For most people of Huan Country, buying a residence was the single greatest challenge in the world, bar none.
And that involved a crucial question: where would he buy one?
In Yuezhou, or in Yaowanggou?
Yuezhou was out of the question; home prices there could make a person lose the will to live.
Why not simply buy a place in Yaowanggou and live here from now on?
Looking at the green trees and red flowers around him, living here didn't seem so bad.
Housing in Yaowanggou probably wasn't too expensive.
Li Banfeng touched the two thousand yuan in cash in his pocket, estimating what kind of house two thousand could buy.
The rickshaw fare just now seemed to have been five hundred...
"Before getting a residence, does a Dwelling Cultivator have no special abilities whatsoever?"
"You mean techniques?" Ma the Fifth thought for a moment. "There are some techniques. After initiation, even without a residence, a Dwelling Cultivator's physique is sturdier than an ordinary person's, and they can also conceal themselves from notice."
"What do you mean by concealing themselves?"
"A Dwelling Cultivator never attracts attention. Blending into a crowd, they're often overlooked, making it easy to evade surveillance. High-tier Dwelling Cultivators can even evade the snooping of Listening Cultivators."
Evading surveillance.
That would be very useful to me!
Li Banfeng leaned toward the Dwelling Cultivator path. Beside him, Qin Xiaopang offered a reminder: "Brother Li, if you pick Dwelling Cultivator, what will you live on in the future? People who choose Dwelling Cultivator come from money; they don't worry about food or clothes."
Li Banfeng glanced at Qin Xiaopang. "Do I look like the sort of person who worries about food and clothes?"
Actually, right now, I really am that sort of person.
This was indeed troublesome.
Can a Dwelling Cultivator not even go out to work?
Do you have to stay cooped up at home all the time?
If worse came to worst, I could always find a remote-work job.
The problem was whether this place even had internet...
From a long-term perspective, a Dwelling Cultivator really faced significant restrictions.
How about choosing journey cultivator?
"Does a journey cultivator have innate talents too?"
"Yes!" Ma the Fifth nodded. "A journey cultivator can travel fast and light on their feet, but they have to walk every day. They can't stop.
"The higher their tier, the farther they must walk, so journey cultivators have no fixed residence. Wherever they walk, that's where they stay."
Under his current circumstances, walking around everywhere each day would easily attract pursuit from the Dark Star Bureau.
In the long run, having no fixed abode meant journey cultivators faced livelihood issues as well, unless one took up an occupation like a tour guide.
Become a Joy Cultivator like Ma the Fifth?
Ma the Fifth was thoroughly in favor of that. "Brother Li, seeing how well-built you are, you'd actually make a good Joy Cultivator. Joy Cultivators excel at clouding minds, capable of dealing heavy blows to enemies before they even realize it."
That was a good option too.
Then Ma the Fifth raised a very serious question.
"Brother Li, might I ask what sort of physique your beloved has?"
Beloved?
"What beloved?"
Ma the Fifth twitched his eyebrows. "If Brother Li is still single, then matters are difficult. Fleeting trysts are hardly a sustainable solution."
This was a practical issue. Ma the Fifth lacked no women, but Li Banfeng didn't have that going for him.
Go back to the university to find Teacher Song?
There was no way Li Banfeng could return to the university anytime soon.
Even if he went back, ten times a day—the teacher wouldn't be able to manage that either!
While mulling it over, Li Banfeng had a bold thought: "Can I choose multiple pathways?"
Cultivate several pathways together, secure all the talents first, and later on, whichever pathway proved most suitable, focus on that one.
Qin Xiaopang shook his head with a laugh. "Where would such a good deal come from? People can barely make sense of one pathway, and you want to cultivate multiple?"
Ma the Fifth didn't laugh. He had heard of similar things. "Choosing several is definitely out of the question, but choosing one more—that is, dually cultivating two paths—has indeed happened before.
"However, people like that were basically forced into it, and it's extremely hard to achieve any success.
"Think about it: how much energy does cultivating a single pathway consume?
