The blazing afternoon sun baked the land, and even the cicadas chirped as though half-dead.
A hunched old man in coarse, worn clothes passed beneath the shade, driving a cart. Yet rather than driving it, the old man walked ahead with his hands clasped behind his back, taking slow step after slow step. The old yellow ox pulled the cart behind him without need of reins. The old man and ox traveled in perfect accord, while the decrepit ox cart creaked over the stones. When the ox entered the shade, it had wanted to stop and rest, but seeing its old companion still walking, it could only hurry after him.
The passing villagers seemed to overlook the two beneath the tree.
Cheng Su forced herself to stay alert as she chatted with the elder. The longer they spoke, the more alarmed she became, for his words peeled back the true face of the world.
The elder considered certain things common knowledge. Without a second thought, he casually spoke of the bloody darkness of the Cultivation World. Cheng Su had spent half her life struggling to survive at the bottom—how could she have known the truth of the Cultivation World? Even the little fox had gone pale with fright.
"Fine medicinal ingredients take at least several years and at most a century to cultivate. Depending on their intended effects, they are supplied with cultivation methods and secret arts of various attributes for their practice. The higher their aptitude, the stronger the medicinal potency."
"..."
The elder spoke eloquently of the common knowledge of high circles. Cheng Su no longer felt the scorching heat, only coldness in her hands and feet.
As a lowly ant struggling bitterly at the bottom, she had only known that Jianghu was full of deception and schemes.