remember?”
“Not much, mostly related to that round creature,” Meng Qi hadn’t named the little sand rat.
Because the sand rat was himself, he didn’t want to use this name for the round creature.
Mo Li thoughtfully asked, “What’s the earliest thing you can recall?”
“I’m not sure, but it’s definitely not from the Chen dynasty,” Meng Qi frowned. Before becoming “Meng Qi,” he had spent many years perched on the beams of a schoolhouse at Dragon Tail Peak in the form of a sand rat.
There were also various temples and Taoist temples in these mountains, some of which still exist today, while others have fallen into ruin.
Meng Qi blurted out, “The day I transformed into a human form, I was in the Liuhe Temple on Dragon Claw Peak, watching Yang Daozhi paint.”
Yang Daozhi was a painting saint, and stories of his paintings of fierce tigers disappearing from the scrolls are still told to this day.
Yang Daozhi was a person from three hundred years ago. After calculating, Mo Li found Meng Qi disturbed.
Mo Li advised, “You’ll remember everything eventually, no need to worry.”
Meng Qi looked at Mo Li and said nothing.
He thought that his age of eighty-seven couldn’t be maintained any longer.
A profound realization
Meng Qi regained consciousness and found himself naked and transformed back into a sand rat.
The doctor, disheveled and with thorns stuck to his robe, was nearby, looking like he had traveled a long distance overnight.
Was this Dragon Horn Peak?
Meng Qi subconsciously confirmed this place, and he gazed at the massive rock before him, his fragmented memories coming back to him.
Yes, this was the most spiritually abundant place on Shangyun Mountain, and it was his original home.
He had lived here for as long as he could remember.
Although the mountain rock appeared large, the caves where he could take shelter were quite narrow and uncomfortable.
It seemed that from the moment he became conscious of his “existence,” the sand rat had wanted to leave the rock and roam elsewhere.
Unfortunately, Dragon Horn Peak was too high, the sand rat was too small, and the wind outside was too strong. It had kept him trapped there for many years.
Aside from the abundant spiritual energy, he had basically neither eaten nor drunk anything, and many months and years had been spent sleeping directly through it.
–Since he couldn’t leave, all he could do was sleep.
Meng Qi recollected the images in his fragmented memory.
Among the nineteen peaks of Shangyun Mountain, there were many tranquil and picturesque places, but Dragon Horn Peak, aside from rocks and sand, had nothing.
He didn’t know what the doctor’s mountain looked like yet, but his side was definitely bare.
This was rather disheartening.
Wait, Dragon Horn Peak was only a horn, and he was the mountain spirit of Shangyun Mountain. He couldn’t ignore the whole picture.
It wasn’t bare at all!
It was all a coincidence!
With a sense of relief, the sand rat began to use its claws to pat away the dirt on its body. It believed it was behaving elegantly and calmly, but the black carp next to it looked worried.
The reach of the fat rat’s paws is limited, and its coat is pure white, which will turn yellowish and gray when exposed to dust and sand.
The rat carefully patted for a long time, but only the fur on the sides and chest was cleaned.
So what stood in front of Mo Li was a fat rat with a white middle body and grains of sand under its head and belly, let alone its back that couldn’t be scratched by its paws.
The meat trembles whenever it moved, and grains of sand kept falling down.
Mo Li suspected that at this time, if he stuffed the fat rat into a bamboo cup and shook it up and down, then released it, maybe half the cup would be filled with sand.
The sand rat took a few steps closer to Mo Li, looking at him apologetically.
Before it could do anything, a gust of wind suddenly blew, and something flew into the air.
With its tiny black-bean-like eyes wide open, the sand rat rushed forward without hesitation.
–his clothes!
Although Meng Qi had never been consciously aware of it, he had instinctively placed the clothes in a relatively wind-protected corner. As a result, when Meng Qi unintentionally pushed the glowing orb that had fallen out of the sand, the clothes shifted slightly to the side.
