Chapter One: Heaven's First Floor

  Xilu City is located in a strategic location, prosperous and thriving, with many monks coming and going from all directions. It can be said that it is the center of the cultivation world within ten thousand miles. However, as is often the case in the world, geniuses are always in the minority, while ordinary people are numerous. In Xilu City, which has a population of hundreds of thousands, ordinary civilians still make up the majority.

  For ordinary people, cultivators, even those who are struggling the most as loose cultivators in the Cultivation Realm, are still viewed as powerful and revered immortals. They are treated with utmost respect and awe. However, the paths of mortals and immortals are different, and almost all cultivators have a condescending attitude towards ordinary people, while ordinary people often keep their distance from cultivators out of reverence.

  After all, it's said that cultivating immortality and divinity can sometimes lead to one becoming a demonic head or evil spirit. In recent years, the tragic events of demons and evil paths slaughtering ordinary people have not been uncommon. Even within the Yin state borders, although it is considered a remote area in the vast territory of the Hongmeng main domain's ninety-one states, thirty years ago, there was an incident where an evil demon went on a rampage and slaughtered a small city with thousands of people in the northeast of Yin state, leaving no one alive.

  In a city, monks and ordinary people often coexist in a situation where "well water does not offend river water", but there are always some bold individuals who want to do business with those powerful monks in order to gain benefits.

  At this moment, Shen Shi walked along the street and saw many ordinary people standing by the road, casually laying out a piece of cloth on the ground, putting some unknown goods on it, and forming a small stall. They were selling things to the passing monks with great courage. Most of the things they sold were medicinal materials picked from their mountains or old trinkets collected from who-knows-where. With Shen Shi's unique vision cultivated in Tianyi Building, he naturally saw that most of these people's goods were useless items or counterfeit goods, so he just smiled and passed by.

  Listening to the vendors calling out that this is a few pieces of spiritual grass, what kind of rare stone, or holding up a broken incense burner and saying it's a treasure from an ancient immortal's tomb in the deep mountains, also a unique scene in Xilu City.

  After passing through the crowded Ma Ti Street, where monks gather in large numbers, and turning a few more corners, the hustle and bustle quietly disappeared behind me, and the surroundings became much quieter. After all, in the ordinary mortal world, living a peaceful life is the norm.

  Shen Shi had grown up in Xilu City since he was a child, and he was extremely familiar with the city, especially the streets around Mati Street where his family lived. He could walk through them with his eyes closed without getting lost. At this moment, the warm sun was slowly rising, and the various scenes of life on both sides of the road were quietly unfolding before him in the alleys and streets.

  Shen Shi bypassed a few children laughing and playing on the road, turned into a small alley, the entrance was not big, inside were sparse several households, rarely heard human voices, looked very secluded. But Shen Shi seemed to be very familiar with this place, walked all the way to the deepest part of the alley, then smelled a faint bloody smell.

  A somewhat dilapidated door creaked ajar, revealing several small rooms surrounding a courtyard inside. Just as he was about to step forward, the door suddenly let out a sharp and urgent cry, but after a moment, only two low, muffled sounds were heard, "pffft", and the cries abruptly stopped, as if all the sounds had been forcibly stifled.

  The bloody smell in the air seemed to have intensified a bit more.

  Shen Shi smiled and pushed open the door, and saw a burly man standing at the edge of the courtyard, his upper body bare, with muscles bulging like iron castings on his robust physique, just like those terrifying beasts in the wild outside the city walls, giving off an aura of seemingly inexhaustible brute strength.

  At this moment, the big man is half-bent over, with his feet stepping on a fat pig whose four limbs are tightly bound. He is holding a sharp butcher knife in his hand, with blood flowing from the blade, and has just withdrawn it from the pig's throat. The commotion earlier was obviously caused by this man, who looks like a butcher, slaughtering the pig.

  Hearing the noise at the door, Butcher stood up straight and turned his head to look. He saw Shen Shi standing at the door. He didn't show any unusual expression, nor did he think it was unusual for this twelve-year-old boy to see this somewhat bloody scene in front of him. He just nodded slightly.

  Shen Shi glanced at the dead pig on the ground, his face showing no fear or disgust, everything was as usual. He just smiled and greeted the butcher: "Uncle, you're killing pigs so early."

  The butcher grunted, his voice sounding somewhat low and hoarse, and said in a dull tone: "How did you come here?"

  Shen Shi walked up to his side and said with a smile: "My dad asked me to come over and buy some meat."

  The butcher's face suddenly turned cold, and he was silent for a moment before nodding and saying, "Is it today?"

  Shen Shi only felt his throat suddenly a bit dry, and he didn't know if it was tension or the stimulation of the strong bloody smell around him, and said in a low voice: "Yes."

  The butcher looked at him and said, "Come in."

  Shen Shi walked over, looking at him and the butcher, although they didn't say much, but they seemed to have a few points of familiarity between them. The butcher wasn't idle either, on one hand gesturing for Shen Shi to come over, on the other hand using one hand to grab the fat pig on the ground, making a "heh" sound, and actually directly lifted up this several hundred jin heavy big fat pig, casually throwing it aside.

  The ceiling behind, "huffing and puffing" sounds suddenly rang out, one after another.

