It was night and there was no moon.
Wang Lin lied on the bed in the back of the store. There was a jug of wine beside him. He picked up the jug and took a drink. Wang Lin could feel that in this past year, he has managed to get rid of his mentality as a cultivator and has become more like a mortal.
Take this for example: he rarely cultivates at all now, but that would have been impossible before. In those 400 years of escaping and killing, he almost always had his spiritual energy surging in his body and would use any spare time he could find to raise his cultivation level. His life was filled with deadly schemes and life threatening dangers. If he was a bit less careful, he would have died.
He had never before lied down like this and slept. He spent most nights cultivating.
That type of life was very exciting and filled with passion, but it was filled with regret. It had no balance. That life was missing something.
Now, there were no conflicts in Wang Linâs life. Although it was a bit boring, it was cleansing Wang Linâs soul.
Wang Lin felt very strange when he first noticed this feeling, but he gradually accepted it and continued living the life of a mortal.
He picked up the jug and downed a gulp. Then, he suddenly frowned.
At that moment, two cultivators arrived outside his store. Their two bodies floated toward his shop like ghosts. One of them waved his hand and Wang Linâs storeâs main door silently opened.
The two of them quickly entered. The door was closed by the wind.
Inside the shop, the twoâs eyes lit up as they looked at all of the carvings inside the shop. Their eyes were filled with terror, but that terror was soon replaced with endless greed.
âThere are so many magic treasures!â One of the cultivators sucked in a cold breath of air. He grabbed one of the carvings and looked at it. His body trembled and he quickly threw the carving away.
The greed inside his eyes became even stronger. He waved his hand and all of the carvings on the shelves entered his bag of holding.
The other cultivator squatted down and searched through a box in the corner. Then, he let out a shout as he held an incomplete carving. His expression became strange as he felt a sweetness in his throat and coughed out a mouthful of blood.
He quickly threw away the carving in his hand and backed up as if the carving was an ancient beast.
In fact, it was no surprise he couldnât withstand the carving. This was an incomplete carving of Six Desire Devil Lord. Although it was incomplete, the spiritual pressure inside the carving was that of a late stage Nascent Soul cultivator. With this personâs Core Formation cultivation, there was no way he could withstand it.
Good thing he quickly let go and the spiritual pressure of the carving hadnât truly awakened. He wouldnât have lost only a simple mouthful of blood otherwise.
As the wood carving fell, it was caught by a giant invisible hand, which placed it in Wang Linâs hand. Wang Lin walked out of the back room. He casually put the carving on a shelf, then took a gulp of wine and said, âThat is a total of 4,520 gold. Pay up.â
When Wang Lin appeared, the two suddenly stopped and stared at Wang Lin with horrified expressions.
In particular, the cultivator that was just injured by the spiritual pressure in the carving. His face was pale and his forehead was covered in sweat.
In their eyes, Wang Linâs appearance was too strange. Before the two of them entered the shop, they used their spiritual energy to check the inside. Although there was one person in the back room, it was only a mortal.
But now, the mortal in their eyes appeared silently before them. It was as if a bolt of lightning had just struck them, causing them to be terrified.
Adding to the wood carving magic treasures, even if the two of them were dumb, they would have realized that the person before them was a senior they couldnât afford to mess with.
The two of them looked at each other and respectfully said, âGreetings, senior. Juniors are disciples of the White Cloud Sect. Juniors have been rude and hope senior will forgive us.â
Wang Lin plainly asked, âDo you have 4520 pieces of gold?â
The two of them looked at each other. They were cultivators, so if it was spirit stones, they would have some, but they really didnât have much gold used by mortals right now. Of course, if they were given time to prepare, they would be able to prepare 4000, or even 40,000.
Wang Lin realized what the two were thinking and sighed. He waved his hand and the bag of holding containing the carvings flew into his hand. He casually swiped his hand across the bag of holding and the owner of the bag forcibly swallowed a mouthful of blood.
The respect in the cultivatorâs eyes became even deeper as that swipe wiped out his divine sense from the bag.
Wang Lin shook the bag and all of the carvings flew back to their original places without any error. It was as if they were never moved in the first place
âGo back. When you come again, bring enough gold.â With that, Wang Lin waved his hand and the bag of holding flew back to the cultivator. Then, the two of them were pushed by a powerful force toward the door.
When they were about hit the door, the door opened and the two of them were pushed out of the store.
