The morning sunlight, pure, intense, and full of vitality, slowly ascended, gilding the entire Yishui City with a layer of golden rosy clouds...
Though Shi Lei had meditated the entire night, his mind and spirit somehow felt even sharper than before.
Xizi was not one to sleep in either, and he had scrambled up early.
Seeing Xizi wake up, Shi Lei smiled faintly and said, "Morning."
"Morning... Brother Shi, you... didn't sleep at all?!" Xizi asked with a suspicious look the moment he saw Shi Lei looking so full of energy.
"I can sleep even while sitting," Shi Lei replied with a slight smile.
"Ah, you can sleep... while sitting down?!" Xizi blinked in surprise, scratched his head, and seemingly recalling that martial artists meditating and practicing their arts might just be like this, he let out a low "Oh."
"Xizi, can you take me for a walk around the city?" Shi Lei asked right after.
"Ah, oh, sure..." Xizi rubbed his belly, thought for a moment, and nodded in agreement.
"The city gates should be open by now..."
"Let's go right now, then, shall we?" Shi Lei said as he stood up, eager to get into the city and change his clothes.
"Alright, let's go." Xizi nodded again in agreement.
With that, the two walked out of the slums and headed toward the gates of Yishui City.
Upon reaching the gates, sure enough, they saw that the gates were already wide open.
Shi Lei noticed guards on duty at the entrance, but they did not stop him or Xizi...
And so, the two swaggered right into Yishui City.
The hour was still early, and inside Yishui City, one could only see a few steaming breakfast shops and stalls, busily hawking piping-hot steamed buns, pastries, rice porridge, and other morning fare...
On the streets, only a few people walked by in twos and threes...
...
"Gurgle, grumble..."
As Xizi gazed at those breakfast shops and stalls, his mouth uncontrollably watered, and strange noises erupted from his stomach. He looked at Shi Lei, a trace of embarrassment showing on his face.
"Brother Shi, do you have any money? I, I'm hungry..." Xizi said somewhat sheepishly.
"Not for the moment..."
"Oh... then... how about I go ask to put it on tab?" Xizi asked Shi Lei.
"Put it on tab? Will they let you?"
"Mm, sometimes they do. Since I often come here to eat, most of them recognize me."
"Oh, do you usually make money?"
"Mm, sometimes I pick up odd jobs and occasionally earn some small change, but most of the time I still have to beg. Though my sister often gives me a little something," Xizi said, his head hanging low.
Hearing Xizi mention his sister again, Shi Lei did not pursue the topic further. Instead, he asked Xizi once more, "Xizi, are there any pharmacies around here?"
"A pharmacy? There is one. Do, do you need to buy medicine?"
"No, I'm selling medicine."
"Oh, a pharmacy, I know it. There's one not far from here. I'll take you." Upon hearing this, Xizi led Shi Lei forward.
Soon, the two arrived in front of a storefront. A flag was stuck diagonally beside the entrance with the character "Medicine" written on it, though there was no plaque above the door. The shop itself wasn't large and looked like a small apothecary, but it hadn't opened for business yet at this hour.
Shi Lei asked Xizi again, "It's still closed. Besides this one, are there any others?"
"There are, but we have to walk a bit further..."
"Alright, let's move."
"Okay."
The two walked further into the city for a while until they reached a main street. This thoroughfare was lined with shops, much wider than the previous street, with far more stores and mostly grand, imposing facades.
Xizi led Shi Lei up to the entrance of a very luxurious shop and said, "Brother Shi, this Tianyuan Pharmacy is the one."
Shi Lei raised his eyes and saw that this pharmacy indeed looked thoroughly legitimate and extremely grand, with even the steps at the entrance built from jade!
At that moment, a scrawny shop assistant was laboring to push open the heavy wooden door panels one by one...
A surge of joy rose in Shi Lei's heart, and he smiled at Xizi, saying, "Let's go."
With that, Shi Lei led Xizi into the shop.
"Hey, hey-hey, what do you think you're doing?"
Just as Shi Lei and Xizi were about to step inside, the assistant who had been opening the door panels immediately shouted at them.
