You've only been cultivating for a few years, and you're already talking about cultivating

After crossing the Ruyin River, the caravan continued south.

In just over a month, they had reached the southern border of Great Yan.

Along the way, the weather was hot, and there were several heavy rainstorms. The rainwater washed the official road into mud, and the wheels got stuck several times, forcing everyone to get out and push the cart.

They had also encountered flash floods, and when they could hear the rumbling sound coming from the mountains in the distance, Manager Zhou immediately decided to take a detour, which added two extra days to their journey.

Apart from that, they didn't encounter any other demons or monsters.

They traveled together for a thousand or two miles from Tianlan Mountain in the north of the Great Yan to the southern border, but eventually it was time to part ways.

Manager Zhou, holding the reins of the packhorse, pointed ahead and said, "Brother Qi, after you cross that ravine ahead, you'll reach Linjia Gully. If you go west from there, and travel another fifty li, you'll reach Guiming Mountain."

He then pointed to another fork in the road: "We need to go southeast. It will take another half a month to reach our destination."

Qi Fei nodded, clasped his hands in thanks, and said, "Thank you very much, Steward Zhou, for your help along the way."

Manager Zhou waved his hands repeatedly, and said seriously, "Young Master Qi, what are you saying?"

"If it weren't for you, our caravan would have perished in the mountains long ago. We escaped danger and turned misfortune into good fortune entirely thanks to you!"

Qi Fei smiled and shook his head, saying, "Not at all. I've been the one who received the most help along the way."

What he said was the truth.

Traveling far from home is indeed a skill. If you're not traveling with a caravan, even getting food and water is a big problem, let alone anything else.

Although he had been cultivating for three years, he had not yet reached the point where he could conjure things out of thin air.

Manager Zhou was about to say something more when he suddenly heard a commotion coming from the front.

The two turned to look.

On the way to Linjiagou, a large crowd gathered. They were all from several other merchant caravans.

As Linjiagou is a fork in the road between east and west, it naturally attracts passing caravans.

These people gathered in the middle of the road, peering curiously into the ravine, their expressions quite strange.

It wasn't curiosity, it was fear.

That kind of deep-seated, chilling fear.

"What's wrong?" Manager Zhou asked loudly.

A member of another caravan turned around, his face ashen: "Something's happened in Linjiagou! It's turned into... turned into a jujube grove!"

"What?" Qi Fei's heart skipped a beat.

He looked in the direction the peddler was pointing, past the onlookers, and past the path leading into the mountains.

In the distance, the area that should have been a mountain village is now covered with jujube trees.

Densely packed jujube trees.

One tree after another, patch after patch, lush and verdant, blocking out the sun.

The jujube trees were lush and their leaves gleamed a glossy green in the sunlight, almost filling the entire ravine.

If it weren't for the few collapsed rooftops still faintly visible peeking out from between the trees, anyone would think it was a natural wild forest!

A glint flashed in Qi Fei's eyes. He tried to use "Shadow Detection" to look at the forest, and saw that the forest was normal, seemingly just a wild forest.

But in this situation, the biggest strangeness is the absence of anything unusual!

To avoid trouble, Steward Zhou gave the order, and the group slowly moved along another path, keeping a safe distance from that eerie forest.

After traveling ten miles, they arrived at a fork in the road and the group stopped.

Manager Zhou dismounted and carried several large packages down from a cart behind him. The packages were bulging and heavy, their contents unclear.

"Brother Qi, this is a small token of our caravan's appreciation." He patted the pile of packages, a smile on his face. "Thank you for your hospitality along the way. This is nothing special, just some food and local products for your use on the road."

Qi Fei looked at the pile of packages, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

"Manager Zhou, this is too much." He waved his hand and said, "I have my own luggage and can't carry this much."

"Take it, take it!" Without waiting for a reply, Steward Zhou shoved another cloth bag into his hand. "It's all dried goods, they keep well. If you stay in Ghost Mountain for a long time, you'll definitely need them sometime."

Several other men gathered around and started stuffing things into his hands.

Qi Fei was surrounded in the middle, holding a bunch of things in his arms, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

It took him a lot of effort to push those things back one by one.

Seeing his insistence, Manager Zhou didn't press the matter further. He stepped back, clasped his hands in a fist salute, and said, "Brother Qi, until we meet again!"

"Until we meet again!" Qi Fei returned the greeting with clasped hands.

The caravan members bowed to him, some waved, some called his name, and some kept reminding him to be careful on the road.

Qi Fei stood there, watching the team he had been with for more than a month set off again.

The mules and horses walked slowly, their wheels creaking as they turned, and the figures gradually receded into the distance, finally disappearing on the mountain road to the southeast.

He turned around and walked towards the jujube grove in Linjiagou.

Some problems will remain problems forever if you don't understand them.

He stepped into the woods.

The light suddenly dimmed.

This is strange, because jujube trees are trees that extremely prefer sunlight and dislike shade.

Qi Fei slowed down and observed carefully.

These jujube trees look dense, but they don't grow haphazardly. They cluster together in groups of three or five, forming a circle.

Each cluster of jujube trees is centered around a few trees, spreading outwards. The core jujube trees are thicker and taller, with more lush foliage, while the surrounding ones are slightly thinner, as if they have branched off from them.

Qi Fei approached a cluster of trees and saw clearly what was on the trunk.

A face.

A person's face.

The bark wrinkled into eyebrows and eyes, the scars curved into the corners of a mouth. The face was embedded in the trunk, eyes closed, expression frozen, it was hard to tell whether it was pain or peace.

Qi Fei didn't stop and continued walking inside.

The further you go in, the more faces you see, and every tree looks the same. Men and women, young and old, tall and short, fat and thin, every face is different.

He stopped in front of a cluster of jujube trees and squatted down.

He pulled the "Moon Heart" dagger from his waist and plunged it into the soil beneath the tree.

He dug a few times, and the dagger hit something hard.

Brushing aside the topsoil, what was revealed was a bone that looked like wood.

Human bones.

Qi Fei didn't stop and continued digging.

Soon, the roots of the jujube tree were almost completely dug out, allowing him to see that the jujube tree was a tree formed from bones.

Or rather, it's as if a person "grew up" into a jujube tree, so their bones became like tree roots.

Qi Fei looked at the tree roots, then at the jujube trees next to him.

He got it.

The natural way jujube trees reproduce is called root propagation.

Simply put, new saplings will sprout from the roots of a jujube tree. If one person in a family grows into a jujube tree, their family members will also turn into jujube trees.

These jujube trees belong to one family.

One of them initially "grew" into a jujube tree, and later they became a family.

Qi Fei stood up and continued walking inside.

Deep within the jujube grove, there stands a giant jujube tree.

It was thicker and taller than all the trees around it, and its branches and leaves were the most lush.

There is a child's face on the tree trunk.

The child's eyes were closed, and the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned, as if he were having a sweet dream. There was no pain or struggle on his face, only peace.

Qi Fei stood under the tree, gazing at that face.

The sunlight shone down, illuminating the child's face as if it were coated with a soft light.