Human ties were ultimately hollow; only the cards in your own hand were real.
Zhou Xuan tucked the smooth, flawless Spirit Jade close to his body, his heart utterly still.
He would remember this favor from Zhao Qingqing, but there was no chance he would hand over this life-saving talisman now for the sake of a future relationship that might never come to pass.
When he was powerful enough to casually craft eighty or a hundred of these Array Jades, he could repay her tenfold, a hundredfold. That was how the strong did things.
For now, he was merely a menial steward dancing on the edge of a blade. Staying alive mattered more than anything.
Once he had thought it through, Zhou Xuan's mind finally settled.
Over the next stretch of time, his life became more fulfilling and orderly than ever before.
By day, he was like the most diligent old farmer, toiling in those two mu of Experimental Field with a hoe over his shoulder.
He weeded, loosened the soil, watched for the slightest changes in each seedling, and committed every bit of data to memory.
At night, he sat cross-legged in his shack, either cultivating and feeling the Spiritual Energy flow in several times faster than before, thanks to his water-and-fire Dual Attribute Waste Spirit Root, or sinking his consciousness into the system to plan how to spend his Gold Touch Value.
Although he no longer went to the Miscellaneous Affairs Department, Zhou Ye's presence had opened up a steady supply route for him. Every three to five days, Zhou Ye would steal up the mountain under cover of darkness like a ghost, bringing Zhou Xuan the scraps containing faint Spiritual Energy that he had painstakingly scavenged from all over.
They might be medicinal dregs scorched in the