Chapter 118 Street Neighbors
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[Yes.]
[Ding!]
[System prompt: Sign-in successful. Reward: eleven points of cultivation. Reward: spiritual artifact—Human Emperor Banner.]
[Human Emperor Banner: A defensive spiritual artifact infused with a trace of ancient Human Emperor's aura. Shaking the banner releases the power of the earth veins, suppressing all evil within its range.]
Seems… not very useful.
Casually tossing it into the inventory, Chen Chang'an lazily yawned and turned over on his bamboo recliner.
Sunlight filtered through the gaps of the grape trellis, scattering patches of shifting light and shadow across his body with the breeze.
These ten years were likely the most leisurely time since his transmigration.
His daughter Chen Xingcai had gradually grown up. Not only had she passed her rebellious phase, she had become even more considerate. Just days ago, she had taken the initiative to brew a jar of green plum wine for him. Though its sourness made him bare his teeth, he still happily drank every drop.
His disciples were even more worry-free. Beginning five years ago, they set out one after another for training, each making remarkable progress. At first, he worried these "Children of Fate" would run into danger, so he dispatched avatars to secretly follow them. But the result—
His avatars had already died three times, while those brats hadn't even suffered serious injury!
Especially that boy Han Yu, who seemed practically Heaven's own favored child.
Clearly the least talented, yet always stumbling into fortuitous encounters.
Last time, he tripped in an ancient tomb and fell directly into a spirit spring, his cultivation soaring. Recently, he even broke through to the Returning Origin Realm.
He was now no worse than those so-called peerless geniuses.
His good partner Li Hanzhou had also gained much, advancing through martial comprehension during one training, now reaching the late stage of the Profound Connection Realm.
Of course, the most outrageous matter was Ji Lingxiu, Xiao Chen, and Han Yu establishing Immortal Spirit City.
Thinking of this, Chen Chang'an's lips curled upward unconsciously.
He was genuinely pleased with the city's existence.
Though a seasoned recluse, he wasn't entirely opposed to liveliness. Now, apart from his true body basking in the valley's sunlight, most of his avatars resided permanently in Immortal Spirit City, occupying a stall in the western corner to tell fortunes.
After all, idle time was idle time…
He narrowed his eyes, plucked a grape, and tossed it into his mouth. Under the trellis, several spirit birds pecked at scattered spiritual rice, while in the distance, Chen Xingcai's soft humming drifted through the air.
Such days did not seem bad.
Suddenly, his brows furrowed as he sensed a message from an avatar.
Chen Chang'an's awareness instantly shifted. At the fortune-telling stall in Immortal Spirit City's western corner, the once-vacant gaze of a white-robed youth sharpened. He lifted his head, meeting a pair of eyes as cold and deep as an icy pool.
It was indeed her—
Chen Chang'an sighed inwardly.
This matter traced back to the founding of Immortal Spirit City.
At that time, with nothing to do, he relied on his system's ability to view the panels of cultivators below the Profound Connection Realm. He set up a stall in the city under the guise of fortune-telling, while secretly watching over his disciples in case they faced troubles they couldn't handle.
Unexpectedly, Ji Lingxiu managed the city with flawless order.
Aside from two unfortunate fellows tricked into the valley by Ji Lingxiu and "returned to nature" permanently, the entire city thrived, flourishing even more over the past two years.
Then one day, at the neighboring stall, he spotted a familiar figure—
That woman called Ah Li.
The sight had filled him with both joy and unease.
This woman was far from ordinary, for the last time he encountered Ah Li, half a city had been blown into the sky.
She still wore a veil, clad in plain garments, quietly tending a small stall of odd trinkets.
For the past two years, he told fortunes while secretly keeping watch on her next door.
Fortunately, Ah Li had always behaved quietly, merely arranging her wares each day without bargaining, as if indifferent to whether anyone bought them or not.
Most of the time she only stared blankly at the sky.
Gradually, Chen Chang'an's guarded heart also eased.
The two would occasionally exchange a few words, but always lightly, never prying into each other's identity. This boundary left Chen Chang'an quite comfortable.
"Daoist Chen," Ah Li crossed her arms, looking down at him as she suddenly spoke, "you seem to daydream rather often."
She gestured toward a departing figure not far away. "That customer asked you three times just now, yet you didn't hear a word."
Chen Chang'an's eyes narrowed slightly.
Of course, it was because his consciousness was basking in the sun with his true body.
Naturally, he would not say this aloud. Instead, he smiled and countered, "Does not Miss Ah Li also often gaze into the sky in a daze?"
He pointed to the strange items on her stall. "Last time, when that customer shouted so loudly to buy your glazed lamp that the whole street could hear, you didn't even lift an eyelid."
Their gazes met, and the air fell silent.
But the next moment, both suddenly smiled.
The morning breeze swept across the street corner, stirring the banners of their stalls.
They tacitly ended the topic, as they had done many times over the past two years in wordless understanding.
…
Ah Li slowly returned to her stall, fingers brushing over the bizarre objects displayed— a bronze compass that spun on its own, a glazed lamp that ignited without flame, a black-iron mirror that reflected shadows.
She appeared to idly arrange the goods, yet her eyes never strayed from the white-robed youth across the way.
That fellow… to ask her why she daydreamed.
Of course, it was because her consciousness was cultivating in her true body. But that was something she could never reveal.
Two years ago, when she first saw him in Immortal Spirit City, she was startled.
After all, he was the calamity who once appeared and blew half a city into the sky, yet now he sat quietly here, telling fortunes?
"Ah Li sister, how much is this seashell?" A little girl with braided pigtails leaned against the stall, breaking her thoughts.
"It costs nothing, I'll give it to you." Ah Li handed the shell over casually, though her gaze drifted once more across the street.
Chen Chang'an was lazily propping his chin, interpreting a divination for an elderly woman.
Sunlight fell across his handsome profile, making him seem nothing more than an ordinary street fortune-teller.
She could not tell if it was an illusion, but he seemed strangely familiar.
Too unusual…
Ah Li rubbed the "Dragon-Binding Rope" hidden in her sleeve.
If not for her mischievous little disciple always wandering into Immortal Spirit City, she would never have spent years "selling trinkets" here.
Yet in these past two years, aside from occasionally staring into space, Chen Chang'an truly lived like a common diviner.
"Could it be…" She wound the long hair at her chest round and round her fingers. "Is he really content to waste his days here?"
Better observe a while longer…
So she thought, yet her gaze never left that white-robed figure.
…
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