Chapter 38: Coming to Pay

Inside Wangshu Pavilion, Lu Mingfei sat cross-legged.

Su Lin tapped a finger onto Lu Mingfei's brow, muttering under his breath:

"Qi emerges from the dantian, the spirit resides in the inner palace..."

He was helping Lu Mingfei find his qi sensation; fortunately, the things he had eaten earlier were still quite effective.

Or rather, Lu Mingfei's own hidden talent was still passable.

Twenty-some minutes later, Su Lin withdrew his finger, quietly stepped out of Wangshu Pavilion, and left Lu Mingfei to cultivate alone within.

Miss Kelaien: "You there...?"

Miss Kelaien sent a private message.

Su Lin: "I'm here."

Miss Kelaien: "Can you come to Rong City, 35 South Chunhua Road...?"

Miss Kelaien: "Chunyu Xuan private kitchen..."

Su Lin: "Mm, no problem. Are you treating me to dinner?"

Miss Kelaien: "Mr. Zhongli spent a bit too much."

Su Lin: "Don't say more, I get it."

Before Zhongli and Miss Kelaien left, Su Lin had given the two of them a sum of cash.

"My fault."

For other people, it probably would've been enough, and even if it wasn't, they would've contacted him first.

But for Zhongli...

This person has absolutely no concept of money. After all, it's pretty hard to expect someone who used to manage wealth and print his own money to have a sense of money.

Even the toy distributors of Snezhnaya could only shake their heads.

Su Lin passed through a portal to Rong City, emerged from a concealed spot, then hailed a taxi at the entrance of a residential compound.

Rongcheng's weather today wasn't great — thick layers of clouds hung in the sky, a gloomy, leaden day, as if a filter had been laid over one's eyes.

Money, for Su Lin's own use alone, was more than enough, but if group friends came to visit, he'd still have to figure something out.

Although during the anti-crime sweeps there would occasionally be some new funds coming in, they were income from unknown sources after all, and couldn't be deposited into the bank in large amounts.

He had given most of his cash to patients at hospitals with financial difficulties and to Fuli Academy.

The cash he kept was ample but not abundant — after all, he was a cultivator of immortality, and once the greatest desire of longevity was satisfied, other desires naturally shrank a great deal.

If something truly urgent came up that required money, he did have means to obtain it.

If it really came down to it, he could send out a historical projection to work — a few jobs a day still brought in a decent income.

Have to say, historical projections really are too useful.

Looking at it now, he'd need to bump up his cash reserves, and the issue of identity information also needed to be tackled.

Actually, Su Lin doing these things still had his own little calculations behind them.

If possible, Su Lin hoped that the group friends in the chat group could come to his world often in the future.

The items redeemable in the system — honestly, he did occasionally let his mind wander.

He'd confirmed through various means that, so far, this world was an ordinary one, basically without any supernatural power.

But what if?

Having read web novels for over ten years, he'd considered every possibility.

Was there a chance that the former transcendent beings had simply gone somewhere else in the starry sky?

Or another possibility — the transcendent beings had gone to another world, and as time went on, the ancient transcendent beings who had left would one day return, and along with them their enemies.

If the chat group hadn't appeared, would he, as a system host, have ended up living a happy, carefree farming life in the city, or would he have been swept up one day by the currents of the times, growing ceaselessly under pressure, shouldering the great duty of saving the world?

Preparing for a rainy day, guarding against the unexpected — it was never wrong.

Sitting in the taxi, Su Lin propped his head on one hand, his forehead pressed against the glass window as he watched the congested traffic outside.

Shui Jing Peak had already taken on the initial form of a blessed land, or rather, could already be counted as one.

Let the group friends in the chat group often come to Shui Jing Peak to cultivate and discuss the Dao, and when there's nothing to do, they could also wander around the Earth of this world.

Someone like Ye Fan could return to his own Earth after ten or several dozen years, but for Especially Especially Especially Xiao Yan and Miss Kelaien, returning to their own Earth was very difficult.

Everyone's home is one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable; Su Lin just hoped that this side's Earth could occasionally offer a sliver of comfort when they missed their homelands.

Once the group friends all treated Shui Jing Peak and this world's Earth as a nice place they could visit often, then if one day in the future a great calamity of the era truly came, or if there were conspirators secretly pushing the tide behind the scenes, some group members would take the initiative to participate and do what they could.

If at that time the group members' strength was sufficient — if people like Han Li, Ye Fan, Especially Especially Especially Xiao Yan could have the late-stage power from the novels — then everything would be a paper tiger.

Although, with the system and the chat group, Su Lin felt he could also take a step toward the peak in the future, but who could know what the future would bring?

Oh, he could know — it just cost more. World-class fate artifacts started at 100,000 points; entry into the Heavenly Evolution Art was 8,000, mastery 80,000, full mastery 800,000, and backlash from the Heavenly Dao and the like had to be endured on one's own.

Su Lin believed that, under normal circumstances, if he ran into danger, the group friends would still lend a hand and pull him out, but if the crisis was this world itself, he couldn't exactly invite others to come to his world to be world police, upholding justice and peace.

Not very realistic.

So when Su Lin spared no effort in helping newcomers, he had this little scheme in mind too.

Quite a few of the spirit plants and spirit medicines Lu Mingfei ate today were from Su Lin's own herb garden collection — rarities that would spark disputes and contention in other worlds.

Just consider it an investment.

Of course, Su Lin hoped even more that everything was just him being overly suspicious, his brain-hole too big, thinking too much.

Isn't urban farming nice? Isn't waiting for the group friends to take off and carry you nice?

Be a zen ancestor in the city, carefree and happy, live another few decades waiting for tech to develop, or maybe one day get lucky and meet a group friend from a world with advanced technology, and experience a real metaverse.

"Sir, we're here, don't space out." The driver uncle reminded him in a thick accent: "12 yuan."

"Driver, let me scan your payment code."

Su Lin closed the car door and arrived outside a small alley in Republican-era style — he had looked it up on the way here.

This restaurant claims to be the representative of the new style of Shu cuisine, and enjoys a certain degree of fame both domestically and abroad.

The kitchen has only one old master chef and a few apprentices; the rest are service staff. Under normal circumstances, you can't get a reservation without booking in advance.

Walking along the mossy bluestone slabs into the Su Xiaoxiang for about a hundred meters, the signboard of Spring Rain Pavilion hung on the wall.

"Hello Mr., do you have a reservation?" a young waitress of about twenty asked softly.

"I'm here to find my friend, the Valley Rain Room," Su Lin reported the room Miss Kelaien had mentioned.

The young server's delicate brows stirred slightly; she covered her mouth, her voice carrying a hint of laughter:

"I thought it would be Tartaglia's cosplay coming over. Please follow me."

"..."