Chapter Twenty-Three: Tremors

  After viewing all the treasures on the second floor of the Treasure Pavilion, Xiao Fan was greatly shocked and felt that he himself was not good enough.

  "Let's go, let's go to the slum." Xiao Fan didn't want to stay here for another moment, it was really too depressing.

  "Alright, let's go." The little witch blinked her bright big eyes, seeing Xiao Fan looking embarrassed, she felt very happy.

  The little witch said as she walked: "I've already exchanged all that money for food, clothes and other supplies." As she spoke, the little witch raised her small head, seemingly like a child showing off to Xiao Fan.

  Lin Jianren and others had indeed sent all the money to Xiaomo within the agreed time, and after receiving that large sum of money, Xiaomo had already used some of the gold coins to purchase supplies.

  "Really great." Under the expecting gaze of Little Witch, Xiao Fang did not disappoint her, patted her little head and sincerely praised her.

  The little witch was initially delighted, but soon came to her senses, pouting and saying discontentedly: "You rascal, you're treating me like a child!"

  "Haha..." Xiao Fan burst out laughing and walked forward with big strides.

  "Don't run." The little witch's grinding teeth sounded as she quickly caught up.

  Along the way, the two of them chattered and laughed as they arrived at the slum, with the appraiser's servants following behind with goods.

  When he stepped into the slum, Xiao Fan was shocked.

  Although this slum is also in Xuanshan City, it's like two different worlds compared to Xuanshan City.

  This slum is not big, only two streets, dilapidated roads, no houses, nothing to shelter from the wind and rain, but on these streets are filled with people.

  A group of people, including the elderly, children, and women, etc., their clothes were tattered and filthy, completely unable to cover their shame, let alone keep warm; some lay on the ground, while others sat directly against the wall, without any shelter, exposed to the wind, rain, and scorching sun.

  When he saw people coming, they just took a glance and didn't make any other movements. Looking at their eyes, Xiao Fan was deeply shocked. These people were dull and lifeless, without a hint of vitality. In their eyes, Xiao Fan couldn't see a glimmer of hope. Their eyes were empty, not because they had seen through the world, but because they had already given up on it.

  "Why? Why is there still a slum like this in Xuan Mountain City?" Xiao Fan muttered to himself.

  As they approached the slum, the little witch also fell silent, and said in a low voice: "These people are all old, weak, women and children. Some of them were forced to migrate from other cities due to natural disasters or man-made disasters, some were persecuted by powerful forces within the city and came here, and some were unable to work due to physical reasons and could only wait for death here."

  Saying "wait for death", Xiao Mo was gritting her teeth as she spoke.

  Xiao Fan continued walking forward in silence, seeing that some people were lying on the ground with more exhalations than inhalations, their life force weak, apparently not long for this world.

  "Someone come and distribute these food and clothes." The little witch sighed softly, instructing the servant behind her to distribute the prepared food and clothes to the people.

  "Food is ready, everyone come quickly."

  "Great, finally have something to eat."

  "Wooo..."

  When these people got food in their hands, their emotions fluctuated greatly. Some were excited and shouted loudly, while others burst into tears.

  "Shouldn't there be other slums in Xuan Mountain City?" Xiao Fan asked, as the total number of people in the two streets' slums was only around 10,000 or so, while Xiao Fan had learned that the entire city of Xuan Mountain had a refugee population of one million.

  "Yes, there are three other slums, and in total the four slums have around 100,000 refugees." The little witch replied.

  "Let's go, to the next place." Xiao Fan said in a low voice, although seeing these poor people had a great impact on his heart, with an unbearable feeling, but he still wanted to walk through all the slums.

  When Xiao Fang and the little witch left this exit of the slum, the people in the slum knelt down to them, waves of thank you voices came over.

  At this moment, Xiao Fan only felt a shock throughout his body. He felt that there was a mysterious power descending upon him from the unknown, and he felt very comfortable all over.

  Xiao Fan's spiritual sea, the old white gave him a small bead that was spinning around, absorbing threads of mysterious power.

  "Is this the power of merit?" Xiao Fan muttered to himself: "I don't know if this small bead can release the absorbed power of merit and repair some of the damage to my spiritual sea."

  Xiao Fan's spiritual sea of consciousness was damaged and he would occasionally experience severe headaches, which was the biggest problem for him at present.

  At this moment, the small bead in Xiao Fan's spiritual sea seemed to have heard Xiao Fan's heart voice, and it actually rotated backwards, then a thread of mysterious power was released, merging into Xiao Fan's spiritual sea.

