Chapter 72: New Year's Eve

The origin of the Desolate Moon Continent is that the moon here is completely different from the moons of other continents. The moon in the sky here is huge and desolate. Its area is five to six times that of the moons of other continents, and it appears clearer and brighter...

Every clear night, the peaks in the moon are so clear and desolate. The rolling mountains, gullies of varying depths, and crisscrossing paths are deeply engraved in the hearts of every mortal on this continent, just like the years of trampling on the bluestone slabs on the creek in my hometown.

The New Year's Eve is a festival that grows in the hearts of every mortal on the Desolate Moon Continent, reunion, warmth, and grand.

It is set in the middle of the twelfth month of each year, when the moon is the fullest. People sing and dance under the full moon, take out the best monsters hunted in the year, and raise the best wine in their home collection, or celebrate with the whole city, or have a happy family.

They don't go home until they are drunk under the bright moonlight, and they point to the sky and the earth to talk about their lofty ambitions.

Talented men drank and wrote poems, while beauties beat drums and passed flowers under the moonlight, expressing their feelings with their eyes.

…………

At this time, the sky was slightly dark, and a huge full moon appeared in the sky. Li Yan sat on the platform, looking at the distant mountains that were already somewhat green and hazy, looking at the distance with confused eyes, as if he wanted to travel thousands of miles and return to the foot of the familiar green mountain.

Li Yan came out today not just to practice immortal arts. When he saw the huge moon in the yard at night a few days ago, he had already aroused his homesickness. It was the end of the year and the new year was coming.

He had been out of the mountain village for more than a year. He spent the New Year's Eve in exile last year. Although he also missed his hometown at that time, he did not dare to slack off.

Today, looking at the full moon that was the same as in previous years, all kinds of thoughts came to his mind.

Early this morning, he had no intention of meditating, so he came to the platform in advance to practice immortal arts while waiting for the bright moon to rise.

Li Yan stared blankly into the distance. The village should have been filled with firecrackers by now. The golden and fragrant offerings of monsters should have been placed under the old locust tree at the head of the village. The children in the village should have been chasing and playing around these offerings, drooling, and then running to the head and tail of the village amid the adults' scolding. After a while, they ran back to the head of the village amidst the frolicking and playing, looking at the full moon in the sky from time to time, hoping that it would rise to the top of the old willow tree as soon as possible, so that they could start worshipping their ancestors and then eat a lot.

The village chief would hold a bowl of wine and drink with every man in the village, and would also pat every child on the head, asking them to grow up quickly, and sleep with the old willow tree in the middle of the night, and sleep until dawn with the huge moon on their head.

Daddy rarely smiled, took a few puffs of cigarettes, drank a few sips of strong liquor with a group of old friends, and pointed at his children with his pipe from time to time and said a few words.

The third brother would limp to sit beside Dad, smiling at him, and occasionally whisper a few words to ask him to drink less.

Mother and the fourth sister, like other women in the village, kept serving fragrant meat and steamed buns. Occasionally, when they met young men in the village, mother and the aunts would laugh loudly, point and talk, and then look at their own girls and whisper a few words in their ears from time to time.

The fourth sister, like the young girls in the village, always blushed after hearing those words, and continued to serve food after being embarrassed.

The young men in the village blushed and looked at the fourth sister and the others amid the booing.

…………

Li Yan stared blankly into the distance, and tears were streaming down his face before he knew it.

After a long time, Li Yan retracted his gaze and looked up at the huge bright moon above his head, which seemed to be close to his head. Familiar faces seemed to appear in the full moon.

He raised his hand to wipe away the tears, stood up facing the moon, straightened his clothes and knelt down, muttering "Dad, Mom, Happy New Year..., Happy New...Year", and then kowtowed respectfully.

Just as he was about to stand up, a somewhat cold but hesitant voice came from behind him, "You... among you mortals, do you really have the New Year's Eve?"

Li Yan stood up suddenly after hearing this, and then turned around and asked "Who?"

He looked back, and at this time, a slender, graceful woman in white was standing on the edge of the platform behind him, looking at him with some hesitation.

"It's you?" Li Yan was caught in his thoughts, and his heart was immediately angry, and his words were filled with a bit of questioning.

At this time, the moonlight was like silver and filled the platform. The light was very good. Li Yan saw the person coming at a glance. It was the senior sister Zhao Min from Buli Peak who he had met a few months ago!

At this time, Zhao Min was standing at the edge of the bamboo forest from the platform. Her white clothes fluttered in the wind. Her handsome face, which looked like a white jade sculpture under the moonlight, was even more holy and white. Her black and white eyes under her thick eyebrows looked at Li Yan with a bit of coldness.

"Why? Can't I come here?" She saw Li Yan's stern tone, and her thick eyebrows could not help but frown slightly.

Li Yan also frowned when he heard it, thinking, "Yes, this is not my own little bamboo courtyard, why can't the other party come?" But he still asked the next moment, but his tone had softened.

"This is Xiaozhu Peak. It seems that the disciples from the other four peaks only come to the halfway point for something. The disciples from other peaks usually don't come here."

In the past few months, he has only met disciples from other peaks halfway up the mountain, but it seems that except for the small paths he saw, those people never stay in other places in Xiaozhu Peak, as if there are some restrictions. Therefore, when he received the spirit stones, he also asked his second senior brother in the main hall, and learned that those small paths were just as he guessed

, the places where Xiaozhu Peak went on missions, and those disciples were obviously here to do missions.

