Serf Diary

[Landon Duchy Calendar: September 1, Year 222, clear.]

My first day as a serf!

Working was impossible. I would never work in this life. Seeking extraordinary power was the real business.

For failing to finish the day's assigned workload and slacking off, I got whipped. Shocking—serfs actually had a contracted responsibility-land system?

My flesh was split open. It hurt!

[Landon Duchy Calendar: September 3, Year 222, overcast.]

My third day as a serf!

Working was not entirely impossible, but without even a copper coin in wages, where was the motivation?

This time, having learned from last time's lesson, I decided to slack off by pretending to be sick. My performance was flawless; there was absolutely no way it could be seen through.

Jeroen Hoven used two miraculous lashes to cure my illness with his wondrous healing hands.

And he said, "You should be glad you were only pretending to be sick. Otherwise, you could have been buried directly!" It hurt!

[Landon Duchy Calendar: September 6, Year 222, light rain.]

My sixth day as a serf!

Working for free was not completely unacceptable.

It was just that the black bread was truly terrible. I strongly condemned this heartless factory—they had to improve the meals.

Little Jack, my roommate, exceeded his assigned workload and was rewarded with a small piece of white bread.

He actually started competing for a piece of white bread!

What a pathetic fool!

I had not been whipped, and my wounds had healed quite a bit. It only hurt a little.

[Landon Duchy Calendar: September 11, Year 222, overcast.]

My eleventh day as a serf!

Count Golden Lion came to inspect Tulip Manor. He was a middle-aged man with blond hair.

All the serfs saluted as Jeroen Hoven had taught them.

Norman, my roommate, happened to spit after turning around.

Then Hoven brutally beat him to death, and gave everyone else a lash for good measure.

After night fell, Jack, Randy, and I mourned Norman together. It really hurt!

[Landon Duchy Calendar: September 21, Year 222, clear.]

My twenty-first day as a serf!

As usual, Hoven gave his daily indispensable speech.

The Landon Frontier had clashed with a neighboring country. It was expected that many freefolk would be displaced. Without a lord's protection, they would not even have black bread to eat.

"You should be grateful and learn contentment. It is only a dozen or so hours of work every day. It is not as though you cannot sleep."

[Landon Duchy Calendar: October 2, Year 222, light snow.]

My thirty-second day as a serf!

I exceeded my soil-turning quota and was named the day's best serf, receiving an entire loaf of white bread.

"..."

Night fell!

Yin Ming divided the white bread into three portions and handed one each to Jack and Randy.

They lived under the same roof.

Perhaps they could not be much help, but they might report him to Jeroen Hoven, getting him whipped—or even beaten to death.

"Today is Professor Romandy's Arcane Language lesson. After today, I'll have completely mastered this language."

Yin Ming pulled up his blanket and pretended to sleep. Then his soul left his body. A small gourd floated from between his brows, crossed the manor, and flew toward Golden Lion Castle. Familiar with the route, it reached the study on the castle's second floor.

The room was furnished exquisitely and lavishly, with shelves filled with books. Beneath a bright crystal lamp, an old man and a child were writing with quill pens.

"I really don't understand why I have to learn such crooked, twisted writing. I should be studying the Knight's Breathing Technique and becoming a mighty Grand Knight who charges across the battlefield."

The child was named Adams Hank, Count Golden Lion's most favored youngest son. Famous professors had been invited to teach him history, natural science, heraldry, and other subjects.

Count Golden Lion turned a blind eye to his other subjects. Only for this Arcane Language course did he insist that little Adams master it.

"Wind, lightning, fire, wood... His progress is still so slow!"

Yin Ming recognized at a glance the coded text little Adams was writing.

Thanks to the Corpse-Liberation Immortal's formidable spiritual power, he had developed an eidetic memory.

After a month of study, Yin Ming's general knowledge was no weaker than that of an ordinary noble in this world. His grasp of Arcane Language was several streets ahead of little Adams's.

Fortunately, he did not need to stop and wait for little Adams to catch up.

While little Adams was writing from dictation, Professor Romandy would translate a famous work into Arcane Language: The Grand Ceremony of Landon Alice.

When Landon Alice drank the red wine, tore away her golden hair, and danced while murmuring a mad language as she pursued her lover, Yin Ming completely mastered the profound Arcane Language as well.

"Thank you, sir, for your instruction. This humble immortal should pay his respects. As for tuition, there definitely isn't any!"

The lesson ended. The book slowly closed, and little Adams impatiently fled the study.

Yin Ming cupped his hands and bowed to Professor Romandy, though at that moment he was merely a wandering soul invisible to all!

"..."

Yin Ming's Primordial Spirit drifted out of the second-floor study and passed through layer after layer of barriers.

He headed for Count Golden Lion's underground vault, where treasures were stored.

Arcane Language was actually Wizard Script, the writing used by wizards.

Count Golden Lion had insisted that little Adams learn Wizard Script because his vault contained a piece of snakeskin that recorded a wizard cultivation method.

Yin Ming had long memorized every detail of the patterns on the snakeskin.

Today was merely the last time. Since his Primordial Spirit would no longer leave his body afterward, he had decided to memorize it once more for peace of mind.

Inside the vault were chest after chest of gold coins, famous paintings passed down from the previous century, and antiques excavated from lost civilizations.

In the most secret location stood a crystal pedestal cut from a crystal as large as a millstone. A sheet of white snakeskin lay spread across it, covered in crooked, twisted writing.

"Vast Sea..."

Yin Ming silently recited it once in his heart.

His spiritual fluctuations seemed to align with some special frequency.

The snakeskin suddenly shot out a dot of white light, which swiftly merged into Yin Ming's Primordial Spirit. The powerful spiritual strength possessed by the Corpse-Liberation Immortal rapidly absorbed and deciphered the information within the light.

"Divine sense! This is an inheritance left behind by a One-Ring Wizard."

The dot of light!

It was the true meaning of this Vast Sea Cultivation Method.

Just as Zhu Bajie had left divine sense within incense-offering idols, this was divine sense left behind by a One-Ring Wizard.

It could prevent misunderstandings caused by incorrect interpretation of the text and help later inheritors understand certain technical wizarding terms.

However, to trigger the true meaning of the cultivation method, one first needed immense spiritual power—namely, the talent required to become a wizard—as well as a basic understanding of Wizard Script.

Although he could cultivate normally using the Wizard Script translated by Professor Romandy, possessing the cultivation method's true meaning would undoubtedly spare him many detours.

"..."

"I have a wizard cultivation method, but I still cannot cultivate. The Dao Fruit of an immortal suppresses me; no cultivation method can possibly succeed."

"The first thing I need to do next is forge a vessel. Using the Corpse-Liberation Gourd as the medium, I will forge my True Immortal cultivation Dao Fruit into a divine artifact."

Yin Ming had long mastered the Primordial God-Devil Forging Art. The reason he had delayed forging a vessel was so that his Primordial Spirit could leave his body, making it easier to learn this world's knowledge.

Otherwise, with his lowly status as a serf, gaining access to knowledge would have been utterly impossible.

Being able to learn Wizard Script and a wizard cultivation method in Count Golden Lion's castle had been an entirely unexpected gain, and it had also accelerated the forging process.

Now that he had obtained the wizard cultivation method, the time to forge a vessel had finally come.