1: Chapter 1 A bolt from the blue sent me to a new job

(Brain Storage Area!!!)

(Don't worry about the details!!!)

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The last thing Ye Qing remembered was a bolt of purple lightning tearing across the city's night sky.

At that moment, he only had one thought in his mind—if this lightning struck the company building, would tomorrow's morning meeting be canceled?

Then, he knew nothing more.

When he opened his eyes again, above him was a leaky thatched roof, and beneath him was a wooden bed so hard it could bruise a person to death.

A scent of air, mixed with mold, sweat, and the smell of some kind of medicinal herb, forcibly pushed its way into his nostrils.

"Awake?"

A dark, rough face leaned in, filled with impatience: "Ye Qing, are you pretending to be dead, kid? You've been lying there for half a day, do you still want to do today's water-carrying task or not?"

A massive flood of memory fragments surged in at this moment.

Ye Qing, sixteen years old, a Utility Disciple of the Qingyun Sect, with a Low Grade Five Elements Spiritual Root—commonly known as the trash among trash in the Immortal Realm.

Three days ago, while chopping wood in the back mountain, he slipped and rolled off a cliff, remaining unconscious until now.

"Steward... Steward Wang?"

Ye Qing opened his mouth; his throat was dry and painful, and his voice was as hoarse as a broken bellows.

"Still recognize people, looks like you didn't fall and become a fool."

Steward Wang tossed over a coarse clay bowl, inside of which sloshed half a bowl of murky liquid: "Drink this bowl of Rejuvenation Soup and hurry off to work. The Sect does not support idlers, especially someone like you with a Five Elements Spiritual Root."

The clay bowl felt cold in his hand.

Ye Qing looked at the suspicious blades of grass in the bowl, and his desire to survive made him close his eyes and gulp it down.

The taste was like slop that had been fermented for three months mixed with rust.

However, a faint warm current did indeed spread from his stomach, slowly nourishing this extremely weak body.

He struggled to sit up and surveyed his surroundings.

In the room of less than ten square meters, there were six wooden beds crammed together.

The walls were made of rammed earth, and light could be seen through the cracks.

Except for the one he was on, the other beds were empty—the Utility Disciples had to go to work before dawn.

"Today, you go weed the medicinal garden first."

Steward Wang stood at the door, his backlit figure appearing exceptionally tall: "Fatty Li will take you. Don't think about slacking off; if you don't finish the task, don't even think about getting this month's Spirit Stone quota."

The door was slammed shut.

Ye Qing sat on the edge of the bed, taking a full quarter of an hour to digest the current situation.

Transmigration.

From the 996 "blessing" scene, he was directly air-dropped to the bottom of the Immortal Realm.

And it was a Hell difficulty start.

He tried to recall the memories of the original owner of this body, only to find that apart from basic survival knowledge and the Sect rules, everything else was a blur.

On the contrary, he remembered the code, requirements documents, and the bizarre demands of the "Party A" bosses from his previous life crystal clear.

"So, being struck by lightning also has the function of formatting the brain?"

Ye Qing shook his head with a bitter smile, preparing to get out of bed and put on his shoes.

Just then, his whole body froze abruptly.

In his mind, without any warning, a strange space emerged.

The moment his consciousness touched it, countless pieces of information poured in like a tide, flowing naturally into his heart—

This was an Origin space that had traveled with him during his Transmigration.

It could absorb any item containing energy; whether it was a Spirit Stone, Medicinal Pill, or Magical Artifact, everything could be devoured by the space to expand itself.

After devouring, the space would feed back pure energy to its master, nourishing the Physical Body and increasing cultivation.

What was even more mysterious was that the space came with a boost to Comprehension Ability, allowing him to comprehend Cultivation Techniques and study Spells at a speed far exceeding ordinary people.

Moreover, even if he did nothing, the space would expand on its own at an extremely slow speed, though this process was agonizingly slow.

Ye Qing stood dazed in place, only regaining his senses after a long while.

"So this is my Golden Finger..."

He took a deep breath, suppressing the excitement in his heart, quickly put on the gray Utility Disciple uniform, and opened the door.

Outside the door stood a burly man with a waist circumference comparable to a water vat, his face full of flabby flesh, holding a rattan whip in his hand.

"Senior Brother Li."

Ye Qing followed the appearance of the original owner in his memories, lowering his head and bowing, his tone respectful.

"Dawdling, follow me."

Fatty Li turned and walked away, his obese body swaying in the narrow corridor: "Consider yourself lucky today, being assigned to weed the medicinal garden. That work, while tedious, is much better than going to the mines to dig for Spirit Stones."

Ye Qing followed silently behind, passing through the dilapidated courtyard where the Utility Disciples lived.

Along the way, he saw many Utility Disciples dressed in gray like him, some carrying water, some chopping wood, and some sweeping; all of them had numb expressions and dull eyes.

