The row of houses had long since collapsed for the most part. On the side against the mountain wall, there were still some traces of the former construction.
The other three stone walls stood on the ground like a dog's teeth, uneven and of varying heights.
The walls were also covered with all sorts of weeds, growing slantwise or straight, swaying constantly in the wind. A smell of old decay spread out invisibly.
Inside the house, there were many fallen stones that had been eroded by the years. They had turned a dark cyan color and were also covered with thick, dark green moss.
The area around the houses was also filled with shoulder-high cogon grass, connecting the entire row of houses with the valley, making it difficult to distinguish between "inside the house" and "outside the house" without careful inspection.
Li Yan flew overhead, silently gazing at one of the houses below. That was where he had once lived, and feared.
Every time he went out, he actually didn't want to come back here. He just wanted to escape, the farther the better!
"Chen An, Li Yin..."
Li Yan murmured to himself. He thought of the two personal guards who had been ordered to "never leave his side" to protect him, yet were constantly fooled by him. Many memories came flooding back...
Every time, he had been "escorted" back here by these two, and he was always thinking about how to get rid of Chen An and Li Yin...
Although his words were soft, Zhao Min and Zi Kun, who had flown over after him, were also highly cultivated and naturally heard him clearly, but they had no idea what Li Yan was talking about.
Inside the stone house, apart from the dense weeds and some exposed dark cyan stones, all other objects were gone.
Li Yan could actually guess the reason. After Strategist Ji died, unless there were still government guards here, everything here would have been plundered.
Whether it was hunters who stumbled in by mistake or villagers from the nearby hamlets, in their eyes, only the large stones used to build the house were worthless.
The tables, chairs, and other things in the house were what a family needed most, so they would naturally be "taken" away.
This could also be seen from the ruined wall on the south side.
That was where Li Yan remembered the doors and windows being. The tall and wide windows, with their fine wooden lattices, exuded a faint smell of tung oil...
And now, all that remained were a few bare, "U"-shaped broken walls, without even a splinter of wood to be seen.
For a moment, Li Yan was somewhat lost in thought. In his eyes, the crumbling ruins disappeared, and the overgrown weeds vanished in an instant.
On the north side of the house, against the wall, was a wide wooden bed with neatly folded bedding;
Along the east wall was a washstand and some toiletries. On the west wall was a four-tiered bookshelf with some books on it;
A wooden table was placed against the south window, with a few teacups and a kettle on it, and two chairs;
At the head of the table were two tall chests woven from old brown rattan. The few sets of coarse cloth clothes Li Yan had brought were neatly placed inside the chests...
On a sunny morning, he would push open the large window and see the misty pool in the distance, take a deep breath, and feel his heart refreshed...
This scene floated up in Li Yan's mind, and his eyes grew hazy for a moment!
Zhao Min and Zi Kun behind him said nothing, also scanning the surroundings with their Divine Sense. They had noticed Li Yan's strangeness, and Zhao Min had roughly guessed the reason.
People like Li Wuyi had only heard of Li Yan's past, but they didn't know that this was the place where Li Yan had almost died.
Firstly, Li Yan was simply unwilling to mention what happened in the valley; secondly, no one was bored enough to personally go to Green Mountain Pass to inquire about such matters.
Moreover, at this moment, her own heart was also in turmoil. The Malevolent Spirit Sect was suddenly right before her eyes. It had all come so abruptly!
But she would not disturb Li Yan at this time. Suppressing the storm in her heart, she also carefully examined everything here, gazing at the place where Li Yan had once stepped onto the path of immortality.
Li Yan then cast his gaze in front of the ruined house. There were actually still a few stone platforms that had turned black. Li Yan seemed to see again a wooden tray with a food box on it, placed on the stone platform on time every day, and the woman who tidied everything up...
Everything was like shifting clouds, drifting away, never to return!
"It's been about a hundred years!"
Li Yan sighed deeply in his heart. He suddenly looked up to the north.
Although the towering mountains blocked his view, his heart flew to another place, a place he had dreamed of returning to in countless midnights.
But at that time, Li Yan would often force himself not to think about it. He was afraid, afraid that the merciless years would take everything away. He would rather believe that the small mountain village was still the same small mountain village.
But at this moment, when he saw everything here, a sense of panic arose in his heart—the panic of merciless time.
When he first came here, he was only fourteen. Now, a hundred years had passed since he left.
While Li Yan was looking to the north, Zhao Min's voice came over.
"Do you want to go back and take a look first, and then we'll go back!"
Her words were a bit convoluted, but Li Yan of course understood. He turned his head and smiled.
"Alright, after we go, we'll go back!"
With that, Li Yan flew straight out of the valley. When he passed by Strategist Ji's ruined house, he didn't spare it another glance.
It wasn't until he flew out of the valley entrance that his gaze flickered over. On the stone wall at the side of the valley entrance, some faded, blurry red characters could be seen. Upon careful inspection, they were indeed the three large characters for "Strategist's Manor."
But it was unknown who had slashed them with a sharp weapon, leaving them in a mess, the cuts extremely deep!
"As a member of the Immortal-Seeking Lineage, your choice to live here back then was probably not on a whim!"
Seeing these characters, some thoughts arose in Li Yan's mind. He thought again of that pool of water...
Afterward, the three of them flew north. After flying for a while, Zhao Min's voice came over, but it was somewhat strange.
"It really is here. We're back!"
