The Path to Immortality Begins as a Sect's Menial Servant

“Today, I’m assigning each of you your farming areas.”

Fan Jie gave the three of them a glance, then walked up to Li An and roughly grabbed his arm, checking his energy.

Wang Zilin stood nearby, watching with a smug look on his face.

Li An couldn’t have entered Qi Refining. He’s going to get punished for sure!

But in the next second, Fan Jie nodded. “Hmm… even though your spirit energy is super weak, probably the weakest First Stage of Qi Refining I’ve ever seen, at least you made it.”

He let go of Li An’s arm.

Wang Zilin and Zhang Susu were both surprised.

Wasn’t Li An’s spirit root badly damaged? How did he succeed in entering Qi Refining?

Still, after remembering Fan Jie’s words—"the weakest First Stage of Qi Refining"—they weren’t so shocked anymore. They figured Li An must have forced himself through with everything he had, barely making it.

“Based on your situation, the 10 mu on the right side will go to Wang Zilin!”

“Zhang Susu will take the 10 mu on the left!”

“Li An will take the 10 mu in the middle!”

Fan Jie finished assigning them.

Li An was a bit surprised.

He actually got the best field?!

Wang Zilin had made the fastest progress and had the best handle on the Cloud-Walking Rain-Summoning Technique, yet he only got the middle-quality right-side field.

Zhang Susu was assigned the worst field on the left side.

But after thinking for a moment, Li An understood.

Fan Jie is finally about to make a move on Zhang Susu.

His method was simple: first make her do the hardest work and suffer through it, then after a while, switch her to the best field.

Once she experiences the difference, if she wants to keep enjoying the easy job and higher output, she’ll naturally “offer” something in return…

It’s easy to get used to comfort, but hard to go back to hardship.

By giving the worst land to Zhang Susu, that left the best and middle ones.

And the reason the best land went to Li An, he guessed, was because Wang Zilin was too close to Zhang Susu—and that annoyed Fan Jie.

Li An couldn’t help but feel that Miss Susu really was his lucky star.

“Immortal Master, Li An has the weakest cultivation. Why does he get the best land?”

Wang Zilin finally couldn’t help complaining.

Zhang Susu also frowned—she got the worst field? That’s not fair!

But Fan Jie just gave Wang Zilin a cold look and slapped him.

Smack!

Wang Zilin’s face swelled up immediately, and his gums started bleeding.

“Not convinced?”

Fan Jie asked coldly.

Wang Zilin’s eyes filled with fear. He immediately lowered his head. “No… I wouldn’t dare.”

Zhang Susu saw that and quickly shut up too.

“One more thing,”

Fan Jie pulled out three clay jars and handed one to each of them:

“There’ve been some bugs in the rice fields lately. When you’re tending your areas, sprinkle some of this powder to kill them.”

Li An’s heart moved. So that’s why Fan Jie was gone for so long?

If he was right, Fan Jie had probably gone to some black market to buy this bug-killing powder.

Normally, for pest problems, he could just report it to the sect, and they would send someone to handle it.

But this time, the bugs appeared because of the energy theft. So of course he couldn’t let the sect know.

Still, Li An kept a calm face as he took the jar and walked toward the 10 mu in the middle that he was assigned.

Fan Jie unlocked the field’s protective barrier, and the three of them entered smoothly.

At once, clouds gathered over Spirit Plant Peak and a gentle rain began to fall, soaking the spirit fields.

Fan Jie stood outside watching them, glancing occasionally at the middle section.

Everything seemed normal, so he turned and walked back up the mountain.

…

By evening, the day’s work was done.

Fan Jie returned to check their clothes and pockets to make sure none of them stole any spirit rice, then allowed them to leave the field.

He also handed out their monthly supplies.

Now that they’d finished the newcomer phase and started working, and had some cultivation, their energy needs had gone up. Each of them got three bags of spirit rice—about 5 kilograms total.

Their spirit stone allowance was still just a third of a stone each.

The joy of receiving their monthly goods helped wash away the day’s exhaustion.

“Susu, keep it up! I heard that if our harvests pass a certain level, we get rewarded with a portion of the extra! Then we can sell it and trade for spirit stones!”

