Chapter 1: Chapter 1: The Green Tea of the Cultivation Realm... Is It Called Celestial Tea?

"I’m sorry, Brother Jiang. My aptitude isn’t as good as yours. I used so much of your Spirit Rice and Spirit Stones just to reach the Qi Cultivation Third Layer."

"Brother Jiang, you don’t blame me, do you? I just wanted to enter the Outer Sect with you so badly, WAHHH~"

A plainly dressed female cultivator stood before Jiang Xu, her face streaked with tears, looking utterly pitiful.

Jiang Xu stepped forward and pulled the female cultivator into his embrace. Feigning deep affection, he lowered his head and said:

"It’s nothing. For you, Mengmeng, I would do anything!"

Nie Mengyun’s feigned crying froze. Her body went stiff. She clearly couldn’t understand why the guy who used to blush just from making eye contact was now so bold as to actually hug her.

She struggled slightly but couldn’t break free. Just as she was about to speak, Jiang Xu’s desolate voice cut her off.

"Mengmeng, I’m the one who should be sorry. We swore we would enter the Outer Sect together, but now I don’t have even half a Spirit Stone left. I have no way to attempt a Realm Breakthrough. I’m sorry."

Nie Mengyun was stunned. Before she could react, she saw Jiang Xu continue with a dejected expression:

"It’s laughable. I once dreamed of using the Spirit Stone reward from becoming an Outer Disciple to buy you a defensive Magical Artifact.

But now, it seems that dream will never come true.

What a shame. I’m only one or two Spirit Stones short of what I need to break through!"

After hearing Jiang Xu’s words, Nie Mengyun stopped caring that he was taking advantage of her.

After all, when a Servant Disciple was promoted to an Outer Disciple, they received a one-time reward of twenty Lower Grade Spirit Stones!

While that wasn’t enough Spirit Stones to buy a good Magical Artifact, to Nie Mengyun, it was still a huge sum!

Who knew how much effort it would take to get that much!

Immediately, Nie Mengyun gritted her teeth. Wincing with reluctance, she pulled a Lower Grade Spirit Stone from her pouch and handed it to Jiang Xu.

She kept her eyes fixed on the Spirit Stone, saying grudgingly:

"Brother Jiang, I have one Spirit Stone left. Why don’t... you take it."

Jiang Xu looked dumbfounded. He stood frozen, his lips slightly parted, the corners of his eyes glistening with tears.

His body trembled slightly. His expression was three parts shock, three parts touched, and ninety-four parts utter disbelief.

"Mengmeng, is this real? I... I must be dreaming, right?"

Seeing Jiang Xu like this, Nie Mengyun suddenly felt a strange sense of disgust at her own previous actions.

She had taken so many cultivation resources from this man.

She never expected that just by returning a single Spirit Stone, she could move him so deeply.

’Could it be that what I was doing before was wrong?’

’Is it really okay to treat others like this for the sake of my own path?’

For the first time ever, she began to reflect on her actions.

Just as Nie Mengyun was feeling conflicted...

Jiang Xu took the Spirit Stone from Nie Mengyun’s hand. He hesitated for a long moment before continuing:

"Mengmeng, you know I gave all my cultivation resources to you. Because of that, my body is extremely weak now. It would be easy for my Realm to fall right after breaking through the bottleneck.

If that happens, I won’t be able to get promoted to the Outer Sect. So I need to buy some Elixirs, but that also requires Spirit Stones..."

Nie Mengyun looked at the Spirit Stone she had already lost, clenching her jaw so hard she could have shattered her teeth.

’Since I’ve already lost one Spirit Stone, what’s a few more? It’s not as much as the twenty Spirit Stones I’ll get anyway!’

She pressed her pouch into Jiang Xu’s palm, and the last few Spirit Stones inside it all fell into his hand.

"These are the last few I have!"

Nie Mengyun said through the searing pain of her loss, then immediately shot off like the wind.

She was afraid that if she stayed two seconds longer, Jiang Xu would take the last few Spirit Stones she had hidden on her person.