"As a Food Cultivator, you have to eat at least five jin of rice a day, and if you add a Wine Cultivator on top, you'd have to drink three to five jin of liquor every day as well. Forget earning extra time—even following the regular routine would be utterly grueling."
Li Banfeng asked, "Do both pathways have to be cultivated at the same time? Can't you just give one up?"
"Of course not! Once you've chosen two pathways, neither can be abandoned. If you cultivate only one and neglect the other, it will cost you your life.
"That's why any two pathways cultivated together must share similar characteristics and complement each other. If the two pathways don't align, the cultivator will likely drop dead on the spot."
Hearing this, Li Banfeng instantly discarded the thought of dual cultivation.
If both pathways had to be maintained at once, such a choice was neither wise nor realistic.
Ma the Fifth was right: a person simply didn't have the energy to cultivate two pathways at once.
Besides, if it were Food Cultivator and Wine Cultivator, dual cultivation might still be feasible—eating and drinking clearly shared similar traits and complemented one another.
Yet among the pathways offered by the peddler, none seemed complementary.
Ma the Fifth asked again, "Dual cultivation requires a profound Dao affinity. What is Brother Li's Dao affinity like?"
Li Banfeng was surprised. "What is Dao affinity?"
Seeing Li Banfeng's clueless expression, Ma the Fifth froze, and Qin Xiaopang was stunned as well.
"You don't even know what Dao affinity is?" Qin Xiaopang asked in utter shock. "Without Dao affinity, why did you come to buy medicine? Isn't that seeking death?"
Seeing Li Banfeng was still confused, Ma the Fifth explained, "Dao affinity is your foundation. To build my foundation, I spent a fortune buying spring water from the Huiming Spring, drinking over thirty liters before I solidly laid it."
Qin Xiaopang snorted. "I'm not a rich man, but I took plenty of folk remedies, big and small, over five whole years before I dared come buy the medicine."
Li Banfeng still didn't understand the concept of Dao affinity: "Must Dao affinity be acquired through special medicines?"
"Medicines?" Ma the Fifth felt the word wasn't quite fitting.
Qin Xiaopang understood what Li Banfeng meant. "It doesn't have to come from taking medicine. You can also build Dao affinity at specific places. Santoucha is one place where you can accumulate it!"
At the thought of Santoucha, Li Banfeng shivered.
Growing three heads just for Dao affinity hardly seemed worth it.
Li Banfeng asked cautiously, "Is Dao affinity an absolute must?"
Qin Xiaopang said, "What else? You think just anyone can come buy medicine from the peddler and become a cultivator?
"Dao affinity is destiny—a one-in-ten-thousand stroke of fortune! Cultivators are paragons among men, one in ten thousand!"
Paragons among men?
Isn't that an exaggeration?
I bet that rickshaw puller is a cultivator too. Is he a paragon among men?
Ma the Fifth looked at Li Banfeng. "I wouldn't say paragons, and as for Santoucha, it's best not to go there—once you go, you might never return.
"Setting other matters aside, one cannot make light of one's foundation. Brother Li, do you actually have Dao affinity or not? If you don't, don't fool around. This truly is a matter of life and death."
Li Banfeng pondered for a long time, then asked tentatively, "Does being bathed in Heavenly Light count as Dao affinity?"
"You were bathed in Heavenly Light?" Ma the Fifth, who had been clutching his chest, suddenly let go and stood up.
Qin Xiaopang stood up as well. "When were you bathed in Heavenly Light?"
Li Banfeng recalled, "Around two in the afternoon."
Qin Xiaopang looked at the position of the setting sun, while Ma the Fifth pulled out a gold pocket watch.
"Brother Li, how have you held out until now?" Ma the Fifth backed away several paces. Qin Xiaopang hurried right behind him, taking a stand beside Ma the Fifth.
Li Banfeng let out a dry laugh and confirmed, "If you're bathed in Heavenly Light and don't enter a pathway, you die?"
Ma the Fifth nodded. "Brother Li is quite right."
Qin Xiaopang backed up another two steps. "Not only will you die, you might drag others down with you. I'd better get out of here."
Clutching his belly, Qin Xiaopang stumbled off into the distance. The peddler called out, "It hasn't been half an hour yet!"
