Immortal Cultivation and Life-Saving Guide

Chapter 494 Seeking the Path 4
The cicadas' song fades, summer invites autumn to visit.

The autumn in Xizhou remained dry, and the dust rising from the mines added to the oppressive atmosphere.

"Wei Jia Er Ya, take that thing off your face! Otherwise, you'll get heat rash, it's really scary!"

Wei Xi, whose only visible feature was his eyes, ignored everything and diligently counted the ore that needed to be sent out.

"Pah!" the mine's foreman exclaimed, "If you knew better, you'd be mute; if you didn't, you'd be deaf!"

Wei Xi wouldn't take such a casual remark to heart.

After affixing the last seal and writing the date on it with a brush, Wei Xi handed over his work to Chen Wang and prepared to go back to rest.

"Wei Xi," the short and stocky Chen Wang gestured for Wei Xi to come closer and said in a low voice, "I won't be free before the holiday. If you want to go home to visit, it would be best to ask for leave tomorrow."

This was a bit strange. Wei Xi didn't show it on his face, but looked curious.

Chen Wang laughed and said, "I heard from my second uncle that the higher-ups have ordered an additional batch of ore, and the county magistrate is planning to deliver it to the prefectural capital before the festival. Old Zhang is no longer of any use, so it will have to be us younger ones. If you go back, I'll cover for you tomorrow, and you can take my place after the festival."

This news is probably true. Wei Xi knows that Chen Wang's fifth grandfather works as a clerk in the county government, and he is very well-informed.

However, Wei Xi was not really an eight-year-old child, and he was somewhat wary of Chen Wang's unsolicited kindness.

However, Wei Xi was cautious, so he nodded and left.

Since she's mute, whether nodding means "I understand" or "I agree" depends entirely on how it's interpreted.

Because Wei Xi refused to take the medicine, the Wei family saved a lot of money and sent both siblings to the county mine to learn skills: Wei Dong learned blasting from the master, while Wei Xi originally learned to repair tools, but she found a way to catch the eye of Old Man Zhang and was transferred to the accounting office, where she is now in charge of inventory and reporting.

Two lucrative jobs required a lot of money to bribe officials, so Mr. Wei spent another month in the mountains catching two deer to secure the positions. Before they left, Mr. and Mrs. Wei told their two children that it was normal to suffer some hardships while learning skills outside, and that once they learned, they would never lack food no matter what happened.

However, Wei Xi's abilities exceeded the old couple's expectations, and the situation changed; the "six" in her vision subsequently became "five".

Therefore, Wei Xi tried to switch jobs to the accounting department, but Wu remained unmoved.

"Fortunately, the numbers weren't too difficult, and I managed to get by by secretly learning from others," Wei Xi thought as he walked. "But what exactly are these two paths I've encountered? I haven't had a clue after all these years."

However, after so much time has passed, Wei Xi has not come away empty-handed: firstly, as her activities have shifted to the mine, the fog has followed her closely; secondly, she has discovered that the flow of time is entirely under her control, which has greatly facilitated her actions.

“Time and space revolve around me; this is a trial tailor-made for me,” Wei Xi concluded. “I just don’t know if this ability originates from words or the abyss. If it’s just an illusion, it will be easier to deal with.”

While pondering, Wei Xi turned a corner and bumped into Liu San from the same village.

Having probably just emerged from the mine, Liu San was covered in black soot, making the whites of his eyes stand out, and the distinctive spots on his eyes, characteristic of people from Xizhou, were even more prominent.

The two nearly stumbled. Liu San, strong and hot-tempered, was the leader of the village's children. He was about to lose his temper when he suddenly saw Wei Xi's pale and sinister face. He immediately fell silent, lowered his head, and walked around her.

Wei Xi reached out and pretended to stop him. Liu San stopped and said, "Dongzi finished a long time ago and probably went back to sleep."

After saying that, Liu San glanced at Wei Xi's expression and, seeing that she was expressionless, quickly said, "I'm done, so I'll stop the water-gathering talisman!"

Seeing that Wei Xi had stopped, Liu San disappeared in a flash.

Wei Xi leisurely turned into the residential area, where a cluster of low houses came into view. Finding the target building, Wei Xi went inside and saw a human figure sleeping soundly with his head covered on the kang (a heated brick bed).

Who else could it be but the heartless Wei Dong?

The man who lived with Wei Dong was a kind and gentle person. When he saw Wei Xi arrive, he quickly poured her a bowl of water, greeted her, and then slipped away to avoid suspicion.

"Why did you come here?" Wei Dong, still half asleep, saw his younger sister instantly wake up and pulled back the covers, saying, "This place isn't as clean as yours, be careful not to ruin your lungs!"

Wei Xi pointed to the triangular scarf covering his mouth and nose and shook his head.

Seeing her like this, Wei Dong had no mind to argue anymore. He sat up and rummaged through the bundle he had been using as a pillow. “You’ve come at the right time. The other day, my master gave me some copper coins. Take them and buy some snacks.”

Even when he grew to eight years old again, Wei Xi would still be momentarily dazed by this kind of concern—what kind of magic technique could be so lifelike, so exactly the same as his older brother's?

Seeing that his sister didn't react, Wei Dong stuffed the warm copper coin into her hand and asked, "Has someone wronged you? Is it that boy who's been bothering you?"

Wei Xi waved his hand dismissively, then gestured for a while.

"You said I should leave before the holiday?" Wei Dongqi asked. "But I remember you couldn't leave before the holiday, right? Did your parents send someone to deliver a message?"

Without Lingyin's company, Wei Xi didn't need to come up with an excuse; she only needed to nod.

This can be considered one of the advantages of being mute.

After the brother and sister talked for a while, Wei Xi returned to his residence and lay down fully clothed, still checking his plans in his mind.

The next day, Chen Wang breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that Wei Dong had asked for leave. His cousin came to tell him the news and asked in confusion, "Brother Wang, why are you so afraid of that mute girl? Why are you carrying her around?"

Chen Wang glared at his clueless cousin and cursed, "You idiot! We're doing something that could cost us our lives! Can't we find a scapegoat? That girl from the Wei family can't talk, she's perfect for covering this up!"

"Get this batch of ore out of here quickly," Chen Wang ordered. "With these, it should be complete. I still need to put all the accounts on Wei Xi's tab."

The man meekly loaded the ore onto the truck and went out, but didn't return for a long time.

Chen Wang was anxious and went to look for her while cursing.

When Chen Wang arrived at the abandoned ferry crossing on the back mountain, he saw his cousin lying beside the cart. Panicked, he turned to run away, but then he saw Wei Xi staring straight at him.

Chen Wang shuddered and shouted, "It's you! No! Shouldn't you have gone home with your brother?"

Driven by wickedness, Chen Wang, who was six or seven years older than Wei Xi, suddenly decided to kill him after his scheme was exposed.

Wei Xi was too lazy to argue with this idiot. Taking advantage of his height, he threw a punch that made Chen Wang dizzy. Then he delivered a clean and decisive slash, and blood splattered high.

"Troublesome," Wei Xi thought, looking at the clean cut. "Hopefully the coroner won't overthink it. Which of those two cowards has this skill?"

“However, taking lives does indeed symbolize a kind of Tao,” Wei Xi concluded after observing the changes in the numbers. “No, it’s the opposite. I should have lost the ‘Tao’ of saving people.”

Wei Xi did it on purpose, turning the tables on Wei Xi.