Chapter 1: Expelled from the Sect

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Nanming Domain, Qingyuan Sword Sect

July

The summer sun blazed overhead.

It was just past noon, and the sun was at its most venomous. Lin Jing pushed a handcart along a dirt road beside the fields, moving at a slow pace.

Laden with several bulging sacks, the cart seemed to groan under their weight.

Before long, upon reaching a spot shaded by trees, Lin Jing stopped.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead, then took out a gourd from his waist, uncorked it, and started gulping down its contents.

He drank almost half of the gourd in one breath before reluctantly putting the vessel away.

He couldn't afford to drink it all at once, not when there was still a long way to go.

After finishing his drink, Lin Jing sat on the edge of the handcart to rest. In the sweltering heat of high summer, even the breeze was warm; only under the shade of these trees could one find a hint of coolness.

Looking up, he saw fields of golden Spirit Rice, ripe and ready for harvest in a few days.

Gazing at the scene, Lin Jing felt a sense of haziness, memories of his childhood on Blue Star flooding back.

His hometown had looked just like this, where he had played in the fields with friends and toiled alongside his grandparents.

Now, thinking back, life then seemed so nostalgically wonderful...

But everyone has to grow up.

Later, as his studies became more demanding and his life busier, he too became like everyone else.

Studying, taking exams, graduating, working...

Until he was so overwhelmed by life that he gradually forgot that small mountain village where he had experienced the happiest moments of his life.

Yet, a sudden car accident transported him to this world.

At first, aside from being a bit stunned, he was quite excited.

The Cultivation World, flying with swords.

He had read plenty about it in novels in his previous life.

But upon actually arriving here, he realized that the Cultivation World was far less wondrous than he had imagined.

In a world where martial power reigned supreme, the Cultivation World.

Weakness was the original sin.

Especially when he had first arrived, with only the first level of Qi Refinement cultivation.

And with both parents deceased and no one to rely on, if not for the protection provided by his status as a Qingyuan Sword Sect's Spirit Farmer, he might have long since perished.

"There's no going back now..."

Lin Jing couldn't help but sigh.

......

At this moment, a voice came from behind him.

"Yo! Isn't that Brother Lin?"

"Why is Brother Lin sitting here alone? Could it be that you don't have enough Spirit Rice for this year's submission? Scared to meet Manager Li?"

Lin Jing turned to see a young man around twenty-three or twenty-four sitting atop a bullock cart, looking in his direction with undisguised contempt in his eyes,

"Yuan Bo."

Lin Jing's expression remained calm, "That seems to have nothing to do with you."

The youth named Yuan Bo didn't get angry. Instead, he spoke languidly, "Looks like someone is about to be expelled from the Qingyuan Sword Sect..."

The mockery in his voice was evident, and he didn't bother to hide it.

As the bullock cart trundled past Lin Jing, Yuan Bo sneered, "Hope you can be this tough when you're in front of Manager Li."

Then he continued on down the road, without looking back.

Yuan Bo and he were neighbors. Due to a previous generation issue, their relationship had always been poor, even hostile, which explained their immediate tension upon meeting each other.

Lin Jing watched the bullock cart disappear into the distance, its sacks twice as numerous as his own.

Then, looking back at the sacks on his own cart, these were the Spirit Rice he had to submit to the Qingyuan Sword Sect this year.

But it was nowhere near enough, simply because someone had destroyed half of his Spirit Field just before the harvest.

Lin Jing had reason to believe that Yuan Bo was responsible for this.

Because he was the first to appear at the scene after it happened.

But he had no proof and even though Manager Li was called in to investigate, no conclusion was reached, and the matter was ultimately dropped.

With no results, the responsibility naturally fell upon him. The amount of Spirit Rice due was insufficient, and unless something unexpected happened, it was very likely he would be expelled from the Qingyuan Sword Sect.

Now, there was nothing to do but take one step at a time. First, he needed to submit these bags of Spirit Rice and then see what Manager Li would say.

......

After resting, Lin Jing continued on his journey.

It took another hour before Lin Jing arrived inside Spirit Farmer Village, a place where only those who cultivated Superior Spirit Fields were qualified to reside.

As for Lin Jing and others who grew Low Grade Spirit Fields, they could only live in thatched cottages by the edge of their fields.

At the front of a large courtyard with black-tiled roofs and blue-brick walls in the village, many Spirit Farmers were lined up, some pushing handcarts and others driving bullock carts, waiting to enter and submit their Spirit Rice.