Qin Xiaopang waved his hand. "Doesn't matter, close enough is good enough."
His two attendants supported Ma the Fifth as he prepared to leave as well. Seeing Li Banfeng still standing where he was, Ma the Fifth looked back and urged, "Brother Li, enter a pathway quickly! One step too late, and you might just blow up!
"What comes exploding out is anyone's guess, and how many people get hurt is hard to say. It's a matter of life and death—you cannot delay!"
Li Banfeng asked, "Is being bathed in Heavenly Light considered a profound Dao affinity?"
"Profound, extraordinarily profound!" Ma the Fifth said as he walked away. "Brother Li, stop brooding over dual cultivation! Save your life first!"
...
The two left one after another, while the peddler was still attending to his business.
A woman around fifty bought a jar of vanishing cream from him, then asked for a small dab to rub directly onto her face.
"Don't be stingy now! I have to see if this stuff is pure!"
The peddler smiled. "What are you saying, sister? Once you put on my vanishing cream, your skin will be so supple water could spring from it!"
"Look at that sweet tongue of yours!" The woman laughed, turned, and walked away.
Vanishing cream—an ancestral-tier skincare product.
It wasn't much different from modern face creams, meant primarily to prevent dryness and cracking. Li Banfeng had seen a jar of vanishing cream in Old Lady Wu's room at the orphanage, and had even smeared some on his own face once.
Truth be told, the peddler's vanishing cream was extraordinary. After the woman applied it, her face truly took on an added glow. Perhaps that was why she had ventured into the wilderness to buy from the peddler.
The sky was growing dark, and the customers had all departed.
The peddler turned back to Li Banfeng and asked, "Have you chosen? The Soul-Recalling Decoction can only keep you alive for four hours. You don't have much time left."
With that, the peddler waved a hand, and a row of drawers on the upper section of his cabinet slid open on their own, revealing powders of various colors.
This was a prompt for Li Banfeng to take the medicine immediately.
Time was indeed running short. Li Banfeng had drunk the Soul-Recalling Decoction before three o'clock, and seven o'clock was fast approaching.
He had made up his mind to choose the journey cultivator path.
Although he leaned toward Dwelling Cultivator in his heart, buying a residence was simply too difficult. For the sake of future cultivation, journey cultivator was the most sensible choice.
"I choose journey cultivator..."
He had barely finished speaking when a shout came from behind: "I want Soul-Recalling Decoction! I want Soul-Recalling Decoction!"
Li Banfeng turned around and saw a figure at once familiar and unfamiliar.
Familiar, because he often appeared in the news.
Unfamiliar, because this was the first time Li Banfeng had seen him in person.
The legendary sprinting champion, Qiao Yuesheng, charged toward Li Banfeng with vigorous strides at breakneck speed.
Beneath the setting sun, afterimages trailed his body.
Li Banfeng believed that at his current speed, he could definitely set a new world record.
Yet that wasn't the point.
The point was, he was charging straight at Li Banfeng—and slammed right into him.
Li Banfeng went airborne on the spot from the impact, hurtling toward the peddler's cabinet.
The peddler hastily tried to retract the drawers, but he was a step too late.
Thud! With a dull crash, Li Banfeng slammed into the cabinet.
Two drawers hadn't retracted in time, and powders splashed out.
The blue powder of the journey cultivator and the golden powder of the Dwelling Cultivator spilled across Li Banfeng's face. Excruciating pain surged through him, and he instantly lost consciousness.
The peddler looked at Li Banfeng, then at Qiao Yuesheng before him.
Qiao Yuesheng grabbed the peddler's shoulders, tears in his eyes as he pleaded, "I want Soul-Recalling Decoction! I want Soul-Recalling Decoction!"
Blood vessels bulged distinctly beneath his skin.
Some were slowly rupturing.
Qiao Yuesheng looked at the peddler, his face filled with desperate pleading.
The peddler stared at Qiao Yuesheng, his brows knitting tighter and tighter.
After a long silence, the peddler spoke in a chilling tone: "You took his life, and you ruined my reputation. How are we going to settle this debt?"
Chapter 18