Chapter 15: Five Hundred Taels of Silver

However, just as the carriage driver was about to enter the carriage, he let out a shrill scream: “Ah!!! My legs!!”

Zhu Lan kicked the driver several meters away as if she were kicking a dead dog.

“You… You!!”

The driver’s face was filled with terror, as if he had seen something unbelievable.

“How can you be a cultivator?! Immortal, please do not blame me. I was just momentarily blinded by lust… Ah!!!”

A flash of silver light flickered, and the tendons in both of the driver’s legs were severed.

He could only sprawl on the ground, clutching his feet and wailing in agony.

Zhu Lan’s expression was grim.

Seeing the driver’s hideous appearance now, she felt both disgusted and vindicated.

If she didn’t have her cultivation and were just an ordinary person without the strength to even truss a chicken, how could her strength ever compare to that of a driver who spent his years pulling carriages?

This wasn’t Planet Blue.

The cultivation world was filled with endless malice.

Zhu Lan suddenly realized that her mindset had to change.

The driver on the ground had dark, coarse skin, and his tattered hemp clothes hadn’t been washed in who-knows-how-long, giving off a nauseating stench.

If the driver’s strength had been higher than hers…

Zhu Lan couldn’t bear to imagine it.

Seeing the driver lying there crying for his parents with a deathly look on his face, Zhu Lan’s lips turned pale.

Ultimately, she didn’t deliver the finishing blow to his throat.

The driver wouldn’t survive.

Perhaps this way would lead to an even more painful death for him.

Qi Condensation Level Seven was neither too high nor too low in such a remote place.

Zhu Lan smeared mud on her face until her handsome little face became pitch black.

After changing into her oldest clothes, she set off toward the distant Heavenly Chasm Cliff.

…

“Guest, are you staying the night or just eating?”

A plainly dressed waiter saw a person covered in dust stumbling toward him and quickly led them inside the inn.

“Bring two servings of the best food and drink here.”

Using the last of her strength, Zhu Lan pulled out some silver shards from her waist and slumped onto a stool.

“Aye! Right away!”

Upon seeing the silver, the waiter immediately adopted his most welcoming attitude, not caring at all about how filthy Zhu Lan appeared.

The waiter even bit the silver with his teeth.

“Guest, if you plan on bathing later, I’ll have someone prepare hot water for you first. How does that sound?”

Zhu Lan didn’t even have the strength to speak; she nodded, indicating her approval.

“Aye!”

The waiter immediately went to the kitchen and returned moments later with two plates of food.

Zhu Lan was about to feast, only to find that there were only two pitiful slices of lean meat across the two dishes—dry and completely lacking in oil.

Zhu Lan laughed in frustration.

“Waiter, is this really your establishment’s best food?”

“Aye!”

The waiter replied, “I’m not joking, it really is. You see, in this remote wilderness, there aren’t any villages or shops nearby. It’s hard enough just to find a place to rest. Getting hot water is already quite good!”

Zhu Lan didn’t say anything more after hearing that.

She finished the food in a few bites and downed two bowls of wine before setting the bowl down.

Her alcohol tolerance was poor; usually, her face would turn red after just a few cups.

But the wine here was so heavily diluted with water that it was like drinking juice; she didn’t feel a thing after two bowls.

“This wine doesn’t get a person drunk at all!”

Zhu Lan couldn’t help but chuckle to herself.

But at least after putting some food in her stomach, she felt a bit stronger now.

The waiter apologized with a smile.

“Please bear with us! But I can guarantee that our shop’s food and drink are absolutely the best things you’ll find in this village!”

Since the waiter’s attitude was good, Zhu Lan wasn’t angry.

She understood that expecting a feast in such a desolate place was unrealistic.

In fact, she was quite satisfied just finding a place to stay.

“When will the hot water be ready?”

“Soon, soon! We’ll arrange for someone to bring the hot water to your room in a moment!”

“Alright.”

Giving a short response, Zhu Lan headed to her room.

The room was small and the furnishings were simple.

There was only a bed and a dressing table.

There was a bowl on the dressing table, but no water in it.

However, Zhu Lan didn’t pay much attention to these things.

Sigh, life forced one’s hand.

Along the way, she had used “the sky as her quilt and the earth as her bed.”

A person’s endurance really was something forced out by circumstances.

If not pushed, a person wouldn’t even know how easily satisfied and how low-maintenance they could be.

The hot water was delivered quickly.

Zhu Lan bathed and changed her clothes, finally feeling much more refreshed.

In the storage ring she had snatched from the male protagonist, there happened to be quite a lot of silver shards, which was more than enough for basic living expenses.

It also happened to contain a bamboo hat, changes of male clothing, and a pile of junk that Zhu Lan couldn’t name.

She would recover for a few days before deciding what to do.

Zhu Lan entered a state of cultivation.

…

When she opened her eyes again, night had already fallen.

Unfortunately, that time she had entered a cultivation state for an entire month was due to a sudden breakthrough after long accumulation.

Now, she could no longer enter such an immersive state.

After all, Zhu Lan was still only at the Qi Condensation stage and couldn’t yet fast.

She couldn’t go without eating or drinking, nor could she spend all her sleeping time on cultivation.

So, she planned to head downstairs to find some food.

“I gave you so much money, and this is the meat you serve me?”

Just as Zhu Lan reached the stairs, she heard a man’s gruff and angry voice.

“And this wine?! Even a dog would turn up its nose at it!”

This was immediately followed by a loud crash, the sound of a porcelain bowl being smashed on the floor.

Below the attic area.

The waiter wore a smile and said ingratiatingly, “Brave hero, supplies are scarce in our village and it’s hard to get stock. We can’t have feasts like they do in the outside world. I can guarantee on my life that the food you’re eating today is the best in this village!”

“Bullshit!”

This bearded man was clearly not as easy-going as Zhu Lan.

He spat and said contemptuously, “If your food counts as the best in the village, I, Huang Qin, will write my name backward!”

Much of the waiter’s smile faded.

“Then, in the hero’s opinion, how should this be handled?”

“For this kind of quality, you naturally can’t charge me. However, I can still accept the wine. There aren’t many options in this remote wilderness anyway, so bring me two more bowls.”

The bearded man slapped down some silver shards.

The smile on the waiter’s face vanished completely.

“Guest, these silver shards aren’t enough to buy even a mouthful of wine. Also, our shop’s bowl was a gift from the emperor of the previous dynasty, passed down for three generations. You smashed it today, so you have to pay.”

“How much do I have to pay?”

A contemptuous grin spread across the man’s face as he looked at the waiter teasingly, wanting to make a fool of him.

The waiter reached out and opened his palm, revealing a smile.

“Five hundred taels of silver.”