Awakened

Night had fallen. Having completed his daily cultivation, Wang Chen felt no sleepiness at all.

He climbed onto the roof to look at the stars.

Nightlife in the Cultivation World could actually be pretty lively.

Fifty li away, Yunyang City boasted countless teahouses, taverns, brothels, gambling houses, and night markets that stayed open until late.

Unfortunately, Wang Chen could not afford any of it right now.

Lying on the roof tiles with his hands beneath his head, he gazed at a dazzling yet unfamiliar expanse of stars.

He could not help recalling the past.

Or rather, his previous life.

Wang Chen had graduated from a renowned domestic science and engineering university before being recruited by a major state-owned enterprise.

He worked there for two years.

But he truly could not adapt to the rigid system within the company, nor the scheming and infighting within his department.

So he chose to resign.

After traveling all over the country, Wang Chen went home and became a shut-in.

He made self-media videos about technology, games, food, handicrafts, and the like.

Somehow, he amassed several million followers across the internet.

Living comfortably off advertising revenue.

In other people's eyes, Wang Chen was warm-hearted and cheerful, reasonably handsome, and highly emotionally intelligent.

He had a bright future ahead of him.

And yet...

As drowsiness quietly crept over him, Wang Chen was still thinking about the fifteen years left on his mortgage.

"Doggy!"

The howl from outside the small courtyard gate startled Wang Chen awake from his sweet dream.

Damn it!

Wang Chen helplessly got up and jumped down from the roof.

"Doggy" was the original owner's childhood nickname.

His father, Wang Shaoyuan, came from the Mortal World.

The wife he had found was mortal as well.

Not long after little Wang Chen was born, his mother succumbed to a terminal illness.

So Wang Shaoyuan followed Mortal World custom and gave him a lowly nickname.

Hoping he would grow up safe and sound.

Doggy—even eating shit, a dog could survive.

And because of Wang Shaoyuan's friends, all the neighbors, including Old Sun, knew this childhood nickname of his.

Hardly anyone called him by his proper name instead.

"Coming, coming."

Wang Chen opened the courtyard gate and was instantly startled!

After just one day apart, Old Sun seemed to have aged more than a decade. His hair had turned completely white, and his face was haggard.

He looked as though he had been thoroughly drained through Essence Absorption!

"Grandpa Sun, are you all right?"

Wang Chen was filled with righteous indignation. "Those female cultivators from the Joyous Union Sect have gone too far!"

Recently, the biggest piece of gossip in Yunyang City had undoubtedly been a group of female cultivators from the Joyous Union Sect taking jobs at the Gathering of Beauties Pavilion.

They had snatched away all the business from established pleasure houses like Spring Moon Tower and Orchid Fragrance Courtyard.

Every female cultivator of the Joyous Union Sect was delicate and beautiful, and highly skilled in the Dual Cultivation Path.

They were famed throughout the Cultivation World as juice-squeezing girls.

With them on board, not only had competitors like Spring Moon Tower and Orchid Fragrance Courtyard suffered, even Ruyi Gambling House had far fewer gamblers.

And Old Sun, a major farmer with neither sons nor daughters, who neither refined artifacts nor concocted pills, had long since given up on cultivation.

The few Spirit Stones he painstakingly saved in ordinary times were basically all scattered among several pleasure houses in Yunyang City.

How could Old Sun, who lived in the moment, possibly resist going to the Gathering of Beauties Pavilion to feast his eyes?

Therefore, Wang Chen's deduction was perfectly reasonable and utterly airtight!

"What Joyous Union Sect female cultivator?"

Old Sun was briefly stunned, then immediately understood.

The old man flew into a rage from embarrassment. "Doggy, you little brat, you've gone bad too! I came to ask whether you found any Earth Rhinoceroses in your Spirit Field yesterday."

"Yes."

Now that they were talking business, Wang Chen did not dare joke around. "I killed ten of them. I was planning to go look for more this morning."

He then asked, "Grandpa Sun, didn't you hire Zhang Ada to get rid of the pests? Weren't they all cleared out?"

"Cleared out, my ass!"

Old Sun looked thoroughly unlucky. "The problem is huge!"

Zhang Ada was a renowned pest exterminator throughout the area. It was said that he had long cultivated his Gengjin Finger to the proficient level.

That was why Old Sun had hired him to deal with the Earth Rhinoceroses.

Things had gone smoothly at first.

