Who Helped Me?

Early the next morning, Shen Fan opened his eyes. Two nights and a day of rest had barely let him get back on his feet to work.

Yet when he saw the bowl of coarse rice by his bedside filled up again, a warm current surged through his heart.

"This old man really has a knife for a mouth and a heart of tofu!"

Shen Fan shook his head with a smile and got up to prepare for work.

Servant Peak sprawled across thousands of acres, with over a thousand Miscellaneous Disciples divided into hundreds of small groups.

Shen Fan's group had over ten people and was responsible for tending one hundred and twenty acres of spirit fields.

"Shen Fan!"

Zhao Erhu's voice suddenly rang out as he swaggered over.

He then pointed at five abandoned spirit fields in the distance. "Starting today, these five fields are under your care too. Do you understand?"

Shen Fan clenched his fists slightly, but he did not dare resist.

Seeing Shen Fan lower his head without a word, looking thoroughly cowardly, Zhao Erhu nodded in satisfaction.

"That's more like it! Why did you have to compete with Senior Brother Li for a woman? If you can't take it, then get the hell off the mountain yourself!"

"I'm not leaving!" Shen Fan raised his head, his gaze as firm as iron.

"If you're not leaving, then work your ass off! If you fail to meet your quota, just see how I deal with you!"

Zhao Erhu threatened viciously.

Watching Shen Fan's retreating back, Zhao Erhu sneered. "Ten acres of spirit fields? A useless spirit root like you, just an ordinary person, still wants to finish the task? Dream on!"

Shen Fan had been here for five years and was already thoroughly familiar with cultivating spirit fields.

Ten acres of spirit fields were a lot, but as long as he worked fifteen hours every day, he should still be able to finish.

Just as Shen Fan was working with his head down, a soft cough suddenly came from nearby.

Looking up, he saw an elderly man with a wrinkled face and a hunched back staring at him gloomily.

"Old Man Duan!" Shen Fan revealed a grateful smile.

"You alright?" Old Man Duan frowned and walked over. "I heard about what happened to you!"

"Ah, forget it!"

The words reached Shen Fan's lips, only for him to swallow them back down. He asked instead, "By the way, how did you lose in the competition the day before yesterday? Aren't you already at the third level of the Qi Refining Stage?"

"Fuck!"

Old Man Duan cursed outright.

"I had already won, but I tied with another Miscellaneous Disciple. The outer sect examiner said I was too old, that I had no future and no potential, so he screened me out!"

Shen Fan felt indignant on his behalf. "That can't be right. Even if you tied, you should have been admitted as usual!"

"Who the hell knows? Those bastards!"

Old Man Duan cursed angrily.

"I went to argue with the elder, but the result was still the same. That examiner found out, and he even beat me up!"

At once, a sense of shared misery rose naturally in both their hearts.

"By the way, Old Man Duan, thank you for looking after me!"

Shen Fan said gratefully.

Old Man Duan was slightly stunned by Shen Fan's inexplicable thanks. "You brat, don't go doing anything foolish! Lu Qingzhu heartlessly abandoned you, but as a man, you need to have some breadth of mind!"

He thought Shen Fan had taken it too hard and was about to do something stupid!

"What are you talking about?"

Shen Fan chuckled. "I'm thanking you for bringing me rice last night!"

"Bringing rice?"

Old Man Duan looked at Shen Fan even more doubtfully.

"What rice? I stayed in my room all night and never came out!"

"Stop hiding it. If it wasn't you, who else could it have been? I only had half a bowl of rice left. You must have snuck in and filled it for me, right?"

"It really wasn't me!"

Old Man Duan said firmly. "What, are you out of food?"

"It really wasn't you?" Shen Fan's pupils abruptly contracted as he stared at Old Man Duan in disbelief.

"It really wasn't me. Why would I lie to you? Besides, doing good deeds without leaving a name isn't my style!"

Hearing this, Shen Fan muttered to himself. If it was not Old Man Duan, then who could it be?

