A Mere Herb Garden, Nothing More Than Chickens and Dogs!

Night.

The freshly turned soil in the medicinal fields glimmered faintly beneath the moonlight.

Su Ling'er stood among the fields. The night breeze stirred her red robes, still carrying the fresh scent of earth.

She had returned to the land she had just left.

Sure enough, the place had once again returned to the way it had looked when she first arrived.

But she didn't care. A flame now burned in eyes that had once held nothing but numbness.

This was perfect. It meant she could keep completing the task of turning over three mu of medicinal fields in the Hundred Herbs Garden!

She carried the Blood Condensing Grass in her arms, and it gave her boundless motivation, driving her onward.

Now, she only needed to turn the fields over three or five more times, and another Spiritual Grass would be hers.

What was a little hardship?

What was a little fatigue?!

As long as she could get...

Forget three mu—even if it were thirty or three hundred, she'd do it without hesitation!

Of course, if three mu was enough, there was no need to do any more.

At Qing Xu Temple, she hadn't even had the chance to earn Spiritual Grass by working.

But here, she'd gotten that chance!

How could she give it up so easily?!

Spiritual Power surged from her without restraint, while white moonlight spilled across her palms.

After sweeping and watering the fields hundreds of times, she'd learned to control the flow of her Spiritual Power, and her command over it had grown increasingly precise.

Now, she could even shape her Spiritual Power, wielding several hoes and plows at the edge of the fields all at once.

"Ha!"

With a sharp cry, more than a dozen hoes spun around her before lining up and falling, turning over swathes of black soil.

The plows charged forward without pause, cutting a straight furrow before her!

With her Spiritual Power unleashed without restraint, she worked several times faster than before!

With the full force of a Qi Refining Great Perfection cultivator's Spiritual Power at her disposal, Su Ling'er was back at the Transmission Hall in no time.

The hall was still brightly lit, full of moving figures and just as noisy as ever.

She went straight to the stone counter and set down the mission jade slip.

The mission elder expressionlessly pushed another new pouch toward her.

She snatched it up, accepted the task of turning over three mu of medicinal fields in the Hundred Herbs Garden again, and turned to leave.

On the way, she took the opportunity to check the reward inside—it was Red Blood Ginseng!

It seemed the low-grade Spiritual Grass awarded by the sect after each completed task was random.

A short while later, she returned again.

In the meantime, she had used her cultivation technique to recover a little Spiritual Power.

She handed in the task, collected the reward, and left. Not a word wasted.

This time, it was Cooling Grass.

By now, she was like a tireless monster, taking only the shortest route between the medicinal fields and the Transmission Hall.

When her Spiritual Power ran dry, she'd sit cross-legged and circulate the Myriad Transformations Return to Origin True Manual. The moment she opened her eyes, she'd get up and head back to the familiar fields.

The support squad's cheers had faded into background noise.

"Little Junior Sister, emerge from your cocoon and spread your wings!"

Already did!

"Water your path to immortality with sweat!"

Already did that too!

She even grew irritated that she wasn't working fast enough.

It's just a few medicinal fields! I could tend them eighty or a hundred times without even getting out of breath!

The fields are nothing but puny chickens and clay dogs. I, Su Ling'er, can crush them with a flip of my palm!

Su Ling'er worked even harder!

Some time later.

Ah.

I can't do this anymore.

I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die...

I really can't do another thing.

If I keep going, I might just drop dead on the spot.

When the horizon began to pale, Su Ling'er tossed aside the tools she'd been wielding.

Her Spiritual Power had run dry, and the intense labor had left her mind more and more exhausted.

No matter how tempting the reward was, all she could feel now was a series of sharp pangs throughout her body—the warning signs of pushing herself too far.

Her vision darkened. She swayed, grabbing the fence by the field to keep herself on her feet.

Several heavy pouches rested against her chest. They were the only reason she'd kept going.

