Since Zhen Qing was a commoner, Jin had been placing cans of bamboo juices into one of the kitchen caravan’s refrigerator compartments. The bamboo juices not only cooled her down throughout the day but also gave her a boost of spiritual force to keep her working.
However, Jin knew that this would not effective in the long run. With Zhen Qing insisting on by working herself, which was for reasons that he did not know yet, the toll of work would eventually cause trouble to her health. Working from 8am till 10pm was extremely tiring by itself, not to mention staying in the kitchen instance to prepare her ingredients before 8am.
Jin was surprised that she had not slowed down a single bit since she started working. It was even, to an extent, admirable. Preparing ingredients, selling them and eventually cleaning the store all by herself.
“I am done, did you mention something about cultivation?” Zhen Qing was holding a bamboo juice for a drink.
“Have a seat, can I have your Mechat account? So I can send you the details.” Jin asked and Zhen Qing readily gave Jin her contacts. Jin then sent over a PDF document he had obtained during the Zoo cultivation trip he had gone on with his bellators. It contained the type of cultivation styles they had as well as a simplified version of the pros and cons of each cultivation. It was of course not an exhaustive list of cultivation styles, but for a commoner, it would give them some idea of what they would like to use.
“Wow, I did not expect there to be so many styles. But, is it okay for me to cultivate despite being this old?” Zhen Qing asked as she scrolled through the pdf.
“It is never too late to cultivate, there was one time where a seventy year old uncle took up cultivation to improve his health a little. Of course, he still died around 100 because he had had enough of life.” Jin explained.
“I thought one of the goals of cultivation was to obtain immortality?” Zhen Qing questioned.
“It initially was, but that was before the advent of the solid dantian. During the golden age of cultivation, the leading figures of cultivation were contemplating whether they wanted immortality or this solid dantian resurrection. Eventually, they decided to go with resurrection because they figured the world power gap dynamics would only continue to grow even wider with immortality.” Jin replied.
“So when people realised the solid dantian initiative was carried out, there was rioting. Several high class noble houses fought against these groups of cultivators to force them to revert the change. They said they were selfish in initiating such a change in the laws of nature.”
“What happened next?” Zhen Qing was casually reading the descriptions of some of the cultivation styles as she listened to Jin. Jin thought that he was boring Zhen Qing so he shortened his recount.
“Civil wars, internal strife but surprisingly, the leaders were quite ruthless and selfless at the same time, if that even makes sense. The wealth of noble houses that they annihilated was given to the poor people as food stock and materials for building. So -”
“No no no, what I wanted to ask is what happened after getting the solid dantian? How long do people live for now? I mean, I heard the oldest person right now was 200 odd years old, but the way you say it, it’s as if people can choose when they want to die.” Zhen Qing interrupted Jin’s explanation of the past.
“Ehhh…in a way yes and no? For example, people who get cancer and do not get proper treatment will still die. We are still not immune to sickness such as colds, fevers etc and will still die from severe illnesses such as heart disease and other cancers. Sure, at higher grades of cultivation, we can slow down the rate of cancer or block the sensation of pain and ignore the illness. Eventually though, the cultivator would not be able to hold off these cancer cells and what the body would then do is stop the heart slowly so that we can have a peaceful death.”
Jin vividly remembered how Ming did not tell him a single thing and pretended everything was fine until Jin found him sleeping peacefully on his bed with several documents prepared on his bedside table.
All he could do at that point of time was follow the instructions on the documents to prepare the funeral, which was conducted in a temple far from the house with no friends or family except for the priests. When Jin tried calling his close contacts, a few friends of his Jin saw quite frequently said that they were already informed previously and sent their condolences to Jin.
“Are you okay?” Zhen Qing saw a tear roll down Jin’s face despite no change of expression. Did she hit a nerve upon talking about this?
“Oh, I think I’m just a bit sleepy…ahaha. Do not worry about it.” Jin wiped that tear away and smiled.
“In any case, take a look at the cultivation styles and I will see if I can find any manual for you to practice. I might even ask Milk, Peppers or Zeru about it, whom I believe you met earlier this afternoon, to help you with it.” Jin said as he started to stand up in order to end the conversation.
“Yea, Peppers was really cute.” Zhen Qing smiled when she remembered how Peppers interacted with her earlier. “In any case, thank you, Boss. See you again in the morning!” Zhen Qing perked up upon seeing the cultivation list as she returned home on her motorcycle.
“Boss! I will be leaving too!” Xiong Da just saw Jin coming in and decided to wave him goodbye for the night. Jin returned the farewell and entered the store.
“Time for part 2: Fishing World. My Bellators, are you all still okay? Any of you sleepy?” All three bellators immediately appeared in front of him kneeling down.
“Sleep? That is for the weak!” Peppers shouted, which made Zeru and Milk grin.
“Get going Jin, I will clear the place up for you.” Yun smiled brightly before she shooed her ‘kid’ off to work.
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