Chapter 11: Strange Objects in the Mountains

The heavy rain lasted for a day and a night, extinguishing the scorching heat and drought in the valley, and bringing life in Taoyuan Village back on track.

The villagers of Taoyuan Village had spent a night in Qixia Daoist Temple and only descended the mountain the next day, as the heavy rain the day before made it too dangerous to go down.

After going down the mountain, Wang Erniu led the other villagers back to the village, while Shu Guan and the old lame man sat down by the creek, because the old lame man said he wanted to rest a bit.

The creek surged out from the cracks in the mountain peaks, not only regaining its long-lost cheerfulness, but the frothy waves also brought forth a sense of freedom and intensity.

Shu Guan helped the old lame man to sit down on a smooth goose-egg stone by the creek.

The creek was a bit murky, as a lot of sediment had been washed down with the heavy rain, and there were many floating dead leaves and branches, as well as rotting animal corpses washed out from the mountains, sinking and floating amongst the waves.

However, it wouldn't be long before the creek would regain its former clarity.

Gazing at the turbulent creek, Shu Guan was a bit lost in thought.

Ever since the startling thunderclap the day before, his mind had been uneasy.

But the old lame man was grinning, looking very happy.

Shu Guan knew why the old man was so happy.

It was because no one in Taoyuan Village would die now, at least not because of this drought.

When the old lame man was young, he was not welcomed in the village and suffered a lot of bullying and humiliation, but he never held a grudge against anyone in the village.

This lame and blind old man had always possessed a pure, childlike heart.

Having lived two lives as a human, Shu Guan regarded the old lame man as the only truly pure and good person he had ever met.

Of course, there was also a hint of smugness in the old lame man's smile now.

He felt that he had saved the lives of all the villagers.

However, Shu Guan still remained skeptical about this.

The scene at the time was indeed full of an inexplicable air of mystery, as rain started falling after the old lame man had kowtowed to the statue of the Immortal, breaking the half-year-long drought. Everyone who witnessed this scene was thoroughly shaken.

Shu Guan was just as startled at the time.

However, once his emotions subsided and he regained his rationality, he spent a long time sitting before the statue of the Immortal last night and decided that it should still be a coincidence, just like the one forty-nine years ago.

The reason Shu Guan made this judgment was that if the Immortal could truly hear the prayers of Taoyuan Village's villagers, why would he leave them stranded in this valley for more than two hundred years without any concern?

One could only say that the old lame man's life was full of lucky coincidences; the only regret was that he couldn't leave Taoyuan Village.

After resting by the creek for a while, the old lame man regained some energy.

These past two years, Shu Guan could clearly feel that the old lame man's physical strength and energy were rapidly deteriorating.

Time rewound back to more than a decade ago, when the old lame man went up the mountain to collect herbs. He carried himself on his back with a bamboo basket, and despite dragging a lame leg, he moved through the woods at a speed no slower than normal people.

When Shu Guan grew a little older, he no longer sat in the old lame man's basket but followed behind him. However, he had to jog all the way to keep up with the old lame man's pace.

So, every now and then, the old lame man would stop to rest, not because he was tired, but because he was waiting for Shu Guan to catch up.

But in the past two years, the situation had reversed. Now, Shu Guan would stop every once in a while so the old lame man could take a break.

Perhaps it wouldn't be long before the old lame man wouldn't be able to go up the mountain anymore... Shu Guan would have to take care of herb collecting himself.

It was time for him to look after the old man in his old age.

At this moment, those thoughts flashed through Shu Guan's mind, causing his originally happy mood to sink into gloominess.

And yet, it seemed that his emotional changes could never escape the eyes of the old lame man.

The old lame man stood up, patted Shu Guan's head with his dry and wrinkled old hand, and said,

"Whiskers, go catch a couple of creek fish, and Grandpa will make your favorite fern and crucian carp soup tonight."

"There are no fish left now, they all died long ago."

Swallowing his saliva, Shu Guan said.

He hadn't had fish soup in a long time, ever since two months ago when there were no more fish in the creek.

And now that it had just rained, although the creek was full again, it would probably take some more time before fish would reappear in the creek.

The old lame man laughed and said a phrase.

"Spotty, where there's water, there are fish."

As always, his tone had a baffling sense of certainty, just like when he was the only one firmly believing that the immortals in the Immortal Temple could hear his prayers.

As soon as the old lame man's words fell, there was a sudden splash in the stream behind him, as if something had jumped out of the water and then dropped back in.

The old lame man turned his head and saw it, and his grin grew even more smug.

"See? Isn't there one there? In all my years, I've never seen the Lord of Heaven completely end something."

As he spoke, the old lame man rolled up his trouser legs and walked into the stream.

It seems like the old man is in an excellent mood today!

Shu Guan quickly stood up and followed him.

Today's stream was so fast, and the old lame man's body wasn't as good as it used to be. He mustn't slip and fall. As the saying goes, the old are afraid of falling while the young are not. A fall for an elderly person is no small matter.

Just as Shu Guan was worried, he saw the old lame man step on something slippery, lose his balance, and fall backward into the stream.

Fortunately, Shu Guan reacted quickly and stepped forward to hold the old lame man up.

"Grandpa, you should go to the bank and rest for a while. Let me do it."

"Getting old."

The old lame man sighed sadly, but instead of going straight back to the bank, he bent down and reached for the bottom of the water at his feet.

He had waded through this creek all his life.

Usually, when crossing the creek, he didn't have to look down. As soon as his foot touched the stone at the bottom of the creek, he almost immediately knew the stone's shape and size.

So even now that he was old, the old lame man didn't think he should fall in this creek.

This was the self-confidence that the old lame man had stubbornly maintained his whole life.

In his life, as long as he felt he could do something, he always did it.

So now he wanted to see what had caused him to make a small mistake for the first time in his life.

Moreover, the thing he stepped on just now didn't feel like a rock at the bottom of the creek.

It didn't take long for the old lame man to find the culprit that almost made him fall.

However, as soon as he touched the object, an expression of doubt appeared on his aged face.

Then he pulled the object out of the water.

The doubt and astonishment on the old lame man's face deepened even more because he couldn't recognize what he was holding.

It was a palm-sized, brick-shaped object that, though much thinner than a brick, was about as thick as three stacked pancakes.

The object was pitch black, but strangely, one side was so black that it seemed translucent, and it even clearly reflected a person's face. For the first time in his life, the old lame man saw his face so clearly.

The object also had an exceptionally smooth touch, like high-quality jade, but he knew it wasn't jade, iron, or wood. He had never seen such a strange thing before.

Feeling perplexed, the old lame man looked up at the upper stream of the creek.

That thing must have been washed down from the mountain by the heavy rain, right?

Then he turned his head and asked Shu Guan a question.

"Spotty, do you know what this is?"

In fact, when the old lame man asked the question, he had no expectation of getting an answer from Shu Guan.

No one knew the surroundings of Taoyuan Village better than him. Even the kid Shu Guan, who he personally brought up, couldn't compare, at least not now.

If he didn't know, how could Spotty know?

Shu Guan stood beside the old lame man, dumbfounded.

Of course, Shu Guan knew what it was.

It was his cell phone.