Wang Zilin spoke with energy.

Spirit rice only gave a small amount of spiritual energy. After using the rain technique each day, most of it was gone. Nothing could build up in the body.

Spirit stones were way more important.

“Yeah, let’s work hard! I really want to reach the Third Stage of Qi Refining someday. Then I can apply to become a registered disciple!”

Zhang Susu wiped the sweat from her face. Her skin glowed, and after a full day of work, her gray servant uniform clung to her body from sweat, showing off her graceful figure.

Their eyes were full of hope. They truly believed that if they worked hard enough, they could change their fates.

“Li An, you work hard too!”

Zhang Susu also called out to Li An.

She thought that maybe Fan Jie was helping Li An on purpose—they might have some kind of connection.

Better to stay on his good side.

Li An smiled slightly.

“Yeah, let’s all do our best.”

…

That night, just like always, Li An sneaked into the spirit fields under cover of darkness.

He went straight to the whirlpool.

Just like he had guessed, the energy-stealing whirlpool only worked at night—so no one would notice. During the day, it shut off.

Around the whirlpool, another batch of fat, spirit-filled bugs had gathered.

This was the third time Li An had collected high-quality protein.

“But this can’t go on forever…”

Li An muttered.

Spirit rice had too many impurities and absorbed too slowly. Even though he had now reached the First Stage of Qi Refining, he could only absorb about 1.5 kilograms of spirit rice per day at most.

That capped how much spiritual energy he could get.

The bugs were rich in energy—but there weren’t that many of them.

He’d have to rely on spirit stones in the long run.

Otherwise, depending on spirit rice alone, he might have to steal for years before even hoping to break through to the Second Stage of Qi Refining.

…

Two weeks passed in a flash.

The hard labor of farming started to wear down the excitement they’d felt at the beginning. Wang Zilin and Zhang Susu didn’t talk as much as before.

Especially Zhang Susu—her face showed clear signs of tiredness and stress.

The spirit rice was about to reach its final growing stage. This was the most critical time.

But after all her hard work—exhausted every day—her section of rice still wasn’t growing as well as Li An’s or Wang Zilin’s.

At this rate, her field would only produce about one-third of what Li An’s could.

Wang Zilin grew more and more jealous.

It wasn’t because Li An was stronger. In fact, Li An worked less and rested more than either of them.

But the land was so fertile—it was basically doing the work for him.

“Brother Li, you’re really lucky.”

Zhang Susu looked at him with helpless envy in her eyes.

Li An coughed twice and looked a little weak. “My spirit root is still recovering. Maybe the Immortal Master gave me easier land because of that.”

Then he went back to his room to rest.

“Susu, don’t worry. I’ll work harder tomorrow. After I finish my part, I’ll come help you. I believe that if we keep trying, our land will catch up to him someday…”

Wang Zilin spoke through gritted teeth, clearly not willing to admit defeat.

…

Another seven days passed.

During that time, Wang Zilin kept his promise. Every day after finishing his own work, he went to help Zhang Susu, working like a beast of burden.

Fan Jie came down to the fields once. He didn’t comment on their progress but did check how the insect powder was working.

His face became more and more serious—he noticed that none of the three jars of powder worked very well. The best one was the jar used by Wang Zilin, but even then, about 20–30% of the bugs survived.

He told Li An to take his place for a few days while he left again.

Being “put in charge” made both Wang Zilin and Zhang Susu even more jealous.

They were now sure that Li An must have some kind of secret relationship with Fan Jie. Why else would Fan Jie trust and favor him so much?

But Li An knew the truth.

Fan Jie just thought he was easy to control.

Because in Fan Jie’s eyes, Li An’s spirit root was damaged—and breaking through to the First Stage of Qi Refining without fixing it meant he’d probably be stuck there forever.

…

The last day of the second month came, but Fan Jie still hadn’t returned.

And that day—a visitor arrived.

It was Wang Dazhu!

“Brother An, I’m here to see you!”

From far away, Wang Dazhu came running, grinning from ear to ear.

…

(End of Chapter)