In the scenic spot in the middle of the night, there are only the screams of owls.
Lin Luoran flies to the shore carrying Rong Donglin. The morning sun is going to jump out of the lake. In a few seconds, Liao’s fishing boat has disappeared in the mist on the lake.
“Ah! He hasn’t told us where the Dragon Palace is!” The nasty old man wants to swindle them out of 30,000. No way!
Lin Luoran covers his mouth with her hand immediately. Rong is a good guy except that he is too nagging.
“Let’s go. I know where it is. Keep your voice down. We’re trespassing.” Seeing Rong Donglin nod, she moves her hand away.
Generally, there is maps at the entrance of tourist attractions. It’s very easy to identify the direction of a certain scenic spot on the map. Lin Luoran reads the map for a while before dragging Rong Donglin ahead. Seeing that Rong walks so slowly, she takes out a piece of “yellow paper” and puts it on Rong’s foot.
For the first time of his whole life, Rong feels that the weight of his body is only 100g. In other words, he feels his body as light as a swallow’s!
It is just like magic…Rong Donglin stumbles after Lin Luoran, without noticing her suppressing her smile.
She doesn’t admit that she is “revenging”. Rong walks too slow, so she scares him with a Teleport Figure that she got from Wen Guanjing.
With the Teleport Figure on his foot, Rong is like an electric toy that has been wound up. He feels like that he is walking on a spring bed. He can easily cross the obstacles.
Mount Jun, a not very big mountain, is distant from Yueyang Tower on Dongting Lake. If you look down at it from the sky, you will find it is a beautiful turtle-shaped island in Dongting Lake.
There are 36 pavilions and 48 temples on the island. What Lin Luoran and Rong Donglin are passing by is the famous Tomb of Xiangfei.
Ehuang and Nvying are dead, but the statue of the two beauties in Xiangfei Temple are glamorous. Surrounded by floating clouds, cranes, bamboos, lakes and mountains, the statue seems to be flying in the air.
Lin Luoran slows down her steps. The bamboos are swaying in the wind, making rustling sound, like someone is weeping or murmuring…It is so mysterious. She ponders for a while and then stops to worship the statue.
Although there is no incense, she has a sincere heart. Ehuang and Nvying might not blame her.
As they pass quickly, the morning sunlight shines through the bamboo cracks and illuminates the eyes of the statues. The two beauties seem to be divinely coming back to life.
They walk in the opposite direction, and almost cross the whole island before they come to the destination adjacent to Dongting Lake.
A few feet away from the bank, Dongting Lake is enveloped in mist. The light of dawn and the morning glow together dye the boundless lake red.
Rong Donglin is one of the few people who are willing to pursue study in buckish cities. Seeing the characters “Liu Yi Well” on the top of the pavilion, he takes a long breath:
“Miss Lin, it is just a legend!”
Suddenly, there is a beam of green light in Lin Luoran’s hand. In the twinkling of an eye, it becomes a green bamboo, which looks the same as the bamboos in Xiangfei Temple. She knocks him on the head with the bamboo and says, “Is this also fake?”
It hurts…Of course the bamboo is not fake. Rong doesn’t realize that now that there is someone like Lin Luoran in the world, many legends of Huaxia may be true.
It is uncertain whether there is Nantian Gate in the deep lake of clouds, but there truly are “Dongting Dragon Palace” in the book, The Story of Liu Yi. It is not necessarily made-up.
The two people carefully look at the well in front of them. Different from ordinary stone wellheads, the wellhead in The Story of Liu Yi is decorated with two fish-shaped patterns. The two semicircles are not closed, and there are steps extending down the well, as if people could really reach the marvelous Dragon Palace under Dongting Lake.
It is mysterious for ordinary people, but Lin Luoran, who is able to see things miles away, finds that the well is not so deep as it seems to be. Actually, it just takes dozens of steps to reach its end.
Lin Luoran is not disappointed. If the steps led directly to Dragon Palace, even if there were rare treasures in it, they couldn’t get a penny, because the treasures would have already been looted by others.
“Rong, since you have read a lot of books, try to recall the contents of The Story of Liu Yi, especially the way he entered the Dragon Palace…”
Although he is amazed by Lin Luoran’s fantasy, Rong, who is paid by her, obediently picks up relevant contents in the legend: Liu Yi was a student who failed to pass the imperial examination. On his way home, he passed Jing Zhiyang, in today’s Chunhua County, Shaanxi Province. After parting with his friends, Liu Yi saw a very pitiable shepherdess. Liu Yi talked to her and then learned that the beautiful shepherdess dressed in simple clothes was the third daughter of the Dragon King in Dongting Lake. She was mistreated by her mother-in-law and herded sheep here.
Not being able to withstand the girl’s request, Liu Yi promised to send a message to the Dragon Palace in Dongting Lake to seek the protection of her family.
