Chapter 169: Yang Yi

Yang Yi slowly propped himself up. His eyes settled on a low brick-and-tile ceiling. A few strings of dried chili peppers hung in the corner. The room was sparsely furnished but perfectly tidy.

He stared blankly for a moment before muttering, "I... survived?"

He tried to move his limbs. His entire body ached with exhaustion, but he had at least kept his life.

He patted his waist and felt that his storage pouch was still there, letting out a faint sigh of relief.

"Good thing my belongings are still here... Someone must have saved me."

He struggled to sit up, but halfway there, he fell back down. His limbs felt as heavy as lead. He raised a hand to look at his palm, then touched his temples. His fingertips brushed against nothing but white hair, and his heart immediately sank.

Though that lifespan-burning art had allowed him to escape his pursuers, he had paid a disastrous price. His lifespan had been burned away to almost nothing; he likely only had a few years left to live.

He closed his eyes, suppressing his churning emotions. When he opened them again, his gaze had recovered a measure of calm.

"I have to heal my injuries as quickly as possible and then attempt Core Formation. Otherwise, even if that group doesn't catch up to me, my lifespan will run out and I'll die."

He clenched his fists.

"Having walked the path of cultivation this far, I absolutely cannot stop here."

The door was gently pushed open, and a little head peeked inside. Xiao Ling'er walked in carrying a bowl of hot porridge. Seeing that Yang Yi was awake, her eyes lit up.

"Grandpa, you're awake!" she said in a soft, sweet voice. "I cooked some porridge. Drink it while it's hot."

Yang Yi was someone who understood gratitude. He thanked her and asked Xiao Ling'er to set the porridge on the bedside table. The little girl obediently put the bowl down, then trotted out to call her grandfather.

He watched her small figure disappear through the doorway, then looked down at the steaming bowl. He reached out, picked it up, and took a sip. The rice had been boiled soft, with a few dried jujubes mixed in. The warmth slid all the way down his throat and into his stomach, relaxing his exhausted body a fraction.

Not long after, Physician Zhang walked into the backyard with his hands clasped behind his back. He checked Yang Yi's pulse and examined his tongue, pondering for a moment before leaving to brew a bowl of medicinal soup and bringing it over.

Yang Yi accepted it politely. He didn't slight the old man for being a mortal, nor did he reveal that he was a cultivator. He simply claimed to be a passing old beggar who had fainted from hunger at their door, and expressed his gratitude for the shelter.

Physician Zhang didn't ask too many questions. He simply urged him to rest well before leading Xiao Ling'er out of the room.

Once he was the only one left in the room, Yang Yi took a recovery pill from his storage pouch and quietly swallowed it, closing his eyes to circulate his cultivation method. The medicinal efficacy slowly dissolved within his meridians, repairing the damaged areas. He didn't rush to do anything else; he just quietly regulated his breathing for the entire afternoon.

It wasn't until the sun sank in the west that Yang Yi slowly stopped his practice. Suddenly remembering something, he searched the room, eventually pulling a palm-sized turtle shell from a corner under the bed.

"Little guy, what are you doing hiding down here?" he asked softly, tapping on the turtle shell.

Only then did a small green head slowly poke out, glancing left and right with extreme caution.

This Sense-Probing Turtle was a spiritual pet he had accidentally acquired in his early years. It was exceptionally sensitive to fluctuations in divine sense. Even if someone merely swept over them with divine sense, it would notice immediately.

Relying on it, Yang Yi had dodged many hidden observers over the years. Yet right now, this little creature was shivering under the bed, curled up in its shell and refusing to come out no matter what.

Yang Yi held the turtle shell, his gaze darkening. For his spiritual pet to act like this, it must have sensed some utterly terrifying existence. That was why it was scared stiff, hiding in its shell for an entire night without daring to emerge.

"Even when we ran into Golden Core cultivators in the past, it was never this frightened," he murmured.

His chest suddenly tightened.

"Could it be... there's a Nascent Soul cultivator hidden in this alley? Did my pursuers blindly blunder into them? That would explain why they haven't come after me."

The deeper he thought about it, the more layers of cold sweat broke out on his skin.

He quickly realized another problem. If it truly was a Nascent Soul cultivator, well, the Sense-Probing Turtle had been probed by Nascent Soul cultivators before, yet it had never been this terrified. To scare it so badly that it cowered under the bed without daring to move, the entity was probably at the Middle Nascent Soul Stage at least, or perhaps even a legendary Grand Cultivator at the Nascent Soul Late Stage.

He took a deep breath, then slowly let it out, forcing himself to calm down.

"Since that senior didn't attack me, it means they have no interest in me. Or rather, they disdain to make a move against me."

He looked down at the Sense-Probing Turtle in his hands and gently stroked its shell.

"Right now, I don't have any spare spirit stones, so I can't rent a cave dwelling in Hundred Declarations City, let alone go into seclusion for a breakthrough," he said. "As long as I don't cause trouble and stay here quietly to heal, with that senior around, I doubt the Young City Lord of Yunqing City would dare send people after me here. But once I heal, I should leave as soon as possible, so I don't drag this grandfather and granddaughter down."

