Chapter 63: All You Need Are Hands

Wang Yan's face flushed red with excitement, his hands clutching the towel draped over his shoulder. "Young Master! You… you're willing to… fund me in buying spirit herbs?!"

In all his years, no one had ever taken his "ridiculous" dream seriously — let alone been willing to put real money behind it!

But before that rush of excitement could even settle, it was like a punctured balloon. His shoulders slumped, the joy draining from his face and replaced by embarrassment.

"You… you said that… I, Wang Yan… I…"

He scratched the back of his head, his voice dropping low, heavy with dejection and shame. "But… Young Master, I… I haven't even reached Foundation Establishment…"

"I can't even produce the most basic spirit flame. Without fire… you can't seriously expect me to use a kitchen stove, can you? That really would just be cooking…"

He stole a glance at Si Chen, terrified the man might think he'd been making a fool of him, and quickly explained, "Young Master, I truly wasn't trying to deceive you! I… I just…"

The more he spoke, the quieter his voice became, his head drooping lower and lower until he could barely bring himself to meet Si Chen's eyes.

Here was a great figure who had genuinely wanted to help him — and he couldn't even meet the most basic requirements. Wasn't that the same as having tricked him?

Wang Yan liked to boast, sure. But with someone who treated him sincerely, he couldn't bring himself to play games.

"What? You haven't even reached Foundation Establishment?"

It wasn't that they'd been blind before — it was simply that no one would bother probing the exact cultivation level of a random waiter on the street.

It was like how a normal person wouldn't stop to count every ant beneath their feet.

Only now that Wang Yan had said it himself did they belatedly realize — this fast-talking young man who dreamed of becoming an Alchemy Grandmaster was nothing more than a fifth-layer Qi Refining Stage cultivator!

Heishan couldn't hold back. "Goodness! So you've been playing us for fools this whole time? You don't even have fire — what are you going to refine pills with? Weren't you just blowing hot air a moment ago?"

Chifeng's expression plainly read: "Just as I suspected — completely unreliable."

Si Chen looked at the suddenly deflated Wang Yan, then at Heishan's dramatic reaction, and asked with genuine puzzlement, "Can't he just achieve Foundation Establishment?"

Everyone: "…"

That question left even Heishan — king of running his mouth — momentarily speechless. It left Wang Yan — champion of fast talk — forgetting his own dejection.

Even the perpetually composed Chifeng twitched the corner of his mouth.

Heishan slapped his own forehead and rounded on Si Chen. "Brother! My dear brother! Do you think Foundation Establishment is something just anyone can do? If it were that easy, wouldn't the streets be packed with Foundation Establishment cultivators?"

Wang Yan, for his part, felt a profound and visceral understanding of what it meant for "the gap between people to be greater than the gap between people and pigs."

He opened his mouth, somewhere between wanting to laugh and wanting to cry. "Young… Young Master… what you said… Foundation Establishment is of course as simple as eating and drinking for a great cultivator like yourself."

"But for Rogue Cultivators like us — no backing, no resources, mediocre talent — it's an unbridgeable chasm!"

"I… I've been saving for years and still can't afford even half a Foundation Establishment Pill…"

By the end, his head had drooped again. Reality was that cruel. He had dreams, but not even the first step needed to reach them.

How many years had he scrimped and saved, eating poorly and spending nothing, just to scrape together the cost of the lowest-grade Foundation Establishment Pill? And still, that hope remained as distant as the stars. That was the bloody truth of it.

Si Chen watched Wang Yan, crushed beneath the weight of reality, and fell into thought.

"A Foundation Establishment Pill?"

The words seemed to jog something in his memory. He recalled that somewhere in his Storage Ring, he might actually have one of those.

It had been given to him years ago, back in Yunjin City — a gift from the Clan Head of the Li Clan, presented as a "humble token."

He'd tucked it away without a second thought and promptly forgotten about it. Only now, with Wang Yan's mention, did it come back to him.

The thing had been sitting there for years. He wasn't sure if it had expired, or whether it was still usable.

