Two more days passed in the rhythmic misery of the Mortal Estate. For Lin Feng, however, the misery was only skin deep.
By day, he was the exhausted, perpetually grimy servant—a picture of broken ambition. He shoveled manure and scrubbed stone with practiced slowness, ensuring he looked appropriately weary whenever Head Servant Cao was near. But secretly, the tiny, almost imperceptible trickle of purified Qi from the black ring continued its work. The stable air remained miraculously clean, confusing Cao and earning Lin Feng a reputation for being an unnaturally tidy failure.
By night, he was a silent, terrifying engine of cultivation. Four hours in the Primordial Chaos dimension was enough to push his Qi Condensation from Level Seven to Level Nine. He was now on the cusp of the Foundation Establishment realm—a stage that would require a spiritual breakthrough far greater than simple Qi accumulation.
The physical labor, which should have crippled his cultivation, instead hardened his body, making it a stronger vessel for the divine energy. He was now acutely aware of every ripple of air, every shift in sound, and every fluctuation of the sparse spiritual Qi on the lower mountain slopes.
His sights were now set on his first external task: securing information through Han Yue.
He waited until the mid-afternoon, when the main administrative hub was typically quiet and Han Yue often delivered the routine paperwork to the small checkpoint hut near the Mortal Estate path. He contrived a reason—a missing tool.
"Head Servant Cao," Lin Feng called out, wiping sweat and grime from his forehead as he approached the hulking man. "I sincerely apologize, but the heavy-duty iron scraper needed for the deep cleaning of the troughs seems to be missing. I searched everywhere. I fear one of the other hands might have taken it down to the lower kennels."
Cao grunted, annoyed. "Then go get a replacement! Don't ask me for permission, you waste of air. Go to the administrative hut at the base path. Tell them you need a replacement heavy-duty scraper, inventory number 44-B. Be back in an hour or you sleep outside with the pigs."
"Thank you, Head Servant!" Lin Feng bowed deeply and hurried away, careful to keep his pace just slow enough to suggest physical strain, but fast enough to convey diligence.
When he reached the small, lonely administrative hut, Han Yue was indeed there, meticulously sorting a sheaf of scrolls on a small, worn table. She looked up, her expression shifting from focused concentration to slight surprise, then back to the gentle pity she had shown him days earlier.
"Lin Feng?" she asked, a small, genuine smile gracing her lips. "What brings you all the way up here? You are supposed to be confined to the Estate grounds."
Lin Feng immediately adopted his persona: earnest, defeated, but trying.
"Administrative Disciple Han. I hope I'm not disrupting your work. Head Servant Cao sent me. He is… rather particular about his tools. He said the heavy-duty scraper, inventory number 44-B, is missing and demanded I collect a replacement from your stores."
Han Yue paused her sorting. "Oh, the scraper. Let me check the ledger." She opened a thick, dusty book bound in green leather. As she flipped the pages, Lin Feng allowed his hidden, Level Nine senses to observe her closely.
Her aura was stable, bright, and pure Level Five Qi Condensation. She was focused, meticulous, and had a soft, kind heart—just as he had judged. But beyond her spiritual power, she was physically appealing, with features that were delicate but structured, suggesting a strength beneath her gentle demeanor. His heightened perception revealed a faint, lingering scent of jasmine and the subtle, nervous rhythm of her pulse as she stood close to him.
"Ah, 44-B," she murmured, finding the entry. "It was logged out to the lower kitchens two weeks ago. Cao always forgets. We don't have a replacement scraper in stock here, Lin Feng. I'm sorry. You'll have to go back empty-handed."
Lin Feng sighed, letting his shoulders slump dramatically. "I understand. Cao will be… displeased. But thank you for checking the ledger for me, Disciple Han. I appreciate your thoroughness." He paused, then looked directly at her, letting sincerity bleed into his voice.
"I also wanted to thank you, truly," he continued, speaking softly. "The other day, when you processed my transfer. Most cultivators look through me, or laugh. You gave me a moment of human kindness, and I haven't forgotten it. Down in the Mortal Estate, that memory keeps me going through the filth."
His words were honest, but strategically timed. Han Yue visibly softened. Her cheeks flushed slightly, and she closed the ledger, resting her hands on the cover.
"That is… unnecessary, Lin Feng," she said, her voice dropping to a near-whisper. "I merely hate seeing a spirit crushed. Ten years is too much investment to simply cast aside a life. Your father served the sect well. It isn't right."
