Cultivation: From Laborer to Immortal Venerable
Author: Yanling Yellow Peach Is Delicious
Synopsis:
Zhou Xun transmigrated into the Cultivation World and became a Rogue Cultivator in Red Leaf Square.
Fortunately, he discovered that his spiritual root aptitude could continuously improve.
Inferior Spiritual Root, Medium Spiritual Root, Superior Spiritual Root, Earth Spiritual Root, Heaven Spiritual Root...
Avoid conflict and combat, manage things steadily, and take one step at a time.
Before he knew it, he had already reached the pinnacle of the Cultivation World.
(Mortal protagonist, steady development, starts in the Cultivation World, decisive in killing)
Xu Nation's cultivation world, Red Leaf Square.
It was late autumn once again. The sky was gray and dim, and the trees by the road had withered as well. Only a few dry leaves remained,
hanging from dew-covered spider silk, spinning round and round in the cold wind.
"Zhou Xun, effective immediately, you're fired!"
A domineering voice rang out.
A burly man past forty, his face full of flesh, shoved him straight out the door.
"These ninety Spirit Essence are your compensation!"
Then he tossed a pouch of Spirit Essence onto the ground.
Spirit Essence were fragments of spirit stones. They contained even less Spiritual Qi than genuine spirit stones and were a low-grade currency used by cultivators in this world. Generally speaking, one hundred Spirit Essence could be exchanged for one spirit stone.
Zhou Xun said nothing. Rubbing his aching shoulder, he silently picked up the pouch of Spirit Essence from the ground.
"N+1. Not bad!"
Weighing the cloth pouch in his hand, Zhou Xun gave a self-mocking laugh.
Looking at the magnificent building before him, with a tower every five steps and a pavilion every ten, winding corridors curling like silk ribbons and eaves locked in contest with one another.
What did it matter how grand the platform was? He was ultimately just one worker among them. What did years of contribution matter? When it was time to fire him, they still showed no mercy!
With a scoff, Zhou Xun turned around and left without a shred of reluctance.
He walked down the street.
Suddenly, a gust of cold wind swept over him and poured through the gaps in his clothes. He involuntarily shrank his neck and sighed.
"It's already been two years since I transmigrated here!"
Thinking back on his life after transmigrating, it was truly impossible to sum up in a few words.
In his previous life, he had been an office drone, living the blessed 996 life. It had been somewhat grueling, but life had still been manageable.
Yet misfortune always found those already suffering. At last, after endless overtime, one day he could no longer hold on and collapsed, transmigrating into this cultivation world.
When he had first arrived and learned of the existence of cultivators, Zhou Xun had been wild with joy.
That meant the scenes from novels—"Riding the wind through the void, stepping upon auspicious clouds to ascend the nine heavens and pluck the moon, commanding all things with divine will, one sword unleashed and heaven's gate opens!"—could become reality.
And he, too, would have a chance to glimpse the great Dao of immortality and sit watching the blue sea turn into mulberry fields.
Even more fortuitously, the youth whose body he had inherited was also named Zhou Xun. He was a cultivator, fifteen years old, with a second-layer Qi Condensation cultivation.
The first realm of cultivation was the Qi Condensation Realm.
Qi Condensation had nine layers in total.
Layers one through three were the Early Stage Qi Condensation, layers four through six were Mid-Stage Qi Condensation, and layers seven through nine were Late-Stage Qi Condensation.
Zhou Xun had made a simple tally of the cultivators in this world, and they too conformed to the eighty-twenty rule.
Eighty percent of cultivators could only remain in Early Stage Qi Condensation for their entire lives. Only twenty percent could break through into the realms beyond the middle stage.
"If Heaven had not given birth to Patriarch Zhou, the immortal Dao would have been an endless night for all eternity!"
Naturally, Zhou Xun did not believe he belonged to that eighty percent. Carrying hopes of immortality, he quickly adapted to life in the Cultivation World.
When he transmigrated, his predecessor had been working as a Spirit Contract Laborer at Mystic Talisman Pavilion, the largest talisman shop in Red Leaf Square.
A Spirit Contract Laborer could be understood as a contract worker from Zhou Xun's previous life, except the work here was far harsher. After all, this world had no concept of human rights. He had to work from dawn till dusk every day, without rest.
"996 in my previous life, 007 in this one. I'm really getting worse and worse at living!"
