Chương 22: Monkey Steals Peach, Heaven Steals My Patience

The morning sun paints Greenstone City in shades of gold and amber. Light spills over the walls, through the streets, across the rooftops. The city wakes slowly, merchants opening stalls, laborers heading to work, the endless rhythm of twenty thousand lives continuing. I wake Ling'er early and lead her to a bustling breakfast stall near the inn: he kind with steam rising from massive pots, with long benches and hungry customers, with portions hearty enough for laborers and cultivators alike.

"Eat." I push a stack of coins across the counter.

"Eat until you can't eat anymore." The vendor, a round woman with arms like hams, eyes the coins and produces food at astonishing speed. Steamed buns in bamboo baskets. Rice porridge in massive bowls. Pickled vegetables in small dishes. Fried dough twisted into golden spirals. And a plate of meat, glazed and glistening, that costs more than a laborer's daily wage. Ling'er stares at the mountain of food.

"Master, this is... this is too much—""Eat." I cut her off.

"Your body needs fuel. The bloodline burns through calories faster than any normal cultivation. If you don't eat enough, you'll stagnate. So eat." She blinks.

"Calories? What are calories?" I freeze for just a moment. Right. This world doesn't have that term. They measure food in bowls and portions, not in abstract energy units.

"It's an informal term I made up." I wave vaguely.

"For the energy in food. The fuel your body uses. Eat." She accepts this explanation without question and turns to the food. Three steamed buns disappear in as many bites. The porridge vanishes in smooth, efficient spoonfuls. The vegetables, the dough, the meat—all gone in minutes. She eats with focus, with purpose, with the same intensity she brings to everything. The vendor stares. I order more. More buns. More meat. Another bowl of porridge. Ling'er eats that too. The vendor leans toward me, lowering her voice.

"Honored customer... is your servant girl part spirit beast? I've seen Foundation Establishment cultivators eat less than that." I keep my face calm.

"Growing girl. Big appetite." The vendor shakes her head, laughing, and returns to her pots. They've likely seen stranger in the city. By the time Ling'er finally leans back, patting her stomach with a dazed expression, she's consumed enough food for three grown men. Her cheeks are flushed. Her eyes are bright. And I can practically see the qi processing it all, converting matter into energy, fuel into power.

"Good." I rise.

"Back to the inn. Practice reading and writing. There's coin for lunch—get whatever you want. I'll be back by evening." She nods, still looking slightly stunned by the meal, and heads toward the inn with the careful walk of someone who's eaten more than her body weight in food. I turn toward the market, thirty middle-grade stones heavy in my storage ring, and begin the hunt. The outer market is chaos. Crowded stalls packed so tightly you can barely move. Shouting vendors competing to be heard.

Goods piled haphazardly on worn tables—jade slips spilling from boxes, artifacts gathering dust, manuals with torn covers and missing pages. A wiry man with missing teeth grabs my sleeve as I pass.

"Senior! I have exactly what you need!" He waves a jade slip in my face.

"Monkey Steals Peach! Ultimate technique! Guaranteed to make you irresistible to jade beauties!" I stare at him.

"Monkey Steals... Peach?"

"Very rare! Very powerful! Normally one thousand stones, but for you, special price—fifty low-grade!" The Gaze flickers: Monkey Steals Peach - Grade: Garbage Content: A single technique involving grabbing an opponent's genitalia. Purportedly named after a monkey stealing fruit. No cultivation component. Low combat application. The author was clearly joking. Verdict: He's selling you a joke. Don't buy the joke.

"No thank you." I pull my sleeve free and move on. This is where desperate cultivators sell inherited manuals they can't use. Where damaged goods go to die. Where the unwary get cheated and the lucky find gold. I've heard stories of treasures discovered in piles like these—ancient techniques, lost arts, priceless knowledge. Today, I'm hoping to get lucky. I activate the Gaze and begin. First Stall: "Everything 5 Low-Grade!" Jade slips spill from a cracked box, dozens of them, none looking promising.

I pick through them, Gaze flickering: Broken Sword Technique - Grade: Trash Content: Incomplete, missing approximately 70% of content. What remains is basic and poorly explained. Verdict: Worthless. Even as kindling. Common Breathing Method - Grade: F Content: Basic technique for sensing qi. Widely available. You already have three better versions. Verdict: Pass. I move on. Second Stall: "Estate Sale - Cultivator's Collection" Better quality here.

The family of a deceased Foundation Establishment cultivator is selling his belongings; spread across a large table, organized by type. Manuals in good condition. Artifacts that might still function. Materials carefully labeled. I browse, Gaze active. Iron Body Refinement - Grade: Low Content: Physical training method using impacts and meditation. Painful, slow, mediocre results. Takes years for minimal gains. Verdict: Perfect for your disciples if you want them to end up like you.