This one push pushed them more than 10 kilometers before they finally stabilized themselves. Their eyes revealed unimaginable horror and shock. In their eyes, that youthâs cultivation was too powerful for them to measure.
The two pondered a little and thought themselves to be very lucky. With that, they quickly left. These two cultivators were the two from the palace.
They noticed the abnormality in the carving, so they went and found Xu Tao, who was enjoying himself, and found out about this store. But after what just happened, they were simply too scared to have any more ideas about that store.
The two of them didnât know that Wang Lin had already left his divine sense on them. If they had any malicious thoughts about Wang Lin, they would be killed immediately.
In fact, if the two of them knew about Wang Lin, then they would feel extremely lucky. If it was the Wang Lin from one year ago, the only result of that situation wouldâve been death.
Wang Lin sat inside the store. He drank a gulp of wine and sighed. âI havenât killed anyone in a year.â With that, he walked back to the back room and went to sleep.
Time quickly passed and two years passed by. This was already the third year that Wang Lin had been at the capital.
Da Niu grew even taller and sturdier and more neighbors moved in. The Kong Fabric shopâs owner died due to illness and the shop was sold to someone else.
Da Niuâs parentsâ faces gained some light wrinkles. Although they were still young, they couldnât avoid the passage of time.
It is worth mentioning that during these two years, many of the neighbors had come to Wang Lin to talk about marriage, but they were rejected by Wang Lin each time.
The Xu familyâs second son had already gotten married and had a healthy baby. Xu Tao came back to pay his respects to Wang Lin. He gave Wang Lin 100 pieces of gold, saying it was from the prince.
Actually, in these two years, during each new year, Xu Tao would bring a lot of gold and silver. As for this matter, Wang Lin didnât reject him. He accepted it all.
Autumn passed and winter came. The sun came and went. During these past two years, Wang Lin saw the birth of the young and the death of the old. He felt very wistful.
In these two years, he had only cultivated twice. He no longer cared about his cultivation level and rarely checked it anymore. As for the red substance, only a thin layer remained. The rest had been condensed into three red beads, which were stored in his bag of holding.
According to his analysis, when the 4th bead is created, the red substance will be all gone.
The two cultivators from back then had only come once in these two years. After handing over a large amount of mortal gold, they took three wood carvings.
In these two years, Wang Linâs store had gained some fame in the Western part of the city. Although there werenât a lot of customers, it was still much better than his first year.
However, the most common visitors to Wang Linâs shop werenât mortals, but cultivators. Six out of ten people that came would be a cultivator.
Every cultivator that came would buy wood carvings with mortal gold. In these two years, he sold quite a few wood carvings and had gathered a lot of gold and silver.
The fact that there was someone amazing in the western part of the capital gradually gained some fame among cultivators.
Wang Linâs heart was still calm. What he wanted was still to experience the life of a mortal. The store was just a tool to experience it and the wood carvings were the same.
It was about to be a new year and the capital had become very lively. Wang Lin walked out of his store and sat down outside. His eyes were filled with longing.
This was the 3rd new year he had experienced since he arrived at the capital. Each time, this experience was different, except for one thing: the regret he felt toward his childhood.
Da Niu ran out from the ironworks shop from across the street with fireworks in his hand and happily played with them. Upon seeing Da Niu, happiness appeared in Wang Linâs eyes. Wang Lin had watched this kid grow up from an 11 year old kid to a 14 year old youth.
Last year, Da Niu was unable to refuse his dad anymore and began to learn ironworks. However, whenever he had time, he would come and watch Wang Lin make wood carvings.
Although Da Niu didnât come as often, the one jug of fruit wine a day never stopped.
Playing with the fireworks, Da Niu ran toward Wang Lin and sat down on the cold bench. He didnât seem to mind the cold. He winked at Wang Lin and said, âUncle Wang, I heard from my dad a few days ago that shopkeeper Lu from the east side of the city wanted to marry his daughter to you. Why didnât you agree? I have secretly seen her before and she is very beautiful.ân/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
Wang Lin smiled. He rubbed Da Niuâs head and said, âUncle already has a wife.â
âAh? Really? How come I have never seen her?â Da Niu suddenly stood up. His face was filled with shock.
âShe is in a very far away place, waiting for me. One day, Iâll go and find her!â Wang Linâs voice was gentle as the image of a woman appeared in his mind.
Da Niu let out a mischievous smile. He said, âI understand. Uncle Wang, you came to the capital to make money so you can go back home to get married!â