Mortals Shouldn't Forge Thighs, Men Shouldn't Show Off

"What did she do to owe you so much money? Don't tell me she donated it all to the Immortal Unification Sect again?"

"Please wait a moment, honored guest. Looking it up for you... According to our sect's records, your mother used the money to refine stocks. She successively purchased White Moon Palace's Longevity Pill Cauldron shares and Spirit Source Peak's Second Spirit Mine branch shares, with a total value of forty-two spirit stones."

"Refine... refine stocks?!"

Lu Li murmured this familiar yet unfamiliar term. So-called stock refining was, plainly put, stock speculation from his previous life. Only, in the cultivation world's terminology, buying and selling stocks was not called "stock speculation," but "stock refining"—the same "refining" as refining pills, refining artifacts, refining people, and refining heaven.

"What happens if the debt can't be repaid?"

"Can't repay it? Hehehe..."

Wood Crow suddenly gave a cold laugh. It lifted its head slightly, and Lu Li was shocked to discover that in the eyes of a mechanical wooden crow, he could actually see a look of remembrance.

"Nothing much. A few Azure Sun Hall disciples will just come to your door in person, and while they're at it, test your aptitude."

"Test my aptitude? Could it be that those with good aptitude get an extension?"

"Hehehehahaha! An extension? What are you thinking? They're obviously testing how much your body is worth, to use it to settle the debt. Better aptitude means you can offset a few more coins."

"Hiss—"

Lu Li sucked in a sharp breath, his scalp immediately going numb. The passersby cursed him a few times, calling him unfilial, then went on their way, leaving him standing there alone and motionless.

The setting sun stretched his shadow long behind him. Not far ahead stood a white house, with a person waiting at its entrance. Her legs were pressed together, her body shivering in the cold wind, her face full of hesitation.

Just then, an old woman emerged from the white house.

"Well, if it isn't our establishment's top courtesan, Puppet Brother? What's this? Failed at stock refining and came back to receive customers?"

The mocked figure wore a black veil over her face. Yet when she spoke, her voice was neutral:

"It was all a trap laid by that Stock Immortal..."

"Enough. If you hadn't gone into stock refining, how could he have trapped you? Don't be foolish. Let Mother tell you: stock refining is a game for immortals. A mortal like you who goes to refine stocks will only be treated as chives, eaten until not even bone scraps remain."

"Wuwuwu, I didn't want to either... When I was sixteen, my father sold me. I—I hurt so much..."

"Don't be afraid. If ninety-eight doesn't work, we'll do ninety-five. Come back and put on a good show of swagger. Mother loves you. From now on, your flower name will be Puppet Sister."

Puppet Sister, his face streaming with tears, threw himself into the old woman's arms and sobbed until he could barely catch his breath. The old woman pulled Puppet Brother into her embrace, coaxing and deceiving him as she led him back inside. Hearing the commotion outside, the people within the building burst into cheerful laughter.

It was clearly a bustling scene, yet to Lu Li it looked like a demon's den. His mother was not the only one who had failed at stock refining—she was merely one among many.

More importantly, the person at the door was not a woman, but a catamite.

In him, Lu Li seemed to see his own future.

At that moment, the old woman cast a glance at him. The wrinkles all over her face squeezed together into a chrysanthemum-like smile so ugly that Lu Li turned and ran.

W-what kind of joke was this? How could he possibly go to a place like that? A great man born between heaven and earth had things he must do and things he must not do. No matter how desperately he lacked money, he could not go to such a place—much less put on a show of swagger.

Lu Li continued sprinting wildly toward the western side of town. On the central tower, a gray-robed old woman stood atop the thirteenth floor with her hands behind her back, while a group of cultivators stood below.

"Duan Xuanyuan, I advise you not to do anything foolish!"

"Whether it works or not, I no longer care. You lot are simply afraid no one will repay the debt after I die. Fine, this Duan Xuanyuan has no money—only one life."

With that, the old woman pulled a heart from her chest cavity. The heart was forged entirely from red gold. As it beat and contracted, bloody light rippled across its surface. Dozens of veins and blood vessels trailed from it, connecting it to the old woman's body.

Looking from afar, Lu Li was at least two li away from the old woman, yet he could still feel that tyrannical, scorching aura.

