Azurehold Herb Garden's Little Farmer

The blazing sun hung high in a cloudless sky, blue as glazed crystal.

The ground had been baked dry and scorched.

Lu He slumped against a wooden stake, staring fixedly at several plump cicadas the size of fingers above his head, drooling with hunger.

By his count, he had not tasted meat for over half a month.

He touched the half piece of coarse flatbread tucked against his chest and could not help sighing inwardly.

In his previous life, he had always called himself a corporate workhorse. Looking back, although he had been tired and saved no money, his life had at least been decent. Every meal had some oil and meat in it.

Nothing like now—

As if recalling something, Lu He could not help "looking" at the ancient golden book in the corner of his vision, the very book that had brought him across worlds. He nearly went mad. "It's been over three months, big brother. Can't you give me some kind of response? If nothing else, send me back to Earth..."

Crack! Crack!

A tall, bamboo-pole-thin figure suddenly entered his view and strode toward several tenant farmers slacking off nearby, the whip in his hand cracking loudly. "You lazy lot! If I catch you again, this month's wages will be cut in half!"

Lu He withdrew his gaze, his expression blank, as though he had long since grown used to it.

After tidying up a little, he shouldered his hoe and headed straight for the fields.

It was not that he had been slacking off. He had simply learned his lesson.

These stewards could never stand seeing the tenant farmers in the garden idle. Even taking a normal break or eating a meal would earn them a scolding. For the unlucky ones, a lash was nothing unusual.

No one dared complain!

After all, these people could use spells, and their methods were unfathomable.

Yes, the very sort of spells wielded by immortals in the myths and legends of his previous life—breathing fire, commanding wind, gathering clouds, and bringing rain. They were terrifying.

Three months ago, Lu He had once glimpsed a steward from afar, summoning a small cloud with a spell and bringing down rain and dew.

His jaw had nearly hit the ground.

Still, there was one thing that could barely count as a consolation—the stewards might possess all manner of dreadful spells and view mortals as ants, but they could not simply kill and oppress people as they pleased.

At least, those were the rules on the surface.

The herb garden had ten grievance drums. If a tenant farmer suffered excessive oppression, he could file a complaint, and an immortal master would come to deal with it.

However—

In the past several centuries, no one had ever heard the grievance drums sound. The weeds around them grew thick and lush, taller than a person.

The fields were lush and green, planted with vast stretches of Blackleaf Spirit Wheat.

This was a spirit grain meant exclusively for immortal masters' cultivation and consumption. It grew over nine feet tall, its branches and leaves gleaming like black jade. Its plump ears gave off a faint fragrance that made one's mouth water.

By the time Lu He arrived, more than a dozen figures were already there, heads lowered as they worked.

"Damn it, why are the weeds in Steward Liu's spirit field as tough as iron tendons? We'll probably be working until the middle of the night. No wonder those old tenant farmers don't want to come here."

Someone stood up with a pained expression and vigorously rubbed his stiff, aching waist.

He happened to spot Lu He hurrying over.

"Eh, Brother Lu, you finished eating so quickly?"

"I ran into a steward." Lu He looked thoroughly unlucky.

"Tsk, tsk, that really is bad luck. Whenever these esteemed stewards see us tenant farmers not working, they get uncomfortable all over, as if we owe them money."

The mention of the stewards immediately piqued everyone's interest, and they began chatting all at once.

Their words were full of envy.

"Isn't that the truth?"

"Damn it, those stewards really have it easy. They don't need to work the fields. They just come by every few days to cast some immortal spell that brings rain and scatters dew."

"Not only that, I heard they can earn over a hundred taels of silver a month."

"Spells... Tomorrow is my rest day. I'm planning to try my luck at the Enlightenment Pavilion. Anyone want to come with me? We can keep each other company," someone suddenly said.

The air immediately fell silent.

"The Leaf Talisman Token for the Enlightenment Pavilion isn't cheap. It costs a full ten taels of silver each. Where did you get that kind of money?" a doubtful voice drifted from the crowd.

Not far away.

Upon hearing the words "Enlightenment Pavilion,"

Lu He's movements unconsciously slowed.