The land here is high and the wind is strong, so there are only a few places where you can avoid being blown by the wind, and each sheltered area is very narrow. Even if you just cross the boundary slightly, you will be swept away by the wind immediately.
When he transformed into his original form, the clothes he took off were gone due to an accident, leaving him naked.This had always been Mo Li’s biggest worry.
As a result, this kind of accident has never happened to him until now, but it happened to Meng Qi.
On Dragon Horn Peak, where the wind was strong year-round, had such accidents occurred many times before?
Various thoughts raced through Mo Li’s mind, but he did not stand still. He helped Meng Qi chase the clothes.
–Although the clothes weren’t valuable, they still contained a soft sword inside.
Due to the presence of this sword, the clothes were not immediately blown off the mountainside by the wind. Instead, they rolled clumsily along the mountain path, sometimes hanging in the air and sometimes hugging the ground.
“…”
When the soft sword was not infused with inner energy and not tied around the waist, it was like a stiff measuring tape.
It was much lighter than an ordinary longsword but still had some weight.
The soft sword had transformed into a circular wheel hidden within the clothes, and the strong wind blew it downhill following the mountain’s terrain. A chubby sand rat desperately chased after it, and because it was running so fast, it almost looked like it was rolling.
Mo Li wanted to laugh, but he felt it might not be appropriate, so he suppressed his laughter.
He controlled his inner energy to perform light martial arts, and in a matter of moments, he overtook the sand rat and reached out to grab the clothes.
“Riip—”
Mo Li’s hand ended up with only half a sleeve.
The clothes, bought in the market, had relatively ordinary fabric and couldn’t withstand this series of mishaps.
Mo Li reached out again, and the palm of his hand was filled with the true energy formed by his inner power, causing the clothes, now rolled into a bundle, to shatter into pieces, revealing the outline of the soft sword.
When the inner energy touched it, the soft sword’s blade instantly straightened and landed on the ground with a thud.
The sand rat had arrived just in time, and with its hind legs scratching the ground, it stopped in front of the soft sword.
Fragments of clothing were flying in the air. The rat looked up and then a piece of cloth fell and covered its head.
Meanwhile, the scattered debris of clothes and loose stones along the mountain path had also been brought down by the running duo. With a loud crash, the sand rat was buried beneath it.
Worried, Mo Li hurriedly went to dig it out.
Meng Qi then tossed aside the torn cloth covering its eyes, his mood heavy.
Mo Li was helping him brush off the sand and dust on his body. Because Meng Qi had been chasing after the sword, his demeanor, style, and grandeur, which he had displayed while confessing his feelings to his beloved last night, had all vanished.
Not to mention that he suddenly went crazy in the middle of the night, abandoned the doctor and ran across several mountains.
Meng Qi was a little depressed. He was under the impression that his illness had improved significantly, but in reality, it had not.
When he noticed that the foolish little glowing orb still had presence, it was as if a string in his heart had snapped. If Liu Dan had unluckily appeared in front of him just now, Meng Qi couldn’t be sure he would have been able to restrain himself.
Looking at the sand rat sitting on the ground in a daze, Mo Li coughed dryly. He first put away the soft sword and then put the bag on the ground.
“Find something to wear first.”
After saying that, he turned around.
Meng Qi silently changed back and opened the bag to find some clothes.
He knew that Mo Li, who was a true gentleman, would never sneak a peek. Moreover, he had already seen it, so there was no need for the doctor to be interested in him.
Mo Li distinguished the rustling sound of clothes behind him, looked at the huge rock in the distance, and thought about the incorporeal shiny ball. Is it the small dragon vein born from Shangyun Mountain?
Mo Li couldn’t feel that the ball had any self-awareness.
As a tree, the dragon vein of Silang Mountain are more spiritual than it.
“Doctor.” Meng Qi interrupted Mo Li’s thoughts.
This time Meng Qi honestly took out his clothes without touching Mo Li’s.
