Spirit Plant Entry: Immortality Begins with Farming

Hong Gu didn't wait for that thing to speak—if the pale figure by the well could be called "something."

With a flick of her wrist, seven "blood-burning needles" shot out.

The needle was as thin as a hair, as red as a branding iron, and left seven bloody streaks in the air.

"The first move is the best!" she shouted sharply.

The needle was halfway through.

Jing Ling blinked.

That blink was very slow.

So slow that Hong Gu could clearly see the lines on its eyelids, like a dried-up riverbed.

Then, the world shattered.

---

The sound was the first to disappear.

Wind, breath, the whistling of needles—everything returned to deathly silence.

The sound of chains scraping came from afar, growing closer and closer.

Hong Gu found herself hanging.

Iron rings were fastened into wrists and ankles, and rusty spikes pierced the flesh.

His collarbone was pierced, and every breath felt like someone was pulling nails in his chest.

She looked up.

There were seven people standing in front of me.

Seven people she knew best.

Her mother was wearing a faded blue cotton shirt with oil stains on the cuffs. She reached out and touched Hong Gu's cheek; the calluses on her fingertips were rough yet familiar.

"Hong'er," her mother said gently, "Are you in pain?"

Hong Gu's lips trembled: "It hurts..."

"It's supposed to hurt." The older brother came out.

He grasped Hong Gu's pierced wrist, his calloused palm rubbing against the beads of blood seeping out.

"When you killed me back then," he whispered in my ear, "I was in just as much pain."

Hong Gu shook her head, the chains clanging: "No... I didn't..."

"You have it." The younger sister squeezed in. She was only fifteen, her freckles clearly visible on her face. "You used my soul to forge the first bell. I remember your hand on my forehead, your nails digging into my flesh. I remember your lips trembling as you chanted the incantation. I remember seeing you close your eyes when my soul was extracted—you dared not look at me."

Hong Gu started to tremble.

The tremor that rose from the depths of my bones was like rust that had accumulated over thirty years beginning to peel away.

"I just...want to become stronger." Her voice was hoarse. "I just don't want to be trampled underfoot anymore..."

"So we deserve it?" The father sat on the stone bench, his back hunched, clutching the broken pipe in his hand. He tapped the edge of the bench; the pipe was filled with only ash.

"I raised you for seventeen years. I taught you to read, to be a person, and to uphold your integrity, no matter how poor you are. And what did you do? You abandoned your integrity and demanded power. Fine, then have power, but why did you have to exchange it for our lives?"

Hong Gu wanted to defend herself, to talk about those who bullied her, those who pressed her into the mud and trampled her, and those who called her a "bastard".

But as she was about to speak, she smelled blood.

His own blood—seeping from where it pierced his collarbone, flowing down his ribs, soaking his clothes. The rusty, sweet, and metallic scent was so real it was pungent.

The Soul-Capturing Bell on his wrist began to vibrate.

It wasn't her who started it. The bell itself was vibrating.

Seven bells clashed wildly against the bell wall, and from their piercing screams, specific words were extracted:

"Sister...I'm so cold..."

"Hong Gu...give me back my eyes..."

"Daughter...my bones...aches..."

The vengeful spirit burst out of the bell.

They hovered in mid-air, seven blurry figures all "looking" at her, then pounced—

It wasn't biting.

It's a hug.

A cold, empty embrace, filled with deep resentment, enveloped her from all sides.

Fear, resentment, confusion, and... a faint, almost imperceptible longing for loved ones.

"ah--!!!"

Hong Gu screamed in agony.

It wasn't because of the pain. It was because of that lingering affection.

It was like a red-hot needle, piercing through the hard shell she had built up over the past thirty years with layers of "having no choice" and "for survival," and precisely stabbing into the deepest, already rotten core.

She saw it.

He saw the tears streaming down his younger sister's face when his trembling hand touched her forehead that night.

Seeing the look in her older brother's eyes as he died—not hatred, but disappointment. Deep disappointment. Seeing her mother's last, unfinished words, her lips forming the words, "Live well..."

"No..." Hong Gu curled up, the chains digging into her flesh. "No...it's not like that...I'm not..."

"You are it," the seven people said in unison.

They surrounded her and reached out to tear her flesh apart.

The ripping sound of skin tearing, the body heat carried away by the gushing blood, the warm, fishy smell of internal organs exposed to the air—

But these are not the scariest things.

The most terrifying thing was that, amidst the excruciating pain, she clearly realized one thing:

She deserves all of this.

This thought was like a bucket of ice water poured over her head, instantly freezing all her struggles, justifications, and self-pity.

She stopped moving.

She let herself be torn apart, let herself be devoured, let herself be overwhelmed by the excruciating pain. She simply opened her eyes and looked at her mother's face, her father's hunched back, her elder brother's broad hands, and her younger sister's canine tooth.

Looked for a long time.

Then she opened her mouth, her voice so soft it was almost inaudible:

"Big brother... I'm sorry."

The hand that was tearing at her heart paused for a moment.

Hong Gu smiled. Her lips twitched, and blood seeped from between her teeth.

"I know...it's pointless to say this," she gasped, "but...I have to say it at least once."

She closed her eyes and bit her tongue.

The excruciating pain brought her to a moment of clarity—the pain of something deep within her soul finally breaking.

The "unavoidable circumstances" that had sustained them for the past thirty years collapsed completely at this moment.

There are no more excuses. There are no more reasons.

She chose this path, sacrificing the lives of her loved ones for her own future.

"Blood Escape: Debunking Illusion!"

The essence and blood spurted out, exploding into a scarlet mist.

Cracks appeared in the illusion.

Hong Gu took one last look at the seven faces—this time, she didn't look away.

She looked into their eyes, at the lingering warmth within them, then turned and transformed into a streak of blood-red light that pierced the crack.

She ran away.