29 Falling in Love Is High-Risk

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Feeling the shopkeeper’s overwhelming, surging pressure, Cui Huai guessed that he was at least a Soul Formation cultivator.

The disciples of the Falling Glow Sect, all tied up, had already gone pale with fright. After this battle, the lesson that one must not damage other people’s property while fighting would surely be branded deep in their hearts.

Cui Huai’s present quick-wittedness, her habit of taking precautions in advance, had not come from some sudden enlightenment. It was because she had once been too fond of fighting. Whenever she went into battle, she overturned mountains and seas, and there would always be someone waiting beneath Azure Cloud Peak with a bill in hand.

Cui Huai had paid compensation for far too many spirit stones. She had learned her lesson.

The disciples of the Falling Glow Sect remained bound. With a sweep of the shopkeeper’s broad sleeve, they flew into the kitchen of the Seeking Flavor House one after another, as though pulled along in a single stream.

The main hall of the Seeking Flavor House was already this shabby. One could hardly imagine what its kitchen looked like. Perhaps it was simply a hut made of ash.

The culprits who had destroyed the table had been punished, and the shopkeeper turned his attention to Cui Huai and the others.

“You fought in front of my shop. It’s had a serious effect on my business.”

Jiang Xuan spoke without restraint. “Senior, I think we brought you business instead. Our fight just now attracted several fearless spectators, which increased the popularity of your establishment.”

“After all, before that, there wasn’t a single person outside your door apart from us.”

The shopkeeper sneered. “Fine. I’ll grant that you have a sharp tongue. Since you didn’t damage anything inside my shop, I’ll let you off for fighting at my doorstep.”

Then he pointed at the table outside, which had been smashed into pieces.

“But what do you have to say for wasting food? Do you look down on my cooking?”

“Shopkeeper, your culinary skills are superb.” Since Cui Huai could not beat him at present, she resorted to flattering words.

She gave him a thumbs-up. “The main issue is that the table collapsed, so the food can no longer be eaten. Otherwise, we would certainly have finished every last bite.”

Thank goodness. Thank goodness the table had collapsed.

The others hurriedly chimed in. “We greatly admire the shopkeeper’s cooking. What a pity. We’re short on funds at present, but once we’ve saved enough, we’ll return another time if we have the opportunity.”

Return another time?

They absolutely would not come back. Even if they had spirit stones to burn, they would not come here to hand them over and suffer for it.

The shopkeeper smiled and pointed outside. “The table collapsed, but the dishes are still perfectly fine.”

The unlucky diners took a close look. Amid the shattered remains of the table, several plates lay flat and intact. Not a single drop of food had spilled.

As despair spread across everyone’s faces, the shopkeeper proudly shared his experience in running a restaurant.

“When it comes to the food business, the dishes are what matter most. You mustn’t underestimate mine. I use the finest ingredients and the most exquisite cooking techniques.

“To preserve both the flavor and the safety of the dishes, every plate is a protective magical artifact. Unless I handle them myself, they cannot be knocked over or spilled.”

At those words, Cui Huai could not help looking toward Fu Qin. There was actually someone else in the world who misused magical artifacts just as outrageously as he did.

She tried to wink at Fu Qin, hoping to convey: Look at the shopkeeper. You’re just as irritating.

Fu Qin, however, was sunk in the misery of having to continue eating. He could hardly spare any attention for his junior sister. Why was her eye twitching again? Had her strange illness returned?

“Since the dishes are undamaged, and since you admire them so much, why not finish them properly?”

With a grand wave of his hand, the shopkeeper summoned a new table and chairs outside the Seeking Flavor House. This time, however, there were five chairs.

The shopkeeper instantly appeared in the seat of honor and beckoned to them. “Come along. I’ll watch you eat.”

Once again, Cui Huai gained a profound understanding of one truth—

A person must become stronger.

Look at the sort of nonsense the shopkeeper was spouting. Because of his strength, they had no choice but to flatter him.

It was just like when she had still been the Sword Venerable Lingye. Yanchi and several other old fellows often whispered insults about her behind her back, but whenever they stood before her, they became paragons of obedience, bowing and scraping. No matter what nonsense she said, they all agreed that she was right.

Now the wheel of fortune had turned. Cui Huai took her seat alongside her fellow disciples. As she chewed, she regretted not taking out a coin before leaving and casting a divination. Today was clearly an extremely inauspicious day.

Cui Huai tried to eat as slowly as possible. Perhaps the others would then manage to eat a few more pieces than she did.

“Senior, your cultivation is so profound. Why did you open a restaurant in this town?” Zhu Yu cleverly struck up a conversation with the shopkeeper, hoping that talking would allow him to eat a few fewer bites.

The shopkeeper truly had not seen so many young people together in a long time. He had only a few decades left to live. Once a man who had loved solitude above all else, he now found himself cherishing the bustle before him. For once, he felt the urge to confide in others.