The Qingyun Sect was just a small Foundation Establishment Sect, located on the edge of the Cangyun Mountain Range.

It was said that the founding Ancestral Master was once a Golden Core Immortal Master, but he had long since passed away.

Nowadays, the one with the highest cultivation in the Sect was the Old Ancestor at the Foundation Establishment Mid Stage who had been in seclusion for years.

The Sect's resources were limited, and Utility Disciples were at the very bottom of the contempt chain.

Especially for someone like Ye Qing with a Five Elements Spiritual Root, where the cultivation speed was as slow as a turtle crawling, it would be a miracle if he could break through to the Middle Stage of Qi Refining in this lifetime.

"We're here."

Fatty Li stopped in front of a garden enclosed by a low fence.

The garden was about two acres in size, divided into dozens of neat ridges, planted with all kinds of medicinal herbs.

The air was filled with a faint medicinal fragrance.

"Your task is to clear the weeds from those three ridges on the east side."

Fatty Li pointed with his rattan whip: "Remember, only remove the weeds, don't hurt the medicinal seedlings. There is a wooden sign stuck next to each seedling with its name written on it. If you kill one, I will deduct three Low-Grade Spirit Stones from you."

Ye Qing looked in the direction he pointed.

The weeds in those three ridges were growing more vigorously than the seedlings, dense and thick.

"I will come to check before the sun sets."

After speaking, Fatty Li swayed his body and left, leaving Ye Qing alone to face this "grassland."

Ye Qing walked to the edge of the ridge, crouched down, and observed carefully.

The medicinal seedlings were all very short, with leaves of various shapes.

On the wooden sign next to them were crooked characters carved: ninglu grass, three months old.

In his memory, this was one of the auxiliary herbs for refining "Qi Gathering Pill," very common, but it had high requirements for its growth environment.

Most of the weeds were the kind of wild thatch grass with developed root systems, tightly entwined around the roots of the medicinal seedlings.

Ye Qing reached out, carefully parting a cluster of weeds, his fingertips touching the moist soil.

At that very instant, he clearly sensed that the space in his mind trembled slightly.

A clear suction force came.

It wasn't targeting him, but rather... the soil his fingertips were stained with?

No, to be more precise, it was targeting the extremely thin Spiritual Qi contained in the soil, as well as the negligible vitality remaining on those weed roots.

Ye Qing's heart skipped a beat.

He looked left and right.

In the nearby medicinal ridges, other Utility Disciples were busy working, and no one was paying attention to him.

Taking a deep breath, Ye Qing sank his consciousness into that space.

The space was about one foot square, surrounded by chaotic gray fog, and beneath his feet was hard black-brown soil.

There was no light source overhead, but the space was filled with a hazy glow, allowing him to see the general outline.

He tried to guide the minute life energy remaining on those weed roots that his fingertips were touching into the space.

An invisible trickle, following some mysterious connection, poured into the soil of the space.

The next moment, the feedback came.

A wisp of pure warm current surged out from the soil of the space, following that connection and feeding back into Ye Qing's body.

His cultivation at the first level of Qi Refining, which had been almost stagnant, actually had an extremely faint increase.

Although it was so weak it could be ignored, it had indeed increased.

At the same time, he also felt that the gray fog at the edge of the space had receded by the width of a hair.

It really was just a hair's breadth.

If he hadn't been concentrating with all his might, he would have barely noticed this change.

Ye Qing's eyes, in a corner where no one could see, slowly lit up.

He lowered his head and began to weed seriously.

His movements were still careful to avoid damaging the medicinal seedlings.

But every time his fingertips touched the roots of the weeds, he would skillfully inject that wisp of residual, insignificant life energy into the space within him.

The whole process was smooth and natural, as if it were an instinct he was born with.

As the absorption continued, the gray fog at the edge of the space continued to slowly recede backward.

The color of the black soil beneath his feet seemed to have deepened by a shade as well.

The warm current fed back continuously nourished this body, pushing his meager cultivation to climb upward bit by bit.

Ye Qing weeded very slowly and very carefully.

An hour passed, and he had only cleared less than one-tenth of the area.

But the gray fog at the edge of the space inside him had already expanded by about the width of two hairs.

The warm current fed back allowed Ye Qing's cultivation at the first level of Qi Refining to clearly advance a small step forward.

At this rate, if he could absorb all the "energy" from the weeds in these three ridges...

Perhaps he could break through to Qi Refining Stage 2 without attracting anyone's attention?

Ye Qing licked his somewhat chapped lips and continued to bury himself in his work.

The sun gradually became blazing.

Sweat rolled down his temples and dripped into the soil.

He was completely unaware, fully immersed in the wonderful experience of "getting stronger even by picking up trash."

Until a slightly shrill voice came from behind him.

"Yo, isn't this our Five Elements Spiritual Root Genius, Junior Brother Ye? You're so slow at just weeding; could it be that you fell and broke your brain yesterday?"