"You know something, but can't I come to this back mountain?" Obviously, the girl in white was a little dissatisfied with Li Yan's previous attitude.

"This? Not really... It's just that there are few disciples from other peaks coming to this back mountain." Li Yan didn't really ask his senior brother whether disciples from other peaks were not allowed to come here, but he had never seen disciples from other peaks. In addition, his thoughts were exposed just now, so he blurted out in a hurry. Now he felt that he was a little guilty and scratched the back of his head with his hand.

Seeing him like this, Zhao Min couldn't get angry anymore. Moreover, she followed her heart today and came here involuntarily. She was curious when she heard what Li Yan said. She had heard about the "New Year's Eve" among mortals since she was a child. It seemed very grand, lively, and very important, but she had never seen it.

"Oh, this is a place I used to come here often, but later I was not in Xiaozhu Peak, so I came less. You are right. Disciples from other peaks in this back mountain are not allowed to come." Although Zhao Min's tone was mild, it was still cold. As she spoke, she lightly moved her lotus steps to the platform, and slowly walked to the edge of the platform, facing the huge full moon.

Li Yan was stunned after hearing this, thinking, "From what she said, it seems that she was also a disciple of Xiaozhu Peak before. Could she be one of those disciples who left Xiaozhu Peak? In this case, it is not surprising that she can come here, and she seems to come here very often."

The beautiful woman in front of Li Yan stood on the edge of the cliff, looking at the huge moon with a dazed look in her eyes, and then looked at the rolling mountains in the distance under the night sky. The silver moon sprinkled on her body, and her face, like a white jade sculpture, was shining with delicate white light. She stood in the wind, and the mountain wind blew her clothes backwards, making the clothes tightly wrapped around her body, making the two peaks on her chest more upright, and her slender and straight legs more prominent, like a fairy from the Moon Palace descending to the earth. Li Yan could not help but be stunned.

After Zhao Min asked the question, she immediately fell into her own thoughts. After a while, when she retracted her blurred gaze, she did not hear any movement behind her. She could not help but frowned and looked diagonally behind her. She saw Li Yan looking like a pig brother, staring at her blankly. She could not help but blush and spit lightly.

Li Yan woke up from his dream when he heard the spit. His dark face turned red. He coughed twice and quickly answered to divert his attention.

"Zhao... Senior Sister Zhao, we do have this 'New Year's Eve' in our place. I haven't been to other places that are too far away, but I heard from people in the village who have traveled far that there are also some. But? But it seems that there is no New Year's Eve in this sect. I didn't see any New Year's Eve decorations and atmosphere when I came out today." ??

"Sect? New Year's Eve? Humph, in the sect, there is only cultivation, and there is still cultivation. What kind of human warmth can there be... Can you tell me about the New Year's Eve in the mortal world?" Zhao

After hearing this, a trace of disdain appeared on Zhao Min's white jade-like face. She snorted lightly from her pretty nose, paused for a moment, and then asked another question.

After hearing this, Li Yan felt a little confused. "This Senior Sister Zhao actually said such disrespectful words to the sect. She is really brave. She is not afraid of being heard by others in the sect. If the elders and the Law Enforcement Hall know about it, it will be bad."

"Has Senior Sister Zhao never been to a mortal town? Did you grow up in the immortal sect since childhood?" Li Yan had many questions, but he just thought about it. He thought, "It seems that this senior sister entered the sect earlier than the seventh senior brother. The seventh senior brother was discovered and accepted by the immortal gate at the age of twelve. This senior sister may have entered the immortal gate since she was a child or when she was ignorant."

After listening to Li Yan's words, Zhao Min was silent for a while, and then sat down on the edge of the platform. She hung her long legs in the air outside the platform, swinging gently, looking up at the night with silver light in the distance, and murmured, "I have never been to a mortal town, but I heard from some senior brothers and sisters that it is very peaceful and lively there, working from sunrise to sunset, day after day, year after year; relatives and friends often get together, children play around their parents, holding lanterns and chasing and playing with playmates of the same age, and the family can often happily gather around a table to talk... But I have only heard it, never experienced it."

Li Yan stood behind Zhao Min, looking at her pretty back, listening to her murmurs, and couldn't help but think of his hometown, his sister and playmates in the village.

He walked forward a few steps unconsciously and came to the edge of the platform. He sat down on the edge of the platform some distance away from the girl in white. He sighed and saw the girl's lonely back. He felt that she looked lonely. He suddenly calmed down and thought that what she asked was just a folk custom that almost everyone knew. Besides, he didn't want to go back early today, so he spoke softly.

"The mortal world has its own fun, but also has its own joys and sorrows. My hometown is at the foot of the Daqing Mountain, a million miles away from here. The village is small, with dozens of families. The village is surrounded by terraced fields, and there are several old locust trees at the head of the village. When the New Year comes, it is already spring, and the rapeseed fields outside the village are in full bloom, with various wild flowers scattered in between. On the day of the New Year, every family starts to prepare the most abundant food of the year early in the morning. The children play in the village, and my mother and sister and the aunts in the same village take out monster meat and flour from their homes and start cooking or frying various delicacies. The smoke from the cooking is curling, and the fragrance fills the village; while my father and third brother clean up the ancestral temple with other villagers, place tributes, and clean the house..."

Under a bright full moon, the surroundings are quiet with only the breeze blowing quietly. A pair of boys and girls sit on the edge of the platform, looking up at the bright moon and talking.

The huge moon seemed to contain the two figures in a white halo. Occasionally, the girl would ask a question softly, and Li Yan would slowly describe the ordinariness of the mortal world...