After the young girl had her share of food, she asked for the price of the meal, and it was quite expensive that some people in the restaurant gulped loudly thinking about the exorbitant price of just this one meal— something that they cannot afford regularly.
Unsurprisingly, this was nothing to the young miss of an aristocratic family, and what surprised everyone was that she paid in [Spirit Stones] instead of gold coins as gold coins is the widely used currently in this section of the city— only cultivators use spirit stones as currency.
The young girl proceeded to leave with the armored guard after paying for her food. It seems they only came here because they had some urgent matters to deal with in this section of the city which is why they even bothered to come to this restaurant.
In fact, this young girl came to this section of the city because she heard news that a rare Spirit Beast being found in the forest behind this area so she came here with her guard to have a look and see if the information were accurate but alas, after searching the whole day they could not find the spirit beast.
They plan on staying for three more days to see if the beast will show itself— if it does not, they will take their leave then.
In the meantime, they will have to find an inn to rest. After thinking of this, the young girl had a solemn look on her pretty face as this could potentially help her cultivation if they succeed in finding and capturing the spirit beast.
…
Meanwhile, at the restaurant, Shenyan was thinking about the phenomenon that occurred today. He did not know what kind of ability the young girl used to make it feel hard to approach her.
Although he knew that aristocrats could cultivate, he never was interested before since it has nothing to do with him but now that he 'experience' what this cultivation can do, he suddenly developed an interest and thought that it will be cool if he can do what that young girl did.
But as much as he would like to cultivate, he is only a commoner, he has no plans on being a servant to an aristocratic family— he only wanted a peaceful life where he can eat in peace without interruptions or distractions.
So for now, he only wanted to inquire about it from Uncle Wang and see if he knew something about cultivation.
The following day, which happens to be the weekend, Shenyan decided to ask Uncle Wang about cultivation.
"You want to know about cultivation?!" Uncle Wang eyes widen in surprise as he heard what he said. It is not like it is bad to be interested in cultivation in general, it is just that Shenyan never showed any interest in it before and now suddenly he asked about cultivation which surprised him quite a bit and wondered what made him change his mind.
Despite being surprised by his sudden request, he still calmed down momentarily and explain it to him.
"Well, cultivation is as you know is the accumulation of spirit energy in the heaven and earth to nourish your body and soul— the effect is well, you gain an increase in strength and when you reach certain stage you can even fly in the sky."
He paused a moment before continuing, "Those who cultivate in generally are the aristocratic families, but commoners can cultivate too using the cultivation method that is widely spread among commoners, albeit a little slow. Oh right, the next academic recruitment is in two years from on— the academies are institutions that are built by the aristocrats to guide young cultivators on the path of cultivation, most who join become the followers of the aristocratic families as their servants."
He took a deep breath before continuing, "You can also choose to not join the aristocrat families, but it might not be a good idea as they can restrict your movement preventing you from gaining resources to further improve yourself after graduating." After that, Uncle Wang waited for Shenyan to process what he had said before asking him. "So do you plan on joining the academy or do you plan on staying here after all, there is no reason why you should involve yourself in that, right?" He asked.
Hearing this Shenyan pondered for a bit, 'What Uncle Wang said makes sense, I don't need to get involve with the aristocrats if I can cultivate in peace but how do I get resources if I decide to cultivate? Is it even worth it to cultivate?' Thoughts kept running through Shenyan's head, to him cultivating was just something like an interest— a hobby so to speak that he got interested in, thus, there is no need to go through so much trouble to just cultivate, after all, as long as he can afford food to eat, nothing else matters to him. So, after pondering about it for a while he replied, "What Uncle Wang said is true, I indeed don't want to go the academy after all, since if that happens, I won't be able eat in peace" Shenyan said with an innocent smile on his face.
Looking at him like this, Uncle Wang couldn't help but shake his head as he gave a bittersweet smile before saying, "You brat, all you know is eating, if you really want to afford more food in the future, then it is better to join the academy as the stronger you get the more money you can make through hunting Spirit Beast for their core or hide," Uncle Wang said to him.
Suddenly realizing something he spoke, "That's right, I forgot to mention that the academy built by the Leng family does not force their students to work for them— only that they provide aid to them in times of crisis since they could be considered as families when they join their academy which is the agreement that you have to make before joining the academy but for now here—" he said as he handed Shenyan a book with a blue cover that had characters that said— [Basic breathing technique] written on it.
After taking the book, Shenyan's eyes sparkled as he flipped through the book. Looking at him like this, Uncle Wang couldn't help but smile before saying "This is the basic breathing technique for absorbing Spirit energy. Keep it safe after reading it, this is something that my son— Wang Lei brought back from the public library."
"Okay." Shenyan nodded his head as he proceeded to head to his room at this moment. Watching him leave Wang Zhong fell in thought, pondering about what cause this uncaring boy to change his mind towards cultivation out of nowhere.
If he knew that it was not that he changed his mind but that he was only 'interested' after that young girl used her spirit pressure on him, he would probably smack him in the head. After pondering for a while, Uncle Wang gave up on thinking too much of this matter, as it is good that the boy is interested in something other than food for a change.