The Post Sky Tipping Era
Chapter 528 - 377: Reencountering Fan Zhizhou

Chapter 528: Chapter 377: Reencountering Fan Zhizhou

Li Yi, after dealing with the mutant beast, returned to the downtown area, planning to go home and have a good rest.

However, just as he arrived near the intersection close to Pingan Building, a man with tattered clothes, reeking of a foul odor, and covered in grime suddenly burst out of an alley and knelt down with a thud, trying to grab Li Yi’s hand.

Li Yi, quick to react and thinking it was a scam, dodged instinctively.

"A beggar?"

What era is it that Tianchang City still has beggars? He hadn’t seen one in many years.

But he didn’t have any money on him either.

Li Yi subconsciously felt his pockets and then thought about the Golden Coffin in his storage Magic Artifact. Should he break off a piece?

While he was pondering this, the beggar spoke up: "No, not a beggar, Li, Mr. Li, it’s me, Fan Zhizhou, don’t you recognize me anymore?"

"Fan Zhizhou?"

Li Yi was startled, then quickly helped him up: "Fan? It’s been a while, how did you end up like this?"

As soon as he said this, the originally strong-willed Fan Zhizhou burst into tears, seemingly overwhelmed with injustice like a child, and started crying heavily.

"Fan, what’s wrong with you? Are you alright? You look completely fine, no illness or disaster, just a bit low on Qi-Blood..."

Li Yi inspected him and found that not only had Fan Zhizhou’s strength not improved in this period, but his Qi-Blood had significantly depleted, and even his Martial Arts Realm seemed to have regressed.

"Mr. Li, I’m in such misery," Fan Zhizhou howled, drawing frequent glances from passersby.

"It’s okay, it’s okay, there isn’t a hurdle in the world that can’t be overcome, aren’t you still alive and well?" While trying to console him, Li Yi was very puzzled.

Having not seen each other for a while, how did Fan Zhizhou end up in such a state?

He remembered when he had parted with Fan Zhizhou, he had given him several million yuan, and with the potent medicines he brought back from the Four Seas and Eight Continents, it should have been enough for a prospering life in Tianchang City. At worst, it shouldn’t have led him to become the only beggar in Tianchang City.

Fan Zhizhou wanted to speak but his stomach growled instead, and then with trembling palms he clutched Li Yi’s arm: "Mr. Li, do you, do you have any food? I haven’t eaten for several days, I’m about to faint from hunger."

"Hm?" Li Yi’s silver eyes narrowed slightly upon hearing this.

So your depletion of Qi-Blood was caused by hunger?

This is absurd.

In such a short time, you spent several million yuan and ate a backpack full of potent medicines?

Li Yi didn’t think much further and immediately took out a bottle of Transcendent Nutrient Fluid from his storage Magic Artifact and handed it to Fan Zhizhou.

Fan Zhizhou had undergone some changes, at least he was quite familiar with modern society’s items. After receiving the Transcendent Nutrient Fluid, he opened it and gulped it down like a starving ghost reincarnated, emptying the bottle in just a few seconds.

As the Transcendent Nutrient Fluid took effect, the feeling of hunger in Fan Zhizhou began to rapidly disappear.

He set down the bottle, looked up at the sky with tears swirling in his eyes, and finally took a deep breath: "At last, I’ve come back to life, with this meal I can last for another ten days."

"..."

Seeing him like this, Li Yi didn’t know what to say for a moment.

But it was clear that Fan Zhizhou had been living a very hard life recently.

"Fan, let’s go back to my place first. You can take a bath, rest up, and we can talk later," Li Yi said.

Fan Zhizhou, with tears in his eyes, nodded: "Thank you, Mr. Li. Without your help, I, Fan, would have surely starved to death on the streets today."

Li Yi took Fan Zhizhou back to the Peace Finance Building, then asked him to take a bath, and called for Zheng Lan to prepare a set of clean clothes for Fan Zhizhou to change into.

