Chapter 1: The Voluntary Exile
The sun hung low over the western peaks, casting long, melancholic shadows across the spirit fields of the Mengyuan Sect. The air here was crisp, filled with the faint, sweet scent of spiritual grain, a scent that Luo Feng had inhaled every day for the past ten years.
Luo Feng stood at the edge of his assigned plot, his hands covered in dark, spiritual soil. He looked up, his gaze piercing through the layers of mist that shrouded the towering summits of the Inner Sect. There, amidst the clouds, immortal cranes danced, and sword lights streaked across the sky like meteors. It was a paradise for cultivators, a place where legends were born.
But it was a paradise that did not belong to him.
He looked down at his rough, calloused hands, trembling slightly from exhaustion. He then pulled out his wooden identity token. The spiritual light within it was dim, flickering weakly like a candle in the wind—much like his own cultivation path.
"Thirty years old. Qi Refining Layer 3. Five Spirit Roots..." Luo Feng whispered, his voice hoarse and full of exhaustion.
He closed his eyes, a bitter smile tugging at the corners of his lips. He wasn't originally from this world. He was a transmigrator from Earth, who had arrived ten years ago filled with arrogance and dreams. He thought he was the protagonist of a grand story. He thought he would defy the heavens, slap the faces of young masters, and ascend to immortality.
But reality was a cold, hard slap.
In the cultivation world, aptitude was everything. He possessed the dreaded Five Spirit Roots—the worst possible talent. Absorbing Qi for him was like trying to drink water through a straw clogged with mud. For ten years, he had worked like a mule, waking up before dawn to tend the spirit crops and meditating until his legs went numb at night.
Yet, he was still stuck at the peak of the Third Layer.
There was no explicit rule in the Mengyuan Sect that forced a servant disciple to leave. The sect was vast; they always needed cheap labor to tend the fields, feed the spirit beasts, and sweep the stairs. He could have stayed here until he died of old age, gray-haired and bent-backed, earning a few meager spirit stones a month while watching teenagers zoom past him into the sky.
But today, staring at the invisible barrier within his Dantian that blocked him from the Fourth Layer, Luo Feng finally accepted the cruel reality.
He couldn't break through.
"I have no future in cultivation," he admitted to the wind, the words tasting like ash in his mouth. "If I stay, I'm just a leech slowly drying out, clinging to a dream that died years ago. It's time to give up."
It was a painful realization. He wasn't the chosen one. He was just... background noise. A generic NPC in someone else's glorious epic.
"Brother Feng?"
A soft, hesitant voice broke his trance.
Luo Feng turned around. Standing on the ridge of the field was Luo Xia. She wore coarse gray hemp robes that couldn't hide the gentle curve of her figure, though her face was weary and dusted with dirt. She was carrying a heavy basket of spirit chaff, her forehead glistening with sweat.
Luo Xia was twenty-six years old this year. She had entered the sect around the same time as him, but her fate was even worse. She was stuck at Qi Refining Layer 1. In the eyes of the sect, she was barely worth the air she breathed.
She looked at his desolate expression, at the way his shoulders slumped, and she understood immediately. They had relied on each other for survival in the servant quarters for a decade. She knew his heart better than anyone.
"Are we... leaving?" she asked softly, her eyes flashing with a complex mix of fear and relief.
Luo Feng nodded slowly, turning his back on the majestic mountains for the final time. "I'm tired, Xia. I don't want to chase a dream that doesn't want me anymore. I don't want to die alone in these fields."
He walked over and took the heavy basket from her hands, setting it down in the dirt. He gripped her rough, calloused hands in his own.
"Let's go to the mortal world," he said, his voice firming up. "Let's find a quiet corner in Cloud City. We'll get married. We'll live a quiet life. Maybe... maybe our children will have the talent we lack. Maybe they can achieve what we couldn't."
Luo Xia didn't argue. She didn't try to persuade him to persevere. She simply looked at him with unwavering trust.
"Where you go, I go," she whispered.
One Day Later - Cloud City, Outer District
The departure was humiliatingly simple. They handed in their identity tokens at the sect gate. The deacon on duty barely looked up from his ledger. He scanned their cultivation levels—Layer 3 and Layer 1—and shook his head with a trace of pity and disdain.
"Another pair giving up to be breeding pigs in the secular world," the deacon muttered, tossing their tokens into a bin of rejected wood. "Go on then. Once you leave, you are no longer disciples of Mengyuan."
Luo Feng didn't look back. He took Luo Xia's hand and walked down the mountain path, leaving the spiritual mist behind.
