By now it was nearly midday, and the small restaurant was cold and desolate — not a single customer, only the sound of little Tingting’s muffled sobbing inside.

Ye Fan shouldered the river deer, picked up the rice and flour, pushed open the shop door, and walked in.

Little Tingting’s large eyes were red and swollen. She was carefully wiping the old man’s wounds with a warm cloth, heartbroken, wiping and weeping at the same time.

The old man’s wrinkled face bore bruises in the shape of fingers, dark and livid. The blood had mainly flowed from his nose and mouth, and even his loose, disheveled white hair was stained red.

“How could those beasts have brought themselves to do this…” Ye Fan felt a twist of anguish in his chest. To see such violence done to a kind old man in his declining years filled him with unbearable fury. Little Tingting was so adorable and so understanding — barely five or six years old — and yet someone had jabbed a finger into her forehead and sent her tumbling to the ground. Her small face was now streaked with tears of sorrow, and the sight of her made his heart ache with pity.

“Big brother…” The moment she saw Ye Fan return, fresh tears spilled from Tingting’s eyes, and she broke into loud, heaving sobs.

“Tingting, be good — don’t cry. Grandfather is fine.” The old man quickly tried to comfort her, using his callused hand to wipe away her tears, then looked at Ye Fan in surprise. “This river deer, and all this rice and flour…”

“I hunted the river deer in the mountains. The rice and flour I traded for with a roe deer.” Ye Fan set everything down, then drew a small jade vial from his chest. He pulled the stopper, poured out a little of the Hundred Herbs Liquid, and dabbed it gently onto the old man’s wounds.

“You only ate one meal with us — there was no need for all this…” The old man was not a man of many words, but he was deeply grateful, even if he couldn’t quite express it.

“Uncle, you don’t need to say anything. One meal is nothing in itself — but the kindness and the warmth behind it carry great weight.” As he said this, Ye Fan crouched down and wiped the tears from little Tingting’s cheeks. “Tingting, don’t cry. I’m staying here now. I won’t let you be wronged again.”

“Big brother…” Tingting’s eyes turned red again, her long lashes trembling lightly, tears streaming silently down her face. She lowered her head and stared at her patched little shoes, and said quietly: “But… those bad people will come back. They’ll bully us again.”

“Don’t be afraid. Big brother won’t let those bad people bully Tingting anymore.” Ye Fan patted her head with gentle affection. That such an adorable, sensible little girl could be treated so harshly — it was truly impossible to remain unmoved.

“Child, don’t do anything reckless.” The old man had weathered much in his life, and he sensed the anger in Ye Fan. He feared that in a moment of hot-headedness the young boy might stir up a disaster and get himself destroyed in the process. “We cannot afford to provoke the Li Family. They have cultivators among them — ordinary people like us have no hope of standing against that.”

The old man let out a long sigh and said, “I’m already this old — the last thing I want is to leave my home. After all, I’ve lived here for decades. The older one gets, the more one clings to the familiar; I have feelings for this place that are not easy to sever. But there’s no choice anymore. For Tingting’s sake, I’ve decided to let everything here go. Even if it means begging for food, even if it means leaving home — I refuse to stay and endure this any longer.”

“Grandfather…” Fresh tears spilled down Tingting’s face.

“Tingting, be good — don’t cry. Uncle, let’s not talk about leaving home just yet.” Ye Fan comforted Tingting, then said to the old man: “Don’t worry. I won’t cause any trouble. For now, let’s close the shop, and I’ll think of something. If all else fails, I’ll leave with the two of you.”

Ye Fan understood deeply that for ordinary people there were many misfortunes in life, and none were more painful than the loss of a child in old age or being driven from one’s home. The old man had already lost his son, and now he was being forced to abandon the town where he had lived — the suffering in his heart was not difficult to imagine. Ye Fan truly did not want to see this grandfather and granddaughter suffer any further misfortune.

“Tell me in detail — what is the Li Family’s background?”