Zhou Xun had worked at Mystic Talisman Pavilion for three full years.
Though tedious and exhausting, it was an extremely enviable job outside the pavilion.
Rain or shine, he earned thirty Spirit Essence each month, enough to support himself in Red Leaf Square and cultivate a little.
One had to know that most Early Stage Qi Condensation cultivators here earned fewer than ten Spirit Essence a month.
That was not even enough to rent the cheapest shanty in Red Leaf Square. They could only live outside the market district, where the formations did not reach.
The cheapest shanty cost one hundred Spirit Essence a year, and Zhou Xun rented exactly that sort of place.
Calculated out, it cost more than eight Spirit Essence each month.
With nearly a third of his monthly income going to rent, Zhou Xun found the familiar feeling of struggling in a big city from his previous life.
After returning to the wooden cabin where he lived, Zhou Xun took out a blue-green wooden token.
He muttered an incantation under his breath, then struck the token with a set of Mystic Gestures. The token emitted another ray of blue light, which shot toward the door before him.
The blue light sank into the door, flickered once, and vanished.
Zhou Xun gave the door a gentle push, and it opened.
Though it was called a shanty district, all the properties here belonged to Red Leaf Square. Every wooden cabin had simple defensive restrictions set up around it.
If anyone tried to force one open, they would immediately alert the market district's Enforcement Squad. Thus, there was still a certain degree of safety.
Every cultivator in Red Leaf Square who could afford it was willing to rent such a house.
After entering the room, he found it was still early.
With nothing to do, Zhou Xun felt somewhat unaccustomed to the idleness.
Normally, he spent his days working at the shop and never had to worry about what to do.
After sitting blankly for a while, Zhou Xun began considering the road ahead.
Over the two years since transmigrating, he had saved a total of one hundred and twenty Spirit Essence. Adding the ninety he had received in compensation today, he had two hundred and ten in all, worth more than two spirit stones.
He also had a first-rank low-grade Golden Thorn Talisman, a reward he had received for working diligently at Mystic Talisman Pavilion.
"My current wealth would place me among the upper tier of Early Stage Qi Condensation cultivators!"
However, it had been nearly a year since he last paid rent.
By his calculations, the steward responsible for collecting rent in the market district would soon come knocking. After subtracting the one hundred for rent, he would have only one hundred and ten Spirit Essence left to use.
"One Spirit Essence buys three catties of spirit rice. I consume thirty catties of spirit rice each month. Even if I tighten my belt, my remaining Spirit Essence will barely last me a year!"
Zhou Xun calculated that he had to find another job.
Otherwise, he would have no choice but to drift outside the market district.
One had to know that there were no formations covering that area, nor did the Enforcement Squad patrol there.
Murder and treasure-snatching happened there often enough.
Cultivators who had been laughing and chatting with friends one day would often be found lying dead in some foul-smelling ditch the next, their bodies and Dao both gone.
Zhou Xun had no desire to meet such an end.
Once he had finished calculating, the sky had darkened.
Zhou Xun went into the kitchen and made himself a meal of Spirit Rice.
The reason cultivators did not eat mortal food was that it contained too many impurities and was unsuitable for long-term consumption.
There were plenty in Red Leaf Square who could not afford spirit rice and ate mortal food for long periods, leaving their cultivation unable to advance an inch.
Zhou Xun had set his sights on the great Dao, so naturally he would not make such a mistake.
After finishing his Spirit Rice, Zhou Xun returned to his room. He rested for half an hour, then began meditating to cultivate.
This was a cultivation trick he had discovered.
If he began cultivating half an hour after eating Spirit Rice, his efficiency would increase by roughly ten percent.
Zhou Xun guessed that after Spirit Rice entered the stomach for half an hour, its essence had been fully absorbed, leaving the body brimming with Spiritual Qi. Cultivating at that time naturally achieved twice the result with half the effort.
For the past two years, Zhou Xun had relied on this trick and cultivated diligently every day without fail.
Now, he was only one step away from the peak of the second layer of Qi Condensation.
At seventeen years old, he could be considered a genius among low-level cultivators, with the potential to break through into Late-Stage Qi Condensation in the future.
As his cultivation deepened, Zhou Xun's mind blurred once more, and he again appeared within a magnificent hall. At the center of the hall stood a jade tome radiating purple light, enshrined upon an altar.
Before you continue