  Xiao Fan's spiritual sea was shocked, and he gradually began to recover.

  Although Xiao Fan had not yet cultivated his yuan force and could not introspect his own state, he clearly felt a shock to his spirit, and his entire person became much more spirited.

  "Who would have thought that this small bead is so useful? Since it's like that, let's call it 'Gong De Zhu' then." Xiao Fan was overjoyed in his heart.

  Xiao Fang led the way, and under her leadership, they traversed all four remaining slums, delivering an endless stream of supplies to the refugees. Amidst the countless voices of gratitude from the refugees, they left the slum.

  "After seeing these refugees, what are your thoughts?" Walking on the road, Little Demoness was not as lively as usual, but instead asked Xiao Fan seriously.

  Xiao Fan said in a low voice, "I knew that there were 100,000 refugees in Xuanshan City, but I didn't know their lives were so difficult. Everything I saw today shocked me greatly and changed my perspective."

  "Do you know? Before I started practicing, my grandfather took me to the slums, and I was shocked at that time. My grandfather once told me that in the eyes of cultivators, ordinary people are like ants, and those with high cultivation will not care about the lives and deaths of ordinary people, often viewing human life as worthless and slaughtering them at will. However, everything in the world has its own rules, and everyone who comes to this world has their own reason for being here. Although they may be living at the bottom of society, they are still human lives and cannot be killed at will." The little demoness spoke up: "At that time, I didn't know why my grandfather would tell me these things before I started practicing, but now I understand."

  "Cultivation may go against the heavens, but it is even more important to have an ordinary heart. To become a cultivator, you must first remember that you are human, and every person is born with a kind heart. You must preserve the most original true kindness in order to walk further on this path. Otherwise, if you extinguish your humanity and fall into the demonic path, you will ultimately meet a bad end."

  After hearing Xiao Mo's words, Xiao Feng fell silent for a moment. If it were before, he would not have understood the meaning behind Xiao Mo's words, but now he did.

  After going through five slums and distributing goods to refugees, Xiao Fan gained some merit power that repaired his spiritual sea of consciousness. Xiao Fan understood that although cultivation is against the heavens, if one walks the path of kindness, it will be easier on the road of cultivation.

  "In the next three months, I will change these five slums. I want Xuan Shan City to no longer have any slums!" Xiao Fan's tone was firm, what he had just seen and heard had really shocked him deeply. Putting aside the power of merit, even without the power of merit, at this moment Xiao Fan also wanted to change these slums, he wanted to use his own abilities to rescue the refugees in the slums.

  "Really?" The little witch's eyes widened instantly with her bright and shiny big eyes.

  Xiao Fan nodded and said: "I have already asked Fu Bo to start preparing. I will use all the gold coins that can be used to change everything."

  "That's great." The little witch heard and suddenly smiled: "I've always wanted to change everything, but my own strength is too small to do it. Moreover, Grandpa doesn't have time, so I can only often bring some supplies to help them. Although I can help them for a while, I can't help them forever. With the power of the city lord's mansion behind you, if you're willing to do it, you'll definitely be able to solve the problem of the poor district."

  "I still have two million gold coins here, let's hand them over to you for processing, I believe you will handle everything well." The little witch handed over the remaining gold coins to Xiao Fang very readily.

  "Good, with the addition of 20 million gold coins, that's enough to change everything." Xiao Fang was overjoyed.

  "I didn't expect that you still have a kind heart." The little witch said with a smile, walking backwards with her hands behind her back in front of Xiao Fang.

  "I'm originally a very kind person." Xiao Fan said with a silly expression.

  "Heh..." The little witch laughed out loud: "Shout it out loud and see who believes you."

  Xiao Fan rubbed his nose, feeling a bit depressed. If he really shouted out loud, no one would actually believe him.

  Laughter all the way, Xiao Fang accompanied the little witch back to the appraisal hall, and unexpectedly met the little witch's grandfather, Wang Da Shi.

  As soon as she saw Master Wang, the little demon girl pulled his hand and excitedly told him everything that had just happened, then informed Master Wang of Xiao Fan's plan.

  Master Wang looked at Xiao Fan with relief and said: "You've finally grown up, go ahead and do well, if you have any difficulties come find me anytime."

  "Thank you, Uncle." Xiao Fan was overjoyed. Wang Da Shifu's status in the entire Xuan Shan City was the highest, yet no one dared to provoke him. With such a powerful backer, he could now do things with ease and confidence.