Chapter 14: Practice materials
Putting the bamboo cup beneath the dragon"s mouth, Huo Zaiyuan gathers the silver drops of water that drips down. As the amount of liquid in the cup increases, he discovers the spring water is unexpectedly giving off a pretty silvery light. On top of that, the light seems to be giving off a feeling that makes him feel very comforted.
Once the cup is filled to the brim, Hui Zaiyuan returns to where he planted the peach seed, drawing in a deep breath. Bringing the bamboo cup towards his lips, he drinks half of the liquid gathered. The spring water tastes very clear and sweet, spreading an ice-cold feeling inside his mouth. The moment the spring water flows down his throat and into his body, a fantastically bizarre sensation scatters through his entire being.
It was a very splendid feeling, but Huo Zaiyuan doesn"t get carried away and still remembers to pour the other half of the collected spring water over the buried seed.
In a blink of an eye, when the last drop of silvery water drips onto the soil covering the peach seed, a faint vibration goes through the earth. Afterwards, a small sapling emerges from the soil.
"This is too miraculous!" Huo Zaiyuan exclaims, picking up the ancient text to look through it again. The text clearly says once the peach seed germinates, he will be able to begin practising the Taoist arts. His heart somersaulted in his chest due to extreme excitement.
Returning to the bamboo house, he sits in the doorway, cross-legged, following the instructions written on the book and begins cultivating. In the beginning, he feels absolutely nothing. But as time slowly goes by, he gradually begins to sense a warm current unhurriedly moving through his body. Needless to say, it is a very strange sensation to Huo Zaiyuan.
He had initially believed cultivating this Taoist Art will only take him a short while. However, when he next opens his eyes, it is already early morning of the next day. This indeed gave him a shock. It is only a little later that he realises the warm current he felt yesterday is still there, flowing slowly inside his body. Glancing up to look at the peach seed that germinated recently gives him yet another astonishing surprise. The young, tender sapling which only had two small leaves now bears four, and has grown bigger by one inch.
"That…isn"t it growing too quickly too?"
Murmuring lowly to himself, Huo Zaiyuan remembers the instant noodles he cooked yesterday and his empty stomach. Right away, he walks towards the cupboard and picks up that bowl of instant noodles. Originally thinking the entire bowl of noodles would be all bloated after soaking for an entire night, he is proven wrong when not a single strand of noodle seems bloated, and the temperature of the bowl in his hands is enough to scald skin.
Oh my G.o.d…this s.p.a.ce is so broken.
Scuffing down the noodles which act as both dinner and breakfast, Huo Zaiyuan changes into another set of clothes, throwing his backpack over his shoulder and putting his cap on his head, he exits the s.p.a.ce. Returning the room"s key to the hotel"s receptionist, he sets off to start the day"s mission.
The first thing he does is to rent a medium-sized warehouse located in a suburban district, where there is no sign of human habitation. As the items he needs to purchase will actually come to a huge amount, with this warehouse, he will be able to fool people. Once the items are sent to this place, he can put it all into his s.p.a.ce right away. He can also sleep here at night, which will save him a sum of money that would otherwise be used to rent hotel rooms.
Because the business transaction regarding the renting of the warehouse takes place online, costing a thousand dollars for ten days, by the time he arrives at the address given to him by the warehouse"s owners, the other party is already awaiting him at the entrance. Exchanging polite greetings the moment both parties meet, the owner swiftly handed over the warehouse key, reminding Huo Zaiyuan that he will return in ten days to take back the key before leaving.
Immediately after receiving the key, he heads straight to V City"s largest rice marketplace and directly asked to see the supervisor in order to negotiate the cheapest price for white rice and flour. After, he placed a three thousand jin[1] each. This large order visibly gave the supervisor a huge shock.
However, when Huo Zaiyuan handed over the down payment in cash without a second"s hesitation, that supervisor tampered down the flabbergasted feeling, instead happily a.s.suring Huo Zaiyuan that his order will be taken care of. After all, as long as he (supervisor) can receive money, who cares what this little rascal (HZY) want to do with so much rice and wheat flour?
Huo Zaiyuan handed the address of the rented warehouse to the supervisor, allowing him to quickly prepared the order and send it over. Not wasting a minute, he hurries from the rice marketplace to V City"s fruit and vegetable marketplace. Just as he was about to search for the second marketplace"s supervisor, he happens to b.u.mp into an old man selling Chinese cabbage. While other stalls are selling their cabbages for three dollars per jin, this old man instead sells his for half the price.
Don"t know if it is because this elderly"s price is marked too excessively low, although there is quite a lot of people walking around the marketplace, but none was willing to purchase cabbages from the old man. Looking at those green and fresh Chinese cabbages, Huo Zaiyuan"s heart was moved.
Footnotes:
[1] 1 Jin = 2 kilograms