But after he killed three Earth Rhinoceroses, the rest hiding in the Spirit Fields seemed to have become spirits.

The moment Zhang Ada approached, they would immediately drop to the ground, burrow into the soil, and vanish without a trace.

Time and again, Zhang Ada came up empty-handed and could only leave in frustration.

Yet the instant Zhang Ada left, Old Sun's Spirit Fields suffered disaster. Many Spirit Rice stalks had been gnawed beyond recognition.

Earth Rhinoceroses were extremely vengeful creatures.

Old Sun had worried so much over this that he had not slept a wink all night, worrying until his hair turned white.

"I'm planning to head into the city and find someone else to help."

He sighed mournfully. "This year's harvest is hanging by a thread. When the time comes, if I can't pay the Field Rent, Doggy, you have to help your grandpa!"

So that was where he had buried the hook!

Wang Chen grumbled inwardly: If you went to the brothels a few fewer times, the Spirit Stones you saved would be more than enough to pay the Field Rent!

According to the regulations of the Yunyang Sect outer sect's Spirit Planting Hall, any shortfall in Field Rent could be made up with Spirit Stones at market price.

If it had been the original owner of this body, he probably would have foolishly agreed.

But how could Wang Chen, who had transmigrated here, possibly indulge the old man's bad habits?

He merely smiled, neither agreeing nor refusing.

Then he took the suspected BOSS Earth Rhinoceros from his Storage Bag. "Grandpa Sun, I killed this big one yesterday. Take a look—can I sell it for a few more Shattered Spirits?"

"It's this big?"

Old Sun's eyes instantly widened larger than bronze bells, staring fixedly at the Earth Rhinoceros in Wang Chen's hand.

"This Earth Rhinoceros has become a demon!"

His face was full of disbelief. "Doggy, you actually killed a demonized Earth Rhinoceros?"

In the world of cultivation, demons, fiends, ghosts, and monsters were not broad catch-all terms, but descriptions of four different states of life.

The first among them was demon.

It referred to nonhuman living creatures nourished by spiritual energy, which then developed Extraordinary Strength.

Pigs, dogs, cattle, sheep, jackals, wolves, tigers, leopards, flowers, grass, trees, and the like.

Insects were included as well!

A demonized Earth Rhinoceros was far more formidable than an ordinary Earth Rhinoceros.

Old Sun had farmed Spirit Fields for most of his life, yet he had only seen a handful of demonized Earth Rhinoceroses.

He noticed the hole in the demonized Earth Rhinoceros's head.

His eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets. "Doggy, your Gengjin Finger has gotten incredible!"

Although Old Sun was greedy, stingy, and lustful, he had eaten spirit rice for decades. His experience and knowledge were unquestionably extensive.

Wang Chen's mastery of the Gengjin Finger had clearly advanced greatly, so it made sense that he could kill a demonized Earth Rhinoceros.

Wang Chen chuckled. "I just got lucky and made a breakthrough."

"You brat have finally gotten the hang of it."

Old Sun was both envious and jealous. His eyes shifted as he said, "Doggy, since you're so capable, help your grandpa clear out the Earth Rhinoceroses in my Spirit Fields."

He gazed at him eagerly, forcing out a trace of ingratiating expression.

"No time."

Wang Chen shook his head like a rattle-drum. "Grandpa Sun, you have thirty mu of Spirit Fields. I still have my own fields to tend."

This rotten old man was downright wicked—he actually wanted Wang Chen to work for free.

Dream on!

Old Sun's eye twitched as he forced himself to open his palm. "Five. I'll give you five Lower Spirits!"

He had actually hired Zhang Ada to clear out the Earth Rhinoceroses for a reward of fifteen Lower Spirits.

That worked out to fifty Shattered Spirits per mu.

Zhang Ada had failed to complete the job, so naturally he had no face to claim the reward.

In Old Sun's eyes, even if Wang Chen had gained some ability, there was no way his appearance fee could compare with Zhang Ada's.

Five Lower Spirits was already very generous.

Yet Wang Chen's answer nearly made him cough up three mouthfuls of blood. "One Lower Spirit per mu, and I'll do it!"

One Lower Spirit per mu—thirty Lower Spirits for thirty mu!

Old Sun truly wanted to smash his head against Wang Chen's doorframe right then and there.

He simply could not understand where that honest, dependable, easy-to-bully Doggy had gone.

This awakening had gone a little too far, hadn't it?!

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