Chapter 4

  When the Seven Stars Formation was broken, Shi Yi Fei took out the Xianjian and found Shi Yizhong's son, Dazhu. Dazhu was being surrounded by two enemies and was in a precarious situation. Shi Yi Fei held his sword and launched a surprise attack, killing one of the cultivators with Dazhu, and then the two joined forces to launch a surprise attack on their father, Shi Yi. Taking advantage of their familiarity with the terrain, they escaped left and right, barely escaping the enemy's pursuit. They rushed to where their father was, but were surrounded by the enemy cultivators who had scattered after the Seven Stars Formation was broken. Although these enemy cultivators were not extremely powerful, they had the advantage of numbers. After a fierce attack, Dazhu's magic was insufficient and he was pierced by flying blades and died. Shi Yi Fei shouted loudly and rushed to his death, but it was too late to save him, and he himself was also hit by several blades, with internal organs spilling out of his abdomen, and one arm was destroyed by an enemy cultivator's magic weapon. His originally handsome face was now covered in blood, his hair disheveled, his eyes wide open in anger, and without one arm, he looked ferocious.

  At that time, the enemy was closing in on all sides, and his life was also in danger. Shi Yi Fei let out a long sigh and wanted to self-destruct with his magic body. Just as he was about to do so, his father Shi Yi appeared, holding dozens of talismans and reciting incantations as he rode the clouds to rescue him. He threw out the talismans, and in an instant, golden symbols flashed wildly in the air, transforming into swords, spears, firebirds, and ice pillars. Several talismans exploded, releasing a thick fog that spread out and enveloped everything around them, rendering it impossible for anyone to see anything within the dense fog. The sudden turn of events caught the enemy cultivators off guard, but when they came to their senses and broke through the talismans with their magic, Shi Yi Fei had already been taken back by his father to the secret passage, speeding towards the great array's hidden chamber deep within the clan.

  "Lord Lumen, no one is in sight!"

  A practitioner shouted loudly.

  Na Lu's surname door master heard the words, his eyebrows furrowed, and he hastily pulled out an object from behind him, threw it into the air, recited a spell, shouted "sacrifice", and the object suddenly transformed into a small golden bird flying towards the secret path of Shi Yi's father and son's escape.

  "Keep up with it, chase! The gods have ordered, no one can be let go!"

  All the cultivators nodded and flew towards the secret path. Just at this moment, a deafening explosion came from the valley below, shaking the sky and earth. The cultivators were shocked and stopped in their tracks, looking up to see that half of the mountain peak had exploded and disappeared, and then a massive fireball rose into the air, shooting straight up into the clouds like a mushroom. The light was so bright that even the weaker cultivators were blinded, unable to see anything. Even Lu, the master of the Lu clan, who was known for his profound cultivation, felt a great fear in his heart. As he gazed intently at the fireball, he saw a lotus platform shaking and about to fall outside the light, which was actually the divine throne of the deity. On the throne, a person had lost all their clothes, revealing only a green inner armor, looking seriously injured. Two people quickly jumped onto the cloud head, protecting the deity as they slowly entered the giant boat.

  Lu Xingmen bowed his head in thought, suddenly shouting at his disciples:

  "Pursue! We must annihilate them completely."

  More than ten disciples followed and left again.

  "Father, you are incompetent and unable to protect us, which led to Da Zu's death!"

  "Stop talking and get into the secret room!"

  Shi Yi hadn't even turned around when a loud rumbling sound came from the secret passage, followed by an earth-shaking crash.

  "Ah! Big brother! Brothers! Has our Shi family been destroyed?"

  Shi Yi Meng stopped abruptly, knowing something was wrong, and let out a loud cry.

  "Father, hurry and leave, I'll set up a mechanism to block them for a while."

  Shi Yi ran back and forth in a daze, until he reached the door of the secret room, when he suddenly came to his senses and realized that his son wanted to abandon him.

  "My son!"

  It rushed out like crazy.

  "Oh, my dear husband!"

  The wife of the first one also turned around and followed her father-in-law running outwards.

  "Oh no! Oh no! Oh dear! Daddy, I have a stomachache!"

  Shi Yifei's wife ran two steps and suddenly shouted.

