Listen to Advice

After leaving the tea stall, Shi Feizhe passed a bookshop.

Thinking of the True Origin Sword Finger Technique he'd bought at Three Talents Manor, he hurried inside and asked if they had any copies for sale.

What if he managed to find another copy of the True Origin Sword Finger Technique?

Instead, they kicked him out.

"I've been open all day without making a sale, and now some lunatic shows up!" the shopkeeper grumbled.

Come to think of it, what respectable bookshop would sell the True Origin Sword Finger Technique?

He didn't bother arguing with the shopkeeper and hurried to the nearby pharmacy to buy medicine.

The pharmacy was enormous, with four or five storefronts and what looked like a courtyard out back. It sold medicine, and there was also a physician seeing patients. Perhaps the doctor was good, because a long line of people waited for consultations.

The medicines Shi Feizhe used eased fatigue and boosted his qi and blood. For a pharmacy in the jianghu, they were practically as common as remedies for colds, so his medicine was soon bundled up and ready.

"Guest, would you like some ice?" the young apprentice who'd prepared his medicine suddenly asked.

"Ice? What kind of ice? The legal kind?" A certain blue ice flashed through Shi Feizhe's mind. That stuff was illegal.

Oh, right. This wasn't that world anymore.

Then it was fine.

The apprentice gave him a strange look. "Ice is ice. What does legal or illegal have to do with it? After practicing martial arts, soaking in ice water for a quarter of an hour can greatly speed up your qi-and-blood recovery. They've started making ice in Qiu Yang City."

"If you need some, there's a new ice shop on Second Gallery Street."

After intense training, soaking in ice water could ease muscle fatigue. Athletes in his previous life often used that method. This world had similar techniques too, and the Nether Springs Divine Shadow Record even mentioned them. But it was only May or June, and the weather had just started getting hot. Where was he supposed to find ice?

He hadn't expected Qiu Yang City to have a shop selling it.

"Thanks! I'll go ask." Shi Feizhe thanked the apprentice politely, then walked off with a large bundle of medicine on his back.

He wasn't short on silver in the near term. He needed to turn that silver into strength!

Following the apprentice's directions, Shi Feizhe soon reached Second Gallery Street. It was a small street, and after asking around a little, he found the ice shop.

He looked up and saw four characters: "Ox-Horse Ice Shop"!

What a name!

The shop was small, just a shabby little building with dim light. Several ceramic basins and wooden tubs sat on shelves along both walls. A man lay in a rocking chair in the middle. When he saw a customer, he hurriedly asked, "What kind of ice would you like, sir? For eating or for use?"

The man looked to be in his fifties, with a lean face and dark skin. "What's the difference between ice for eating and ice for use?"

"Drinking ice is made from well water, clear and sweet, so it costs a little more—five coins a block. Ice for use is made from river water, which is murkier, so it's cheaper—three coins a block!" The man pointed to the ceramic basins and wooden tubs around them. "The basins are ten coins, the tubs eight."

Each block of ice was about the size of a brick. Shi Feizhe thought it over. "Do you deliver, boss?"

"How much do you want? Several shi?" The shopkeeper perked up at once.

One shi was about 106 pounds. Several shi of ice would be a major order.

"No, just a dozen or so blocks. But I'll need them every day!"

"Get out of here! You want delivery for a dozen blocks? You're making a fool of me!" The shopkeeper's face darkened. "You should know I'm pretty handy with my fists!"

"..."

How could people in this world have absolutely no sense of customer service?

Back in his previous life, even bottled water got delivered right to your door!

"Then I'll take thirteen blocks to start, and a wooden tub too." Shi Feizhe had no choice but to buy some for use.

"For eating or for use?"

"For use."

"Broke-ass."

"You... Boss, I'm buying your stuff, at least be a little polite!" Shi Feizhe had been about to tear into the shopkeeper, but then he saw him reach into a tub of water. The water slowly began to freeze.

He quickly changed his tune.

When you wandered the jianghu, you had to know how to read the wind and shift your sails.

"Heh... What can you do about my manners, when you're nothing but a workhorse without even a scrap of true qi?" the shopkeeper said with a laugh.

"Who are you calling a workhorse? Why don't you say that to my face?" Shi Feizhe felt insulted.

Why the hell had people called him a workhorse before he transmigrated, only for someone to call him one again after?

"I'm a workhorse! My name is Sun Niu Ma!" the shopkeeper said with a laugh.

"Huh?" Shi Feizhe blinked.

"I've roamed the jianghu for decades, working like an ox and a horse, and accomplished nothing. I went from a young lad like you to this old man. If I'm not a workhorse, then who is?" Sun Niu Ma said with a laugh.

But to Shi Feizhe, his smile looked bitter.

"So what if you cultivate true qi? Without top-tier techniques or a powerful faction to shelter you, you spend three days here and five days there, drifting through the jianghu. Half a lifetime goes by, and you've accomplished nothing—just collected a body full of hidden injuries. If I'm not a workhorse, then who is?" He repeated himself, full of rueful feeling.

"You're only now cultivating at the Qi and Blood Barrier. Who knows when you'll manage to produce true qi?"

"After thirty-five, your qi and blood decline and your essence drains away. Almost no one can cultivate true qi then."

"Even if you do cultivate true qi after thirty, you'll be like me, with little chance of making anything of yourself! Compared to those who trained from childhood, the gap is more than a little!"

"I was born to be a workhorse!"

"Look at me, young man. Don't you think this workhorse of a man is a glimpse of your future?" Sun Niu Ma said earnestly. When he looked at Shi Feizhe, it was as if he were seeing himself back when he first set out in the jianghu.

In the jianghu, besides the dead and those who rose to prominence, there were also people like him, who accomplished nothing.

And there were plenty of people like him.

"...No, we're not the same!" After hearing Sun Niu Ma out, Shi Feizhe had wanted to say something, but in the end, that was all he could manage.

"Oh? How are we different? When I was young, I was just like you!" Sun Niu Ma looked at him. "Young people are always full of themselves. It takes a beating from the jianghu to teach them their place!"

We're not the same. I'm a Martial Arts Genius who can master any technique!

"One day, my name will be known throughout the jianghu. Remember it: Shi Feizhe!" Shi Feizhe said to Sun Niu Ma, dead serious.

"Heh..." Sun Niu Ma only chuckled. The more he looked at Shi Feizhe, the more he reminded him of his younger self, who'd also been convinced he was special. Only after smashing his head against the wall and bleeding did he accept that he was ordinary. In the end, he came back here and opened an ice shop to make a living.

"I suggest you practice an ice-type technique. Then you can open an ice shop someday and save up for retirement!"

"No!" Shi Feizhe replied, his face dark.

"Then practice a fire-type technique. You could open a glass shop someday!"

"No need for that either!"

"Young people never listen to advice. That'll be forty-seven coins!" Sun Niu Ma said, picking up a tub of ice.

Workhorse! Workhorse!