Just then, Old Man Duan suddenly leaned closer, grabbed a handful of milky-white rice from his pocket, and stuffed it into Shen Fan's pocket without a word.

"Take this spirit rice. I got a pound yesterday for tying. You brat only has one last chance next year, so work hard and strive to enter the outer sect next year!"

Suddenly, Zhao Erhu's voice roared from afar. "What are you doing? Are you going to work or not?"

Hearing this, Old Man Duan immediately returned to his own spirit field and resumed working.

Shen Fan gave Old Man Duan a grateful look, then continued turning the soil.

But throughout the entire day, he kept pondering what had happened the night before.

Who was it?

By the time Shen Fan returned to his room, it was already night.

All five acres of spirit fields had been reclaimed. Tomorrow, he could water them and sow the seeds.

Shen Fan casually bolted the door, then cooked and ate all the remaining coarse rice.

Old Man Duan had given him a handful of spirit rice. Tomorrow, he could trade some of it for ordinary rice. He would finally be able to scrape through this month.

After dinner, Shen Fan carefully put that handful of spirit rice into the bowl, covered it with a headscarf, and placed it beneath the bed.

Early the next morning.

Shen Fan was awakened by a refreshing fragrance.

Opening his eyes, Shen Fan took a deep breath. "Why is the spiritual energy so dense?"

Miscellaneous Disciples were not taught spells, but they were given the most basic Qi Guiding Art.

Shen Fan had cultivated for five years and had only reached the second level of the Qi Refining Stage, so his senses were also extremely keen when it came to spiritual energy.

"This aura seems like the kind that only appears when spirit fields ripen. Could someone's spirit field have matured?"

Shen Fan got out of bed and dressed, then retrieved the broken bowl from beneath the bed.

He planned to go to the marketplace before dawn and trade half of the spirit rice for some ordinary rice.

But when Shen Fan removed the headscarf, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

Looking closer, he saw a large bowl of golden spirit rice beneath the dim bed, glistening vividly before his eyes as it radiated dense spiritual energy.

"Th-this-this..."

Shen Fan was so shocked that he could not speak coherently.

He immediately grabbed a small pinch of spirit rice and examined it.

"This is Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice!"

Spirit rice also came in grades: low, middle, high, and supreme.

That golden gleam was the mark of the highest grade, Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice.

What Old Man Duan had given him yesterday had clearly been low-grade White Jade Spirit Rice.

The spirit rice cultivated in the fields outside was also low-grade White Jade Spirit Rice.

Shen Fan suddenly raised his head, smashing the back of it directly against the bedboard.

After scanning his surroundings, he swiftly wrapped up the Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice.

The spiritual energy in this rice was far too dense. If it were discovered, the consequences would be unthinkable!

With that thought, Shen Fan immediately lifted a floor tile and buried all the Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice beneath the ground.

He only kept a few grains on his person.

After finishing everything, Shen Fan sat cross-legged on the bed, his thoughts churning like a storm.

Where had the Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice come from?

Had there not only been a handful of low-grade White Jade Spirit Rice in the bowl?

Just then, Shen Fan suddenly recalled the coarse rice that had appeared in the bowl for no reason yesterday.

As well as Old Man Duan's denial that he had brought the rice.

"Could it be..."

Shen Fan fixed his gaze on the broken bowl beside him.

An utterly wild idea took shape in his mind.

This bowl was a treasure!

Whether it was truly a treasure or not, he would know after tonight!

As long as he put some rice into it again tonight, then if it was full again tomorrow, he could confirm it.

If this really was a treasure, then entering the outer sect next year and surpassing Lu Qingzhu would be as easy as turning over his hand.

Outside the door, people began getting up with rustling sounds.

Shen Fan carried the bowl around, looking for a place to hide it.

But immediately afterward, he suddenly realized that this broken bowl had always been left here, and no one had ever noticed it.

So he would let it remain here.

The most dangerous place was the safest place.