Farming Cultivation, Lust Cultivation, Food Cultivation, Traveling Cultivator, Home Cultivation.
Li Banfeng had never heard of these terms before.
Yet now, he was forced to make a choice.
Monkey Qiu let Li Banfeng down, propping him half-lying against a tree. "He can’t move now," Monkey Qiu said, "we need to give him a bowl of Soul-Returning Soup first."
"Give it to him?" The Peddler shook his head. "There’s no such thing as a free lunch here."
Monkey Qiu touched the inside pocket of his suit. "I’ll pay for the soup. I didn’t bring much cash today; I’ll owe you the rest."
The Peddler took a clay pot from the lower shelf of the wooden cabinet, mixed in some herbs with water, and started to simmer the soup over a charcoal fire.
"Monkey Qiu, what’s your relationship with this kid? Why are you so good to him?" The Peddler fanned the charcoal fire leisurely with a fan.
"He gave me food," Monkey Qiu replied simply.
The Peddler asked again, "Who’s going to pay for the Medicinal Powder for initiation?"
Monkey Qiu said, "I will. It doesn’t matter which Taoist Sect he chooses."
After saying that, Monkey Qiu took out a left hand from his pocket—a half-eaten left hand.
Li Banfeng suddenly realized that this man called Monkey Qiu was the one who had asked him for food on the train.
At that time, the man had spoken in a very low voice, and Li Banfeng couldn’t distinguish its tone.
Li Banfeng had given him two boxes of instant noodles, never expecting that the man would save his life in return.
"Do you have any medicine? Help me reattach my hand," Monkey Qiu said, handing the left hand to the Peddler.
Assessing the condition of the left hand, the Peddler didn’t really want to get involved. "That divine healer from Medicine King Valley is an acquaintance of yours, isn’t he? Take it to him; he’s more skilled."
Monkey Qiu had originally planned to find that divine healer to reattach his hand, but since he had run into the Peddler, he didn’t want to owe the healer another favor.
Favors weren’t so easy to repay; the Peddler’s prices were more reasonable.
Monkey Qiu smiled. "Since we’re already here, I’ll rely on you."
"Your hand is in this state, and you still insist on coming to me!" the Peddler complained while searching through his cabinet for some plasters. "How much plaster is this going to take? Next time, tell your wife to just gnaw on some meat to tide her over. Don’t let her eat the tendons as well..."
Li Banfeng lay half-conscious under the tree, watching the Peddler take out several plasters.
This was the first time Monkey Qiu had taken his severed left hand out from his trouser pocket.
To be precise, he didn’t have a left hand attached; what he had been keeping in his trouser pocket was only a bare left wrist.
"You align it yourself first!" the Peddler told Monkey Qiu as he warmed the plasters over the fire. Monkey Qiu, using his right hand, held his severed left hand and aligned it with the stump of his wrist.
Once the plasters were warm, the Peddler stepped forward and wrapped several of them around the join, layering them thickly, as if taping the hand back onto the wrist.
Although Li Banfeng had experienced many incredible things on his journey, this method of treating a severed hand still seemed far too childish to him.
This also made Li Banfeng worry about his own condition. At the moment, he could only manage four or five breaths a minute, and his heart beat only about twenty times.
Not just the little finger, but all five of Monkey Qiu’s fingers, including a ring finger that was now only bone, were moving slightly.
"Don’t rush to move; the hand has just been reattached," the Peddler cautioned. He then applied some Medicine Powder to Monkey Qiu’s left hand and wrapped it tightly with gauze.
"No water for ten days, and don’t remove the plasters for a month. Remember to bring the money next month when we meet, and we’ll settle the account then!"
Monkey Qiu nodded, got into the rickshaw, and left.
Li Banfeng watched the Peddler anxiously.
The Peddler checked the fire, took a piece of cloth to protect his hand, removed the clay pot from the charcoal embers, and poured the soup into a bowl.
"Young brother, time for your medicine." The Peddler fetched a funnel, thrust it into Li Banfeng’s mouth, supported the funnel with one hand, and poured the medicinal soup down with the other.
A warm current surged in Li Banfeng’s stomach, and his eyelids grew heavy. He fell asleep shortly after.
An hour later, Li Banfeng opened his eyes. His body could move again.
The Peddler was busy with customers; a young man of about eighteen or nineteen was buying Medicinal Powder.
The young man was about 1.7 meters tall, weighed around 170 pounds, and his face was as round as his figure.
He squinted his small eyes, making his choice with a solemn expression.
"Food Cultivator! I’ve chosen!"
"Alright!" The Peddler waved his hand, opened a drawer in the upper part of his cabinet, scooped out a small spoonful of Medicinal Powder with a quaint little wooden spoon, placed it on a piece of kraft paper, wrapped it up, and handed it to Little Fatty.
Little Fatty gave sixty thousand Huan Country Banknotes to the Peddler. He opened the Medicinal Powder and was just about to put it in his mouth when the Peddler shouted, "Hold on!"
Little Fatty’s eyes widened. "What are you doing? I’ve paid! Are you trying to jack up the price on the spot?"
The Peddler sized up Little Fatty but didn’t respond.
A well-dressed man standing behind Little Fatty, also there to buy Medicinal Powder, chuckled at him. "You really don’t understand anything, do you? The Peddler is trying to save you!"
The man looked to be in his twenties. He wore a top hat, a suit with a vest over his shirt, and a tie. He was handsome and dashing, followed by five attendants and a Coachman—clearly a person of unusual status.
Little Fatty turned around. "I’ve paid! Why won’t you let me take the medicine?"
The man looked at Little Fatty with disdain. "You expect to eat this? This is an introductory elixir, painstakingly prepared by generations of sages with immense effort. Its properties are incredibly potent. If you just swallow it like that, won’t your intestines rupture and your stomach burst?"
The Peddler, tidying his counter, said, "This medicine is to be applied to the body, not eaten."