What to do if you find out that you are a cannon fodder in a cultivation novel?

After thanking the dean and both teachers, I ran back to the exit as it was already 4:30PM. The driver and my favorite trio were waiting for me.

“Sorry for the delay, I hope you had no problems after I left for school” If they did it would be revenge time 

“We did not wait long” Li Yao said

“As long as you are fine” said grandma Li    

Li Bo and the driver said nothing but had different expressions 

“Master Bai, we may need to buy some ingredients and coal or firewood if we want to cook in the courtyard in the future” said grandma Li

“What happened?”

“Nothing much, just that when I went to check with the housekeeper about your monthly allocation there was none in place. From my understanding, you parents gave a sum of money for your daily expenses so all your food has to be delivered from the main kitchen. Wood and coal are provided only during winter time and you seem to have everything else prepared by you parents with you” she said looking at my ring. 

If it is just that much I had no problem. “It is fine. Let’s go shopping for everything. We will eat outside today for my birthday party!”

I asked the driver to take us to the bank where I exchanged a few low level spirit stones for more money 

We started with the mundane district and bought clothes, personal hygiene products, beds, linen, furniture, heaters and cooking supplies. Basically anything the trio would need. I even picked some ready made clothing for myself in case I wanted to go out incognito in the future.

Afterwards, we went to the market district where we stocked up on spices, salt, beast meat, rice and floor - all with some spiritual energy-

As it was already late, there were no fresh vegetables or fruits so grandma Li would go out tomorrow to take care of that. Last was the coal merchant. It was almost closing time but the seller took his time receiving us - my clothes and rich demeanor did help -

We had the choice between different types of coal and wood. For cooking, for heating, long burning and so on. I asked when the next shipment was. The delivery was every week for coal as the coal mine was less than 200 Li¹

100km from the city and wood delivery was almost everyday. I took half his inventory of his best quality coal and everything he had left of the normal wood. After thinking a bit more, I also took 20% of his stock of the medium and low quality coal - it burn less longer and with more smoke -  

The spiritual coal was sold with spiritual stones and I could not afford to buy it right now lest the toxic family would suspect my wealth. Normal coal and wood was so cheap that they would not care about it. I wanted to donate the medium and low quality coal later on so I planned to continue buying a little bit every time I went shopping in this area. The reason was to avoid raising prices of those mediocre types of coal before the freezing winter and keep them affordable for others. High quality coal was often purchased by families like the Yu’s so the price raise would not affect them much      

I let the driver pick a restaurant that sold spiritual food as I wanted something special for my birthday and passing the final exam. By the time we arrived, it was already dark. I asked for a private room and we were lucky that there was one available. I had a pretty good day - if not tiring - so I invited even the driver. As we were first time customers, the waiter had to use a tool to check if we are all cultivators - pretty standard for this type of restaurant - 

For privacy reasons, they don't test the level of cultivation but the menu would show the minimum level allowed per plate. This is to avoid Qi deviation or even death due to excessive consumption of spiritual energy contained in the food. Usually, cultivators and non-cultivators would intuitively know when to stop eating food with spiritual energy but there were always stupid people who would try to go over their limits. Those people, if they survive, were not only banned from this kind of restaurant but they also had to pay a fine to the city. If they do not survive, the fine goes to their family unless special circumstances.      

The driver was smart enough to pick a low level spiritual restaurant instead of a higher one. Then again, he was a 4th level of Qi condensation so he did it for himself too

I ordered the food with the lowest level as Li Bo was only level 1 and added some non-spiritual food in case he could not eat much. 

We all ate merrily and finished everything. The driver's stomach was endless.

It cost 10 low level spiritual stones which was a pretty good price. I used to spend much more for my fake friends in the first life. When we left the restaurant, the city was bustling but I had to sleep early as I could not afford to be late on my first day as a graduate student!