Jiang Ming transformed back into that exceptionally handsome little monk. He looked seventeen or eighteen, but was actually around thirteen—he had simply grown a little too fast. Dressed in a white Dharma robe, he was handsome enough to make even female demons drool.
With a clear destination in mind, he hurried toward the Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven. Along the way, he slew an Old Serpent with a hundred years of cultivation and obtained a Jade Snake Orchid.
Such an ordinary spiritual herb was neither here nor there to Jiang Ming. Since he was going to visit the Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven, he would treat it as a gift for his close friend, Elder Han.
Jiang Ming even politely chopped down an old locust tree and made a box for the spiritual herb.
Forget it!
He might as well eat it himself. Giving it to that sinister, vicious old man Elder Han would be no different from feeding a dog. The old man would not feel the slightest gratitude.
As for favorability, he would let nature take its course.
Crack, crack—
Jiang Ming took out the Jade Snake Orchid and ate it like a cucumber as he walked, quickly finishing it.
He then took out that tattered book and put it away. He had studied it thoroughly already. It only had a few pages in total, covering some basic Dao Patterns of this world. With Jiang Ming's foundation, he finished reading it quickly and absorbed it perfectly.
Jiang Ming appeared to be walking slowly, but he was using the Immortal Wind Cloud Body Art. His whole body seemed as ethereal as clouds and mist, like a clear breeze. Every step carried him three hundred meters away, and he gradually vanished from the ruins.
Two hours later!
Jiang Ming appeared in the capital city of the Yan Kingdom.
Since he was here, he might as well wander around and see the customs of this world. For cultivation, that was also a form of cultivating the heart.
Yan Capital.
The Yan Kingdom had six Cave-Heaven Paradises, each covering thousands of li. They appeared smaller than a single region of the Primordial Ruins, but the seven-thousand-li territory occupied by the Yan Kingdom was all land where the Human Race could survive. It was not a dangerous place like the Primordial Ruins, where exotic beasts and savage birds appeared at any moment.
The capital's walls stood a full twenty meters tall, exuding an ancient and majestic aura. The city covered an enormous area, stretching across a hundred li. Its continuous walls and dark green bricks seemed to speak of the ancient city's roughly three-hundred-year history.
In a world of immortals, where demons ate people, the height of city walls had no meaning.
The fact that a kingdom could be established in such a world showed that the Great Yan King Clan either consisted of cultivators or had the backing of a major power.
In Jiang Ming's memories, all six Cave-Heaven Paradises of the Yan Kingdom actually had the shadows of major powers behind them.
The six Cave-Heaven Paradises were also competitors with one another.
The Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven was connected to the Yaoguang Sacred Land.
The Smoke Glow Grotto-Heaven was, in truth, somewhat connected to the Qixia Sect.
As for Yan Capital itself, it was controlled by the six Cave-Heaven Paradises. They arranged for Life Spring cultivators to take turns guarding the imperial capital, supposedly to protect the safety of the King Clan's members.
The Great Yan King Clan, even the King of Yan, were little more than puppets.
Such a dynasty had tens of millions of people. There were Rogue Cultivators and martial artists within it, all capable of gathering heavenly treasures and earthly materials for the Cave-Heaven Paradises to refine Hundred-Grass Liquid.
Hundred-Grass Liquid was the finest precious medicine for opening the Sea of Bitterness. Nearly all six Cave-Heaven Paradises used it as the medicine for laying their disciples' foundations.
Yan Capital was extremely prosperous. The streets were bustling and noisy, and for a moment Jiang Ming felt dazed.
It was like waking from a dream. To him, the memories of his first lifetime on Earth were exceptionally clear. The memories of his second lifetime in Chinese Paladin were sometimes too painful to think about. Whenever he recalled his third lifetime, he seemed to see a graceful, gentle woman beside him, talking away.
Everyone had their own fate and their own way of living. How had he, Jiang Ming, ended up living like this?
For an instant, he felt afraid, as though he wanted to return to the deep mountains and ancient forests of the Primordial Ruins to cultivate again.
He had not forgotten his Fate Pattern. Perhaps he was better suited to facing exotic beasts and savage birds, rocky cliffs and forests, streams and deep pools.
"Rustle, rustle—"
At some point, snow began to fall from the sky. The snowflakes danced beautifully, crystalline and moving. Jiang Ming held out his hand and caught one, watching it melt in his palm as he felt its chill.
"It's snowing! Time to pack up soon! Silver Snow White Peaches—big, sweet, delicious, and crisp!"
"Old Wu's roast chicken, roast duck, and roast goose! Fragrant and crispy, charred outside and tender within! If it doesn't taste good, don't pay!"
"Big meat buns, filled with a whole ladle of hot broth! One bite and the juices burst with flavor! Thin skin, plenty of filling—you can't lose by buying them, and you won't be fooled!"
"Candied hawthorns! Sweet and sour, loved by adults and children alike! Three skewers for just two copper coins!"
"—"
At the same time, the cries of vendors at every stall grew louder.
For many people, snowfall was not welcome.
After it snowed, the ground became difficult to walk on—one step in water, another in mud. It could freeze too, and the temperature would drop.
Once it snowed, they could no longer set up stalls and sell things. Their wives and children at home were still waiting for the earnings from today's business.
"I'll buy all your candied hawthorns. Here, take this piece of broken silver."
