Early the next morning, Gu Changsheng woke up leisurely. Looking at the broken gourd beside his bed, he instinctively picked it up, intending to toss out the five spirit pills and fill it with some spirit rice.
After all, the spirit pills were no longer safe to eat. Spirit rice, on the other hand, was still fine. He could put some inside and eat it whenever he got tired while watering the fields.
But when Gu Changsheng poured the five spirit pills out of the broken gourd, he froze.
“What’s going on? Are these my spirit pills?! How did they change?”
The five spirit pills before him no longer looked as they had before. Each one now bore strange pill markings on its surface—nine in all...
A refreshing, intoxicating fragrance wafted from the pills.
“Something’s not right...”
Smelling the fragrance, Gu Changsheng couldn’t help swallowing.
He felt an instinctive craving well up inside him, urging him to swallow the spirit pill whole. It was as if, deep in his body, he sensed that this was something good.
Gu Changsheng immediately slapped himself and muttered, “Gu Changsheng, the last one you ate nearly poisoned you to death. Have you forgotten? And now you still want to eat one?”
But after hesitating for a while... Gu Changsheng was already drooling. He simply couldn’t resist...
“I’ll just eat one... I survived the last one... Worst case, I’ll pass out again.”
In the end, instinct triumphed over reason.
He snatched up a pill with nine markings and tossed it into his mouth.
The agony he had imagined never came.
Instead, the pill melted as soon as it entered his mouth. It was sweet and quite delicious.
“It really is different...”
Before Gu Changsheng could savor it, a rumble suddenly sounded inside him.
An immense surge of spiritual energy burst out from the pill, spreading in every direction before pouring into his limbs and bones.
To Gu Changsheng’s astonishment, the Chaos Spiritual Root within him was roused as soon as it sensed the spiritual energy, and his body instinctively began Devouring the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy.
In just a moment, a qi vortex had formed in Gu Changsheng’s dantian.
“Qi has gathered in my dantian. Have I reached Qi Refining, First Layer?”
“I... have embarked on the path of cultivation?!”
As if to prove this wasn’t a dream, Gu Changsheng slapped himself. His face hurt. It wasn’t a dream!
He excitedly felt the vortex of qi inside him, like a young woman experiencing her lover’s caress for the first time...
That vortex of qi was the sign that an ordinary person had entered the path of cultivation. One vortex meant Qi Refining, First Layer.
“There are four more! Let’s try them all...”
Once he realized the pills really worked, Gu Changsheng didn’t hesitate. He swallowed the other four spirit pills as well.
After repeating the same process as with the first pill, the qi vortex in Gu Changsheng’s dantian immediately
grew larger. It was the sign that he had reached the peak of Qi Refining, First Layer.
At the same time, as Gu Changsheng had successfully begun Qi Refining, impurities were flushed from his body as if he had undergone marrow cleansing and bone washing. His skin was coated in a thick layer of black grime.
At that moment, Gu Changsheng looked like a mud figure, a rather comical sight, but he was happier than he had ever been.
Because he knew he had finally succeeded in Qi Refining!
That meant he now had an additional means of protecting himself.
He quickly fetched water and washed himself. Only then did Gu Changsheng realize that his skin was several times better than before, when it had been dark and dry—almost like a newborn baby’s.
His gaunt body had also become much fuller and healthier, no longer like a thin bamboo pole that people would sneer at.
That wasn’t all. Gu Changsheng also felt that all the fatigue from hauling water the day before had vanished, and his body seemed filled with endless strength.
Feeling the changes within him, Gu Changsheng calmed down and began to think carefully.
“Steward Li gave me fake pills, so they shouldn’t have had this kind of effect. If they were this powerful, she wouldn’t have given them to me...”
“Could it be because of... this gourd?”
The only thing that had changed was that he’d put the pills in the gourd. After he woke up, they had changed completely—not only were they no longer poisonous, they had also helped him embark on the path of cultivation...
After eating five of them, he had reached Qi Refining, First Layer.
After thinking it over, the only explanation was that the spirit pills had changed because they were placed inside this gourd.
Thinking of the nine pill markings that had appeared on the pills, Gu Changsheng’s heart stirred. “Could those nine pill markings have appeared because the pills had all reached Supreme-Grade quality?”
In alchemy, only high-quality pills develop pill markings. The more markings a pill has, the better its quality, with nine being the maximum.
In other words, Gu Changsheng had merely put ordinary pills in the gourd, and it had turned the trash pills that Outer Sect Disciples casually handed out to servant disciples into Supreme-Grade pills.
“I’ll have to wait until I get more spirit pills and test it again.”
Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Gu Changsheng casually hung the gourd from his waist.
But after wearing it for a while, Gu Changsheng felt that it wasn’t secure.
“What if someone steals it? It’d be nice if I could put it away.”
Gu Changsheng was afraid it would be stolen if he wore it, but didn’t trust leaving it in the thatched hut, either. As he struggled to decide what to do, the gourd turned into a streak of violet light and disappeared into the palm of his hand.
“Hm?”
Gu Changsheng stood rooted to the spot.
“It actually went inside? It really is a treasure...”
In broad daylight, the gourd had vanished into thin air and entered his body. Only then did Gu Changsheng realize how extraordinary it was.
While Gu Changsheng stood there in a daze, a knock sounded at the door.
“Who is it?”
Gu Changsheng could only suppress his curiosity, get up, and open the door.
Steward Li was standing at the entrance, urging him impatiently. “It’s already late morning! Why haven’t you gone to haul water and irrigate the fields? You’ve only just gotten your spirit pills, and now you want the spirit medicines to wither in the sun?”
As Steward Li urged him on, Gu Changsheng looked up at the sky and saw that the sun hadn’t even risen yet. This woman—because he wouldn’t agree to sleep with her, she was already here early in the morning to squeeze him dry?
