Chapter 31

"Ah, it's that mysterious?"

Just then, Lü Shunshun came out yawning and called, "Are you all here to see the golden wheat plantation?"

The students: "???" What the hell?

Lü Shunshun said, "Admission is one Merit Point per person."

Someone scoffed. "Why don't you just rob us? Besides, who'd buy a ticket?"

Lü Shunshun said, "The mutant wheat plantation belongs to the Central Capital Main Cafeteria, and facial recognition payment has been enabled. Students outside the Agronomy Department who stay longer than ten minutes will automatically have the admission fee deducted through a face scan."

The senior students watching: "???"

Someone refused to believe it. "Bullshit. There's no way there's an admission fee..."

Lü Shunshun wasn't angry. She smiled and said, "It's fine. You've been here quite a while, so someone should be approaching the ten-minute mark..."

Just then, someone among the senior students cried out, "Fuck, I got here early, and it's already been ten minutes. They really deducted one Merit Point from me!"

Everyone: "???"

One stone stirred up a thousand waves, frightening quite a few people.

Someone had really been charged Merit Points? Though the senior students still thought it sounded fishy, they didn't want to take the risk. Some left cursing. "Who wants to admire this lousy wheat anyway?"

"This is such a scam! They're actually charging admission!"

"If this plantation really belongs to the Main Cafeteria..."

"Then those black-hearted profiteers really would do something like this!"

"I'm out, I'm out. One Merit Point is enough for me to cultivate in a first-class dorm for a whole day!"

Li Yang saw through what was happening at a glance.

Lü Shunshun was scaring them. What admission fee? If there really were one, wouldn't Li Yang have been charged to death before she chose a department?

As for the person who had cried out in the crowd that he'd been charged Merit Points, that was Xia Putao.

Playing off each other, the two had actually scared away all the senior students who had come to watch the excitement.

When Lü Shunshun saw Li Yang, her face lit up. She went up and took her luggage, then said, "Senior Brother has already prepared your room. It's in our master's courtyard. You can stay there without worrying; the conditions are just as good as a first-class dorm."

Li Yang: "!"

She was delighted at first, but then grew a little nervous. "Senior Sister, I haven't met the dean yet. Dean, she..."

"I won't say any more. Our teacher can hear everything. Senior Brother will take you to see her in a bit."

Li Yang's heart suddenly tightened.

They were still a long way from the courtyard halfway up the mountain, probably over a thousand meters. Could Dean Si Kui hear them talking from there?

What realm did she have to be in to do that?

Li Yang was truly beginning to panic.

But she soon forced herself to calm down.

It should be fine. No matter how high the Agronomy Department dean's realm was, it couldn't surpass those of the three major combat departments. She was probably around Sixth Grade.

If she was Sixth Grade...

She probably wouldn't be able to see through her at a glance.

Li Yang let out a soft breath and followed Lü Shunshun toward the Agronomy College.

Feng Yiqiao was already waiting there. With Li Yang's arrival, he looked more than ten years younger, and his spirits were far better than before.

"Come on, I'll take you to see Teacher."

"Okay."

Before either of them could take a step, a cool voice sounded in their seas of consciousness. "Let her come by herself."

Li Yang's heart leaped, and sweat broke out on her palms.

Feng Yiqiao, however, was used to it. He looked up at the courtyard halfway up the mountain and said, "Yes, Teacher."

Then he turned to Li Yang and said, "Go on by yourself, then. Teacher has been thoughtful and arranged for you to stay in the east wing. The Starlight there is very dense. It can nourish your Star Apertures and help you cultivate."

Li Yang swallowed dryly and asked anyway, "Senior Brother, what realm is our teacher in?"

Feng Yiqiao puffed out his chest proudly. "Don't worry. Our teacher is no weaker than any of the deans of the seven major departments. She's a peak eighth-grade Half-Step Supreme!"

Li Yang: "..."

Feng Yiqiao had said that to put Li Yang at ease, to tell her that she hadn't made the wrong choice—the Agronomy Department wouldn't let her down.

But far from feeling reassured, Li Yang felt as though five bolts of lightning had struck her!

Peak Eighth Grade!

This was deadly!

The Agronomy Department was quite different from what she had imagined!

A gentle breeze swept over her, and Li Yang felt her body rise uncontrollably into the air. The scenery around her rushed backward, the trees on the mountain flashing past her eyes as though someone had pressed a rewind button. By the time she came to her senses, she was already standing outside the courtyard halfway up the mountain.

With a soft thud, her luggage landed securely beside her.

Standing on the bluestone-paved path, Li Yang tried to calm herself.

Being afraid was no use.

She had long been under the other woman's very nose.

If Si Kui had discovered the "Longevity System" and wanted to "study" her, she would have been lying flat long ago.

That breeze alone had made Li Yang keenly aware of the enormous gap in their strength.

An eighth-grade Star Wielder...

To an ordinary person, she was a being comparable to a god.