“Child, what do you intend to do? We’ll pack our things and leave tomorrow — please, don’t go and provoke them now.”

“I’m not an impulsive person. Don’t worry.”

Eventually, under Ye Fan’s persistent questioning, the old man finally shared what he knew.

The Li Family was the foremost great household in this town. It was said that three or four members of their family were out cultivating somewhere. Cultivators were a great mystery to ordinary folk, almost never seen in daily life, and so the townspeople were all deeply fearful of the Li Family.

Ye Fan sensed that the old man was holding some things back — such as how the Jiang Family had once been quite well-off, possessing a proper inn in town, and how his son had come to die so suddenly. None of that had been spoken.

“Tingting, go warm Grandfather’s cloth with some hot water.” Once the old man had sent Tingting away, he said: “Young friend, I know you are no ordinary child. At such a young age, you can hunt river deer — I suspect you know something of cultivation. Even so, I urge you: do not provoke the Li Family…”

The old man continued. His son and daughter-in-law had, it turned out, also been cultivators — and several years ago they had been held in high regard at a certain immortal sect, so much so that even the Li Family in town had cultivated friendly relations with them and been unwilling to give offense.

“Smoky Haze Cave Heaven…” Ye Fan was astonished. The sect that the old man’s son had belonged to was one of the six Cave Heavens and Blessed Grounds of the Yan Kingdom, no more than two hundred li from this small town.

Several members of the Li Family also cultivated at Smoky Haze Cave Heaven. Among them, one had entered the sect at almost the same time as the old man’s son — but his achievements had fallen far, far behind.

“That Li Family boy had an impure character and conducted himself improperly. He committed a wicked act, and my son was too upright to overlook it — he intervened, and the result was a deep enmity forged between them…”

Tingting’s father had exceptional natural talent and had been especially valued at Smoky Haze Cave Heaven, so he had not feared the Li Family disciple who had entered alongside him. But heaven does not always favor the good and fate is unpredictable — two years ago, when Tingting’s parents went out into the world to gather spirit medicines, they met with a tragic death at the claws of a Thunder Lightning Bird.

After Tingting’s parents died, the Li Family people no longer had any restraint. First they seized the old man’s inn, then stripped him of his lodging house, driving this miserable grandfather and granddaughter to their current state of desperation — and still they would not relent.

Just then, little Tingting came back in, having wrung out the cloth in warm water. She looked like a beautifully carved jade figure, doll-like in her prettiness — yet she spoke words entirely out of keeping with her young age: “Why is it that in this world good people are always the ones who get bullied, while bad people live long and well?”

Hearing her childlike words and seeing the aggrieved expression on her face, Ye Fan and the old man exchanged a glance and said nothing, not knowing how to offer comfort.

“The world has more good people in it than bad, Tingting — you’re only seeing one side of things. Everything will get better from here on…” Ye Fan did not want such a young and tender heart to fill with dark feelings too soon.

“That’s right — your big brother here is a good person, helping us the way he has. Both he and Tingting will live long and well.” The old man’s face broke into a warm, kindly smile. “Today I’ll stew river deer meat for Tingting to eat.”

Following Ye Fan’s suggestion, the old man closed the small restaurant, and the three of them shared a fine and generous midday meal. Little Tingting’s cheeks were rosy as ever, and she smiled brightly once more.

That afternoon, Ye Fan walked circuits through the town, mapping out the Li Family’s properties and locating the inn and lodging house that had been taken from the old man. He then pieced together additional information indirectly from other people.

He had no desire to act rashly and endanger Old Uncle Jiang and little Tingting. To harm the very people one set out to help would be the most foolish and sorrowful thing of all.

“The Li Family has several members cultivating at Smoky Haze Cave Heaven…” Ye Fan felt far from confident — after all, he had only just begun his cultivation. But that wasn’t even the most troublesome part. What worried him more was that one member of the Li Family was cultivating at a top-tier immortal sect outside the Yan Kingdom, and seemed to have achieved considerable standing.

