Chapter 1 - Chapter 1: Expelled from the Sect (1/2)

Chapter 1: Expelled from the Sect

Translator: 549690339

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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.