They traveled to Cloud City, the largest gathering hub for loose cultivators in the region.
Although they had given up on the Great Dao, they couldn't simply return to a mortal village. Their bodies had been nourished by spiritual energy for years. If they went to a place without Qi, their cultivation would dissipate, and they would age rapidly, dying within a few decades. To maintain their health and vitality, they had to live near a Spirit Vein.
Cloud City was built atop a massive Spirit Vein, but it was strictly segregated. The Inner City was a paradise with rich Qi, but the cost of living was astronomical.
They had no choice but to settle in the Outer City Slums.
This district was crowded, chaotic, and dirty. It was built on the fringes of the formation, siphoning off a fragmented, low-rank Spirit Vein. The air here smelled of unwashed bodies, smoke, and desperation. The Qi was thin and mixed with impurities, but it was better than nothing.
They found a landlord, a greasy man with a rat-like mustache who was at the 5th Layer of Qi Refining. He led them to a small, dilapidated courtyard in a narrow alley. The walls were peeling, and the roof leaked sunlight.
"The rent is 10 Spirit Stones a month," the landlord spat, eyeing their worn sect robes with contempt. He knew exactly what they were—failed disciples. Fresh meat.
Luo Xia gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. "Ten stones? That's... that's almost everything we have!"
"Take it or leave it," the landlord sneered. "This is the Outer City. Do you know how many loose cultivators want to live here? The Spirit Vein reaches this alley. You pay for the Qi, not the house."
Luo Feng's jaw tightened. 10 Spirit Stones was an exorbitant price. In the sect, he only earned 15 stones a month for backbreaking labor. But he looked at Luo Xia, then at the crowded street outside. They had nowhere else to go.
"We'll take it," Luo Feng said, his hands trembling slightly as he counted out their meager savings. He handed the pouch to the landlord.
The pressure was instantaneous and suffocating. They hadn't even unpacked, and they were already on the verge of poverty.
That night, the wind howled through the cracks in the wooden walls. They sat on the cold, hard bed, eating dry rations.
"We need income," Luo Feng said, his voice breaking the silence. "Our savings will only last two months at this rate."
He paced the small room. "I'll rent a small plot in the shared spirit fields outside the city walls. I can plant Spirit Rice. I'm a Spirit Farmer, after all. Even if it's low grade, it's a skill."
He paused, looking at the corner of the room where he had placed several large clay fermentation jars.
"And... I'll keep trying to brew wine."
Luo Xia looked worried. "Husband, the ingredients for spirit wine are expensive. And the failure rate..."
"I know," Luo Feng sighed, rubbing his temples.
In the sect, he had bragged about being a Spirit Wine Master to gain some face. But he knew the truth. He was a fake. He wasn't even a Low-Grade Wine Master. He was just a hobbyist who had bought a crude, common recipe from an old drunkard.
His brewing technique was primitive. He lacked the proper Spirit Fire to purify the grain and the special yeast to catalyze the energy. The result was a wine that was cloudy, bitter, and barely contained any Qi. It was trash.
"But in this slum, poor cultivators can't afford real Spirit Wine," Luo Feng argued, trying to convince himself as much as her. "They will buy anything cheap just to get a taste of spiritual energy. Even if I sell it for 1 or 2 stones a pot, it's a profit. I have to try, Xia. I need to earn stones for our future children. I can't let them be poor like us."
Luo Xia reached out and held his hand. "I believe in you, Brother Feng. We will make it work."
The Wedding Night
A few days later, they held a simple wedding in the cramped, drafty room.
There were no guests. No banquets. No fireworks. Just two red candles flickering on the wobbly table, a bowl of cheap spiritual rice, and a cup of his own bitter, cloudy wine.
Luo Xia was wearing a red veil she had sewn herself out of cheap silk. The candlelight softened the room, hiding the peeling paint and the dirt floor. To Luo Feng, in this moment, she was the most beautiful woman in the world.
He lifted her veil. Her eyes were shimmering with tears and affection.
"Xia," he said, his voice choking with emotion. A wave of guilt washed over him. He was a transmigrator. He should have given her the world. Instead, he brought her to a slum to worry about rent.
"I brought you out of the sect to suffer with me," he whispered, stroking her cheek. "I have no future. My cultivation is stuck forever. I am a failure of a cultivator. All I can give you... is a family."
He poured the cloudy wine into two chipped cups.
"I swear to the Heavens," Luo Feng said solemnly, raising his cup. "I will work until my bones break to nurture our bloodline. If I can't become an Immortal, I will make sure our son becomes one. I will pave the road for our descendants with my own life."
