For the next ten nights, Lin Feng lived a life split between the mundane and the divine.
By day, he was the picture of exhaustion: shuffling, bowing, and performing his menial duties with a sluggish grace that somehow produced impeccably clean results. Head Servant Cao, observing the spotless stables and the miraculously clean air, was developing a perpetual, nervous twitch in his eye.
"It's unnatural, boy," Cao muttered one morning, staring at a stone floor Lin Feng had just cleaned. "It's too clean. Do you have some kind of hidden spiritual cleaning artifact? Confess!"
"Oh, Head Servant, I only have this," Lin Feng replied, holding up his rusty shovel with both hands. "I just realized that if I scrub with my heart, the dirt is afraid to stick."
Cao stared at the shovel, then at Lin Feng's sincere, dirt-smudged face, and finally walked away muttering about the younger generation's disturbing dedication to manual labor.
By night, Lin Feng was a harvesting machine. He spent the first half of the night venturing out to the locations Han Yue had listed. The spiritual weeds—Sun-Wound Grass, Iron-Spur Root, Cold-Heart Moss—were indeed plentiful.
He quickly learned to identify and gather them with expert precision, his refined Wood Element Root making him instinctively aware of where the densest patches lay. It was resource gathering designed by the divine for a stable hand.
The second half of the night was spent inside the black ring dimension. The process was now a familiar alchemy:
Placement: Toss a dozen handfuls of toxic spiritual weeds onto the pedestal.
Refinement: Execute the Refine and Solidify movement of the Primordial Chaos Art.
Result: The purple-gold light vaporized the impurities, leaving behind small piles of perfectly formed Foundation Pills. The Sun-Wound Grass yielded vivid green pills (Wood Essence); the Iron-Spur Root yielded heavy, dense brown pills (Earth Essence).
These were not just ordinary pills; they were essences of near-perfect purity, bypassing the need for tedious alchemical processes and ensuring a stable, rapid increase in his Foundation Establishment cultivation.
Lin Feng consumed them with focused abandon. Every pill was a step toward safety, power, and freedom.
Foundation Establishment Level Two: Achieved on the third night. He felt the Qi in his spiritual sea deepen, his physical strength doubling.
Foundation Establishment Level Three: Achieved on the seventh night. He could now sustain minor spells like the Concealing Mist Art for nearly an hour, a vital skill for remaining hidden.
After ten nights, Lin Feng stood at the pinnacle of Foundation Establishment Level Four. He was officially stronger than any Outer Disciple and could likely defeat even the strongest early-stage Inner Disciples, all while wearing the robes of a stable hand.
The rate of his ascension was terrifying, but the Primordial Chaos Art ensured his foundation was iron-solid. He had the strength of an elite master, achieved on the fumes of spiritual weeds and the manure-stained air of the Mortal Estate.
The stability of Lin Feng's presence, coupled with the impossible cleanliness of his assigned area, began to genuinely alarm Head Servant Cao. Cao was a Level Seven Qi Condensation cultivator, but he had been stuck at that level for thirty years. He understood the spiritual pressure of the stables better than anyone, and it was gone.
Cao summoned Lin Feng to the small, grimy office where he managed the stables' meager accounts.
"Lin Feng," Cao said, his voice unusually low and serious. He did not yell. This was worse. "I have a special task for you. A test of your, ah, 'dedication.'"
Lin Feng bowed, looking meek. "Anything to serve the Sect, Head Servant."
"Good. I don't believe in luck, boy. I believe in spiritual pressure," Cao continued, leaning across the wooden desk, his eyes narrowed. "The supply shed near Ravine 4—where we store the cheapest, oldest hay—has been infested. Not by rats, but by Thornback Vermin. They're a low-level magical pest, Qi Condensation Level Two at most, but they're vicious and their spines inject a mild, debilitating neurotoxin."
Lin Feng's mind instantly accessed his knowledge. Thornback Vermin. Low-level monsters, but thirty of them could swarm and paralyze a Level Seven cultivator in minutes. The sect used them as training hazards for senior Outer Disciples.
"The shed needs to be cleared and sealed," Cao explained, a malicious grin twisting his face. "We would normally send a team of Level Ten disciples, but since you are so dedicated, so clean, you can go. Take this old iron rod. Go in, kill every single vermin, burn the shed down, and report back before dusk. If you get paralyzed, well, the sect will simply claim you died in a tragic stable accident. Go!"
This was the expected punishment. Cao didn't want him dead; he wanted him badly injured, humiliated, and exposed as a fraud whose luck had simply run out.
"It will be done, Head Servant," Lin Feng replied, taking the rusty iron rod. He looked at the rod, then back at Cao, a flicker of confusion crossing his face. "Sir, is this… the Spiritual Tool of Equine Calmness?"
Cao spluttered. "No! That is Inventory 44-B! That rod is Inventory 17-G, the 'Rod of Generic Assortment.' Now go!"
