The old man holding the lantern spoke before Chen Jiuyang could reply, pointing a finger at him from a distance:
"Try to break free from the nightmare."
Chen Jiuyang's body immediately retreated, as if an ordinary person drowning in a vast ocean, unable to resist, a terrifying sense of suffocation sweeping over him.
He was already at the Martial Dao Mortal Immortal realm, and still couldn't resist?
His vision instantly went black...
...
Diary:
'It's been a month since I transmigrated. This is a dark Xianxia world. Not dark because of natural disasters, but because of human hearts. For twenty taels of silver, I was sold by my own parents to the Yongjie Sect as a herb field laborer.'
'Life as a herb field laborer at the Yongjie Sect isn't that difficult. Two hundred copper coins a month, and two meals a day.'
'If I didn't have... I'm afraid other fourteen-year-olds wouldn't last a month. Without money, all they could do was gather dry grass to make a nest and sleep, and they had to get up in the middle of the night to add firewood. Otherwise, if the fire went out, snakes and insects would bite. Three people from the same batch as me, who came as laborers, died from snake and insect bites.'
'Finally got paid, two hundred copper coins. Spent fifty copper coins to rent a woodshed in the cheapest alley courtyard in Qingyao City. Though it only has one bed, I can finally sleep soundly.'
The rooster crowed, signaling dawn. Chen Jiuyang, conditioned by the fear of missing meals, woke up immediately. He then placed the paper and charcoal in his arms under the bed, pushed aside the pile of dry grass he was bundled in, got up, opened the door, and stepped into the crowd with the others, heading out of the city.
Looking out, there were no less than a hundred thousand people, all herb field laborers like Chen Jiuyang.
At the city gate, about a thousand tables were set up for laborers to get their food. They were yellowish, hard steamed buns, and each person could only take two at a time.
If anyone broke the rules, a Yongjie Sect cultivator standing in the void would take their life.
Want to drink water?
See those people kneeling by the artificial stream at the edge of the herb fields, drinking a few sips.
These were difficult times.
But most people, like Chen Jiuyang, had already accepted their fate.
There was good food and drink in the city, but it required money.
Chen Jiuyang arrived at the herb field he was responsible for, put on his farmer's hat, took a hoe and a small wooden bucket from a mortal martial artist, and descended into the herb field, beginning to meticulously inspect every plant and every branch.
If they didn't take good care of the herb fields, the martial artists supervising them would kill them first. But if they managed them well, there was a chance of being noticed by a city pharmacy and taken away.
After the inspection, it was from the dawn's fish-belly white to the bright midday sun.
"Mm."
Chen Jiuyang calmly finished his inspection, a hint of satisfaction in his eyes: "Sprinkling grass ash water on the medicinal plants and soil secretly indeed helps kill insects and improves the survival rate and quality of the medicinal plants."
This trick, known to anyone who hadn't even attended primary school in his previous life, was one of Chen Jiuyang's secrets to survival here.
After the inspection, Chen Jiuyang came out of the herb field and sat under a nearby tree to rest. He first started a fire by friction, then took out his handmade clay pot, fetched water from the small stream, and placed it on a pile of stones to boil. He then threw a pebble into the fire.
Even though he was very hungry and his lips were dry and pale, he endured until the water boiled.
He then took out the bamboo tube he had been using all along. After the water boiled, he poured the boiling water into the bamboo tube and used a wooden stick to pick out the heated pebble from the fire and put it into the bamboo tube.
"Sizzle sizzle!"
The glowing red pebble dropped into the bamboo tube, immediately emitting white smoke.
With this double sterilization, Chen Jiuyang dared to drink the water with peace of mind.
He had specifically found a place no one paid attention to, to set up his dwelling.
By the time the water cooled, Chen Jiuyang was already ravenous. He swallowed a mouthful of steamed bun with a mouthful of water.
"With the help of the grass ash water, I don't need to guard the herb field in the afternoon."
"It's time to think about getting a cultivation technique."
There were only two types of people in the world who could cultivate immortality.