He took a careful half-step closer. "It is right for the strong to thrive, and the weak to be culled. That is the way of cultivation," he conceded, adopting a philosophical, defeated tone. "But I plan to persist, even down there. And persistence requires knowledge."
He leaned in slightly, his voice dropping further, making it feel like a shared secret.
"Since you are kind enough to share a moment with a servant… I need one piece of information that the sect has removed from my access. I need the complete list of available medicinal herbs cultivated outside of the main Inner Peak gardens. The servants are allowed to forage for basic medicinal weeds for ailments and injuries, but I no longer have access to the sect's official herb inventory list. Do you think… could you possibly find a discarded copy of that manifest for me? Knowing which weeds are merely poisonous and which might actually heal a burn would save us all a lot of trouble."
It was a brilliant request. It sounded completely plausible for a menial servant trying to avoid injury, but the 'herb manifest' would contain vital information on local spiritual plants. If he knew where the low-level spiritual herbs grew, he could secretly harvest them to supplement his cultivation, which, thanks to the Primordial Chaos Art, could refine even the lowest-grade resource into a usable form.
Han Yue bit her lip, glancing around nervously. "That list is sensitive information, Lin Feng. It's part of the sect's resource management."
Lin Feng sighed, stepping back, projecting immediate, exaggerated disappointment. "I understand. It was too much to ask. Forgive my audacity. I will return to Cao."
"Wait," Han Yue interjected quickly, a conflict playing out on her face. Her compassion was winning against her administrative duty. "I… I can't give you the official manifest. But I do handle the supply records for the Outer Peak's medical wing. I could perhaps, on a discarded scratch scroll, list the names and general growing regions of the five most common low-grade healing weeds that the servants usually forage for. Nothing high-level, just the basics."
He suppressed the urge to beam with satisfaction. Five common healing weeds. Perfect. A single low-grade spiritual herb refined by the Primordial Chaos Art would be worth a dozen common spirit stones.
"That would be a gift of immense value, Disciple Han," Lin Feng said, returning her a look of profound gratitude, but keeping his emotional display reigned in. "A simple list is all I need. It would genuinely protect the servants from accidental poisoning. Thank you. You are truly the only kind light on this mountain."
Han Yue smiled, a genuine, warm light that briefly chased the shadows from the desolate hut. "It's nothing. I can have it ready tomorrow afternoon. Just come up with another believable excuse to leave the stables."
He nodded, maintaining eye contact just long enough for a small moment of charged intimacy to pass between them—a flash of something beyond courtesy. He was a handsome young man, despite the grime, and the intensity in his eyes was not the dullness of failure, but the sharp focus of ambition. Han Yue quickly looked away, gathering her scrolls.
"Tomorrow, then," Lin Feng confirmed. "May your cultivation thrive, Disciple Han."
He quickly departed, walking back to the Mortal Estate with a quiet, confident stride. He had secured his first information pipeline and forged a relationship based on calculated sincerity and a touch of subtle flirtation.
"Han Yue is useful, but she is a liability if she discovers my secret," Lin Feng reflected, allowing the triumphant smirk he couldn't show Cao to cross his face. "I must ensure that the debt of kindness always favors her, and that she never sees past the exhaustion to the power beneath."
As he neared the stables, he saw the shadowy figure of Head Servant Cao waiting for him.
"Well?" Cao demanded. "The scraper? Did the lazy clerks finally hand it over?"
"My deepest apologies, Head Servant," Lin Feng said, bowing low, projecting humility. "The scraper, inventory 44-B, was signed out to the lower kitchens two weeks ago. They are waiting for its return before they can log it back into the main inventory. I was informed I must wait until tomorrow to retrieve it."
Cao swore under his breath, kicking a stray pebble. "The kitchens! They always lose everything! Fine! You are lucky the stable is still spotless. Get back to sweeping the paddock. I still want that scraper back tomorrow, understand?"
"Yes, Head Servant. Tomorrow, I will retrieve it," Lin Feng promised.
He grabbed a broom and walked toward the paddock, but the broom in his hand felt light as a feather, and the mud beneath his worn boots felt like solid, stable ground. Tomorrow, he would receive his list, and the first stage of his resource accumulation—the hunt for spiritual weeds—would begin. The road to the Foundation Establishment was now clear.