A long while after she left, Nie Mengyun came to her senses.

"Hm? Something doesn’t feel right..."

...

’Tch, is that all she’s got?’

Jiang Xu rubbed the five Spirit Stones in his hand, his heart filled with contempt for the original owner of this body.

The original owner had been bewitched by that "green tea," forcefully attempting to break through his bottleneck in order to enter the Outer Sect with her. He failed, died, and was replaced by the transmigrated Jiang Xu.

’To be driven to death and have your path to immortality cut short by some low-tier green tea... how utterly pathetic!’

But while the original owner’s fate was tragic, Jiang Xu’s wasn’t much better.

Before transmigrating, Jiang Xu had spent years pouring concrete on construction sites. He had finally worked up the courage to quit and run.

He hadn’t even had a chance to enjoy himself back home before being forced into a place like this.

What rotten luck!

This was the Cultivation Realm, a place where people were devoured without a trace, where a single Spirit Stone could get you killed!

The path of Immortal Dao was fraught with difficulty. Every step was a potential death trap, like walking on thin ice. How could an ordinary citizen like him possibly survive in a place like this?

When he first transmigrated, Jiang Xu thought he was just hallucinating from staying up too late. But as he gradually absorbed the original owner’s fragmented memories, he finally fell into complete despair.

He had truly transmigrated to this Cultivation World. What’s more, he was a servant in the Profound Origin Sect, a Cultivation Sect in the Great Qi Kingdom, responsible for farming.

Heaven help me!

Jiang Xu had just escaped the miserable life of pouring concrete, so how had he ended up having to farm again?

This was even worse than pouring concrete.

SIGH!

...

In the sky, a few white clouds drifted lazily by, and the cry of a crane could be heard from time to time.

In the distance, rolling peaks stood silently, wreathed in immortal mist, like a beautiful landscape painting. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

But Jiang Xu paid no mind to this beautiful scenery. He was currently carrying a Spiritual Hoe, bent over and tending to the five acres of Spirit Fields he was responsible for.

Anyone who has been a servant knows that servant work comes in many forms.

Some worked in the "Alchemy Pavilion," assisting Alchemists, tending to the Spirit Medicine in the spirit fields, and occasionally having to personally test the effects of newly developed Elixirs.

Some worked in the "Artifact Dao Pavilion," pre-forging, hammering, and processing Spiritual Materials for Artifact Refiners to remove impurities, and occasionally acting as quality control testers for new Magical Artifacts.

Some worked in the "Beast Taming Pavilion," caring for Spirit Beasts for the Beast Tamers—adding feed, dealing with manure, cleaning their filth—and occasionally, one of them would become a snack for the Spirit Beasts themselves.

As a servant, Jiang Xu’s job was to provide Spirit Rice for all the disciples of the Profound Origin Sect. In other words, he was a Spirit Plant Cultivator.

These five acres of Spirit Fields were planted with Spirit Rice. Taking good care of this precious Spirit Rice was Jiang Xu’s entire duty as a servant.

If he failed to hand over a sufficient amount of Spirit Rice when the Outer Disciples from the "General Affairs Hall" came to collect it...

...the lightest punishment was having his Cultivation crippled and being expelled from the Sect. The heaviest was public execution to serve as a warning to others.

Remembering the Sect’s rules, Jiang Xu naturally didn’t dare to slack off.

The original owner, in his attempt to break through, hadn’t tended the Spirit Fields for two days. Many weeds had already snuck up, competing for the Spiritual Qi and nutrients that rightfully belonged to the Spirit Rice.

If he didn’t get rid of these weeds soon, a reduced yield was certain.

Many a little makes a mickle. Every last drop of Spiritual Qi the Spirit Rice lost was equivalent to chipping away at Jiang Xu’s Lifespan.

In Jiang Xu’s eyes, these weren’t weeds; they were life-stealing ghouls.

They had to be eliminated!

He channeled Magical Power into the Spiritual Hoe in his hands. The Sharpness Technique inscribed within it activated, and the surface of the hoe immediately glowed with a faint light.

