The Abyssal Garden: No Room for the Idle

"Um...."

The middle-aged man looked awkwardly at Su Qi, sheepishly scratching his head, "That is, I wasn't talking about you."

Su Qi smiled and said, "I believe you, so could you untie me? I've already said that I'm a Daoist who removes demons."

However, the village chief shook his head apologetically, murmuring softly, "Sorry, young man, we can't do that."

"Eh?"

A nearby martial artist spoke in a grave tone, "Because only the Immortals from the Heavenly Mountain can cultivate all methods, while others who cultivate are deemed Sinful Cultivators, demons."

The village chief let out a slight sigh, "To be honest, I knew you were no demon as soon as you woke up. Some demons might appear human, but they're actually filthy lunatics, and I can tell that you're not like that, young man."

Su Qi gave a thumbs-up, "Chief, you've got good judgment."

"So, you are a Sinful Cultivator," the chief's eyes filled with complexity, "If it were before, we might have let you go."

"But now... since the Heavenly Mountain is searching for you, we can't do that."

"Otherwise, we will all suffer a great disaster."

Su Qi paused for a moment, pondering.

"Heavenly Mountain..."

Su Qi muttered to himself.

"It seems to be the ruling organization of this world."

And from everyone's expressions, although they respectfully call them Immortals, they don't seem to be the carefree kind of immortals.

Because what each person's eyes show is deep fear, not even close to awe.

Furthermore.

"Only the Heavenly Mountain may engage in cultivation, other commoners... attempting cultivation are all considered Sinful Cultivators?"

And what's interesting is...

After being considered Sinful Cultivators, the others seemed to regard him with a bit more respect, even regret.

"Interesting."

The world he had fallen into must also be within the Extremely Evil World, is it an ancient space fragment on the inside or a world that has been drawn from the outside?

Still to be explored.

In any case.

Because he had encountered an attack from the Old Days amidst the ripples, and now being separated from the others, Su Qi wasn't in a hurry, opting to take it slow.

In addition.

There was another matter.

That was...

It seemed he could now enter the Seventh Rank.

"No restraints, no thresholds, as long as I recover all my Spiritual Energy now, I can easily step into the Seventh Rank."

It came more easily than he imagined, but on second thought, it made sense... during his fight with the Venerable in Evil Town, he had already touched the threshold of the Seventh Rank.

Along the way, the battles were unceasing, and in the mechanical world, Su Qi had already felt this, and after his Spiritual Energy was completely depleted, he then fought a battle in the spiritual world against the Blood Killing Bishop transformed by the Evil God's power.

Now it all fell into place.

"But..."

Su Qi hesitated for a moment, looking at his Spiritual Power value.

[Current Spiritual Power: 21/1090056]

"It's a bit of a hassle to fully restore my Spiritual Energy."

Firstly, Spiritual Energy can't recover on its own, it can only be replenished with Spirit Coins or other items containing Spiritual Energy.

After all, it was a one-time instance or a newcomer's benefit from Paradise before, and after nearly depleting the Spiritual Energy, upon leaving the instance, one would return in full bloom.

But in the Extremely Evil World, it was different; all consumption had to be managed by himself.

In other words, while the ways to obtain Spirit Coins increased, the need to expend them also increased significantly.

"And there's another thing, I don't have much in the way of Spirit Coins left, enough to restore maybe just over ten thousand of Spiritual Energy."

Su Qi paused.

There were quite a few energy stones left, but unfortunately, he wasn't a Mechanical Life or an Artificial Body Warrior, unable to use them.

"It seems, I can only recover Spiritual Energy from this world, and step into the Seventh Rank."

Su Qi stretched lazily, chuckling lightly:

"So, are you planning to hand me over for the law to deal with?"

Everyone fell silent, another martial artist nodded and said, "No one can defy or hide from the Immortals, had we not known earlier, perhaps we could have let you go, but now that the Immortals have a need for you... sorry, we can't let you go."

The village chief sighed, with some fear, "Because if we do it willingly, then the Immortal would... bring down disaster on our village, everyone would be punished."

Su Qi curled the corners of his mouth, the village chief was indeed a cunning man, deliberately mentioning the word 'willingly.'

In other words, as long as they could not resist and he broke out to escape, the Immortals from the Heavenly Mountain wouldn't blame them.

It's their kindness as ordinary people, after all, Su Qi understood... there were no Sinful Cultivators or demons; under Heavenly Mountain's rule, no other commoners were allowed to cultivate.

Any cultivator stood on the opposite side of the Heavenly Mountain... as a Sinful Cultivator.

"No big deal."

Su Qi acted as if he didn't understand, saying cheerfully, "I'll just wait here then."

The village chief hesitated, opened his mouth, sighed, and ultimately said nothing more.

His hand shakily pulled on the nearby martial artist:

"Go on, prepare some food for this young fellow."

The people looked at him with sympathy, shaking their heads and dispersing. They didn't know that Su Qi came from outside their world, or perhaps they had no concept of a world... beyond their own.

They just treated Su Qi as any other Sinful Cultivator.

Su Qi watched the expressions of everyone around him.

It seemed the Heavenly Mountain wasn't up to any good. He stretched lazily, indifferent, and fished out two Spirit Coins, spinning them between his fingers.

Spiritual Energy was slowly being restored.

Until the Spirit Coins turned to dust, and freshly new Spirit Coins seamlessly appeared between Su Qi's fingers.

He wasn't in a hurry.

Rather than venturing out, it was better to stay here, and wait for that so-called 'Immortal' to come.