Chapter 5: The Unusual Peach Branch

Before Jiang Min could ponder further, a loud voice suddenly rang out from outside the house:

“I am the steward of the Dining Hall. All menial workers of the Library Pavilion, hear me: the Dining Hall is short of temporary hands to process meat. The work is arduous and complicated, but the reward is one low-grade spirit stone!”

One low-grade spirit stone?

Jiang Min was instantly captivated by the generous reward.

Indeed.

For her, one low-grade spirit stone was not a trifling sum.

Over the past year, she had not spent frivolously, but as a mere mortal who had not yet learned to fast, she still had expenses for food and daily necessities. Even with the strictest frugality, after nearly a year, every spirit stone was gone. Lately, she had been surviving on coarse flatbread, barely making ends meet.

In a sect as vast as this, urgent tasks always arose. In the past, similar jobs would occasionally be offered to laborers from various peaks, with varying degrees of pay. Yet Jiang Min had never been tempted; she always felt safest remaining on Floating Cloud Peak. Even errands for supplies she entrusted to the warm-hearted Senior Brother Zhao, asking him to make purchases for her at the sect market.

However, now, with a month left before the new year’s stipend was issued, she was already penniless.

What’s more, now that she was formally cultivating, there would be new expenses.

“Now that I’ve successfully opened my spiritual aperture and cleansed my meridians, my body is far stronger than before, and I have much more strength. If I encounter other laborers again, I should be able to protect myself.”

Now that she could defend herself, she could earn this reward. There was still a month before the next stipend, and her supply of coarse flatbread was nearly gone. If she didn’t die from Li Mao’s schemes, she’d starve to death first.

Of course.

Now that she’d begun cultivating, she couldn’t survive on coarse flatbread any longer. She needed to take fasting pills to prevent her body from being tainted by mundane impurities.

But fasting pills cost money as well.

Jiang Min made up her mind and got up from bed. Only then did she realize she was covered in sticky, foul-smelling sweat. She washed quickly and thoroughly, changed into clean clothes, and dashed out of her room in a hurry, afraid she’d miss her chance.

As for the mysterious peach branch—compared to the threat of starvation, it was nothing. She simply pushed it to the back of her mind.

At that moment—

On Floating Cloud Peak, the steward of the Dining Hall was preparing to pilot a flying boat when a clear, childish voice called from behind:

“Wait, wait! Take me too!”

The steward turned to see a little girl of about ten years old and frowned impatiently. “We need laborers who can handle the corpses of demon beasts. Best if you stay behind.”

Jiang Min hurried to explain, “I know how! I’m a village girl—I’ve killed fish and chickens since I was small, I’ve even helped with scalding pigs. I’m hard-working and capable.”

Hearing this, the steward relaxed. “Fine, then hurry up and get aboard.”

“Thank you, Uncle!” Jiang Min beamed, quickly and nimbly climbing onto the flying boat, delighted.

Another laborer from Floating Cloud Peak was already seated there—Senior Brother Zhong Qu, one of the two older laborers, a man in his forties, honest and hardworking.

Because they saw each other every day, Zhong Qu and Jiang Min were well acquainted. He was about to greet her when he took a closer look and exclaimed in surprise:

“Junior Sister Jiang, have you opened your spiritual aperture?”

Those who had opened their spiritual aperture were free of all mundane filth, their bodies appearing as pure as crystal to a cultivator’s eyes.

“Yes, I just did it!” Jiang Min replied joyfully, clasping her hands in thanks. “I really must thank you, Senior Brother Zhong. Without your guidance, I would have taken many more detours.”

During her attempts at cultivation, she’d had many doubts—not only had she sought advice from Ming Ruoshui, but also from Senior Brother Zhong and Senior Brother Zhao.

“We’re all brothers and sisters here, no need to be so formal,” Zhong Qu waved a hand, then smiled bitterly with a hint of envy. “I’m muddling through cultivation myself, only sharing what I’ve learned by experience. I can hardly call it guidance. Junior Sister Jiang, your cultivation progress is among the fastest of all the laborers.”

Jiang Min blushed with embarrassment. “If it weren’t for the help from all my seniors, how could I have opened my spiritual aperture? You flatter me, Senior Brother Zhong; I’m truly unworthy.”

Zhong Qu knew she was being modest.

His envy was genuine.

Country folk like them, illiterate and inexperienced, came to the Immortal Sect only to spend years just learning to read and to study the basics of Yin and Yang, the five elements, the essence and spirit, the meridians and apertures—only then could they begin practicing the Spirit Communication Technique.