“The Li Family really is formidable. I’ll have to think of another way.” This only deepened Ye Fan’s resolve to cultivate. He had to grow stronger — otherwise he would always be hamstrung, and even wanting to avenge Old Uncle Jiang and poor little Tingting would be difficult to accomplish cleanly.

“Those several scoundrels who struck today — I absolutely cannot let them off.” Ye Fan made no move to act immediately; acting on impulse would only ruin everything. He returned calmly to the small restaurant and, once inside his room, sat down in meditation. Since obtaining that page of the golden scripture and the mysterious green bronze, he had not had a proper chance to examine them. Now he decided to start with the golden scripture.

He circulated the profound technique of the Dao Scripture and began to look inward. The golden-colored Sea of Bitterness, no larger than a soybean, hung like a divine moon in the darkness — ancient and magnificent. The green bronze block sat at the very center of the golden Sea of Bitterness, motionless as a mountain, stable, silent.

Meanwhile, the golden page of scripture had been pushed to the edge of the Sea of Bitterness. It shimmered with brilliant radiance, flashing with wave after wave of divine light. The dense, tiny characters covering it gleamed like constellations of stars, scattering golden light in every direction — sacred and ethereal. The golden page seemed to want to return to the center of the Sea of Bitterness, but no matter how dazzling its divine luminescence, how brilliantly it blazed like a rainbow, it could not move the green bronze by so much as a hair — it could only drift along the edge of the Sea.

Ye Fan’s consciousness sank fully into the golden scripture within the Sea of Bitterness, but he ran into the same obstacle as before: every tiny character on the gleaming golden page was shooting out needle-like rays of golden light, stabbing painfully into his mind, making it impossible to read the characters clearly.

“How can this be? Is there truly no way to cultivate the profound technique written on this golden page?” Ye Fan furrowed his brow. It was as though he held a treasure mountain in his hands, yet could not extract a single piece of wealth from it — not even a copper coin.

Then, without warning, Ye Fan seemed to remember something, and reached into his chest.

A dull, grey Bodhi Seed appeared in his hand — as large as a walnut, bearing natural patterns across its surface, the lines joining together to form the image of a Buddha figure.

The Buddha image was a natural formation, born entirely of nature — dim-hued, ancient, unadorned, with a faint breath of Zen emanating gently from it.

“The Bodhi tree is said to help one attain the Dao. Let me try using this Bodhi Seed!” It was because of this very Bodhi Seed that Ye Fan had received a mysterious ancient scripture inside the Ancient Bronze Coffin. Now, unable to view the profound technique inscribed on the golden scripture, he thought to try relying on this marvelous Bodhi Seed once more.

The Bodhi tree goes by other names as well — the Tree of Wisdom, the Tree of Enlightenment, the Tree of Contemplation. It is said to be able to unlock the divine nature within a person, allowing one to awaken to the truth of one’s own being.

The instant Ye Fan gripped the Bodhi Seed, he began to circulate the profound technique recorded in the Dao Scripture. Golden threads overflowed from within the Sea of Bitterness and converged toward the Bodhi Seed.

In that moment — whether it was an illusion or whether the Bodhi Seed was truly taking effect — he felt his heart become a vast and serene emptiness, perfectly still.

He began to look inward at the Sea of Bitterness once more, his gaze turning toward the golden scripture.

“It really works…” Ye Fan was stunned with astonishment. The Bodhi Seed had rendered his heart a clear and open emptiness — his consciousness was utterly undisturbed, like still water, like a mirror. He passed through the golden radiance with ease and could now make out the ancient characters on the golden page. The needle-like shafts of blinding golden light seemed suddenly to have softened, no longer lancing into his eyes.

“I have opened a treasury!” Even with the Bodhi Seed in hand, Ye Fan’s heart could not stay calm — he was overcome with excitement. He had opened the complete Wheel of the Sea volume of the Dao Scripture.

The ancient characters transformed into divine radiance, impressing themselves upon his consciousness one after another — like constellations blazing in the sky.