Era of Mist

Chapter 279: Chapter 278: As If I Had a Choice

Shi Tiexin began to pack his things.

There wasn’t much to pack, really. After sixteen years, besides a few personal articles of clothing, he had nothing to his name. The secret manuals gifted to him by the Mu Yuan District’s Bureau of Education were somewhat valuable, but after cultivating better ones, these ordinary manuals were useless.

Shi Tiexin figured he’d sell them another day. It would help fatten his wallet, which was better than leaving them here to gather mold.

As for gifting them to someone... putting aside the fact he wasn’t close enough to anyone for that, you couldn’t find a single other person in the entire Orphanage capable of cultivating these manuals! So, selling them was the only option.

Oh, right.

Shi Tiexin took a small Jade Pendant from his drawer.

This little Jade Pendant looked quite old; its surface was polished smooth and lustrous. But the quality of the jade and its design were completely unremarkable, like a fake picked up at a flea market.

The Jade Pendant was carved with a character on each side: ”Shi” on one, and ”Tie” on the other.

It was Shi Tiexin’s only personal possession.

The Jade Pendant had been with him for as long as he could remember. It was a cheesy trope, exactly like something out of pulp fiction, but it was the truth.

After ruling out the possibility of it being a prank by Situ the Bald, Shi Tiexin confirmed it was the item he had been wearing when he arrived at the Orphanage.

When he was little, it was his treasure. Some kids had tried to steal it, but every one of those bullies who tried ended up half-crippled.

Later, he began to hope someone would follow the trail of the Jade Pendant to find him, to take him back to a home that, while perhaps poor, would at least have a little warmth.

But no one ever came.

Even the couples who occasionally came to adopt children never paid any attention to his Jade Pendant.

The hope in his eyes gradually faded. His love for it turned to hate, and he even wanted to smash it or throw it away, but in the end, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. After that, he hid the Jade Pendant away and stopped wearing it.

As he got older and started reading pulp fiction, he fantasized about performing a blood-oath ritual to claim it as his own, or that after he began cultivating, he would be able to awaken the Jade Pendant and receive some incredible inheritance.

But in the end, there was nothing.

It was just an ordinary Jade Pendant that looked a bit like a fake.

The only lasting impact it had on Shi Tiexin was that he had given himself the name ”Shi Tiexin” after looking at the Jade Pendant.

That’s right. It was because of the characters carved on both sides of the pendant that he had his current name. As for whether his surname was actually Shi, he himself had no idea.

Of course, his surname could just as well have been Tie. After all, who could say which side of the Jade Pendant was the front?

But at the time, he had thought to himself that since he had no parents, he might as well have been born from a stone. He also hoped he could have a heart of iron and stone, so he would never feel hurt or sad. And so, he called himself ”Shi Tiexin.”

Other than that, nothing.

Even the appearance of the Vista System had nothing to do with this Jade Pendant. It really was just an ordinary pendant that had repeatedly made him hope, only to be disappointed. He hadn’t even taken it out in a long time; it had been tossed into a corner of his memory.

But looking at it again today, he felt a faint warmth, like seeing an old friend again.

After carefully wrapping the Jade Pendant and placing it in his luggage, Shi Tiexin considered everything packed and ready.

Ten minutes later, without saying goodbye to anyone, Shi Tiexin walked out of the Orphanage’s main gate alone, carrying his luggage. He glanced back at the plain, square building that had, for all its lack of character, truly supported him through his childhood. His eyes drifted to the faint, oily, curved reflection in a window on the administrative floor. Shi Tiexin gave a wave, then turned around.

Goodbye, Orphanage!

Shi Tiexin resolved to head for the Upper City, toward his brand new... life as a peaceful sycophant.

Squeezed in with many other passengers on the sky-rail, Shi Tiexin headed for the Upper City once more amidst the hypnotic CLANK CLANK of the train. He had entered the city many times, but this time, he felt particularly uneasy. No matter how many bad or unbearable things there were about the Orphanage, it had at least provided a roof over his head, a point of reference he could look back on.