And cultivation was not something that could be entered into lightly. Unlike formal disciples or those from cultivation clans, laborers like them had no masters to point out the locations of their spiritual apertures; they had to find them by themselves. For the dull-witted, it could take years just to open one. Zhong Qu had even heard of a laborer who spent more than ten years searching in vain, eventually driving himself mad.

But Zhong Qu understood.

He could not hope to match Jiang Min’s speed.

He knew she hadn’t gone to the Preaching Hall to learn to read, but had helped Ming Ruoshui with chores in exchange for private lessons, persuading the steward to approve one-on-one instruction. Naturally, this was more efficient than group classes. What’s more, Jiang Min read late into the night; when Zhong Qu rose at midnight, he would see the light still burning in her room.

“This girl—she might really escape the fate of being a laborer,” Zhong Qu thought.

In the world of cultivation, talent was judged by one’s spiritual roots. Those with all five elements—gold, wood, water, fire, and earth—had complete roots, but cultivation for them was slowest and most complicated, making it hardest to build a foundation. People like them, with five roots, could only serve as laborers in the Immortal Sect.

But if a laborer could reach the fourth level of Qi Refining before the age of thirty, they could shed their menial status, become an outer disciple, and soar to new heights.

However.

Those who managed this were as rare as phoenix feathers—persons of great perseverance or exceptional fortune.

Zhong Qu only harbored this beautiful hope for Jiang Min.

He knew.

It was almost an impossible dream.

Soon, they arrived at the Dining Hall.

Behind the kitchen, hundreds or even thousands of demon beast corpses were piled high—boar demons, wolf demons, rabbit demons, python demons… all edible varieties, their flesh rich in spiritual energy. If specially prepared, cultivators could consume them to improve their cultivation.

Who knew which powerful masters had hunted so many demon beasts to send to the Dining Hall? No wonder laborers from other halls had to be called in.

Already, the yard was bustling, with stewards and laborers at work—some hauling beasts, some scalding and skinning them. It was a lively scene.

“You two, go help over there.”

After giving instructions, the steward hurried off. Jiang Min and Zhong Qu rolled up their sleeves and got to work. Their task was to pluck the hair from the scalded beasts—a tedious, laborious but straightforward job, which Jiang Min handled deftly.

“You’re quick at this. Must have helped out at home a lot, huh?” Zhong Qu chatted with her.

“Of course! I’ve always been a hard worker. I’m even better at it than my mother,” Jiang Min boasted proudly, then looked at the wolf carcass in her hands with curiosity. “Hey, why has this wolf demon’s belly been cut open?”

“To retrieve the demon core. Demon cores from these beasts are valuable—the hunters always take them,” Zhong Qu explained patiently.

Jiang Min processed several beasts in a row. Each time, the demon core was already gone. But when she was cleaning a rabbit demon, she found its belly had also been cut open, but inside was a faintly glowing lump.

“What’s this?”

“That’s a demon core embryo. Some first-tier demon beasts haven’t fully formed their cores yet, so there’s just an underdeveloped embryo. It’s worthless and useless—ends up discarded,” Zhong Qu told her.

Jiang Min nodded in understanding.

“Oh, then I’ll just take it out and throw it away.”

Actually, she was just curious to see what a demon core embryo looked like. She reached into the rabbit demon’s congealed belly and grabbed the soft lump.

But then—

Something unexpected happened.

The peachwood branch inside her body suddenly began to tremble.

A suction force burst from her palm, drawing out the lingering demonic energy from the core embryo. The wild energy surged from her hand, up her arm, into her dantian, and was absorbed by the peachwood branch’s trunk.

Then—

The peachwood branch quivered and released a pure spiritual energy, wholly different from the demonic energy, which flooded her dantian.

But this pure spiritual energy, since it was not yet refined, began to dissipate and escape.

Jiang Min was shocked by the peach branch’s strange behavior, but seeing so much spiritual energy about to vanish left her anxious and helpless, staring as it drifted away.

She was working, after all—she couldn’t just drop everything to cultivate on the spot. To guide and refine that energy would take time.

She understood her priorities.

“So the peach branch can absorb demonic energy from a core embryo and convert it into spiritual energy? Is it alive or dead?”

Jiang Min grew uneasy.

She had thought the peach demon was long dead, and that the branch lodged in her dantian could simply be removed in time.

But this branch had acted on its own, drawing in demonic energy and transforming it into spiritual energy.

This anomaly weighed on her heart like a mountain.

With a vague fear that she might soon be devoured by the branch, Jiang Min nonetheless finished her work and, in the end, received her reward of one low-grade spirit stone.