Chapter 17: Rumors of Immortals

  Everyone support it.

  Lu Xiaoyu couldn't help but praise Li Wenjun repeatedly in private, saying that he had the potential to be a scholar and might even pass the imperial examination to become a jinshi, bringing glory to his ancestors.

  Lu Xiaoyu also specially reported the matter to Yuan Shouwei, and Shouwei did not make any comments, but only let Lu Xiaoyu continue to teach Li Wenjun well.

  In this month, Li Wenjun spent most of his time reading and recognizing characters. He suppressed his great curiosity and never went to flip through the two books from Lao Dao again. He was worried that he would misunderstand and misinterpret things, and if he didn't understand them thoroughly, he would end up on a wrong path.

  Of course, no matter how hardworking and diligent a person is, they can't spend every waking moment reading and studying; they have to take a break sometimes.

  During these breaks, Li Wenjun also got to know some people at the Sanshan Academy. The Sanshan Academy gathered a group of people from Sanshan County and several surrounding counties who were good at reading books. For these bookworms, Li Wenjun did not deliberately try to understand them too much. He just focused his mind on a few people he thought needed attention.

  Among these people, there is a brother and sister, the sister's name is Wu Xue Mei, the brother's name is Wu Yi Ming, the sister is two years younger than Li Wen Jun, and the brother is almost two years younger than his sister. Their father is Wu Tao, the county magistrate of San Shan County.

  Thanks to Wu Tao's relationship, Wu Xue Mei and her brother Wu Yi Ming were in a superior position at San Shan Academy, where no one dared to provoke them.

  These two siblings, Wu Yiming is still somewhat honest, but Wu Xue Mei is a beautiful girl, comparable to the heavenly fairy, however her temperament is not as gentle as the heavenly fairy, but rather has a few parts of arrogance, with a proud and spoiled personality, looking down on others. When arguing with people, if they don't agree, she would slap their ears immediately.

  For this brother and sister, Li Wenjun has always been careful to avoid them, responding cautiously, so up until now, there hasn't been any conflict between him and them.

  In addition, several others who caught Li Wenjun's attention were also from the Sanshan Academy, and he always thought that one day he would have the opportunity to ask them about their studies, so that he could better and more accurately understand the words in Lao Dao's two books.

  Li Wenjun is currently studying enlightenment books, and his questions can basically be answered by Lu Xiaoyu, so he doesn't need to ask those students who are preparing for the imperial examination.

  Moreover, these people had no interest in talking to Li Wenjun during the festival. Li Wenjun was neither a scholar with great knowledge nor a teacher who could control their future; he was just an outsider who didn't even qualify as a beginner. Why would they waste their precious time chatting with him?

  Li Wenjun didn't have any friends at San Shan Academy. He rented a small courtyard near his home, where there was a family that made a living by collecting medicinal herbs and hunting small animals. They had a son around the same age as Li Wenjun, named Sun Jianing, whose mother was Lu Xiayu's older sister. Thanks to this connection, Sun Jianing was able to attend San Shan Academy.

  Li Wenjun followed Lu Xiaoyu to study, and Sun Jianing was also Lu Xiaoyu's close nephew. The two met by chance, had a chat, felt very compatible, and quickly became friends.

  As soon as Li Wenjun came out of Lu Xiaoyu's duty room, he saw Sun Jianing hiding behind a willow tree outside the duty room, beckoning to him.

  Li Wenjun walked over and asked: "Xiao Ning, what's wrong?"

  Sun Jianing said: "Wen Jun, you read books all day, what's the point? Be careful not to become a bookworm with no practical skills. How about this, tomorrow come out and play with me? My dad is going into the mountains to pick herbs tomorrow, he promised to take me along, we'll be circling around the outer area of Wufeng Mountain, you can come too."

  The Sanshan Academy takes a rest every ten days, and tomorrow happens to be the day when teachers and students are on holiday. Li Wenjun originally planned to stay at home, sorting out the knowledge he had learned in the past month from scratch, and making a summary. He waved his hand and said, "I won't go."

  Sun Jianing hastily said: "Wen Jun ge, just accompany me. It's boring for me and my dad to go alone."

  Li Wenjun smiled and shook his head, he didn't want to waste precious time. He walked straight past Sun Jianing's front, heading towards the outside of San Shan Academy.

  Sun Jianing hurried to catch up, he ran a little while saying: "Wen Jun brother, the mountain is fun. Not only can we collect many kinds of herbs, but also hunt small animals like wild rabbits and pheasants. If we're lucky, who knows, maybe we'll even meet an immortal."

  Li Wenjun's heart skipped a beat, and he stopped in his tracks, asking, "Immortal? What immortal?"

  Sun Jianing didn't expect Li Wenjun to suddenly stop, and he almost bumped into Li Wenjun's body. "Wenjun brother, you're really paying attention."

  "All right, I'll be careful next time. You'd better tell me quickly, what kind of immortal are you talking about? Is there really an immortal in Wufeng Mountain?" Li Wenjun asked again.

