The cultivators of the Baiyun Sect did not conceal their purpose, directly informing Fang Ming and the others that their positions were that of handyman disciples.
The Baiyun Sect was upfront, clearly stating their roles.
However, the Baiyun Sect also outlined the future benefits. The first was that after twenty years of service, they could descend the mountain. By then, they would still be cultivators and possess a certain status in the outside world.
The second was the provision of an upward path. If they could cultivate the "Yiqi Gong" to the seventh level before the age of thirty, they would be promoted to outer disciples and switch to cultivating the "Yunhai Gong" used by outer disciples.
Yet, according to Fang Ming's understanding, throughout the years, many handyman disciples met the first fate, while very few managed to advance to outer disciples.
The cultivation techniques of the Baiyun Sect seemed to be passed down in a lineage, with not many techniques available, likely due to being a small sect.
Handyman disciples cultivated the "Yiqi Gong," outer disciples cultivated the "Yunhai Gong," inner disciples cultivated the "Baiyun Gong," and core disciples cultivated the "Tai Gu Yi Qi Jing." There was a possibility of transitioning from lower-level techniques to higher-level ones between these four.
The seventh level of "Yiqi Gong" could be converted to the third level of "Yunhai Gong," and so on.
The two cultivators who brought Fang Ming earlier were both inner disciples, cultivating the "Baiyun Gong."
Only inner disciples could operate the flying boat.
They were not solely bringing cultivators from Longmen Village; their flying boat also had to go to other places to pick up people from other villages.
The reason for needing to make a round trip and then depart again was that the flying boat had a limited carrying capacity of no more than a hundred people, thus it could only carry one village's worth of people per trip.
After obtaining this information.
Fang Ming felt that although this world was not a low-level cultivation world, its cultivation system was very primitive.
There were no standardized realms. In the Baiyun Sect, cultivation and strength were judged by "which technique you cultivated and to what level you had reached."
The judgment of cultivation realms was very vague.
"This is the spiritual field you will be farming from now on," a middle-aged man in official attire said to Fang Ming.
"By the end of the year, you must submit one hundred and forty jin of spirit rice... Considering this is your first time farming, next year and onwards, once you are proficient, it will be two hundred and forty jin of spirit rice."
"This is the 'Yiqi Gong' cultivated by handyman disciples. It is bestowed upon you. Study it well, cultivate to the first level as soon as possible, become a cultivator, and then you can begin farming."
"Do you understand?"
Fang Ming nodded and respectfully replied, "I understand, Steward Liu."
This middle-aged man was Steward Liu. He himself was an outer disciple. As he grew older and lost his potential for advancement to inner disciple, he applied for the position of managing handyman disciples, responsible for overseeing them.
At this moment, Fang Ming and hundreds of other children from various villages were under Steward Liu's jurisdiction.
Fang Ming therefore treated the middle-aged man with a slight degree of reverence.
The middle-aged man said no more, directly instructing, "Mortals are not qualified to cultivate spiritual plants; only cultivators can. Although the 'Yiqi Gong' is shallow and crude, once cultivated, it allows one to wield spiritual energy and farm in the spiritual fields."
"You must strive to cultivate and farm the spiritual fields as soon as possible... If you fail to complete the task and cannot submit one hundred and forty jin of spirit rice this year..."
The middle-aged man warned Fang Ming, "The consequence is a visit to the Baiyun Sect's disciplinary hall. Be careful, you might not be able to leave once you enter."
"I have said all that needs to be said. Familiarize yourself with the 'Yiqi Gong' and begin farming as soon as possible."
After speaking, Steward Liu left.
Fang Ming was left alone, looking at the dilapidated thatched hut beside him and then at the spiritual field he was responsible for.
He shook his head. He had lived in a thatched hut in the village before, and to his surprise, he would still be living in a thatched hut within this immortal sect.
The land he was to farm had merely become spiritual fields.
"Spiritual fields!"
Fang Ming surveyed the spiritual fields he was to cultivate. He thought that these fields were not something that an eight-year-old child like himself could farm, nor could even an adult mortal.
However, once one became a cultivator, even the lowest-level cultivator's strength would likely not be limited by their current age.
If the "Yiqi Gong" was cultivated to the second level, even an eight-year-old could easily defeat twenty-year-olds who had only cultivated the "Yiqi Gong" to the first level.
After becoming a cultivator, what determined strength was no longer age, but the internal cultivation.
This was why the Baiyun Sect uniformly assigned all handyman disciples, whether they were seventeen or eighteen years old, or eight-year-old Fang Ming, to farm – because as long as one became a cultivator, the limitation on farming ability was no longer age but cultivation level.
Therefore, they could naturally assign tasks without regard to age.
Of course, speaking of cultivation, Fang Ming felt a strange sensation. It seemed as if the cultivation techniques learned by cultivators were like an amplified version of internal martial arts, lacking standardized realm divisions.
But without standardized realm divisions, there was nothing that could be done.
This did not hinder Fang Ming from cultivating the "Yiqi Gong."
After carefully studying the "Yiqi Gong," Fang Ming understood why the Baiyun Sect would present this "Yiqi Gong" to illiterate village children.
Village children, not being descendants of scholars, naturally did not know how to read, regardless of their age.
Among the handyman disciples, Fang Ming observed that more than sixty to seventy percent came from villages. Those who seemed worldly, from the city, and possessed scholarly demeanor were rarely seen.
For such illiterate individuals, the Baiyun Sect surprisingly did not provide literacy education but directly bestowed the "Yiqi Gong," expecting an eight-year-old child to study it independently, as well as all other handyman disciples to study it themselves without any instruction. In a sense, this was remarkable.
As Fang Ming truly began to examine the "Yiqi Gong" book, he realized the reason for the lack of literacy education – immortal texts were indeed immortal texts, directly conveying meaning through spirit and intention, through mental infusion.
It was not that people learned to recognize characters.
Rather, the characters revealed their meaning to people, allowing people to understand their significance and what they were saying.
It was not people recognizing characters, but characters recognizing people.
Such characters completely eliminated illiteracy.
This was because such characters did not need to be learned; one only needed to look at them to understand their meaning.
The characters themselves could explain their own meaning.
This made Fang Ming exclaim that the characters of cultivators were inherently a form of "power," directly making everyone no longer illiterate.
Since he could read the text, and the Baiyun Sect was so confident in allowing ordinary children to read the "Yiqi Jing,"
Fang Ming could make an estimation – the "Yiqi Jing" was likely very simple. Due to the low level of the technique, the risk of qi deviation was probably quite small.
There was no risk of qi deviation.
Fang Ming immediately took out his hand and began to cultivate the "Yiqi Gong."