Chapter One: Heaven's First Floor

  Inside Xi Lu City, the scene was as lively as ever. The Tian Yi Building was still bustling with business, and the shop was filled with people coming and going, their voices rising and falling in a cacophony of sound. Smiles crossed paths, tongues wagging in conversation, as large quantities of spiritual materials and crystals changed hands. Some people were overjoyed, their faces flushed with excitement, while others hung their heads in despair, sighing in disappointment. The full range of human emotions was on display, each one visible on the faces of these cultivators.

  It seems that no one has noticed, a young man who grew up from childhood to adulthood here, playing under these counters every day, has left Tianyi Building and gone to another place.

  Shen Tai returned to the front hall of the shop once again, walking with his hands behind his back. Although he was dressed in ordinary clothes and didn't have any extraordinary or majestic air about him, there was a hint of a lion lazily surveying its territory on the desolate plains as he looked at the shop's main hall.

  Wherever he went, those busy fellows, whether male or female, all bowed their heads and greeted him with respect. Shen Tai also had no arrogant expression on his face, but a smile, slightly nodding his head. Even though there were many scattered cultivators, because they often came to the Tianyi Building, they recognized this fat boss, and they all smiled and greeted Shen Tai, who also responded with a smile one by one, harmonious and gentle, making people feel like a spring breeze.

  After turning around, Shen Tai finally turned back and walked to the counter on the west side where a row of long spiritual materials were purchased. He chatted with one of the old men with white hair in a low voice, his face also looked quite relaxed. After that, he reminded the old man a few words, and after the old man nodded in agreement, he smiled and turned around to leave through the back door, heading towards the back hall.

  The lively noise faded away, gradually becoming inaudible, and the smile on Shen Tai's face also slowly disappeared, his complexion turning somewhat pale. As he walked past a pavilion in the small garden, his footsteps paused slightly, his gaze lingering for a moment between the pavilions, silently pondering something, before continuing to move forward, heading deeper into the courtyard.

  In the spring light, the flower shadows danced and gently covered his short and stout figure.

  On the long Horse Hoof Street, passing monks hurried along, and in this season that should have been bright and beautiful, everyone seemed to have a good vision and hope for their future. On the street, large and small shops were still open, making a lot of money from the scattered cultivators who had worked hard to earn spiritual crystals, among which the two most popular ones were naturally Tianyi Building and Shenxianhui's branch in Xilu City, standing opposite each other on both sides of Horse Hoof Street.

  Unlike Tianyi Tower, which rose to fame in the past decade, the immortal gathering of Hongmeng Continent has a more profound appearance. The exterior of this Xilu City branch on Mati Street does not have the same luxurious grandeur as Tianyi Tower across the street, but it exudes an air of solemnity and majesty that makes one think of the glorious and long history of this massive commercial empire upon first glance. In comparison, Tianyi Tower across the street has a somewhat nouveau riche flavor to it.

  At this moment, a seemingly ordinary plain white note was sealed in an empty envelope and passed through the back door of the Fairy Gathering Branch. The person who received it only took a glance at the chrysanthemum-shaped mark on the corner of the envelope, and immediately turned pale, quickly walking up the stairs to the third floor, which was the highest level, via a quiet and deserted path, and knocked on the only door here.

  The envelope was handed over, the door closed again, footsteps hurried, figures flashed by, and in no time, this unremarkable letter quickly reached the hands of a person standing by the window overlooking the street, silently gazing out.

  She is a strong yet quiet woman.

  Her hair was piled high on her head, with a phoenix hairpin holding a pearl in place. Her thin lips and delicate nose were complemented by bright, shining eyes. From behind, she appeared gentle and elegant, but as soon as one saw her face, they discovered that this woman had a sharp, knife-like aura hidden beneath her calm demeanor. She was no longer the naive girl of seventeen or eighteen years old, but rather a mature and beautiful woman in her prime. Her eyes sparkled, her figure was slender and delicate, and she stood by the window in a pale green silk dress, revealing a hint of white skin at her chest, with the faint outline of a woman's curves visible beneath.

  In this city that is always gloomy, she was as beautiful as a peony in full bloom, dense and dazzling, making people dare not look directly.

  Her slender hands, white as jade, opened the small note, her bright eyes scanning the simple words on it. The woman took a deep breath and lifted her head again, gazing at the bustling shop across from her.

  Then, she slowly revealed a cold smile. At that moment, her beauty was like a sharp blade, quietly flashing its edge in the bustling streets, unknown to anyone.

  At the same time, the short and stout man who had personally created the prosperous scene of Tianyi Building was not in the store, but had quietly gone to a certain unremarkable street alley outside Ma Ti Street, with his hands in his sleeves and a calm expression, looking like an ordinary and unremarkable person, walking quietly towards the depths of the alley.

  In front of you is a secluded courtyard, with a wooden gate slightly ajar, and a faint scent of blood.

  The hustle and bustle of Xi Lu City, in this quiet alley, seemed to have quietly gone far away, as if it were in another world. And from the bustling place where Shen Tai came from, he stood at the door of the butcher's house, his eyes slightly narrowed, as if carefully examining everything here, then gently pushed open the ajar door and walked in.

  As the wooden door opened, the smell of blood seemed to intensify. At the entrance, on the bluestone floor of the small courtyard, although it had been rinsed with clear water, some stone seams and corners still showed scattered bloodstains, a deep, dark red that was piercing to the eye.

