A Stable Life

On the street, a faint, almost illusory song began to drift through the air. It was soft and beautiful, as though a graceful woman were pressed close beside you, breathing into your ear.

Xu Yuan's body stiffened for an instant, but he immediately reacted and continued down the road as if nothing had happened.

Most of the people on the street did the same. They froze only briefly before returning to whatever they had been doing.

But there were exceptions. In front of a shop selling demon beast meat buns, a little girl with twin horn braids suddenly tugged at the sleeve of the woman beside her and asked innocently.

"Mother, who's singing? It sounds so nice."

At those words, the woman's face abruptly turned pale. Yet she did not dare answer, nor did she dare stop the girl from asking further questions. She merely stiffly took out spirit crystals from her sleeve and handed them over.

The little girl raised her head in confusion and was about to speak again when her entire body suddenly froze. The next moment, with a bang, her whole body exploded.

Blood sprayed across the woman, the vendor, and the meat buns between them. Yet neither seemed to see a thing. The vendor put away the spirit crystals, then picked up a bun smeared with white and red matter, wrapped it in oil paper, and handed it to the woman.

The woman thanked him quietly, accepted it, and left.

Xu Yuan watched from afar, his scalp prickling, but he still forced himself not to reveal any unusual reaction. He focused on doing what he was supposed to do—walking.

Then, after roughly six breaths, the song suddenly stopped, and the entire long street instantly returned to normal.

The woman who had left came running back and wailed over the spot where her child had died. The meat bun vendor from before also wore a pitying look.

"What a shame. That song has been gone for years. Who would have thought it would appear again tonight?"

It was not only here. Faint sobbing could be heard from elsewhere along the street as well. Xu Yuan pressed his lips together, and the small sense of security he had only just built up vanished without a trace.

He was indeed standing within the Hidden Moon Sect, but this place seemed infinitely more perilous than the immortal slave mining district.

"Phew."

After calming himself, Xu Yuan suddenly recalled that the twin moons were a phenomenon caused by the Sect Master's cultivation. Could this song also be some bizarre occurrence brought about by a sect higher-up cultivating?

"Good thing Chen Shouguang's survival manual helped me avoid so many dangers. If I run into him later, I'll have to thank him properly."

After walking a few more steps, Xu Yuan's body regained its nimbleness, and he soon returned home.

Bi Qiong's door was finally open, and she was standing right outside. The moment she saw Xu Yuan, she immediately waved at him happily.

"Fellow Daoist Xu Yuan, seeing you return safely puts my mind at ease."

"Bi Qiong." Xu Yuan nodded to her, then asked, "You heard that song just now too?"

"Mhm. The song sounded from three streets on the eastern side of Biyou Market, which happened to be where I was."

Bi Qiong still looked shaken, but she quickly recovered her initial smile.

"Xu Yuan, do you know where I've been these past few days?"

"Hm?" Xu Yuan paused. He was rather curious, and since Bi Qiong had brought it up herself, he naturally wanted to hear.

"Back when we were still in the immortal slave mining district, didn't that lord teach me how to make a talisman? I learned that talisman very quickly, so I started wondering whether I might have a talent for talisman-making."

As she said this, a flush of excitement rose to Bi Qiong's face. "After coming to Biyou Market, I found that several talisman shops were hiring apprentices, so I went to give it a try. Who would've thought I'd actually succeed!"

"Congratulations, congratulations." Xu Yuan hurriedly offered his congratulations. Talisman masters were high-end professions among cultivators. Even an entry-level talisman master could earn thirty or forty low-grade spirit stones a month, which was far better than a miserable miner like him.

"Xu Yuan, don't be in such a hurry to congratulate me. I've only just become an apprentice. From now on, I still have to begin with making talisman leather, then practice brushwork, and only at the end can I draw talismans. Who knows how many spirit stones and how much time that will take?"

Bi Qiong reined in her expression slightly before looking at Xu Yuan again. "What about you, Xu Yuan?"

Without hiding anything, Xu Yuan frankly said that he was mining, though he did not mention his plans to study the unity of spirit and martial arts.

"That's a path too. With your build, you can mine more than most people."

Bi Qiong laughed. Though she was teasing him, there was no trace of disdain in her words. Instead, she handed Xu Yuan a small jar sealed with red clay.

"It's spirit wine the shopkeeper rewarded me with. I don't like drinking it, so Fellow Daoist Xu, you can give it a try."

"Then I'll thank you, Fellow Daoist Bi Qiong." Smiling, Xu Yuan accepted the little jar and handed over the spirit crystals he had borrowed. Bi Qiong did not refuse them.

The two chatted a little more about Biyou Market, and only after a quarter of an hour did they each return to their rooms.

The terror brought by the song had faded considerably. Xu Yuan settled his mind and resumed today's cultivation.

Not to mention that the moment they entered the Hidden Moon Sect, they had lost the right to leave—even if the sect allowed it, probably no one here would be willing to depart.

Having tasted the wonders of the immortal path and gained even the faintest hope of longevity, who would willingly leave an immortal sect and return to the mortal world?

What were a few dangers worth compared to the carefree freedom of the immortal path?

Once Xu Yuan reaffirmed his resolve, another month passed in the blink of an eye.

Throughout that month, Xu Yuan had repeated almost the same life every day: mining, cultivating, sleeping, and occasionally chatting with Bi Qiong by chance about their grand Daoist aspirations.

That month, he experienced the twin moons appearing in the sky once more. But with his prior experience, Xu Yuan naturally avoided danger without incident.

And amid those dull yet steady days, both Xu Yuan's savings and cultivation slowly increased.

First were his spirit stones. After paying this month's housing fee, he still had fourteen low-grade spirit stones and thirty-two spirit crystals in hand. That was even after he had splurged in the middle of the month and bought a jin of spirit rice. Otherwise, he would have saved even more spirit stones.

As for his cultivation, with his daily diligent practice and the aid of Innate Martial Bones, he had thoroughly mastered the Little Blue Mountain Essence-to-Qi Art, and his cultivation progress had accelerated considerably as well.

If there had been a progress bar above his head, he would probably have been only fifty to sixty percent away from breaking through to the second level of Qi Refinement.

His cultivation had advanced, he had saved quite a few spirit stones, and he had not encountered any further bizarre incidents from the Hidden Moon Sect. Xu Yuan had been in a good mood lately, so he finally remembered a past debt of karma from the immortal slave mining district.

He was not going to Tu Fang to seek revenge—he did not possess that kind of ability yet. Rather, he had promised Wang Quan in the mining district that he would repay him someday if he made it big. Now, he could finally do so.

Having stayed in Biyou Market for a month, he wondered whether this trip counted as returning home in glory.