Drastic Change in Temperament

Overwhelmed by her grim circumstances, Zhu Mei held her son tightly and began to wail aloud.

Three days prior, her son had just reached ten years of age. Relying on the residual favor left by her deceased husband, she had taken the boy to the market town's law enforcement squad to have his spiritual roots tested.

She had gone full of hope, only to return in absolute despair.

The child's spiritual roots were abysmal, barely scraping into the category of a grade-one spiritual root. With such an inferior aptitude, he did not even possess the qualifications to become a menial disciple for the Beast Taming Sect. His path of cultivation was utterly severed.

The thought of being forced to leave the home she had lived in for over a decade, of leading her frail, young son across treacherous mountains and rivers throughout a journey of tens of thousands of miles filled with hidden dangers just to scrape by in the mortal world, pierced Zhu Mei with profound grief, causing her to weep even more bitterly.

"You had best be sensible and pack your things. If you are still lingering here by noon tomorrow, do not blame me for resorting to rough measures."

Leaving behind those words, Zhao Dapeng strode away arrogantly.

The sole reason he dared to come and evict Zhu Mei's family today was because he had caught wind of her son's spiritual root test results.

A woman nearly forty years old at the third layer of Qi Refining, paired with a useless child possessing only a grade-one spiritual root-they could never achieve anything significant. Even among rogue cultivators, they were of the weakest existence, destined only to be squeezed and bullied.

Seeing Zhao Dapeng leave, a few well-meaning neighbors immediately stepped forward to support Zhu Mei, escorting the mother and son back into their home.

"Hmph! That Zhao Dapeng is truly a beast."

Sun Ru muttered curses under her breath, her face flushed with anger as she walked back toward her own small courtyard.

The surrounding crowd, seeing that the commotion had ended, dispersed one after another. From time to time, they spat out a few curses directed at Zhao Dapeng and expressed pity for the widowed mother and her son.

Yet, they only dared to utter these words behind Zhao Dapeng's back. While he was standing there, not a single person had stepped forward to speak a word of justice for the mother and child.

Even the young Sun Ru had not rashly clashed with Zhao Dapeng.

Seeking benefit and avoiding harm was simply human nature.

Everyone merely swept the snow from their own doorsteps.

......

Returning to his room, Song Wen attempted alchemy once more.

Several hours later, having entirely wasted the remaining nine sets of spiritual materials, a dark shadow hung over his heart. He let out a deep sigh, cleared the room of its lingering heat and smoke, and stepped out into the courtyard.

The progress of the Everlasting Longevity Art was agonizingly slow, and he could not successfully refine the Blood Qi Pills for the time being. This left him feeling somewhat nostalgic for his days in the Corpse Demon Sect, missing the sensation of his cultivation advancing by leaps and bounds while his strength continuously swelled.

It was no wonder so many orthodox cultivators could not endure the loneliness of day after day of bitter cultivation, could not bear the torment of slow breakthroughs, and ultimately fell into the demonic path.

By now, it was already the depths of the night.

The night sky was as still as an ink painting, and everything appeared profoundly tranquil.

Suddenly,

A wave of spiritual fluctuations erupted from Sun Daxiong's house next door, shattering the silence of the late-night hours.

A silver streak of light entwined with crackling arcs of lightning soared out from Sun Daxiong's courtyard, rushing straight into the high sky. Finally, its spiritual energy exhausted, it dissipated hundreds of meters in the air.

Song Wen narrowed his eyes. That was Palm Lightning!

With a sweep of his Divine Sense, he instantly knew that Sun Ru had successfully cultivated the Palm Lightning technique.

At this moment, she was leaping up and down with joy in her courtyard. Worldly and naive, she danced around like a small child, yet she did not dare to cry out loud, deeply afraid of disturbing her neighbors' rest and cultivation.

Song Wen withdrew his Divine Sense; he had no habit of prying into his neighbors' affairs.

Turning back into his room, he began his own cultivation. If a teenage girl could work this hard, what right did he have to slack off?

So what if his cultivation progress was a bit slow? In any case, time was the one thing he had in abundance right now.

The following day.

While in the midst of cultivating, Song Wen was once again disturbed by the sound of Ai Kun knocking on his door.

Opening the courtyard gate, Song Wen spoke with a hint of annoyance.

"Senior Ai, instead of properly drawing talismans at home, what are you doing here? The Beast Taming Sect requires you to hand over a hundred talismans every ten days."