"Li Yi, who is he? Why does he look like a beggar? Is he a Cultivator who came back from the dangerous zone?" Zheng Lan curiously asked while handing over the clothes, in her mind, only those who ventured into the dangerous zones could be so ragged.

"No, he’s a friend I brought back from the Otherworld," Li Yi said.

Zheng Lan immediately became interested: "That person is from the Otherworld? Which world did you bring him from?"

She also knew about cross-world matters and was very curious about people from the Otherworld.

"I’ll tell you later, better not to ask too much now," Li Yi said.

"Fine, I won’t ask now, but you must tell me the stories of the Otherworld later, I’ll go make you guys some tea," Zheng Lan didn’t press further and left immediately.

A little while later.

Fan Zhizhou finished his bath, emerged from the bathroom in clean clothes, and regained some of the demeanor of someone born into a prominent family. However, for reasons unknown, his eyes were always brimming with tears, his face the picture of aggrievement, and a sense of despair colored his brows, similar to the state Li Yi was in when he first returned from World 36.

"Fan, take a seat. Tell me, what on earth has happened recently that reduced you to begging on the streets of Tianchang City?" Li Yi said from his sofa, gesturing invitingly.

Fan Zhizhou sat down, he had cut his hair to better integrate into this world; his long hair that once reached his shoulders was now cropped short. As Li Yi posed the question, Fan seemed to lose himself in thought, apparently reliving some distressing memories.

Li Yi didn’t rush him, merely waiting patiently. It wasn’t until Zheng Lan passed over a cup of freshly brewed black tea that Fan Zhizhou seemed to snap back to reality.

Holding the steaming cup of tea, Fan Zhizhou saw his own haggard reflection in the liquid and, unable to help it, his tears fell once again. After wiping his tears and downing the tea in one gulp, he let out a deep sigh and said, "Mr. Li, it’s a long story."

"After we parted ways in the deserted district last time, I stepped into Tianchang City full of confidence, carrying the four million you gifted me and various great medicines and elixirs prepared by my family. I was acutely aware of the vastness of the universe and my own insignificance and decided to start over from scratch, setting aside the pride of a Family Disciple."

Li Yi nodded, "That’s sensible, no issues there."

Fan Zhizhou continued, "Following your advice, I sought out a meditation room to learn the ways of cultivation and evolution. With that and dual cultivation in Martial Arts, I believed I would surely accomplish something."

"That’s the right approach," Li Yi nodded again.

"But that’s when the nightmare began..." Fan Zhizhou’s expression turned to one of agony: "I found a place called the Skywalker Meditation Room. Although the cultures between the worlds differ, normal communication wasn’t a problem. The owner of the meditation room charged me ten thousand yuan for membership."

Thinking the price was incredibly affordable, I didn’t hesitate to pay, eager to learn and better assimilate into this world."

Li Yi commented, "That sounds reasonable, your plan was sound."

If it were him, he would do the same, considering Fan Zhizhou was an intelligent person. It wasn’t feasible to transform into Long Aotian and reign supreme over the city right away. Only by understanding the rules of this world and mastering its cultivation methods for slow exploration and establishing a footing could one survive and thrive.

Fan Zhizhou went on to say, "I thought everything would proceed smoothly, but when I went to the meditation room for a lesson the next day, they informed me that the day’s session was for silver members to learn, and with the ten thousand yuan I paid, I was only a regular member with no right to attend the class. To be able to listen, I had to become a silver member, which cost a hundred thousand yuan."

"Considering the amount wasn’t much, I paid a hundred thousand yuan and became a silver member, but they told me to come back tomorrow as today’s class had already started, and as a new member, I had missed a lot of information which would affect the quality of my future cultivation. They insisted it was for everyone’s benefit."

"At the time, I felt it was worth becoming a silver member as the service improved significantly, so I went back to the hotel to rest for the day, and returned for the class on the third day. Indeed, the teacher shared some knowledge that day, from the Sky Tipping incident to cultivation and evolution, and talked about how to meditate and absorb cosmic energy... I was delighted, feeling like I had grasped the method of cultivating with cosmic energy."

