Holy Land? Remains? Abomination? Bottleneck?
This unassuming old man in front of him sounded like he knew everything there was to know about Shen Kai’s life, his problems, and whatever was connected to his problems.
Shen Kai felt like his mind and soul were being read like an open book!
He began to pray sincerely to the heavens to make the old man look past his actual identity and his sect affiliations. If the truth got out...
As the spooked Shen Kai watched numbly, the old man made so calculations on his fingers and traced the air in front of him as if he were making an invisible drawing.
"Ah, got it, got it... Eh? How interesting!"
"...What’s so interesting, senior?" Shen Kai asked with so trepidation. Things that were at stake here were too damn important here, and more important than his life!
"I just attempted to calculate your destiny to see whether there’s any opportunity close by for you to cross the bottleneck you’re stuck in."
Shen Kai grew excited and relieved at the sa ti. It seed that the old man hadn’t conducted a thorough search of his identity, whatever his invasive, terrifying ans of investigation were. The big secrets were safe for now.
Now, what would this powerhouse say about his bottleneck? Was he about to be rewarded with so valuable guidance?
"Boy, from my calculator, it seems that the fastest way for you to gain another breakthrough and reach the sixth phase of the Physique Transformation Realm is to..."
"Is to?"
"Pay my transportation fees for and I’ll tell you. This old man is penniless."
"...."
The answer is locked behind a paywall?
Good heavens, why is the jiang hu so brutal?
Shen Kai hesitantly reached into his pocket. He almost began to doubt if this guy really was a powerful cultivator. Why did it feel like he was being scamd?
But should he take the risk of offending him?
With those complicated thoughts in his mind, Shen Kai took out so money from his pockets and handed them to the old man. During the whole process, the senior greedily stared at his pocket while he kept calculating heavens-know-what on his fingers.
The old man’s strange behavior attracted the attention of a little child sitting a few feet away from them. She curiously observed his antics and suddenly interrupted.
"Grandpa, did your daddy not teach you how to count? Why are you counting on the sa three fingers over and over? Do you need help?"
"Huh? Er... It’s been a while since I counted sothing so complicated. So this old man forgot so parts of the mathematics. But rest assured, I managed to pull through...sohow. I’ve got just this last bit of calculations left..."
He sounded quite embarrassed.
"Wah~ I’m really good at mathematics! Tell what the problem is!"
The old man curiously looked at the child for a few seconds before he opened his mouth.
"What is nine tis forty-three, little one?"
Shen Kai choked on his own spit.
That’s the calculation you can’t perform?
But he decided not to risk it by being disrespectful to the old man. He had heard that many of the old experts who road freely in the world of cultivation had weird personalities. The most popular antic among them was to play the pig to eat the tiger.
Shen Kai didn’t want to be a tiger outside his bedroom. So he just kept going with the flow. At worst, he has just lost a bit of money, that’s all.
"Heeheehee~" the little girl giggled derisively and started counting on her fingers, showing the disrespect Shen Kai didn’t dare to.
"I got it!" She excitedly yelled after a few seconds.
"Oh? That was fast! Tell your answer!" The old man eagerly said.
"I’ll tell you if you give money to eat candies!"
"...."
"...."
The old man and Shen Kai exchanged a complex look.
"Ai~ kids these days learn so fast! The ancients said it well. The young shall eventually surpass the old!"
While the old man sighed, his eyes bore into Shen Kai’s gaze with an intensity beyond words. Shen Kai understood what he had to do.
Life is harsh. It kicks you when you’re down.
With shaking hands, he pulled out another wad of cash and handed it to the giggling girl.
"Nine tis forty-three is three hundred and eighty-nine!" She shouted after getting her pay.
You call this being good at math?!
Shen Kai wanted to roar that it was the wrong answer, but the old man butted in before he could.
"Excellent! Truly excellent! It has to be the correct answer. The answer I got was three hundred and forty-nine! Since both numbers are close and mine isn’t very reliable, your answer must be the correct one!"
"Ehehe...Thank you, grandpa! Thank you, big brother!" The girl excitedly ran towards the candy seller in a corner of the boat.
The old man looked at Shen Kai and said with a benevolent smile,
"Boy, count your lucky stars that the little kid was here to correct or I would’ve missed so variables. If you want to gain the next breakthrough, you must fight with the person you hate the most at the mont.
"As long as you battle them, you’ll break through and achieve victory! I have a feeling that you’re very clear about who I’m talking about, so hurry up. Goodbye!"
Before Shen Kai could interject, the old man stood up and started walking away extrely fast. Shen Kai’s eyes tracked his back, only to realize after a second that he was actually staring at a completely different person seconds later!
The old man had sohow vanished within the crowd right before his eyes and he didn’t even realize that. He could no longer see the familiar figure on the boat.
Shen Kai pulled his shawl closer to his body and huddled up in a corner, clutching his almost empty pocket.
The person he hated the most? A na ca to mind very easily.
"I don’t have the money for a return ticket to Pine Town. Should I rob sobody? Or should I waste my qi to cast illusions on mortals to sneak inside a boat?
"Being forced to commit these lowly cris due to such petty reasons... It’s not that I’m at fault, but it’s the world that has wronged ..."
Feeling like a ruthless rebel who has seen through the unfairness of the world, Shen Kai decided to return to the woods and lurk for an opportunity to achieve his breakthrough.
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