"Feng Xing, you don't need to go out there. Why don't we live simply in the village, even though we have so little, it's still better than endangering yourself out there."
"No, mom. What's the point of living if you don't take risks? Don't worry, I think I have talent in cultivation, believe me! When I return, I will be an immortal!"
Spring comes too early to some, too late to others. But to Feng Xing, it always comes just in the right time. He was born in spring when the snow had melted and the flowers started budding competitively to blossom.
His mother once mentioned that the winter before his birth was the most difficult winter in decades, she thought she would die and carry out two souls to the underworld tragically. But the spring afterward was the most beautiful and hopeful spring in her entire life, and he was also born right on that spring. She always playfully said Feng Xing carried the spring when he was born, which always warmed Feng Xing's heart.
On the spring of his tenth birthday, he recalled his past life in its entirety. On the spring of his fifteenth birthday, he sets out to find somewhere to learn cultivation for immortality.
In his past life, Feng Xing did not live in this world. He had lived in a blue planet called Earth with advanced technology and development. He did not live long in that life, but the knowledge of the entire world could be easily accessed so he knew a lot of things from that world. In this world, he had only learned that one could cultivate when he was ten years old from a bigger town, and when he was eleven, he also met a group of young cultivators passing by. Since then, Feng Xing had been dreaming of setting out and getting accepted into a famous sect like in the webnovels he read in his previous life.
Feng Xing's mind is broad. He dreams big. He read countless webnovels before he died in his previous life, and he has full faith that with this healthy body, he could do anything.
Madam Feng, Shui Lan, gazes at her optimistic son with a heart full of reluctance to let him go. To her, it feels like just a week ago that she gave birth to this boy on the first day of spring, but in a blink, he stands in front of her with his vibrant, youthful energy, asking for her blessing again before leaving.
However, no matter how reluctant Madam Feng is, deep down she always knows Feng Xing is never meant to live in this isolated village and be a common farmer just as his ancestors were. Ever since he was ten, Feng Xing has been yearning to explore and has displayed a shocking degree of cleverness. He is destined for a bigger life, and Madam Feng couldn't bear to keep that from him.
Sensing his mother's dilemma, Feng Xing grabs her hand, squeezing the calloused, wrinkled hand that has sacrificed so much to raise him. "Mom, I will be fine. Actually, I won't return once I'm an immortal, that's too long." He grinned playfully. "Once I find a master or get strong enough, I will return. Your son is filial and will never forget mom and dad's difficulty in raising me."
"What are you saying, kid? It's not difficult at all," Madam Feng rebukes, unable to hold back her tears.
"That's right, you're making your mom sad again. It's never difficult raising you, it's just an extra mouth to feed," Father Feng, Feng Zhu, says indifferently. Contrary to Madam Feng, the family head doesn't look all that concerned that his eldest son wants to leave and explore the world. In his eyes, men are meant to go and find themselves to grow up.
Hearing her husband's indifferent words, Madam Feng glares at him and elbows his side ruthlessly. "If you can't speak kind things, then don't speak!"
Father Feng winces a little, gazing at his wife in panic. "My dear, I didn't mean..."
Feng Xing covers his mouth and snorts, relishing his father's suffering. Naturally, Father Feng hears him and glares at him. Father Feng can't be harsh to Madam Feng, but he can afford to scold Feng Xing.
"What are you laughing at?!"
Feng Xing arches his brows innocently. "I didn't."
The sad mood immediately fades, and Madam Feng no longer feels suffocated by sadness after the father and son joke around. She strokes Feng Xing's handsome youthful face with her free hand. She seems to want to imprint her son's current image into her mind. "Alright, please be careful out there. But remember, it doesn't matter if you become a cultivator or not, as long as you come home safe, that's all I could wish for."
Feng Xing smiles. "I know."
Madam Feng lets go of Feng Xing's face and puts her hand over his. "I wish you to never lose your faith, my son."
Madam Feng and Father Feng see him off. It is a short walk, to Father Feng this is an expected outcome from having a son, to Feng Xing this is the true start of his second life, to Madam Feng she's sending off her baby to true harsh adulthood. Life in the village and outside of it are very different. Nobody is sure how safe it is out there, and Feng Xing's goal is to practice cultivation. It is inevitable that he will try to go to places with opportunities to find a sect or a master.
In the land of opportunity, there will also be danger. But Feng Xing doesn't worry about this. No pain, no gain. He is not some naïve child who doesn't know the risk of achieving greatness.
With a sack carrying his clothes and provisions, Feng Xing makes his way down the path to the wilderness with familiarity. Lybreeze Village, the village where he was born, is surrounded by forest with a lot of flora and fauna. He grows up making the forest his playpen, so he's not clueless on where to go.
Instead, the further he goes from his home, the giddier he becomes. He's leaving a simple mortal life to cultivate and become immortal. The world out there is the legendary cultivation world.
Power! Greatness! Richness! As long as one has the might, one is right! As long as one has the talent, one can be powerful!
As someone with the memory of his previous life, Feng Xing is optimistic about his own potential. Even if he might not be as monstrous as protagonists in many cultivation novels he read, he couldn't be as bad as well. Clearly, he's special and retains his previous life's memory. Even though the memory of his previous life is not all that great or long, it should still count as something special.
After a two-day journey, he reaches a neighbouring town. Green Peace town is much more developed compared to Feng Xing's hometown;, its size is also about ten times that of Lybreeze Village. Lybreeze village mostly depends on farming for income, but Green Peace town is a city of commerce. Merchants make stops in Green Peace town, and the surrounding villages and smaller towns will come to Green Peace town to sell their produce, boosting the economy.
