Senior was kind enough that even after Xia Yunzhao harvested every last Tianling Ginseng, he did not say a single word.
Looking at the dozens of plump, white Tianling Ginsengs inside his Hundred-Compartment Pouch, Xia Yunzhao was delighted. This trip had definitely been worth it.
He started covering Senior back up with soil… Halfway through, something felt wrong. “Shang Shuangze, look. Why is this bone this color?”
Maybe because it had only just been dug out, and the surroundings were pitch-black with nothing but the lamp magical treasure overhead for light, Xia Yunzhao had not noticed before. Now that he looked carefully, why were the bones so black? They looked almost like dead wood. Human bones could decay, but not into something like this.
These unidentified remains definitely belonged to a cultivator, and the person’s cultivation before death could not have been low. Otherwise, the spiritual power left in the body alone could never have nourished so many Tianling Ginsengs.
If this had been a high-tier cultivator, then the body should have been extraordinarily resilient. What could possibly have reduced the remains to this state?
Xia Yunzhao murmured thoughtfully, “Evil spirits…”
Shang Shuangze’s ears twitched, and he tapped the back of Xia Yunzhao’s hand. Xia Yunzhao flipped his wrist, activated the Earthwalking Art again, and the surrounding soil rolled over, swiftly burying the eerie skeleton.
A shout came from not far away. “Xia! Where are you?”
Xia Yunzhao called back, “Over here! Coming!”
Fuliu and the others had returned. Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze regrouped with them. Their hunt seemed to have gone extremely well; nearly everyone had a bloodied carcass hanging from their body.
For light, they used a peculiar fruit that was another specialty of the Tianling Mountain Range. The fruit was about the size of a fist, with a thin green skin and the shape of a lantern. Its pit glowed, and the light shining through the peel turned green as well.
For convenience, the Dongshan clanspeople wore these lamp fruits on their shoulders, one on each side.
Xia Yunzhao looked up and found a whole group of Dongshan clanspeople staring expressionlessly at him, lamp fruits hanging from both shoulders. The oily green light cast their faces in the same bluish-green shade.
Xia Yunzhao: “…”
He had to admit, it was genuinely a little creepy.
Fuliu beckoned to him, apparently puzzled about what he was staring at. “Hurry. Go home.”
Xia Yunzhao cleared his throat and put on a smile. “All right. Let’s go home.”
Shang Shuangze took his hand and gave it a reassuring pat, and the two followed behind the others back to the village.
Very few people in the village could speak Common Tongue, but the priestess and Fuliu were not the only two. After dinner, Xia Yunzhao made some inquiries and “set his sights” on an old grandfather.
The old man was in his seventies. Supposedly, he had been the village’s best hunter when he was young. Even now, he was hale and hearty, with sharp eyes and good hearing, and his Common Tongue was even better than Priestess Grandma’s and Fuliu’s.
Xia Yunzhao grabbed a few spirit fruits and ran over to butter him up. “Grandpa, want some fruit?”
Grandpa leisurely picked one up. “Good child. So filial.”
Xia Yunzhao had only just broken into a grin when the old man continued, “Grandpa only has three teeth left. Just in time, I was thinking I didn’t want them anymore.”
Xia Yunzhao: “…” He smiled awkwardly. “If you can’t eat them, just say so. I’ll mash them into fruit puree for you.”
He fetched a clean stone mortar and began pounding the fruit while asking, “Grandpa, do outsiders usually come into our mountains?”
Grandpa found the boy rather amusing. “Outsiders like you? No. No outsider has come into these mountains for hundreds of years.”
Xia Yunzhao thought about the skeleton. It certainly had not looked hundreds of years old, though perhaps some cultivator had slipped in secretly without anyone in the village knowing. “There are so many spirit herbs here. No cultivators ever come to gather them?”
“Gather spirit herbs…” Grandpa’s gaze grew distant, the orange firelight reflecting across the deep lines in his face. “Our ancestors said that long ago, many spirit cultivators came here to gather herbs. Back then, the Mountain God was still here, and the mountains had rules. Once you entered, you couldn’t fly through the sky or burrow through the earth, and you couldn’t use spells. Those cultivators carried little baskets on their backs and swung medicinal hoes, gathering herbs in the mountains alongside our ancestors. But heart cultivators didn’t come. They didn’t practice alchemy.”