Ye Qing's movements paused, and he slowly turned his head back.

The person who came was a youth with triangular eyes and thin lips, also wearing the gray Utility Disciple uniform, but there was a shallow white line embroidered on the cuffs.

That was the mark of an Outer Sect Disciple at Qi Refining Stage 2.

Memories flooded in.

Zhang Feng, a Utility Disciple who entered the Sect in the same batch as him, had a Three Spiritual Root Aptitude, broke through to Qi Refining Stage 2 half a year ago, and was promoted to a probationary Outer Sect Disciple.

There was no deep hatred between the two.

If one had to say, it was just that Zhang Feng liked to step on "waste Spiritual Roots" like Ye Qing to highlight his own "sense of superiority."

"Senior Brother Zhang."

Ye Qing stood up, patted the soil off his hands, his expression calm.

"Your speed is not good."

Zhang Feng walked over with his hands behind his back, looked at the progress behind Ye Qing, and sneered: "At this dawdling pace of yours, it would be good if you could finish weeding one ridge by sunset. When the time comes and the task isn't finished, your Spirit Stone quota will be deducted, and I'm afraid you won't even be able to afford the worst Bigu Pill next month."

Ye Qing lowered his head and didn't reply.

But in his heart, he was calculating rapidly.

If he weeded step by step, it would indeed be too late.

But if...

He looked at the lush weeds under his feet, and then "looked" at the space inside his body that seemed like it could never be filled.

"Senior Brother Zhang is right."

Ye Qing raised his head, revealing a perfectly measured smile that carried a bit of ingratiation and embarrassment: "Junior Brother injured my body a few days ago, so my movements are a bit slow. I wonder if Senior Brother could give me some pointers?"

Zhang Feng clearly enjoyed this posture.

He lifted his chin and said pretentiously: "Weeding is also a discipline. If you pull them one by one like you, when will you finish? You have to use clever force."

As he spoke, he casually picked up a small hoe from the side and demonstrated by digging a few times.

The weeds were turned up by the roots, revealing the entangled root systems underneath.

"See that? Dig close to the ground, don't go too deep, so as not to hurt the roots of the medicinal seedlings."

Ye Qing watched carefully, but inexplicably felt a sense of clarity in his heart.

He understood the essence of the technique Zhang Feng spoke of almost instantly, and even faintly felt there was a better way.

This feeling was as if an invisible barrier had been lifted, and his thinking had become clearer and sharper than ever before.

Was this the Heavenly Dao-level Comprehension Ability boost brought by the space?

Ye Qing suppressed his secret joy, took the small hoe, and started digging close to the ground, imitating Zhang Feng.

His movements were still not fast, but the efficiency was much higher than pulling by hand.

More importantly, the moment the hoe turned up the weeds, he could more clearly perceive the fluctuations of that life energy, and the absorption efficiency actually improved a bit.

"You are teachable."

Zhang Feng nodded with satisfaction, put on a few more airs of a Senior Brother, and then walked away with his hands behind his back, swaying.

Ye Qing watched his receding back, his eyes calm and waveless.

He lowered his head and continued weeding.

This time, he held the hoe in his right hand, while his left hand brushed over the roots of the weeds that had been dug up, seemingly unintentionally.

Wisps of imperceptible energy flowed silently into the space within his body through his fingertips.

The gray fog at the edge of the space receded outward at an extremely slow but steady speed.

The color of the black soil beneath his feet seemed to have deepened by a shade again.

The warm current fed back into his body continued to nourish this body, also pushing his meager cultivation to climb upward bit by bit.

At sunset, Fatty Li swayed his obese body over to inspect.

Seeing that the weeds in the three ridges had been cleaned up completely and the medicinal seedlings were intact, he raised his eyebrows in slight surprise.

"I underestimated you."

Fatty Li tossed over a wooden token: "Today's task is completed, go to the canteen to get your meal. Come report at this time tomorrow."

Ye Qing took the wooden token, which had the character "Meal" carved on it.

This was the proof that a Utility Disciple had completed the day's task, and with this, one could go to the canteen to receive a free meal.

If the task was not completed, not only would there be no food to eat, but the monthly Spirit Stone quota would also be deducted.

"Thank you, Senior Brother Li."

Ye Qing bowed and turned to leave the medicinal garden.

Walking on the gravel path back to the Servant Quarters, he felt the space inside his body, which had already expanded to nearly two feet square, and his cultivation, which had clearly grown by a significant amount.

The corners of his mouth curled upward in an uncontrollable, slight arc.

It seemed that in this dangerous Immortal Realm, he had found a path that belonged solely to him—not very dignified, but seemingly feasible.

Picking up trash, farming, and developing stealthily.

He looked up, gazing at the cloud-shrouded spiritual peaks deep within the Qingyun Sect.

First, he would figure out a way to shake off this pathetic Utility Disciple identity, save his life, fill his stomach, and feed that little space before doing anything else.