  Shi Yi suddenly turned around and took his daughter-in-law, Liu Shi, into the anthill to transfer the large array. He used the protective talisman to fix his daughter-in-law in place and activated the law array. The law array emitted a brilliant white light, flashing several times, and in an instant, the two people disappeared from the array. Afterwards, a stone on top of the array flashed with golden light and exploded, destroying both the law array and the secret room together.

  The enemy cultivators rushed in, and the secret room was already half-collapsed. The four or five cultivators looked at each other in dismay, their hearts filled with fear. Lu Men Zhu also entered, not saying a word, but carefully observing the scene. Without warning, he suddenly unleashed four or five clusters of Triple Flavor True Fire, striking his subordinates and sending them flying away. These few people were no match for him, and they let out a few miserable cries before their bodies were reduced to nothing.

  "Do not blame me, if the gods find out about this matter, I will also be treated the same as you!"

  Then he searched for this historian's secret path and obtained several precious treasures, satisfied and left.

  Far away from a hundred miles, on a hillside halfway up the slope, a large area of bamboo grew densely on the sloping land. There were no birds flying between the trees, and it was quiet and still, with no signs of beasts. The only sound was the soft rustling of the wind gently stroking the bamboo leaves. Suddenly, a white light flashed in front of a stone platform in the woods, revealing two people. The old man covered in blood was none other than Shi Yi, while the pregnant woman in pink clothes and green belt was Liu Shi. Liu Shi held her large belly and groaned incessantly.

  "Dad, I think it's going to be born."

  "Child, hold on tight, wait for father to find a safe place, then..."

  "Ah! Ah! Ah! ...No use!"

  "What's this? What's this? How can this be good?"

  Shi Yi Lue thought for a moment, then took out a magical sword and opened up a small cave on the hillside. For a cultivator who had reached the peak of Condensed Origin, this was not a difficult task. However, after his great transformation, he encountered this again, and his heart still trembled with fear. It took him half a day to finally complete it. Afterwards, he gathered some dry bamboo sticks and leaves to make a bed, letting Liu Shi lie down on it quietly. He himself went outside the cave and used the precious cauldron to boil water in preparation for making the elixir.

  Half a day later, there was a cry in the cave. Liu Shi said to her father-in-law who was waiting outside the cave:

  "Dad, it's a boy!"

  Shi Yi choked with difficulty. Even if one cultivates oneself, the great taboo of husband and wife cannot be crossed! However, at that time, the old man didn't care about it either!

  "Willow, the water has boiled, it's very hot, be careful when using it."

  Shi Yi stabilized his mind and spirit, flew into the air, looked around in all directions, and saw no signs of human habitation far or near. The nearest village was thousands of miles away from this place!

  "We must hurry! Liu'er, are you ready?"

  "Alright, Dad!"

  Liu's family came out with a child in her arms, both delighted and exhausted.

  "Child, you've suffered too! Hurry up and go!"

  The two of them did not dare to fly away quickly, because this place was not far from the Ghost Valley. They could not escape the pursuit of someone with powerful magical abilities.

  Inside the Ghost Valley, a group of cultivators from the Ark were busy clearing out the corpses of the Shi family. The Shi family had been around for hundreds of generations and possessed countless treasures. As they cleared out the bodies, they also searched for these treasures, making them quite busy. After finishing their task, they discovered that two members of the Shi family, Shi Yi and his daughter-in-law Liu, were missing. Everyone was shocked by this discovery. However, more than a day had already passed since then. The leader in charge of clearing out the bodies immediately reported to the higher-ups, who issued an order to hunt down the missing individuals at once. As a result, eight teams consisting of hundreds of cultivators set off in pursuit in all directions.

  Shi Yi and his daughter-in-law, Liu, were carrying their grandson and flying through the mountain valley with the wind. Although the mountain was not high, it stretched for tens of thousands of miles, making it quite vast. As the sun set, clouds filled half the sky, creating a fiery sunset scene. However, inside the mountain valley, the deep gorges and towering peaks had already darkened. Shi Yi and Liu didn't dare to stop, so they urged each other on, using their magical powers to speed up their progress. By midnight, they had escaped several thousand miles away. They passed through many mountain villages but didn't dare to linger. The crescent moon hung low in the sky, stars twinkled, and occasionally, the barking of village dogs carried on the wind, creating a peaceful atmosphere. However, Shi Yi's family, who had lost their home, were terrified, and every rustling leaf made them jump. Even the nocturnal animals that ventured out to hunt for food startled them, making their hearts skip a beat. It was ironic that their magical powers, which allowed them to fly through the land, now seemed like a cruel joke. As dawn broke, the baby in Liu's arms began to cry softly.