“I’m waiting for an old acquaintance.”

Jiang Xuan asked casually, “How long have you been waiting, Senior? How much longer before your old acquaintance arrives?”

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The shopkeeper silently calculated in his heart.

“I’ve been waiting for five hundred years. I don’t know when she’ll come. Perhaps I won’t live long enough to see her.”

The moment he said this, everyone was stunned. Even Cui Huai and Fu Qin, who had both lived for a thousand years, found it utterly inconceivable that someone could spend five centuries waiting for a single person.

As for the other three, who were only a little over twenty years old, five hundred years was an unimaginably long time. They might not even live that long.

In the end, they all came to the same silent conclusion—

The Seeking Flavor House, with food this terrible, was actually a centuries-old establishment.

Was there truly nothing else edible in this town? How had a place like this managed to remain open for five hundred years?

Yet the shopkeeper, Immortal Lord Lingxu, had not lied. He had indeed guarded the Seeking Flavor House for five hundred years.

The town was populated mostly by mortals. To avoid standing out and to prevent unnecessary trouble, he changed his appearance every fifty years.

He had pretended to be his own son, then his own grandson, and so on, generation after generation without end.

After doing this for ten generations, the Seeking Flavor House had become a venerable old establishment passed down through ten generations of a single family.

The Seeking Flavor House had once prospered. Back then, he had always thought that his old acquaintance might arrive at any moment, so he at least took care to run the establishment properly and make it look presentable.

As the years stretched on, the joy in his heart gradually cooled beneath the endless wait. He no longer had the energy to manage the restaurant, yet he still remained here.

He was merely waiting for an answer.

Even if she never came, that itself would be an answer: she did not wish to see him.

“Is this old acquaintance someone you love, Senior?” Cui Huai had lived long and seen much. Those who cultivated to the Soul Formation stage or beyond were generally people of firm resolve. If such a person ceased advancing in cultivation yet accepted it willingly, the cause was usually love.

The most wounding kind was romantic love, followed by the bonds between master and disciple, family and friends, and so on.

As for Cui Huai, she had severed all such ties in the past. That was why her sword had always been unstoppable and her cultivation had never encountered a bottleneck.

“Yes, and no.” The shopkeeper’s answer was somewhat ambiguous.

“She is the one I love, but I never had the chance to tell her.”

Immortal Lord Lingxu had been trained in the Jade Qian Sect, a Daoist sect, and had been a prodigy among his generation. Some cultivators of the Jade Qian Sect aspired to follow the Dao Ancestor and remained unmarried for life. Lingxu had decided early on that he would join their ranks.

He should have followed that path without hesitation, all the way to the end.

Yet during one of his travels, he happened to encounter Shao Jiayin of Hidden Immortal Valley at the Seeking Flavor House. Hidden Immortal Valley was a reclusive sect of physician cultivators. In other words, during all his previous centuries of cultivation, Lingxu had never once met Shao Jiayin.

The instant he saw her, he knew he was in trouble. His Dao heart was no longer steady.

With the Three Pure Ones above, Lingxu—who had always placed cultivation first—could only think of fleeing in the face of such intense emotion. Shao Jiayin, however, was far braver than he was. In those years, she ran after him wherever he went, enduring who knew how much ridicule.

During the years when he was closest to Shao Jiayin, he was either in seclusion or avoiding her. He was always forcing himself to calm his mind, leaving very little time for the two of them to spend together.

Even the most passionate heart could not withstand such treatment. At the time, Shao Jiayin had cursed him bitterly.

“Lingxu, you’re nothing but a coward!”

She told him that if he ever figured things out in this lifetime, he should go to the Seeking Flavor House where they had first met and find her.

When Lingxu finally understood, the moment his heart had begun to stir, the waves had only grown into a raging tempest. He could never calm himself again, and so he came to the Seeking Flavor House.

But this time, Shao Jiayin had left first. Lingxu had arrived one step too late and failed to see her.

And so it was his turn to wait.

He had waited for five hundred years.

***

After hearing the shopkeeper’s story, the emotionally tender senior sister had tears in her eyes. Cui Huai, meanwhile, was relieved that she had never been ensnared by love. What a waste of cultivation, all that foolish torment between lovesick men and resentful women.

When a decision must be made, hesitation only invites trouble.

When Lingxu had first met Shao Jiayin, he had been unable to make a firm choice.

He could neither take hold of the relationship nor let it go.

That was how one harmed both oneself and others.

The only mortal present, Zhu Yu, was even more perplexed.

“If you were able to wait here for five hundred years, Senior, why didn’t you try to find that immortal yourself?”

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The shopkeeper explained, “Jiayin returned to Hidden Immortal Valley. That place is extraordinarily mysterious within the cultivation world, and no one knows its exact location.”

Zhu Yu was still deeply puzzled.

