Cultivation: From Menial Laborer to Immortal Venerable Part 1

Cultivation: From Menial Laborer to Immortal Venerable

Author: Yan Ling Huang Tao Hao Chi

Synopsis:

Zhou Xun transmigrated to a world of cultivation and became an unaffiliated cultivator in Red Leaf Square.

Fortunately, he discovered that his Spiritual Root aptitude could continuously improve.

Low-grade Spiritual Root, Medium-grade Spiritual Root, High-grade Spiritual Root, Earth Spiritual Root, Heavenly Spiritual Root...

Avoiding conflict and strife, he operated steadily, taking one step at a time.

Unknowingly, he had reached the pinnacle of the cultivation world.

(Mortal-style, steady, starting in the cultivation world, decisive and ruthless)

The cultivation world of Xu Nation, Red Leaf Square.

It was late autumn again, the sky was dim and 황, the trees by the roadside had withered, with only a few dry leaves clinging to dewdrops on spiderwebs, spinning in the cold wind.

"Zhou Xun, you're fired starting today!"

A rough voice sounded.

A man in his forties, with a brutish face, shoved him out the door.

"These 90 Spirit Essences are your compensation!"

Then, he threw a bag containing Spirit Essence onto the ground.

This Spirit Essence, also known as Spirit Stone fragments, has even lower spiritual energy content than genuine Spirit Stones. It's a form of low-level currency used by cultivators in this world. Generally, one hundred Spirit Essences can be exchanged for one Spirit Stone.

Zhou Xun didn't speak, rubbing his slightly sore shoulder, and silently picked up the bag of Spirit Essence from the ground.

"N+1, not bad!"

Weighing the cloth bag in his hand, Zhou Xun chuckled self-deprecatingly.

Looking at the magnificent buildings before him, a pavilion every five steps, a tower every ten steps, with winding corridors and interlocking structures.

No matter how grand the platform, he was ultimately just a worker, contributing for years, yet he was still ruthlessly fired!

With a scoff, Zhou Xun turned his head and left without looking back.

Walking on the street.

Suddenly, a cold wind blew, seeping through the gaps in Zhou Xun's clothes. He couldn't help but shrink his neck and sighed:

"It's been two years since I transmigrated!"

Recalling his life after transmigration, it was truly hard to describe.

In his previous life, he was a corporate slave, living the 996 work schedule. Although it was tough, life was manageable.

However, misfortune often befell the suffering. Finally, amidst continuous overtime, one day he couldn't hold on and collapsed, transmigrating to this cultivation world.

Upon transmigrating, Zhou Xun was ecstatic to learn of the existence of cultivators.

This meant that scenes from novels, such as "Soaring through the clouds, reaching for the moon, commanding all things, a single sword strike opening the gates of heaven!", would become reality.

And he would have the chance to glimpse the path to eternal life, watching the seas transform into mulberry fields.

Even more serendipitous, the youth he transmigrated into, also named Zhou Xun, was a cultivator, fifteen years old, with a cultivation base of Qi Condensation second layer.

The first realm of cultivation is Qi Condensation.

Qi Condensation has nine layers.

Layers one to three are early Qi Condensation, layers four to six are middle Qi Condensation, and layers seven to nine are late Qi Condensation.

Zhou Xun had roughly surveyed the cultivators in this world, and it also followed the Pareto principle.

Eighty percent of cultivators could only remain in early Qi Condensation their entire lives, with only twenty percent able to break through to the middle stages and beyond.

"Heaven did not give birth to me, Old Ancestor Zhou, and the immortal path would have been dark for eternity!"

Zhou Xun naturally didn't consider himself among the eighty percent. With the hope of eternal life, he quickly integrated into the life of the cultivation world.

When he transmigrated, his predecessor was working as a menial laborer with a Spirit Contract at the largest talisman shop in Red Leaf Square, the Mystic Talisman Pavilion.

The so-called Spirit Contract Menial Laborer could be understood as Zhou Xun's previous life's contract worker, but it was much harder here, as there was no concept of human rights in this world. He had to work from dawn till dusk every day without rest.

"996 in my previous life, 007 in this life, my life is really going downhill!"

