"Oh? Then I hope young friend Ah Mieu could enlighten this old man."
Grandpa Mo said this with an amused expression on his face, but Ah Mieu responded seriously.
"Okay."
Grandpa Mo's eyebrows twitched, but he told himself that it was unfitting for a senior of his level to argue with a junior.
"Grandpa Mo, first let me ask you, what is the most important resource that a mortal needs to survive?"
Grandpa Mo thought for a moment, then responded.
"Just like those Clans and Sects in the Main Circle, there are too many things to narrow it down to just one. For Mortals to survive, there are necessities such as food and water, but there are also things like housing."
Upon reaching here, Grandpa Mo shook his head once more. He found himself doing this a lot in this conversation. But there were simply too many variables that affect a mortal's survival. How could there only be one?
Ah Mieu paused his pacing to stop in front of Grandpa Mo and bluntly spoke.
"You're wrong."
Grandpa Mo's expression did not change, but a glint of amusement did appear in his eyes. As someone who was as old as he was, he couldn't believe he was being lectured by a child no older than fifteen about human philosophy. He simply could not take this conversation seriously.
Ah Mieu seemed not to have noticed Grandpa Mo's current attitude towards him as he answered his question.
"Grandpa Mo, the single most important thing a mortal need to survive is air. Without it, they would undoubtedly die."
Grandpa Mo's expression was calm and filled with amusement at first, but the moment he heard Ah Mieu answer, his calmness broke, and an expression of stupefaction slowly appeared on his wrinkled face. It was quite comical to watch. But before he could say anything, Ah Mieu spoke again.
"Grandpa Mo, now that I've enlightened you, I want to get back on topic. What do you think is the most important thing to a cultivator's survival?"
Grandpa Mo was no longer as relaxed conversing with Ah Mieu as he was in the beginning, and he had long stopped treating his words as the ramblings of an immature child. He seriously thought about Ah Mieu's question, but even after a few minutes, all his answers converged to one thing, and that was Spirit Stones.
Without Spirit Stones, then a cultivator's path would be several times harder to traverse. The same thing goes for Martial Artists as well.
After sighing, Grandpa Mo shook his head and said.
"Young friend Ah Mieu, you've successfully humiliated this old man."
Ah Mieu chuckled and then went back to sit across from Grandpa Mo before saying.
"I just wanted you to see me as an equal, just as I do to you, and not as a child talking nonsense."
Grandpa Mo nodded slowly and said.
"I will. But this old man is curious. What is the most important thing to a cultivator's survival?"
Ah Mieu smiled and then clasped his hands on the table. He decided to drop his lecturing tone as he responded.
"It's better to explain it with a short story. I hope Grandpa Mo doesn't mind my roundabout way of speaking."
Grandpa Mo shook his head. That was far from the case; as someone who has lived as long as he had, this was the first time in a long while he felt like he was inexperienced in the ways of the cultivation world.
Getting the go-ahead, Ah Mieu began his story.
"In a rural village, somewhere on the continent. There was a small shop that sells children's toys. Two boys, Boy One and Boy Two, who were around the age of ten, and were as close as brothers, entered the store and bought two wooden figurine sculptures of a wandering Martial Artist who gained the title of the village's hero after he eradicated a den of bandits that had been terrorizing their village. After they left the store with the figurine in hand, at the entrance of the store, they made a solemn promise to each other with their figurines held high, that they would both become strong so they could protect their village as well."
Ah Mieu's gaze landed on his teacup, and his mind became enthralled in telling his story.
"As the two boys grew older, they remained close friends as they strived to fulfill the promise they had made that day. However, one day, when Boy One went to Boy Two's home, he was instead met with a crowd standing in front of a home that was burnt to the ground. Boy Two was missing, and so was his family. The conclusion the villagers came to was that they all burned alive inside their home, and as for the fire, it must have been an accident. Now alone, Boy One grew up to become an adult; however, he never forgot the promise he had made with Boy Two. So, he left for a city nearby, and after endless struggle, he managed to become a rather high-ranking government officer under the City Lord's Mansion. He was the pride of the village and had brought thousands of criminals to justice. He was celebrated as a hero, not only in the village, but even in the big city and the surrounding area. With his virtuoso and virtuous accomplishments, he had fulfilled his promise. But, one day, when he was working in the city, he received news that his entire village had been burned to ash."
Ah Mieu raised his hand and began tracing his finger around the teacup's rim. Grandpa Mo was silently listening as he continued speaking.
"Angered by his village's destruction, he abandoned his duties of a government officer and began hunting down the arsonist. However, after he finally found and confronted the murderer of his family and village, the killer turned out to be the very hero he had admired as a child."
Upon hearing this revelation, Grandpa Mo was momentarily taken aback, as the flow of the story suggested the killer would be the thought-to-be-dead childhood friend. Having his expectations overturned, his attention to the story increased even more as Ah Mieu continued.
"Needless to say, Boy One was shocked. But more than that, he wanted answers. Why would the man, who was once known as the village's hero, turn around and destroy said village several years later? Without much resistance, the killer explained his reason. But the reason he gave was quite shocking to Boy One. As it turns out, this so-called village hero wasn't a hero, because the bandits who were terrorizing the village that he had killed were his own underlings. The reason he had killed them was because he got wind that the government was about to send an extermination squad to uproot his hideout, so he disguised himself as a wandering Martial Artist who happened to pass by and exterminated a bunch of villains. In reality, he was only getting rid of evidence of his identity. In fact, he had planned this all along, as only his underlings had ever seen his face. However, despite his meticulous plan, an unexpected event appeared, and that was Boy Two's father. He had somehow figured out his scheme, so to get rid of evidence of his identity as a Bandit Leader, he killed the father and mother, then burnt the house down to kill the son who was hiding under his bed."
Ah Mieu paused here and went silent for a moment. Grandpa Mo, seeing this, hurriedly asked.
"Young friend Ah Mieu, is that it?"
"Ah, no. I was just thinking that I wanted more tea."
Ah Mieu tapped the teacup and smiled sheepishly.
***
Hey guys, I made some changes at the tail end of chapter four. It's an explanation of why no one is snatching Ah Mieu off the streets despite his Divine Constitution. If you think its hassle to go back and read it, I put the added info in the Author's Notes Section.