Xia Yunzhao’s hand slowed over the fruit puree. “Heart cultivators? What are heart cultivators?”
Grandpa looked at him. “You’re the cultivator. You’re asking me?”
Xia Yunzhao: “…” Fair point.
He turned to look at Shang Shuangze not far away. Shang Shuangze gave him a slight shake of the head. Xia Yunzhao froze. Even Shang Shuangze did not know?
He continued, “Grandpa, how long ago was this ‘long ago’ you’re talking about? And what’s the difference between heart cultivators and spirit cultivators?”
Grandpa cleared his throat and glanced at the stone mortar. “Is that fruit puree ready yet? If it is, give it here.”
Xia Yunzhao peeked at him, handed over the mortar, and started whining. “…How can you be like this? Mashing fruit puree for you wasn’t easy. My hands are sore, my arms ache, and I only asked two little questions…”
What a rare sight: a Golden Core True Lord whining and acting spoiled.
And sure enough, this trick worked best on old people. Grandpa held out for a little while before he could not keep pretending anymore. He patted Xia Yunzhao’s head. “Aiya, things like this are hard to explain to youngsters like you. Besides, I heard it all so many years ago. What if I remember something wrong or leave something out? You’d be better off asking the priestess. She has books handed down through the clan. Maybe they record some of what you want to know.”
The moment Grandpa finished speaking, the child opposite him immediately changed expressions and beamed. “Got it! Thank you, Grandpa! Hurry and eat. My fruit puree is delicious! I’ll make you more tomorrow!”
Grandpa did not know whether to laugh or cry as he watched Xia Yunzhao drag his Dao partner toward the priestess’s wooden house. Shaking his head, he wondered which clansperson’s descendant the boy was. Just look at how impish he was.
As Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze ran toward the priestess’s house, Xia Yunzhao asked quietly, “You’ve really never heard anything at all about spirit cultivators and heart cultivators?”
Shang Shuangze shook his head. “Never. There isn’t even any record of them in my sect’s texts.”
Xia Yunzhao grew thoughtful. “The Dongshan clan has been cut off from the outside world for so long. Maybe that’s exactly why they’ve preserved information that disappeared elsewhere.”
Spirit cultivators, heart cultivators… They sounded like two different Dao lineages. If Xia Yunzhao was being called a spirit cultivator, then where had the heart cultivators gone? Could their lineage have gradually died out over the long ages of cultivation history?
The two ran back to the priestess’s house and asked to borrow the books passed down by the clan. The priestess glanced at them but said nothing, merely brought out two books. She told them they could not take the books outside and could only read them there.
Xia Yunzhao had not expected it to be that easy. He had assumed books like these would not be lent to outsiders and had even been considering whether he needed to whine again.
The two books were made from a very unusual material, smooth and soft but not paper. Instead, the pages were made from a peculiar kind of tree bark that gave off a faint clean fragrance. Breathing it in left one refreshed, with the divine sense clear and lucid.
The first book they opened turned out to be a clan register, recording the name and ultimate destination of every Dongshan clansperson from ancient times to the present.
For most of them, the final entry was “soul returned to the earth.” As Xia Yunzhao turned page after page, it was almost as though he could see the ordinary yet unrestrained lives of generations of clanspeople.
“Priestess Grandma, this person’s destination says he went to serve the Mountain God!” Xia Yunzhao was completely at ease with her now and pointed to one of the names. “Did he become the presiding priest at the Mountain God’s temple?”
The priestess looked at him and said solemnly, “He met the Mountain God in the mountains. In the end they fell in love, and the Mountain God took him away.”
Xia Yunzhao stammered, “F-fell in love?”
Now that was interesting. He had assumed “Mountain God” was simply a personification of the mountains. Many peoples who lived among mountains believed their mountains had a god. But apparently this Mountain God was actually a real being? Could it have been some high-tier cultivator?
There could not actually be a Mountain God, right? Hahahaha… haha… ha…
Priestess Grandma clearly had no idea what he was laughing about. She pointed at the second book. “There is a record. In this one.”
Shang Shuangze picked it up first and opened it. The very first page held an illustration: a deity floated in midair, leopard markings across Their face, a string of ornaments hanging from one ear, and a leopard tail behind Their waist. Stars filled the sky behind Them, while countless mountains spread beneath Their feet. One hand opened downward, scattering immeasurable life.