Luo Xia took her cup, touched it to his, and drank the bitter liquid without flinching. She leaned her head against his chest.
"Husband, don't talk about suffering. As long as we are a family, that is enough for me."
They blew out the candles. The room plunged into darkness.
The night was quiet, save for the distant shouting of drunk cultivators in the alley outside. In the intimacy of the moment, two lonely souls merged, seeking comfort in a cold world.
Hours later.
Luo Feng lay beside his sleeping wife. Luo Xia's breathing was soft and rhythmic, her hand still clutching his arm even in sleep.
Luo Feng stared at the dark, rotting wooden beams of the ceiling. The adrenaline of the wedding had faded, replaced by the crushing weight of reality.
10 Spirit Stones rent.
Food costs.
Seeds for the farm.
Bribes for the local gangs.
And his own body... he could feel the thin, impure Qi of the Outer City trying to enter his pores. But his Five Spirit Roots acted like a barrier. He absorbed almost nothing. Without the sect's dense environment, his cultivation wasn't just stuck—it was beginning to regress.
Despair, cold and heavy, settled in his chest.
'Is this it?' he thought bitterly. 'I crossed dimensions, struggled for ten years, just to end up as a peasant in a magical slum? No hope. No future. Just a mediocre destiny.'
He closed his eyes, a single tear leaking out. He prepared to accept his fate. He would be a stepping stone. Nothing more.
DING!
A crisp, mechanical chime rang directly in the center of his soul.
The sound was so clear, so alien, that it shattered his despair instantly. Luo Feng's eyes snapped open. The air in the room seemed to freeze.
'System...?'
He didn't dare to breathe. Was he hallucinating?
Suddenly, a translucent blue interface floated in the darkness, glowing softly, visible only to him.
[Detected Host has established a Family.]
[Conditions Met.]
[Host has realized the Dao of Legacy.]
[Farming System Activated.]
Luo Feng's heart hammered against his ribs like a war drum. He bit his tongue to keep from screaming. It was real. It was actually real.
[Welcome, Host.]
[You have unlocked the Family Prosperity System.]
[Rewards Granted for Starting a Family:]
1. Farming Space (10 Acres - Consciousness Bound)
2. Inheritance: Second-Grade Spirit Wine Brewing (Mastery)
3. Passive Technique: Sun & Moon Refining
BOOM.
A flood of golden information rushed directly into his brain. It was overwhelming.
First came the knowledge. The crude, amateurish wine recipes in his memory were violently overwritten. In their place appeared exquisite, complex techniques of a Grade 2 Wine Master. He suddenly understood fermentation ratios, spirit harmonization, purification fires, and the precise art of extracting essence from grain. He wasn't a fake anymore. He was a master.
Simultaneously, his Dantian burned.
A Warm Current (Sun) and a Cool Current (Moon) materialized out of nowhere, beginning to spiral in a perfect circle within his energy center.
[Sun & Moon Refining Active: Automatically filtering external Qi. Purifying impurities. Five Spirit Roots penalty negated.]
Luo Feng gasped, his back arching off the mattress.
He felt the thin, dirty Qi of the Outer City slum rushing toward him. Usually, his Five Spirit Roots would reject 90% of it, and the rest would be clogged with impurities. But now?
The Sun and Moon currents acted like a divine millstone. They crushed the dirty Qi, filtered out the grime, and refined it into pure, liquid-like mana that flowed into his dried-up meridians like a gentle river.
He was cultivating! He was cultivating faster in his sleep than he ever had while meditating in the Sect!
He wasn't stuck anymore.
With trembling mental commands, he closed his eyes and looked inward. His consciousness was pulled into a mysterious void.
He saw it.
Floating in the center of his mind was a massive, fertile island. 10 Acres of Spirit Land, with soil as black and rich as oil, radiating vitality. A small spring bubbled in the center.
It was a world that belonged only to him.
Luo Feng opened his eyes in the dark room. The despair was gone, incinerated by a blazing, wild ambition. He looked at the sleeping Luo Xia, at her peaceful face, and clenched his fist. Tears of relief streamed down his face, but he was grinning like a madman.
"I didn't leave the sect to give up," he whispered into the darkness, his voice trembling with power. "I left the sect to become a Legend."
Author's Note:
Luo Feng's journey has just begun.
If this chapter moved you even a little, please add this book to your Library and send a Power Stone.
Your support decides how far this story can go. Thank you for walking this path with me.