The Last Lone Seed of the Agricultural Path

The Jiang Family Courtyard was cold in the dark of night.

Just like that.

Jiang Tu sat there in desolation until the latter half of the night. The candle had long burned out, yet he remained still, staring at the numbers that kept flickering in the depths of his consciousness. His heart twitched with pain, once after another... until they finally stopped.

Total cultivators in this sequence: 3

Influence level of this sequence: lv0.1

Jiang Tu: "..."

Wasn't this drop a little too brutal?

More than a hundred people had dwindled to three overnight. That was practically the same as having the entire sect wiped out!

Even more absurdly, two of those three were at Lingjiang Temple, with one foot already in the coffin! In other words, across the whole Immortal-Phantom World, the Agricultural Dao Sequence had been reduced to a single lone seedling.

Jiang Tu nearly laughed from anger.

Dajiang County... what exactly had happened?

The information was far too lacking for him to think any further. He could only console himself... at least they had not gone completely extinct!

That last lone seedling—judging by the bestowed traits of "Endless Renewal" and "Kindling Flame"—would surely rise against the tide and rebound soon enough...

Wildfires could not burn it all away; when the spring breeze blew, it would grow anew.

Just then, the Sequence Panel flickered again!

Jiang Tu abruptly sat upright. His heart skipped half a beat; he had almost thought that the last lone seedling had snapped as well. But when he looked closely, the situation was entirely different from what he had imagined.

Total cultivators in this sequence: 4

Event triggered

(New) Ninth Grade "Farmer" (Unnamed) survived a desperate situation through misfortune turned to fortune and awakened Awakened Wisdom (Karma +20)

Jiang Tu: ?

What?

He could understand awakening Awakened Wisdom through misfortune turned to fortune. It was nothing more than encountering some grave crisis and suddenly awakening at the brink of life and death.

Many novels wrote it that way. It was nothing unusual.

But what the hell did "Unnamed" mean? An orphan? An abandoned infant? Or something else?

In an instant, all kinds of possibilities flashed through his mind... but no matter what, with the number of cultivators no longer plunging amid such dire circumstances and instead beginning to rise again, the upheaval of this night had finally come to an end!

This had to be Endless Renewal at work! It had to be!!

It had hit rock bottom and begun to rebound.

He let out a breath and fell backward, lying sprawled on the bed as he stared at the ceiling beams. He had not slept all night, his mind stretched taut to the limit. The moment he relaxed, drowsiness surged over him.

Outside the window, the horizon began to pale like a fish's belly. A few rooster crows sounded in the distance as several servants rustled awake, beginning to light fires, boil water, and sweep the courtyard.

He closed his eyes, intending to rest for a while.

A dense burst of knocking suddenly came from outside the courtyard—

Bang bang bang bang!

It was hurried and tense, nothing like an ordinary visitor.

A servant hurried over to open the door and investigate. Before long, someone came running in to report, "Master! Big Household Zhou has arrived! He brought several children and a pregnant woman... None of them look well. It seems they have suffered some great calamity!"

Jiang Tu flipped over and sat up.

Big Household Zhou?

For years, Jiang Tu's friendship with Big Household Zhou had never been severed. Their relationship had remained exceptionally good.

They had once been landlord and tenant farmer; now, they were more like close friends despite their difference in age.

Whenever there was a holiday, so long as Big Household Zhou returned to Xiaopei County, he would certainly visit Jiang Tu. The two would feast and drink together, chatting about family matters and the many strange new sights of Dajiang County.

He was also an important source through which Jiang Tu learned about Dajiang County.

Almost every time, Big Household Zhou would earnestly urge Jiang Tu to go to Dajiang County with him to make a fortune. Yet every time, Jiang Tu would politely decline. It had practically become a fixed performance between them, like refusing and yielding three times over.

So when he heard that Big Household Zhou had arrived in the dead of night, he immediately threw on an outer robe and hurried outside, his thoughts racing.

Something so enormous had happened in Dajiang County. Jiang Tu had assumed that Big Household Zhou would most likely not escape it, and he had already silently mourned for his old friend... After all, a man in his fifties, half an old man with inconvenient legs, had terribly low odds of surviving a disaster. Yet somehow, he had come running back alive!

And he had brought a pregnant woman? Had his kidneys finally proven themselves useful for once?

Jiang Tu immediately ordered, "Quick, bring them in! Boil hot water, prepare food, and clear out a room!"

Before long, the inside and outside of the courtyard were bustling in chaos.

Several servants helped soothe the children and brought over hot porridge and water. The four children were no older than seven or eight, while the youngest was only four or five. Though they trembled in fright, their souls not yet returned to their bodies, the moment they saw food, they began wolfing it down. They did not even bother with chopsticks or spoons, lowering their heads and shoveling food into their mouths without fearing the heat.

One child fell asleep directly on the dining table after a few bites, rice still stuck to the corner of his mouth. He had clearly been exhausted to the limit.

