"Old servant, you have worked as a menial here in my palace for over a hundred years. I know your lifespan is nearing its end."
"In recognition of your century of diligent service, do you have any regrets before you ride the crane westward? I can do my best to fulfill your wishes."
In a pavilion on an artificial lake, wreathed in an immortal aura, a purple-robed fairy sat at a stone tea table. Her figure was graceful, her beauty enough to make fish sink and geese fall, and she looked like an immortal banished to the mortal world.
She propped her chin on one delicate hand, her legs crossed, her tone decidedly languid.
Before her, a gaunt, aged man in coarse hemp clothing knelt on one knee, his temples streaked with white.
Her words sounded pleasant, but the purple-robed fairy's eyes were full of disdain as she looked at him.
"Has it already been... a hundred years? Time truly waits for no one."
The old man's voice trembled slightly. His deeply sunken, weathered eyes held both fear of death and relief at his coming release.
His name was Lin Mo.
He was one of the many transmigrators.
He had transmigrated to this cultivation world over a hundred years ago, but his naturally inferior spiritual meridians had left him with dismal cultivation aptitude.
Born into a poor family, he had been sold to the First Saint Sect as a menial servant when his parents were left with no other choice.
After arriving at the First Saint Sect, Lin Mo had also suffered bullying and suppression at the hands of the other Servant Disciples.
To survive, he could only work even harder.
Fortunately, a few years later, his outstanding work had caught the eye of Liu Ziyan, the sect leader of the First Saint Sect, who had assigned him to handle the menial work in her own residential palace.
He had worked there for a hundred years.
By rights, after a century of menial service, even if he had earned no merit, he had at least earned credit for his toil.
True enough-but this was the First Saint Sect!
One of the most notorious demonic sects on the entire Heavenly Abyss Continent.
As the saying went, when the upper beam was crooked, the lower beams would be askew.
Even the disciples below schemed and deceived one another, willing to bully, suppress, betray, and stab their fellow disciples in the back for a little more cultivation resources.
That went all the more for Liu Ziyan, the sect leader of the First Saint Sect.
For a hundred years, she had regarded Lin Mo as nothing more than a servant to enslave.
To put it more harshly, a dog.
Her sudden kindness today in asking Lin Mo about his dying wishes was merely a passing whim—or perhaps she simply saw him as a toy to amuse herself with when she was bored.
After spending a century attending this sect leader, who changed her face as quickly as turning a page, Lin Mo knew her temperament all too well.
So Lin Mo harbored no naive belief that Liu Ziyan had suddenly found kindness in her heart.
"Sect Leader, this old servant entered the First Saint Sect as a child and has long since ceased to yearn for his parents. Now that my lifespan is nearing its end, my only regret is that I am still a virgin."
With the oil in his lamp about to run dry, even Lin Mo's speech had begun to tremble. "This old servant dares ask for nothing else. I only beg you to grant me a companion to accompany me on my final journey."
Liu Ziyan was amused when she heard this.
"Heh. You really are a lowborn wretch, old servant. Death is at your door, yet you're still thinking about such things. You men truly are all alike. I do wonder, though-with that body of yours flickering like a candle in the wind, are you even capable of it anymore?" Liu Ziyan sneered contemptuously.
"..."
Lin Mo said nothing.
Under normal circumstances, a man over a hundred and ten would have long since lost his ability to perform in bed.
But this was a cultivation world, after all.
Otherwise, Lin Mo would never have made this request of Liu Ziyan.
"Very well. That lewd nature of yours does suit the style of our First Saint Sect. I shall show you great mercy and grant you a young woman."
"I'm very curious whether a body like yours, a guttering candle in the wind, is still capable of such things. Don't disappoint me."
"Hahahaha!"
Liu Ziyan laughed with mocking amusement, seemingly far more interested now.
"Thank... thank you, Sect Leader!"
Lin Mo was so excited that his body, dry as firewood, trembled faintly.
For his hundred-plus years in the First Saint Sect, Lin Mo had devoted every ounce of his energy to staying alive.
Though he no longer suffered bullying and suppression from the other Servant Disciples after coming to Liu Ziyan's residential palace, if there was even the slightest flaw in his work...
And if Liu Ziyan discovered it, her punishment was far more terrifying than anything the other Servant Disciples could inflict!
Lin Mo clearly remembered one occasion when he had merely failed to clean all the dust from a corner.
Liu Ziyan had hung him from a pole beneath the blazing sun for seven days and nights. He had nearly gone to report to the King of Hell ahead of schedule.
Throughout this life of toiling like an ox or horse, he had walked on thin ice. Several times, Lin Mo had felt he might never reach the opposite shore.
Fortunately, his fate was tough enough, and he had survived well into his hundred and tenth year.
For these reasons, Lin Mo had never even touched a girl's hand in his entire life.
He had no other dying wishes. He simply felt that going into the earth a virgin would be far too humiliating.
It was only human nature.
Even emperor-level experts with heaven-reaching powers, who could shatter space with a flick of their fingers and move mountains to fill seas, still had such desires. How much more so did Lin Mo, who had spent his entire life toiling like a beast of burden?
"Hmph. I have no need for a lowborn wretch's gratitude. Go and do what you're supposed to."
Liu Ziyan rose and commanded in a tone that brooked no argument, "Remember, if you're going to die, die outside. Don't dirty my place, or I'll make certain you die without a place to be buried."
"Yes, Sect Leader. This old servant will remember."
Only after Liu Ziyan returned to her residential palace did Lin Mo shakily rise to his feet.
A bitter, self-mocking smile touched his weathered lips as he muttered to himself, "For a transmigrator to end up like me... what a failure."
When he was young, Lin Mo had been filled with hatred for the First Saint Sect and for Liu Ziyan, who beat and berated him day after day.
He had sworn that one day, when he rose to power, he would take revenge on every one of them.
But reality was cruel.
His spiritual meridians did not even qualify as first-grade. In a place like the First Saint Sect, crawling with beasts in human skin, where even a lantern could scarcely help someone find a kind soul, he had exhausted all his energy simply staying alive.
As for revenge... that was nothing but a fool's dream.
Now that his lifespan was nearing its end, Lin Mo no longer had the energy to think about revenge.
His foremost concern was how to leave this world with dignity and without regrets.
There was no time to dwell on it. He composed himself a little.
For the sake of the young woman Liu Ziyan had promised him, Lin Mo got back to work.
When he was young and full of energy, cleaning Liu Ziyan's Purple Heaven Palace had taken him a day or two at most.
But as his age increased and his energy declined, Lin Mo needed more and more time to clean the Purple Heaven Palace.
Now, he needed at least six or seven days to give Liu Ziyan's residential palace a thorough cleaning.
Seven days passed in the blink of an eye.
After emptying the final bag of rubbish, Lin Mo had finally finished cleaning the Purple Heaven Palace once again.
He stood at the entrance to the Purple Heaven Palace, his back to the sunset's lingering glow.
Deep down, Lin Mo kept feeling that something was missing.
Perhaps his advanced age had made him slow to react.
Only after a long while did Lin Mo suddenly remember. "That's right. Where's the woman she promised me?"
Before you continue