1: Life is worse than grass

"...Steward Wang, please give us a few more days. Senior Brother Lin has been unconscious for these past few days, and this month's Spiritual Plant quota is really..."

"Unconscious? Hmph! I've seen enough of this act of playing dead to avoid debts."

"Please, I beg you, give us a few more days..."

"Ye Yuner, how many times have you pleaded for him? If you can't hand it over by the end of the month, get out of the Medicine Garden and go to the mines to work as a forced laborer to pay off the debt."

While unconscious, Lin Feng listened to the conversation between a man and a woman.

The man was aggressive, while the woman was submissive and accommodating.

"Hiss..."

He struggled to open his eyelids, and what came into view was an entirely unfamiliar environment.

'Where is this?'

'Wasn't I working overtime?'

Suddenly, countless memory fragments rampaged through his brain, forcing him to accept a fact.

'Did I Transmigrate?'

This place is called the Tianxuan Sect, a small Sect on the Canglan Continent.

The original body had joined the Tianxuan Sect three years ago, becoming a Utility Disciple, and had been growing Spiritual Plants in this Medicine Garden ever since.

A few days ago, because he couldn't pay back the Spirit Stones, he was beaten by Steward Wang. Between the anxiety, fear, and long-term malnutrition, he finally fell ill and couldn't recover.

That was when Lin Feng transmigrated here.

Steward Wang seemed too lazy to waste more words, his footsteps receding toward the door: "Ye Yuner, instead of wasting time on this trash, you'd be better off growing a few more good Spiritual Plants. Don't forget, your quota is only just barely enough."

The door was slammed shut with a "clang."

Only he and Ye Yuner, who was standing by the bed, remained in the room.

Ye Yuner sighed, turned around, and froze when she saw Lin Feng's eyes open.

She immediately walked over quickly: "Senior Brother Lin, you're awake? How do you feel? Don't worry, Steward Wang is just all talk... My, my Spiritual Plants are growing well this time, I can spare a few to help you out, it should be enough..."

Lin Feng propped himself up, wanting to sit, but his bones ached as if they were falling apart.

"Junior Sister Ye..." He opened his mouth, his voice extremely hoarse, "I've troubled you again. This time... there's no need."

Ye Yuner was stunned: "Senior Brother Lin, don't push yourself. Haven't we always..."

"The past is the past." Lin Feng interrupted her, his gaze sweeping over the empty room, which had nothing but a broken bed.

"How much do the Spirit Stones you've covered for me add up to? Twenty? Thirty? How many do you have left? How much longer can you hold on?"

The original body was weak; for three years, he had failed to meet his quota several times, and it was always Ye Yuner who secretly used her own Spiritual Plants or the meager Spirit Stones she had painstakingly saved to fill the gaps, preventing him from being immediately driven away by Steward Wang.

This friendship was so heavy that even the current Lin Feng felt suffocated by it.

Ye Yuner was rendered speechless by the question; she twisted the hem of her faded clothes, lowered her head, and said, "There, there will always be a way..."

'A way?' Lin Feng smiled bitterly to himself.

The taxes in this hellhole are even harsher than in a feudal society.

Ten qualified Spiritual Plants every month, non-negotiable. If you can't hand them in, you pay with Spirit Stones until you are completely squeezed dry of your last drop of value, and then you are thrown into the mines to work as a forced laborer.

'In this shitty Sect, the life of a Utility Disciple is worth less than grass!'

The original body was driven to his death by these taxes and Steward Wang's deliberate obstruction.

And Ye Yuner, this girl who was also struggling at the bottom, kept helping him, dragging herself into the abyss as well.

'This can't go on.'

He had always been able to adapt to environments quickly; since he was here, he would make the best of it.

"Where is my field? Take me to see it." Lin Feng lifted the blanket and gritted his teeth to get out of bed.

Ye Yuner couldn't refuse him and had no choice but to support him as they went out.

The so-called medicine field was a series of terraced fields cultivated along the hillside. The Spiritual Qi was distributed extremely unevenly; the higher up, the better it was.

The few plots at the very edge of the mountain foot, in the lowest-lying area, were gray, barren, and faintly filled with Evil Qi.

