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An hour later, when Zhang Yunyuan was parched and almost ready to give up.
Feng Baobao finally reached out, pointed at the stone, and clearly uttered two words in a monotone, almost mechanical voice.
Zhang Yunyuan was overjoyed and was about to praise her.
But then Feng Baobao pointed to the stone wall next to her and said, "Stone."
He pointed to the ground and said, "Stone."
Finally, she pointed at Zhang Yunyuan's nose, still with that expressionless face.
Zhang Yunyuan: "..."
He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the helpless feeling of being both amused and exasperated.
He discovered that this girl's learning ability was terrifyingly strong.
But they lack even the most basic common sense about everything, like an infant who has just arrived in this world and needs to redefine everything.
Over the next few days, Zhang Yunyuan completely put aside his cultivation and became a full-time "stay-at-home dad".
The beginning of his fatherhood was filled with all sorts of chaotic events that he would never forget.
On the first day, he taught her how to dress.
He handed her a clean set of coarse cloth clothes and demonstrated how to put them on.
Feng Baobao took the clothes, looked at them, and then, in front of Zhang Yunyuan, she tore her already worn-out clothes to shreds in a few quick movements, standing naked in front of him.
Zhang Yunyuan froze instantly, his mind going completely blank.
He turned around instinctively, his cheeks feeling slightly hot.
"You...what are you doing!"
Feng Baobao walked barefoot behind him, handed him the new clothes, and said in a cold, emotionless tone.
Zhang Yunyuan almost spat out a mouthful of blood.
He held his forehead, feeling that even his Dao heart had cracked in that short moment.
It took him half a day, with gestures and explanations, to finally make her understand that "clothes" are meant to be worn, not replaced.
And, you can't be naked in front of men.
Although she didn't seem to understand what "shame" meant.
The next day, he taught her how to eat.
Since there was no food in the cave, Zhang Yunyuan went out and hunted a wild rabbit.
He started a fire, skinned the rabbit, and roasted it until it was golden brown and oozing oil.
Feng Baobao squatted to the side, tilting her head, watching quietly without saying a word.
When Zhang Yunyuan handed her the roasted rabbit leg, she took it but didn't eat it. Instead, she imitated Zhang Yunyuan's previous actions, holding the rabbit leg over the fire until it was roasted into a piece of charcoal before expressionlessly starting to gnaw on it.
Zhang Yunyuan looked at her little face, blackened by the smoke, and at the crunchy sound of the charcoal she bit into, and his eyes twitched involuntarily.
He silently handed over the other rabbit leg he was holding.
"Eat this."
Feng Baobao looked at what he was holding, then at what she was holding, seemingly making some kind of complex comparison.
In the end, she dropped the charcoal in her hand and took the golden rabbit leg.
On the third day, wanting to continue teaching her to speak, he sat cross-legged and began reciting the "Qingjing Jing" (Classic of Purity and Tranquility).
"...A lady's spirit desires tranquility, but her mind is disturbed by it; a person's heart desires stillness, but desires pull it away..."
He would say a sentence, and Feng Baobao would repeat it.
Her ability to imitate was terrifying; not only did she pronounce words clearly, but she also perfectly mimicked his calm and collected tone when he chanted scriptures.
If one did not see it with their own eyes, no one would imagine that this scripture, which is full of Taoist charm, came from the mouth of a girl with empty eyes.
Zhang Yunyuan was pleased, feeling that the young man was teachable.
Halfway through his reading, he suddenly felt a silence around him.
He opened his eyes and found that Feng Baobao was gone.
He was startled and quickly got up to look for her, only to find Feng Baobao squatting in a corner of the cave wall not far away, holding a piece of glowing moss in her hand and expressionlessly stuffing it into her mouth.
Zhang Yunyuan rushed over and forcibly pried the moss, which looked like it was not a pleasant thing, out of her mouth before she could swallow it.
Feng Baobao looked at him, then at the half-eaten moss in her hand, a hint of...confusion showing in her eyes.
It's as if it's asking: Why can't we eat this?
Looking at her little face covered in moss fragments, and then at the sticky drool on his hands, Zhang Yunyuan felt an unprecedented feeling of "heart exhaustion" wash over him.
