Ten Thousand Cultivations Under Heaven

Tillage Cultivator, Joy Cultivator, Food Cultivator, journey cultivator, Dwelling Cultivator. Li Banfeng had never heard these names. Now he had to choose among them. Monkey Qiu set Li Banfeng down, leaned him against the tree, and left him half reclining. "He can't move now. First give him a bowl of Soul-Recalling Decoction." "Give?" The peddler shook his head. "I don't give anything away for nothing." Monkey Qiu patted the inner pocket of his suit. "I'll pay for the decoction. I didn't bring much cash today. Put it on my account for now." The peddler took an earthenware pot from the lower shelf of the wooden cabinet, added herbs, mixed in water, set a charcoal fire beneath it, and began to brew. "Monkey Qiu, what's this kid to you? Why treat him so well?" The peddler took up a fan and worked the charcoal at an easy pace. "He gave me food." Monkey Qiu's answer was brief. The peddler asked again, "Who's paying for the initiation powder?" Monkey Qiu said, "I am. Whichever pathway he chooses is fine." With that, Monkey Qiu drew a left hand from his pocket—a left hand that had been half eaten. So it was him! Li Banfeng understood all at once. This man called Monkey Qiu was the one who had begged him for food on the train. Back then the man had kept his voice extremely low, and Li Banfeng had not been able to make out its timbre. Li Banfeng had given him two boxes of instant noodles. He had never expected the man to save his life for that. "Have you got medicine? Help me reattach the hand." Monkey Qiu passed the left hand to the peddler. The peddler looked at the state of it and wanted little to do with the matter. "Aren't you on familiar terms with that divine doctor in Yaowanggou? Go have him reattach it. His technique is superb." Monkey Qiu had meant to seek that divine doctor out for the reattachment, but since he had run into the peddler, he did not want to owe the doctor another favor. Favors were not easy to repay. The peddler's price, at least, was honest. Monkey Qiu smiled. "We're already here. I'll stick with you." "Your hand's like this, and you still insist on me!" Even as he complained, the peddler rummaged through the cabinet for plasters. "How much plaster is this going to take? Next time tell your wife to gnaw a bit of meat and cheat her stomach. Don't go eating the tendons too..." Half reclining beneath the tree, Li Banfeng watched the peddler take out several plasters. For the first time, Monkey Qiu drew his left hand from his trouser pocket. To be precise, he had no left hand. What had been kept in the pocket was only a bare left wrist. "Line it up yourself first!" The peddler toasted the plasters over the fire. Monkey Qiu held the left hand in his right and set the broken end squarely against the stump. When the plasters were hot, the peddler stepped in and wound several of them around the break at the wrist, layer upon layer, as if sticking the hand to the wrist with adhesive tape. Stuck on? Would this even work? Li Banfeng had seen many unbelievable things along the way, but treating a severed hand like this still struck him as far too careless. If you wanted to stick a hand back on, you ought to at least smear on a little spit! It also made him worry over his own state. Just now he managed only four or five breaths a minute, and his heart beat little more than twenty times. Wait—Monkey Qiu's little finger seemed to twitch. Had his eyes played a trick on him? They had not. Not only the little finger. All five of Monkey Qiu's fingers, including a ring finger of which nothing remained but bone, were stirring faintly. It had really reattached! "Just reattached—don't be in a hurry to move it!" The peddler gave the warning, then brought some medicinal powder, dusted it over Monkey Qiu's left hand, and bound the hand up tight in gauze. "No water for ten days. Don't take the plaster off for a month. When we meet next month, remember to bring money. We'll settle the account!" At that, Monkey Qiu nodded, boarded the rickshaw, and left. He had left! What about me? Uneasy, Li Banfeng looked at the peddler. The peddler checked the brew, took up a rag, padded his hand with it, lifted the earthenware pot off the charcoal, and poured the decoction into a bowl. "Young man, time for your medicine." The peddler produced a funnel, pushed it into Li Banfeng's mouth, steadied it with one hand, and poured the decoction in with the other. Warmth surged in Li Banfeng's stomach. His eyelids grew heavy, and before long he was asleep. An hour later, Li Banfeng opened his eyes. His body could move again. The peddler was busy with his trade. A young man of eighteen or nineteen was buying powder. The fellow stood about one meter seventy and weighed about one hundred seventy jin, and his face was as round as his build. He narrowed a pair of small eyes