Chapter 47: One Pill, One Talisman, One Question, One Answer

The "Care-Relieving Grocery Store" in Mud Bottle Lane had been open for three months.

For a precarious and unpredictable place like the Lower Three Districts of Flowing Cloud Immortal City, three months was enough time for a shop to go out of business three times over. Yet, this strange grocery store had survived with a tenacious spirit, gradually accumulating a modest yet distinct reputation among the lowest tier of rogue cultivators.

This reputation did not stem from its Energy-Restoring Pills, which were ten percent cheaper than elsewhere, nor from its buy-ten-get-one-free Hunger-Warding Pills, but rather from a peculiar rule of the shop.

The rule had been established by Jiang Xiuyuan, enforced by Jiang Yiyi, and treated by Jiang Xiaobai with... a silent expression of disdain from the sidelines.

The rule was simple: anyone who made a purchase here, regardless of the amount spent, had to answer a question posed by the boss after the transaction, or voice a recent worry of their own.

At first, this rule made many rogue cultivators—who were already deeply distrustful of strangers—hesitate and turn away. Worries? In these Lower Three Districts, who didn't carry a mountain of worries? But a worry was a personal matter; why should they share it with the owner of a grocery store? As for answering a question, who knew what kind of tricky and eccentric things the owner might ask?

However, the first person to brave this rule was the one-armed saber-wielder.

That day, he came as usual to buy ten Hunger-Warding Pills and three Energy-Restoring Pills. After Jiang Yiyi collected the spiritual stones and handed over the pills, she followed the rule and softly said, "Senior, please stay a moment. My master has a question he would like to ask you."

A flicker of vigilance crossed the single eye on the saber-wielder's weathered face. He tightened his grip on the hilt of the saber at his waist and stared silently at Jiang Yiyi, as if saying: "I only have these few spiritual stones left, don't even think about squeezing anything else out of me."

Jiang Yiyi felt a slight chill under his gaze, but she mustered her courage and repeated her father's exact words: "The master asks, 'Is your saber meant for protection, or for slaughter?'"

The saber-wielder froze.

He had expected the other party to ask about his background, his cultivation techniques, or some deep secret. He had prepared himself to remain tight-lipped, or even to draw his saber and fight. But he had never imagined such a question.

Meant for protection? Or for slaughter?

The veins bulged on his left hand as he gripped the saber hilt. He thought of the village slaughtered by demonic beasts, and of his wife and child who had died before his eyes. He had picked up the saber for revenge, to slaughter all those beasts. That was slaughter. Yet, he thought of his current job—a "cleaner" who cleared away the low-tier beasts wandering the edges of the immortal city that might threaten newly ascended cultivators. Was this not, in its own way, a form of protection?

The saber-wielder remained silent for a long time, so long that Jiang Yiyi thought he would never answer. In his single eye, ferocity and bewilderment flickered alternately, finally settling into a hoarse sigh.

"In the past, for slaughter," he said slowly. "Now... I don't know."

With that, he turned and left. His retreating figure looked even more desolate than when he had arrived, yet it also seemed to carry a trace of something else.

From that day on, the rule spread. People discovered that the questions asked by the boss of the "Care-Relieving Grocery Store" were always strange, striking straight at the human heart, yet never prying into personal privacy. And if one chose to voice a worry, he seemed only to listen quietly, never judging.

Gradually, more people began to come.

"Boss, my... my worry is that there seems to be a problem with the *Crag-Shattering Art* I cultivate. Every time I circulate it to the third circulation cycle, the 'Shanzhong Acupoint' on the left side of my chest aches as if pricked by needles, and my spiritual power scatters along with it. I've asked many people, and they all say this is a normal phenomenon of an incomplete cultivation technique, something that can only be endured through sheer willpower, but I really can't hold on much longer..." said a sallow-faced young man despondently after buying a lighting talisman.

From behind the bamboo curtain at the back of the counter came Jiang Xiuyuan's gentle voice: "The *Crag-Shattering Art* is an earth-attribute technique, and its essence is heavy. Do you know why a massive boulder can float on the surface of the water?"

The young man was stunned. "...Because of a boat? Or... a raft?"

"Indeed. For a heavy object to float, there must be a vessel to bear it. You only know its heaviness and try to move it by force, which naturally strains and injures yourself. Why not try first laying down a layer of 'water-attribute Qi' within your meridians to serve as a 'boat and raft,' and then circulate your heavy 'earth-attribute spiritual power'? When earth meets water, though its nature is yielding, its momentum becomes all the smoother."