Three Variations Sword - Grade: Low-Medium Content: Water-aspected sword technique with three core forms. Decent fundamentals, but redundant with Flowing Water Sword. Verdict: Good for disciples, not for Ling'er. Dao of Stillness - Grade: Trash Content: Sit. Do nothing. Continue sitting. Claims to reveal the Dao through absolute inactivity. No guidance on what to do if nothing happens. Verdict: You have been practicing this unintentionally for years. I stare at the jade slip. Then at the Gaze.

Then back at the jade slip. I wordlessly put it down. I move through the stall, picking up manual after manual. Nothing. Low-grade techniques, incomplete methods, things that might help my disciples but won't advance Ling'er's development. The Gaze confirms each assessment with brutal honesty. I sigh. The Gaze flickers: Query: What exactly are you expecting to find in a junkyard? A Heaven-defying technique that everyone missed? A Nascent Soul's legacy hidden in the discount bin?

This is where people sell things they don't want. The things worth wanting aren't here. I shake my head. It's right. I knew it was right. But I had to check. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I move on from the outer market, heading deeper into the city. The inner markets are more expensive, but they have better quality. And somewhere in those stalls, there might be something worth finding. The hunt continues. The inner market is cleaner, quieter, more expensive.

Guarded stores with polished counters and disdainful clerks line the wide boulevards. This is where established cultivators shop, where quality is guaranteed and prices are high enough to make my teeth ache just looking at them. I walk past stores that would have been impossible dreams months ago, my storage ring heavy with stones, my eyes sharp. First Store: "Jade Lotus Pavilion" The clerk looks down his nose at my plain robes.

I'm clearly not his preferred clientele; some minor sect leader from the countryside, come to gawk at things he can't afford. I ignore him and browse. Flowing Cloud Steps - Grade: Medium Movement technique, wind-aspected. 5 middle-grade stones. Verdict: Solid, unremarkable, overpriced. You can find equivalent techniques for half this elsewhere. Eight Desolations Fist - Grade: Medium-High Combat technique, fire-aspected. 12 middle-grade stones. Verdict: Good fundamentals, but rigid.

Requires specific meridian pathways that Ling'er (and the rest of your disciples) don't have. Cosmic Harmony Manual - Grade: High (Claimed) All-element cultivation technique, Foundation to Core. 50 middle-grade stones. Verdict: FRAUD. Technique is incomplete and will damage meridians after 3 years of use. The seller knows. The clerk knows. This is how they make their real profit; selling crippling techniques to desperate cultivators. I almost laugh.

Fifty middle-grade stones for a manual that would destroy anyone who used it. The clerk probably gets a commission. I leave without buying, ignoring his contemptuous sniff. Second Store: "Heaven's Reach Emporium" This one feels different. The moment I step through the door, I sense it. An old woman behind the counter, her aura solidly Foundation Establishment, her eyes sharp with decades of experience. She assesses me as I enter and nods slightly.

"Looking for something specific, cultivator?" I don't bother with small talk.

"A cultivation manual. All-element or adaptable. Quality matters more than price." She gestures to a back shelf without rising.

"Those are our best. Examine carefully—no refunds." I examine. Primal Unity Method - Grade: Medium-High All-element cultivation, Qi Condensation to Core Formation. 25 middle-grade. Verdict: Solid technique, but slow. Designed for patient cultivators with mixed elements who have decades to progress. Ling'er isn't patient, and her elements aren't mixed—they're everything. This would limit her. Heaven and Earth Circulation - Grade: High Balanced yin-yang cultivation.

Guides cultivator from Foundation Establishment to Nascent Soul. 50 middle-grade Verdict: Excellent technique for the right candidate. That candidate is not Ling'er. Her True Dragon Bloodline and Sacred Cosmic Bone would correct it, but it's inherently incompatible. This technique would slow her progress. No other disciple in your sect has the required yin-yang balance to benefit. Void Spirit Scripture - Grade: High (Claimed) Spatial cultivation technique, rare and powerful. 60 middle-grade. Verdict: DANGER.

Technique is demonic: uses others' life force to accelerate cultivation. Morally corrupt, spiritually damaging. Users become dependent on harvesting living beings. The claims of "spatial cultivation" are a cover for the true nature. I step back physically, putting distance between myself and that manual. The old woman watches me with knowing eyes.

"Not to your taste?"

"No." I meet her gaze directly.

"I don't deal in demonic arts."

"... Good answer. Try the corner shelf. Those are the ones I keep for people with sense." These manuals are older, dustier, less prominently displayed. Tucked away in a corner where only discerning customers bother to look. The Gaze shows me why: Crimson Lotus Method - Grade: Medium Fire-aspected, but incomplete. Missing final third. Would require significant adaptation. Ocean's Heart Tides - Grade: Medium Water-aspected, solid but unremarkable. Nothing special. Five Phases Transcendence - Grade:???