Mo Li, with his back still turned, glanced at Meng Qi and then shouldered his bag again without returning the sword.
Meng Qi hesitated, wanting to say something but then stopped himself.
He didn’t know if Mo Li “confiscated” the sword to prevent any accidents from happening again or if it was because of the sword’s name.
–Did accepting “Zhongqing (heartfelt)” imply accepting Meng Qi’s heartfelt love?
Meng Qi thought about what had happened today and sighed, shaking his head. How could it possibly be the latter?
“Doctor, I’m very sorry. I didn’t expect… it to still be alive,”
Meng Qi said. No matter how silly a mountain spirit was, it was still a mountain spirit. Even if he despised it, he couldn’t just send it back to be “born” again.
Meng Qi thought about the time he seriously discussed with Mo Li how their kind could have children, and the answer was absurdly funny. At that time, how could he have thought that actually, mountain spirits are born from the ground itself.
No need for birth!
“Probably because of severe trauma, the source was damaged, and it hid here to recuperate.”
Mentioning this made Meng Qi very annoyed.
Dragon veins have a strong sense of territory, and that piece of rock and stone was where the “sand rat” came into the world.
Initially, when a “thief” that devoured spiritual energy appeared in Shangyun Mountain, the Taijing dragon vein was displeased. This time it was more extreme, as their homeland was occupied.
Meng Qi, unable to act rashly for fear of scaring away the round creature, had to block it back in.
Meng Qi told Mo Li how stupid that little sand rat was, remarking on how such a clumsy mountain spirit hadn’t been captured by Taoists was just luck.
Mo Li shook his head, “Taoists believe in the existence of dragon veins but can’t imagine them growing legs and wandering around, so why would they come to catch them?”
Meng Qi felt doubtful. Although he was convinced that mountain spirits were dragon veins, every time the doctor mentioned dragon veins, he felt like he had forgotten something important.
Strange, what could it be?
“The spiritual energy in Shangyun Montain is abundant, and it’s good for branch veins to produce mountain spirits,” Mo Li remarked.
Qimao Mountain wasn’t so lucky, sitting at home without going out, yet catching a chubby baby.
Without a chubby baby, catching a small fish at the foot of the mountain would also be nice.
Mo Li thought about his hard work in the mountains, planting ginseng, raising white foxes, caring for giant snakes, hoping they would turn into demons, but all in vain. Meanwhile, Meng Qi did nothing, and a small dragon vein grew in his field.
It’s really frustrating when comparing oneself to others.
“Let it grow in the spiritual cave on its own,” Mo Li sighed.
Meng Qi cooperatively extended his hand for Mo Li to check his pulse, probably the third time that day.
Mo Li, not as concerned about the frequency, carefully felt Meng Qi’s internal energy flow and gave him a calming pill.
“How much do you remember?”
“Not much, mostly related to that round creature,” Meng Qi hadn’t named the little sand rat.
Because the sand rat was himself, he didn’t want to use this name for the round creature.
Mo Li thoughtfully asked, “What’s the earliest thing you can recall?”
“I’m not sure, but it’s definitely not from the Chen dynasty,” Meng Qi frowned. Before becoming “Meng Qi,” he had spent many years perched on the beams of a schoolhouse at Dragon Tail Peak in the form of a sand rat.
There were also various temples and Taoist temples in these mountains, some of which still exist today, while others have fallen into ruin.
Meng Qi blurted out, “The day I transformed into a human form, I was in the Liuhe Temple on Dragon Claw Peak, watching Yang Daozhi paint.”
Yang Daozhi was a painting saint, and stories of his paintings of fierce tigers disappearing from the scrolls are still told to this day.
Yang Daozhi was a person from three hundred years ago. After calculating, Mo Li found Meng Qi disturbed.
Mo Li advised, “You’ll remember everything eventually, no need to worry.”
Meng Qi looked at Mo Li and said nothing.
He thought that his age of eighty-seven couldn’t be maintained any longer.
