Future Blueprint

After eating and drinking his fill, Li Ye left Hongbin Tower under the obsequious smiles and watchful eyes of the manager.

Before leaving, he had not only given the man the secret recipe for Eight Treasure Chicken but also provided specific pointers on how to prepare Braised Beef.

This had the manager beaming from ear to ear.

"Young Master Li Bai, how do you know so many things?"

On the street, Zhou Bao felt as if he were dreaming.

Not only had he gone to Hongbin Tower—a place only high-ranking officials and nobles could frequent—without getting beaten, but he had even been treated as an honored guest.

Li Ye replied, "My family also... used to run a restaurant."

He wasn't lying.

It was just that this family was from his previous life.

Zhou Bao was surprised. He hadn't expected Li Ye's family to have been so prominent, nor did he know how they had fallen on such hard times that Li Ye was reduced to being a lowly Corpse Incinerator.

"Wait, Young Master Li Bai, are we heading to South City?"

"Where else?"

"But, what are we going to do in South City?"

"Outside South City, there are vast stretches of Bay Laurel Trees, Fragrant Osmanthus Trees, and Wild Star Anise. I just announced the uses of these things at the restaurant. I believe those with a keen eye will realize it very quickly, and then everyone will go to pick and dig them up, eventually turning them into scarce commodities."

"I understand! We are going to collect these things in advance and then sell them to those who need them? Hehe, that manager only had eyes for Young Master Li Bai's Eight Treasure Chicken recipe, but he overlooked the value of the Bay Laurel Trees and the rest. Young Master Li Bai is truly brilliant."

"Not bad! As the saying goes, rarity makes things valuable. The two of us can't finish harvesting them all, but we have five hundred taels of silver in our hands, and there are countless starving people in South City... We must finish harvesting within two to three days. If we can't finish, we'll burn the rest."

The two walked and talked.

Without realizing it, they arrived at a money house.

Li Ye exchanged a portion of his silver for copper coins, filling a large bag to use as wages later on.

Then, they headed toward South City.

South City was primarily inhabited by commoners; the living conditions and environment here could not compare to North City.

At a glance, dilapidated houses and shacks stretched out in patches, with only an occasional grand residence.

On both sides of many streets, refugees from other regions sat or lay about.

"Hey, who among you is the leader?"

Zhou Bao came to a street corner, kicked the man sitting on the ground with his eyes closed, and asked.

"...What is it?"

The other man looked confused.

"A good thing."

Zhou Bao said, then recounted the task to him.

All the starving people opened their eyes in unison.

What, as long as they went outside the city to dig up those leaves and tree bark, they could exchange them for money—two copper coins per jin?

Two copper coins could buy a Steamed Corn Bun.

Although the refugees had eaten almost everything edible in the wilderness, things like bay leaves, cinnamon, and wild star anise had such strong flavors that they were truly hard to swallow.

Moreover, this was not a severely disaster-stricken area, so there was plenty to be found in the wild.

"Sir, are you telling the truth?"

A man's eyes lit up.

"Of course it's true, did you hear that?"

Li Ye said, then patted the bundle Zhou Bao was carrying on his back, from which came the sound of clinking copper coins.

Everyone no longer had any doubts.

"Gather in this alley before dusk. Keep it low-profile and try not to be noticed by anyone."

Li Ye instructed.

He was looking for a way out for Zhou Bao, but there was one more thing to attend to right now.

That was a house.

They had to buy a house to serve as a base. They couldn't afford a mansion, but buying an ordinary farmhouse courtyard wouldn't cost much silver.

"This house on Seventh Street is thirty taels."

"This house on Ninth Street is thirty-three taels."

A real estate agent, a man in his fifties, introduced the properties to the two of them.

After an on-site inspection, Li Ye and Zhou Bao finally chose a relatively medium-sized, quiet old house.

Thirty-seven taels of silver.

Paid on the spot and received the land deed.

"Brother Zhou, this business is highly profitable. I'm afraid you won't be able to handle it all by yourself."

"Let's make a big profit first, and as for what comes after... we'll talk about it then."

Inside the residence, Li Ye handed the land deed to Zhou Bao and said solemnly.

He had mapped out a plan for Zhou Bao: first, sell off this batch of goods outside South City, then look for more elsewhere, stock up, and perhaps even open branches in various locations or lease land for large-scale cultivation and distribution.