Zhou Xun had worked at the Mystic Talisman Pavilion for a total of three years.

Although it was tedious and hard, it was an extremely enviable job externally.

It provided a stable income, with a monthly earning of 30 Spirit Essences, enough for him to live in Red Leaf Square and for basic cultivation.

One must know that most early Qi Condensation cultivators here only earned less than ten Spirit Essences per month.

This wasn't even enough to rent the cheapest shacks in Red Leaf Square, forcing them to live on the outskirts of the market, outside the coverage of the formations.

Because the cheapest houses in the shantytown cost at least 100 Spirit Essences per year, Zhou Xun rented one of these.

Converted, this amounts to eight Spirit Essences per month.

With nearly a third of his monthly income going towards rent, Zhou Xun felt a sense of struggle reminiscent of his past life working in a big city.

Returning to his wooden house, Zhou Xun took out a bluish-green wooden token.

He muttered an incantation, then cast a spell at the token. The token emitted a green light, which struck the door before him.

The green light merged into the door, flickered, and then disappeared.

Zhou Xun gently pushed, and the door opened.

Although referred to as a slum, all the properties here belonged to Red Leaf Square, and each wooden house was equipped with simple defensive formations.

If anyone dared to force entry, the market's enforcement team would be immediately alerted, providing a certain level of security.

Every cultivator in Red Leaf Square who could afford it was willing to rent such a house.

He entered the house, and it was still early.

With free time on his hands, Zhou Xun felt a bit unaccustomed to it.

Normally, he worked at the shop during the day and didn't have to worry about what to do.

After sitting for a while, Zhou Xun began to ponder his next steps.

Two years after his transmigration, he had accumulated 120 Spirit Essences. Adding the 90 he received as compensation that day, he had a total of 210, worth over two Spirit Stones.

He also had a low-grade, first-tier Golden Thorn Talisman, a reward for his diligent work at the Mystic Talisman Pavilion.

"With my current net worth, I'm considered well-off among early Qi Condensation cultivators!"

However, it had been nearly a year since he last paid rent.

Calculating it, the steward responsible for collecting rent in the market would be arriving soon. After paying the 100 for rent, he would only have 110 left to use.

"One Spirit Essence is equivalent to three catties of Spirit Rice. I consume 30 catties of Spirit Rice monthly. Even if I eat frugally, the remaining Spirit Essences will barely last a year!"

Zhou Xun calculated that he needed to find another job.

Otherwise, he would be forced to live in the outer areas of the market.

He knew that those areas were not covered by any formations and had no enforcement patrols.

Incidents of murder for treasure were not uncommon there.

Often, a cultivator who was laughing and chatting with friends one day would be found dead in a ditch the next, their life and cultivation extinguished.

Zhou Xun had no desire to meet such an end.

After finishing his calculations, the sky had already darkened.

Zhou Xun then went into the kitchen and made a meal of Spirit Rice.

The reason he didn't consume mortal food was that it contained too many impurities and was unsuitable for cultivators to eat for extended periods.

There were many people in Red Leaf Square who couldn't afford Spirit Rice and ended up eating mortal food for a long time, causing their cultivation to stagnate.

Zhou Xun, with his sights set on the Great Dao, would naturally not make such a mistake.

After eating the Spirit Rice, Zhou Xun returned to his room, rested for half an hour, and then began meditating to cultivate.

This was a cultivation trick he had discovered.

Cultivating half an hour after eating Spirit Rice could increase efficiency by about 10%.

Zhou Xun guessed that this was because after half an hour, the essence of the Spirit Rice had been fully absorbed, and his body's spiritual energy was in a state of fullness. Cultivating at this time naturally yielded twice the results with half the effort.

For the past two years, Zhou Xun had relied on this trick to cultivate diligently every day.

He was now only one step away from the peak of the second level of Qi Condensation.

Considering he was seventeen years old, he could be considered a genius among low-level cultivators, with the potential to break through to the later stages of Qi Condensation in the future.

As his cultivation deepened, Zhou Xun's mind once again became hazy, and he found himself in a magnificent great hall. In the center of the hall, a jade scroll emitting purple light was enshrined.