Mediocre Master: I Can See Your Hidden Potential! (A Xianxia Sect-Building LitRPG)

22. Monkey Steals Peach, Heaven Steals My Patience

by inkadmin

The morning sun paints Greenstone City in shades of gold and amber. Light spills over the walls, through the streets, across the rooftops. The city wakes slowly, merchants opening stalls, laborers heading to work, the endless rhythm of twenty thousand lives continuing. I wake Ling’er early and lead her to a bustling breakfast stall near the inn: he kind with steam rising from massive pots, with long benches and hungry customers, with portions hearty enough for laborers and cultivators alike.

“Eat.” I push a stack of coins across the counter. “Eat until you can’t eat anymore.”

The vendor, a round woman with arms like hams, eyes the coins and produces food at astonishing speed. Steamed buns in bamboo baskets. Rice porridge in massive bowls. Pickled vegetables in small dishes. Fried dough twisted into golden spirals. And a plate of meat, glazed and glistening, that costs more than a laborer’s daily wage.

Ling’er stares at the mountain of food.

“Master, this is… this is too much—”

“Eat.” I cut her off. “Your body needs fuel. The bloodline burns through calories faster than any normal cultivation. If you don’t eat enough, you’ll stagnate. So eat.”

She blinks. “Calories? What are calories?”

I freeze for just a moment. Right. This world doesn’t have that term. They measure food in bowls and portions, not in abstract energy units.

“It’s an informal term I made up.” I wave vaguely. “For the energy in food. The fuel your body uses. Eat.”

She accepts this explanation without question and turns to the food. Three steamed buns disappear in as many bites. The porridge vanishes in smooth, efficient spoonfuls. The vegetables, the dough, the meat—all gone in minutes. She eats with focus, with purpose, with the same intensity she brings to everything.

The vendor stares.

I order more. More buns. More meat. Another bowl of porridge.

Ling’er eats that too.

The vendor leans toward me, lowering her voice. “Honored customer… is your servant girl part spirit beast? I’ve seen Foundation Establishment cultivators eat less than that.”

I keep my face calm. “Growing girl. Big appetite.”

The vendor shakes her head, laughing, and returns to her pots. They’ve likely seen stranger in the city. By the time Ling’er finally leans back, patting her stomach with a dazed expression, she’s consumed enough food for three grown men. Her cheeks are flushed. Her eyes are bright. And I can practically see the qi processing it all, converting matter into energy, fuel into power.

“Good.” I rise. “Back to the inn. Practice reading and writing. There’s coin for lunch—get whatever you want. I’ll be back by evening.”

She nods, still looking slightly stunned by the meal, and heads toward the inn with the careful walk of someone who’s eaten more than her body weight in food.

I turn toward the market, thirty middle-grade stones heavy in my storage ring, and begin the hunt.

The outer market is chaos.

Crowded stalls packed so tightly you can barely move. Shouting vendors competing to be heard. Goods piled haphazardly on worn tables—jade slips spilling from boxes, artifacts gathering dust, manuals with torn covers and missing pages.

A wiry man with missing teeth grabs my sleeve as I pass. “Senior! I have exactly what you need!” He waves a jade slip in my face. “Monkey Steals Peach! Ultimate technique! Guaranteed to make you irresistible to jade beauties!”

I stare at him. “Monkey Steals… Peach?”

“Very rare! Very powerful! Normally one thousand stones, but for you, special price—fifty low-grade!”

The Gaze flickers:

Monkey Steals Peach – Grade: Garbage

Content: A single technique involving grabbing an opponent’s genitalia. Purportedly named after a monkey stealing fruit. No cultivation component. Low combat application. The author was clearly joking.

Verdict: He’s selling you a joke. Don’t buy the joke.

“No thank you.” I pull my sleeve free and move on.

This is where desperate cultivators sell inherited manuals they can’t use. Where damaged goods go to die. Where the unwary get cheated and the lucky find gold. I’ve heard stories of treasures discovered in piles like these—ancient techniques, lost arts, priceless knowledge.

Today, I’m hoping to get lucky.

I activate the Gaze and begin.

First Stall: “Everything 5 Low-Grade!”

Jade slips spill from a cracked box, dozens of them, none looking promising. I pick through them, Gaze flickering:

Broken Sword Technique – Grade: Trash

Content: Incomplete, missing approximately 70% of content. What remains is basic and poorly explained.

Verdict: Worthless. Even as kindling.

Common Breathing Method – Grade: F

Content: Basic technique for sensing qi. Widely available. You already have three better versions.

Verdict: Pass.

I move on.

Second Stall: “Estate Sale – Cultivator’s Collection”

Better quality here. The family of a deceased Foundation Establishment cultivator is selling his belongings; spread across a large table, organized by type. Manuals in good condition. Artifacts that might still function. Materials carefully labeled.

I browse, Gaze active.

Iron Body Refinement – Grade: Low

Content: Physical training method using impacts and meditation. Painful, slow, mediocre results. Takes years for minimal gains.

Verdict: Perfect for your disciples if you want them to end up like you.

Three Variations Sword – Grade: Low-Medium

Content: Water-aspected sword technique with three core forms. Decent fundamentals, but redundant with Flowing Water Sword.

Verdict: Good for disciples, not for Ling’er.

Dao of Stillness – Grade: Trash

Content: Sit. Do nothing. Continue sitting. Claims to reveal the Dao through absolute inactivity. No guidance on what to do if nothing happens.

Verdict: You have been practicing this unintentionally for years.

I stare at the jade slip. Then at the Gaze. Then back at the jade slip. I wordlessly put it down.

I move through the stall, picking up manual after manual. Nothing. Low-grade techniques, incomplete methods, things that might help my disciples but won’t advance Ling’er’s development. The Gaze confirms each assessment with brutal honesty.

I sigh. The Gaze flickers:

Query: What exactly are you expecting to find in a junkyard? A Heaven-defying technique that everyone missed? A Nascent Soul’s legacy hidden in the discount bin? This is where people sell things they don’t want. The things worth wanting aren’t here.

I shake my head. It’s right. I knew it was right. But I had to check.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

I move on from the outer market, heading deeper into the city. The inner markets are more expensive, but they have better quality. And somewhere in those stalls, there might be something worth finding.

The hunt continues.

The inner market is cleaner, quieter, more expensive. Guarded stores with polished counters and disdainful clerks line the wide boulevards. This is where established cultivators shop, where quality is guaranteed and prices are high enough to make my teeth ache just looking at them. I walk past stores that would have been impossible dreams months ago, my storage ring heavy with stones, my eyes sharp.

First Store: “Jade Lotus Pavilion”

The clerk looks down his nose at my plain robes. I’m clearly not his preferred clientele; some minor sect leader from the countryside, come to gawk at things he can’t afford. I ignore him and browse.

Flowing Cloud Steps – Grade: Medium

Movement technique, wind-aspected. 5 middle-grade stones.

Verdict: Solid, unremarkable, overpriced. You can find equivalent techniques for half this elsewhere.

Eight Desolations Fist – Grade: Medium-High

Combat technique, fire-aspected. 12 middle-grade stones.

Verdict: Good fundamentals, but rigid. Requires specific meridian pathways that Ling’er (and the rest of your disciples) don’t have.

Cosmic Harmony Manual – Grade: High (Claimed)

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