These weeds had absorbed Spiritual Qi, making them abnormally tough. Even legendary mortal weapons couldn’t cut through them easily.

But for the Spiritual Hoe, it was child’s play. With a single swing, no matter how tough the weeds were, they were severed instantly.

Although the Spiritual Hoe was just a crude, low-tier Magical Artifact, it was still a Magical Artifact—a tool worth ten Lower Grade Spirit Stones.

The Sect only rented them to servants. If you lost it, you had to pay back its full value!

’So stingy. They even gave out free hard hats on the construction site, but here I have to rent a hoe just to farm. What kind of nonsense is this?’

’When I was young, I badmouthed the construction site. When I grew up, I understood the construction site. Now, I miss the construction site.’

Staring at the rice paddy before him, Jiang Xu recalled the original owner’s miserably diligent farming life, and he fell silent.

’Can I just run away?’

He’d run away once before transmigrating; it wasn’t impossible to run away again after transmigrating.

In just one more month, his five-year term as a new servant would be up.

Every servant who entered the Profound Origin Sect started with a five-year "newbie protection period."

During these five years, as long as a servant’s Cultivation Realm broke through to the Qi Cultivation Third Layer, they could unconditionally enter the Outer Sect.

After five years, they had to serve as a servant for another five years. Only in the tenth year could they take an assessment. If they passed, they could enter the Outer Sect.

If they still couldn’t pass in the tenth year...

...they could either choose to remain a servant for the rest of their lives...

...or they had to pay a certain amount of Spirit Stones to buy back their freedom.

In truth, if you couldn’t become an Outer Disciple in the first five years, there was little hope for the future.

That was because, for the first five years, the Sect would give each Servant Disciple one Lower Grade Spirit Stone per month. But after five years, this monthly stipend was canceled.

Without Spirit Stones, one’s Cultivation would basically stagnate.

Jiang Xu was still at the Qi Cultivation Second Layer, and his meridians were damaged from the original owner’s forceful attempt to break through the bottleneck.

Even if he used the Spirit Stones he had swindled—no, *reclaimed*—from Nie Mengyun to buy Elixirs for repairs, he wouldn’t be able to advance to the Qi Cultivation Third Layer in such a short time.

This gave Jiang Xu a major headache and made him even more speechless at the original owner’s foolishness.

If the original owner hadn’t given most of his Spirit Rice and Spirit Stones for cultivation to that green tea, Jiang Xu wouldn’t have been in such a predicament.

’If I don’t handle this right, I’m going to be stuck working as a Spirit Plant Cultivator until I die...’

Now that the weeds in the Spirit Field were all hoed, Jiang Xu collected his thoughts and prepared to head back to his small hut.

But before leaving, he couldn’t forget the daily irrigation.

The spell for the Spirit Rain Technique flashed through his mind. Jiang Xu’s body subconsciously mobilized the Magical Power within him, and he began to form hand seals to cast the spell.

As Jiang Xu’s spell took form, the surrounding clouds and Spiritual Qi seemed to be drawn by an invisible force, rapidly gathering and churning above the Spirit Field.

They condensed into a small, mist-like cloud, from which wisps of water vapor began to spread.

The next moment, a light pitter-patter of rain began to fall from above the Spirit Field onto the soil.

The Spirit Rice in the Spirit Field, which had been waiting two days for the Spirit Rain, rejoiced, greedily absorbing the Spiritual Qi from the rain.

After casting the spell, Jiang Xu was absentminded, still pondering how to escape. But just then, a notification box abruptly appeared before his eyes.

[Spirit Rain Technique · Skill Level +1]

Jiang Xu froze. Before he could do anything, the notification box vanished, replaced by a translucent screen.

[Name]: Jiang Xu

[Lifespan]: 19/94 years

[Realm]: Qi Cultivation Second Layer: 99/100

[Cultivation Technique]: Cangmu Skill (Beginner): 78/100

[Skills]:

Magic: Spirit Rain Technique (Beginner): 96/100; Small Cotton Needle Technique (Beginner): 47/100

[Limit-Breaking Points]: 0.094