Life on a spirit farm was a bit different from what Zeran imagined. She had always thought of farming as something that mortals did, and imagined that the cultivator version of such of thing was similar.

So when Xun first suggested that she stay on the farm, Zeran had been expecting a life of hard work. She wasn’t opposed to it, that seemed like a fair trade given the fact that Xun had saved her life and kept her away from the demonic cultivators. But at the same time, she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something else that she could be doing.

The reality of Xun’s spirit farm was anything but what she expected.

For one, she never had to deal with the spirit rice. Zhanghao took care of all that. She never had to cook her own meals, Pengzi spent half the day playing with chickens, the other half cooking, and somehow found the time to also brew liquor. They were also incredibly welcoming. Pengzi and Xun built her a house in a single day, forming a third side to the village. They used the bamboo that Zhanghao had grown and everything, from her bed to her walls, had a faint grassy smell.

There was nothing for her to do but cultivate. But even that was infuriating in its own right. Her spirit channels were broken, and she had dropped back to the Earth Muscle stage. It would take decades to reach the Wood Skin stage, and that was only if she diligently cultivated every day for the meager few zhen to add to her cultivation. But she kept it up, at least until when Xun knocked on her door after a particularly eventful day between Pengzi and his chickens.

“Zeran? Could I come in?”

It was Xun. Zeran tided up her robe and went to the door.

“Hi Brother Xun, please come in. Sorry, I didn’t know that you’d be visiting.”

In some ways, Zeran knew her fate. The cultivation world was one that, for better or worse, was rather realistic. Everything was transactional. Friendships would blossom between those of equal strength. But for two cultivators, where one was significantly weaker than the other, it wouldn’t be the friendship of equals. It was subordination. Zeran tensed up as Xun walked through her room.

“How are you enjoying the farm?” Xun asked as he took a seat.

“Quite well, thank you,” Zeran said. Her thoughts started to spin without prompting. Xun wasn’t exactly someone that she remembered well before her injury. She only started noticing him when he consistently bought Seven Turns Pills from her.

“Dashan wanted me to say thank you for before,” Xun said, interrupting her thoughts. He seemed to be smiling, but Zeran couldn’t tell for sure. It was hard to tell what Xun thought, he wore the same expression on his face most of the time.

“Oh, it was no trouble,” Zeran replied. “I’m just glad to know that he’s fine now. I was sad to hear about what happened to him before I knew that…” She paused.

“Before he joined the demonic sect. Our demonic sect now, I guess,” Xun completed her thought. “I wanted to come talk to you about that, actually. Is there something that you wanted to do?”

Zeran thought about the offer for a second, trying to parse the deeper meaning behind Xun’s words. Perhaps he was asking about what her future plans were. Perhaps he was chiding her about not contributing to the farm.

“I’m sorry Brother Xun, I’m not too sure what I’d like to do,” Zeran said. She was ready for Xun’s next move, whatever it was going to be.

“Alchemy?” Xun suggested.

Zeran had a bitter smile. “I think that my cultivation is too weak to be anything but a pill servant. But even if I had a stronger cultivation, I’m not too sure if I’d want to… refine another pill again. I think that the path of an alchemist isn’t the right one for me anymore.”

Xun nodded in agreement. He looked around Zeran’s house. She kept the place spotless and without much in the way of decorations. For one, after the demonic raid and the subsequent pills and herbs she used to heal the disciples, she didn’t have much to add to the place. And second, she didn’t think it was necessary to add new things to the house. She liked it plain and simple.

“Dashan didn’t just want to say sorry. A life debt can’t be repaid with mere words,” Xun said. “But at the same time, he didn’t know how exactly to repaid such a debt. So I took the liberty of asking him for something.”

“Of course,” Zeran said. She understood where this was going. It was merely a matter of cultivation resources. Although she didn’t expect Xun of all people to have collect and take a debt owed to her, she was also secretly glad that it wasn’t anything more than that. There were tales of cultivators who started off as sweet and gentle boys but took many wives when they rose into power.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Xun brought out a sword from his storage bag. “This is from Dashan. I asked him for a high Foundation spirit sword. And you see, I also owe you a life debt. You saved my life from the Thunder Path.”

Zeran nodded. Suddenly, she wasn’t sure where this was going.

Xun slowly drew the blade out, letting the cold steel glint in the sunlight.

“Have you ever thought about becoming a sword cultivator?”

—

Xun went to the sect market. A lot of things had changed since the Sacred Gate Sect had taken over, but the one thing that didn’t was the need for spirit rice. Although the rice wasn’t as useful as spirit stones, it was something that most cultivators chose to eat as a way to both reward their tired bodies and also accumulate the small benefits from the rice itself.