Thinking of this, the taut string in his heart relaxed a little. Though the spiritual energy here was somewhat thin, it had the advantage of being safe.

He could easily find a hidden spot near Hundred Declarations City, temporarily open up a cave dwelling, set up a Spirit Gathering Formation, and heal his injuries first. Though he didn't have much lifespan left and his vitality was withered, as long as his Dao heart was not extinguished, he still had a chance to fight for his life.

He placed the Sense-Probing Turtle back into his robes. His gaze passed through the window lattice, looking out at the gradually darkening sky above the courtyard, and he said no more.

...

Once the autumn wind picked up, the parasol trees lining both sides of Haoyang Alley shed yellow leaves all over the ground, rustling underfoot.

Jiuyou's shop had also gradually gained a bit of foot traffic. Over these past few months, he had sold twenty or thirty jade pendants. It couldn't be called bustling, but at least it was no longer completely ignored all day.

Xiao Ling'er often visited, too. At first, she had only passed by while following her grandfather up the mountain to gather herbs. Later on, when returning, she would stand on her tiptoes at the door and peek inside. Seeing Jiuyou sitting behind the counter, she would timidly poke half her head in to say hello.

Later still, she would run in to drop off a few freshly picked wild fruits, or tell Jiuyou that she had seen a white-furred fox in the mountains that day. Back and forth, her debt for the herbs was paid off, and she became well-acquainted with him.

Jiuyou also gradually saw this little girl's true nature. That timid demeanor from when they first met was merely caution toward a stranger. Once they became familiar with each other, she talked a lot more, and her features held a lot more vitality. She was like a little turtle that was finally willing to poke its head out of its shell.

Occasionally, she would stay in the shop for quite a while, leaning over the counter to watch Jiuyou carve jade. She wouldn't make a sound, just quietly observing.

Sometimes, when she saw an interesting spot, she would point at it.

"Shopkeeper, why are you carving this piece into this shape?" she would ask.

After asking, she would withdraw her hand again, as if afraid to disturb him.

Jiuyou would occasionally answer her with a few words. The little girl would act as if she had received some incredible response, smiling until her eyes curved into crescents, before continuing to watch.

As the days passed by like this, it seemed rather nice.

One day.

Jiuyou set down his carving knife and looked up at the little girl clinging to the doorframe, peeking inside.

"Shopkeeper, Shopkeeper!" Xiao Ling'er was a bit more excited than usual today, her eyes sparkling as if filled with scattered starlight. "Tomorrow, the immortal masters from the city are coming to our Haoyang Alley to test for spiritual roots! Are you going to go watch the commotion?"

Jiuyou looked at her for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Xiao Ling'er, if you test positive for a spiritual root and have a chance to become an immortal master, what would you want to do?"

Jiuyou thought she would say something like "become a powerful immortal master," "protect Grandpa," "eradicate demons and defend the Dao," or "protect the common people." Back then, when he had first transmigrated and stepped into this cultivation world, he had thought the same way. But after walking this path for over a thousand years, those thoughts had long been ground down by time until only the edges remained.

But Xiao Ling'er scratched the back of her head, thinking seriously for quite a while before looking up at him.

"If I could become an immortal master, then I could help Grandpa go up the mountain to pick herbs," she said. "That way, he wouldn't have to walk so far all by himself, and he wouldn't have to hide it from me when he falls and gets hurt like last time.

"I also want to learn the kind of magic that cures illnesses. That way, when Grandpa treats people in the future, he won't always have to give away the herbs he picked, unwilling to eat or use any of them himself. I want to share some of the burden and let him rest, too.

"I want to make sure everyone who gets sick can be cured, and I want to make sure the hungry can eat their fill. Just like that old grandpa who collapsed at our door—when he woke up, he could at least drink a bowl of hot porridge..."

She pursed her lips. "I can't explain it clearly, and I don't know if it's right to say this, but anyway... that's just what I think."

After she finished speaking, she seemed a bit embarrassed. She lowered her head and drew circles on the ground with her toe.

Jiuyou didn't answer immediately. He looked at the slightly reddened tips of her ears and remained silent for a moment before picking up his carving knife again.

"It seems I overthought it," he murmured, lowering his head. It was as if he were talking to himself, but also as if he were speaking to her.

Xiao Ling'er didn't hear him clearly and leaned in a bit closer.

"Shopkeeper, what did you say?"

"Nothing." Jiuyou lowered his eyes, his carving knife lightly tracing an arc across the jade. "Tomorrow, after the spiritual root testing, no matter the result, come back and tell me."

"Okay!"

Xiao Ling'er agreed and skipped away, her clothes brushing against the doorframe and stirring up a light breeze.

Jiuyou looked down at the jade in his hand, which had just begun to take shape. It was a small turtle resting on a leaf. It wasn't finished yet, but it already exuded a somewhat endearing charm. He set down the carving knife and placed the piece of jade on the windowsill.

Outside the window, the sky was darkening inch by inch. The aroma of food drifted through the alley, and someone was calling for their child to come home for dinner. Those sounds blended together like a little tune he had heard for a long time but had never truly listened to. He withdrew his gaze and said nothing, simply refilling his teacup and waiting for tomorrow to come.