Lin Feng bowed and left, walking toward Ravine 4 with a steady, unhurried pace.
Ravine 4 was desolate, choked with overgrown weeds (the exact weeds Lin Feng had been harvesting). The supply shed was an isolated, rotting structure. Lin Feng could feel the chaotic, low-grade spiritual energy emanating from the hundred-plus vermin inside.
He paused outside the door. He wasn't going to spend hours beating them with a rusty rod and risk injecting a neurotoxin that would disrupt his meticulous cultivation schedule.
He channeled his Foundation Establishment Level Four power. He didn't use a dramatic attack; he used The Concealing Mist Art, the simple low-level spell all Outer Disciples learned, but he infused it with the power of his purified Wood Qi.
The mist that rose from the ground wasn't a thin, hazy veil. It was a dense, suffocating spiritual fog—emerald green and heavy, instantly sealing every crack and crevice of the shed.
Inside, the Thornback Vermin, sensitive to spiritual energy, immediately began to panic. The purified Wood Qi, instead of nourishing them, acted like a targeted poison, overwhelming their low-grade spiritual cores. They thrashed, trying to find an exit, but the heavy mist pressed them down.
Lin Feng waited one minute, listening to the muffled, dying screeches.
When the sounds stopped, he stepped to the door, took a deep breath, and executed his hidden Primordial Chaos Art on the shed itself.
He didn't need to burn the shed. He simply channeled a vast, silent surge of purification energy into the structure. The vermin corpses, the shed's rotting wood, and the toxic vermin nests were instantly purified, broken down, and refined. The Wood Qi from the shed and the toxins from the vermin vanished, leaving behind only two things:
A dozen tiny, high-grade Earth Essence Pills (refined from the vermin's exoskeletons).
An impossibly clean shed floor, neatly sealed.
The process took less than five minutes. Lin Feng walked out, his clothes unscratched, his internal Qi slightly replenished by the Earth Essence Pills.
He returned to Head Servant Cao's office as the shadows lengthened, looking thoroughly exhausted and mentally scarred, carrying the rusty iron rod.
"Head Servant," Lin Feng wheezed, slumping slightly against the doorframe. "It is done. The shed is… clear."
Cao looked up, startled. "What? Already? Did you just run away, you pathetic worm?"
"No, Head Servant," Lin Feng insisted, shaking his head slowly. "The Vermin… they were not aggressive. They were weeping. They had clearly run out of spiritual hay, and their spines were all curled up from starvation."
Cao stared, mouth agape. "Weeping? Vermin?"
"Yes, sir. I spoke to them," Lin Feng whispered dramatically, leaning in. "I told them that the Azure Cloud Sect cares about its small creatures, and if they cleaned up their lair and promised to leave, they could have a handful of the special spiritual hay from Black Thunder's supply."
Lin Feng held up the rusty iron rod. "I used the Rod of Generic Assortment as a Spiritual Scepter of Mercy. I used its calming aura to persuade them to leave. They cleaned the shed for me, promised to follow the spiritual light, and departed up the mountain."
Cao leaned back, his face a masterpiece of utter confusion. His test subject—the failure—had somehow not only survived an attack that should have crippled him, but had negotiated with the vermin using an iron rod and a lie about spiritual hay.
"You… you convinced a swarm of Thornback Vermin to clean their den and leave?" Cao croaked.
"They were very tidy Vermin, Head Servant," Lin Feng maintained sincerely. "I believe they simply needed a motivational speaker, and perhaps a small spiritual reward."
He then looked at the iron rod with a newfound respect. "This Rod of Generic Assortment… it has a powerful, almost prophetic aura, sir. Perhaps it should also be assigned to the Spiritual Well-Being of the Prize Stock, alongside Scraper 44-B."
Cao simply stared at the boy. Lin Feng looked exhausted, pale, but utterly resolute and strangely competent at managing the bizarre logistics of the spiritual mountain.
"Get out of my sight," Cao finally hissed, rubbing his temples. "Go back to the stables! And if I ever hear one more word about weeping vermin or spiritual iron rods, I will personally throw you down Ravine 4!"
Lin Feng bowed low, fighting the triumphant laughter building in his chest. I have turned my punishment into free resources, eliminated an entire lair of monsters, and convinced my superior that I am either a lunatic or a dangerously effective negotiator with spiritual pests.
He walked back to the stables, the Earth Essence Pills humming in his robe. Cao would never dare send him on another "punishment" task. Lin Feng had demonstrated a terrifying, unnatural competence that Cao couldn't explain or challenge without exposing his own petty cruelty to the Outer Sect Elders.
He was safe for now. But his rapid progression—Foundation Establishment Level Four achieved in less than two weeks—meant he would soon need more powerful resources than mere spiritual weeds. He would need a plan to obtain the real currency of the cultivation world: Spirit Stones.