But now, Shi Tiexin clutched the luggage in his arms tightly. He felt like a bird that had just flown out of its cage, one that would have to struggle and fly just to feed itself each day.

Squirming a little, feeling unaccustomed to the crowd, Shi Tiexin rationally analyzed his situation and set an immediate goal for himself. ’First, I need to get my head straight.’

Having suddenly returned from another world-line, Shi Tiexin was indeed having trouble adjusting. He thought about his former self, the great Black Venerable. Except for when he chose to ride his own bike, wasn’t he always chauffeured around in luxury cars?

Having grown used to riding in a Rolls-Royce, he of course felt uncomfortable being crammed into a sky-rail again.

’My ego’s gotten a little inflated. This won’t do.’

’Let’s see... before, I was used to being the Black Venerable, a big shot on the streets. I held the power of life and death over dozens, even hundreds, of direct subordinates, and even more people had to tread carefully around me. I was unbelievably badass. But from now on, I have to lie low, act humbly, and even become a peaceful bootlicker, panting with my tongue hanging out...’

’Isn’t this asking way too fucking much of the great Black Venerable!’

An hour later, Shi Tiexin arrived at the familiar little cultural park.

He gave the old men a profound look. He saw them brandishing heavy metal-rod brushes, splashing ink with flourishing strokes. A shockingly sharp aura seemed to SIZZLE from the tips of their brushes, instantly making Shi Tiexin forget his former identity as the great Black Venerable.

A commotion arose, and Shi Tiexin turned his head to look across the lake. A group of square dancers and a group of nearby residents were, once again, having a conflict.

Look, the residents’ representative is charging in! He’s opened his secret realm! He’s a master of sharp aura at such a young age! He gets slapped by the lead granny, and his head spins around three times! He calls ’GG’ and is knocked out of his secret realm!

WEE-WOO! WEE-WOO! The ambulance is never late, arriving with a screech of tires. In the blink of an eye, a mechanical arm tied up the unconscious man with ropes and bindings. Cackling like a spider demon capturing the Tang Monk, it snatched him into the vehicle as if seizing a gold nugget, then WHOOSHED away in a drift.

He had never noticed before, but from Shi Tiexin’s current perspective, the ambulance driver’s skill was at least at the Profound level.

Shi Tiexin watched the ambulance fly off, hugging the ground as it sped away. He then glanced at the group of grannies, who stood triumphantly with their hands on their hips. He silently estimated their combat power and realized that any one of the lead dancers could take on five of him.

’Yep, my mental recalibration is going great!’

’Black Venerable? What Black Venerable?’

’Who’s the Black Venerable?’

’Which one is the Black Venerable?’

’Could he be tougher than the guy whose neck just spun around three times?’

’Probably not.’

And so, Shi Tiexin felt that he had instantly adapted to his role as a peaceful sycophant.

His knees were bent, and he was grounded.

His inflated ego was cured.

His brilliant intellect had retaken the high ground.

Shi Tiexin felt it was time to get down to business.

He took out a stack of small paper cards and a pen, then sat on the ground, leaning against a flowerbed, and began to write furiously. He hadn’t forgotten about the business he’d promised Deputy Director Tao Zhongming he would do. This job of writing business cards would likely be his main source of income for a long time to come.

Shi Tiexin immediately began writing in earnest.

’Forget about being a peaceful sycophant,’ he thought. ’As if I have a choice. Whether in times of peace or chaos, those with skill can be men, and those without have to be dogs.’

He wrote furiously, his mind focused. He wrote in one go until the sun was high in the sky. He wrote until his wrist was sore and numb, his mind-force was depleted, his vision went dark, and his heart pounded in his chest. Only after writing a full three hundred business cards did he finally lift his head and let out a long breath.

A heavy stack of business cards, a heavy feeling of accomplishment.

Don’t bring up the past; life is already full of storms.

Three hundred value points clutched in his hand—this was who he was now!