Sword Dao's Path: If Youth Held This Staff, Ten Miles of Rapeseed Would Bow in Respect!

Now, not only Ji Ruo and Liang Shixian, but even Liu Neng and Zhang Quan—two obvious slackers—were stunned.

"This... is Blood Rice?" Liang Shixian said hesitantly.

By conventional standards, this stuff counted as a low-grade heavenly treasure, just at the very, very bottom of the scale.

Its main effect was to strengthen the blood, and it had no usage restrictions—any rank of martial artist could eat it.

Especially for Martial Apprentices like Ji Ruo, the effect was excellent, practically an experience potion for their level!

Normally, Blood Rice could appear in a secret realm, because its growth required absorbing the blood and qi of strong creatures; its roots would extract the essence of flesh and blood to nourish itself, producing blood-red rice with blood-strengthening effects.

Deaths happened daily in the secret realm, so stumbling across one or two stalks of Blood Rice was reasonable enough.

But the problem was, the Blood Rice in front of Ji Ruo wasn't one or two stalks—it was an entire field.

Not only that, the Blood Rice field was extremely neat and orderly, a square plot about fifty meters on each side—this was clearly someone planting Blood Rice!

How could something like this exist in the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Secret Realm?

If it were wild, that would be one thing, but this was obviously not wild!

Just as they hesitated, harsh chatter suddenly came from the other side of the Blood Rice field.

"Take cover!"

Ji Ruo and Liang Shixian reacted instantly, slamming Liu Neng and Zhang Quan to the ground with a thud.

The thick grass hid their figures; they didn't dare breathe loudly, lying prone and holding their breath.

The voices from the other side were clearly not human.

"Ugh, the chief is just #@￥@, I can't figure out why he insists we bring meat to @#@#￥, when we don't even get to eat this stuff."

"How can you talk about the chief like that? Where don't we get to eat?"

"We just drink some Blood Rice soup, that's not #@￥ eating!"

"Let's drop it, we'd better @#￥ head back. The Great Demons up on the peak seem to be #％@# lately, it's not peaceful."

Ji Ruo and the other three lay still in the grass, listening motionlessly to the two creatures talking.

They understood most of the conversation, but some parts were incomprehensible—those parts weren't human language at all.

One creature was grumbling, the other trying to persuade it, followed by the sound of something heavy hitting the ground.

The two creatures didn't seem to plan on staying; their voices faded as they walked away.

Ji Ruo cautiously raised his head, leveling his gaze with the Blood Rice, and peeked over.

"Goblins?!"

Watching the two short green backs retreating into the distance, Ji Ruo was a bit stunned.

Since when could these low-level Demonic Beasts speak human language?!

Once the two goblins were far off, Ji Ruo told the others what he'd seen.

Liang Shixian frowned deeply, while the other two looked completely lost.

Zhang Quan asked blankly, "Is it weird that goblins can talk?"

Liang Shixian explained, "Goblins are a low-level, pack-dwelling type of Demonic Beast. They do have their own racial language, but it's really just emotional howls.

Normally, their intelligence is extremely low. Human language is way too complex for them, so in theory, we shouldn't be able to understand them, and they shouldn't be able to speak our language either."

Ji Ruo added, "And this Blood Rice field seems to be planted by goblins. The teacher said that goblins, in terms of both intelligence and racial civilization, are barely at the level of early Stone Age humans.

They might figure out how to tie a sharp stone edge to a handy stick, but they'd never think of planting crops—that's way too advanced for them."

Liu Neng asked blankly, "So what do we do now?"

With the two goblins gone, Ji Ruo patted the dirt off his butt, stood up, and pulled out the small wooden stick at his waist. "What do we do? Eat! Aren't you guys hungry?"

"Huh?"

Ji Ruo swung the wooden stick, using the basic sword techniques taught at school, tracing out a series of pretty flourishes.

The boy holding the wooden stick suddenly said, "To be honest, when I was a kid, I was famous all around as the go-to harvest helper. Every autumn harvest, the villagers had to find me first before they started reaping."

Liang Shixian blinked. "Why?"

"Because—"

Ji Ruo first glanced at the prey the goblins had thrown into the field, casually picked it up, and recorded it with the wristwatch the school had issued for the Martial Exam—this watch wasn't just for calling for help; it could also record information. The prey the goblins had brought was now part of Ji Ruo's exam score.

After that, he stood in the middle of the field, glared at the Blood Rice stalks, and started practicing an inexplicable sword technique with his wooden stick, hee-hee-ha-ha-ing—which was really just wild flailing.

"If they didn't find me, they probably couldn't settle down to harvest."

With Ji Ruo's movements, stalks of Blood Rice fell in swaths, and a peculiar sense of accomplishment welled up inside him.

Liang Shixian: "???"

Isn't this just a bratty kid? What are you so proud of?!

But the joy on the boy's face only grew as he received a system notification—

[Congratulations, host kid, for unlocking a sword-path achievement: When young, wielding this stick, ten miles of rapeseed fields all bow their heads!]

[BUFF OBTAINED: Sword Dao Favor (First Glimpse of the Path)]

[Sword Dao Favor: Increases comprehension related to the sword. The boost value is set to the maximum of the current tier (i.e., at the First Glimpse of the Path tier, it raises the user's ability to comprehend all sword-related techniques to the full extent of that tier. If the user's natural comprehension already exceeds this cap, the effect reverts to normal.)

Note: This ability's tier can be upgraded by unlocking achievements.]

[Remarks: Wasting food isn't something a good kid should do~]

Ji Ruo was overjoyed. He swung his little wooden stick with increasing vigor, and before long, he had ravaged the entire field of Blood Rice.

"Come on, come on, grab as much as you can carry. Today, we're eating well!"

He felt no guilt whatsoever. Sure, wasting food was a bit shameful, but it wasn't like he wasn't going to eat it.

Besides, this field was planted by Goblins. These Demonic Beasts shared a blood feud with humanity, so anything that could disgust them was worth doing.

Of course, killing them would be even better.

The others exchanged glances. They were all starving, too. They stepped forward and scooped up the Blood Rice stalks that Ji Ruo had knocked down, each person carrying a hefty bundle.

"Wait, this way we can't take much," Ji Ruo said, rubbing his chin. He then drew the Standard Tang Dao strapped to his back, chopped off the rice ears, wrapped them in his school uniform, and left the stalks on the ground.

Ji Ruo said seriously, "Don't take the stalks. Let them rot here and enrich the soil, so we can keep planting later. We're thinking so much about those Goblins—if they knew, they'd definitely cry from gratitude."

The others: "..."

There were too many things wrong with that statement to even know where to start.

Still, they understood the situation. Taking only the rice ears was indeed far more convenient than hauling the stalks along.

So they followed suit, stripping off their school uniforms to bundle the rice ears.

The tense atmosphere of the Martial Exam seemed to vanish. Even Liang Shixian joined in, everyone happily savoring the joy of the harvest.

After all, they were still youths. A young person's happiness was simple.

And they were truly famished. Blood Rice was even hailed as a Martial Apprentice-tier experience elixir. Buying it would cost a price no ordinary family could sustain long-term. Now, it was practically free for the taking—how could they not be delighted?