Chapter 2 The Old Man in Grey

  Nanling is located in the southeastern part of Zhongzhou, with a warm climate all year round. However, when cold air strikes during the winter solstice, it can also get very chilly. A bowl of water placed outside can freeze overnight, and the humid weather in the south makes people feel even colder than in the snowy north.

  In the dead of night, Lü Yang was shivering all over and kept blowing warm air onto his hands as he hastily walked down the mountain, rubbing his hands and stomping his feet.

  He soon sent the picked red blood fruit to the warehouse, checked the account, and walked towards his residence with a light body.

  On a moonlit night with sparse stars, Lyu Yang didn't carry a lantern. As he walked, he thought about the various things that had happened this year. Then he thought that after picking these Chi Xue Guo, his own medicinal garden would no longer have any precious spiritual medicines. The days to come could be even more relaxed and free.

  "Now that the chores are done, I can finally find time to read and learn. Although the rules of the household are strict and don't allow us servants to practice martial arts or read books, if there's an opportunity, we can still learn in secret, right? In this life, one can't really just be obedient and honest all the time, relying on the master's favor for food."

  The bright moonlight illuminated the earth, Lv Yang rubbed his hands in the cold wind, walking and thinking, showing a different idea from ordinary slaves.

  This is the result of his secretly studying and understanding the truth.

  Lü Yang, when he was young, had accidentally obtained a discarded primer and became very interested in it. He insisted on self-study to gain knowledge and understood some of the great principles of cultivating oneself, regulating one's family, governing the state, and bringing peace to all under heaven, without blindly following foolish loyalty.

  But the ten big whips he suffered in his childhood kept reminding him that to gain freedom, one had to pay a price. Before he had the ability to fight for freedom, the only choice was to endure. Only those who could endure could survive.

  "Uh-huh, that's it. Secretly practice martial arts, read books, and when I've saved up enough money, I'll think of a way to get a good job as the manager of an estate, and then I can do what I want."

  Lyu Yang secretly encouraged himself.

  Just then he came down from the winding path and turned into a beech wood.

  The Lv Mansion's rear mountain has a unique energy, where the maple trees growing here retain their bright red fresh leaves throughout winter, as if it were autumn. Upon entering the forest, the surroundings suddenly darken.

  The fierce cold wind blows, making the maple trees rustle and howl, as if evil spirits are dancing in the air, revealing a terrifying atmosphere.

  *sigh*...

  Wooooo... Wooooo...

  In the swaying maple forest, a faint and eerie sound was heard.

  "What's going on here?" Lü Yang thought to himself.

  This sound, like a mournful howl, was so eerie and terrifying that ordinary people who heard it would be shocked to the core, their scalp tingling with fear, and their entire body trembling. Lü Yang, upon hearing this sound, also involuntarily felt his heart racing faster, with a slight numbness on his scalp.

  Suddenly, his heart seemed to skip a few beats, and he turned around abruptly, only to see a black shadow flash past him from behind. The shadow had an enormous head, with what appeared to be a terrifying face with a green complexion and sharp teeth, its copper bell-sized eyes bulging out as if they were about to burst out of blood.

  "Who is it?" Lü Yang was startled and shouted in a low voice. But then, he was shocked again, "Huh? It's a dead man!"

  In the dead of night, a strange person suddenly darted out of the dark maple forest, making people think it was a fierce ghost. But after calming down, Lü Yang saw clearly that this was not a fierce ghost at all, but an old man with disheveled hair and a dusty face.

  The old man wore a gray robe, his face was withered and wrinkled, and his hair was disheveled like a chicken's nest. A few dry maple leaves were scattered on his head. He leaned motionless against the base of a maple tree. What was frightening was that his body was stained with blood as black as ink, splattered all over the messy grass. His eyes were wide open and lifeless, clearly having been dead for some time.

  The wind swept through the maple forest, and the red leaves shook, still making a strange whooshing sound. The moonlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, casting an eerie glow on the old man's corpse, creating an atmosphere of horror and eeriness. If one blinked at that moment, it seemed as if the corpse would stand up.

  The shadow of the leaves still swayed back and forth, as if a figure was darting about. Just now, Lü Yang thought he saw a dark shape flit by, but it turned out to be just his eyes playing tricks on him.

  But even if he knew he was wrong, the sudden appearance of a dead person in front of him still made Lv Yang's scalp numb, and a chill ran from the coccyx up along his spine.

  "How can there be a dead person here, and one who died from being shot by a wolf-toothed arrow?"

  Lü Yang only then saw clearly that on the back of the old man in gray clothes, a long wolf-toothed arrow was inserted.

  This wolf-toothed arrow is the poisonous arrow of the elite "Tianlang Army" of the Lü family, with dozens of reverse thorns on a small arrow, which is as difficult to pull out as an attached bone maggot when shot into the human body.

  What's even more frightening is that these arrows have extremely poisonous barbs, the poison on the barbs can cause blood coagulation and asphyxiation, eroding one's internal energy, even a high-ranking martial artist would find it hard to resist, and in just a moment, they would succumb to the poison.

  Lü Yang had cultivated quite a few poisonous medicinal herbs and had also heard of this poisonous arrow's reputation, so he recognized it at a glance.

  "This guy must have gone up the mountain to steal medicine, got caught in a trap, wanted to escape but didn't know the way, and stumbled here only to die suddenly from poisoning. What a stupid thief." Lü Yang's heart was racing with guesses about the old man's origins. "This medicine garden isn't that easy to get into. Nine out of ten thieves who come in end up becoming fertilizer for the flowers."

  "But now what to do? Should I go call someone or secretly bury the person myself? Forget it, I don't need to take on this kind of thing. It's better to take advantage of no one seeing and first embezzle some dead man's money."

  After hesitating for a moment, Lü Yang finally plucked up the courage and squatted down to search the old man in grey.

  Lü's governance was extremely strict, and Lü Yang didn't plan to get himself into trouble, but when he encountered a dead body on the road, he couldn't help but think of making some easy money. So, he decided to take advantage of the situation when no one was looking and make off with the deceased person's belongings.

  Lü Yang now hopes that this flying thief will gain something in Yaoshan.

  But what made Lv Yang somewhat disappointed was that the only things this grey-robed old man had on him were some gold, silver and fine silks, as well as a few stalks of fresh spiritual grass.

  These few stalks of spiritual grass, obviously just picked from the mountain not long ago, look fresh, but none of them are any rare or precious varieties. Even if they were taken outside to sell, they wouldn't fetch much money, and might even lead people to suspect and investigate their origin, bringing endless trouble.

  But not taking it out to sell, Lü Yang holding it also has no use, these medicinal materials are used for refining elixirs and making medicine, as an auxiliary medicine added, taking alone does not have any benefits, on the contrary, there are some, and even has toxicity.

  "It seems that this old thief has had a bad year, and before he could reap the benefits on the mountain, he was hit by an arrow and lost his life for nothing. What a pity!" Lü Yang shook his head and lamented the fate of the gray-robed old man.

  "Hmm, what's this?"

  Just then, Lü Yang suddenly flashed his eyes and discovered something else.

  On the old man's corpse, a jade plaque and a cloth bag were turned out. On the jade plaque, the words "Yun Zong Shan Da Luo Men" and "Jin Yi Di Zi" were engraved in small golden seal script, which was very eye-catching.

  "Great Luomen, Golden Qilin's disciple... Great Luomen, Great Luomen... This is one of the Seven Great Immortal Sects, the name of Luomen!"

  Lu Yang was taken aback by these few words.

  "Could it be that this old man is a cultivator of the Immortal Gate?"