  The yard is not big, with a hall on the front and right sides. The butcher who used to slaughter pigs in this yard was nowhere to be seen at the moment, nor did he know where he had gone.

  Shen Tai paused for a moment at the door, without calling out to anyone or hesitating in any way, and then stepped towards the room on the right. The doors and windows were all open, with sunlight shining in from outside, making it look very bright and spacious.

  In the center of the room, there was a round table, a recliner, and two or three round stools beside it. They all looked somewhat old-fashioned, but still sturdy and practical. Amidst their simplicity, they exuded an air of ordinary life.

  Shen Tai walked over, sat down directly on the recliner, and leaned his stout body back, causing the recliner to creak out a few "creaks" as it swayed back and forth, shaking with this fat man. Shen Tai closed his eyes, revealing a relaxed and contented expression.

  At this time, the footsteps suddenly came from outside the house, and a tall and strong figure appeared at the door. It was the butcher who had just talked to Shen Shi in this house not long ago. When he saw that there was an extra fat man on the couch in the room for no reason, his face did not show any unusual surprise, but only slightly frowned, walked over silently, pulled a stool beside Shen Tai, and sat down.

  "Bang", a light sound, but Shen Tai casually tossed over a small cloth bag, which fell on the table, while Baozi's eyes seemed to still not have any intention of opening, still closing them lazily and comfortably, only murmuring: "Where is my son?"

  The butcher looked at him, took the bag, opened it casually, and a crisp and pleasant sound like beautiful jade hitting each other came out, accompanied by a piece of gorgeous light. Under the beautiful light, there were dozens of Lingjing, which was the most important in the Xiu Zhen world, each crystal clear and flawless, like the most precious gemstones, emitting moving colors.

  The butcher stretched out his coarse, calloused hand and grasped a handful of crystal, a rare smile spreading across his face. After a moment, he put the crystal back in the cloth bag, glanced at the fat man on the couch, and said, "I just killed two pigs, I'm a bit tired, so I'll let him go to the back and wash up and rest for a while, then he'll come over."

  "Hmm." Shen Tai closed his eyes, his body gently rocking back and forth on the recliner.

  The butcher let out a low, husky "hmm", his voice still somewhat subdued and gravelly, as if he was speaking from the bottom of a jar. Perhaps thinking of something, the butcher's gaze swept towards the courtyard skywell, and after a moment of silence, he suddenly spoke up:

  "What's wrong with you, wanting me to secretly approach him all these years and teach him such cruel and bloody things?"

  The recliner under Shen Tai suddenly fell silent.

  The butcher looked at him and said, "Those vassal families under the Xuan Yin Gate, their financial resources are far inferior to yours, but every family with a child who has some talent is cherished like a treasure. You have only one son, why don't you take good care of him? Instead, you make him get involved in these things from a young age and force him to learn this and that, identify goods and materials, even if he can't practice Taoist magic before the age of 12, you still force him to draw those Yin Yang Wu Xing symbols, which are obviously inferior magic."

  Shen Tai slowly got up from the recliner, looked at the butcher, and the butcher looked back at him without any evasiveness in his eyes. After a moment, Shen Tai turned around, put his hands behind his back, and walked to the door to look outside. In the small courtyard, four walls surrounded a small patch of sky above the well, and he was like a small frog at the bottom of the well, looking up at the vast sky, with only a small piece of cloud and blue sky in sight.

  The short and stout man suddenly smiled, then turned his head to look at the butcher, saying: "Because I'm too weak."

  The butcher furrowed his brow.

  "I'm too weak, so weak that even with the current situation, I'm still living in fear of losing everything at any moment. I'm afraid that one day I'll wake up and everything will be taken away from me effortlessly." Shen Tai's expression was calm and composed, as if he were talking about someone else's affairs, quietly smiling as he looked at the butcher.

  "I have a small family business that's not worth much, but I still want to pass it down to Xiaoshi, so I'm worried that someone will take advantage of this little thing and take it away. That's why I often can't sleep at night. So I think, Xiaoshi mustn't be as weak as me in the future. Having seen blood, having taken lives - although not human lives, but still, he'll have a stronger temperament, a bolder heart; he'll understand more things, recognize more spiritual materials, even if they seem insignificant and useless now, but in the future, when he cultivates, it will be useful to some extent."

  The butcher suddenly let out a cold laugh and said, "Those famous sects and aristocratic families' geniuses who have never seen bloodshed, in the same realm, I can kill two or three of them by myself."

  Shen Tai smiled slightly, not taking it to heart, and said lightly: "My Tao is too poor, I can't teach him anything on the path of cultivation, what I can do is just these things."

  The butcher fell silent for a moment, but then suddenly sighed and said: "What you say makes some sense, but the things you've done to your son over the years, both openly and secretly, are really too much for a child. Even I have found it hard to watch at times, and I worry that this kid won't be able to hold on."

  Shen Tai walked to the edge of the table, picked up a transparent and sparkling spirit crystal, his face seemed to flash with a hint of melancholy, yet also carried a few more affectionate and loving feelings, he chuckled softly and muttered to himself:

  "It's okay, he has made it to today safely. The hardships he experienced in the past are just hoping that someday, he will have some reward for himself."

  Let's update at 10 am tomorrow instead.