She dragged her weary steps back to the Transmission Hall.

I need to rest.

She'd worked all night.

If not for the Spiritual Plant rewards from tending the fields, she'd have gone back to her ramshackle thatched hut long ago to sleep.

She handed in her final task of the day and accepted no more.

She really needed to rest. Her body and mind had both reached their limits.

Senior Disciple Brother had also seen that she'd racked up more than seven hundred Contribution Points today. She hadn't slacked off much, and she looked utterly exhausted, so he didn't urge her to keep going.

And so Su Ling'er dragged her weary body back to her thatched hut without a hitch.

But as she passed a small marketplace between the sect's disciples, she stopped in her tracks.

A disciple yawned as he laid out a neatly folded quilt.

Its material was unclear, but beneath the faint light of dawn, it gave off a soft glow.

Cloud patterns and cranes had been embroidered across it in gold and silver thread, the stitches so fine that they looked lifelike.

A little wooden sign beside the stall read:

[Cloud Silk Crane Quilt, soothes the mind and calms the spirit, warm in winter and cool in summer.]

[Grand opening sale! Only fifty low-grade spirit stones!]

A flicker of longing rose in Su Ling'er's heart.

After all, she slept on a pile of moldy straw in her thatched hut.

But as soon as the thought came, she forced it down.

She felt the pouch against her chest. She'd be leaving in a few days, so what was the point of improving her sleeping conditions?

Besides, it wouldn't help her cultivation. It would just be exceptionally comfortable to sleep on.

These were the resources she needed to set foot on the true path to immortality after leaving this place!

She absolutely couldn't waste a single bit of them here!

Still, she bought a large-capacity storage bag.

She'd surely earn quite a few things over the next three to five days, and a large storage bag was essential.

At last, she returned to her dilapidated thatched hut.

Su Ling'er shut the door, and exhaustion surged over her like a tide once more.

She finally crawled onto the pile of moldy straw.

The disjointed images began flashing through her mind again.

How was the Transmission Hall still so lively in the middle of the night? Didn't any of them sleep?

Didn't they cultivate?

They were constantly doing tasks, just as listless as she had once been.

While accepting tasks, she'd seen several familiar faces more than once. They'd accepted tasks with vacant eyes, left, returned, completed them, and repeated the same routine over and over.

Just like she had when she'd taken on those five hundred tasks meant to condition the disciples.

In fact, they seemed even more numb than she had been.

And who was secretly wiping out all the disciples' hard-earned results, forcing them to labor over and over again?

Was it simply to condition them again and again?

Or was there some deeper conspiracy at work?

And who was the Demonic Sect mastermind behind Elder Qian's brutal murder, the culprit who'd been put on display?

Who was the demonic giant pulling the strings behind it all?

Why couldn't she remember what the dead disciples had looked like?

Who was controlling all of this?

She couldn't figure it out.

She knew there were no rules here, much less any logic—only a bunch of lunatics beyond comprehension.

Sometimes, they were driven by some kind of fanatical will, immersed in a joy no one could understand;

Other times, they were as numb as she'd been while doing those five hundred tasks, or even worse.

They only knew how to go around in circles, repeating those endless tasks as if they would never end.

Was everyone in this sect a little bit crazy?

Forget it. Maybe Evil Cultivators were just like this by nature.

What a bunch of energetic, unreasonable Evil Cultivators and demons.

Still, after two more days of grinding, she should try sending back some of the information she'd gathered.

Even if the communication jade slip didn't work, the Spirit Contract Insect should do the trick.

Her thoughts sank deeper and deeper, and at last, the fatigue in her body overcame the turmoil in her mind.

Her head lolled to one side, and she fell completely unconscious.

The Worry Flower beside the thatched hut also withered slightly, as hope and determination had once again flared in her heart.

Meanwhile, the game announcement for Jintian read:

[Golden Autumn Harvest Festival event countdown: 2 days]