Chapter 1 - Chapter 1: Expelled from the Sect (2/2)
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.
“`
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.”