If he still had his martial arts, he wouldn’t be afraid at all, but since he hasn’t recovered his martial arts yet, he also doesn’t know if he would be able to escape if he falls into the trap set up by Master Guangde.
"Forget it, I believe they will come back soon."
The two of them took another turn around the area, which indeed seemed like an ideal place for a hermit to reside.
The wooden huts were scattered in an orderly fashion, each layout identical; the space was not large, but each hut had its purpose. Even the room they took a medicinal bath in before was a separate cabin.
After circling the area, they arrived at the upstream of the sulfur spring. The terrain here was relatively higher, allowing an unobstructed view of the landscape below.
Standing there, Chu Ge was shocked by the scene in front of him. He was amazed to see the arrangement of the wooden huts and vegetable gardens, which was clearly a formation, a formation laid out using wooden huts and vegetable gardens.
No wonder they always felt as if time didn’t pass here. It wasn’t that time had stopped, but Master Guangde had set up a Blinding Technique that slowed down the time here.
Huo Tianqian didn’t understand these intricacies; he just scratched his head in confusion and asked, "I didn’t expect this place to be so large; look, there are even houses in the distance."
Chu Ge furrowed his brows slightly. They hadn’t seen these houses earlier. Perhaps it was another Blinding Technique?
Chu Ge remained silent, and suddenly, a childish growl came from behind them.
It was a child’s voice.
Chu Ge and Huo Tianqian exchanged a glance, then followed the sound to a cave entrance near the cliff. As they walked, they spotted an opening.
The voice of the child was coming from there.
The entrance was large, and the ground was uneven due to the rocky terrain. Inside was not as warm as outside; it was rather cold, and the temperature was a bit low.
"Master Guangde, are you inside?" Master Guangde was one of the people Chu Ge respected the most, so he didn’t dare to act rashly in his territory.
Therefore, before entering the cave, he called out to inquire.
It didn’t take long for Master Guangde to come out. He looked at Chu Ge and Huo Tianqian and smiled slightly, "How did my nephews find this place?"
Chu Ge explained, "We had a meal and walked around with nothing to do, so we climbed up the slope. Hearing the voice of a child, we came over to take a look."
Master Guangde nodded gently and didn’t say much, "I am treating a child’s illness. If you want to come in, then come in and have a look."
Master Guangde could tell that the child had a fondness for both Chu Ge and Huo Tianqian, although he didn’t say it out loud, his actions showed it.
Perhaps keeping the child by his side was a mistake.
After all, the child was just a kid who needed companionship, someone to play with during his childhood. Whenever he saw the child sitting there, gazing into the distance, he knew that the child was full of fantasies about the outside world.
Hearing that Master Guangde was treating a child, Chu Ge asked with some confusion, "Is the child sick?"
Today he seemed as lively as a dragon...
While walking, Master Guangde nodded and said, "When I found the child, he already had a condition. He was abandoned by his parents because of it, because the medicine of the outside world couldn’t diagnose what illness the child had. To be honest, even I do not know the name of this disease; it is a very rare and strange ailment."
As he spoke, Master Guangde led Chu Ge and Huo Tianqian into the cave.
As they went deeper inside, the temperature dropped further. Chu Ge distinctly felt the pores on his body stand up, and Huo Tianqian kept exhaling, as if only by doing so could he feel a bit warmer.
The trio arrived at a rather spacious and flat clearing. Here, there was a bed sculpted from ice, upon which the child was lying, his body pierced with numerous silver needles.
The child was undergoing acupuncture.
Chu Ge looked at the child’s frail body, his face clearly expressing agony. His small hands clenched into fists, desperately trying to endure the pain.
Chu Ge thought of his own childhood. He too was weak and sickly as a child, and so his master used to make him take medicinal baths every day, and even had him consume those bitter, unpleasant herbal medicines daily.
Seeing the child , he felt as if he was looking at his younger self.
Only he knew the pain he bore back then.
But at least, he wasn’t like the child now, lying on the cold ice bed, body riddled with silver needles.
Master Guangde said, "The child has been raised soaking in sulfur baths since he was small. Slowly, when the sulfur baths ceased to have any effect, I started using the local terrain and temperature differences to make an ice sculpture bed, bringing him here for acupuncture half a two-hour session every day."
Huo Tianqian gazed upon the delicate form enduring such immense trials, and all his prior resentments towards the child vanished.
He looked at the child with a sense of pity and silently sighed.
After watching for a while, Chu Ge started to observe the surroundings.
Even though he had lost his martial arts, he could still feel the rich Spiritual Energy here.
Whether it was an innate sensitivity to Spiritual Energy or simply intuition was unknown.
"Master Guangde, there is a very powerful Spirit Vein in Snow Mountain, aren’t you aware?" Chu Ge asked curiously.
He had his suspicions, but he wasn’t sure if they were accurate.
Master Guangde nodded. "Nephew-Apprentice, you are correct. What you are referring to as the Spirit Vein, this place is indeed the spiritual heart."
A Spirit Vein is like a long dragon vein, with a spiritual heart in it that constantly disperses Spiritual Energy.
Finding a spiritual heart is a rare feat, as it is mobile, and no one can accurately estimate its exact location.
However, now Master Guangde was telling him that this place was the Spirit Vein’s spiritual heart, which genuinely surprised Chu Ge.
"This place is the spiritual heart?"
"Yes. Originally, the spiritual heart was not here. I happened to discover that the spiritual heart was flowing around and moved here, so I used a formation to lock the spiritual heart in place," Master Guangde said nonchalantly.
It seemed easy the way he talked about it, but Chu Ge knew very well how much effort and profound inner strength were required to lock a spiritual heart.
As the name implies, a spiritual heart has spirituality; it has perception, consciousness. If it acknowledges a master, it will obediently follow them.
Clearly, this Spirit Vein’s spiritual heart had already acknowledged Master Guangde as its master.
Otherwise, the spiritual heart would have attacked them as soon as they entered!
Huo Tianqian looked confused, "Mr. Chu, what is a Spirit Vein? What is a spiritual heart? How come I can’t sense it?"
Chu Ge shook his head slightly, "Our martial arts have been sealed, so it’s normal not to feel the Spiritual Energy here. Perhaps the Spiritual Energy here is too rich and plentiful, and I am inherently sensitive. That familiar feeling allowed me to guess."