The countless living beings of the mountains sheltered beneath the deity’s protection, and the mountains were Their divine domain. This was the Mountain God.
Xia Yunzhao froze when he saw the illustration, then looked up and exchanged a glance with Shang Shuangze. Both of them had thought of the same thing.
With a turn of Xia Yunzhao’s hand, Xiao Qing appeared in his palm. The palm-sized bronze alchemy furnace had indistinct patterns across its belly that had shrunk along with it. What little of the image they could make out differed somewhat from the illustration in the book, yet the resemblance was unmistakable.
A depiction of a deity… The pattern on Xiao Qing’s belly was actually a depiction of a deity too.
Xia Yunzhao still found it difficult to believe. Did gods truly exist in this world?
He kept turning pages. The book was rather like an illustrated storybook, with pictures paired with text. And honestly, the drawings were surprisingly clear.
According to legend, the Dongshan people were the beloved children of the Mountain God, born in the crook of the god’s arm and raised in the god’s embrace. Although they could not cultivate, their bodies were extraordinary. Men and women alike possessed immense strength and could even contend with high-tier slaughter beasts.
Every Dongshan clansperson spent a free and happy life in the mountains. Upon death, their soul returned to the earth, and everything they left behind was offered to the Mountain God.
Later, people from beyond the mountains began entering to gather medicinal herbs. They were divided into spirit cultivators and heart cultivators. Spirit cultivators followed the Heavenly Dao, while heart cultivators followed their own hearts…
At last he had found what he wanted. Xia Yunzhao immediately read more carefully.
The Dongshan clan dealt more often with spirit cultivators. Heart cultivators rarely practiced alchemy and naturally did not gather medicinal herbs either. Most heart cultivators bought their pills from spirit cultivators. The two sides called one another “Path-Followers” and “World-Enterers,” and judging by the pictures, their relationship was actually quite good.
Xia Yunzhao turned another page. There was very little about spirit cultivators and heart cultivators, and after that, nothing more. He continued reading and only grew more confused, because the story that followed became downright ridiculous: the Mountain God transformed into a leopard and rested in the mountains, only for a Dongshan youth to mistake Them for a slaughter beast and come hunting with a spear in hand. Seeing that the youth had admirable courage, the Mountain God taught him to fight. Four years passed that way. Then, in spring, the Mountain God used mountain flowers as betrothal gifts and took him as the Mountain God’s consort…
Xia Yunzhao reached the end and stared at an illustration of the two embracing. “What even is this?!” It felt exactly like reading a novel that suddenly went off the rails at the ending! The first half had been telling the history of the Dongshan clan, and then the second half turned into a romance?
Refusing to give up, he flipped backward through the book. “Priestess Grandma, there’s nothing after this?”
Priestess Grandma looked at him. “Afterward, the Mountain God fell ill. No more records.”
Xia Yunzhao: “…” He could hardly believe it. “You mean this romance… No, wait. You mean the Mountain God wrote this book personally?”
Priestess Grandma pointed. “The other one too.”
…What an idle Mountain God!
Priestess Grandma finally laughed. So she had been teasing the child just now. Slowly, she explained to Xia Yunzhao that the Mountain God had a gentle temperament. Before falling ill, the god often took on the appearance of a clansperson and came to the village to play, even joining in the clan’s activities. These two books had been recorded personally by the Mountain God. Later, the god married the young man from the clan. Not long after that, the Great Upheaval occurred, and many deities fell ill. Later still, changes appeared in the mountains, forcing the clanspeople to separate, with half leaving the mountains…
There was no longer any way to determine when the earlier events had happened. But according to the clan’s records, more than a thousand years had passed since the clanspeople split apart.
Tens of millions of years of history had been compressed into only a few sentences, and the old woman’s aged voice was thick with remembrance.
Xia Yunzhao nodded. So that was the sequence of events. Deities… There really had been gods in this world, and they were not cultivators who had ascended and become divine. Deities had existed even before cultivators.
All he had wanted was to understand what spirit cultivators and heart cultivators were, yet he had stumbled onto something enormous. There was the Great Upheaval, the deities falling ill… It was a lot of information to take in all at once.
He looked at Shang Shuangze. Even Shang Shuangze wore a rare expression of shock, which meant Baiyujing evidently had no record of this either.
