Could this be a scam

After saying goodbye to the aunt, the two had not walked far when the next family came out to greet them.

It was clear that the villagers had overheard their earlier conversation with the woman, so the families further down the line no longer asked Lin Xiao to come in and sit for a chat. Instead, they came straight out of their homes bearing armfuls of food.

The wicker basket in Lin Xiao's arms had already been full to begin with, and now the pile of offerings was not just heaped high above the rim — the whole stack was practically propped up against his chest to keep from spilling.

By the time He Yi followed Lin Xiao out of the alley, he could no longer even see Lin Xiao's face, it was completely hidden behind the mountain of food.

He could not help but wonder why on earth Lin Xiao did not just store the items in a storage pouch. Could their Lingxiao Sect be so destitute that even the sect leader did not own a single storage pouch?

Luckily, this awkward situation only lasted until they left the narrow alley.

When the two reached a secluded, unoccupied corner nearby, Lin Xiao finally pulled out a storage pouch and tucked all the food inside. Sealed ring artifacts and the like were not something suitable for He Yi to see just yet.

Watching his actions, He Yi furrowed his brow and asked,

"Why didn't you put them away earlier?"

Lin Xiao, who had just finished stowing the food, pulled out two freshly steamed glutinous corn cobs that were still glistening with residual steam. He stuck one in his mouth, held the other out to He Yi, and spoke with his words slightly muffled around the corn,

"When I'm carrying all the things they gave me, all piled up full and heavy, it makes them happy to see that."

Confused, He Yi took the corn he was offered by instinct. He took a few steps forward alongside Lin Xiao, then stared down at the cob in his hands, his frown deepening.

"What benefit could this mortal food possibly hold for us cultivators?"

It did smell faintly pleasant and warm, he had to admit.

But it had not a trace of spiritual energy in it. If he ate it, he would just have to expel it later. Even though that process was effortless, there was simply no point to it.

"It's delicious, of course! The corn grown by Second Aunt's family is the best in the whole village. Every time she steams a batch, the scent drifts all across the village. Hurry up and try it, it really is that good!" Lin Xiao said as he quickly finished the first corn cob in his hand, then pulled another one out of the storage pouch to keep eating.

Seeing He Yi staring at the corn in his hands with a tight, unsmiling look on his face, Lin Xiao urged him,

"What are you looking at? It doesn't have flowers growing on it. Just eat it before it gets cold."

He Yi gave him a look that said he did not know what to make of this situation, but still brought the corn to his mouth and took a tiny bite.

He had been relying entirely on Bigu Pills to sustain himself for years, devoting all his time to cultivation and researching talisman crafting. He had not eaten any actual food in that stretch of time, not even spirit food, because he thought taking the time to eat was a waste. The small amount of spiritual energy he could get from eating spirit food would never compare to what he could gain by spending that same time cultivating.

So when the warm food hit his tongue after so long, his chewing movements were slow and clumsy, like he had forgotten how to do it.

But that slow, careful chewing was exactly what let the soft, hot kernels of corn break open under his teeth. The tender, sweet flesh inside flooded his mouth, warm and fragrant.

It really was... quite good.

They walked on in silence after that, and He Yi slowly, carefully ate every last kernel off his cob.

He stared down at the bare, empty cob in his hand for a moment, stunned. The tip of his tongue brushed unconsciously against his teeth...

He wanted more.

But he was too embarrassed to ask Lin Xiao for another.

It was then that he realized Lin Xiao had led him to a low hill on the edge of the village.

The hill was not tall, but it was high enough to give them a full view of the entire village spread out below.

Lin Xiao sat down cross-legged on a flat patch of ground at the top of the hill, then pulled a piece of linen cloth out of his storage pouch and spread it on the grass. He tipped the whole wicker basket of food out onto the cloth.

He gestured to the empty space on the other side of the cloth and said to He Yi,

"Sit."

Then he waved a hand at the spread of food beside him.

