At the North City Gate, the crowds were bustling, nearly like a busy market.
Chen Xu and the others queued at the back, without impatience, just listening to the crowd’s lively discussions.
"The Hundred Words Stele is emitting red smoke, such a peculiar thing? What does it an?"
"The Hundred Words Stele is drunk, just like soone would get drunk when drinking; the Hundred Words Stele heard too many good stories today, and now it’s drunk."
"What are you saying, the Hundred Words Stele can get drunk? But it’s a stone..."
"This stone listens to stories, why wouldn’t it get drunk?"
The remarks were humorous, and imdiately the crowd burst into laughter.
But soone couldn’t help asking, "Then you say the Hundred Words Stele is drunk, how does that make it easier for you to climb the mountain?"
The person who first ntioned the red smoke from the stele proudly replied, "With the Hundred Words Stele drunk, it naturally loosens its requirents; no matter what story I tell, it will surely let up the mountain.
Hehe, I said I would get two red envelopes today, so there will definitely be two red envelopes!"
"What if you don’t get them?"
"If I don’t get them, I’ll break big stones on my chest for everyone to see..."
"Pssh, who wants to see you break stones?"
The crowd bantered and laughed, while the sun gradually rose higher in the sky.
Chen Xu and Master Wu queued for nearly half an hour before they finally walked through the North City Gate.
As they walked towards the mountain, they saw a never-ending stream of people on the road, clearly all heading to Qihai Mountain for the excitent.
Reaching the mountain base was an even more remarkable sight, with vendors lined up in two rows, shouting their wares in an endless stream, bustling like a temple fair.
"Selling fruits here, crispy and sweet, take a bite and it’s juicy!"
"Selling tea here, all pre-rain tea, very refreshing."
"Passing by, don’t miss it, fans for ten coins each, they fan and block the sun, young master, won’t you take one..."
Seeing such a bustling market, Wang Xin was dumbfounded, muttering: "They’re too good at business, how is it possible to be so clever at business, and they even know to hold a fair?"
Then Master Yao chuckled and said, "If you were poor for a year or so, you’d get good at business like this too."
In an instant, Wang Xin was rendered speechless.
Yao Qing usually didn’t show off, but sotis his words were quite sharp.
Passing through this spontaneously ford market, they then suddenly saw a towering stele, ten zhangs high.
Though the towering stele stood at the mountain base surrounded by people, it carried a unique solitary and desolate aura.
The blue-gray stele towered silently at the majestic mountain base, carved by the winds and rains.
When sunlight hit it, a faint red glow appeared on the stele, like smoke or mist, swaying in the light, indeed resembling red smoke coming from a drunken stele.
The group was montarily srized as if their Divine Soul was illuminated, Wu Zhengze stopped and exclaid: "This stele indeed has a spirit!"
Below the stele were people in coarse cloth or the wealthy in fine clothing, or scholars in their attire...
No distinction was made; they all gathered around, either loudly or softly telling their stories.
Regardless if others listened or not, the crucial part was whether the stele was willing to listen.
Upon finishing his story, soone suddenly emitted a faint clear glow and was delighted, "I too received the stele’s clear light; I can go up the mountain, farewell, everyone! Hahaha..."
Thus, glimpses of people bearing the glow were seen walking away from the stele, heads held high, heading up the mountain.
In the sunlight, although these people remained in the mundane world, the clear glow that surrounded them seed to lend them an ethereal grace from a distance.
Wang Xin was srized, daydreaming, "If I could also be enveloped in this clear glow, wouldn’t it feel like having an ethereal grace?"
Thinking of this, excitent surged within him.
How could he hold back any longer? He took large strides toward the stele.
The group moved closer.
People ca and went around the stele; their arrival didn’t draw much attention.
Chen Xu stood half a step behind Wu Zhengze, looking up at the stele, his emotions stirred.
He felt the world was vast and wondrous; without personally asuring or seeing it, relying on imagination alone, one could never comprehend its mysteries.
Beside him, Wang Xin was already eagerly telling his story, "I have a story, about a scholar who spent a night in a ruined temple..."
Actually, it wasn’t his own story but a strange tale he had read before.
Nothing more than scholars, beautiful spirits, and unusual romances.
Among scholars, young Wang Xin couldn’t resist such stories.
Poor Wang Xin didn’t notice that as he told his story, Master Wu occasionally glanced at him, his gaze gradually turning cold.
Chen Xu wasn’t in a hurry; he looked up to the towering stele.
Then he looked down and found sothing peculiar.
There was faint green moss at the base of the stele, along with clusters of wild grass.
So were tall enough to reach a person’s calf, though most had been trampled and bent by the crowd.
Small flowers, low and small, grew in the cracks along the stele’s edge, mingling with the climbing moss, charming and intriguing.
The most interesting part was that these little flowers had entries!
[Stone Moss Flower, a small flower growing under the Hundred Words Stele, nourished by worldly affairs, can be used to make Stone Heart Tea, allowing humans, spirits, and demons who drink it a certain chance to reveal grievances.
Note: If you can recite a poem to this flower before picking it, the effects of the Stone Heart Tea might be enhanced.]
This... truly befitted the flowers growing under the Hundred Words Stele; the stele loved stories, so the Stone Moss Flowers loved poetry?
Chen Xu pondered, debating whether to tell a story or recite poetry first when he heard Master Wu calling, "Xu Zhi?"
It turned out Wu Zhengze saw him silent for long and therefore called out to remind him.
Chen Xu returned to his senses and responded, "Master, I plan to tell Brother Xu’s story."
He adhered to the agreent made with Xu Wenyuan the previous day, recounting Xu’s ordinary yet extraordinary experiences at the Hundred Words Stele.
The story was brief, yet it seed long, for it had no conclusion and held endless possibilities.
As Chen Xu narrated slowly under the stele, neither of them knew that on Qihai Mountain, beside Tingtao Pavilion, there were already dozens of people scattered and seated.
The one most eagerly anticipating was Ding Qian, the prefect of Yunjiang.
However, dressed in an ordinary attire and with a slightly altered appearance through a secret technique, none of the scholars or commoners on the mountain recognized him.
They all assud he was so rich man of unknown origin, seated beside Shu Yun, adding to the mystery.
He was particularly fond of eating. Beside Tingtao Pavilion, a andering stream curved around the verdant land and odd stones, forming a large Flowing Wine and Crooked River pool.
The crowd sat around the winding river; upstream, Shu Yun’s servants occasionally placed plates of snacks and fruit into the water, along with fine wine, all floating downstream.
Others, perhaps reserved, wouldn’t excessively take from the flowing offerings.
Only the plump Ding Qian couldn’t stop his hands and mouth, eating and occasionally comnting: "The fruits are too sweet, overly sugary, not good, not well-kept."
"Though the wine is llow, it sohow lacks clarity, alas, it needs improvent..."
Good heavens, not only do you eat, but you also keep criticizing.
How can you be so shaless?
Yet Shu Yun, sitting with him, didn’t reproach him in the slightest.
People, considering Shu Yun’s courtesy, had to tolerate a bit more.
Then he asked a gray-clad man standing beside him, "A Chang, are there any interesting people or events down the mountain now?"
The gray-clad A Chang, holding a copper mirror, replied, "Master, soone is offering wine in front of the stele at the mountain base."
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