Or perhaps, like the Dongshan clan, Baiyujing did have records but simply did not let its younger generation read them?
At that thought, Xia Yunzhao became puzzled. “Grandma, aren’t these books supposed to be secret? You’re just letting me read them?”
Priestess Grandma shook her head. A hint of grandmotherly kindness appeared on her usually stern face. “Little leopards all grow up eventually.”
Once a little eagle grows wings, let it fly.
Xia Yunzhao was instantly moved. “You’re so nice! My Grandma back home is just as nice. As soon as I get back, I’m going to visit her!”
Priestess Grandma finally smiled. “Good child.”
Xia Yunzhao asked again, “Grandma, there’s one more thing I want to ask. What illness did the Mountain God actually get? Why does everyone outside say the Tianling Mountain Range was corroded by demonic qi? Can outsiders still enter now? Can all of you still leave?”
Priestess Grandma looked at him. “Go sleep. You’ll know tomorrow.”
* * *
The biggest problem with having no daylight was that it threw one’s schedule into chaos. According to the time, it was already time to sleep, yet once Xia Yunzhao lay down, he found it very hard to fall asleep.
When he finally managed to drift off and opened his eyes again, Xia Yunzhao discovered that the light had returned.
Bright daylight filled the world outside, birds chirped everywhere, and that scenery beautiful enough to resemble an immortal realm had returned before his eyes.
It was Xia Yunzhao’s first time seeing the village in daylight. Small wooden houses stood at varied heights among the trees, while flowers of every color bloomed across the ground. The whole place looked like something out of a divine tale.
No wonder they said the Dongshan clan were the Mountain God’s beloved children! Just look at where they lived. Even immortals could hardly expect better treatment, could they?
Fuliu was about to lead another group out. Xia Yunzhao hurried downstairs. “Brother Fuliu, where are you going? Didn’t you say we can’t gather herbs or hunt during the day?”
The moment Fuliu saw him, he forced out some Common Tongue. “Go care for Mountain God.”
Xia Yunzhao was stunned. “Care for the Mountain God? You can actually take care of the Mountain God?” Was this what it meant to be the god’s beloved children?
He tugged Shang Shuangze along. “Brother Fuliu, can we come? I want to meet the Mountain God too.”
Fuliu laughed, and the men and women around him laughed too. “Can. But road far. Dangerous.”
Xia Yunzhao hurriedly said, “We’re not afraid!”
Everyone in the village laughed. Xia Yunzhao looked left and right, completely unable to figure out what was so funny.
Priestess Grandma beckoned to him. Xia Yunzhao dragged Shang Shuangze over, and she plucked a Youtan Flower, moistened it with water, and pressed it to the center of each of their brows. “On the road, do not look around carelessly. Do not be afraid. Calm the soul, steady the heart.”
Xia Yunzhao nodded, smiling brighter than the newly risen sun. “We’re off!”
Shang Shuangze shook his head behind him. Priestess Grandma’s attitude toward them now was worlds apart from when they had first arrived. Give Xia Yunzhao a little more time and it might not be impossible for him to abduct the entire Dongshan clan.
The two followed Fuliu’s group onto the road. Xia Yunzhao obeyed the local rules completely and did not pick a single spirit herb. Even when he encountered one he particularly wanted, he merely memorized its location carefully so he could return after darkness fell.
It was obvious that Fuliu and the others were extremely pleased with him. Sometimes, when they saw him staring longingly at a certain spirit herb, they would even tell him where that variety grew in the greatest abundance and promise to take him there once night fell…
And Xia Yunzhao had no idea whether they truly understood what spirit cultivators were, because while traveling, they actually surrounded Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze in the middle of the group as though intending to protect them.
How could Xia Yunzhao take advantage of them like that? He was a Golden Core cultivator, yet a group of people who could not cultivate were protecting him? If word got out, people would laugh themselves to death! So he tried to move toward the outside of the group… He did not make it out, and one of the older sisters even smacked him.
The woman glared fiercely at him. “*&%￥#!”
Xia Yunzhao looked at Shang Shuangze. Holding back a laugh, Shang Shuangze translated, “She told you to stay put. If you don’t behave, you’ll get hit.”
Xia Yunzhao: “…”
The journey really was long. The group walked for ten or twelve hours, stopping for lunch in the middle, before finally reaching their destination.
