234: Chapter 234 High Mountains and Flowing Water

At the end of the Black Water River, the current gradually became calm.

The bow of the flat-bottomed wooden boat gently bumped against the moss-covered stone steps, making a muffled "thud" sound.

Lin Ye stood at the bow of the boat, looking up ahead.

Before his eyes was a massive ancient village nestled against the mountains and by the water.

Hundreds of ancient stilt houses were distributed in an orderly fashion across the steep mountainside.

These buildings were all constructed from thick logs, supported in the air by wooden pillars at the bottom to avoid the mountain miasma and venomous insects.

Between the pavilions, not a single iron nail was used; they were tightly locked together entirely relying on exquisite mortise and tenon structures, still standing tall after hundreds of years of wind and rain.

Winding paths paved with bluestone slabs connected these stilt houses together like a spider's web.

At the entrance of the ancient village, a magnificent wind and rain bridge spanned across.

The bridge was decorated with carved beams and painted pillars, with flying eaves and upturned corners, and was covered with totems unique to the Miao border—Mother Butterfly and the Double-Headed Water Dragon.

"Is this your hometown? It looks quite primitive, and the air is much better than downtown Jiangzhou City."

Lin Ye took a deep breath of the air carrying the fresh fragrance of grass and trees.

Ayugu tightly hugged the black bamboo tube in her hands, looking at the familiar wind and rain bridge with slightly red eyes.

She took a deep breath, just preparing to speak.

"Jingle... Jingle..."

An ethereal sound of metal collision suddenly came from the other end of the wind and rain bridge.

Immediately following that.

At the originally dim entrance of the ancient village, dozens of blazing torches suddenly lit up.

The firelight illuminated the surface of the Black Water River into a fiery red.

Accompanied by the firelight, a grand procession of men and women dressed in gorgeous traditional Miao attire walked down from the wind and rain bridge.

Walking at the very front were two rows of young and beautiful Miao girls.

They wore brightly colored "Hundred Birds Garments".

The hems of their skirts were embroidered with lifelike flowers, birds, fish, and insects using ancient batik and Miao embroidery techniques.

Moreover, on each of their heads, they wore huge ox-horn silver crowns crafted from pure silver weighing over ten jin.

Hanging around their necks were overlapping layers of silver necklaces.

The crisp sound just now was precisely the heavenly music produced when these pure silver ornaments collided with each other as they walked.

Behind these Miao girls.

Stood several burly, tower-like dark-furred men, their bronze muscles tattooed with eerie venomous insects.

Right in the center, a five-meter-long purple-gold giant centipede coiled on the bluestone slabs.

On the back of the centipede stood a skinny old woman with full silver hair and a skull cane in her hand.

She was precisely the Great Priest of the Wangu Ancient Tribe whom they had a brief encounter with outside the underground palace in Death Valley before, and also Ayugu's biological mother.

"Mother! Eldest Uncle! Second Uncle!"

Seeing this group of people, Ayugu could no longer hold back her tears, directly jumped down from the bow of the boat, and ran ashore stepping on the shallow water.

"Oh my, my precious heart!"

The Great Priest leaped down from the back of the centipede, pulled Ayugu tightly into her arms, calling her her heart and flesh.

Those four tower-like Miao warriors also gathered around with red eyes.

"Second lass, you're finally back! Your uncles missed you to death!"

After a deeply touching family-reunion drama.

Only then did the Great Priest let go of Ayugu, turned her head, and looked straight at Lin Ye standing at the bow of the boat.

"Manager Lin."

The Great Priest leaned on her cane, her tone somewhat complex.

"Some time ago in the abyss of Death Valley, this old woman witnessed with her own eyes Manager Lin's peerless demeanor of stepping on a giant bronze coffin and summoning divine thunder from the nine heavens."

"Although our Wangu Ancient Tribe lives in a remote corner, we also respect true powerhouses."

She paused, her gaze sweeping past Leng Yue and Frost Star behind Lin Ye, a deep sense of dread flashing in the depths of her eyes.

"This old woman originally thought that you, a Han Chinese boss, were merely treating my precious girl as a cheap gu-making maidservant."

"Never did I expect that you would actually step foot into the Miao village deep in the Ten Thousand Mountains in person for her."

Lin Ye, with his hands in his hoodie pockets and wearing flip-flops, walked down the wooden boat at a leisurely pace, stepping onto the bluestone slabs of the wind and rain bridge.

"You're too polite, Auntie."

Lin Ye's address of "Auntie" directly left the Great Priest stunned.

As a Miao Great Priest, who didn't tremble and call out Patriarch or Great Witch Priest upon seeing her?

This brat actually called her Auntie?

"I've said before that Ayugu is a formal employee who signed a formal contract with Lins Funeral Shop, and she's even the kind with room and board provided plus social insurance and housing fund."

Lin Ye walked to Ayugu's side and patted the Miao girl's shoulder.

"Since she's my employee, there's no reason to let her go home alone to face a big trouble."

"As her boss, dropping by for a home visit along the way to conduct some employee psychological counseling is also completely reasonable."

