My words have become law; I truly have no desire to display my divine power before others.

The group followed the chubby baby, and after walking for a short while, they parted ways with the ginseng gatherers ahead.

The men carrying shovels went east, following the old ginseng-harvesting route along the ridge.

The chubby baby led them westward, not along a path—the bushes were so dense there wasn't even a place to put their feet.

Lu Yang followed behind, his face and body stinging from the twigs several times.

"I said," he said, pushing aside a vine that was blocking his way.

"Nobody ever walks this road, right? Look at this grass, it's taller than a person. Ginseng hunters never come this way, how could there be any ginseng here?"

A Luo walked ahead of him, turned back and smiled: "Following the baby is the right thing to do. I've come here with him before, and we took this same route. When we got there, there was ginseng."

Lu Yang was still skeptical, so he pushed aside another vine, but his foot slipped and he almost fell.

Miao Gui helped him up from behind without saying a word, but his eyes showed a mixture of belief and doubt.

The chubby baby walked at the front, his short legs moving very fast.

He would appear under that big tree in front of us one moment, and then disappear the next—he vanished into thin air, leaving not even a pit in the ground.

When they caught up, he reappeared next to a rock further ahead, his topknot sticking up and down in the grass like a small flagpole.

There were marks he left on the ground. Sometimes it was a few pebbles arranged into an arrow, sometimes it was a twig pointing to the left, and sometimes it was a circle drawn on the ground.

Every time A-Luo sees the mark, she laughs and says it's because the doll is afraid they'll get lost.

After walking for about half an hour, the bushes suddenly thinned out, and a stone wall appeared in front of us.

The stone wall was covered with moss, damp and dripping water.

Lu Yang stood in front of the stone wall, looking left and right, but couldn't see a path.

"Is there no road?" he asked.

The chubby baby poked its head out from the grass beside the stone wall and waved to them.

Aro walked over, parted the grass, and revealed a narrow slit.

The gap was so narrow that you could only squeeze through sideways. The chubby baby easily squeezed in, and the thin A-Luo also went in.

Miao Gui turned his shoulder to the side and squeezed in.

Lu Yang took a deep breath, pulled in his stomach, and shrunk his belly as much as possible, rubbing it in little by little.

His clothes were torn, and a piece of skin was scraped off his arm. He grimaced and finally managed to squeeze through.

He was stunned when he went inside.

Suddenly, everything became clear.

A large valley, surrounded by steep cliffs on all sides, completely encloses this place, like a big bowl.

Sunlight streamed through the gaps overhead, illuminating the valley floor and making it feel warm and cozy.

The ground was covered with all sorts of herbs—ginseng, lingzhi, polygonatum, he shou wu, and some things he couldn't name, densely packed together, like radishes growing in a vegetable garden, in clumps.

Butterflies flitted among the flowers, bees buzzed, and a sweet, herbal scent filled the air.

Lü Yang's mouth was open, and he couldn't close it for a long time.

Miao Gui was also stunned.

He walked through the Ten Thousand Mountains for three years, what?

Haven't you ever seen a place like this before?

But he had never seen a place like this before.

Those herbs are rare and hard to find outside, but here they grow everywhere like weeds.

He squatted down and carefully examined a Ganoderma lucidum at his feet. It was reddish-brown, about the size of a bowl, and had dew on it.

He reached out and touched it; it was real, not a hallucination.

"What... what's going on?" He looked up at Aro.

Aro smiled and pointed ahead.

Not far away, there is a small hillside with an old pine tree growing on it, and a small wooden house under the pine tree.

The wooden house was small, just one room, the wood had turned black, and the roof was covered with moss, so it looked quite old.

The chubby baby ran up the small hill with practiced ease, pushed open the door of the wooden house, and crawled inside.

A Luo followed behind, and Lü Yang and Miao Gui also followed.

The cabin was very simple, with a small bed, a small table, and a small chair, all made of wood. The workmanship was rough, but the furniture was sturdy.

The chubby baby kicked off his shoes, climbed onto the bed, lay down on the pillow, and stretched comfortably.

The bed was too big for him; when he lay on it, he only took up a small space, and when he rolled up the blanket, he was completely buried in it.

A Luo stood at the door and smiled as she said to Lü Yang and the others, "He built this wooden house himself."

Before he became a spirit, he grew up in this valley and came to regard it as his home.

A'Luo then pointed to the herbs in the valley: "When I first came here, these things were already growing this well."

Later, I would occasionally come in to take some to sell, but after so many years, the amount hasn't decreased at all. I guess—"

She lowered her voice, "Maybe the dolls influence them. They grow well when he's here."

Miao Gui listened and glanced thoughtfully at the chubby baby on the bed.

The chubby baby must have heard something, because he got out of bed, rubbed his eyes, got off the bed, and shuffled out.

A Luo asked him where he was going, but he didn't answer. He walked to an open space next to the door, stood still, untied his red bellyband, and squatted down.

A Luo turned her face away.

The chubby baby squatted for a while, then stood up, tied his bib, went back into the house, and climbed back onto the bed.

Lu Yang didn't know what he had done, so he peeked outside and saw that the spot where the chubby baby had been squatting was wet.

Around that patch of damp soil, several ginseng plants that were originally only as thick as a finger are growing thicker at a rate visible to the naked eye.

The leaves have become even greener, a glossy green.

The seeds next to it also sprouted from the soil, and the sprouts broke through the soil surface, stretched out, and turned into two tender green leaves.

Lü Yang gasped.

He looked down and remembered the smell of radish and what the immortal master had said.

"Whether you drink radish urine or smell radish farts, it's all part of the precious medicine."

He believes it now.

This thing's urine is a treasure too!

Miao Gui no longer cared about the chubby baby.

He squatted on the ground, examining each herb one by one, muttering to himself.

"This is a five-leaf Ganoderma lucidum... This is a 300-year-old Polygonatum sibiricum... This is a seven-leaf Paris polyphylla... I've never seen this before, and I've never seen this before either..."

He shook his head as he looked at it, as if he were dreaming.

Lu Yang looked around and realized he couldn't be of much help.

A'Luo followed the chubby baby to the innermost part of the valley to find ginseng. Miao Gui was studying herbs. He stood alone in the valley, looking around, and finally decided to take a walk by himself.

The valley is not large, but it is very deep.

He walked upstream along a stream; the water was so clear that he could see the stones at the bottom.

Some unnamed wildflowers bloomed by the water, white, yellow, and purple, and bees busily flitted among them.

He walked for a while, then stopped under a big tree, leaned against the trunk, and looked at the stone wall in the distance.

Water seeped down the stone wall, sparkling like a beaded curtain.

The scenery is indeed beautiful.