The hired hand continued following Ren down the street, a sack on his right shoulder filled with raw heavy stones. He noticed someone following them and immediately alerted Ren.

"Don't mind her. She'll grow tired on her own. Let's go eat something."

The diner Ren chose wasn't just an ordinary diner as he came to realize only when the food was being served. The female workers would walk by, caress their shoulders and giggle, or intentionally brush their hips on his back.

He gritted his teeth, contemplating leaving, but the food smelled delicious and had already made his buds wet with desire.

'This can be a mental test for you, Renshen. I read about those already. If I focus hard on the food, everything else should feel nonexistent to me.'

Following his own advice, he closed his eyes briefly. When they opened, a flash of gold was spotted by the large man seated across him in rough, worn-out dirt, brown clothes. A wave of rage and resentment suddenly flooded his chest realizing that Ren was a cultivator.

He smacked the table springing to his feet. "I'll be going now, young Master!"

"Sit down!" Ren ordered, his eyes moving from his bowls to the extra ones. "Eat everything you ordered. I hate wasting food."

"That won't be necessary. I'll pay it my-"

"Sit!" He hissed and the hired hand's body moved on its own back down on the stool.

But it hadn't just happened, no. Ren had used his roots, wrapped them around the man's waist, and yanked him down.

"Eat. Or should I feed you?"

"That won't be necessary." He picked up the bamboo chopsticks angrily and stabbed the meat in one of his bowls instead of picking it up.

He expected Ren to ask why he had behaved the way he had, but, Ren wasn't the least bothered. All he cared about was the food. All his attention was on the variety of dishes on the table despite beautiful women moving around them.

Only after the meal was over did Ren speak to him. "Deliver these stones at the city lord's residence." He pushed a string of fifty coins along the table before getting up. "You know the way, right?"

Clenching his jaw, the hand answered, "Yes."

"Good. Don't even think of doing anything other than that. You can go your way once the task is completed."

Ren was simply not in the mood for a silly confrontation about why the hand was emitting such dark hatred when he had been fine before they came in here.

He left the diner, sensing the breath of the female who had been following him outside.

'I already have a fan.'

But he wasn't even a bit concerned about a woman whose feminine ego had been bruised when he had failed to submit to her just because she was attractive and alluring. The centuries of being buried as ginseng had taken away a part of his human emotions. Anger was still with him because of how hard he had clung to it from earth.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

After accepting this new life, Ren had made up his mind to forget about his past life, but not the lessons. The people he used to hate were all dead anyway. Even if he became immortal and traveled back to Earth, it'd be a different world to him.

#############

The hired hand grunted, murmured, and cursed Ren, calling him a white fox because of his hair and for deceiving him into thinking he was a mortal.

His disgust for those cultivators ran deep in his bones like the marrow filling them. They made him sick to the stomach, and he always avoided their arrogant demeanor. Ren had been a little arrogant as well, but his arrogance had felt different. "Argh! He's still one of 'them'."

He left the street and got into another one where he spotted someone familiar to him from a distance. His untidy and uncombed hair, the dirty rags he wore. It had to be him. "That little brat! I'm going to spank him red today." Overtaken by rage, he changed direction and began following the little boy until they reached the slum area.

He kept following him even when he entered one of the courtyards, finding himself spectating the scene of his younger brother who was only twelve, handing out dry bread to the smaller children hopping around him.

The gratitude on their faces was touching and heartwarming to look at.

When they had their share, they hurried back to one of the huts.

"Elder brother, what are you doing here?" Wu Ren asked running to his brother.

He paused when he sensed life within the sack his older was carrying but did not speak about it for fear of him finding out his secret.

"Answer me honestly, where did you get the money to buy bread? And why are you wearing these rags again? I already told you that I will earn money for the both of-"

"Elder brother, I'm already a man now. You don't have to-"

A hard slap echoed in the courtyard before tears formed in Wu Ren's eyes. He stared at the ground next to his brother's feet for a moment while being scolded.

"If you say that again, then don't bother coming home. Since you're a man now, why don't you go out and get married now? If you don't want to listen to me, then don't set your feet in the house!"

Overwhelmed by emotions, Wu Ren screamed, "Fine! I'm not coming back! All you ever do is control me. You forbid me from cultivating, forbid me from working, forbid me from leaving the house. I'm not a piece of furniture to stay in the house all day waiting for you to come back?"

He dropped the sack and grabbed his little brother by the collar of his torn shirt. "I'm still your elder you spoiled brat. Don't talk to me like-"

Wu thrust his palm forward and onto his brother's abdomen, enforcing it with his qi to knock him backward till he fell on his butt. "You're not even my real brother. I won't tolerate you anymore. As you can see, I have already begun my cultivation path. I won't let you hold me back, Wu Tao."

Wu Tao scoffed bewildered. He couldn't even feel the pain from the fall. Only his heart hurt. The person he had raised for ten years was now talking back and hitting him. He had even defied the first rule of their house, no cultivating.

"Good. Good. Then give me back the jade pendant mother left us. Since you no longer need us, then don't keep anything that will 'hold you back'."

Wu Ren reached under the rags and fished out a green jade curved like a phoenix. "Take it." He threw it at Wu Tao, his anger creating an illusion of liberation. "I hope we never see each other again!" He yelled before running off, leaving this brother clutching the pendant to his chest shedding tears.

"Mother, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I have failed you. I'm so sorry."

################

Led into the lonely streets of the city, the girl continued to follow blindly. "Where is he? How has he-"

A hand shot from the corner of the building she was approaching and grabbed her by the throat before hauling her into the small alley.

Ren pushed her body against the wall, his hand adding pressure to her neck, intending to crush it if she didn't give any satisfying answers.

"It's been an hour. I'm tired of playing hide and seek. What are you following me?"

She just smiled and raised her right hand to caress Ren's jaw. "Such a fine young man."

He slapped it off and opened a void on his hand. A panicked expression quickly veiled her once confident and flirtatious face. "Wa-w-wait!" She gasped as her energy began leaving her core.

"Speak."

"Cu...ous."

"What?"

She tried pulling that hand from her throat, and Ren loosened only slightly. "I was just curious. I thought you were a mortal. I didn't know you're a master who can hide his breath so well. Please let me go. I have a family waiting for me."

"Let you go? That, I can, but you need to pay for it."

"H-how?"

Ren's eyes lowered to her chest.

"Fi-fine. You can do it."

"Huh! Do wha-"

She pulled his free hand and placed it on her left breast but he pulled it back faster than he could breathe. The one on her throat was retreated as well, taking with it the white fox jade that was resting on her chest.

"If you do something so lewd again I'll chop off that hand. I only want this. Now get lost."

Her cheeks burned red from embarrassment and humiliation. Embarrassed for thinking that he had implied he wanted her body, and humiliated because he did not want her.

Without caring about the negative aura she was letting out, Ren walked out of the alley, studying the jade.

There was something special about it that had made his void pulsate.