"Help yourself, don't be polite."

After that, he did not look at He Yi again. His face lit up with quiet joy as he gazed down at the village below, where villagers wandered back and forth through the lanes.

"Look at all of them. What's the difference between them and us cultivators?"

He Yi sat down silently, following Lin Xiao's gaze to the scene below.

The sun was dipping low below the horizon. Raw, simple cries of vendors calling out their goods drifted up from the fields, like voices calling to oxen and children to head home for the day.

In the busiest market area of the village, the restaurants, taverns and inns had already lit up their lamps. At the turning point between day and night, those warm lights held all the tiredness and quiet joy of people unwinding after a full day of work.

All around them, smoke curled up from the chimneys of every home, mixed with the faint glow of small oil lamps.

Those lights were nowhere near as bright as the ones in the market. Almost every household only lit one or two lamps, their glow soft and dim. But they were the steady, unwavering beacon guiding every villager who had been out working all day back home.

He Yi watched the scene for a while. A strange, unfamiliar feeling welled up in his chest, one he could not name or make sense of. So he answered based on the beliefs he had always held,

"Mortals do not live as long as cultivators. There are countless things that mortals cannot do, that cultivators can accomplish with a flick of their wrist."

Lin Xiao did not take his eyes off Xiushui Village, and shook his head gently.

"I don't see it that way."

"Cultivators are born from mortal flesh. We just happen to tap into the power of heaven and earth through some path, and stand out from the rest of ordinary people. What makes us so different from the most skilled, talented people in every walk of mortal life?"

He Yi opened his mouth to refute the thought the moment he heard it, but Lin Xiao spoke again before he could get a word out.

"No matter how long your life is, no matter how strong your power is, every living thing born under the sky is just trying their best to live. No one is inherently nobler than anyone else."

"As for the second question the envoy asked me back at the academy," Lin Xiao said as he picked up a small twig and started drawing circles in the dirt, "I have no interest in chasing power and endless desire. I don't care to spend all my time watching other people and comparing myself to them, and I certainly don't want to waste my days scheming about how to push others down to lift myself up."

He finished drawing a few circles, then lifted the twig in his hand and pointed it at the trails of cooking smoke rising from the village, which were almost fading into the dark winter night. His expression was soft, so tender it was almost tangible.

"But I am utterly, completely in love with these tiny, warm sparks of mortal life."

"They make my heart feel so peaceful, so at ease, like nothing else can."

"Everyone has their own desires. My desire is just this, the bustling, warm glow of ten thousand homes with their lamps lit."

He Yi stared at the wisp of smoke the tip of Lin Xiao's twig was pointing to, and his mind went hazy. It felt like he had just grasped some new, important truth.

But before he could dig into it and understand what it meant, the feeling slipped out of his reach.

Somewhere along the way, his eyes had locked onto that single wisp of cooking smoke, and nothing else in the world seemed to matter.

It rose slow and gentle from the ground up, curling soft and light against the sky.

It was so flimsy, so ordinary, and yet it felt like it held a power so great it could cradle the whole world between its strands.

Lin Xiao's voice drifted on beside him,

"So long as I have the power to do it, I will make sure these wispy trails of cooking smoke never go out."

All at once, He Yi felt like the whole world had narrowed down to that single wisp of smoke, and that one sentence, repeating over and over in his head.

"So long as I have the power to do it, I will make sure these wispy trails of cooking smoke never go out."

...

Right before he lost consciousness, He Yi felt something in his sea of awareness shatter, broken apart by those words.

A heavy thud sounded right next to him, and Lin Xiao froze completely, stunned into silence.

He turned to look at He Yi, who was lying flat on his back on the ground, eyes closed, and he could not help but feel a little speechless.

Is this guy hiding some strange illness? Why did he just collapse out of nowhere, no warning at all?

Wait, he couldn't be faking this to extort something from me, right?

Oh no, our sect is completely broke, we can't pay any compensation at all!