Chapter 18: The Ancient Tome’s Transformation, the Mountain-Viewing Technique Unveiled!

“Lost?” Zhang Hao glanced at him, then turned to look at the others in the funeral procession.

From the very first moment he saw this group, a suspicion had already taken root in his mind.

It was just past one in the afternoon—time when they should have been home for lunch—but the funeral party had come here twice, and their eyes all seemed unfocused, at various stages of disarray.

They looked bewildered, as if they themselves didn’t understand why they had ended up here.

This didn’t look like an ordinary case of being lost.

More importantly, everyone in Zhao Family Village had been up the mountain before…

Except for me, of course.

How could they possibly get lost in the mountains so easily? It just didn’t add up.

Sensing something was amiss, Zhang Hao narrowed his eyes. “Brother Gao, when did you realize you were lost?”

Gao Hai scratched his head, baring his teeth as if trying hard to recall, but no clue came to him. “It seems… we were lost from the very beginning.”

“After we buried Old Zhao, we just followed the path we came by, and then… and then walking and walking… we ended up here,” said Wang Yan, who was holding a gong and drum.

“Yeah, yeah, we just followed the way back, and suddenly we came here. Who led the way? Can we trust them?”

“Enough nonsense. You youngsters can’t even lead a way properly. If we don’t get back by noon, the ancestors will be angry.”

“If this keeps up, forget getting back by noon, we might not even make it by nightfall. We might as well stay in the mountain together.”

Just as the crowd was about to erupt into argument, Zhang Hao quickly stepped forward, raising his hands and calling out, “Everyone, everyone, I’ll lead you down the mountain. Don’t worry, I’m quite familiar with this area…”

But before he could finish, he suddenly froze, his expression shifting dramatically.

Just now, hadn’t he heard someone say they needed to get back before noon?

But wasn’t it already past noon?

Then why were they still talking about returning before noon? This made no sense.

No, the number of inconsistencies was only growing.

Zhang Hao stared at the group with horror, cold sweat breaking out on his back.

He immediately recalled the ancient texts.

There was said to be a malevolent spirit in the mountain that could take human form and create illusions to deceive mountain travelers, with the purpose of either killing them or manipulating them into searching for hidden treasures.

Good heavens, could these people be impostors?

Zhang Hao instinctively stepped back two paces.

But before he could retreat to a safe distance, Gao Hai grabbed him, eyes trembling, asking excitedly, “Haozi, hurry, take everyone down the mountain. I can’t stay here even a moment longer—I just want to get back to the village.”

Zhang Hao was momentarily stunned.

The ancient texts also recorded that such spirits would not initiate contact with mountain travelers, fearing exposure and being unmasked.

If Gao Hai dared to grab him now, it must mean… he truly was Gao Hai, not one of those spirits.

Whew.

Zhang Hao breathed a quiet sigh of relief, his taut nerves relaxing slightly.

But he quickly became alert again.

No matter what, judging from the state of Gao Hai and the others, this was no simple case of getting lost.

A funeral procession naturally carried heavy yin energy.

And today was a day of lunar decline, with yin energy particularly strong—if anything strange was to happen in the forest, it was entirely possible.

“All right, all right, I just finished up my work. Let’s head down the mountain together,” Zhang Hao said casually.

To be honest, he was very curious about what had happened to this funeral party.

If they truly encountered something odd, figuring out how to resolve it would be invaluable experience.

Besides, these villagers, though they didn’t have a good impression of him, were good people. Since his father’s death, they had occasionally helped him out.

Take Gao Hai, for example—he still owed him quite a bit for drinks, but Gao Hai had generously waved it off.

For that alone, Zhang Hao had reason enough to lead them down the mountain.

Turning to the cliff’s edge, he slung the spirit-binding basket onto his back, bent down to pick up the “Mountain Trekker’s Travelogue” lying on the ground.

As he lifted the ancient volume, a faint golden glow emanated from its surface, capturing his attention.

A golden light?

What was happening to this book?

Zhang Hao looked up at the villagers watching him and was surprised to realize that only he could see this golden radiance.

No one else showed any sign of confusion.

Driven by strong curiosity, he opened the “Mountain Trekker’s Travelogue.” As he flipped through it, the golden glow grew stronger and stronger.

Until he reached the page where the glow was most intense.

It was the page describing the cliff-growing “Teucrium.”

On this page, all the text shimmered with golden light, as if about to engulf everything, or perhaps highlighting something important.

What… was going on?

Zhang Hao was utterly baffled. He had only had this ancient book for just over a week and today was his first time trekking the mountain. His only gain had been the “Teucrium” plant now resting in the spirit-binding basket.

As the text appeared, a voice filled with the weight of ancient times, steeped in age and antiquity, suddenly echoed in his mind.

“Teucrium growing upon the cliff possesses the power to strengthen the body and restore vitality. As the first to obtain this Teucrium, the elder must impart to the junior mountain trekkers the ‘Mountain Observation Technique.’”

This was… the first mountain trekker to obtain the cliff-growing Teucrium?

And it seemed that because Zhang Hao had just acquired the Teucrium, this ancient trekker was about to teach him the ‘Mountain Observation Technique’?

Zhang Hao froze abruptly, barely having time to process this revelation before the voice returned.

“The Mountain Observation Technique is a method passed down through generations of mountain trekkers, combining experience and diverse wisdom. Those who master this technique can perceive all things within the mountain, uncover hidden treasures, and avoid malevolent spirits…”

Paragraph after paragraph of text and voice flooded Zhang Hao’s mind.

“See the mountain as mountain, see the water as water, then see the mountain not as mountain, see the water not as water…”

“In the depths of the forest, uneven terrain, overgrown with weeds, a narrow path—beware of spirit disturbances…”

“Centuries-old trees, with lush branches and leaves, their roots steeped in spiritual energy, hide treasures within the mountain…”

“The summit is the peak, the base the earth, the mid-mountain treacherous—where spiritual energy thrives, the home of rare materials and heavenly treasures…”

Zhang Hao closed his eyes, brow furrowed, desperately absorbing these newly acquired teachings.

These insights were unlike anything he had previously seen in the “Mountain Trekker’s Travelogue.”

Some he had encountered before, but never with such detailed formulas.

This manual truly laid out where in the mountain spirits might appear, where treasures might be hidden, and where rare materials could be found—delivering a thorough, hands-on tutorial akin to a master guiding a novice.

If the “Mountain Trekker’s Travelogue” was the collective wisdom left by generations of mountain trekkers—an essential primer or indispensable handbook—

Then the “Mountain Observation Technique” was the distillation of all their knowledge, compiled and imparted by the founding ancestor of mountain trekkers in one comprehensive lesson.

Included were unique skills of mountain trekkers, such as the practice of four-character mantras, climbing techniques, and methods to deal with malevolent spirits encountered in the wilderness…

It was as if the ancestor himself were personally feeding him knowledge bite by bite!