  "I don't know if there are immortals on Mount Wufeng. I only heard my father say that once, a medicine collector had just picked a herb on the cliff wall when someone flew over from the sky and directly threw him 50 taels of silver to buy the herb. My father said that at market price, that herb might not even be worth one cent." Sun Jianing exclaimed in surprise.

  Li Wenjun was worried about how to contact the immortal-like Taoist, and when he heard that such a thing had happened in Wufeng Mountain, he had the idea of going to Wufeng Mountain tomorrow. "Xiao Ning, in Wufeng Mountain or even the whole Sanshan County, are there many people like you said who can fly in the sky?"

  Sun Jianing shook her head and said, "My father said that those were all land gods, having one was already very impressive, how could there be more? I've grown up to this age, and it's only been mentioned once."

  Li Wenjun couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, but at the same time, he also felt a hint of relief. His experience in Junbao Town made him realize that those so-called immortals, like Lao Dao, might not necessarily have a friendly attitude towards ordinary people. Just like how Lao Dao had no qualms about taking the lives of 50 or 60 young boys and girls who had no grudge against him, even if he was the so-called Land God that Sun Jianing spoke of, it still seemed like a case of forced buying and selling.

  "Wen Jun, are you going or not?" Sun Jianing asked.

  Li Wenjun smiled and said, "Let's go. The two of us will go to Wufeng Mountain together and see if we have any fate with the immortals."

  The next day, before dawn, Sun Jianing came to knock on Li Wenjun's door. Li Wenjun was already packed and ready to go, and followed Sun Jianing to the Sun family home. Sun Jianing's father was a robust man known as Sun Baicao, who was said to be familiar with all the medicinal herbs on the three great mountains surrounding Sanshan County.

  Sun Baicao is sorting out the tools to be carried when going up the mountain, including a medicinal herb spade, a medicinal herb shovel, a medicine basket, a rope, a mountain-opening knife, and a hunting fork.

  He nodded at Li Wenjun in a friendly manner, and then said seriously: "We, as medicine collectors, may encounter various dangerous situations, and if we are not careful, we will lose our lives. Even I, with rich experience, do not dare to say that every time I enter the mountain, I can return unscathed. You two follow me to Wufeng Mountain, you must listen to my words, what I let you do, you do, what I don't let you do, don't do it."

  Li Wenjun nodded and said: "I remember, Uncle Sun."

  Wufeng Mountain is located on the west side of Sanshan County, about five miles away from the county seat. In the past, when Sun Baicao went to pick herbs there, he always walked. This time, in order to take care of Li Wenjun and Sun Jianing, he spent a few copper coins to hire a horse-drawn carriage, which took them to the foot of Wufeng Mountain.

  When they arrived at Wufeng Mountain, the sky was already brightening.

  Sun Baicao once again emphasized to Li Wenjun and Sun Jianing that after arriving at the mountain, they need to pay attention to a few things: they must listen to his words, cannot run around randomly, cannot eat things randomly, and cannot drink water randomly.

  After getting confirmation from Li Wenjun and Sun Jianing, Sun Jianing took Li Wenjun and Sun Jianing up the mountain.

  The outer area of Wufeng Mountain is relatively gentle, and there used to be many dense and tall trees growing here. However, the villagers nearby often came up the mountain to cut firewood or chop down trees for furniture and house beams. Over time, it has become difficult to see decent trees on the outskirts, and it is also rare to spot large wild animals, with only some small creatures like rabbits, pheasants, or badgers, and not many of them at that.

  Sun Baicao introduced Li Wenjun and Sun Jianing to the basic situation of Wufeng Mountain while taking them up the mountain.

  Sun Baicao knew that his son was not the material for studying, and he had never thought of letting Sun Jianing take the path of imperial examination. He deliberately waited until Sun Jianing was a bit older to let him inherit his father's business and become a medicinal herb collector. This was not the first time he brought Sun Jianing into the mountains to collect herbs. He said all this mainly to tell Li Wenjun.

  For this young man who had fled alone for hundreds of miles and temporarily settled in their San Shan County, Sun Baicao always looked up to him. Otherwise, he wouldn't have agreed to let Li Wenjun follow them on a trip into the mountains. Every profession has its own secrets, and no one is willing to easily reveal their family's ancestral skills and experiences.

  Li Wenjun found everything novel, but what he was most interested in was the rumor that Sun Jianing had told him. He first listened calmly to Sun Baicao's narrative and then tried to steer the conversation towards the rumor.

  Li Wenjun was very careful when bringing up the rumor, afraid of arousing suspicion from Sun's father and son. But to his surprise, Sun Baicao just smiled and said: "Must be Jia Ning who told you? Don't listen to his nonsense."

  "Are you kidding me? Did Jianing lie to me about everything?" Li Wenjun said with some disappointment.

  Sun Baicao smiled and said, "Whether it's true or not, I dare not say. In our San Shan County, there have been rumors about immortals for a very long time. When I was even younger than you guys are now, I also deeply believed in these rumors and specially went around searching for the traces of immortals. So many years have passed, but still nothing has been found."