Liuzi was young, but he handled matters with great maturity.

After seeing the residence Liuzi had mentioned with her own eyes, Zhang Yiyi was quite satisfied.

The place was a small, private house with a tiny courtyard. Although it wasn't large and was rather simple, and both the house and yard were clearly quite old, it was clean, tidy, and warmly arranged.

The kind of homely, lived-in feeling that she hadn't experienced in a long time hit her all at once, reminding her of the little cottage her grandfather had in the countryside during her past life, which looked quite similar.

She instantly liked the place, and even though the spiritual energy here was a bit lacking, it didn't matter. She could always set up a gathering array when she needed to cultivate, which would solve her current needs.

"Sister Han, what do you think of this place?"

Seeing Zhang Yiyi walking around in silence for a while, Liuzi felt a bit uneasy.

"This little house is nice. I'll rent it," Zhang Yiyi withdrew her gaze, no longer lost in the memories of her past life. She turned to the somewhat anxious and expectant Liuzi and asked, "Where's the owner of the house? Don't we need to sign a contract and pay the rent directly to them?"

Jiagu Guan City had always been a place where rogue cultivators and ordinary people lived together, so spirit stones were the main currency for transactions. For ordinary people without spiritual roots, earning spirit stones wasn't easy, so they mostly lived in poverty.

Renting out a courtyard like this was probably the main source of income for the owner, so Zhang Yiyi thought the owner would certainly come to collect the spirit stones in person.

"Sister Han..."

Liuzi rubbed his hands, as if he had been thinking for a long time. Finally, he mustered the courage and said, "The owner of this courtyard is no one else... it's me. Sister Han, if you're willing to stay here, I won't charge you any spirit stones. You can stay as long as you like."

"No charge for the rent?"

Zhang Yiyi hadn't expected that the house belonged to Liuzi himself. After a moment of surprise, she asked, "Then what do you want?"

"If possible, I'd like a basic cultivation manual," Liuzi's voice was tense, and his cheeks were flushed with nervousness as if he was extremely worried that Zhang Yiyi would reject his request or even become upset.

He had seen many cultivators, most of whom were arrogant and bad-tempered. They looked down on ordinary mortals like him, viewing them as ants. Some cultivators would decide their fate, life, or death on a whim, even taking pleasure in it.

Cultivators like Zhang Yiyi, who didn't belittle common people, were rare. On top of that, Liuzi felt that Zhang Yiyi was kinder and had a much better temperament than most people. She was generous as long as the job was done well and was easy to talk to.

It was precisely because of this that he took the risk of asking this female cultivator to exchange rent for a basic cultivation manual, hoping that it might give him a chance at pursuing the path of cultivation.

For Liuzi, this was probably his only opportunity to get closer to the world of cultivation.

Zhang Yiyi hadn't expected that Liuzi would have such an idea, and for a moment, she was truly stunned.

Without needing to test his spiritual roots, her divine sense could already tell that this boy's aptitude wasn't great. He could barely meet the minimum requirements for cultivation, but his future progress would be exceedingly difficult.

In cases like this, which were quite common in the cultivation world, people would spend enormous effort just to get started, only to spend the rest of their lives stuck in the first or second stage of Qi Refining, growing old, and dying with little difference from ordinary mortals.

The disparity between the reality of such a future and the dreams one had at the beginning of cultivation was too vast—a gap large enough to drive someone mad.

Given Liuzi's cleverness, Zhang Yiyi felt that he would likely live a better life as a regular mortal, without the need to force himself onto the difficult path of cultivation.

Seeing that Zhang Yiyi remained silent, only looking at him with an unreadable expression, Liuzi's heart tightened further.

"Sister Han, I know cultivation manuals are expensive, and the rent for this place isn't enough to buy one. I'm willing to make up the difference for you."

He was still young, and because he cared too much, he revealed all his cards at once, fearing Zhang Yiyi wouldn't agree. "Really, I'm not lying. I've saved up twelve spirit stones so far, and if that's still not enough, I can work for you to make up the rest!"

Twelve spirit stones—that included the one Zhang Yiyi had previously given him and the two she was planning to give him later. For a boy who had been supporting himself, this was indeed a large fortune.

But in reality, even with those spirit stones, it was impossible to buy a cultivation manual. Resources in the cultivation world were exceedingly expensive, especially cultivation techniques, which were tightly controlled by sects and families. They were rarely shared with outsiders.

The manuals that circulated on the market were the most basic ones, often referred to as generic goods. Most rogue cultivators used these techniques. But even those weren't cheap, and a young boy like Liuzi couldn't afford to buy even the simplest manual.

This was why he had put so much effort into seeking an alternative way to obtain a cultivation manual.

Zhang Yiyi wasn't a rogue cultivator, so she hadn't experienced these hardships firsthand, but she fully understood Liuzi's struggles and his determination to cultivate.

The more disadvantaged a person's life, the harder it was to change their fate. For Liuzi, opening the door to the world of cultivation was probably his only hope of becoming stronger.

"Do you have any family?"

Zhang Yiyi still didn't give Liuzi a direct response but instead asked about his family.

She wasn't lacking in cultivation manuals, but whether they came from her sect or the ancient god's legacy, none of them were suitable for Liuzi. It wasn't that she was unwilling to give them to him, but those manuals were too dangerous for someone like Liuzi to handle without protection. They would only bring him trouble.

However, among the spoils she had gained from her last adventure, there might be something more appropriate. Whether or not she decided to help him was still up in the air.

"I have... I still have my grandma. It's just her and me now," Liuzi answered. Though he was extremely anxious, he tried his best to keep his emotions in check as he responded to Zhang Yiyi's question.

He had grown up with his grandmother, and besides this small courtyard, they had nothing. Over the years, they had endured countless hardships.

His grandmother was getting older, her health declining with each passing day. Liuzi hoped to become stronger quickly so that he could protect her, help her live a better life, and maybe even find some immortality medicine to cure her and extend her life.

To accomplish all this, he needed to become a cultivator!

"What about your grandmother?" Zhang Yiyi now had a good idea of Liuzi's situation: an orphan, relying on an elderly woman, with nothing but a modest home to call their own.