"Lu Yan! Go bring out the talisman paper from the warehouse. Remember to clean it thoroughly with Dust-Cleansing Talismans."
"Lu Yan! Why is there twenty percent less cinnabar for drawing talismans today? I pay you one Spirit Stone every month—is that so you can slack off?"
"How did this sheet of talisman paper end up damaged? What are you good for? I'm deducting half a Spirit Stone to compensate for the loss!"
Inside the Spirit Talisman Shop, the potbellied shopkeeper, Chu Hao, kept roaring abuse, berating the shop's sole assistant.
The assistant looked to be around twenty years old. He was thin and frail, with handsome features and a scholarly air, though the coarse hemp clothes he wore ruined his bearing.
He merely lowered his head and silently followed Steward Chu's orders, sorting materials and mixing cinnabar.
It was already evening. Few cultivators were coming and going through the market to purchase Spiritual Objects, so Steward Chu's scolding immediately drew many nearby shopkeepers and assistants over to watch.
One shopkeeper could not bear to watch any longer and could not help advising him:
"Steward Chu, say a little less. I think this young fellow Lu Yan is diligent and honest. If you really drive him away, where will you find another assistant so suitable?"
When the potbellied Steward Chu heard this, his eyes bulged, and he shouted without the slightest courtesy:
"Three-legged toads are hard to find, but two-legged people are everywhere! If he won't work, plenty of others will!"
"Besides, every one of these mortals is an ungrateful wretch. Sooner or later, they'll find a way to run off.
"Do you expect me to feed and house him like those other heartless assistants, only for him to steal my family's Cultivation Technique and Spirit Stones before sneaking away?"
The moment Steward Chu said this, everyone around fell silent.
Bamboo Forest Market was not very large, and everyone had heard about what happened to Steward Chu.
A few years earlier, Steward Chu had found an assistant with a talent for cultivation and prepared to train him as his successor. He had not only provided him with a Cultivation Technique but had personally taught him the craft of drawing Spiritual Talismans.
Yet not long after that assistant entered the Qi Refining Stage, he took advantage of Steward Chu's absence to haul away the Cultivation Technique and Spirit Stones from the Spirit Talisman Shop, leaving Steward Chu with tremendous losses.
After that, Steward Chu became distrustful of every assistant he hired, casually beating and berating them at the slightest provocation.
In just four or five years, more than twenty assistants had fled the Spirit Talisman Shop in succession. The shortest stay had lasted barely half a month.
Thinking of this, the other shopkeepers in the market could only shake their heads inwardly and disperse.
Standing at the entrance, Steward Chu glanced at the dim sky outside, tossed out one last sentence, and hurried away from the shop.
Inside the Spirit Talisman Shop, only Lu Yan remained, still tidying the place.
Lu Yan had been brought into the Spirit Talisman Shop by Steward Chu three months earlier. He worked diligently every day, yet still found himself criticized over every little thing.
That brainless, fat-bellied Steward Chu claimed he paid one Spirit Stone a month, but in reality, Lu Yan often had not worked three days before an entire Spirit Stone had been deducted.
Damaged talisman paper in the warehouse meant a deduction. Poor-quality cinnabar meant a deduction. Poor business at the shop meant a deduction. Even when customers haggled over prices, Spirit Stones were deducted from Lu Yan's pay.
After three months, Lu Yan had even ended up owing the Spirit Talisman Shop twenty-seven Spirit Stones.
That number of Spirit Stones exceeded the entire wealth of most early Qi Refining Stage cultivators. Compared to Steward Chu, even capitalists counted as generous and magnanimous.
"Wait, twenty-seven and a half."
As he sorted the talisman paper, Lu Yan silently added another half in his heart.
To outsiders, Lu Yan was merely an assistant Steward Chu had casually selected from a mortal city. Only Lu Yan himself knew that he did not belong to this world.
Lu Yan had come from Earth, a world known only to him. His soul had crossed through time and space and descended into the body of a person who shared his name.
At first, the world Lu Yan saw was also a flourishing metropolis. Its level of technology and cultural development were almost identical to those of Earth in the twenty-first century.
Until three months ago, when Lu Yan experienced a Version Iteration.
Only at that moment did Lu Yan realize the truth of the entire world.
It was as though some supreme power had transformed the entire world into a game, causing it to shift directly from the Urban Version into the Xianxia Version.
In the blink of an eye, the prosperous metropolis vanished, replaced by an ancient and atmospheric xianxia world.
The intricate and exquisite creations of technology disappeared. The original order was wiped away in an instant. Cultivators who rode swords through the nine heavens and entered the azure void became the masters of the Xianxia Version.
Amid this earth-shaking transformation, all living beings seemed completely unaware. They merely followed the current by instinct.
Even the powerful figures who had once ruled the metropolis, and the high-and-mighty cultivators, could only obey the world's changing Version Iteration.
In this violently transformed world, only Lu Yan, an outsider, became a being independent of the Version Update.
He had witnessed high-rise buildings turn into low houses, bustling cities become settlements of mortals, and countless familiar faces disappear. Even when one or two familiar faces occasionally remained, their identities had changed.
Amid this transformation of all things, only Lu Yan himself remained an eternal, unchanging individual. He could retain the memories of different versions and preserve items from the previous Version.
This should have been a good thing. But Lu Yan had barely experienced the Version Iteration and had not yet had time to adapt to the changes when Steward Chu, who had gone to a mortal city to select an assistant, took a liking to him.
Steward Chu forcibly brought Lu Yan to Bamboo Forest Market and compelled him to plunge into ceaseless, backbreaking labor.
At the beginning of the Version Iteration, Lu Yan had still harbored fantasies about the so-called immortal arts and the existence of a xianxia world.
But as Steward Chu squeezed him day and night, leaving him able to sleep only on a cold, hard plank bed and eat food that was difficult to swallow, most of the fantasies in Lu Yan's heart had already dissolved.
Even if there truly was a carefree life of cultivation, roaming the world and entering the azure void, it would not belong to a market assistant at the very bottom like him.
His harsh living conditions and difficult life were still secondary. More importantly, there was no stable order in the Xianxia Version.
Even though there had been differences in power and wealth during the Urban Version, everyone had still been human. A gun or a dagger could level all those differences.
But in the Xianxia Version, mortals and cultivators were already entirely different kinds of living beings. The gap between them had reached an immeasurable degree.
This was a world that devoured people!
This was not some capitalist exploitation. It was eating people in the literal sense.
Remaining silent would not keep him safe. If he did not want to be eaten, he could only rise up and fight back.
After placing the final stack of talisman paper on the shelves, Lu Yan walked to the counter and took the remaining thirteen Spirit Stones from the drawer, along with the few finished Spiritual Talismans left.
Then, under the astonished gazes of the surrounding shops, Lu Yan closed the Spirit Talisman Shop's doors and headed toward the rear courtyard.
A string of illusory text appeared before Lu Yan's eyes.
Current Version: Xianxia Version Update Progress: 99.3%
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