  "Maybe the child is hungry, but I haven't got any milk to feed him yet!"

  Liu's wife gently shook her child while shyly saying to her husband:

  "Find a place to feed the kids before leaving!"

  "Alas! Liu'er, we can't stop yet! Let's flee for another two or three days' journey, and then it will be safer. You go ahead first, I'll prepare some ordinary food for you and the child to fill your hunger!"

  When the words were finished, he disappeared without a trace. Cultivators who have not reached the state of Condensing Origin are also like ordinary people and need to eat five grains and meat to increase their strength. When they reach the state of Condensing Origin, they can use the spiritual energy born from heaven and earth as food, and do not eat worldly flavors. This is what secular families call "avoiding grains".

  The next moment, in a mountain village orchard, the guardian dog barked wildly, and an ordinary person walked out of a low thatched hut.

  "Which family's thief is this!"

  He looked around, but couldn't see where Shiyi had gone. Suddenly the dog stopped barking and lay down, wagging its tail. Shiyi had already left the garden and flown to Liu's place, with a heavy heart.

  "I'm a cultivator who has lived for hundreds of years, how could I be called a thief? But what can be done now?"

  He hurriedly caught up with Liu and handed over the fruit to him.

  "Eat up, eat more, and give some soup to the kids too!"

  Months later, on a sunny afternoon, an old man with a walking stick was walking in front of a small path beside a mountain village, followed closely by a woman carrying a baby. When they arrived at a solitary house, the old man knocked on the door, and an old woman opened it with surprise and asked:

  "Who is it?"

  Then he opened the door and came out to look.

  "I beg of you, sir, to give us some food. My children and grandchildren have gone two or three days without eating, they are truly starving, and can't even walk."

  "Please come in, old man, bring some food."

  The old woman let the old man with a crutch and the young woman carrying a baby enter, while shouting towards the courtyard. An elderly farmer came out of the hall door, looking at them and said:

  "Come on in and take a seat."

  "It doesn't matter, it's fine just eating here in the courtyard." Then he started eating the simple food of a country family.

  "Is the old gentleman in good health?"

  The old man with the crutch asked.

  "Seventy years old, you're really blessed with longevity!"

  "Oh, I've grown three years older, now I'm seventy-three."

  "Alas! It's hard to put into words, the countryside is suffering from a severe drought and then was hit by the plague. My whole family has been wiped out, leaving only my foolish son and me. To avoid the plague, we had no choice but to flee and become refugees."

  "Sir, are you a scholar?"

  "Just barely understand literature."

  "Where is sir going?"

  "There's nowhere to go, just fleeing from the plague and escaping famine."

  "Sir, would you be willing to stay here? We are a small village with dozens of households, not one of whom is literate. Our future generations truly need guidance!"

  "This."

  The old man with a cane looked at the young woman and couldn't help but lower his head in thought.

  "I am the chief of this place, our village is all one surname family, old man Hu Jingzhu, what's your surname, sir?"

  "My surname is Shi, Shi as in stone, given name Yi, this is my son Liu."

  Liu approached the old man and bowed his knees, saying "ten thousand blessings". The old man returned a courtesy.

  "Sir, you can stay here and we will provide food for you from our tribe. Although it's not rich, you won't have to worry about hunger or cold."

  "Dad, the child has been through a lot lately and needs some care."

  The little woman looked at her father-in-law.

  "Alright then, thanks a lot, big brother."

  Then, Shi Yi and others temporarily lived in Hujiayuan Village, opened a village school in an empty house, and taught the children in the village.

  The little woman learned to raise all kinds of birds and farm, serving and feeding the baby. This old man and the little woman were not others, but Shi Yi and Liu Shi who escaped from the ten thousand miles away from the Wudang Mountains.

  After settling down, everything returned to normal. However, Shi Yi suddenly often had a worried look on his face and was depressed, and he didn't practice anymore. On the other hand, Liu put all her worries on the child, and instead, her spirit changed, watching the child grow up day by day, every day was joyful. Although sometimes thinking of Shi Yi, her heart would not be sad, but thinking of raising his flesh and blood, she felt at ease.