A Mortal Village

Yaan's search took him away from the desert, towards more hospitable lands deeper into the outer sect.

The further away he strayed from the core and inner sects, the fewer cultivators he saw. Especially noticeable was the lack of cultivation cities, replaced now by smaller mortal cities, towns, villages and so on. There were still many resource points being tended to by the people out here, but they were less impressive compared to those he had seen previously.

The Spiritual Energy density was lower in this place, whilst Spirit Veins also became uncommon.

Spirit Veins were the veins of Spiritual Energy which flowed beneath natural features of the landscape such as mountains, lakes and rivers. These natural existences gave rise to greater Spiritual Energy in the atmosphere, making cultivation easier and more effective for all cultivators within the region. Without these Spirit Veins, it was natural that fewer cultivators would appear. With such a lacking environment, it was also to be expected that very few cultivators would choose to stay in this area.

As he observed the world below, Yaan continued to travel deeper into the outer sect's Nation of Ti.

The further out he travelled, the more mild the environment became. This sort of dampening of the environment was undesirable for cultivators, but it was far more hospitable for mortals, as well as ordinary plants and animals.

He continued on for thousands of miles. The only cultivators living out here were those who were too weak to travel to a better location. The Spiritual Energy concentration in the atmosphere was too low, making it difficult to actually cultivate, whilst any resources in this scarce environment were sent directly to the main sect.

Essentially, if a cultivator wanted to progress out here, they needed to wait until their region's delegate came to collect the local resources, then they could travel alongside that person if they were permitted to do so.

Because of the regular visits by resource collectors, the mortals in this region weren't completely oblivious to the matters of cultivation. They were more knowledgeable compared to the likes of the ignorant villagers from Yaan's home village for example, but they were also more awe-inspired by the power of cultivators compared to the mortals found closer to the inner sect.

Within this quaint region, Yaan found a small village situated at the bottom of a large mountain. In fact, there were dozens of villages spaced out around the outer circumference of this mountain.

After observing the situation on the mountain for some time, Yaan came to understand that this mountain was a natural resource point, a location where a certain precious stone was mined year round. The various mortal settlements all contributed towards the mining of this material. They also processed and packaged this stone, before it was handed over to the resource collector at some point.

In the end, he decided to visit the largest of these villages, which was home to a couple of thousand people.

After considering his options, Yaan decided not to enter the village directly. Instead, he landed a few miles away, then immediately concealed his cultivation. He also made a conscious effort to avoid using his strength.

After some trial and error. Yaan found that he was able to almost completely seal away his abilities, but of course, he could immediately return to his full strength and use his cultivation with a single thought. Still, this gave him the feeling of having returned to a near-mortal state as he trekked across the few miles of wilderness.

The phrase 'return to mortal roots' lingered on Yaan's mind. These words resonated with him when he heard them, and he had the distinct feeling that this was the direction he should take if he wanted to further his pursuit of dao.

As he walked, Yaan quickly realised that even if he sealed away his Vital Qi, he could not seal away his physical body. It was impossible for him to truly struggle like a mortal, but he was able to make adjustments to his makeshift cultivation seal to amplify the suppression of his cultivation. By using the sealed Vital Qi and Sea of Consciousness to passively suppress his own physical body, Yaan was able to get quite close to his target state of mortality.

This was not a true seal in the sense of a spell, formation or treasure, it was more of an illusory seal that Yaan had placed upon himself using his own blurry comprehension of dao. Even now, Yaan did not quite understand how he was able to use such abilities which had seemingly no connection to his cultivation…

A mild feeling of tiredness built up in Yaan's legs and back as he walked up and down the hilly plain. He actually enjoyed this nostalgic sensation, even slowing down his walk so that he could experience this feeling for a little bit longer.

"How long has it been since I last felt exhaustion just from walking?" Yaan muttered to himself.

If he did not include the time that he spent as a mortal within the True-False Illusion World, then it had been far too long.

"It's easy to see why most cultivators distance themselves from mortals. Even ignoring the more obvious differences such as power and lifespan, even simple things like this put us in entirely different worlds…"

Eventually, Yaan reached the village.

There were no distinct boundaries around this village. The settlement completely lacked any fences or walls that would usually be erected to protect the lands and houses within from outside forces. This defencelessness was owing to the lack of demonic beasts in the vicinity, though a mortal village could not adequately protect itself from any sort of true demonic beast in the first place. Usually, mortal settlements tentatively survived in regions inhabited by demonic beasts by simply hiding their lands away from the territories of those beasts…

There were often cases of entire mortal settlements being completely destroyed by a lone demonic beast.

When Yaan arrived at the village, he drew some attention from the people within. He concealed his aura, but his appearance was still too eye catching.

He wore a fine red robe, whilst his appearance was pristine, his clothes without a spec of dirt and his skin without a single blemish.

As cultivators grew more powerful, their appearance would typically undergo these sorts of changes. Some who cultivated bizarre techniques would become gross and disfigured, but most would grow increasingly peerless in terms of their demeanour, their physical appearance and their overall sense of beauty.

Yaan was no exception to this, in fact, the effect was perhaps even more pronounced thanks to his youthful appearance. In the eyes of these common village mortals, it was as if a royal prince with an unparalleled figure had just wondered into their village!

"Wow, are you a prince?!" A young girl ran across to Yaan without a trace of the fear that would usually be shown by most mortals towards strangers. Her eyes shone with a bright gaze and she stared up at Yaan with a look of curiosity and excitement.

Before Yaan could even respond to the small girl, he was quickly made to realise that her friendly attitude was shared by all of the villagers in this place.

"My, what a dashing young man! Where did you come from, are you of noble blood?"

"Such fine silk! This material, I've never seen anything like it, incredible!"

"Everyone, a traveller has arrived! They're saying that he might be a prince!"

"…"

As the children freely touched his robe without asking, and as the adults beamed smiles towards him and began making conversation, Yaan felt slightly dazed.

'Were common mortals always like this…?'

As he thought back to the people in Lightstone Village, Yaan realised that…he was not sure.

He was once again reminded of the fact that his memory was severely lacking. He only became acutely aware of this fact whenever he tried to recall something from his past, and inevitably failed at doing so. At most times, he always had the vague feeling that things had happened in the past, but upon trying to remember the specific events, these 'memories' simply became nothingness.

Shaking his head lightly, Yaan expelled these thoughts from his mind. Right now was not the time to dwell on this.

"I'm not a prince…just a traveller." Yaan finally spoke.

The moment he spoke, the people all around him became silent. For a moment, as the children stared up at him in wonder and the adults blinked, seemingly caught in a daze, Yaan wondered if he had unknowingly released his cultivation by mistake. However, he quickly realised that this was not the case.

"Mister, your voice is so smooth! It's like, like music!"

"Yeah! I thought that too!"

"Young lad, are you sure that you're not a prince…? Your demeanour really isn't common, not at all…"

"Dear! If he says he's a traveller, then just leave it at that! It's not polite to pry."

"Ah, of course. My apologies lad…ahem, sorry, what was your name?"

Yaan looked around at the curious people, all of whom had now gathered into a crowd which continued to grow as more and more people made their way out from the village to investigate the commotion. In a village like this, travellers were not common at all, especially those that they did not recognise as the regulars who made their way through on their set route.

"My name is Yaan." Yaan replied simply. He paused for a brief moment, but then added:

"If it's alright with you all, I'd like to rest in this village for some time."