Lu Fan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. His father's attitude had turned around much too quickly, hadn't it?
But one had to experience Spirit Qi himself to fully understand what it was like.
The higher a martial arts practitioner advanced, the more passionately they would feel about Spirit Qi. The existence of Spirit Qi was as good as allowing these martial arts practitioners, who had reached the limits of their skills, to see new hope and light.
This made it possible for them to accept a new method of cultivation.
"Father, Spirit Qi is good, but you have to be able to completely control it and use it properly before it will benefit you. If you take in too much Spirit Qi at once, it won't do you very much good. It will be a hindrance to you because you didn't build a good foundation before trying to increase your level."
"Just like Sister Ning—if Sister Ning had been able to completely control her one wisp of Spirit Qi, then she could have taken on those four enemies by herself at the bottom of the city wall yesterday and still struck all four of the Grandmasters down. But because Sister Ning's grasp of Spirit Qi still isn't refined enough, she needed a second wisp of Spirit Qi in her dantian to be able to manage the four of them herself," Lu Fan said.
"So for a very long time after this, I won't give Sister Ning any assistance at all unless she manages to fully grasp those two wisps of Spirit Qi."
Ning Zhao stood behind Lu Fan, looking ashamed of herself.
"I would like to thank you for your guidance, Young Master." She was indeed rather unhappy with her performance the day before.
Lu Changkong fell into deep thought. Now that he could feel the Spirit Qi in his dantian, he could truly understand how powerful this new energy was.
"What you said makes sense. It is mind over matter, after all. Spirit Qi is much like Qi and blood in that each person needs to be able to control their own strength." Lu Changkong lowered his head slightly.
He had been a Grandmaster for a long time now, so his understanding of martial arts was much deeper than Ning Zhao's.
"So, Father… What about helping me create my own branch of power?" Lu Fan asked, his eyes burning bright.
Lu Changkong was taken by surprise. He chuckled.
He looked carefully at Lu Fan. Did this boy really want to create his own power only to protect himself?
"What do you need?" Lu Changkong asked.
Lu Fan's lips curled up slightly. He leaned back in the wheelchair with one hand supporting his chin and the other lightly tapping the woolen throw that covered his legs.
"Not much. I just need a piece of land and a building."
Lu Changkong narrowed his eyes and waved his hands. "If you want land, I don't have any. Your father is the City Master, and I don't tolerate corrupt practices or bribery, so I have no land for you…"
"But the Chen family has a piece of land on the east side of the city. You can check with them. Tell them that your use of their land will count as the Chen family beginning to repay their debt."
Lu Changkong's words made Lu Fan chuckle. His eyes lit up a little. The three major aristocratic families had been in cahoots with Tantai Xuan, so they had completely fallen out with the Lu's as well as Great Zhou. It was payback time.
Throughout his life, people from the three aristocratic families had made fun of Lu Fan so happily. In so doing, they had caused severe emotional trauma to the young man.
So now, Lu Fan felt that he ought to get some compensation for this emotional damage.
"Fan'er, do you need me to gather a troop of bodyguards for you?" Lu Changkong asked. If Lu Fan wanted to create his own power, he couldn't do it without people.
"No need. My power lies in quality, not in quantity." Lu Fan smiled faintly and instructed Ning Zhao to push him out of the garden.
Yi Yue and Ni Yu hurriedly ran to catch up with them.
"Oh, by the way, Father, could you make a copy of your transfusion technique manual for me? It would be of great use to me," Lu Fan called over his shoulder.
Lu Changkong folded his hands behind his back and watched as Lu Fan, sitting in his wheelchair, was pushed into the distance and eventually disappeared around the corner. There was a flickering glow in his eyes.
"Immortal encounters and Spirit Qi…
"This world is going to get complicated."
...
Ning Zhao pushed Lu Fan out of Lu Manor.
Ni Yu held onto the umbrella. She had to start running a little as she sheltered Lu Fan from the sun.
Suddenly, she started to say something, then stopped herself.
"Young Master…"
Lu Fan, resting in his wheelchair, opened his eyes slightly. He glanced at Ni Yu from the corner of his eye and made a slightly nasal sound.
"Hmm?"
Ni Yu's chest, which was as flat as a board, started to move up and down slightly. Finally, she looked like she had made a decision.
"I, Ni Yu, want to follow you and cultivate to become an immortal!"
She felt that if she continued like this and didn't improve herself, she could lose the right to be the Young Master's maid.
"Oh?" Lu Fan hadn't expected Ni Yu to show such ambition.
Ning Zhao and Yi Yue were also taken by surprise.
"You say you want to cultivate as well, but your martial arts skills are poor, your body is weak, and you're a lazy girl. Tell me… What are you good at?" Lu Fan replied with a laugh.
Ni Yu gripped the umbrella tighter, her face all red from holding her anger in. The Young Master's words were very hurtful.
But after stammering for a long time, she realized she had no idea what she was good at.
In the end…
She twisted her mouth and declared, "Young Master, I… I am good at eating!"
Lu Fan paused for a moment before he burst out laughing.
Yi Yue and Ning Zhao also covered their mouths, laughing quietly and elegantly.
Ni Yu felt completely defeated.