The Enlightenment Pavilion was a special place within Azurehold Herb Garden. Stone steles stood inside, bearing the legendary immortal arts of longevity.

It was said to be the work of the first chief immortal master.

By all accounts, more than ninety percent of the garden's stewards had comprehended the stone steles and received immortal arts from them, leaping directly from ordinary tenant farmers over the Dragon Gate to become lofty immortal masters.

Of course, immortals and mortals were fundamentally different. Such a threshold was not easy to cross.

Someone who loved collecting gossip had once calculated that only one steward emerged from roughly every five hundred tenant farmers. They were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns.

"Leaf Talisman Tokens, the path of immortality... Alas, my pockets are empty!"

Lu He touched his flat purse and sighed with a bitter smile. Then he grabbed his hoe and went back to work.

Weeding, loosening the soil.

Day after day, month after month!

The work of a tenant farmer looked simple, but it was not easy in the slightest. It required experience and even more strength.

Ever since crossing into this world, Lu He had risen before dawn each day to work until dark. Apart from meals, he barely rested at all.

Last month, he had received six hundred copper coins in wages. After deducting necessary expenses such as food, he had only a little over one hundred and fifty coins left.

Before an immortal opportunity worth ten taels of silver, that sum was but a drop in the ocean.

Moonlight filtered through the small window and fell across the ground like a thick layer of white frost.

It was deep in the night.

Eight people were crammed onto the communal kang bed, all tenant farmers exhausted from a day's work. Snores and grinding teeth rose and fell, echoing endlessly through the cramped hut and shaking dust from the thatched roof.

Lu He lay in the farthest corner of the bed, covering his mouth and nose with his clothes, leaving only two bloodshot eyes exposed.

If the exhaustion of daytime labor was merely physical torment, then returning to the hut to sleep at night was undoubtedly a double torture of body and mind for Lu He.

Perhaps because they were too exhausted.

Other than Lu He, the people in the hut bathed only once every four or five days on average, and sometimes did not even wash their feet.

The cramped space was perpetually filled with a terrible sour, rotten stench mixed with foot odor and sweat, so intense it nearly suffocated him.

Move out. I have to find a chance to move out of this hut!

Lu He gritted his teeth.

He strongly suspected that the reason his consciousness had been muddled on and off ever since he arrived in this world was this very smell.

He had probably been poisoned.

As he thought, a familiar sensation washed over him. This time, it was especially intense, and even his vision gradually blurred.

In the instant before he lost consciousness,

You bunch of animals! Despair filled Lu He's eyes.

He did not know how much time had passed.

Outside the window, it was pitch-black.

On the bed, Lu He slowly woke up. He felt a large amount of unfamiliar memories quietly appear in his mind, while his body and spirit seemed to gain a faint sense of completeness.

It was as though he had cast off a burden weighing a thousand pounds.

After carefully experiencing it,

"Elder sister, the schoolhouse, early education, Comprehensive Meaning of Talismanic Script... These should all be the original owner's memories. So the reason I often felt muddled was actually because I was merging with the remnants of the original owner's consciousness."

A flash of realization passed through Lu He's eyes.

He stretched out his hand and carefully examined the calluses on it.

"Perhaps only now can I be considered the true Lu He?"

At the same time.

The golden book that had remained utterly still in the corner of his vision suddenly began to open bit by bit, revealing a blank page made of something neither gold nor copper.

Divine radiance flowed across the page, rapidly sketching line after line of talismanic script. They were the various texts the original owner had studied at the schoolhouse, within the memories Lu He had just received.

[Comprehensive Meaning of Talismanic Script · Mastery (71.02%)]

[Brief Account of Investigating Things · Proficient (83.37%)]

[White Ape Heart-Nurturing Treatise: Bodhi Chapter · Proficient (90.94%)]

[...]

[...]

"Your primordial spirit is pure and unified. It may reflect the Dao and Dharma and evolve a talent Dao diagram. Evolve?" An intangible message appeared within his mind.

A talent Dao diagram?!

Thump! Thump!

Lu He's entire body shook, and his heart began pounding uncontrollably.

"Evolve! Evolve it immediately!"