Big Household Zhou was settling the pregnant woman with Wang Congyun. They gently laid her on the bed, propped up a pillow, and fed her some warm water. In her haze, the pregnant woman's furrowed brow gradually eased, and she fell into a deep sleep.

Jiang Tu bustled about helping arrange everything, but his gaze kept drifting, seemingly by chance, toward the pregnant woman.

Very soon, he confirmed his guess.

"Farmer"!

The pregnant woman was a Ninth Grade "Farmer"!

This was the first time he had personally encountered a genuine Agricultural Path Cultivator in the real world. All his previous information had come from the Golden Tome's written records and changes in Karma. This was the first living person he had seen lying before him!

Then his gaze could not help falling upon her prominently swollen belly, and realization dawned on him.

So that was it!

This pregnant woman was that lone seedling... The child in her womb was the newly added, unnamed Number Four "Farmer"! This child had been saved by Wang Congyun and Big Household Zhou. While fleeing, misfortune had turned to fortune, and the child had actually awakened Awakened Wisdom while still in the womb.

Whether in the evolution or in reality, this was the first cultivator to exist within a womb!

All previous Agricultural Path Cultivators had been born through acquired inheritance. Only with someone to teach and guide them, someone to impart the Dao and pass on knowledge, could they awaken.

But this child was clearly still in its mother's womb, already Ninth Grade before ever seeing heaven, earth, sun, or moon.

This... what did it mean?

Thoughts spun wildly through Jiang Tu's mind.

It was possible that the Agricultural Dao Sequence had always possessed bloodline inheritance, that the descendants of Agricultural Path Cultivators who had awakened Awakened Wisdom were more likely to awaken it themselves, perhaps even while still in the womb. It was also possible that this was a new trait brought by the Kindling Flame bestowal—its effects on familial inheritance had doubled.

For the moment, he could not say which was the truth... but regardless of the possibility, this was absolutely an unexpected delight!

At the darkest hour, when the Agricultural Path stood on the brink of extinction, the birth of a Ninth Grade cultivator in the womb was like a flame of hope, answering the promise of Endless Renewal.

At this point, Big Household Zhou finally caught his breath and walked over somewhat awkwardly.

"Brother Tu, I've truly troubled you this time."

Jiang Tu waved his hand. "What are you saying, Master Zhou? How many years have we known each other? Rest for now. We can talk slowly about anything."

Big Household Zhou sighed and explained the essentials.

He had been carried out all the way by the young Daoist Priest Wang, and along the road, they had also happened to save a pregnant woman and four children.

"If it hadn't been for the young Daoist Priest Wang, this old life of mine would have been left there!" Big Household Zhou pointed at Wang Congyun. "Everyone was exhausted from fleeing all the way. If we continued on toward the Zhou Household's old residence in the county, it would take at least another half hour..."

"We happened to pass by the Jiang Family Courtyard, so I brought everyone here to trouble you. Brother Tu, don't blame me."

Jiang Tu comforted him and casually asked about Dajiang County. Through the questions and answers, he came to understand the specific situation.

A Strange Calamity!

Dajiang County truly had suffered a Strange Calamity!! And it had come so suddenly!

Even Manager Qian... and all those people around Big Household Zhou whom he had known in the past, one after another, all of them... This... it definitely could not be separated from Lingjiang Temple's Daoist Sect...!

And this young Daoist Priest Wang before him just happened to be a disciple of the Daoist Sect! How could there be such a coincidence?

What role had this Daoist priest played in this Strange Calamity?

He pretended to be shocked by the news. Only after a long while did he look toward Wang Congyun, who had remained silent.

"This young Daoist Priest Wang looks rather familiar..."

He looked at the dark, skinny young man. From the first glance, he had felt that the man looked familiar, but he could not place him for the moment.

Before Big Household Zhou could introduce him, Wang Congyun forced a smile and spoke first.

"Brother Jiang, this humble Daoist is Wang Congyun. I was also from Xiaopei County in the past. When we were children, you and I were playmates. Who would have thought that ten years would pass in such haste? Amid the seas turning to mulberry fields, I became a disciple of the Daoist Sect, while Brother Jiang opened an estate and built himself quite an impressive livelihood..."

The moment the other man said that, the vague outline in Jiang Tu's mind suddenly became clear.

Old Wang from the west end of the village—Wang Goudan, that silly boy who had run wild around the village all day as a child!

Jiang Tu had eaten from every household as a child and had been very familiar with Goudan. More than ten years had passed and his appearance had changed greatly, but Jiang Tu still remembered that honest, simple air about him.

"Goudan...?" Jiang Tu asked uncertainly.

The smile on Wang Congyun's face stiffened even further. "..."

He turned to look at Big Household Zhou with a resentful gaze. Big Household Zhou pretended not to see it and lowered his head to drink his tea.

Damn it! Sure enough, one should never return to one's hometown for no reason!

Would the dark history of that name really follow him for the rest of his life?! But... if wealth and honor were not brought home, what difference was there from walking at night in brocade robes?!