I Don't Want That Kind of Thing!

Li Muyang walked shoulder to shoulder with Guan Xiaoshun along the yellow dirt road of the Demon Refining Sect's outer sect. After chatting briefly, they parted at a fork in the road, and Guan Xiaoshun left with the enormous, person-tall water bucket strapped to his back.

Guan Xiaoshun was a spirit plant farmer, the most unusual profession in the outer sect.

A spirit plant farmer's main task was tending the few spirit fields they had contracted. Every day, they had to summon clouds and rain, ensuring the fields contained ample spiritual energy. Once harvest came, after handing over the required amount of spirit rice, all remaining spirit rice belonged to the spirit plant farmer.

This was the most lucrative job in the outer sect, but it also had the highest barrier to entry. After all, to become a spirit plant farmer, one had to understand the Cloud and Rain Art.

Yet these menial disciples of the outer sect all possessed mediocre talent. For them, even cultivating the lowest-grade cultivation technique was an arduous struggle, let alone comprehending a spell.

To most outer sect disciples, the Cloud and Rain Art was as difficult as advanced mathematics. Not everyone could learn it.

Li Muyang also envied Guan Xiaoshun's work as a spirit plant farmer. Though he had the opportunity to cultivate the Cloud and Rain Art, he had only just entered the outer sect and his cultivation was still weak. For now, he could only herd sheep and had no access to the Cloud and Rain Art technique.

After finding the steward and collecting his identity token, bell artifact, and mask, Li Muyang drove the strange Two-Legged Sheep toward Blood Mist Valley.

"Return, wandering souls~ Return, wandering souls~~"

The eerie, sinister soul-summoning chant accompanied the crisp ringing of Li Muyang's bell as the Two-Legged Sheep filed into Blood Mist Valley one by one.

A purple plant grew within Blood Mist Valley, serving as the Two-Legged Sheep's primary food. Li Muyang only needed to drive them into the valley, then stand guard beside it.

It was an exceedingly leisurely job. Its only flaw was the nauseating stench that permeated the air. Even the crow mask issued by the sect could block only half the odor.

Ordinarily, Li Muyang would have found it unbearable.

But today, he was simply too sleepy.

Having stayed awake all night, Li Muyang drove the flock into the valley, shut his eyes, and collapsed asleep at the entrance.

He slept in a daze for who knew how long. When he woke again, the blazing sun outside the valley had already climbed to the very center of the sky.

Within the blood-mist-shrouded valley, the strange goats with long pitch-black fur wandered about in search of food. Everything was so quiet.

Li Muyang looked at the goats, then at the noonday sun outside, and sighed.

"Another half day has passed..."

After growing used to a rhythm of life where he studied, worked, and had something to do every day, Li Muyang found himself somewhat unaccustomed to this idle existence of herding sheep in another world.

It felt like wasting away in the outer sect doing odd jobs was nothing but a waste of life.

The demonic cultivation techniques taught by the outer sect were the most inferior beginner-level demonic arts, the sort whose upper limit could be seen at a glance.

Even if he diligently labored away in the outer sect for decades, at most he would become a steward and skim a little more profit.

He definitely did not want such a loser's life!

Li Muyang did not want to spend his whole life as cannon fodder in the Demon Refining Sect, a demonic sect. Nor did he want to herd sheep forever.

This world was so vast and fascinating. Since he had transmigrated here, even if he could not become an immortal patriarch, he should at least live freely for a lifetime and travel everywhere. How could he remain trapped in this tiny demonic sect?

Li Muyang suddenly rolled over and sat up, drawing a deep breath before closing his eyes.

Game with Fairies, activate!

This game system was now his only chance to change his fate.

Li Muyang had to seize it in a death grip!

At dusk, crisp bell chimes rang outside Blood Mist Valley.

Wearing his crow mask, Li Muyang held up the bell and shook it continuously, his mouth issuing an eerie soul-summoning chant as he drove the black Two-Legged Sheep toward the houses at the foot of the mountain.

