In the blink of an eye, three to five days passed, and the chill grew heavier.
The grains of snow gradually turned into cotton-wool clumps, carpeting the many peaks of the outer sect.
As soon as Jiang Yi finished work, he came to the Icefire Cave, and the waiter took the initiative to greet him.
“Brother Yi, the usual?”
Jiang Yi nodded lightly.
“I’m tired of fish. Do you have anything else? I’d like to change the flavor.”
The waiter replied,
“We caught some ‘green prawns’ today. They’re raised in the inner peak’s spirit pool. They taste good and are nourishing too.”
Jiang Yi asked,
“What’s the price?”
The waiter bent halfway at the waist.
“Thirty talisman coins each, about eight jin apiece. It depends how many Brother Yi wants.”
Tsk. They really weren’t cheap!
Jiang Yi nodded.
“Then trouble you to bring me ten prawns, two bowls of rice, and a few more good dishes.”
The waiter wiped down the table and chairs, then brought up a pot of tea.
“Right away! Brother Yi, please have a seat first. This lowly one will tell the kitchen to prepare them properly! The weather’s getting colder and colder—shall I warm some wine for you?”
“Sure.”
Sure enough, with money, one could be treated like a lord!
Compared to the last few times, this service was much more attentive.
The thought flashed through Jiang Yi’s mind, and then he let the waiter go about his business.
With his wealth, even buying out all the eight-jin green prawns would not be a problem.
But as a mere menial laborer, there was no need for him to draw attention by flaunting his wealth and inviting others to covet it.
“Eating and drinking—expenses flow like water.”
Jiang Yi sat in the corner, calculating in his heart. With the guidance and examples provided by the Golden Page of the Heavenly Book, he had not expended much effort before bringing those ownerless possessions into his hands.
Aside from the Minor Essence-Forging Fire Control Art hidden by Steward Yang’s son, which he temporarily could not spare the time to go down the mountain to search for, everything else had gone into his own pouch.
After obtaining this “start-up capital,” Jiang Yi began eating spirit meals to nourish his fleshly body and strengthen his physique.
The unexpected windfall of twenty-four thousand talisman coins, under this kind of spending, had already dwindled to fifteen or sixteen thousand.
“Since ancient times, money has never been spent in vain. The results are immediate.”
A smile hung at the corner of Jiang Yi’s mouth. How many days had it been since he stepped into the second level of Qi Refining?
Now his cultivation had completely stabilized, and his true qi had grown greatly. From its original wisps and strands, it had already condensed to the thickness of a thumb.
According to Old He Hun’s explanation, he had probably reached the “middle stage.”
By the time the twenty-four thousand talisman coins were completely spent, he should be able to break through to the third level of Qi Refining.
Jiang Yi made a rough calculation. That would be around the start of winter.
“The wonder of cultivation lies precisely in steady progress, in the satisfaction of climbing upward. It truly makes one addicted!”
He thought to himself,
“My aptitude absolutely can’t be called good. It’s barely lower-middle, just enough to touch the sect’s threshold, and still quite a distance away from directly entering the inner sect as a disciple.
“If I really had to work while bitterly cultivating, reaching the fifth level of Qi Refining would take who knows how many years!”
The Icefire Cave was warm and lively. Jiang Yi toyed with his wine cup.
Once the old yellow wine was heated over a small red-clay stove, its fragrance grew richer and its flavor mellower.
His thoughts dispersed little by little with the rising steam.
“Among the several hundred menial laborers of the outer sect’s four peaks, at least a third are equal to me. If they didn’t lack spirit rice and spirit food, and were willing to put in bitter effort, they should all be able to touch the edge of becoming a ‘steward.’
“But the talisman coins earned by the many menial laborers from their work are far from enough to support such expenses.”
Jiang Yi gradually gained a clearer understanding of cultivation in the demonic path.
If the immortal path was one where some people were born destined to become carefree yellow-capped feathered guests upon the mountain,
Then the demonic path was tens of thousands of people charging across a single-plank bridge, to see who could fight their way ahead, and who was willing to risk their life.