With that thought, Si Chen's mind stirred, and his Divine Sense swept through the corner of his Storage Ring where miscellaneous items had been piled up.

Sure enough, an unassuming jade vial lay quietly there.

He reached in and retrieved the small jade vial, setting it on the table.

"This," Si Chen said, tapping the vial. "Take a look — is this the Foundation Establishment Pill you need? It's been sitting there a while. Not sure if it's still good."

Wang Yan, as a native of Danding City, had a decent eye for things even as a mere waiter. He could tell at a glance that the jade vial was made of exceptional material — the kind specifically crafted to store precious pills, ensuring not a trace of medicinal potency would leak out.

The vial alone was worth more than his life!

Being the sharp-minded person he was, he didn't immediately open it as Si Chen suggested. Having spent so long among the lower rungs of society, he understood the wisdom of not flaunting wealth.

There were too many eyes and ears here. Though this Young Master was clearly no ordinary person, it was better not to invite unnecessary trouble.

Si Chen noticed his flickering gaze and the way he kept glancing at the surrounding diners, and understood his concern at once. Without a word, he simply raised his hand and passed it lightly over the surface of the table.

An invisible barrier — one that sealed off both aura and sound — instantly enveloped their table.

The noise of the outside world was cut off entirely, as though they now sat in a quiet little world of their own.

Wang Yan felt the sudden stillness around him and immediately understood that the Young Master had made his move. His heart trembled — what level of precise control must this require?

"You may proceed," Si Chen said.

Wang Yan drew a deep breath, then reached out with trembling hands and carefully lifted the jade vial.

He pulled out the stopper. A medicinal fragrance that sharpened the mind instantly drifted out.

From just a single whiff, the bottleneck he had been stuck at for so long — the fifth layer of Qi Refining — seemed to faintly loosen!

He held his breath and peered inside. Resting within was a single pill, its color warm and lustrous, its surface bearing clear cloud-like patterns!

"A… a first-grade Foundation Establishment Pill?!"

Wang Yan's voice was shaking. The hands cradling the pill trembled even more violently, as though what he held was not a pill at all, but his very life.

A first-grade Foundation Establishment Pill! This was something he had only ever heard of in rumors!

Si Chen had just asked whether it was "still good"… He didn't even know how to begin answering that.

Still good?

That wasn't even the question! Was this something he was even worthy of touching? It was far too precious!

So precious that his instinct was to push the vial back, to say "I couldn't possibly."

But those words of refusal stuck in his throat and refused to come out.

His reason told him — this was the only chance he would ever have. The only chance to set foot on the first step toward his dream.

If he let it pass, it might truly never come again…

Si Chen watched the war playing out across Wang Yan's face — the struggle, the longing, the disbelief — all of it written plainly there.

He had a fair idea of what was going through Wang Yan's mind.

"Take it for now. Consider it a debt you owe me. Once you become an Alchemy Grandmaster someday, you can repay me then."

Repay me then?

Wang Yan's head snapped up, staring at Si Chen in disbelief.

He truly believes it… believes that a nobody waiter like me can become an Alchemy Grandmaster? That the nonsense about "cooking as alchemy" could actually come true someday?

That unconditional faith shook him far more deeply than the first-grade Foundation Establishment Pill itself.

At that, he hesitated no longer.

To refuse further would be affectation — a betrayal of this profound act of recognition!

He gripped the jade vial tightly, as though gripping his own future, and with every ounce of strength he had, bowed deeply to Si Chen. His voice cracked with emotion, yet was unwavering in its resolve:

"Young Master! A great kindness needs no words of thanks! This pill — I, Wang Yan, accept it!"

"Rest assured, I will become an Alchemy Grandmaster! This debt… I, Wang Yan… could never repay it in a lifetime!"

Heishan watched from the side, clicking his tongue, but said nothing cutting this time.

He still thought the whole thing was a long shot, but since his brother was willing to invest, he wasn't going to pour cold water on it.

Chifeng, meanwhile, gave Si Chen a long look. He felt that the more he watched his brother act, the less he understood him.

And Wang Yan's life had already become something different.