Although the Great Priest only half-understood, she also grasped this young man's meaning: he was backing Ayugu up.

The Great Priest took a deep look at Lin Ye, then suddenly split her wrinkled mouth and smiled.

"Good!"

"Since you dared to come, you are an honored guest of our Hulu Ancient Village! We Miao people have the most venomous gu for enemies, and naturally the fiercest wine for distinguished older brothers coming from afar!"

The Great Priest heavily thumped the skull cane in her hand.

"Blocking-door wine, serve the honored guest!"

"No! I'm not here for sightseeing, the blocking-door wine is unnecessary..."

Before Lin Ye's voice trailed off.

Those two rows of Miao girls wearing silver crowns had already stepped forward gracefully.

Holding exquisite ox-horn wine cups and arranged in two rows, they directly blocked the entrance of the wind and rain bridge tightly.

A clear and high-pitched Miao mountain song sounded from the mouths of these girls:

"Older brother from afar, please do not leave~"

"The Miao family's rice wine is sweet and thick~"

"Drink this bowl of blocking-door wine~"

"Friends for generation after generation~"

Accompanied by the song, the tallest Miao girl walking at the very front held an ox-horn cup filled with clear wine liquid with both hands and handed it to Lin Ye with a smiling face.

"Boss, don't underestimate this wine; this isn't the kind of wine from tourist areas outside."

Ayugu hurriedly lowered her voice from the side to remind him.

"This is our Miao village's highest-spec welcoming ceremony. This wine is called [Three-Step Fall]; not only is it brewed with high-quality glutinous rice, but it is also infused with the Seven-Tailed Centipede, Snow Mountain Ice Toad, and dozens of potent herbal medicines unique to the Ten Thousand Mountains."

"An ordinary person would drink a sip and stay drunk to death for three days and three nights. Even a profound-gate cultivator with cultivation would have their qi and blood churning and make a fool of themselves on the spot if they drink too much!"

This was actually the Great Priest's initial warning to Lin Ye, or rather, a test.

The Miao people worshiped the strong.

If your strength was strong, they respected you.

But if you wanted to walk into their village, you had to follow their rules and drink their wine.

"Forget it, since we're here, let's take it as it comes."

Lin Ye looked at the ox-horn cup brought close to his mouth, pondering in his heart.

Seen the next moment, he stepped forward a small step and laughed out loud.

"This is great. I've long grown tired of drinking those watered-down foreign liquors in Jiangzhou usually, and today I can just taste the pristine vintage."

Lin Ye reached out to take the ox-horn cup, raised his neck, and drank it all in one gulp!

The wine entered his throat.

There was none of the knife-cutting spiciness he had imagined.

Instead, it was like a warm fire sliding down his throat into his abdomen.

But immediately after, the medicinal power of the venomous insects soaked in the wine instantly burst forth, turning into a chilling qi that attempted to rampage through Lin Ye's meridians.

Unfortunately.

This poisonous wine power, which was enough to snap an ordinary cultivator's meridians, the moment it touched the "Supreme Yang Golden Blood" inside Lin Ye's body.

Was just like a small snowflake falling into a steel-making furnace.

With a "hiss" sound.

Without even bubbling, it was refined by the Pure Yang Dao Body into the purest spiritual qi, nourishing his limbs and bones.

"Good wine! Strong enough!"

Lin Ye wiped the wine stain from the corner of his mouth, shouting in exhilaration.

This uncolored expression dumbfounded those few Miao warriors.

"Eldest Uncle, Second Uncle."

Lin Ye turned his head to look at those tower-like men.

"Last time on the outer perimeter of Death Valley, the time we dealt with each other was too short."

"Today, having arrived at your turf, is this blocking-door wine only going to be this one cup? Isn't that looking down too much on my, Lin's, capacity for liquor?"

Eldest Uncle and Second Uncle looked at each other, an unyielding pride rising in the depths of their eyes.

"Good kid! Arrogant enough! Girls, serve Boss Lin [High Mountains and Flowing Water]!"

Eldest Uncle patted his chest and shouted loudly.

The so-called "High Mountains and Flowing Water" was a very famous highest-specification toast-off method in the Miao border.

Seeing over a dozen Miao girls quickly run over.

In their hands, they held bamboo tubes and wine pots one by one.

The girl at the very front held an ox-horn cup by Lin Ye's mouth, while the people behind stood on the steps, tilting the wine pots in their hands sequentially.

The wine liquid poured out from a wine pot at the highest point, flowing along the bamboo tubes like a waterfall into the next wine pot in turn.

Ultimately converging endlessly into the ox-horn cup at Lin Ye's mouth.

That scene was truly like high mountains and flowing water, continuous without end.

"Gulp, gulp, gulp..."

Lin Ye, with his hands in his hoodie pockets, raised his head slightly.

Facing this endless waterfall of poisonous wine, he was like a bottomless pit, his Adam's apple constantly rolling up and down, accepting everything as it came.

One pot.

Three pots.

Five pots.

A full ten pots of specially made potent poisonous wine went down his stomach!

Apart from a trace of flush slightly rising on his face, Lin Ye did not even disrupt the rhythm of his breathing by half a bit.