Lu Li inwardly cursed his bad luck. As a mere mortal, when immortals fought, he had no choice but to flee. If he so much as caught a trace of the aftershock, he might die without even a burial ground.

The old woman clenched the mechanical heart tightly, her eyes wide with fury. Suddenly, a youth rushed out from below.

"No, Master, don't! We can save up money again if we have none, Master!"

"Good disciple, without sufficient resources, I can no longer maintain the operation of this Heartflame Pump. Do not come closer. Your master has made up her mind. I hereby expel you from the sect. Once a person dies, their debts are wiped clean."

"Master!"

The youth let out a hysterical, heart-rending wail, but it was already too late. The old woman crushed the heart in one grip and leapt from the tower's roof. Blazing fire erupted from her body like a falling blazing sun, illuminating the dark sky for miles around as bright as day.

The explosion was too powerful. The cultivators below each employed their divine abilities, rapidly retreating while raising spiritual energy barriers, terrified of being caught in the blast.

"Elder Duan... she, she truly perished just like that?"

Elder Duan's disciple slammed his forehead against the ground. Facing the direction in which his master had fallen, he heavily kowtowed three times. His face was filled with unwillingness as he cursed bitterly:

"That White Moon Palace Stock Immortal is truly vicious. He declared that spirit stone taxes would be raised, and overnight, who knew how many people lost everything, their entire fortunes washed away."

The youth clenched his fist and pounded the ground viciously, tears and snot streaming down his face.

"Things have come to this. Junior Brother Yang, please restrain your grief."

"That's right, Nephew Yang. You must turn grief and indignation into strength. Cultivate diligently, and only then can you avenge your master."

Everyone offered words of consolation. At last, the youth wiped away his tears and stood up again, secretly transmitting his voice to the elderly man beside him:

"Oh, right, I suddenly remembered—didn't Master have a death insurance policy within the sect before she died? Martial Uncle, look..."

"About that, nephew... Your master's death was self-inflicted. By rights, it does not fall within the coverage of death insurance. And she already expelled you from the sect, so this matter may be difficult to handle. I'll have to return and discuss it with the Sect Master. You may go back first. In fifteen days, a disciple will send you a message."

"Martial Uncle, I understand. If this can be settled, we split the proceeds fifty-fifty."

"Mm, you youngster know the way of things. Just like your master back then."

At that moment, Lu Li was sprinting for his life, flames swallowing the streets behind him as the cries of men and women rose and fell in waves.

In his heart, Lu Li had cursed that self-immolating cultivator from earlier thousands upon thousands of times.

So cultivators would jump from buildings when their stock refining went bankrupt too. Fine, jump if you wanted to jump—but she just had to do it in the middle of a bustling market, as if she were afraid no one would see, and even dragged mortals down with her.

Just like... just like a giant popping snapper!

Curse as he might, Lu Li silently made up his mind. Besides refusing loans, he was adding another principle to his life: refuse stock refining.

Even cultivators got harvested like leeks when refining stocks—what chance did mortals have?

Without realizing it, Lu Li had arrived before the stamping workshop. It was where he worked. Compared with worrying about others, he was more concerned with when he could finally pay off the debt hanging over him.

The so-called stamping workshop was a place dedicated to refining all kinds of basic mechanical components. Small sects with limited puppet-engineering inheritances often outsourced bulk orders for such components.

To put it plainly, Lu Li had entered the factory.

He had been a telecommunications master's graduate in his previous life. Even after transmigrating into a cultivation world, he still could not escape the fate of being a workhorse tightening screws.

For instance, the Southern Sun Town stamping workshop where Lu Li worked specialized in producing the outer casings of first-tier core nuclei.

People like Lu Li, who polished and made mechanical components, were called clamp masters in this world. Clamp masters were a branch beneath puppet masters, divided from highest to lowest into the Heaven, Earth, and Human grades.

His current pay was eight hundred wen a month, but Lu Li had already planned it out. As long as he passed the assessment at the end of the month and became a Human-grade clamp master, he would be qualified for more delicate and complex work, and his monthly wages would rise to one thousand three hundred wen.

In short, Lu Li felt that life still held some hope—just not much.