The worst one was his. The Spiritual Plants inside were sparse, withered, yellow, and stunted; they looked like they wouldn't survive.

The one next to it, which was slightly better, was Ye Yuner's. Although it was also struggling to grow, at least most of it was still green.

Ye Yuner was already busy in her field, carefully loosening the soil with a worn-out medicine hoe. Her forehead was covered in fine sweat, and from time to time she had to circulate her meager spiritual power to resist the erosion of the Evil Qi, making her face grow paler.

'If I get driven away, the path to longevity is completely cut off...'

According to the original body's memories, the only hope for a Utility Disciple was to rely on the luck of someday breaking through to the Fourth Level of Qi Refining to be accepted into the outer Sect, or to have a massive Opportunity and be noticed by an Elder who would take them on as a Disciple.

Otherwise, the moment they were expelled from the Sect, it meant the path to longevity was cut off forever, and their Dao path was destroyed. This was already falling into the abyss, but what was even more terrifying was that there were countless greedy eyes beneath the abyss.

If one's luck was slightly worse and they were noticed by demonic cultivators... at that point, being kidnapped and turned into a Cauldron would mean they could neither live nor die, and even their body and soul would be harvested day and night, reduced to a mere plaything.

Lin Feng squatted by the edge of his field, pinched a bit of soil with his fingers, and sniffed it at the tip of his nose.

'Compacted, acidified, imbalanced trace elements, and even heavy metal contamination... It's a miracle anything can grow in this shitty soil!'

It seems the original body's failure to meet the quota wasn't due to laziness, but because the conditions of this field were truly too terrible.

He raised his head, his gaze following the hillside upwards.

Above the hillside, near the waist of the mountain, several medicine fields shimmered with a warm, gentle luster under the setting sun.

The soil there was clearly darker and more fertile, and the Evil Qi permeating the air was much thinner.

Several figures were walking leisurely through the fields; they didn't even need to frequently use spiritual power to resist the erosion of the Evil Qi, only occasionally casting a spell to summon spiritual rain to water the plants.

The Spiritual Plants in those fields grew lush and green, their leaves plump and full of Spiritual Qi; one look and you could tell they were High Grade.

'Senior Brother Li's cousin... Steward Zhang's brother-in-law...'

The people before his eyes might not necessarily have better Aptitude than him, perhaps even worse, but because they had attached themselves to an Inner Sect Disciple or a Steward, they could occupy the best resources.

The effort they put in was likely less than a tenth of his own, yet their harvest was a hundred times his.

'This isn't farming, this is just about connections.'

He gritted his teeth, forcing himself to look away and back to his own medicine field.

'Use organic fertilizer to improve the soil structure, use lime to neutralize the acidity...'

A faint glimmer of light flashed in Lin Feng's eyes; this field might not be unsalvageable.

'At the very least, let these Spiritual Plants survive, or even... grow into High Grade ones.'

He remembered Steward Liu, who managed the farming tools and low-grade supplies. Perhaps he could apply for some basic fertilizer powder?

Carrying a glimmer of renewed hope, he found Steward Liu, who was napping on the mountain.

Steward Liu didn't even lift his eyelids: "Fertilizer powder? We have it. Two Low-Grade Spirit Stones per pack."

Lin Feng's throat went dry: "Steward Liu, I... can I pay on credit first..."

"On credit?" Steward Liu finally opened his eyes and looked at him like he was an idiot, "Do you think this is a charity house? If you don't have Spirit Stones, get lost."

Just then, a young Utility Disciple dressed in slightly fancier clothes walked over: "Steward Liu, get me two packs of high-quality Green Wood Spirit Soil, and three Gathering Spirit Talismans, put it on Senior Brother Li's tab."

Steward Liu's expression changed instantly: "Got it! Junior Brother Zhang, wait a moment, I'll have it ready for you right away."

Lin Feng returned to his wooden hut, feeling dejected and soul-broken.

Ye Yuner looked at him with concern, wanting to say something, but in the end, she just silently handed him half a dry, hard steamed bun.

He took it, gnawing on it mechanically, the taste like chewing wax.

'It's over... I just transmigrated, and I'm already waiting to be dragged off to the mines to be a slave?'