One was those born with spiritual roots, of whom one in a hundred thousand could be found.
The second was to cultivate martial arts as a mortal, from a third-rate master, to a second-rate master, first-rate master, Grandmaster, Postnatal Grandmaster, Prenatal Grandmaster, refining Qi to supplement spiritual roots.
And most mortals could never reach this step in their lives.
Most people who could survive, like Chen Jiuyang, would find ways to get cultivation techniques and start practicing martial arts.
The Yongjie Sect did not prevent this; instead, they encouraged people in Qingyao City to practice martial arts, establishing a complete welfare system, and even setting up various pharmacies and martial arts shops outside the Yongjie Sect, making you eager to become their dogs.
Becoming a third-rate master meant establishing oneself and leaving the status of a laborer, settling in Qingyao City, and no longer having to work in the herb fields daily. As for cultivation techniques and other rewards, one needed to accumulate merit points at the pharmacies to exchange them at the martial arts shops.
The Yongjie Sect had long calculated that even if you reached Prenatal Grandmaster through sect rewards, you would be fifty or sixty years old, with aging bones. To refine Qi to supplement spiritual roots, you could at most reach the first level of Qi Refining, living to eighty or ninety.
Although you practiced martial arts and cultivated immortality, you were treated like cattle and horses, already calculated to death, and yet you were made to willingly risk your life to strive.
Those who understood this would not only not give up but would seize the time to strive even harder, because every ten to twenty years, a mortal originating from a laborer would refine Qi to supplement spiritual roots, become a Yongjie Sect disciple, and leap over the dragon gate to turn their fortunes around.
Therefore, anyone with a decent mind would compete more fiercely and cherish time more.
Chen Jiuyang was lying in the grass nest where he had slept for a month when he suddenly heard a thunderous shout:
"Someone is damaging the herb field and trying to escape!"
Chen Jiuyang poked his head out and saw several people running on the ridges of the fields under the scorching sun, heading outwards.
But they didn't get far before mortal martial artists practicing martial arts struck, chopping off their heads. The headless corpses sprayed blood and fell to the ground.
Chen Jiuyang slowly shook his head and sat back down:
"Knowing they couldn't outrun the martial artists, yet they still damaged the herb field and tried to escape."
"This isn't seeking death, this is... begging for death..."
Day after day of cultivating and guarding the herb fields, knowing their own temperament and minds were insufficient, with no hope of a breakthrough, only four steamed buns a day, two hundred copper coins a month. If it weren't for the numbness of dark despair, and the fact that they couldn't bring themselves to do it, who would seek such a release?
Chen Jiuyang rested enough and returned the hoe to the steward supervising the herb fields. The steward glanced at Chen Jiuyang with a second look.
This newly arrived laborer boy had been working for half a day and then resting for seven consecutive days. He had also inspected the herb fields managed by Chen Jiuyang afterward. They were fine and showed no abnormalities. He was a clever boy who could survive, and when the medicinal plants were harvested this time, he would likely be chosen by a city pharmacy as an apprentice.
There were tens of thousands of mortal laborers like Chen Jiuyang who managed herb fields. The vast herb fields stretched as far as the eye could see, and in Chen Jiuyang's memory, this was just one of the many medicinal domains of the Yongjie Sect.
Qi Refining stage cultivators occasionally flew across the sky.
Countless people looked at the Qi Refining cultivators in the sky with awe, envy, and greed.
Qingyao City was a city established by the Yongjie Sect to manage herb field laborers. It was populated by people like Chen Jiuyang, who originated from herb field labor.
Most people spent their entire lives in this city, for the dream of cultivation, living here, growing here, marrying and having children here, and finally dying of old age, never leaving this city.
That dream of cultivation, seemingly within reach, moving forward step by step, was like the moon in a well.
Chen Jiuyang walked into the city. The bustling streets were filled with human activity, everyone rushing for their dreams.
He observed for a long time, feeling that there was something wrong with this world, something strange, chilling, and despairing.