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This courtyard is the residence of the steward.

Lin Jing glanced at the long queue; the amount of Spirit Rice these people had was clearly far more than what he had on his cart.

Seeing so little Spirit Rice on Lin Jing's cart, astonished glances were cast from nearby.

People began whispering:

"Busy for a whole year and harvesting only this little Spirit Rice? He must have been slacking off."

"Indeed."

"That's not nearly enough to fulfill the quota; he's likely to face punishment."

Just then, Yuan Bo, who was standing in front, spoke up in defense:

"I know he hasn't been slacking."

"Not slacking?"

"How could there be so little Spirit Rice if he hasn't been slacking?"

"He must have met with some disaster."

"Everything was growing well, but just when the Spirit Rice was about to mature, half of his Spirit Field was outright destroyed by someone, leading to the loss of a year's worth of labor."

"His Spirit Field is not far from mine; I even made a point to go take a look—the sight was simply too horrendous to bear."

"Someone meddling with the Spirit Field, and the steward doesn't know about it?"

"Lee, the steward, is in charge of this area; of course he knows. He went to investigate on the day it happened, but I heard that up to now, no results have been found."

"Now that he has so little Spirit Rice, nowhere near enough to meet the quota, I'm afraid he's going to take the blame."

"Indeed!"

"If nothing unexpected happens, I bet he'll be expelled from the Sect."

When this was said, the voice rose slightly, and the surrounding crowd turned to look at Lin Jing.

After Yuan Bo finished speaking, he cast a provoking glance at Lin Jing.

Many around them had heard and couldn't help but sigh.

"What a pity...!"

"Outside the Sect, you won't find such favorable treatment, to be so careless."

"You speak the truth," Yuan Bo agreed.

"Outside the Sect, you won't find such favorable treatment."

Having said that, he just stared at Lin Jing, with schadenfreude glinting unmistakably in his eyes.

Ignoring Yuan Bo's challenge, Lin Jing remained silent, took his place at the end of the line, waiting to turn in his Spirit Rice, and also awaiting the final outcome of the event.

The line moved quickly, and in just half an hour, it was Lin Jing's turn.

Entering the courtyard, he immediately felt refreshed—the Spiritual Energy inside was much denser than outside, suggesting there was likely a minor Spirit Gathering Formation here.

Lin Jing looked ahead; Steward Lee was standing there, all smiles, chatting with a young man at his side.

From the young man's attire, he must be the Inner Sect Disciple sent by the Sect to supervise this Spirit Rice handover.

Judging by his age, he was probably around thirty.

An Inner Sect Disciple of the Qingyuan Sword Sect must possess at least the Cultivation of the Foundation Establishment Stage, and such a young man was already an Inner Sect Disciple, indicating that his cultivation talent must be quite extraordinary.

In contrast, Steward Lee beside him, already over fifty years old, had only the Qi Refinement of the fifth level.

Lin Jing had often heard people say the disparity between humans is greater than that between humans and dogs; ever since coming here, he had deeply understood that saying.

However, compared to Lin Jing, Steward Lee could even be considered a genius for his cultivation talent.

Because Lin Jing's Spiritual Root...

Was the so-called useless Five Elements Mixed Spirit Root.

The previous occupant of his body had managed to reach the first level of Qi Refinement, only thanks to more than a decade of relentless cultivation day and night, along with his father's assistance, barely achieving success.

If it had been someone else with this kind of Spiritual Root, they would probably have given up on cultivation long ago and settled for living an ordinary life.

......

Pushing his cart to a weighing area, Lin Jing unloaded the Spirit Rice, and immediately someone came up, picked up a sack, and began weighing it.

"Five hundred thirty jin, insufficient."

Upon hearing this voice, Steward Lee's brows furrowed, and he turned his head to look this way.

When he saw it was Lin Jing, the tight furrow of his brow relaxed somewhat, but his expression remained grave.

"It's you," Steward Lee spoke, "the matter has been investigated and clarified. It was the doing of vagrants from outside the mountains. I have already meted out the rightful punishment."

"However..."

At this point, Steward Lee became more solemn.

"You are culpable for negligence of duty, leading to the destruction of the Spirit Field."

"I have already reported the matter to the Sect."

"The Sect has decided."

"Effective immediately, you are to be expelled from the Qingyuan Sword Sect."