They say the mountains are blessedly cool, but that's only half true. Meishan Town sits nested in the valleys between several peaks, where the yang heat of the sun can stream in but never finds a way out, leaving it far swelterier than the high mountains surrounding it.
Auntie Wei's whole household had been up since the crack of dawn, bustling about rinsing buckwheat grains, spreading pancakes on the griddle, and mixing garlic sauce.
By now, the sun's fiery rays were already searing the ground. Qihua Road was desolate, with barely a handful of passersby, all of them dragging their feet listlessly. The few wandering cultivation travelers who lived nearby were even sparser, only a handful dotted along the street, each carrying weapons and magic artifacts on their persons.
In this kind of weather, even the merchants were going about their work half-heartedly.
The clerk at Four Treasures Hall was dozing off behind the shop counter. The vendor selling flowing cold noodles next door was sitting on the threshold fanning himself, only mustering the energy to call out feebly when he spotted a pedestrian passing by.
"Flowing cold noodles! Just twenty copper coins for a bowl of flowing cold noodles!"
Auntie Wei had long grown accustomed to this scene. She unfastened the shop shutters at a leisurely pace to open for business, and no sooner had she stepped outside than she noticed that the inn next door had, for the first time in memory, stopped selling roasted flatbread that day.
A sheet of red paper was pasted to the inn's entrance, bearing neatly written bold characters that read: New product Sprite now on sale! Refreshingly cool, lifting your spirits! Only thirty copper coins a bowl!
Sprite...? What on earth is that?
The name sounded quite nice, and the slogan that followed was lovely too. "Refreshingly cool, lifting your spirits" made anyone sweltering in the summer heat unable to tear their eyes away from the sign.
As Auntie Wei stared, Wu Guanyue stepped out carrying a large earthen jar, setting it down on the table under the awning at the entrance. Right behind her trailed a fluffy black cat, balancing a stack of clay bowls on its head. Once everything was in place, Wu Guanyue picked up a large ladle with a serious look on her face, ready to start her business.
Auntie Wei gaped at the big earthen jar. Good heavens! Could this "Sprite" that was selling for thirty copper coins be some kind of chilled drink?
She could not help but warn her, "Miss Wu, it's far too expensive to sell a chilled drink for that price. Look, the cold noodle vendor down the road only charges twenty copper coins a bowl."
Ordinary chilled drinks usually went for five or six copper coins. Of course, the Yue Lai Inn on the main street did sell their Frost Lotus Seed Sweet Soup for two taels of dark silver a bowl... but the main street was a prime location, while Qihua Road was nothing like that.
The young Miss Wu did not take her warning to heart, just as cheerful and straightforward as ever. "No problem, no problem, no problem at all! Leave everything to me!"
Auntie Wei: "............"
Seeing that, Auntie Wei could not very well say anything more.
There were not many pedestrians on the road to begin with. A few people were drawn over by the slogan "Refreshingly cool, lifting your spirits", but the moment they saw the price tag of thirty copper coins, they all shook their heads and walked away. By then, Auntie Wei's pancake shop had already sold more than a dozen servings, and Sprite still had not made a single sale.
But when something is new and novel, there are always people willing to give it a try.
A wandering cultivation traveler carrying a long sword on his back walked over, raising an eyebrow when he saw the word "Sprite" on the sign. Then he caught sight of the price and burst out laughing. "This Sprite of yours, is the 'snow' part made of gold, or is the 'green' part made of gold?"
For some reason, Wu Guanyue lit up with delight when she heard that line, and said very earnestly, "You think it's too expensive? I think it's too cheap! This is all greenhouse-grown Sprite!"
The wandering cultivator: "............?"
The wandering cultivator: "Fine... give me a bowl. But let's get one thing straight first: if it doesn't cool me down and chase the heat away, I'm not paying!"
This wandering cultivator had a fire-aligned spiritual root. Every summer, the dan fire in his body would be stirred up by the scorching yang qi of the sun, leaving him feeling unbearably uncomfortable on the hottest days. At the peak of summer, he had to recite the Mental Calming Formula a hundred times every day just to get by, which was why he was willing to pay thirty copper coins to give this Sprite a shot.