Lu Fan chuckled for a while. He reached out a hand to tousle Ni Yu's hair.
"It's a blessing to have food to eat. Don't be anxious. Your Young Master will bring you along so you can eat and cultivate at the same time."
Ni Yu's eyes immediately brightened.
After leaving Lu Manor, Ning Zhao continued pushing Lu Fan slowly along the pavement.
"Young Master, where are we going now?" Ning Zhao asked, her voice flowing like water.
"Are we going to the residences of the three major aristocratic families?" Yi Yue cut in.
But Lu Fan shook his head. He sounded a little lazy when he spoke.
"We're going to look for a butcher's stall," Lu Fan said calmly, leaning his head back and playing with his slender fingers.
A butcher stall?
Ning Zhao's eyebrows rose when she heard Lu Fan's response. She thought she had misheard. Wasn't the Young Master going to make trouble for the three aristocratic families?
How had this become a visit to a butcher?
"Young Master, you want to eat pork?" Ni Yu's eyes instantly lit up when she heard the mention of a butcher.
When it came to eating, she was the expert.
"No, I'm going to the stall to speak to someone." Lu Fan's lips twitched a little.
"Young Master, there are many butchers in Beiluo City. Which stall belongs to the person you're looking for? The stall in the east of the city? Or the west? Or the south? There are also several butcher stalls downtown, so which one are you referring to, Young Master?" Ni Yu rambled on and on.
Lu Fan glanced expressionlessly at the overly-excited Ni Yu.
"You have so much to say… Lead the way. Every time we reach the wrong one, you will have to miss one meal."
Ni Yu was speechless.
Was her Young Master a demon? Hadn't he just said it was a blessing to have food to eat?!
When they saw how hopeless Ni Yu looked, Ning Zhao and Yi Yue couldn't hold their laughter in anymore and started chortling.
...
"Boss, give me half a pound of meat and mince it for me, if you will. My wife is making dumplings and minced pork noodles tonight!" shouted a smiling man. His coarsely-made, dirt-smeared clothing marked him as a farmer.
There were several pieces of pork, striped red and white, all chopped up and hung in front of the stall. The slabs had been hung up neatly in rows, like a forest of meat.
Behind the stall, two people sat on low wooden stools, waiting for customers to approach them.
One was a middle-aged man wearing an apron that reeked of raw pork. The other one was a child with a large head who looked four or five years old.
When he saw the customer approaching, the middle-aged man stood up and turned to the child.
"Shuang'er, stand back."
The large-headed child nodded obediently. His large eyes blinked, looking completely out of place in this forest of bloody meat.
Whoosh...
The heavy cleaver resting on the chopping board swiftly started spinning, creating a gust of cold, pungent wind as the middle-aged man spun it around a finger.
He chopped a piece of pork off of a larger slab. The man didn't even weigh it. It was as if he had already weighed it beforehand. He proceeded to skin it and get rid of any hairs or excess blood.
The knife glinted brilliantly as it danced over the piece of pork. There was something almost mesmerizing about the way it moved, flashing in the light.
Thwack, thwack…
The sound of pork being minced followed.
In no time, the pork had been diced and minced. The man turned the knife on its side, pulled out a lotus leaf, and used the leaf to wrap up the minced meat. He tied it up with a leaf stem. Then he threw the minced pork to the customer and completed the transaction.
After that, the man violently slammed the cleaver back into the chopping board, wiped both hands on his apron, and turned to walk back to the large-headed young boy.
The customer caught the pork, checked the weight with his hands, and left.
"Father, another customer is here," the large-headed boy said in his childlike voice. He suddenly pointed into the distance.
The older man suddenly shuddered. He turned his head abruptly.
The wheels of the wheelchair rolled against the slightly-sticky surface of the ground. They made a strange noise, like the sound that one made when munching in a particularly chewy rice cake.
The man immediately shielded the large-headed boy. He had experienced much of the world and had many stories to tell, and he was now on high alert.
"After going through six butcher stalls in Beiluo City, I've finally found the right one…" came a calm voice.
The butcher saw a young man seated in a wheelchair with a woolen throw over his legs. An extremely beautiful maid was pushing him along. They came to a stop at the stall.
Sitting comfortably in his wheelchair, the young man smoothed out the thin blanket that was laid over his lap and smiled at the middle-aged man.
"The exiled Daoist disciple Nie Changqing… Is that you?" the young man asked the middle-aged man, who was still protecting the large-headed boy.
The middle-aged man's eyes immediately narrowed, and murderous air seemed to rush out of his body.
"Oho, it looks like I've finally found the right person." The young man tilted his head and laughed quietly.
Behind the butcher stall, the murderous air emanating from Nie Changqing slowly filled the space around him as he continued to shield the large-headed boy behind him.
"Were you sent here by the Daoists? It's been so many years, but you still wouldn't let me and my son go free." Nie Changqing's voice became a little hoarse with bitterness and anger.
He had already reached around to grab the handle of the thick cleaver stuck in the chopping board, and the veins in his large hand started to pop as he gripped it.
Lu Fan remained in his wheelchair. His lips twitched a little when he heard what Nie Changqing said. He used one hand to support his chin and raised his eyebrows a little.
"Was I sent by the Daoists? Hmph. Are they worthy of my time?"