As the saying goes, a lesser hermit hides in the wild, while a great hermit hides in the city.
What kind of person could possess Eighty Percent Hermit's Qi?
Song Ciwan's Heaven and Earth Scale manifested, and having obtained a ball of Eighty Percent Hermit's Qi out of thin air, her first reaction wasn't joy. Instead, her heart sank. 'Mo the Crooked is a Hermit? What level of Hermit? I'm screwed. He won't discover my Heaven and Earth Scale, will he?'
This worry lasted only for a moment. Soon, a realization dawned on Song Ciwan: the Heaven and Earth Scale was of such a high order that it had already transcended this world. 'Worry about it being discovered? That's unnecessary. Impossible.'
In the parlance of the Immortal Family, this was known as "leaping beyond the Three Realms, not within the Five Elements." They weren't even on the same dimensional plane. If Mo the Crooked truly had the power to discover it, Song Ciwan would just have to accept her fate.
Of course, as wondrous as the Heaven and Earth Scale was, she couldn't get carried away.
Facing Mo the Crooked's grimacing face, a look of sorrow appeared on Song Ciwan's face. She quickly pressed the wooden cup she was holding back into his hands and took a step back to put distance between them.
Then she turned her face away, hiding it with her sleeve. "Please go, Sir. Don't get too close to me."
She had only meant to help, but was instead treated as something to be shunned. This image of her silently enduring her sorrow was a rather poignant sight.
Mo the Crooked stood there foolishly for a moment, holding the wooden cup, unsure of what to say.
He scratched his head, then his neck, then his cheek. His free hand was restless, not knowing what to do with itself.
"Hey, hey…" Mo the Crooked said. "What's the big deal? I'm already a crippled wreck, what have I got to fear? Who… who could possibly have it worse than me?"
'Heh, is this a competition for who has it worse?'
This wasn't a misery competition; it was his way of comforting her.
Song Ciwan turned to the side and gave Mo the Crooked a slight bow, but she didn't say another word. After the gesture, she once again hid her face with her sleeve and walked away.
Soon, Song Ciwan reached the other side of the vegetable market.
Her grey, red-trimmed clothes stood out in the crowd, a seemingly absurd and mocking uniform. Wherever she went, people automatically parted to let her pass.
Even when she approached a stall to buy something, the vendor would shout, "Don't come any closer! Just tell me what you want, give me the money, and I'll throw the goods to you!"
Yes, they still wanted her money. They couldn't turn down business, after all.
Whether the customer was human or ghost, did someone trying to make a living really have a choice?
Back where she had left him, Mo the Crooked clutched his wooden cup and took a sip of the still-warm tofu pudding. He couldn't help but mutter, "She even bowed to an old man like me. Seems like a sensible, well-mannered young lady. So young, too. I wonder what sort of misfortune befell her to end up in the Washing Room…"
He trailed off, standing stunned for a moment. Then he shook his head with a self-deprecating chuckle, lowered his head, hunched his back, and limped away.
Meanwhile, Song Ciwan abided by the unspoken rules, only approaching stalls that were temporarily free of customers. She bought some seasonal vegetables, two *dou* of coarse grains, and a few other miscellaneous items.
As she shopped, Song Ciwan was also silently observing the prices of this era.
Overall, the purchasing power of copper coins was quite impressive. Coarse grain was only five cents a *dou*, and for common seasonal vegetables, you could usually get two or even three bunches for a single cent.
If she was frugal, even with only twenty cents of disposable income per day, she should be able to stock up on quite a few things by the end of the month.
Song Ciwan finished her shopping quickly, eager to see what she would get for selling the "Eighty Percent Hermit's Qi." She didn't waste a single moment.
The last rays of the setting sun accompanied her home. The oil-paper umbrella she carried went unused; there was no rain today.
When she opened the gate to her home, the Big White Goose was flapping its wings and charging all over the courtyard, as if it had boundless energy with no outlet.
The moment Song Ciwan appeared, it immediately calmed down, folded its wings, and tilted its head. "HONK!"