Thinking of what the frail young man had said about how many servant disciples had been worked to death for refusing to sleep with her, Gu Changsheng suppressed his unease and quickly got up. “Steward Li, please wait. I’ll go right away!”
“Don’t blame me for not looking after you. You’re the one who doesn’t know what’s good for you. Those spirit medicines are treasures belonging to the Elders and Disciples. If anything goes wrong, you might not live to see another day.”
After saying this, Steward Li turned and walked away with her hands behind her back.
Watching Steward Li reveal her true nature, Gu Changsheng took a deep breath. At last, he understood why that frail young man had warned him.
Because if that young man had died back then, he would have had to do twice the work, just like Gu Changsheng now...
“Sigh, too bad that young man wasn’t as lucky as I was. He didn’t get the gourd and enter the path of cultivation. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had to die...”
Gu Changsheng turned, hefted his bucket, and hurried off to haul water and irrigate the fields.
Now that he had become a cultivator, Gu Changsheng didn’t feel tired at all while hauling water that day. He was not only faster, but even when the bucket weighed over a hundred pounds on his shoulders, it felt as light as carrying a towel.
He finished hauling more than a hundred loads of water in just half a day.
And after irrigating all the Spirit Fields, it still wasn’t dark.
“So this is the difference between a cultivator and a mortal?”
Gu Changsheng sighed. Then he quickly washed up, picked up his bowl, and headed to the Servant Quarters canteen for a meal.
He had just sat down with a large plate of meat dishes when Steward Li came over again.
Seeing Gu Changsheng devouring his food, Steward Li happily patted him on the shoulder, pressed her ample chest against him with a smile, and said cheerfully:
“Well done! You actually completed the task without a hitch. Hahaha!”
“Keep up the good work from now on. I have high hopes for you.”
As she spoke, she rubbed her arm against Gu Changsheng’s twice, making his Vital Blood surge until he nearly lost control...
Fortunately, at the crucial moment, Gu Changsheng made himself picture the young man’s tragic death. Once again, he endured Steward Li’s habit of barging into him with her chest...
Gu Changsheng took a deep breath, pulled his arm away again, and said calmly:
“It’s all thanks to Steward Li’s excellent arrangements that I was able to complete the task.”
Hearing how ungrateful Gu Changsheng was, the other servant disciples all looked at him sympathetically.
“What an idiot. All he had to do was sleep with her. At worst, energy harvesting would leave him bedridden for half a month. But he actually refused—and even finished his task ahead of time...”
“Tsk, tsk.”
Who in the Servant Quarters didn’t know Steward Li’s nickname was the Energy-Harvesting Queen, the Exploitation Demon? No handsome man with a vigorous Solar Yang had ever escaped being drained by her.
It was bad enough that this guy ignored Steward Li’s advances and offer to sleep with her. He even dared to finish his task ahead of time, making her think he still had energy to spare. Did he have a death wish?
“Very good, very good. Since you’re so motivated, starting today I’ll give you five more spirit pills and ten more pounds of spirit rice each time. Besides watering the fields, you can use your remaining time to clean up the waste from those Elders’ Disciples’ medicines. How does that sound?”
A flash of anger crossed Steward Li’s eyes. She then took out another bag of spirit rice and five spirit pills and handed them to Gu Changsheng...
She refused to believe that after suffering a little, this brat would still refuse to give in!
By now, Steward Li had already decided to kill him.
The servant disciples around them all sighed. “Gu Changsheng’s going to be worked to death. Irrigating the Spirit Fields was already his limit, and now he has to clean up medicinal waste too.”
“Watch what you say. Luo Qing just died yesterday. Aren’t you afraid of getting dragged into trouble? Better him than me. Gu Changsheng brought this on himself by being stupid.”
The people around them were speaking very quietly. When Steward Li heard them, she frowned and looked over, and they immediately fell silent.
Steward Li snorted and turned to look coldly at Gu Changsheng. “You can refuse if you want. I’m not one to force anyone into anything...”
“I’ll do it.”
Gu Changsheng agreed. He knew Steward Li was trying to exploit him, but since he would get spirit pills that he could use the gourd to turn into Supreme-Grade Spirit Pills, he accepted.
Seeing Gu Changsheng agree, Steward Li nodded. “As I said, if you get tired, come find me. I can get someone to share the burden.”
Just as Steward Li was about to leave, Gu Changsheng stood up. “Steward Li, wait a moment.”
Steward Li froze, thinking Gu Changsheng had changed his mind. She hurried over, her ample bosom bouncing, and smiled warmly. “Don’t be nervous. Just say what’s on your mind.”
“I just have too much spirit rice, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to eat it all. So, could you exchange these ten pounds of spirit rice for spirit pills...?”
At his words, the other servant disciples stared at Gu Changsheng as if they’d seen a ghost. This idiot had not only refused Steward Li, he also thought he had too much spirit rice and wanted pills instead.
Was he afraid he wouldn’t die, so he was making things harder for himself?
“Are you sure?”
Steward Li was stunned too. She apparently hadn’t expected the brat to make such a request. After all, she knew the ingredients of those spirit pills better than anyone. They were waste pills left over by Pill Peak disciples, swapped in for the spirit pills that were supposed to be given to the servant disciples.
Many of the veteran servant disciples in the Servant Quarters knew the truth. They just didn’t dare say anything.
Now this hotheaded fool was actually asking to exchange spirit rice for spirit pills. Had he been kicked in the head by a donkey?
At that moment, Steward Li had already forgotten her displeasure at Gu Changsheng’s rejection. She was too delighted at the thought of withholding even more spirit rice.
“I’m sure!” Gu Changsheng ignored everyone’s stares and answered firmly.