Before long, the spirit rice and green prawns were served, accompanied by two or three plates of side dishes and a large bowl of bear paw.
Two days earlier, Jiang Yi had still been sweeping food away like a storm, as if he were a starving ghost reincarnated. Now that he had eaten more, he could leisurely savor the flavors, chewing slowly.
He even had the leisure to observe the diners entering and leaving the Icefire Cave.
Menial laborers who could often eat out on Scarlet Flame Peak, and afford spirit rice at that, were mostly not ordinary.
They either had connections or a background; they had to possess one of the two.
Jiang Yi sipped a mouthful of scalding hot old yellow wine, ate a fresh, crisp boiled green prawn, and listened to the idle chatter within the Icefire Cave.
This ox-and-horse life as a menial laborer was actually rather flavorful.
“I heard Steward Zhou of Sewing Peak flew into a huge rage! This month’s ‘Hundred-Shadow Dharma Robes’ were reduced by two pieces, and he was reprimanded by an inner sect senior brother. I reckon the menial laborers of Sewing Peak won’t be having an easy time for a while.”
“Brother Zheng, you even know news that only the inner sect would hear about?”
“Ha, don’t you know who my brother-in-law is?”
“I nearly forgot. Brother Zheng is Steward Luo of Soul-Nurturing Peak’s brother-in-law.”
Jiang Yi calmly glanced toward the table not far away. The young fatty at the head of it looked very familiar.
He thought for a moment. He had seen him that morning when lining up for work.
He seemed to be called Zheng Dajiang?
A steward’s brother-in-law also counted as someone with connections.
No wonder his days were so pleasant.
“Brother Zheng, why didn’t you go to Soul-Nurturing Peak? The work on Scarlet Flame Peak is so hard.”
Someone asked.
“What do you lot know!”
Zheng Dajiang had drunk wine, and his tongue was somewhat thick.
“Soul-Nurturing Peak is the place where they refine ‘Hundred-Soul Banners.’ Menial laborers have to draw the ‘life-and-death lots.’ If your luck is bad and you draw a death lot, you have to go to Soulfall Gorge and scout the way for inner sect disciples! Ten deaths and no life!”
Whoa!
Not only were Zheng Dajiang’s workmates at the same table startled, Jiang Yi’s heart also gave a jump.
This demonic sect had pits everywhere.
Among the menial laborers of the outer sect’s four peaks, after completing the full twelve-year term, could even half of them make it down the mountain in one piece?
“Compared to that, Scarlet Flame Peak is hard, sure, but it’s not that easy to lose your little life! And besides…”
Zheng Dajiang wanted to deliberately keep them in suspense and whet their appetite. Unfortunately, he was the sort who could not keep calm; after his workmates flattered him a few times, he spilled the words out.
“Steward Yang’s time to retire has come. His son died in the Hundred Beasts Den half a year ago. If my brother-in-law is willing to smooth things over, from now on, I might just become ‘Steward Zheng’!”
As soon as these words came out, the workmates at his table hurriedly called out “Steward Zheng” a few times.
They chimed in with words like “You must take good care of us,” joining in the fun.
Jiang Yi listened carefully for a while, but did not linger. His tolerance for alcohol was average; he only drank half a pot of old yellow wine, and had the waiter store the rest for him.
When he walked out of the Icefire Cave, the cold wind blew straight at his neck. Fortunately, his bones and muscles at the second level of Qi Refining were strong, and in the blink of an eye, he drove away that knife-scraping chill.
“We’re all oxen and horses, but our ways of living aren’t entirely the same.”
Jiang Yi sighed inwardly. The lowest-grade cultivators of the outer sect’s four peaks were menial laborers like himself, working day after day in numbness, struggling to survive.
Slightly better were people like Zheng Dajiang, who had someone backing him from behind. If he cultivated diligently and muddled his way to the fourth or fifth level of Qi Refining, he could more or less earn himself a “future.”