“Hidden Immortal Valley is a sect of physician cultivators. Even if it’s difficult to find, there must be patients who can locate it, right? Otherwise, whom do the physician cultivators treat?”

“Since those patients can find Hidden Immortal Valley through sheer sincerity, why did you give up without even trying, Senior? Is waiting here doing nothing simply easier?”

Cui Huai silently stared at Zhu Yu. Her junior brother was far too bold. Those words struck straight to the heart. Just look at how pale the shopkeeper’s face had become.

With nothing but mortal strength, Zhu Yu had managed to shake the mind of a high-level cultivator. Cui Huai viewed her junior brother with new respect.

The shopkeeper’s silence did not stop Zhu Yu from continuing to strike where it hurt.

“I’m a mortal. My life is short. I can’t afford to spend it waiting around like this. It’s only because cultivators live so long that you all casually speak of centuries and millennia, without valuing time at all.

“If I wanted to see someone, I would do everything in my power to see her immediately. The world is unpredictable. Who knows what might happen in the next moment?”

The shopkeeper thought about it for a while before asking, “What if Jiayin comes looking for me while I’m away searching for her? Wouldn’t we simply miss each other?”

“You cultivators have so many magical treasures. If you can use a defensive artifact to protect your food, can’t you leave a communication talisman here?” Zhu Yu was already looking at the shopkeeper as though he were an idiot. He could not understand how someone so intelligent could become such a fool whenever matters of the heart were involved.

The shopkeeper froze for a moment, as though only now realizing that such a thing was possible. He bowed deeply to Zhu Yu.

“I was blinded by appearances. Thank you, young sir. I have benefited greatly from your advice.”

The shopkeeper took out ten spirit stones and handed them to Zhu Yu.

“I don’t know how long I have left to live, so I dare not become too entangled with you in karma. Otherwise, after I die, you might have to bear the grudges of my enemies. All I can give you are these ten spirit stones and the meal you just ate. I won’t charge you for today’s food. Consider it my gift.”

At the sight of the spirit stones, Zhu Yu did not hesitate in the slightest. Cui Huai admired the speed of a mortal who could make such a swift grab. With a whoosh, he had stuffed the stones into his pocket.

“Thank you, Shopkeeper. We won’t stand on ceremony.”

The shopkeeper looked at the food on the table, which was nearly gone, and felt immensely gratified.

The gossip had been so fascinating that the group had unconsciously chewed and chewed until they had polished off every dish.

The shopkeeper cast a spell and withdrew the table and chairs from the doorway. Much of the weariness on his youthful face faded, allowing a glimpse of the bearing once possessed by Immortal Lord Lingxu.

“The Seeking Flavor House is closing from this moment onward. I’m going to find Jiayin. Even if she refuses to accept me, I still owe her an apology. Farewell, everyone. May we meet again if fate allows.”

As they made their way back toward the Carefree Sect, Jiang Xuan—the shamelessly carefree one—remained unaffected by that ill-fated love story. After all, the tragic romances in the melodramatic immortal dramas he had watched in his youth had been far more explosive than this.

Jiang Xuan pestered Zhu Yu incessantly.

“Junior Brother, my dear junior brother, the shopkeeper returned ten spirit stones. Could you give me back the six I paid for you?”

Once spirit stones entered Zhu Yu’s pocket, getting them back was no easy matter.

“Certainly. I can treat it as a loan. You only need to calculate the interest from the previous debt as well, Senior Brother.”

Jiang Xuan let out a wail and attempted to pester him shamelessly.

Moved by the shopkeeper’s love story, Zhao Zhixu was in low spirits. Jiang Xuan’s noisy antics only irritated him further.

“Jiang Xuan, be quiet this instant. I’ll give you one spirit stone.”

Jiang Xuan immediately fell silent.

Using spirit stones to humiliate him again. How hateful.

Still, if spirit stones were involved, he was willing to endure a little more humiliation.

Cui Huai, equally poor, had already grown numb. She finally understood. Zhu Yu made money selling medicine, and he made money going out to eat as well.

The boy might only be a mortal, but his fortune was outstanding.

***

That night, although only a few days had passed since Fu Qin sent his previous letter, he was already writing another.

He began by warmly greeting the elders and apologizing for the disrespectful language in his last letter. After circling around through a great deal of empty pleasantries, he finally reached the main point.

“Elders, please send me some of the storage rings I left behind in the valley. When traveling away from home, it is safer to have spirit stones on hand.”

When Fu Qin had left the valley, the elders had urged him to take more spirit stones with him, but he had found them burdensome. Phoenixes lived on wind and dew; worldly possessions were only necessary in moderation. Of the many storage rings he possessed, he had casually taken just one.

But during today’s great melee, he had stood right beside Cui Huai and witnessed with his own eyes how much fiercer her sword techniques had become after entering the Dao.

He was already weaker than his junior sister. He absolutely had to be wealthier than her. That advantage had to be preserved.

Elders, please send more supplies!