"We're here to sell medicine," Shi Lei said.
"Buy medicine? Looking like that? What kind of medicine could you possibly afford? Do you know what kind of place this is?" The assistant seemed to have misheard "sell" as "buy." He squinted, casting a contemptuous and arrogant glance at Shi Lei and Xizi's tattered clothes.
"Y-You aren't a pharmacy?" Shi Lei asked with some confusion.
"Right, it's a pharmacy, but this is the biggest pharmacy in Yishui City! Everything we produce here is top quality. You two stinking beggars want to buy medicine from us? Scram, scram, scram, don't get in the way of our business..."
With that, the assistant stepped forward to push, shove, and drive Shi Lei and Xizi away.
Shi Lei was now a Qi Refinement Late-stage cultivator; let alone someone like this clerk, even a robust martial artist might not have been able to shove him. However, whether due to extreme hunger and bodily weakness or sheer bad luck, under the assistant's shove, Xizi stumbled, tripped over the stone steps, and tumbled straight down. Catching him off guard, his head banged against something on the way, and blood instantly began to ooze continuously from his forehead.
"..." Shi Lei had not expected this employee to treat customers and visitors this way. Just as he was about to flare up, he saw that Xizi's entire forehead was covered in fresh blood.
At this sight, Shi Lei's heart tightened. He hurried forward to help Xizi up and check on him.
"Xizi, how are you? Are you alright?"
"I, I'm fine," Xizi said, clutching his bleeding brow.
Shi Lei quickly checked him over and, seeing that he had no major injuries, let out a slight sigh of relief. He turned to the assistant and rebuked him angrily, "How can you be so rude? Now that my brother is hurt, what do you plan to do about this?"
When the pharmacy assistant saw the blood seeping from Xizi's head, he panicked a little. However, hearing Xizi claim he was fine, he directly fished two copper coins from his pocket, tossed them in front of Shi Lei and Xizi, and snapped at the two of them, "Hurry up and get lost, you lot... Consider it my bad luck today, running into two beggars the moment I open up. Truly bad omen..."
Shi Lei naturally ignored the two copper coins thrown at him. He merely raised an eyebrow and coldly stared at the assistant.
For no apparent reason, the scrawny assistant suddenly shivered, a chill running down his entire spine. He felt a sudden, strange creepiness, unable to understand why his body had reacted that way all of a sudden...
Yet, despite his skinny frame, he seemed to possess an endless reservoir of "haughty arrogance" deep within. He craned his neck once more and shouted at the two of them, "I gave you the money, didn't I? Scram, scram, did you hear me? Are you both deaf?"...
"What kind of person is making a racket here early in the morning?"...
Just as Shi Lei was about to deploy a minor Divine Soul spell to punish this pharmacy assistant, an elderly voice drifted out from the inner hall.
Shi Lei raised his gaze and saw a thin, elderly man walking out from the inner chambers of the pharmacy. The old man swept his gaze across the entrance, spotted the shop assistant, and sharply interrogated him once more, "Zhang Xiaosan, instead of properly watching the shop early in the morning, why are you out here at the entrance shouting and brawling with two beggars?"
Upon seeing the newcomer, the pharmacy assistant hurried to his side and spoke in a low, aggrieved tone, "Manager Feng, I don't know either! These two beggars just showed up out of nowhere early this morning, brazenly trying to force their way into our shop. I wouldn't let them in, which is why we got into an argument. But look at them, no matter how nicely or harshly I talk to them, they refuse to leave..."
Manager Feng lifted his chin, his small eyes casting a sideways glance at Shi Lei and Xizi, then back at Zhang Xiaosan. He nodded slightly and hastily said to the assistant, "The master is having an important guest arrive shortly. Hurry up and chase these two away; don't ruin important business. Be quick about it, because if something actually goes wrong later, I'll make you pay!"
"Yes, yes, Manager, you're entirely right," Zhang Xiaosan repeatedly agreed.
With that, he turned around, eager to resume driving away Shi Lei and Xizi.