How could an ordinary man enter the Dragon Palace even if he knew the entrance?
The girl asked him to knock three times on an orange tree by Dongting Lake. Then shrimp and crab soldiers came out and divided the water, taking him to the Dragon Palace.
After Rong Donglin finishes the story, he and Lin Luoran are both in a bad mood.
The book was written in the Tang Dynasty. It is hard to imagine an orange tree that can live safely until now without becoming a monster…She has also searched underground here, but finds that there are not even any trace of orange tree roots.
“Miss Lin, there is no orange tree here.”
As the sun rises, Mount Jun will be packed with tourists soon. If they still can’t find the entrance, the day will be wasted again.
Lin Luoran squats down to carefully look at the stone fish. They are exquisitely carved, but don’t seem historic. With sharp eyes, Lin Luoran recognizes that they are made by later generations, and can’t be antique of the Tang Dynasty.
Needless to say, the wellhead was built later as well.
Wait a moment. The shrimp and crab soldiers came out of the lake and divided the water for Liu Yi…She looks down at the steps again and finds that there is a stone wall at the end of the well. With thick moss on it, she can’t recognize what kind of stones they are.
She can’t see through walls, which attracts her attention.
Does it matter if there is no orange tree? After all, she is not a student like Liu Yi. As a cultivator, it would be too humiliating if she can’t even cast the “Water-dividing Spell”.
When she was at the later stage of Training Qi, she dared to cast spell to divide water. With her current cultivation, the well is just a piece of cake.
Then in the blink of an eye, Lin Luoran has cast the “Water-dividing Spell”. The blue light gathers on her fingertip is purer than the color of the sea. She stretches her right hand and says “open”. Then the water moves to the side, revealing the stone steps covered with moss.
Oh, now Rong Donglin remembers. Is this the magic that Luodong told him? He thinks it is novel. Previously when Lin Luoran put the Teleport Figure on his foot, he felt he was as light as a swallow. Now he sees clearly how Lin Luoran cast the spell. Of course, his understanding of cultivation is not as good as that of Luodong, who mistakenly calls spell “magic”. Then it is harder for Rong Donglin to know the difference.
“Let’s go!”
The well water is divided into two. Lin Luoran walks ahead, and Rong Donglin closely follows her. After they pass, the water behind them join together again.
As water on the two sides fall down, Rong thinks it will be a disaster. After a flash of blue light, Rong finds a transparent dome around himself and Lin Luoran, which stops the well water a meter away.
There is a fire ball in Lin Luoran’s hand, which lights up the underground world.
As she has found with her spiritual mind, the entrance is narrow, but the road gets more and more broad as they walk ahead. Lin Luoran needs to pay attention to whether there is a sudden accident. After all, this is the entrance of the Dragon Palace she expected, and she is not sure what lies in store for them.
With these things in mind, she doesn’t notice that Rong Donglin’s face is red and his footsteps are unstable.
The water dome is so magical, because they don’t have any difficulty in breathing in it. But Rong Donglin, the little scholar, feels that he is too close to Lin Luoran. He entertains no evil thoughts, but as a restless young man, he can’t control his impulse. He finds the temperature underwater is not low. Is it because he is too close to her?
While Rong is walking, his heart beats so fast, but then he remembers how wealthy Lin Luoran’s family is. When he reaches the end of the steps, he gives up his previous thoughts.
There is a thick wall at the end of the steps. Having explored the well water, Lin Luoran finds there is no other creatures. The risk coefficient has dropped to a new low.
A flash of golden light leaps from her fingertips like a dancing elf. Lin Luoran directs the golden light to scrape the moss off the stone wall. Then a smooth stone wall is exposed—it is so smooth, that there is nothing on it!
They are disappointed. Rong Donglin stumbles on the moss and his head hits the wall, which makes him feel dizzy.
The echo, however, draws Lin Luoran’s attention.
Both of them are aware of this, so they knock on the wall for a while. They are not trying to press any switch, but to confirm that it is a hollow wall, or there is another wall behind this one… It seems that spiritual mind doesn’t always work. There are lots of things that are beyond spiritual mind’s reach.
Lin Luoran sighs. Then she asks Rong Donglin to step back. A cultivator on the level of Laying Foundation has great destructive power. She uses her power to break the wall. Then the wall behind is finally exposed.
There are some familiar characters. Rong Donglin touches the wall and murmurs, “It is the authentic work of Shui script…” It is reasonable for him to be so excited, because it is not sorted materials of Shui script, but is original work like bamboo sheets in the Han tomb.
“Rong, what do these characters mean?” It is expectedly wise to bring Rong Donglin here. Who said that legends are unreliable? Maybe Shui script is really the language of Shui nationality. Who knows?
Rong Donglin carefully looks over the characters. There are only a few characters, which are easy for him to recognize.
However, after he understands them, his expression becomes weird. He wants to tell her but then hesitates.
