Duobao Pavilion

However, the Many Treasures Pavilion truly lived up to its reputation as the store with the best credibility.

The price they charged wasn't much different from what Lin Xiao had found out through various inquiries.

One thousand two hundred and fifty spirit stones.

A deposit of two hundred spirit stones was paid first, with delivery in five days.

The shopkeeper of the Many Treasures Pavilion was surnamed Zhong. His cultivation was at the mid-Foundation Establishment realm. He looked to be in his fifties, with slightly graying temples, presenting himself as an amiable middle-aged man.

It was early morning, a time when there were few customers.

Even the highly reputable Many Treasures Pavilion was no exception; Lin Xiao was the only customer inside during this early hour.

Shopkeeper Zhong clicked his abacus to keep the accounts while occasionally looking up at Lin Xiao. Seeing his young age and the fact that he couldn't detect any cultivation base from him, he smiled kindly and said:

"Young Daoist, you've come at the right time. Our pavilion's convoy is currently preparing to return via Heart-Questioning City. I have already sent a message over. In five days, your Heart-Questioning Stone will definitely arrive."

Lin Xiao found this speed acceptable.

After all, Senior Liao was currently resting and recuperating.

If he had to ask for directions all the way there, find the Heart-Questioning Cliff, and go down to fetch the stone himself, who knew how much effort it would take.

Besides, he had just earned an unexpected windfall. He could completely afford these thousand-plus spirit stones, so it was better not to run around aimlessly.

After all, he was just a little nobody at the Foundation Establishment stage.

If he ran around and happened to encounter some immortals fighting, becoming collateral damage would not be pleasant at all.

"Alright, thank you, Shopkeeper Zhong. I will come back in five days."

Lin Xiao casually browsed around the Many Treasures Pavilion and prepared to take his leave.

Hearing this, Shopkeeper Zhong nodded and said:

"Take care, young Daoist."

Lin Xiao bid his farewell and walked out.

He didn't expect the shopkeeper of this five-hundred-year-old Many Treasures Pavilion to be so amiable in treating others.

But it made sense. For an ordinary shop, unless you were selling something completely unique and strictly necessary for everyone, under fierce competition, assuming guaranteed product quality and fair prices, the one with the better service attitude would inevitably be more competitive.

If their Lingxian Sect opened this kind of shop in the future, they would also need to pay attention to improving these potential competitive edges...

Early morning was the time when most cultivators practiced their breathing exercises, so there weren't many cultivators on the streets.

However, there were a great many mortals.

A wide variety of breakfast stalls were neatly set up in a row along both sides of the street.

Among the coming and going crowds, some would stop at a certain stall, either sitting straight down and loudly shouting to the boss, "Bring a portion over here too," or instructing the boss to pack a few items to go.

There were also various vegetable farmers passing by, people going to the public wells in the alleys to fetch water, peddlers walking through the streets selling small trinkets, and carts dragging large buckets to collect night soil...

This was clearly the cultivation world, a place where cultivators walked everywhere.

But at this moment, the entire street seemed to be covered by an aura of ordinariness, with no trace of the supernatural seeping through.

Mortals still had to go to the public wells in the city to fetch drinking water. Moreover, perhaps because the city was not entirely populated by mortals, there were actually far fewer public wells here than in the several counties and prefectural cities Lin Xiao had visited before.

People seemed to be in a hurry, wanting to take advantage of the early morning to finish all the tasks that required them to leave their homes for the day, as if the early morning was the only time that truly belonged to them.

It was an ordinary morning, as if the fantastical matter of cultivation didn't actually exist in this world.

With his thoughts flying everywhere, Lin Xiao walked on the bustling street. He observed the various people doing all sorts of things while enjoying the cozy solitude amidst the crowd.

It was very magical.

This was clearly a world of cultivation.

Yet the feeling this morning gave Lin Xiao was so ordinary and full of mundane vitality.

It was as if there was an invisible chasm separating cultivation and the mundane.

Completely dividing the two.

He couldn't help but think of his previous life, the twenty to thirty years he had lived.

From childhood to adulthood, technological progress had been gradually and steadily improving his life.

He felt that, in essence, cultivation and technology were actually the same.

Humanity invented, created, and then changed themselves, changed their surroundings, until they changed the world.

Cultivation should be like this too.

Acquiring the ability to create diversity, and then making one's surroundings diverse and prosperous.

He didn't know what other cultivators thought, but he felt that doing so was truly meaningful.

He hoped that in the future, his hometown, Xiushui Village, could become prosperous and wealthy because of their Lingxian Sect, and that people's lives could become rich and colorful...

As Lin Xiao walked and pondered, he suddenly felt the Origin Heart Sutra within his body begin to circulate rapidly.

The overwhelming urge to meditate and cultivate washed over him. He immediately hurried back to the inn, swiftly closed the door, activated the isolation array, and sat on the futon to meditate and cultivate.

This session of cultivation lasted for two whole days.

When he finally finished cultivating and opened his eyes on the morning of the third day, he saw Liao Pantu sitting at the table opposite him, calmly holding a teacup and savoring the tea.

"Finished cultivating?"

"Yes."

Lin Xiao didn't even need to open his status panel to know that these two days of cultivation had caused his cultivation base to surge by a large margin again.

Although there was still a long way to go before reaching the late-Foundation Establishment stage.

But it had been less than a month since he advanced to the mid-Foundation Establishment stage.

Therefore, he was not in a hurry at all and was extremely satisfied with his cultivation progress.

After all, he was currently traveling away from home.

Didn't he see that young master who was in his thirties and at the early-Foundation Establishment stage being hailed as a heaven-chosen genius?

He had just turned twelve a few months ago.

It was just that his height was shooting up a bit too fast.

Lin Xiao was genuinely afraid that if he kept growing, he would turn into a little giant.

So he opened his mouth and asked Senior Liao:

"Senior, my height won't keep growing crazily like before, will it?"

Hearing this, Liao Pantu found it somewhat amusing and asked him:

"What? Is growing taller a bad thing? Are you unhappy about it?" Saying that, he didn't wait for Lin Xiao to answer and continued:

"Alright, put your mind at ease. This is just because you are young and at the age of physical growth. Your cultivation base shot up too high all at once, and under the nourishment of rich spiritual energy, your body grew fast. But everyone's physical limit is fixed. Once you grow to the height your body is adapted to, it will naturally stop growing."

Hearing Senior Liao's explanation, Lin Xiao felt much more relieved.

His current height was a bit exaggerated, already catching up to how tall he was in high school in his previous life.

After putting his mind at ease, Lin Xiao asked Liao Pantu:

"Senior, what happened to you before? Why did you need to rest for three whole days? Are you feeling unwell?"

Knowing he would ask about this, Liao Pantu took a sip of tea and answered:

"It's nothing, you don't need to worry. The bottom of that pool was the lair of a few Silver-Tailed Mother Fishes. Those Mother Fishes seemed to be guarding the secret realm key there. But what could a few fishes do to a soul body like me? So they could only watch helplessly as I took the secret realm key away."