Chapter 11: Plan

Su Tan did not care about the outside world's doubts and marvels. Whether the comments were good or bad, he paid them no mind. He couldn't be bothered to argue with those people, nor did he feel the need to prove the existence of his Divination Spirits. It was meaningless. It was better to just let nature take its course.

Life was his own. No matter how colorful the outside world was, Su Tan couldn't see it, nor did he want to participate in it at the moment. After all, trying to run before you can walk usually ended in a nasty fall. He had just crossed over into this world. His only goal was to take care of himself and secure a source of income.

If he weren't blind, he could have sought a different path. He could have gone out, witnessed the prosperity of the world, and directly participated in a thrilling cultivation lifestyle. But for now... the most important thing was to settle down, and then he would figure things out later.

The village chief had brought it up to him before: Why didn't he prove himself? Wouldn't that bring in a lot more business and income?

Su Tan had replied, "There is no need. Those who believe will believe, and those who don't, won't. Besides, I only perform three divinations a day. No more than that!"

When the village chief asked why he only did three, Su Tan didn't answer. He just smiled, and the village chief didn't press the issue. Su Tan could never tell him that he was actually only capable of performing three divinations a day.

***

After the Demon Snake incident, Su Tan had indeed gained fleeting fame. People came to him every day for divinations, and every single reading was flawlessly accurate, leaving those who sought his guidance completely convinced.

Of course, the most important thing was the extra income. Silver taels, copper coins, and various types of poultry, meat, and fish could all serve as payment for his divinations. The villagers naturally didn't have much money. Some would use rice or meat as compensation, but Su Tan didn't mind. On the contrary, he thought this was great; what he lacked was food.

What left him speechless was that the villagers' divination requests were bizarre, mostly revolving around trivial matters. For instance, questions like, "My chicken went missing; where should I look?" or "Where did my dog run off to?" and so on.

From these questions, Su Tan gradually confirmed one thing: although this was a High Martial World, the bottom-tier rural villages were virtually no different from the rural villages on Earth. In a High Martial World, not everyone could soar through the skies, burrow into the earth, move mountains, fill seas, and live forever.

At the very bottom of society, there were still people who relied on crops to feed their families. Their bodies were only slightly stronger than those of Earthlings. People like the village chief, who could unleash frost, were very rare; they were the cream of the crop among ordinary folk.

Cultivation required talent, as well as resources and time. Ordinary people could practice Cultivation Techniques too, but resources and time became their limits. Everyone had to eat, and eating meant farming. Farming was a time-consuming labor; where would they find the time to cultivate?

As for hunting... the Fierce Beasts in the wild were far stronger than humans. Even those savage beasts without Demon Power were cunning and extremely difficult to capture.

It wasn't as if there were no Hunters who hunted for a living to feed their families. However, a Hunter's life was far less secure than a farmer's. They couldn't catch prey every time they went out. Most of the time, they were at the mercy of fate. Encountering prey was just luck. If they found nothing, a whole day's effort went down the drain. The danger was also much higher than farming. A Hunter could easily be attacked and killed by a wild beast on any given day. With farming, one only needed to plant seeds in the ground and tend to them on time. Safety was guaranteed.

This world differed greatly from the fantasy novels he had read in his past life. Those novels were more like idealistic, imaginative literature, where as long as one's martial prowess was strong and their destructive power was vast, they could run rampant. Everyone cultivated, no one farmed, and it was a mystery where food came from. It was also a mystery why those characters weren't the least bit afraid of death. A simple phrase like "the Dao is long and arduous" was enough to send countless people off to die in their cultivation journeys, reducing them to mere low-level mobs for others to gain experience from.

Su Tan felt that this place was more like a real world. However, this realization didn't disappoint him. On the contrary, his anxious heart gradually settled. Powerful experts weren't walking around everywhere, and he didn't have to worry about accidentally being instantly killed by the shockwaves of a battle between Great Powers.

Overall, things were fine... It wasn't as hard to survive as he had imagined.

***

Besides survival, there was cultivation. Su Tan was quite interested in the cultivation of a High Martial World. Not long ago, he had been asking Village Chief Chen to look for Cultivation Techniques and Martial Techniques, but he hadn't found any.

Complete Cultivation Techniques and Martial Techniques were extremely rare in a backward mountain village. Even on the most bustling streets in town, such items were not sold. They might be available in big cities, but even the most ordinary Cultivation Techniques came with astronomical price tags, far beyond what someone like Su Tan could afford.

His search for Cultivation Techniques yielded no results. As time passed, Su Tan stopped forcing the issue. Since the environment was relatively safe, he felt there was no need to pursue so-called formidable martial power. He shifted his focus back to his daily life.

Four or five days later, the Demon Snake incident gradually died down. Some troublemakers wanted to cause a scene, but before Su Tan even did anything, that group was dealt with by the robust young men of the village. There were no cliché face-slapping plots. This was quite nice.

Su Tan had done them a favor, and he performed divinations for people every day, spreading his good karma. Naturally, he became increasingly respected. In his daily life, people took care of him in every aspect.

The Demon Snake incident had brought Su Tan far too many benefits. First, the villagers now respected him. Second, people came to request divinations every day, giving him a stable income. Third, and the one Su Tan was most satisfied with: after getting his permission, his small courtyard was thoroughly cleaned by people wanting to repay his kindness.

Su Tan had earnestly cleaned it before, but no matter how careful he was, as a blind man relying solely on feeling, he still missed some spots. Now, with their help, the courtyard looked brand new. Even the air felt much fresher.

Now that he had a certain amount of income, Su Tan planned to pave the ground with fired bricks. Being a bit of a neat freak, he wasn't very satisfied with the dirt floor. It was covered in dust, and sometimes when he got out of bed, he would accidentally step directly onto the ground, covering his feet in dirt.

At this point, his life had finally settled down. With a stable income, a familiar house, and a courtyard, he could live in peace. However, Su Tan wasn't satisfied with just this.

"I still need to integrate further into this world, and I have to plan for my future!" Su Tan knew he couldn't live like this for the rest of his life. A blind man's world was incredibly dull, so he prepared to draw up a detailed plan for his upcoming year. The good thing was that he had plenty of free time, which he could use to get things done.

He thought to himself, "Studying is a must. Knowledge is the stepping stone of human progress. I need to learn this world's written language, as well as its geography..."

"Secondly, some essential life skills, like cooking..." Village Chief Chen did indeed bring him meals every day, but Su Tan disliked the kind of life where he just opened his mouth to be fed and reached out his arms to be dressed. He wanted to do his own chores and didn't want to trouble others. Even if someone wanted to repay a favor and help him without complaint, he didn't want to accept it endlessly. One must be independent in life. He couldn't give up on things he was capable of just because he became blind.

"If there's an opportunity, I must delve into cultivation..." The village chief hadn't found any Cultivation Method Manuals, but he did recite a few lines of cultivation Laws that Su Tan couldn't understand. He said it was an omnipotent cultivation Law, but whether or not it yielded results depended on his own comprehension.

Su Tan wanted to place the Laws into his system Inventory, but these few sentences were not actual physical items, nor were they complete, so he obviously couldn't store them.

"And... the most important point: study Medical Skills," Su Tan said aloud. He wanted to see if he could cure his own eyes. Medical Skills were perhaps the most direct method. If he could truly regain his sight, things would be much simpler. Su Tan could completely cast aside his various inconveniences, venture out into the world, and witness this miraculous realm.

For now... that was all Su Tan could think of.