Back then, she and Gong Chenying had gone to the small mountain village with Li Yan. Although Green Mountain Pass was more than two hundred li away from the small mountain village, which was a long journey for mortals, for Li Yan and the others, who were only at the Foundation Establishment stage at the time, it was only a matter of dozens of breaths.
Although the surrounding mountain peaks and road environment were different from Zhao Min's memory, the overall change was not great.
"Yes, although it's incomprehensible, it's really not a dream!" Li Yan said softly.
When they flew away from the "Strategist's Manor" valley, Zi Kun had hesitantly asked if they should go down to the bottom of the pool to see what that crater was.
But Li Yan had directly rejected the idea. He had no control over the broken earthen jar; everything was left to chance.
If they were teleported to another unknown place, it would be difficult to come back.
So, Li Yan was unwilling to try. Besides, he had some guesses in his heart. He would not try it easily before he reached the Nascent Soul stage.
The broken earthen jar undoubtedly came from the "Hellsoul Clan," and it was highly likely that some of the people who founded the sect came from the Desolate Moon Continent.
Combined with some information from Su Hong, some of these people had obtained the broken earthen jar back then, and then unintentionally activated the soul power within it, and were thus teleported to the Verdant Continent.
Those people from the Immortal-Seeking Lineage had deep foundations and also had some means that surpassed mortals. Li Yan felt it was entirely possible for them to simply activate soul power.
And this kind of teleportation had no terrifying pressure. Li Yan and the others had not felt any so-called spatial pressure before.
It was not like the teleportation from the Forsaken Continent, where if not for the runes drawn by True Lord Qianchong, they would not have been able to survive the teleportation.
This also explained why a martial artist could reach another world with only a mortal body. They should have obtained the inheritance of Soul Cultivators there.
Afterward, perhaps due to some special reasons, the long alley for training Soul Cultivators was established near the teleportation node. That bright yellow small door was the real exit to the outside of the secret grotto.
As long as the activation art was correct, Li Yan and the others should have been safely teleported to a certain place in the secret grotto.
But after Li Yan activated the broken earthen jar, the few of them were not able to enter that bright yellow small door at all, but were directly drawn into the teleportation space.
Thinking back on it now, including that broken statue of the military general, it was probably a backup plan left by the "Hellsoul Clan" back then, or a secret kept by a certain powerhouse of the "Immortal-Seeking Lineage."
There were too many possibilities here, and Li Yan could only guess at some of them.
Zhao Min also agreed with Li Yan's decision not to approach the crater on the mountain wall at the bottom of the pool, suggesting they come back to investigate when they had the ability to tear through the void in the future.
Otherwise, everything would be a gamble on luck, which was too dangerous!
The small mountain village was only a little over two hundred li from Green Mountain Pass. For Li Yan and the others now, this was an instantaneous matter.
However, after flying away from the "Strategist's Manor," they still flew very slowly. Looking at the pedestrians below on the road like ants, an inexplicable fear grew stronger in Li Yan's heart.
The closer to home, the more timid the heart. He of course knew what most likely awaited him, but he still wanted to go back and take a look.
Looking at the pedestrians traveling in the dust below, Li Yan seemed to see a carriage with a burly man and three young boys...
The burly man kept giving instructions, and the three boys sat on the carriage listening silently, their hearts full of beautiful aspirations for the future...
"Uncle Guoxin... Li Shan, Li Yu..."
Li Yan recited their names silently in his heart!
Seeing Li Yan's unusual silence, Zhao Min and Zi Kun also said nothing more, silently looking down together!
No matter how slowly they flew, they still arrived above a small mountain village after dozens of breaths.
Li Yan sensed the area. There were no longer any cultivators like those from the Blood Leaf Sect around, and his heart tightened even more.
'The Blood Leaf Sect protected the direct relatives of the Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivators. Now they've all disappeared...'
Li Yan felt his mouth go a little dry. He could have actually scanned the small mountain village with his Divine Sense long ago, but he had held back.
Perhaps this was the last shred of fantasy left in his heart. But now, even the protection of the Blood Leaf Sect had been quietly withdrawn.
This was a situation that should not have happened as long as Li Yan's direct family members were still alive.
Even if the Blood Leaf Sect had been wiped out in the war with the demons, other immortal cultivation sects would have taken their place.
Li Yan himself often thought about where Zhao Min's weaknesses lay, but was he not the same?
He took a deep breath. His Divine Sense easily covered the entire small mountain village. A moment later, Li Yan's figure flashed and landed in a place in the village. That was where his home used to be.
"You guys wait for me here."
Li Yan's voice came into the minds of Zhao Min and Zi Kun. He had already disappeared.
A spacious courtyard sat in the small mountain village, looking quite impressive. It was much larger and more magnificent than many of the surrounding houses.
But in a corner of the garden behind this impressive courtyard was a dilapidated house built of mixed mud and stone. It seemed out of place with the elegance of the surrounding garden.
The walls of this dilapidated mud house had traces of mud of different colors, showing that it had been renovated more than once.
At this time, in the garden, there was an old grandmother with a head of white hair and a kind face, half-lying on a recliner.
Although it was only early autumn, the expensive fabric she was wearing was already thickened, and a blanket was even placed on her knees.
The old woman gently rocked the recliner, her eyes half-closed, listening to the silver-bell-like laughter coming from the flowers not far away, a satisfied smile on her face!