Li Yi replied, "Even though you spent a hundred thousand yuan, it was worth it if you learned something valuable, right?"

Fan Zhizhou offered a bitter smile: "But my aptitude is too poor; no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t channel the cosmic energy into my body to begin the path of cultivation. Some suggested I give up cultivating and find a job to make money instead, but how could I accept that? So, I asked the teacher if there was any way to change this."

"The meditation room teacher offered to act as a Guiding Skill instructor to direct the cosmic energy into my body and help me open the door to cultivation, but the price was steep—a whopping ten thousand yuan per hour."

Hearing this, Li Yi didn’t see any problem with it either.

The meditation room’s instructor, seeing that Fan Zhizhou could not make any progress, acted as a guide quite normally. The price was also industry standard; there was no intention of ripping off customers, after all, the meditation room was running a business.

"For a full ten days, I spent a million yuan, and that instructor kept trying to guide universal energy for me, but I still didn’t make any breakthrough." Fan Zhizhou said painfully while clutching his head.

"Uh..."

At this moment, Li Yi remembered something.

It seemed that in the Four Seas and Eight Continents, the universal energy was thin, and the bodies of the people there had degenerated. They were not sensitive to the universal energy and found it very difficult to become Evolvers. This was just like Earth in the beginning; universal energy had just appeared, and cultivation had not started. As time passed and bodies were soaked in universal energy, they began to adapt to the energy, which marked the beginning of the path of cultivation.

When Li Yi first helped his junior fellow disciple Zhao Qian start on the path of cultivation, he mobilized the energy of Sword Coins, combined with the application of the White Bone Temple Cultivation Skill, gathering a large amount of universal energy. Finally, with the help of the Guiding Skill, he infused these energies into Zhao Qian’s body, forcibly breaking through the threshold and achieving success.

In Tianchang City, if Fan Zhizhou wanted to succeed, the only possibility was to enter the Mysterious Object Cultivation Room and stay for a few days to begin the cultivation journey, or he could simply live in Tianchang City for a while until his body adapted to the environment, and then cultivate.

An ordinary meditation room’s instructor had, at best, the strength of a Spirit Medium or psychic. Thinking they could help people from the Four Seas and Eight Continents start their cultivation was simply wishful dreaming.

"Afterward, since the instructor saw how determined I was about cultivation, he introduced me to another method: buying a few bottles of their meditation room’s unique Cultivation Water. They claimed that by drinking it, an ordinary person could immediately start on the path of cultivation. However, the price was a bit steep, one million per bottle," Fan Zhizhou said.

"Pff~!"

Hearing this, Li Yi couldn’t help but spit out his tea.

It seemed that the meditation room’s instructor had already figured out that Fan Zhizhou was wealthy but naive, and had begun fleecing him.

"I thought, one million isn’t expensive. As long as it opens up the path of cultivation, it’s worth it, so I bought one bottle. But after using the Cultivation Water, there was still no effect, although I did feel much more energized," Fan Zhizhou said, "The instructor told me my physique was very poor, as if I hadn’t evolved at all. One bottle was probably not enough; I would need two."

"However, silver members can only buy one bottle. To purchase two, you need to obtain a gold membership, and to become a gold member, you need to pay five hundred thousand all at once."

"..." Li Yi looked at Fan Zhizhou with a strange expression.

The meditation room’s people had their calculations regarding the money on Fan Zhizhou down to a science.

He had a total of just four million yuan.

If he bought three bottles of whatever Cultivation Water, and added a silver and gold membership on top of that, three million six hundred thousand would be gone. Adding everyday expenses, Fan Zhizhou would nearly be cleaned out.

Fan Zhizhou, not understanding the cultivation of this world and being eager to start his cultivation journey, coupled with his background as a Family Disciple who didn’t really care about money, was bound to fall for the trap.