As for those of the upper grade, they were none other than the “stewards.” They managed a workroom and dozens of menial laborers, and no longer had to toil themselves. They only needed to deal with the senior brothers in charge from the inner sect.
“From menial laborer to steward is probably like going from an ordinary assembly-line worker to a line leader in a workshop. It indeed counts as a leap in status.
“Relying on the Heavenly Book, I’m slowly moving from the lowest way of living toward the middle.”
Jiang Yi was not greedy and did not seek too much. In any case, with the Heavenly Book in hand, sooner or later he would be able to climb to the twelfth level of Qi Refining.
This was his current ambition!
When he returned to the communal courtyard, everyone had already gone to sleep, and it was very quiet.
Gulp.
Jiang Yi raised his head and drank the last mouthful of the bear gall wine Widow Qin had given him.
The throat-searing wine qi surged through his chest and abdomen, then gave rise to strands of warmth.
With these days of “supplementing,” his physique had grown stronger day by day, and the number of heavenly circuits his true qi could circulate had gradually increased.
He could already complete five Great Heavenly Circuits.
Jiang Yi had asked the Golden Page of the Heavenly Book before. The condition for reaching perfection in the second level of Qi Refining and breaking through to the third level was for true qi to travel through the hundred bones and complete ten Great Heavenly Circuits within the time it took an incense stick to burn.
The so-called Great Heavenly Circuit meant exhaling and sinking the breath, exerting force from the lower abdomen, descending to the perineum, then splitting into two streams that went straight down to the soles of the feet.
After that, one inhaled again, pressed the tongue to the upper palate, and started from the soles of the feet, rising up to the crown of the head, then joining at the tip of the tongue.
When true qi connected through this one exhale and one inhale, it formed a complete cycle.
Jiang Yi remembered that the original owner had cultivated bitterly and diligently for a full seven years, and had only just managed to complete one circuit.
“Ten circuits, and the third level will be in sight.”
For the time being, he set this small goal.
Before going to sleep, he habitually blinked.
The Golden Page of the Heavenly Book suddenly manifested.
【I humbly petition the Heavenly Book to show me what I need to pay attention to at work tomorrow, so that I may seek fortune and avoid misfortune, and not invite calamity or provoke disaster.】
After resolving the problem of his empty purse, Jiang Yi began using the Heavenly Book to record information on the various people of Scarlet Flame Peak.
He asked questions such as, 【I humbly petition the Heavenly Book to show me the life story, temperament, and preferences of the Old He Hun I know.】
Over the past several days, he had already fully grasped the temperaments, preferences, and unusual habits of several workmates in the communal courtyard, as well as Yang Xun, the steward of the Tempering Room.
For example, because Yang Xun had lost his son, his moods were unpredictable and he was easily angered, but he sympathized with youths and occasionally showed a kind heart.
Among them, Old He, Old Li, and the others only required six hours for a result.
Widow Qin, however, required eight hours.
As for Yang Xun, the steward of Scarlet Flame Peak’s Tempering Room, he required twelve hours.
Jiang Yi guessed that the Heavenly Book probably made its judgment based on cultivation level and realm.
After becoming familiar with Scarlet Flame Peak, his “base of operations,” he again used the Heavenly Book’s characteristic of examining karma to “divine” for himself.
One question a day, seeking fortune and avoiding misfortune, lest he have bad luck someday and, for no reason, run into trouble and be beaten to death.
This was a good habit Jiang Yi had begun to insist on after learning that “accidents” often happened to the menial laborers of the outer sect’s four peaks.
With a hum, golden light rippled.
【Matter investigated: fortune and misfortune】
【Deduction time required: three hours】
“I’ll look tomorrow morning. Cultivation in the demonic path requires advancing step by step with caution. ‘Steadiness’ must come first!”
Jiang Yi silently recited the word “steady” as his guiding principle, then peacefully entered dreamland.