The jade is cracked. The title is faded, barely legible. It sits on the shelf like something forgotten, something no one has bothered with in years. I almost pass over it—but the Gaze makes me pause. A warmth. A pull. An instinct. I pick it up. The jade is warm in my hand. Genuinely warm, despite sitting on a cold shelf for who knows how long. Ancient characters crawl across its surface, half-obscured by time and damage. I activate the Gaze.

Five Phases Transcendence - Grade: Undetermined Complete cultivation method from Qi Condensation to Soul Transformation. Covers all five elements (Fire, Water, Earth, Metal, Wood) with extensive notes on adapting to special constitutions. Manual adapts to the reader; content changes based on who reads it, what they need, and what they can handle. Requirements: Blood recognition to unlock fully. Seal is protective, not harmful. Verdict: Priceless. Estimated age 3, 000+ years. Origin unknown.

Predates current cultivation era by at least a millennium. This single manual is worth more than everything else in this store combined. More than the store itself. More than most cultivators will ever see in their lifetimes. The seller has no idea what this is. To them, it's a cracked old jade from an unverified source, probably worthless, taking up space on a corner shelf. My heart stops. Then races. Then stops again. I keep my face perfectly still.

Years of sect leader training, decades of hiding disappointment, hiding hope, hiding everything, serve me well. My expression doesn't change. My breathing doesn't quicken. My hands don't tremble. But inside, I'm leaping up and down like a child. Screaming with joy. Dancing through the streets of my imagination. This is it. This is what I came for. This is what Ling'er and the sect needs. I want to kiss the Gaze. I want to hug it, thank it, apologize for every time I doubted it.

This beautiful, sarcastic, impossible ability just found me a 3, 000-year-old cultivation manual perfectly suited for my reality-shaping disciple. The Gaze Query: Are you emotionally compromised right now? Verdict: You're radiating so much excitement it's almost embarrassing. Please calm down before the shopkeeper notices. I mentally apologize. The Gaze seems creeped out by my sudden affection. Fair enough.

"How much for this one?" I ask casually, holding up the cracked jade. The old woman glances at it, clearly unimpressed.

"That old thing? Been here for decades. No one can read it properly—the text shifts or something, like it doesn't want to be understood. If you want a challenge, 5 middle-grade." Five middle-grade stones. For a Soul Transformation technique that adapts to the reader. For a manual that could guide Ling'er from Qi Condensation to realms I can barely imagine. For a treasure that most cultivators would kill entire sects to possess. I almost feel guilty. Almost.

"I'll take it. And this one." I grab a random fire manual from the shelf: Crimson Lotus, the incomplete one, something plausible for a minor sect leader to want.

"Eight middle-grade for both?" She considers for a moment, weighing profit against the pleasure of clearing shelf space. Then she nods.

"Deal." I pay. Eight middle-grade stones. The cost of a month's stay at an higher-end inn. For a manual that could reshape cultivation itself. The old woman wraps them both in plain cloth, clearly pleased to be rid of inventory that's gathered dust for years.

"Good doing business with you, cultivator. Come back if you need more—I've got other oddities in the back."

"I will." I tuck the wrapped manuals into my storage ring and leave before my face can betray me. The moment I'm out of sight, I have to stop and lean against a wall, breathing deeply. Eight middle-grade stones. Eight. I would have paid eight high-grade without blinking. I would have paid everything I had. Right. Right. More shopping. Act normal. Emboldened by my find, I continue hunting through the inner market. The Gaze leads me from stall to stall, identifying value hidden in plain sight.

Spirit Herb Seeds (Assorted) - 1 middle-grade A small pouch of seeds labeled in faded script. The vendor thinks they're low-quality, probably won't germinate. Gaze: Viable. Will grow in mountain soil with minimal care. Can start a proper sect herb garden within weeks. I buy them. Formation Flags (Basic Set) - 5 middle-grade Twelve small flags wrapped in oilcloth, their inscriptions faded but intact. The vendor is a Formation cultivator who made these himself but couldn't sell them at his asking price.

Gaze: Functional. Can create a defensive perimeter around the sect. Needs activation and spirit stones to power. Basic but effective against Qi Condensation threats. I buy them. Healing Salve Recipe - 10 low-grade A single page of instructions, handwritten, tucked in a pile of miscellaneous papers. The vendor almost threw it away. Gaze: Simple recipe. Uses common ingredients. Can train Mei Lin in basic medicine. Good for building skills. I buy it.

Children's Stories (Illustrated) - 1 low-grade A small book with worn edges and colorful pictures, sitting forgotten in a corner of a book stall. Not cultivation-related at all. Just stories. The vendor looks at me oddly when I pick it up.

"That's for children, cultivator. Mortal children."

"I know." I pay without explanation. I tuck the book carefully into my storage ring, separate from the manuals and herbs and flags. A gift. Something just for her, not for the disciple. Just for the girl. The sun is beginning its descent. I've spent the day well. Found the impossible. Gathered useful tools. Bought a child a storybook. Time to return to the inn and see what Ling'er has learned.