The young man was struck as if by a thunderbolt, standing frozen on the spot. The mutual restraint of cultivation elements was common sense in the cultivation world; who would ever think of introducing the restraining water-attribute Qi into the primary earth-attribute meridians? Yet the metaphor of the "boat and raft" was so vivid, so... full of reason! He bowed deeply toward the bamboo curtain, his eyes brimming with excitement and gratitude, and hurried away, clearly unable to wait to try it out.

Jiang Xiaobai poked her head out from under the counter and asked Jiang Yiyi in puzzlement, "Sister, isn't master directly guiding him here? What happened to not directly helping?"

Jiang Yiyi looked at the young man's departing figure, shook her head thoughtfully, and replied, "Master didn't give him a new cultivation technique, nor did he give him any miraculous elixirs. He simply... provided a possibility. That path is still one he must walk himself, and he must learn through trial and error. Just as Master Zimo said, 'Put forward a hypothesis,' and the rest requires 'empirical verification.'"

Jiang Xiaobai nodded with a half-understanding look, then pulled her head back and continued nibbling on her dried spirit fruit.

Another day, a young female cultivator carrying her daughter came to buy lighting talismans. When it was her turn to answer the question, she chose to voice her worry.

"Sir, my worry... is my daughter." She affectionately stroked the head of the little girl in her arms, her face full of sorrow. "Xiao Ya was born with an incomplete soul. She fears the light, fears sound, and fears strangers even more. I've taken her to see many alchemists, and they all say it's incurable. Every day I work desperately at tasks just to earn a few more spiritual stones so she can live a little better, but I don't know when this kind of life will ever end..."

Jiang Xiuyuan behind the bamboo curtain was silent for a moment before asking, "Do you think she is happy?"

The female cultivator started, instinctively replying, "She's still young, she doesn't understand anything. How could she know happiness or unhappiness..."

"No," Jiang Xiuyuan's voice was very soft, yet carried an unquestionable strength. "Every time you place that dim lighting talisman in her pocket, she smiles, doesn't she? That is her happiness. Her world is very small, so small that it contains only you and that three-foot halo of light. In her world, she may be complete, and she may be blessed. The one who feels pain and incompleteness is you, not her."

The female cultivator trembled all over, tears instantly blurring her vision.

"Your love is her best 'medicine.' As for the soul, all things have their own laws of growth; even plants and trees can reach toward the sun, and the soul possesses an instinctive self-repairing power. The more anxious you are, the more chaotic your aura becomes, which in turn affects her. Try... to enjoy that dim light together with her."

Clutching her daughter, the female cultivator wept uncontrollably. She bowed three times toward the bamboo curtain before finally leaving.

Jiang Yiyi took all of this in, and her understanding of what her father called "the meaning of the longevity-seekers" deepened by another layer. They do not bestow charity, nor do they interfere; rather, they serve simply as "observers" and "questioners," using a broader perspective to light a tiny lamp of "hope" or "enlightenment" for these souls struggling in the mire.

That evening, just as the shop was about to close, the disheveled old talisman master strolled over with a hint of joy on his face. Without asking for credit, he produced three low-grade spiritual stones and slapped them onto the counter: "Lass, give me three Energy-Restoring Pills!"

"Has senior struck it rich today?" Jiang Yiyi asked with a smile.

"Hehe, I wouldn't call it striking it rich." The old talisman master stroked his beard smugly. "A few days ago, after listening to your master's guidance—he said my talisman brush was 'too sharp in its edge and failed to gather spiritual ink'—he told me to try painting talismans with an old, worn-out brush. When I went back and tried it, hey! Can you guess what happened? Although the power of the talismans I drew was reduced by thirty percent, my success rate increased by fifty percent! I can finally sell them to make a living and support my family!"

He picked up the pills, in exceptionally high spirits, and took the initiative to speak: "Today, I'll share a worry! Well, it's not really a worry, more like a piece of strange news. I heard someone say today that over at the 'Black Wind Mountain' west of the city, a fierce person has recently appeared—also a one-armed saber-wielder. They say that previously, when he took on missions, eight out of ten times he would return severely injured, and the remaining two times he'd be half-dead. But this past month, every time he comes back, his clothes are spotless, without even a trace of blood! Moreover, his efficiency in hunting demonic beasts is terrifyingly high, with one man matching a five-man squad! Everyone says he must have encountered some fortuitous encounter or been guided by an expert. Isn't that strange?"

A stir rippled through Jiang Yiyi's heart, and she thought of the taciturn, one-armed saber-wielder. She looked toward the bamboo curtain, where that figure behind it appeared all the more unfathomable under the dim light.

How could there be so many fortuitous encounters in this world?

All there ever were, were a single question and a single answer.