That said, he did not have high expectations at all. His comment about not paying if it did not work was just a casual remark. Cultivators who studied the laws of the universe and sought the path of enlightenment would never pick on ordinary common folk.
As he was thinking that, the young shop owner handed him his serving of Sprite.
The wandering cultivator looked down and saw a clear, spring-like drink in the clay bowl. It was not the pink hue of perilla peach drink, nor the hazy yellow of wild apricot drink. It had no color at all, but it held a marvelous quirk: countless tiny bubbles were rising from the bottom of the bowl to the surface, popping the moment they reached the air, and releasing a fresh, inviting aroma that had been trapped inside them.
This wandering cultivator had traveled far and wide across many lands, but he had never seen anything like this in his life!
He did not even step away from the inn entrance, tilting his head back and downing the whole bowl in one go.
The second the drink touched his tongue, his expression shifted instantly.
The fine, fizzing bubbles burst across his tongue, sending that fragrant, crisp, refreshing aroma flooding his entire mouth in an instant. It was a little like the bright scent of citrus, but far more crisp and pleasant; a little like fresh, unfermented wine, but with a far more lively, invigorating kick.
Even more wondrously, the moment he swallowed the Sprite, the restless dan fire in his spiritual mansion was soothed immediately.
This Sprite had rare, heavenly spiritual herbs mixed into it!
And it was only selling for thirty copper coins? The wandering cultivator could barely believe his eyes.
Heavenly spiritual herbs earned their name for a reason, after all—they were incredibly difficult to come by. Take the Frost Lotus Seed Sweet Soup at the Yue Lai Inn for example. It used frost lotus flowers from the icy Ice Fiend Secret Realm, a place no ordinary person could ever enter. You had to hire cultivators to venture in and harvest them, so of course the cost was sky-high.
The wandering cultivator's guess was right on the mark. The evergreen pine trees grew in the mist-shrouded red pine forests, carrying a natural frosty chill in their very fibers. Fresh pine needles were not even the coolest part—once the long-burning pine resin was lit, the cool feeling it gave off was simply heavenly.
But for Wu Guanyue, cost was never something she needed to worry about.
After all, she was playing a xianxia game. If she did not go out to hunt monsters, that would be unjust! If she did not sell dishes and drinks made with fantastical in-game ingredients, that would be against all rules!
There's no way that's allowed! No way at all! Absolutely no way!
As for the price? It was a reference price calculated by the game system based on her inn's popularity and wealth stats. Wu Guanyue thought it worked perfectly well.
This was a win-win situation. The burly wandering cultivator had barely finished his first bowl before he was leaning forward eagerly. "Give me three more!"
He immediately fished a silver coin out of his money pouch.
He chugged down three more bowls of Sprite in big, hearty gulps, and only then let out a long, contented sigh, looking like he had reached peak bliss.
It was wonderful, absolutely wonderful. After drinking it, all the summer heat was swept away, and he felt nothing but cool, sparkling refreshment.
And it only cost thirty copper coins a bowl! That was almost impossible to wrap his head around.
The wandering cultivator could not help but ask, "Shopkeeper, why are you doing this?"
This Sprite must have used heavenly spiritual herbs even more precious than the frost lotus, yet this young shopkeeper was practically giving it away for next to nothing.
Wu Guanyue: "?"
What did that mean? An NPC had just asked her a question that made no sense at all.
She thought for a moment, then answered perfectly matter-of-factly, "Because everyone needs me!"
This was a game, after all. The player was the center of the whole world! Even if her in-game setting was just a simple innkeeper, all the NPCs would come to her for help whenever they ran into trouble!
I wonder if there will be a plot where the innkeeper saves the world, ahahaha.
The thought brought a perfectly natural smile to Wu Guanyue's face.
But hearing those words, the wandering cultivator's eyes suddenly went wide.
In this incredibly plain sentence lay such broad-mindedness, such open-minded ease, and such generous, selfless compassion!
This had nothing to do with cultivation level. Anyone who could say something like that was already far nobler than the vast majority of people in the world, as far as this innkeeper was concerned!
