He opened the door and saw Granny Ma standing in the courtyard, he nodded at her.
“Daoist Shen, not only have you saved our village today, but also Ying Luo. Reflecting on my previous attitude towards you, I’m quite ashamed!” Granny Ma breathed a sigh of relief; her eyes flashing a mix of gratitude and guilt, she said to Shen Luo.
“There’s no need to mention the past. I’m now a member of this village. As long as I can be at peace with what I do, it’s enough.” Shen Luo waved his hand casually, speaking in a composed manner.
“The demons that previously besieged our village mentioned that you visited a place called Oblique Moon and Three Stars Cave on your trip to Mount Fangcun. Is this true?” Granny Ma hesitated, then finally asked.
“Indeed.” Shen Luo looked at Granny Ma and replied.
“Inherited from our ancestors, it is said that Oblique Moon and Three Stars Cave was used by Mount Fangcun’s founding master for accepting disciples and seclusion. I wonder what is the situation there…” exclaimed Granny Ma, her face showing a glimpse of excitement, as she asked anxiously.
“Granny Ma, I know what you want to ask, but knowing too much may not always be good. Of course, if you really want to know, I won’t hide it.” Shen Luo slowly said.
Granny Ma trembled when she heard this, her excitement faded, and she seemed to guess something. Her face turned pale and she fell silent.
Shen Luo quietly closed the door and walked slowly to the center of the courtyard. He looked up at the stars and pondered.
Shen Luo nodded. He immediately recounted everything he saw in the Oblique Moon and Three Stars Cave to Granny Ma, only omitting the specifics related to the Huangting Technique.
Granny Ma listened to Shen Luo’s narrations. The glimmer of hope in her eyes faded, along with the color on her face, making her appear to have aged greatly.
“Our ancestors of Longevity Village have been waiting for hundreds of years, it’s a fruitless dream after all, such is life’s irony!” She gave a wry smile, murmuring faintly. She silently shed tears.
Shen Luo stood quietly aside, not saying a word, but felt a touch of melancholy in his heart.
Although Longevity Village’s current situation is bleak, it has managed to survive. The saying goes, if the nest is upset, no egg is safe. Under the Heavenly Demon Annihilation, numerous families across the Four Continents are bereaved, and complete village annihilations are far from few.
Granny Ma stood alone in silent mockery, her solitary figure looking as if it had been abandoned by the world.
She didn’t stand for long, however, as she soon lifted her head, her expression seeming to have regained its customary calmness.
“Thank you, Daoist Shen, for telling the truth. However, I ask that you not repeat this to anyone else, so as not to affect the villagers’ will to survive,” she said with seriousness.
Seeing how quickly Granny Ma adjusted her mindset, Shen Luo could not help but feel admiration, and nodded in agreement.
“I have nothing to repay you with for your kindness, please accept my gratitude!” Granny Ma gave a respectful bow to Shen Luo.
“There’s no need for that! By the way, although Ying Luo is now out of danger, she still hasn’t woken up and needs someone to take care of her. I have things to take care of and can’t be distracted. Granny Ma, could you send someone over to look after her?” Shen Luo promptly avoided Granny Ma’s respectful gesture, and quickly changed the topic.
“Of course.” Granny Ma agreed with a nod.
Shen Luo acknowledged her with a nod and walked into another side room in the courtyard, where he sat down with his legs crossed.
After his fight with the Heaven Devouring Tiger today and saving Ying Luo just now, his mana was nearly exhausted. He began to silently practice the Huangting Technique to recover.
Once his mana was fully recovered, he took out the Seven Star Pen, his Divine Sense poured into it, and continued to inspect the various items he obtained from the mountain.
“From the looks of it now, only the mystery of this painting remains unresolved.” After a short while, his Divine Sense exited the Seven Stars Pen. With a wave of his hand, a scroll appeared, bathed in a flash of white light—it was the Heavenly Bamboo Gazing at the Moon Painting.
He unfurled the scroll and studied it intently.
A bright round moon shone from the scroll with green bamboo leaning slightly, casting a tangle of shadows.
After only a few glimpses, it seemed like the round moon and green bamboos suddenly turned into reality before him.
Under the moonlight, there seemed to be a gentle breeze passing by, causing the bamboos to swing, their clashing creating a continuous tapping sound. The shadows they cast on the ground mixed with the moonlight to form patchy fading traces that kept changing.
Shen Luo paid no attention to the round moon and bamboo around him, instead focusing on the patchy moon shadows on the ground.
He had studied this painting before. The mystery of this painting lay in its ever-changing shadows on the ground, which seemed like an invisible person practicing a mysterious set of steps.
Shen Luo had noticed this before, but he was somewhat unsure. Now, his cultivation level had increased significantly since the first time he viewed the Heavenly Bamboo Gazing at the Moon Painting. Especially after reaching the Nascent Soul Stage, his Soul Power had greatly increased. When observing this painting again, many things which were not clear before now seemed enlightening.
“This is indeed a set of stepping technique, far superior to the Bai Family’s Chasing Wind Step.” Shen Luo’s eyes were filled with excitement as he followed the changing moon shadows.
After a while, he slowly closed his eyes. The illusions around him vanished, and the changes in the painting’s steps were fully remembered by him.
Moments later, he opened his eyes and stood up. He put away the Heavenly Bamboo Gazing at the Moon Painting, and according to the steps shown in the painting, he started to move.
The steps seemed to be connected with the I Ching and subtly aligned with the positions of the 64 Hexagrams.
However, these steps were quite unusual. Sometimes, when he got to the next step, he couldn’t proceed to the following one. He needed to jump forward and backward to adjust, making the movement awkward. So much so, that at the beginning, his steps were exceedingly slow to the point of appearing funny.
Luckily, after practicing the Huangting Technique, his physical body had become incredibly agile. He quickly grew accustomed to the steps, and his pacing increased rapidly.
While in motion, Shen Luo swiftly grasped the various mysteries hidden in the steps. The peculiar parts of the steps that he couldn’t understand before gradually became clear to him.
Those peculiar parts were not strange at all but were the essence of this marvelous stepping technique.
Moreover, while practicing these steps, his body’s mana started to mobilize and slowly flowed within the meridians in his legs, further increasing his speed.
Time flew by unnoticed. Shen Luo was entirely immersed in this mysterious stepping technique and had entered a state of self-forgetfulness.
In the room, Shen Luo’s figure moved like a ghostly specter. The complexity of his steps and speed intensified until he was almost a blur, and faint afterimages appeared behind him.
Moments later, the rapidly sprinting figure suddenly halted, remaining as still as an iron stake driven into the ground, with all the afterimages assuming their original positions in a swift.
“Delightful!” Shen Luo let out a joyful cheer.