Jiang Ming walked over and spoke to the old man wearing a tattered padded jacket.
"Fine, they're all yours."
The old man took the silver and bit it out of habit. He was overjoyed. One tael of silver could be exchanged for a thousand copper coins.
With this tael of silver, making another straw stand for candied hawthorns would be nothing.
Jiang Ming secretly transformed and used Bai Ze's innate treasure technique to bestow a blessing upon the old man. The sole effect of his Dharma robe was illusion.
This was all he could do. With the Heavenly Lone Star Fate Pattern, the deeper the karmic entanglement with someone, the more pronounced its effects became.
Then he swiftly changed back into the appearance of the young monk Sanzang.
That way, when he used the Seventy-Two Transformations, ordinary people would not be able to see through it.
Later, he would need to find a better Dharma robe.
Everyone on this street was an ordinary person, so he did not need to worry about anyone noticing anything unusual.
Jiang Ming held a large bundle of candied hawthorn skewers. He casually plucked one out and tasted it as he walked.
"Kind, pretty auntie, your buns smell so good. Nannan is so hungry. Could you please give me one bun?"
Just then, Jiang Ming's ears twitched, and his body stiffened slightly. He heard the voice of a little girl speaking.
He turned and saw a little girl standing before a bun stall. Her clothes were tattered and covered in stains, while her sleeves were black with grime. She was no more than half a meter tall. She looked at a fairly pretty woman in her twenties, dressed in a blue floral padded jacket.
The little girl stared pitifully with her large eyes at the steaming buns, swallowing her saliva as she looked up at the woman and timidly begged.
At that moment, Jiang Ming's heart seemed to stop beating. A searing pain pierced him. In his previous lifetime, Wan'er—his daughter—had been alone and helpless in the Demon-Locking Tower. He had never properly taken care of her, not even once, not even for a minute or a second.
His daughter Tingting in this lifetime was probably about this old now too!
She was so young, her parents dead, relying on his old father. Was she full? Had anyone bullied her?
The tears that had just appeared in his eyes were evaporated by Jiang Ming with his true essence.
He should not have such emotions.
Keeping away from them was the greatest love he could give Tingting.
As for his Heavenly Lone Star Fate Pattern, Jiang Ming would certainly find a way to deal with it someday.
That damned system could be a Heavenly Lone Star itself. It should not drag him down with it.
If he could obtain a Fate Pattern like the Heavenly Virtue Nobleman, it would surely offset his current one.
If Jiang Ming remembered correctly, this little girl was the Red Dust Dao Fruit of the Ruthless Empress.
The Ruthless Empress was slumbering as she transformed toward becoming a Red Dust Immortal. Her Red Dust Dao Fruit wandered the world, reliving again and again the hardships she had suffered after losing her older brother as a child.
This was the Ruthless Empress's heart knot, the source of her strength. She would never free herself from this obsession.
Not to become an Immortal, but only to wait for your return amid the mortal world.
"Go away, go away. Do you have any copper coins? You want to eat buns?"
The woman spoke out of habit.
There were too many little beggars every day. If she gave food to every one of them, would she still be able to sell buns?
The moment her gaze met Nannan's bright eyes, she abruptly looked away, as if she did not dare look at them.
"Ah, poor little thing. Other than those big eyes, there isn't a clean spot left on you. Ah, the times we live in...
"Here, take this bun. Be careful, it's a little hot. Stand here and finish it before you leave, or someone might snatch it from you."
The woman took a bun and blew on it twice. Looking at Nannan with pity, she muttered a few words from habit before speaking.
"Mother, I want a bun too."
At that moment, two little heads poked out from a basket beneath the stall—one boy and one girl. One looked around five years old, the other around three, about the same age as Nannan.
"Ah, eat, eat. Even if they don't sell, you still have to fill your stomachs first. What kind of days are these? Once it snows, the buns will be even harder to sell."
The woman secretly wiped away a tear and continued muttering.
Jiang Ming saw that the two children's little faces were red from the cold. They were in slightly better condition than Nannan. There was straw and cotton cloth in the basket to shield them from the wind.
This was the simplicity of an ordinary woman. Though she herself was barely getting by, she could still show kindness upon seeing another child.
Jiang Ming heard the woman's stomach growl too. She must have been hungry as well, but she was surely reluctant to eat.
He thought of his previous lifetime. When he was young, his family had been poor, and his mother had also been such a gentle, kind woman—sharp-tongued but soft-hearted.
Jiang Ming stepped forward and took out two pieces of broken silver, each worth one tael.
With a casual grab, he took away ninety percent of the buns from the two steamers, leaving only five or six behind.
If he took too many, he worried the woman would refuse to go home and keep selling buns here.
"Here, eat."
Jiang Ming handed another bun to Nannan, then gave one bun each to the other two children.
Next, he transformed into Bai Ze again and bestowed a blessing upon the family of three.
Nannan blinked her large eyes as she watched this big brother suddenly turn into a beautiful little sheep shining all over. She was not afraid. She kept eating her bun. Big brother's eyes were gentle; she did not sense any danger from him, and instead felt close to him.
This was an instinct Nannan had gradually developed while wandering alone. She could always tell at a glance who was bad and who was good.
Unfortunately, her memories reset every so often, causing her to forget everything she had seen and heard.