"Big White Goose!" Song Ciwan opened her arms. The Big White Goose dropped all pretense of being reserved. It scurried over, rushing to Song Ciwan's side and rubbing against her with its wings and long neck.
Song Ciwan laughed. "Hahaha!"
The tension she had held all day finally melted away. She quickly put down the pile of things she was carrying in the main hall, washed and rubbed her hands, and got ready to open her blind box!
Indeed, Song Ciwan felt that selling items to the Heaven and Earth Scale was just like opening a blind box. Before the transaction, the Scale wouldn't tell her what she would get in return, only that the item was tradable. How was that not a blind box?
She had to admit, there was a unique thrill to it.
Song Ciwan sold the "Eighty Percent Hermit's Qi" and received a Magic in return: A Grain of Sand in the Sea!
What did that mean?
A mayfly adrift between heaven and earth, a single grain of sand in a vast sea.
Oh, life, your essence is insignificance. Heaven and earth may be vast and the river of time endless, but what does any of that have to do with you?
You don't need a magnificent existence; you are merely a passerby in the Mortal World.
To put it simply, it was an Existence Disappearance Technique!
By practicing this Cultivation, even at the Entry Level, one could greatly reduce their presence, causing others to unconsciously ignore them.
'This... this is the Divine Technique every Old Liu must have!' Though different from the Invisibility Technique, it had its own unique advantages.
Song Ciwan immediately committed it to memory. While pondering the Dharma Gate of A Grain of Sand in the Sea, she summoned the Heaven and Earth Scale once more to sell the Demon Fiend Malice she had acquired that day.
The Heaven and Earth Scale had an automatic storage function. Its Balance Plate contained its own Grotto Heaven. If Song Ciwan chose not to immediately sell a tradable item she acquired, the Heaven and Earth Scale would store it for her.
If Song Ciwan received a physical object from a trade, such as a Strengthening Pill, she could also deposit it back into the Heaven and Earth Scale if she didn't want to retrieve it immediately.
There was just one catch: it could only store items that originated from the Heaven and Earth Scale itself. External objects, such as the grain and vegetables Song Ciwan had just bought, or her personal umbrella, could not be stored.
If she wanted a true storage space that she could use freely, she would have to keep working toward it.
[Malice, three taels and nine qian. Tradable.]
Song Ciwan sold it and received forty years of Lifespan in return!
She then discovered that the Lifespan granted by the Heaven and Earth Scale was actually rounded.
Last time, she had sold three taels and four qian of Malice for thirty years of Lifespan. This time, selling three taels and nine qian had yielded forty years.
Lifespan had no form, yet it seemed to possess a unique texture. As forty years of it infused into her body, Song Ciwan felt a wonderful sensation of her Essence Qi being replenished, brimming with vitality.
Her spirits lifted, and she immediately got to work.
She put her things away and started cooking dinner. Once the spicy fried lung slices were ready, she sold the dish to the Heaven and Earth Scale, once again receiving a Strengthening Pill.
Song Ciwan stored the Strengthening Pill, planning to use it during her Cultivation later that night.
Then, on a whim, she took out a charcoal-roasted taro and placed it on the Heaven and Earth Scale to see if it was tradable.
It was tradable: [One jin of non-glutinous rice, one of the five grains eaten by Humans.]
'Wow,' she thought, 'you really can sell anything.'
A whole new world opened up for Song Ciwan. A single roasted taro could be traded for a jin of rice? What kind of insane profit margin was that? It was a deal so good, a capitalist would weep!
Best of all, items obtained through the Heaven and Earth Scale could be stored right back in it. This was a roundabout way of turning the Heaven and Earth Scale into her personal storage space.
'What was this?' It was like finding a glimmer of hope in the darkness, a path forward where there was none before!
In the small courtyard, the Big White Goose, having eaten its fill, raised its neck and sang at the top of its lungs. "HONK HONK HONK…"
Song Ciwan burst out laughing. "Hahaha!"
The young woman's laughter and the goose's song rang out, clear and crisp, mingling with the simple, earthly joys of the Mortal World.