I AM JUST A FARMER NOT A GOD

Chapter 15: The Roots of Ruin

The world beyond the Valley of Echoing Dust was quieter… but not calmer.

Li Yuan traveled through scorched steppes where the sun forgot how to shine, and rivers that whispered the regrets of those who drowned in them. The Rootsplit Hoe rested across his back. The newly acquired Spade of Buried Truths hung at his side in a sheath of woven vines, pulsing with a slow rhythm—almost like a heartbeat.

His destination: the buried ruins of the once-mighty Grove of Ruin, where the second relic—The Sickle of Memory—was said to lie dormant.

But this time, the trial wouldn't come from the land.

It would come from within.

The Grove's Shadow

After four days of silence and meditation-led walking, Li Yuan reached a grove sunken into the side of a crumbled hill. The trees were dead, but stood tall, their branches twisted together like praying hands. Black moss coated the trunks. No birds sang here. No insects dared roam.

He stepped inside.

The moment he crossed the border, he felt it.

[System Notice: You have entered a Sealed Zone – Inner Mind Trial Imminent]

The world blurred.

Suddenly, he stood in Green Mist Village… except it was burning.

Flames devoured fields. Screams echoed. The Seedbuds were shattered like porcelain, their golden eyes dull. Granny Xue's shrine had collapsed. And at the center stood a shadow—his own silhouette, wearing a crown of thorns.

"You left," it said. "You chased power. And this was the price."

Li Yuan didn't speak.

He looked down.

In his hands were all three relics—hoe, spade, and sickle.

"Is this your destiny?" the shadow asked. "To reap again what you once destroyed?"

The false village fell into ash.

The Trial of Guilt

Now he stood on a field of bones.

Skeletons buried beneath his feet moaned in whispers. Some spoke his old names—He Who Split Suns, Skyburner, Xiao Tianmie. They accused. They pleaded.

He fell to his knees.

And there, before him, rose a mirror made of rusted silver.

In it, he saw every life he had ended with divine judgment. Kingdoms turned to silence. Innocents caught in cosmic storms. Students abandoned. Villages forgotten.

"You cannot wield the Sickle of Memory," a voice intoned, "until you understand what you've cut away."

He touched the mirror with one trembling finger.

It shattered.

And from the shards… grew vines.

The Sickle of Memory

The vines tangled into a gleaming sickle of deep bronze, etched with names—every life Li Yuan had touched, good or ill. He picked it up carefully.

It felt light, but endless.

[System Update: Relic Acquired – Sickle of Memory]

[Ability Unlocked: Harvest Emotion – Convert emotional echoes into spiritual defense or attack]

He exhaled deeply.

The world around him faded again… and he was back in the dead grove.

But now, the trees had bloomed.

Pale, fragile blossoms hung from the black branches, glowing softly in the night.

Back in the Weave

In the Looming Chambers where Watchers convened, threads danced violently.

"He now holds two relics," one Watcher murmured.

Another voice—cold and ancient—spoke in reply:

"The Harrower has yet to engage. He waits… for the seed of wrath to sprout. He waits for Xiao Tianmie to awaken."

"And if he doesn't?" a third asked.

Silence.

Then the First spoke.

"Then the Harrower will sow it himself."