Xia Yunzhao looked up with everyone else, only to find the scene before him extremely familiar. Wasn’t this enormous black tree, taller than the sky itself, the very place he had wanted to visit before?
He asked in confusion, “Weren’t we going to care for the Mountain God? Why are we here?”
Fuliu smiled. “This is Heaven-Reaching Tree. Mountain God up above.”
Xia Yunzhao: “…” His mind turned it over. “You mean the thing we’re here to take care of is this tree?”
Fuliu translated his question for the others, and everyone laughed. Even Shang Shuangze’s lips curved slightly.
Xia Yunzhao finally understood why everyone in the village had laughed earlier. He muttered under his breath, “If you were taking care of a tree, you should’ve just said you were taking care of a tree. Saying you were taking care of the Mountain God made me misunderstand…”
Still, he was not losing out. He had discovered that the bark of this tree was the very same bark used to make those books. This tree could obviously be used in alchemy, and it was extremely beneficial to the divine sense!
Looking at the fallen leaves covering the ground, Xia Yunzhao grew eager again. “So how do we take care of it? And after we’re done, can I pick up some leaves?”
“Leaves?” Fuliu looked puzzled. “Can. Brought you to play. We care for it. You play.”
Now Xia Yunzhao felt embarrassed. “How could I do that? Let me help. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can all go back.”
So everyone showed him what to do.
Each person carried a special little stone knife. They used it to cut into the bark of the Heaven-Reaching Tree, causing milky-white sap to flow out. When they spread that sap over the blackened trunk, that section immediately returned to its normal blue-green woody color.
Xia Yunzhao froze. “What is this?”
Fuliu said, “Heaven-Reaching Tree polluted by evil spirits. Must remove.” He sighed, worry appearing on his honest face. “When I little, black on Heaven-Reaching Tree low. Now very high. Black all the way to white clouds.”
Xia Yunzhao followed his gaze upward and nodded. The Heaven-Reaching Tree was enormous; merely saying it pierced the clouds was an understatement, because the white clouds actually floated beneath its crown. Looking up, the trunk remained black all the way to the cloud layer.
Xia Yunzhao had originally assumed the tree simply had an unusual coloration. Now he understood that it was actually gravely ill…
And the way to treat the tree was to smear its own sap onto its own bark? It sounded rather pitiful.
But what exactly were these evil spirits? Xia Yunzhao sensed carefully. His perception was already extremely sharp, and after cultivating the Diting Art, it had grown even sharper. Even so, he sensed nothing unusual. If he had not watched the trunk change color with his own eyes, he would never have noticed anything at all.
Shang Shuangze saw him look over and shook his head too. “I can’t sense anything.”
Xia Yunzhao’s heart grew heavier. He had no idea whether this thing affected cultivators. If it did, there was practically no way to guard against it.
Everyone got to work. Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze borrowed two stone knives and began helping too.
A flash of green crossed Xia Yunzhao’s vision as Xiao Qing ran out on its own again. It circled its two masters, then circled the thick tree trunk, clearly even more confused than before. Something had seemed to attract it again just now, but by the time it came out, the sensation had vanished once more!
Xia Yunzhao looked at the trunk, pulled out a handful of spirit pearls, and stuffed them into Xiao Qing’s mouth. “Just pretend you didn’t notice.”
Xiao Qing chewed on the spirit pearls, still baffled. This was so strange! It had never felt anything like this before!
Xia Yunzhao went back to work… Suddenly, a cry of alarm came from beside him. He turned and saw the woman who had smacked him earlier topple forward with her eyes closed.
The person beside her caught her immediately, and everyone around them crowded in.
Shang Shuangze said at once, “They’re saying an evil spirit invaded her.”
Xia Yunzhao’s heart tightened. Evil spirits again?
He was an alchemist, after all, so surely he could help somehow. He squeezed into the crowd too and saw the woman still holding her stone knife. There was blood on the blade and a small cut on her finger, probably from accidentally slicing herself while cutting the bark.
Her injured finger had already turned gray, and the gray color was racing upward at terrifying speed. In moments, her entire hand and forearm had turned gray!
Xia Yunzhao’s heart sank. This is bad!
There was no time to ask permission first. If he hesitated, she might die. He immediately crouched, pried her mouth open with one hand, and shoved a Thousand-Mechanism Detoxification Pill inside with the other.
