Making a Living

Li Banfeng sat in the Portable Abode, conducting a deep review of his series of insane actions.

He had attacked people from the Dark Star Bureau. Though he did not know what kind of organization the Dark Star Bureau was, since it had "Bureau" in its name, it was presumably connected to the authorities.

He had come to an unbelievable place and, for no apparent reason, become a Dark Energy User.

It would have been one thing if he were an ordinary Dark Energy User, but he had also cultivated two completely incompatible paths.

What was he supposed to do next?

Return to Yuezhou?

Find He Jiaqing, who was lying in a hospital bed?

What would he use to buy a ticket?

His wallet, shirt, dress pants, and leather shoes had all been left in the old house. Li Banfeng could not possibly go back for them.

All his current possessions consisted of a top hat, a hiking cap, a set of pajamas, a T-shirt, a pair of sweatpants, a pair of sneakers, two cups of instant noodles, a box of chips, a little over one bag of spicy strips, and He Jiaqing's Copper Lotus.

Should he sell the Copper Lotus and trade it for a ticket back to Yuezhou?

The key was, how much was this Copper Lotus worth? Selling it as scrap copper did not seem appropriate.

If he did not sell the Copper Lotus, what would he eat next?

He did not even have a single coin on him.

Li Banfeng spent the night in the "Portable Abode."

The "Portable Abode" was very quiet, with almost no noise to be heard. Though it had no windows, the air was fresh. Apart from dust accumulated over many years, there was no other smell.

What woke Li Banfeng from his sleep was hunger and thirst.

Yesterday, he had only eaten one cup of instant noodles, and he had barely drunk any water.

Now that Li Banfeng had found another cup of instant noodles, he did not know how to swallow it.

Dry-chewing it was definitely not an option. Li Banfeng left the Portable Abode, returned to the alley, put away the key, found a household, and knocked on the door.

Although he had grown up in the Welfare Institute and suffered plenty of hardship, asking for water to drink... still made it hard for him to open his mouth.

"Ma'am, could you please give me a bowl of water? I don't want food, just a bowl of water."

Li Banfeng repeatedly stressed that he did not want food. The woman did indeed give him a bowl of water, but the look in her eyes made him feel as if dozens of needles were pricking his face.

Today he was begging for water. How far away was begging for food?

There were only two cups of instant noodles left.

He had to find a way to make a living.

Travel Cultivators had to walk at least twenty li every day. Li Banfeng ate a noodle cake and began wandering along Inner Valley Street.

"Extra! Extra! Second Miss Chu Family attempted to murder her husband on her wedding night, then fled in fear of punishment! The husband's family is offering a reward of three million!

Sir, buy a newspaper! There's an extra edition today, huge news, only fifty cents!"

He did not even have fifty cents.

Li Banfeng smiled at the newsboy.

How about I sell newspapers with you?

Even newspaper-selling work was not easy to find. Many children relied on selling newspapers to make a living.

And Li Banfeng neither understood the newspaper market nor knew how to sell them. In his impression, newspapers had faded from the public eye ten years ago.

Li Banfeng found two shops in town hiring temporary workers. One was a furniture store, and the other was a rice shop.

His demands were not high. He only wanted to work a few days and earn enough for a ticket.

But neither shop hired Li Banfeng because his clothes were strange.

A short-sleeved T-shirt with a top hat did not seem all that strange to Li Banfeng, but the shopkeepers thought he did not look like a decent person.

By noon, his stomach started growling again. Li Banfeng begged for another bowl of water and ate a noodle cake. By then, all he had left for food was one box of chips.

This was hard. Truly hard.

Unable to find work in Inner Gully, Li Banfeng kept walking to the edge of town and headed toward Outer Valley.

Outer Valley covered a far larger area than Inner Gully.

The situation in Outer Valley was also far more complicated than in Inner Gully.

Following the dirt road outward, Li Banfeng saw farmers at work, low houses, and stretches of mountain forest where not a single person could be seen for miles.

By the time he walked until dusk, his last cup of instant noodles had long been digested, and the chips were gone as well.

The only good news was that Li Banfeng felt waves of trembling in his mind.

This was the special perception of a cultivator, reminding Li Banfeng that he had already walked twenty li. His basic cultivation for the day as a Travel Cultivator was complete.

House Cultivators had a similar perception in this regard, though it was gentler. Whenever Li Banfeng stayed in the Portable Abode for two full hours, he could feel a cool, pleasant sensation.

Up ahead was a restaurant—a very small one. Five tables stood inside a pitch-black tiled house, and a notice posted at the entrance said they were hiring helpers.

Li Banfeng had intended to go over and try his luck when he suddenly heard someone call from inside the restaurant, "Brother Li, is that you?"

Li Banfeng turned around and saw a stout young man eating noodles. Three bowls of noodles and three empty bowls were sitting on his table.

Qin Xiaopang!

Li Banfeng froze!

Qin Xiaopang called out, "Brother Li, come sit down! We really are fated to meet. You like this place too? I especially like it—the food here is cheap and filling."

Li Banfeng spoke honestly. "Brother, to tell you the truth, I didn't come here to eat. I saw that they were hiring, so I came looking for work."

Qin Xiaopang was stunned. "Looking for work at a restaurant? What kind of situation is that?"

Li Banfeng wore a bitter expression. "I have no choice. I don't have a single coin on me. I'm about to start begging for food!"

Qin Xiaopang was a righteous man. Slapping his chest, he said, "Waiter, bring two more bowls of noodles! Brother Li, if you don't mind, let's eat first!"