For Si Kui to crush her to death would probably be easier than for an ordinary person to crush an ant.

Don't panic, don't be afraid...

After thoroughly bracing herself, Li Yang slowly pushed open the courtyard's wooden gate.

"Hello, Teacher. I'm Li Yang," she said, her voice tight as the gate creaked open.

Suddenly, a thick stench of blood hit her face. Li Yang felt as though she had stepped straight into hell. A terrifying scarlet filled her surroundings, and black-purple blood churned across the ground. A chill seeped into her bones, and the terrifying pressure nearly made the blood vessels throughout her body burst.

She was going to die.

Those four words seared themselves into her mind like a branding iron. Unable to move a muscle, Li Yang stared wide-eyed in horror at the mutant plant before her, its enormous bloody maw gaping open.

[Detected a fifth-grade mutant plant. Its realm is far above the host's. Immediate evasion is advised.]

The system abruptly popped up this line, leaving Li Yang utterly speechless.

She wanted to dodge, but how could she possibly get away?!

The enormous bloody maw was inches away. Li Yang smelled a nauseating stench of rot. In this pool of blood, this hell on earth, she was about to become its next meal.

What do I do, what do I do...

Li Yang had no way out. All she could do was wait for death.

Unprecedented despair swept over her, and Li Yang realized with painful clarity that this was a world full of danger, while she was merely a piece of fish on the chopping block, at anyone's mercy.

"Who sent you?"

"..."

"Why did you deliberately approach the Agronomy Department?"

"I don't know... what you're talking about..." Li Yang forced out the words through the excruciating pain, her intense desire to survive driving her to speak.

"Four Star Apertures, peak first grade. Your mental stat is quite good, though..." The woman's voice was as cold as ice, without the slightest warmth, as though she might crush Li Yang to death the very next moment.

A chill swept through her mind, and Li Yang shuddered violently before losing consciousness completely.

The Blood-Devouring Lotus wanted to move forward and swallow her whole.

Si Kui merely flicked a finger, and the Blood-Devouring Lotus shrank into a little red flower the size of a palm. Whimpering, it scurried back into the pool.

The courtyard returned to its quiet elegance, and dense Starlight gathered around it.

Si Kui raised a hand to support the unconscious girl by the waist and drew her into her arms. Looking down at her, a trace of puzzlement flashed through her icy eyes.

Her sea of consciousness was clean, with no mark branded upon it.

Was she not sent by someone?

Did she really simply want to come to the Agronomy Department to cultivate?

This child did have a special constitution. As a pure natural-type cultivator, she was indeed suited to the Agronomy Department.

Half reclining in a rattan chair, Si Kui gently lowered a finger from between Li Yang's brows and moved it little by little to her heart.

Four Star Apertures abruptly lit up. With immense patience, Si Kui refined and consolidated them one by one, giving the originally indistinct Star Apertures clear outlines.

They were shaped like leaves. The four together resembled a four-leaf clover, a symbol of good luck.

Si Kui raised a brow. "A natural-type 'Heavenly Fortune Bearer'... If she wasn't planted here by someone, then I've found a treasure."

Li Yang felt as though she had died all over again. When her consciousness returned, the first thing she noticed was a faint, delicate fragrance.

It was like a bamboo grove after rain, refreshing to the heart.

"That little test just now frightened you, didn't it?" A cool, detached female voice rang out.

A chill ran down Li Yang's back. She abruptly opened her eyes, only to discover that she was leaning in Si Kui's arms.

"!" Li Yang sprang up at once and stood to one side, her hands held stiffly at her sides.

Still reclining in the rattan chair, Si Kui lifted her eyelids to look at her. "As compensation, I refined your foundational Star Apertures, but..."

She looked at her, gazing deeply into her eyes. "Are you sure you want to become my disciple?"

Li Yang still hadn't recovered from the fright the fifth-grade mutant plant had given her. Though she understood what Si Kui was saying, her mind struggled to respond.

Just then, the system popped up a line of text: [Maximum lifespan +400 years].

Immediately afterward came another line: [Lifespan +400 years].

Chapter 31

Li Yang stood there in a daze, her mind filled with those two system notifications.

How did my maximum lifespan increase by 400 years out of nowhere?

How did my lifespan also increase by 400 years out of nowhere?

She still had four Star Apertures. She hadn't broken through to Second Grade.

Could it be...

Si Kui's words echoed in her ears: "As compensation, I refined your foundational Star Apertures."

Li Yang: "!"

She had four Star Apertures in total. Does refining each Star Aperture increase my maximum lifespan by 100 years?

But where did the lifespan that appeared out of nowhere come from?

Surely Ms. Si Kui, the Agronomy Department dean standing before me, can't be a transformed mutant plant!

No, even if Si Kui really is a mutant plant, I didn't "harvest" her. How could I have gained lifespan?

Li Yang couldn't make sense of it, and though she asked the system a hundred times in her mind, the system played dead every single time.