and made his choice with a solemn air. "Food Cultivator! That's my choice!" "Good!" The peddler swept a hand, opened a drawer in the upper part of the cabinet, and with a curious little wooden spoon scooped out a small spoonful of powder. He set it on a sheet of kraft paper, wrapped it, and passed it to the plump youth. The plump youth handed over sixty thousand Huan Country notes, opened the powder, and was just about to put it in his mouth when the peddler called out, "Hold it!" The plump youth's eyes bulged. "What? I paid! You trying to hike the price on the spot?" The peddler looked him over and gave no answer. Behind the plump youth stood a splendidly dressed man, also there to buy powder. He laughed. "You really don't understand a thing. The peddler's saving you!" The man looked to be in his twenties. A dress hat sat on his head; he wore a suit, a waistcoat over his shirt, and a tie. He was handsome, with five attendants and a rickshaw puller behind him. One glance was enough to see that his standing was out of the ordinary. The plump youth turned. "I paid. Why won't you let me take the medicine?" The man looked at him with open scorn. "Can this medicine be eaten? This is a guiding agent refined by generations of sages through untold toil. Its nature is ferocious beyond measure. Swallow it just like that, and won't your guts be torn apart?" Straightening the cabinet, the peddler said, "This medicine is for smearing on the body, not for eating." The plump youth started. Holding the packet, he asked, "Smear it where?" The peddler said, "Anywhere it touches skin. Wherever's convenient for you." The splendidly dressed man behind him put in a word. "Pick a fleshy place. This medicine hurts. I once saw a young woman smear it on that great fat backside of hers. The thing was more than a foot thick, and she still hurt so badly she couldn't walk!" "I'm not afraid of pain!" The plump youth shoved his clothes aside, bared a snow-white belly, and said to the peddler, "Once this is smeared on, I'll be a first-tier Food Cultivator, right?" The peddler shook his head. "You've misunderstood again. This powder can only bring you through initiation. It can't raise your tier." The plump youth flared. "Isn't that a swindle? Medicine this expensive, and it can't even get me to the first tier?" The peddler shut the drawer and had no wish to explain. The rich young man behind him lost patience. "If you don't understand a thing, find someone who does and ask. Don't make a fool of yourself here! This is initiation powder. Advancing a tier is hardly that easy. If you want to reach the first tier, you have to pass the trial!" The plump youth looked utterly lost. "Pass what trial?" The rich young man could not quite remember either. "Food Cultivator... I think you have to eat a great deal..." The peddler said, "For a Food Cultivator to reach the first tier, you must eat twenty jin of food in one sitting." "Twenty jin..." The plump youth grew tense. "How long is one sitting? If I spend a whole day at it, that still counts as once, doesn't it?" The peddler shook his head. "What are you thinking? One sitting is one hour. Past an hour, it doesn't count." At that, the plump youth was stumped. How could anyone eat twenty jin of food in a single hour? Seeing him silent for a long while, the peddler waved a hand, and the sixty thousand appeared once more in his palm. "If you regret it now, there's still time. I'll give this money back." The plump youth clenched his teeth and slapped the powder onto his belly. The moment the powder touched skin, it vanished. His face turned green. He swayed to the tree and sat down beside Li Banfeng. "It hurts! Damn, it hurts!" "How bad?" Li Banfeng asked, curious. "Worse than being burned. I can't—I can't hold on!" The flesh of the plump youth's face twitched with pain. The rich young man watched him suffer, and the look on his face grew complicated. "It's going to hurt this once no matter what. Then let it come!" He stepped up to the peddler. "I want the Joy Cultivator powder." The peddler looked him over. "You don't seem short of money. Why walk the Joy Cultivator pathway?" The rich young man said, "This pathway suits me best." The peddler smiled. "Become a Dwelling Cultivator, lie at home, and let your cultivation grow. Wouldn't that be good?" The rich young man shook his head. "I can't stay put. No more talk. I want Joy Cultivator!" The peddler said, "Let me warn you. To advance as a Joy Cultivator, ten times a day, not a single day missed, and you must keep it up for two months. Only then can you reach the first tier." Ten times a day? Li Banfeng stared, speechless. What was a person supposed to do? It wasn't that sort of thing, was it? Two months, ten times every single day! This rich young master was formidable! "I know the rules!" The rich young man had a subordinate