Across the flat plain below the mountain, thatched cottages and wooden houses stood in neat rows, making the place resemble a town.

Li Muyang skillfully herded the flock into the pen, found the steward to count the goats, handed over his identity token and artifact, then returned to his thatched cottage reeking of blood and rot.

After playing the game in the valley all afternoon, he was so hungry his chest was practically sticking to his back.

Ever since he started playing the game, he felt as though he got hungry much faster.

Li Muyang swiftly cooked a pot of rice. Too lazy even to ladle it into a bowl, he carried the pot straight to the threshold and began eating.

After rapidly devouring the entire pot of spirit rice, Li Muyang wiped his mouth and got to his feet, first scrubbing the pot spotless.

Finally, he glanced at the nearly empty rice jar and sighed.

"I never thought I'd one day become a real rice bucket."

Their rations were issued only once per month! Most people could not even finish theirs, and could send the leftover spirit rice home or sell it for money.

Yet Li Muyang had finished his in half a month.

His ever-growing appetite and his dwindling food stores forced Li Muyang to clear the beginner tutorial as soon as possible.

The A-rank reward alone included five bottles of Jade Marrow Spirit Liquid. Li Muyang did not even dare imagine what he might receive for clearing it with a perfect score!

He lay on the hard plank bed and closed his eyes.

Load save!

The darkness around him receded like a tide. Li Muyang abruptly sat up in the moving carriage and said,

"Fairy, lend me your immortal sword."

Li Muyang could kill most Blood Demon Beasts with the saber at his waist.

Only that colossal creature that appeared first required Glaze Fairy's immortal sword to break through its defenses.

Li Muyang took Glaze Fairy's immortal sword with practiced ease, then climbed onto the carriage roof. He did not even need Time Stop. The instant that enormous monster's head emerged from thin air, the immortal sword in Li Muyang's hand swept down across its crown, cleaving it in two.

The Guide behind him cried out in shock, while Li Muyang immediately turned and entered the carriage, cutting down each of the Blood Demon Beasts that emerged one after another around the carriage.

The entire process flowed as smoothly as moving clouds and running water. Each stroke of his sword killed a monster just as it appeared, making it seem as though the creatures were throwing themselves onto his blade.

The sight was incomparably strange. Both Glaze Fairy and the Guide stared wide-eyed in astonishment.

This time, perhaps because he had just eaten his fill, Li Muyang was in excellent condition. At last, he kept the Guide alive until 08:19 before dying.

This was the first time in so long that the Guide's survival time had exceeded eight minutes!

Li Muyang was instantly fired up.

Though the Guide still died in the monster's gaping, blood-filled maw the very next second, Li Muyang, having seen hope, was not discouraged in the slightest.

He threw back his head and laughed, spreading his arms as he let the swarming monsters engulf him.

Load save again!

And so, amid death after death and failure after failure, Li Muyang relied on rote memorization until he had nearly memorized every location and number of the Blood Demon Beasts' appearances.

Standing atop the swaying carriage roof, he directed Glaze Fairy's sword strikes with foreknowledge every single time.

The flying sword Glaze Fairy had bound to her life and cultivated alongside was far more powerful in her hands than in Li Muyang's.

When Li Muyang directed her to strike, the efficiency with which they killed Blood Demon Beasts was much higher.

With one person directing and the other wielding the sword to slaughter demons, Li Muyang finally stemmed the endless tide of beasts.

The Guide's survival time also continued extending from 8 minutes and 19 seconds.

Until dawn brightened outside the Demon Refining Sect and the rooster crowed once more, Li Muyang finally saw the survival countdown in the upper-right corner of his vision reach zero.

The Guide and Glaze Fairy beside him were both completely unharmed. Neither had died, nor had either been injured.

On the street ahead, the Commander's Mansion and fully armed soldiers appeared in his field of vision. After keeping his nerves taut all night, Li Muyang could finally let out a long breath.

He clenched his fist tightly, his gaze brimming with exhilaration.

Perfect clear!