However, this chain of profit was too vast, and Li Ye feared Zhou Bao wouldn't be able to hold it down alone.

The most direct method would be to find a backer and have them invest manpower, resources, and the like.

However, the specific candidate required further consideration.

Zhou Bao took the land deed from Li Ye and asked blankly, "What do you mean? Little Brother Li Bai, are you still going back to the Corpse Refining Courtyard? You aren't staying with me?"

"But we already have silver, and we'll earn even more in the future."

Li Ye smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'll come to see you when I have time."

"If anything comes up, you can also come to the Corpse Refining Courtyard to find me."

Zhou Bao couldn't understand why Little Brother Li Bai would pass up a perfectly good life to return to that dangerous Corpse Refining Courtyard.

Li Ye did not explain. Zhou Bao was clever and sharp-minded; he believed he could handle the follow-up matters well.

As for the Corpse Refining Courtyard, he naturally had to return.

What was silver? It was nothing more than worldly possessions.

What he wanted was a cultivation level that would allow him to look down upon the world.

The two talked for a while longer. Seeing that it was getting late, Li Ye bid Zhou Bao farewell and returned to the Corpse Refining Courtyard.

As for Zhou Bao, he had already made arrangements with the Corpse Refining Courtyard before coming down the mountain; a reserve corpse incinerator would simply fill his vacancy.

It seems that even if I couldn't cultivate, I could still earn a lot of silver in this world, have a house full of wives and concubines, and live a life of carefree ease...

Li Ye thought happily to himself.

But that was just a thought. Silver and women were nothing more than passing clouds; strength was what mattered most.

Li Ye intended to continue lying low, acting as a transparent person, and developing steadily.

Night fell, and a swarm of Black-Clad Academicians flooded in.

After Li Ye returned, he took a short nap before getting up to wash his face, eat, and heat the furnace.

Before long, two Corpse Deliverers arrived, carrying a stretcher with a body.

Click!

The room was locked.

Li Ye calmly lifted the Corpse Wrapping Cloth and discovered a middle-aged man with a bloodless face.

He was a Taoist priest. Beneath his skin, red spots were faintly visible, showing signs of Corpse Transformation; he was starting to grow red hair, though it was a slow process.

Li Ye was in no hurry.

He went through the motions for the deceased: tidying the remains, preparing the body, lighting candles, burning incense, and burning paper money.

Once the series of procedures was complete, he pushed the middle-aged man into the Corpse Incineration Furnace.

Soon, the corpse began to decompose, and scenes from his life unfolded.

The Taoist priest had come from a small Taoist Temple. Since childhood, he had been rebellious, obsessed with the Art of Alchemy and the Divination Art.

In fact, he had achieved a certain level of success in both fields, but he had not used them for the Righteous Path.

Next, Li Ye witnessed some truly appalling scenes.

In the visions, the priest would use the pretext of fortune-telling to lure female pilgrims into his room one by one, then force them to consume the pills he had refined.

Afterward, the female pilgrims would lose consciousness and be defiled by the priest.

One day, while the priest was engaging in his illicit activities, he was unlucky enough to be caught by his Master, and his crimes were exposed.

The old Taoist priest was furious and unleashed his might, crippling the priest's cultivation on the spot and expelling him from the sect.

After leaving the Taoist Temple, the priest relied on his Divine Divination Art to live a prosperous life, raking in wealth.

The final scene showed the priest carousing with a prostitute. Because he was physically spent, he took pills repeatedly, eventually dying from excessive loss of vitality after a night of debauchery with the woman.

Could this be the same one from Yihongyuan that I encountered this morning?

Li Ye was incredibly surprised.

So, this man couldn't be saved in the end.

It was such a coincidence; he had just witnessed the incident that morning, and by nightfall, the man had been brought here.

It could be considered retribution.

Li Ye didn't notice that, in his preoccupation with the fate of the Daoist in the vision, he had overlooked the fact that he had also seen the girl on the bed before.

Hum!

A wisp of white mist drifted out from the Corpse Incineration Furnace and, in the blink of an eye, burrowed into Li Ye's body.

The next moment, Li Ye felt his mental magnetic field change.

A stream of information surfaced in his mind.

Daily Divination: Calculate any heavenly secret other than one's own, once per day.