  The butcher turned around, standing in front of Shen Shi. In terms of physique, he was much stronger than Shen Shi, who was still a young man. He was at least three heads taller, and his arms were as thick as Shen Shi's thighs. Especially with the bloody slaughter knife in his hand, his build exuded an aura of murder that was overwhelming.

  However, Shen Shi looked at him with ease, his eyes scanning the butcher's bloody knife, and instead of fear, he seemed to have a hint of affection for this fierce-looking butcher.

  The butcher looked Shen Shi up and down before suddenly saying: "Take off your clothes."

  "What?"

  The butcher's palm shook, and the sharp gleaming knife turned smoothly between his fingers, flipped over, with the handle facing Shen Shi. All that was heard was his low voice saying indifferently: "Kill two?"

  Shen Shi looked up, gazing at the butcher. The butcher stared back at him expressionlessly. After a moment, Shen Shi suddenly smiled and reached out to take the blood-stained butcher knife. At the same time, he stretched out his hand to unbutton his shirt, smiling as he said:

  "Alright."

  Spring breeze blows over the city of Xi Lu, blowing into the streets and alleys, warm sunshine falls on this quiet place. The small alley is as calm as usual, the old house door is still ajar, but after a while, there is a sudden scream again, followed by a low-pitched sound, with a hint of cold decisiveness, ruthlessly cutting off that scream.

  The wind blew by, and the bloody smell in the alley seemed to thicken a bit.

  "I too have thought of living a life of compromise, holding on to this small stone and enduring the humiliation in silence for the rest of my life." In the faint misty smoke, Shen Tai unknowingly returned to the quiet room where his late wife's spirit tablet was enshrined. Standing alone in front of the incense table, he gazed at the three thin sticks of incense that were about to burn out and spoke softly, "Really, I really have thought this way before."

  He glanced at the spirit tablet, a hint of sadness and bitterness flashing across his face, and said in a low voice: "Am I useless? Am I not like a man at all? Back then, Li Xinghua had ulterior motives for you, but you refused to give in and managed to escape with your life. However, you ended up suffering from a severe illness due to the heavy injury, and eventually passed away after giving birth to Xiaoshi. From start to finish, I knew everything, but I couldn't avenge you, I couldn't do anything, and yet I still have to work hard for Xuanyin Gate, making this Tianyi Building prosperous..."

  The residual fragrance is faint, a few wisps of ash fall down, like a woman's tears.

  "He's a noble-born, with great innate talent, and at such a young age, he's already reached the Condensed Origin Realm. Above him is an ancestor in the Primordial Dan Realm, Li Laoguai, who's like a god. He's a big shot in the entire Yin Province, while we're just ordinary people who can't even pass the Refining Qi Realm. What to do, what to do... After you left, I often couldn't sleep all night, and every time I woke up with a start, my mind was filled with thoughts of you."

  "I want to take revenge, I really do, it's driving me crazy, but every time the sun rises, I still have to put on a smiling face and walk around Tianyi Building, smiling for others to see..."

  "I know that when you were about to leave, you advised me not to think of revenge. They are heaven and we are ants, plus there is also Xiao Shi Tou now. As long as I take good care of my son, it's fine."

  "Xiao Shi Tou is very well-behaved and understanding, I haven't hidden anything from him, I've told him everything. From young to old, I've been strict with him, always making him do things that other children can't do, and he's never complained. Xiao Bai, will you blame me? I know I'm actually useless, it's just that I couldn't protect him, so in order for him to be more independent in the future, I had to harden my heart."

  Unconsciously, a drop of water fell on the incense table, Shen Tai lowered his head to take a look and gently stretched out his hand to wipe away the water mark.

  "I had originally thought that I would work hard on this day, to lay a foundation for the family business, and I really thought there was hope. They even agreed to let Xiaoshi Shou go up the mountain. But... in the end, we are just ants after all. A single sentence from the Li family took away Xiaoshi Shou's disciple status. I know they have been eyeing Tianyi Building for a long time, this treasure pot that earns countless spirit crystals every day. They must have been unable to bear it any longer, right? The disaster is only a flip of the palm away, isn't it?"

  "We're both just ants, but I've thought about it, even if we are ants, they're forcing me like this, not giving me and Xiaoshi a way to live, so I'll fight back with all my might, I won't let them get away with it, or else our lives will be in vain, right?"

  "Xiaobai, you have a wise and knowing heart, please bless me and Xiaoshi."

  The short and stout man rubbed his eyes, then revealed his usual warm smile again, facing the spirit tablet, he chuckled.

  The remaining smoke dispersed, and a faint red glow quietly disappeared. The three sticks of incense in the censer had finally burned out.

  Shen Tai took another step forward, drew three more incense sticks from a box placed on the other side of the incense table, lit them again, and inserted them into the incense burner. Through the slowly rising thin smoke, he looked deeply at the spirit tablet, then turned around and walked out, never looking back.

  In the palm of his hand, clenched into a fist, was an old, worn-out small hourglass, with fine sand flowing silently through it, like those bygone years that had already passed away.

  It's only the second day and there's already a patron... Thank you very much to "Grassroots Master" book friend, this is my first time experiencing being supported like this, thank you to all the supportive book friends, thank you everyone ==! Also, tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock I'll update again, if nothing unexpected happens then I'll try to keep it at this point from now on.