Ai Kun did not treat himself like a stranger at all, walking straight into the courtyard and taking a seat on a chair before speaking.

"I came precisely to seek your help. I have to draw ten talismans every single day for the Beast Taming Sect, and they must all be of the middle grade or higher. With these old arms and legs of mine, how can I possibly endure such a toll?"

Song Wen replied, "I cannot help you with that. As you know, among middle-grade talismans, I only know how to craft the Flying Talisman, and my success rate is a pitiful fifty percent. With my limited spiritual energy and mental strength at the fourth layer of Qi Refining, I am doing well if I can produce four a day. I still need to rely on them to earn a few meager Spirit Stones for my daily expenses."

"Just push yourself a bit harder each day, spend an extra hour on talismans, and help me craft two Flying Talismans. Consider it showing pity to this old man."

"No. That would compress my cultivation time. Besides, where exactly are you old? Every time you visit the pleasure houses, you are more vigorous than the youths."

As the two were bartering in the courtyard, a violent pounding suddenly echoed from the widow's house next door.

"Zhu Mei! Are you going to pay the rent or not? If you cannot pay, then get the hell out! Do not think that hiding inside your courtyard means I have no ways to deal with you!"

It was that Zhao Dapeng again, returning to drive away the orphaned mother and child.

Behind Zhao Dapeng followed a man with shifty, rat-like eyes who looked completely simple-minded and foolish. The man acted entirely submissive and timid, resembling a child who had entered an unfamiliar environment, full of dread and fear.

The rat-eyed man kept half his body hidden behind Zhao Dapeng, yet his eyes constantly peered through the gap in the gate, staring intently into the courtyard.

He was Zhao Dapeng's biological younger brother. His elder brother had promised him last night that he would bring him to find a woman today-a woman who could sleep in the same bed as him.

His brother had said that although the woman was slightly older, she still possessed some charm, and she even owned a courtyard.

It was a perfect arrangement to acquire both a woman and property.

"Creak."

The courtyard gate was pulled open from the inside.

Zhu Mei's expression was frosty, her cold gaze locking onto the two men outside the door. She seemed an entirely different person from the weeping, helpless woman of yesterday.

There was no telling what kind of mental trial she had endured throughout the past night, but her temperament had undergone a drastic change in a single night, as though she had been thoroughly reborn.

Seeing Zhu Mei step out, the ferocity on Zhao Dapeng's face deepened by a few degrees.

"Zhu Mei, have you thought it through? Pay the rent, or get out."

"If you cannot produce the rent and refuse to move, that is not entirely impossible to accommodate either. Marry my younger brother, and we will be relatives from then on. As long as I, Zhao Dapeng, draw breath, you will never have to pay a single Spirit Stone of rent."

As he spoke, Zhao Dapeng reached back, grabbed the rat-eyed man, and shoved him directly in front of Zhu Mei.

As it turned out, this was his true objective all along.

The two brothers had lost their parents during their childhood and had relied entirely on one another to survive, barely pulling through those bitter years.

Later, they had both embarked upon the path of cultivation, continuing to support one another.

However, during a battle with others two years ago, the younger brother had been severely wounded while trying to protect him. Not only was his cultivation completely destroyed, but his brain had also been damaged, leaving him simple-minded.

Filled with guilt, Zhao Dapeng had originally intended to provide for his brother until the day he died, which would satisfy their long years of brotherly affection.

Yet, even though his brother's mind was broken, he still possessed the desires of a normal man. In fact, after his intellect was damaged, he had nearly lost all ability to control his impulses.

There were times on the streets when he would try to grope attractive female cultivators upon catching sight of them, and he had nearly been beaten to death on several occasions.

Ever since Zhu Mei became a helpless widow, Zhao Dapeng had begun plotting.

Since his brother had needs, he would simply find a woman to resolve them. Thus, he had staged this entire drama of forcing Zhu Mei to pay rent.

Zhao Dapeng knew perfectly well that it was absolutely impossible for Zhu Mei to leave the market town while burdened with a ten-year-old child.

The steep, perilous mountains outside the town, the Demon Beasts that could appear at any moment along the roads, and the vicious bandit cultivators hiding in the shadows-these unknown dangers trapped the orphaned mother and son inside this market town. For them, even the desire to flee to the mortal world to live out their days had become nothing more than an unattainable luxury.

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