If Xun was pressed, he’d say that the main difference was how much the Sacred Gate Sect set as their quota and how heavily things were taxed within the sect.

For starters, the quota on the farm had nearly doubled. It would have been all but impossible to fulfill such an outlandish request if it wasn’t for Zhanghao with her improved farming skills. But it was the tax that really showed the true demonic colors of the Sacred Gate Sect.

Xun had to sell all of his excess rice to the sect at some market price. Generally, this market price was rather fair and roughly equivalent to how much he would have gotten from the grain merchant at the Nine Thunder Sect. Where things went wrong was if he wanted to try buying anything from the sect.

Everything that the sect sold was roughly 50% higher than the market rate. In other words, the fact that the sect purchased all the excess inventory of its disciples meant that the sect taxed every transaction at a 50% rate. And worse, the previous bustling sect market had all but disappeared.

No transactions between two cultivators within the sect were allowed. Everything had to flow through the sect at least once. Even if two cultivators came to an agreement without the sect’s help, they had to use the sect as a middleman and pay the corresponding tax.

Xun deposited his spirit rice at the sect and took the spirit stones from the excess rice.

“Brother Xun! Here again for the Seven Turns Pill?”

Where the Pill Apothecary once stood was a new building, this one less extravagant and more subdued than its predecessor. Like everything else in the sect market, this was now owned by the Sacred Gate Sect.

“Of course,” Xun said. “I’m looking to buy double my normal amount. Do you have that in stock?”

“Definitely. It’ll just take me a few minutes to gather everything. I had prepared just your normal amount, here they are. And just wait for me a few minutes for everything else.”

That was another benefit of a demonic sect. No one questioned things. Every disciple practiced a slightly different version of the Inner Breathing Method and found their own ways around the flaws. Buying a bunch of Seven Turns Pills wasn’t enough to even raise an eyebrow.

And the fact that Xun had more spirit stones than an ordinary laborer should have was also ignored. From talking with a senior manager of the sect market, Xun had learned that the sect didn’t care where a cultivator’s wealth come from. All that they cared about was that the sect got their cut.

In fact, Xun could go out and rob another member of the sect and face a smaller punishment than if he had tried to transact with that same member without giving the sect its cut.

While the merchant worked, he began to make small talk with Xun. “Hey Brother Xun, I know news doesn’t travel too quickly to the farms. Would you like to hear some of the news in the sect recently?”

“Gladly,” Xun said as he placed two extra spirit stones on the counter. “A tip, for you. And one extra for the sect tax.”

“Ah you’re too generous, Brother Xun,” the merchant replied. His hand swept over the stones and they disappeared. “Have you done your mandatory mission yet? If not, I’d say it might be worth it to wait. The big news that I’ve heard recently is the tournament. The Twin Beast and Purple Flower Sect recently sent a delegation into our sect, hoping to resolve things peacefully. Vice sect leader Yuwei laughed at them but considered their proposal seriously.”

“What did they propose?” Xun asked, entertaining the merchant’s flair for the dramatic. In some ways, he found that quite amusing. It seemed that the merchants he met in this life were all intimately connected with the gossip mills.

“They said that we should have a tournament instead of random fights in the mountain range.”

“A tournament? With the orthodox sects?”

“That’s what I said. But sect leader Yuwei had other thoughts. He said that the idea was quite good and that he would take it under consideration. I think he might actually go for it.”

Xun rubbed his chin. He had been delaying his mandatory mission as long as he could. It wasn’t just out of caution but also the very real concern that the Foundation Realm fights were just a massive trap being set by someone behind the scenes. All in all, he didn’t have a good feeling about either of the two mandatory missions that the demonic sect had assigned. But if there was a third option, then that would solve many of his problems.

“So that’s pretty good information, right Brother Xun?”

Xun nodded and slapped two more spirit stones on the counter.

“Always a pleasure doing business with you,” the merchant said as he gathered the final pills and placed them into a small porcelain bottle. “These are the Seven Turns Pills. All two hundred of them. Twice your normal purchase size.”

“Same deal as before?” Xun asked.

“Of course.”

Xun tossed over one of the storage bags that he gained when looting the demonic cultivators during the siege. The merchant caught it and expertly inventoried the items. Then, he took them out one by one, showing Xun what he was taking as well as his appraisal value for each one.

“Two thousand and four hundred spirit stones. Thank you, Brother Xun, may your cultivation rise like the sun.”

Xun took the pills and hummed all the way back to the spirit farm. Today had been a good day.