The Thousand-Mechanism Detoxification Pill was a Level-Three pill, and giving it to someone who could not cultivate carried considerable risk. Xia Yunzhao had no choice. In an instant, he ran through every pill he had on hand, and only the Thousand-Mechanism Detoxification Pill seemed remotely suitable. It could neutralize poisons and even dispel certain curses and chaotic spiritual techniques… All he could do was hope it worked.
But prayers did not always help. After she swallowed the pill, the gray spread more slowly, yet it still did not stop. Even a Level-Three pill could not remove it.
Fuliu said heavily, “Evil spirit. Stronger now.” This was not the first time one of them had been invaded by an evil spirit, but it was the fastest invasion they had ever seen.
According to the clan elders, long ago, when they were caring for the Mountain God and an evil spirit invaded someone, the Mountain God would manifest and purge it from them. Now the Mountain God could no longer manifest. They had no way to save clanspeople once the evil spirit took hold.
Fuliu was the oldest person present, and this was far from the first time he had watched a clansperson die after being invaded by an evil spirit. As the Mountain God’s illness worsened, more and more people had died in recent years…
“Don’t panic yet.” Xia Yunzhao’s steady voice cut in. “Until we reach the very end, we’re not giving up. You said the Mountain God is up in the tree, right? The two of us will go take a look.” A life was at stake. If they did not try every possible method, were they supposed to simply stand there and watch someone die?
Fuliu was startled. “You… you two…”
Xia Yunzhao smiled reassuringly. “Brother Fuliu, you forgot again. We’re cultivators. We can fly.”
With that, Shang Shuangze wrapped an arm around him, and the two rose together into the air, flying toward the top of the tree.
Fuliu’s mouth fell open. The Heaven-Reaching Tree could not be climbed, so none of them had ever imagined reaching its crown. Could these two actually do it? Was this what spirit cultivators were capable of?
Watching the two figures grow smaller and smaller above them, one of the men said, “If it’s those two, maybe they really can save Hongyao.”
Everyone looked at Hongyao, whose complexion was already beginning to turn ashen, then gazed anxiously at the two shrinking figures overhead… Mountain God above, if You can, please protect them. Please protect us.
Golden Core cultivators could ride the wind and fly, though Xia Yunzhao himself had never actually tried it. Mainly because Shang Shuangze was too convenient… No, because Shang Shuangze flew too fast. Every time Xia Yunzhao thought about trying it himself, Shang Shuangze had already wrapped an arm around him and taken off, leaving him no chance to practice.
The higher they flew, the colder it became. By the time they reached the first layer of white clouds, frost was beginning to form on the ends of Xia Yunzhao’s hair.
Out of habit, Shang Shuangze took out the Fire Rat King cloak and draped it around him.
Xia Yunzhao was already unaffected by ordinary heat and cold these days, but who would turn down a lover’s care?
They continued upward. Xiao Qing poked its head out from Xia Yunzhao’s clothes, looked down, and got a fright; then it looked up and got another fright. How ridiculously tall was this tree?
Xia Yunzhao smiled and soothed it. “We’re almost there. If you’re scared, go back into my qi sea.”
Xiao Qing hesitated. It still felt that something was strange, so it decided not to go back. It wanted to see what was going on.
They passed through who knew how many more layers of cloud… At last, they saw a treehouse at the top of the tree.
And honestly, that treehouse looked exactly like the ones in the Dongshan village.
Was this the Mountain God’s residence?
If someone below had not been waiting for them to save her life, Xiao Xia would definitely have stopped to get excited. Look at him now. He had really made something of himself; he was actually about to meet a god.
The two stopped cautiously, and Xia Yunzhao called out, “May I ask whether this is the Mountain God’s residence?”
No one answered.
Xia Yunzhao frowned and exchanged a look with Shang Shuangze. A bad feeling rose in both of them at once. “We have come to visit the Mountain God of the Tianling Mountain Range. May we enter?”
Still, no one answered.
Xia Yunzhao thought for a moment and decided to take a risk. He slowly approached, though he did not dare recklessly push open the door. Instead, he only glanced through the window, and immediately jolted. There was someone inside!
He looked more carefully and was startled again. He knew this person. It was the young man drawn in the bark book!