The wandering cultivator, Lu Datong, suddenly cupped his fists and bowed deeply, his voice thick with emotion. "I, Lu Datong, am truly filled with admiration! The innkeeper's great righteousness is beyond praise!"
At this sight, not to mention Auntie Wei, even several wandering cultivators sitting in other shops could not help but stare wide-eyed.
You have to understand, Lu Datong was a proud, unruly character. The only people he had ever genuinely admired in his life were Wenren Ying, the Meishan's Number One Blade, and no one else. Now he was being so respectful and deferential to a mere innkeeper!
All just because he had drunk that "Sprite".
Could this Sprite really have some supernatural quality? Could it really be mixed with some rare heavenly spirit treasure?
Several of the cultivators could not help but wonder that.
After bowing to Wu Guanyue, Lu Datong filled three more bowls of Sprite into his wine gourd and strode away. The other wandering cultivators exchanged glances, and all saw the same thought in each other's eyes — we might as well give it a try!
Thirty copper coins was not the same as two taels of profound silver, after all. They could easily afford that.
And so that day, these poor wandering cultivators who could not afford Calming Heart Pills or Emerald Broth finally got relief from their inner restlessness. They spent the most refreshing, pleasant day of the entire summer, and set off for the secret realm with such clear, energetic spirits that who knew what lucky opportunities they might stumble upon!
And of course, these people all had their own close companions, whom they would eagerly recommend the inn to once they met. We will leave that part of the story aside for now.
Speaking of Lu Datong, the three bowls of Sprite he had filled in his wine gourd were not for himself to drink — he was bringing them to Brother Wenren.
Brother Wenren was Wenren Ying, and Wenren Ying was Meishan's Number One Blade.
At that moment, Wenren Ying was walking alone in the Bingyi Secret Realm.
He was a tall, broad-shouldered man carrying a long blade on his back. The blade had no scabbard, only wrapped haphazardly in a piece of cloth. He wore a wide-brimmed hat pulled low over his face, so no one could see his eyes. All you could make out was the faint stubble on his jaw, which made him look a little down on his luck, a little wild and unconstrained.
The icy wind, sharp with shards of frozen crystal, blew against him, flapping his rough cloak.
Wenren Ying suddenly stopped in his tracks, and said in a lazy, unhurried tone, "You can come out now."
From the rime-covered pine forest behind him, a man stepped out in long strides. He was clad in a fiery fire rat fur coat, and the killing intent in his eyes burned hotter than the flames stitched onto his garment.
"Are you Wenren Ying?"
"I am."
"Good. Draw your blade!"
"Why should I?"
"I heard you're a good-for-nothing with a shattered spirit mansion, yet you still call yourself Meishan's Number One Blade. I've been dying to test your skills!"
Wenren Ying could not help but let out a helpless laugh at those words.
But the man had already roared and channeled his full power!
The north wind howled. The ground trembled. Snow piled feet high shot up into the air, and beneath the swirling, flying frost, a stone wall formation three full feet thick snapped shut around Wenren Ying, trapping him inside.
Wenren Ying stood perfectly still within the stone wall formation, not a single muscle tensed.
Wenren Ying's spirit mansion was shattered to begin with — he could not even use fire-aligned spells. Even if he could, the man lying in wait for him was an earth-aligned spiritual root, and in the five elements cycle, fire could not overcome earth.
The advantage is all mine! The earth-aligned cultivator thought smugly, and could not resist wasting a few more words.
"You're as good as dead. I'll do you a favor and leave you a piece of advice — in your next life, mind your own business!"
The second his words ended, all he saw was a flash of white light!
The earth-aligned cultivator heard a low hum in his ears, and the blade light was already slicing through the air towards him.
In the next instant, Wenren Ying was standing right in front of him. He looked down at the man, and said in a calm, indifferent voice, "I'll leave you a piece of advice too..."
A thin line of blood slowly appeared across the earth-aligned cultivator's throat.
The last thing he heard in his life was Wenren Ying's cold, flat voice —
"You'd be better off dead."
Blood spurted high into the air, sending the cultivator's head flying three full yards above the ground.
But far more scarlet and brutal than the gushing blood were Wenren Ying's eyes, hidden beneath the shadow of his hat brim.
No human could ever have eyes like that.
