Chapter 160: Chewing Over the Past, Swallowing Memories

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Seeing Zhou Qing suddenly appear at the mouth of the cave, the woman rushed out from within. Once she took in the situation outside, she dropped to her knees and clung tightly to Zhou Qing’s leg.

Witnessing this, Zhou Qing let out a quiet sigh. He patted the treasure pouch at his waist, took out a red robe, and draped it over the woman's shoulders.

“It’s my fault for coming late. If only I had arrived sooner, none of this would have happened.”

With a tone laced with helplessness, Zhou Qing spoke these words, then helped the woman to her feet.

Not long after, he led the woman and her two daughters out of the gloomy cave forever, guiding them onto a sunlit road.

“Elder sister, here is some silver. It should be enough for the three of you to make a living from now on. Also, where you're headed, one of my disciples is there. If you encounter any difficulties, seek him out…”

After arranging for their resettlement in Tortoise County, Zhou Qing thanked Cao Linliang, then watched the carriage disappear into the distance before turning to continue on his journey.

He walked until the next morning. Passing by an abandoned village, Zhou Qing spotted a fruit tree in the front yard of a deserted house.

He was no stranger to this kind of tree—he remembered Li Da Wa’s family in Li Village also had one.

The tree was laden with large fruits, but since no one was there to pick them, most had fallen and rotted on the ground, leaving only a few on the branches.

Seeing this fruit tree stirred Zhou Qing’s emotions. He stepped into the front yard, picked a large fruit, washed it in a nearby water jar, and took a hearty bite.

The sweet and sour taste matched his memories perfectly, and a smile appeared on his face. He could no longer recall how long it had been since he experienced such simple, earthly pleasures.

Ever since he had attained the fasting stage, he had barely eaten anything. If not for the sight of this fruit and the memories it evoked, he wouldn’t have eaten now either.

It was less about eating the fruit than about savoring his past and swallowing down his memories.

The main door from the front yard to the house stood wide open, with one side collapsed—a clear sign that the place had been uninhabited for a long time.

Inside, Zhou Qing picked up a wooden stool and brought it out to the yard. He sat by the fruit tree, eating, and retrieved the Wandering Miscellany from his treasure pouch.

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He opened the book directly to “Notes on North Que Mountain” and began to read carefully.

The account matched what Cao Linliang had told him almost exactly, though it omitted some unnecessary details and was written in a rough, simple style.

He flipped through the pages. As he turned to the last page of the Notes on North Que Mountain with the hand holding the fruit, some juice seeped onto the paper.

At first, Zhou Qing paid it no mind. But as he finished reading and was about to close the book, he noticed that the dampened spot had wrinkled, revealing a hidden layer in the middle of the page.

“There’s a secret here?”

Intrigued, Zhou Qing glanced at the page, then dipped his hand into the water jar again and moistened the corner of the page.

Soon, the entire corner was wet, and with a gentle rub of his fingers, he separated the hidden layer within the page.

Seeing this, Zhou Qing quickly pulled the layers apart and found a slip of paper the size of a palm tucked inside. Upon it was a note that made his heart race.

“To my descendants: Within North Que Mountain lies a relic left behind by a predecessor, preserved by the Corpse Clan. If it concerns you, seek it; if not, return this page to the book. Here, in North Que Mountain…”

Reading the note, Zhou Qing recalled what Wuchang had told him back in the ancient tomb near Li Tang Village.

“A relic not of this world, preserved by the Corpse Clan—could there be another Five Elements Pearl in North Que Mountain?”

Piecing together what Wuchang had said and what his grandmaster had left in the book, Zhou Qing became certain that there was indeed a Five Elements Pearl in that mountain.

Originally, after hearing from Cao Linliang that North Que Mountain had been declared a forbidden zone, Zhou Qing had given up the idea of going. But now he changed his mind.

He was determined to obtain the Five Elements Pearl, and he also wanted to uncover why the relic mentioned by Wuchang’s so-called Dao Master had ended up connected to him.

There must be some link. Since his grandmaster had left a note in the hidden layer, he must have foreseen that one of his descendants would receive this otherworldly item.

Mulling over these thoughts, Zhou Qing, who had previously abandoned his plan, resolved to set out for North Que Mountain that very day.

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Having made up his mind, just as Zhou Qing was about to put away the Wandering Miscellany and depart, three figures quickly approached from beyond the crumbling courtyard wall.

Zhou Qing examined them and recognized them as the very cultivators he had seen two nights prior, when he dealt with the ferocious ghost in the fields.

Though it had been late and Zhou Qing was some distance away, their clothing and demeanor now confirmed that they were the same trio.

Among them, two were men and one was a woman. One man, about thirty, was slim and dressed in blue robes, holding a long sword.

The other man, just over twenty and quite stout, wore similar blue robes and also carried a long sword.

The woman, appearing about Zhou Qing’s age—seventeen or eighteen—had a sweet and lovely appearance and likewise held a long sword.

Their attire was not much different from ordinary folk, but each carried a large cloth bag at their side, marking them as Daoist cultivators.

As Zhou Qing studied them, they too approached the dilapidated yard and examined him through the low, broken wall. The older Daoist, around thirty, smiled and called out, “Young man, are you the only one in this village?”

They had seen Zhou Qing sitting in the ruined yard as they entered, hence the question.

“I’m not from here,” Zhou Qing replied after a moment’s thought. “I came here fleeing disaster and, finding myself hungry, saw the fruit on the tree and came in to fill my belly.”

Hearing this, the three outside nodded and smiled at him, then entered the yard together.