Feng Xing has visited Green Peace town multiple times in the past when he and his father are recruited to help out bringing sacks of grain for sale from the village. This place is also where Feng Xing learned that this world is a world of cultivation.
Growl...~
Feng Xing touches his stomach but his mouth still waters traitorously when he breathes in mixture of tantalizing scents of food from nearby restaurants. He curses silently in his heart, believing this is the goal of the restaurants' owners to ensnare exhausted travellers right after they step through the gate.
The main street is littered with food stalls and restaurants. Even if someone doesn't feel hungry before, once they walk down this street they will feel starved. Feng Xing quickens his pace, having easier time to speed up because his bag is lighter. But his bag is lighter because he ran out of provisions...
Growl~~~~
Feng Xing swallows. He feels around his belt and touches his money pouch. He has about seven hundred coins saved up from years doing odd jobs around the village. His parents had given him extra before he left, but he secretly put it back in their room because he couldn't bear seeing his parents sacrifice more for him and his journey to immortality.
"Forget it. This is mundane money. Once I cultivate, this will lose its worth anyway." Feng Xing brightens up once he solves his dilemma and walks to a stall that sells steamed buns. "Uncle, give me three. I'm starving."
"Sure, sure, three coming up soon!" The middle-aged slightly plump man finds time to respond to Feng Xing while quickly serving other customers before him. "Twenty coins."
"Here. Quickly, I'm in a hurry!" The customer in fancy elegant robe hands him the money surreptitiously and tries to snatch the buns quickly, but the peddler quickly pulls them back.
"Young man, don't try to cheat me, you're short two coins."
"W-what? Don't mess around, you don't even count it. Count it properly!"
"Then, count it, count it properly yourself, I'm busy with honest customers behind you!"
In seconds, Feng Xing's three buns are wrapped. "Thirty coins."
Feng Xing counts and hands over exactly thirty coins. The peddler doesn't even count the coins, he only weighs them in his palm with two bounces. He then hands over the wrapped buns to Feng Xing and then tosses the coins into a clay jar. Feng Xing's eyes widen in amazement and interest.
At the same time, the young man accused of cheating money looks at Feng Xing and the peddler in disbelief. "You believe this dirty country bumpkin without counting his money and you accused me?!"
Feng Xing arches his brows at the arrogant man, clueless as to how he got dragged into the conflict between him and the bun peddler.
The plump peddler tosses the fancily dressed customer a dirty look. "This dirty bumpkin is at least honest! It's exactly thirty coins. Have you counted yours yet?!"
Feng Xing turns and gapes at the peddler. 'Why are you insulting me too?!' he frowns. He looks down at himself and doesn't find anything overtly inappropriate on his clothes. At most, it's just a little dusty and worn.
The peddler and the arrogant customer continue to argue. Instead of leaving, Feng Xing unwraps his steamed bun and starts eating there while watching them argue. Being insulted does not feel nice, at the very least, he should see them both embarrass themselves while he watches. "Sir, why don't you just count the money? You can count, right?" Feng Xing smirks.
The arrogant man glares at Feng Xing in contempt. "This has nothing to do with a bumpkin like you."
"You know I have nothing to do with it, why did you drag me into it earlier?" Feng Xing mocks.
"Can you just count to the side? Other people want to buy some buns too!" Another customer scolded the nicely-dressed man.
"Just count it!"
Under the pressure of many dissatisfied people, the coins are counted again, and it is exactly eighteen out of the twenty coins needed for two steamed buns. The arrogant man's face reddens in embarrassment and anger. He tosses two more coins and leaves hastily.
Feng Xing turns to look at the peddler in amazement. "How do you know he's short two coins without counting them?"
The peddler snorts. "I've been selling steamed buns for thirteen years, I can weigh coins to count how much in my hand."
"Amazing!" Feng Xing takes another bite to finish his first steamed bun. "It turns out you're a master in trade! I thought you were a cultivator with a special technique."
The peddler hollers with laughter. His slightly plump belly trembles and spasms with humor. "If I can cultivate, I will be traveling with a sword on my back and not stuck here selling steamed buns, kid!"
Feng Xing's eyes brighten up. "Do you know anything about cultivation, old man?"
"Who are you calling old?" The peddler rebukes Feng Xing with a contemptuous look. "I don't know a lot about cultivation, I only know how to make delicious steamed buns."
"Then, do you know if there's any public library here?"
"You go down this street, then turn left, keep walking until you find another big street, and turn right."
Feng Xing thanks him hastily and resumes his next destination to familiarize himself with this world's cultivation system. On the way to the library, he sees the bustling luxury of Green Peace town, keeping his eyes and ears open to any possible useful information or to even just watch himself out so he doesn't become an unsuspecting victim of a pick-pocket.
What he doesn't know is that, with his dull and worn attire, no pickpocket would even look his way.
Feng Xing finds himself safely in the library and pays a fee of twenty coins to even enter the building. Once inside, he asks a pretty librarian where books about cultivation are. She looks him up and down, laughs mockingly, and points to the corner.
"There. Make sure you don't damage the precious books, or you will have to pay for it. Each book is very precious and expensive."
"Got it."
"Also, the library is full during this time of the day, and those old books about cultivation can't be brought out from their area. So, you can sit on the floor to read them." She sneers behind her dainty hand.
"Okay!" Feng Xing gives her a thumbs-up with a grin and skips to the corner without any emotional burden.
The woman snorts and rolls her eyes with disgust at Feng Xing's ignorant appearance. "Another ignorant bumpkin."
Feng Xing conscientiously browses through the books on the corner shelf and only finds about five serious cultivation books; the rest are story books about cultivation which will not be helpful at all. He sits on the floor for hours, reading.