Li Banfeng felt a little embarrassed. They had met only by chance—why should he eat someone else's food?

"If you don't eat, you're looking down on me!" Qin Xiaopang pulled over a chair and dragged Li Banfeng into a seat. Before long, steaming bowls of Yangchun Noodles were brought over.

As a Food Cultivator, eating five jin of food a day and five bowls of noodles in one meal was basic routine for Xiaopang.

Li Banfeng was starving too. The Yangchun Noodles had no meat—half a bowl of broth, a spoonful of soy sauce, and two stalks of bok choy—yet Li Banfeng felt they were the most delicious food he had ever eaten.

Two bowls of noodles vanished into his stomach in the blink of an eye. Xiaopang paid for the meal, then said to Li Banfeng, "Brother Li, there are too many eyes and ears here. Let's find somewhere else to talk."

The two left the restaurant and found a quiet spot by the woods. Xiaopang asked in a low voice, "Brother, have you entered a path yet?"

"I have." Li Banfeng nodded.

Qin Xiaopang lowered his voice even further. "Which path did you enter?"

Xiaopang was a sincere person, and Li Banfeng already knew Xiaopang's path. It would have been somewhat disloyal not to tell the truth now.

"I entered the path of a Travel Cultivator."

Li Banfeng did not mention the House Cultivator matter. It was hard to explain, and he could not speak of it lightly.

Qin Xiaopang scratched his cheek. "By rights, Travel Cultivators don't lack work. Delivering letters, escorting people, working as bodyguards—if nothing else, you could pull a carriage."

Li Banfeng smiled. He really had considered pulling a rickshaw.

He had asked around. As a Travel Cultivator, if he pulled a carriage, he would count as a Carriage Driver with fire wheels. One job could easily earn several hundred dollars.

Especially with Li Banfeng's hiking cap—it had the perfect Carriage Driver air about it!

But to pull a rickshaw, he first needed a rickshaw. Li Banfeng did not have one.

He could rent one without owning one, but he needed a deposit. Li Banfeng could not afford the deposit.

Furthermore, Carriage Drivers needed licenses, and Li Banfeng could not obtain one in the short term.

Most importantly, pulling a carriage required knowing the roads, and Li Banfeng did not know them.

Travel Cultivators possessed a talent for recognizing routes, but he did not even know the most basic place names. Clearly, he did not meet the fundamental business requirements of a Carriage Driver.

Seeing Li Banfeng remain silent, Qin Xiaopang smiled. "My mouth has gotten ahead of me. What kind of people are we brothers? How could we do something as lowly as pulling carriages?

Brother Li, I have a small business opportunity here. The money isn't much, but it can help in an emergency. It depends on whether you're willing to make a move."

"Brother, I was already looking for food at a restaurant. What is there left for me to pick and choose? But you said business—I have no capital."

"No capital needed. This is a business without capital. Our capital is our lives. Have you heard of Bitter Mist Mountain?"

Bitter Mist Mountain?

Li Banfeng shook his head. "Never heard of it."

Qin Xiaopang said, "In Medicine King Gully, no one hasn't heard of Bitter Mist Mountain. This mountain is shrouded in thick fog all year round, and the fog is highly poisonous. Ordinary people will undoubtedly die if they go up the mountain."

Li Banfeng frowned. This was practically a natural gas chamber. "What business are we going there for?"

"The Snake Spot Chrysanthemum on Bitter Mist Mountain. Have you heard of it?"

Li Banfeng shook his head. He definitely had not.

Qin Xiaopang raised his voice slightly. "This Snake Spot Chrysanthemum blooms once a year, and its flowering period lasts only one day.

The Snake Spot Chrysanthemum is the main ingredient for refining Snake Spot Pills. One Snake Spot Pill can substitute for one day of cultivation.

Didn't I tell you before? It takes ten years of cultivation to raise your cultivation by one level. But if you eat one Snake Spot Pill every day, it's equivalent to cultivating one extra day. By that calculation, you can raise a level in five years.

The day after tomorrow is when the Snake Spot Chrysanthemums bloom. Several medicine shops have already named their price: eighty-five dollars for one Snake Spot Chrysanthemum.

On Bitter Mist Mountain, if an ordinary person is lucky, they can find two or three plants in an hour. In ten hours, they can find twenty or thirty, enough to earn two thousand dollars.

You're a Travel Cultivator with strong legs. In ten hours, you can earn at least three thousand. Some can earn five thousand. What do you think of this business?"

Three thousand dollars would definitely cover a ticket. After returning to Yuezhou, he could even live carefree for a couple of days.

This business could be done!

Just as Li Banfeng was about to agree, a thought struck him. "That's not right. If the mist is so poisonous, wouldn't going up the mountain to gather herbs be sending ourselves to our deaths?"

Qin Xiaopang said, "Ordinary people would indeed be going to their deaths, but we aren't ordinary!

We have cultivation. Our constitutions are far stronger than ordinary people's. A Travel Cultivator like you can easily last ten hours on the mountain. If you grit your teeth, you can hold out for fifteen.

After coming down the mountain, puke for a day. Puke it all out, then rest for another two days, and you'll be fine.

I'm a Food Cultivator. As long as I eat my fill and drink enough, staying on the mountain for twenty hours is no problem."

This business really did use their lives as capital!

Li Banfeng considered the profits and nodded. "Brother, I'm in."

Qin Xiaopang smiled. "You run fast, and I can endure. We brothers are guaranteed to make a killing on this job!"

PS: Dear readers, let's follow Ban Feng and pick chrysanthemums together!

(End of Chapter)