He looked up at the cave ceiling and sighed deeply.
When will this ever end?
Chapter 101 Feng Baobao's First Move
Meanwhile, on Mount Longhu, a gloomy and desolate atmosphere prevailed.
Zhang Zhiwei and Tian Jinzhong have gained nothing and have been back in the mountains for two months.
Zhang Yunyuan, however, disappeared for several months without a trace.
In the small courtyard behind the mountain, Tian Jinzhong would gaze down the mountain every day, his eyes filled with longing.
His once-smiling face was now devoid of its usual charm, replaced by deep worry.
Senior Brother Zhang Zhiwei still had that lazy look, but the disciples could all tell that he was spending more time in the training ground than ever before.
He just kept practicing, over and over again, as if only this purest form of practice could suppress the anxiety in his heart that he himself was unwilling to admit.
The Celestial Master's Mansion, a quiet room.
The old Celestial Master Zhang Jingqing sat upright on a futon, his eyes closed. Tortoise shells and copper coins were scattered on the ground in front of him, and the divination symbols were in disarray.
He was also restless.
The divination indicates that Yun Yuan's life is not in danger.
But his fate seemed shrouded in a thick, impenetrable fog, his future uncertain and unclear.
Even more terrifying, within that thick fog, he vaguely glimpsed an extremely vast causal link intertwined with the thousand-year-old fortune of Longhu Mountain.
The consequences are as heavy as a mountain; once you are tainted, it is difficult to escape.
What exactly happened to this child down the mountain?
Another few days passed.
Tian Jinzhong finally couldn't hold back any longer.
He went straight to the meditation room and knelt down heavily before the old Celestial Master.
His voice was hoarse, with a hint of pleading.
"This disciple requests permission to descend the mountain and find my junior brother!"
Zhang Jingqing looked at him, slowly opened her eyes, her eyes filled with exhaustion.
A long sigh echoed in the quiet room.
He knew he couldn't stop it.
The old Taoist priest waved his hand.
"Thank you Master!"
Tian Jinzhong kowtowed deeply, then stood up and, without a moment's delay, turned and walked down the mountain.
That imposing figure carried an air of unwavering determination, as if he would not give up until he found the person.
Zhang Yunyuan knew perfectly well that he absolutely could not return to Longhu Mountain now.
Taking Feng Baobao back would be tantamount to setting the mountain on fire.
The girl's secret is too great; once exposed, it will surely bring catastrophic disaster to the sect.
He needs to find a place to settle down first.
A place that is remote enough, isolated enough, and won't attract attention.
He took Feng Baobao and left the Qinling Mountains, heading towards the sparsely populated southwest.
This journey was filled with all sorts of chaotic events that left him both amused and exasperated.
Feng Baobao is like an infant who knows nothing about the world but has boundless energy.
She would become curious about a strangely shaped stone by the roadside, and then squat there to look at it for a long time, until Zhang Yunyuan forcibly dragged her away.
She would also take off her clothes and jump into a stream without hesitation when she saw it.
Then, under Zhang Yunyuan's almost collapsing gaze, he imitated the fish and tried to bite the stones in the water with his mouth.
Zhang Yunyuan felt that his Dao heart was being repeatedly tempered, crushed, and then reshaped during this journey.
He even began to suspect that his master had foreseen this event and deliberately sent him down the mountain to undergo worldly trials.
On this day, the two arrived at a dilapidated mountain village.
The village was small, with only a dozen or so households. The mud walls and thatched houses swayed precariously in the wind, exuding an air of poverty and decay.
As soon as the two entered the village, a cacophony of shouts and curses, along with a woman's cries, came from the center of the village.
Zhang Yunyuan frowned slightly, instinctively wanting to avoid it.
He just wants to find a place to settle down peacefully and doesn't want to get involved in anything else.
But Feng Baobao, who was beside him, stopped in her tracks.
She tilted her head, her clear yet empty eyes looking in the direction from which the sound came, a hint of barely perceptible confusion in them.
In an open space in the village, five or six soldiers in tattered uniforms, carrying guns, were surrounding several villagers.
They snatched the already meager bag of grain and even tried to pull at a young woman.