bring fifty thousand Huan Country notes and hand them over. The peddler took the money, wrapped a packet of powder, and gave it to him. An attendant at his side said, "Young Master, smear it on your backside. This medicine truly hurts!" The rich young man snorted. "Drop my trousers in front of all these people? What do you take me for?" He undid his collar and slapped the powder onto his chest. The instant the powder entered his flesh, his legs went soft and he nearly fell. Several attendants behind him moved to support him. He waved them off. "No need. I can stand." He staggered to the tree and sat down beside Li Banfeng as well. Sweat kept beading on him, but he clenched his teeth and made no sound. Li Banfeng was truly baffled. "My two friends, if this medicine hurts so much, why not wait until you're home to apply it? Then at least there'd be someone to look after you." The plump youth had recovered a good deal. Seeing someone even more ignorant than himself, his sense of superiority surged, and he could not help laughing. "How can you not understand anything? It's the peddler's rule. If you buy initiation medicine here, you must use it in front of him. Only if nothing unusual happens within half an hour may you leave. Otherwise, should something go wrong, the peddler bears no responsibility." The rich young man glanced at Li Banfeng's clothes and, enduring the sharp pain, asked, "Friend, from the look of those clothes, you aren't from around here, are you?" The plump youth found it strange as well. "Did you come off the train? I hear everyone who comes off that train has been to the Nine Heavens Immortal Realm!" The rich young man shook his head. "Not the Nine Heavens Immortal Realm. People from the Outer States. I've never been to the Outer States, but someone in my family has. My surname is Ma. I'm the fifth in the family. People who know me call me Ma the Fifth. How should I address the two of you?" The young master's family was well off, yet he put on no airs. The plump youth cupped his hands. "My surname is Qin. I'm the ninth at home. Everyone who knows me calls me Qin Xiaopang." Qin Xiaopang? What did that have to do with being the ninth? Li Banfeng said, "My surname is Li. I'm the seventh at home. Everyone who knows me calls me Li the Seventh." "Five, seven, and nine?" Ma the Fifth was taken aback for a moment. Qin Xiaopang laughed. "Odd numbers one after another. That counts as fate!" Perhaps he truly took a liking to that bit of fate. Ma the Fifth struck up the talk himself. "Brother Li, which pathway did you choose?" "Pathway?" Li Banfeng did not quite follow. Ma the Fifth paused, then understood his blankness. "I remember now. In the Outer States, they don't call a path of cultivation a pathway. They call it a profession. Nor do they call one who cultivates a cultivator. They call them a dark energy user." A dark energy user! That was a notion Li Banfeng had heard. The people from the Dark Star Bureau who had hunted him were all dark energy users. That big-eyed man could ooze oil from his whole body. What profession was he? A Food Cultivator, most likely? He must have eaten a great deal of oil beforehand. That was why oil could seep from his body. He Jiaqing was very likely a dark energy user as well. He could keep watch from a distance. What profession was that? So this so-called initiation was becoming a dark energy user. What the peddler before him sold was the drug for becoming a dark energy user. He seemed to sell more than the drug. He sold everyday goods as well. An old man came to buy candles. A child came to buy rock sugar. A woman brought her own porcelain bottle to buy snowflake cream. She gave him a silver dollar. The peddler checked it, found it genuine, and scooped her a brimming spoonful. While the peddler was busy with his trade, Ma the Fifth asked again, "Brother Li, which profession did you choose?" Li Banfeng shook his head. "I still haven't decided." Ma the Fifth took a flask from an attendant, drank a mouthful, and, while the pain eased a little, offered a word of advice. "Since you haven't decided, don't make your move lightly. The peddler brought only five kinds of powder. If none of them suits you, wait until next time. Once a pathway is chosen, there is no medicine for regret." Li Banfeng was all the more astonished. "Tillage Cultivator, Joy Cultivator, Food Cultivator, journey cultivator, Dwelling Cultivator. Aside from these five pathways, are there other choices?" "There are!" A trace of excitement showed on Qin Xiaopang's face. "Literary Cultivator, Martial Cultivator, Poison Cultivator, Medicine Cultivator, Scrying Cultivator, Mind Cultivator, Bug Cultivator, Herb Cultivator, Smoke Cultivator, Wine Cultivator, Emotion Cultivator, Slumber Cultivator... A hundred pathways in the world, and ten thousand cultivations under heaven!"