The Legend of Fangren

On the mountain road, a wisp of smoke rushed down from above.

Fang Shi looked around like a little thief. Once he reached the outer sect's territory, he took a shortcut and finally found his way to Panyun Tower. After confirming that no one was paying attention to him, he closed the door and quickly returned to his room on the top floor to take out the five self-cultivation manuals.

Using such methods was truly out of desperation. On the path of cultivation, there is so much prejudice from others, and how many people are as easygoing as Zhang Kongming?

Without strength and ability, is he really destined to be a menial laborer for life? At worst, he might be driven off the mountain, but he can still achieve something great.

And now, he, Fang Shi, wants to cultivate immortality!

The path to immortality is right before my eyes! My heart is pounding with excitement, my hands are trembling... Open the cultivation manual and look!

Twenty minutes later.

"Is this some kind of cultivation technique?"

With a myriad of complex emotions in his heart, Fang Shi, refusing to believe in superstition, turned to the next book. The names of the five zodiac-related cultivation methods were all the same, named according to the cultivation methods: Metal, Wood, Water... Cultivation Methods.

After reading through them, he felt that these five self-cultivation methods should be renamed "Healthy People's Exercise and Diet Guidelines," with a set of morning radio exercises as a bonus.

One, two, three, four; two, two, three, four... Oh my god!

He raised his hand halfway, but managed to restrain himself.

Thinking about it calmly, this technique might not be wrong—although the world of my previous life was not a world of cultivation, the people of that world used scientific methods to develop various training methods.

The saying goes that all things eventually converge on the same goal; as long as everything follows the natural order, the final result will always be the same, regardless of the path taken.

With this thought in mind, Fang Shi suddenly understood.

The most difficult part of this cultivation method is not actually the training methods, but the rare and precious treasures that are recommended to be consumed, especially for disciples at the Heavenly Rank, who need to consume even rarer and more precious treasures.

These rare treasures are scattered throughout the Xuan Realm, but obtaining them is difficult. It is extremely difficult for disciples who are new to cultivation to acquire them. Therefore, in the sect, disciples need to exchange the spiritual items they need at the sect's Heaven and Earth Pavilion based on their monthly merits.

The last page of the manual lists the merit levels of disciples at different ranks.

The monthly stipends for Heaven, Earth, and Human are 3,000, 2,000, and 1,000 respectively. If one wants more, one needs to find some jobs to do or offer rare and precious treasures to the sect's Heaven and Earth Pavilion.

In this way, performance bonuses are like wages.

Fang Shi was a little puzzled as to why there were no rewards for outer sect disciples. Even if they weren't given cultivation opportunities, they should at least be given money for food.

He closed the book, deciding to put those thoughts aside for now. His first priority was to familiarize himself with the self-cultivation methods within the book.

According to the five manuals, humans have five internal organs that correspond to the five elements. These organs are the foundation for the human body to decompose external substances and operate itself.

The movements of the body-cultivation method correspond to the parts of each organ, stretching and exercising the whole body, while also emphasizing certain areas.

When consuming spiritual items, one should consume them according to one's own zodiac sign. For example, if the Luo River belongs to the metal element, one should consume metal spiritual items. In addition, according to the principle that metal generates water, one should also consume some water spiritual items to act as a buffer. If one accidentally consumes too much metal, one can consume fire spiritual items to counteract the metal element.

So how should Fang Shi, who has the innate Hunyuan phase, practice?

Five exercise manuals were laid out in front of me, and the training movements all looked quite scientific.

"I think we can practice both."

So he decided to practice all five books at once.

What? You've gone mad from practicing qi cultivation?

As long as he's good-for-nothing, there's no need to worry about geniuses; at worst, he'll just exhaust himself.

Half an hour later...

"..." Fang Shi lay unconscious on the bed.

Tip for practicing: Remember to consume spiritual food before practicing, otherwise you'll run out of energy and feel weak!

Oh my god.

By the time Fang Shi reopened the exercise manual and saw this little tip, it was already evening outside.

The intense hunger emanating from his stomach urged him to open his backpack and devour the food. However, unlike before, the once very filling spiritual fruits now seemed like ordinary fruits, and he ate four or five without feeling anything at all.

"I'm so hungry, so hungry, so hungry."

Driven by hunger, he rummaged through his backpack, the scent he caught guiding him to something inside.

This is it! He finally found the three red fruits buried at the bottom of the bag. He had kept them before because he dared not taste them, but now they looked so tempting.

After practicing the body-cultivation method, the body seemed to become like a starving wild beast, its hunting instincts unleashed, its body yearning to tell him that these three fruits were edible.

"eat!"

Without much thought, he opened his mouth and took a bite, but the taste was different from the sweet and sour taste he had tasted before. This fruit was sour to the roots of his teeth, and when it touched his tongue, he tasted bitter. The sourness mixed with the bitterness made Fang Shi almost spit it out.

After enduring several bouts of nausea, he finally ate the fruit.

Although I was still hungry, I felt much better than before, and my heart felt warm.

After picking off a few more Sky Fruits, drowsiness washed over him like a tide. Fang Shi, who hadn't been up for long, slumped his head and fell asleep again.

the next morning.

"Strange, I feel so weak."

Fang Shi did not feel as refreshed as he had when he woke up after taking the Fuyuan Pill. He felt a strange sensation in his body, with an uneven soreness and swelling throughout his body.

Except for a slight warmth in my heart.

Following the instructions, he did a set of morning exercises in his room, and his body felt much better immediately, as if his body had regained its balance.

"As expected of someone with the Primordial Chaos Form, they are truly formidable."

A masterful lie is one that fools even yourself.

Then he remembered what happened yesterday; it seemed that the cook named Old Zhu was planning to give him a job.

Since they were so "hospitable," he couldn't refuse, so he got to work.

After asking around, they found out the location of the kitchen and went there.

"I didn't expect the kitchen to be so big."

At first glance, it sounds like a place for cooking, but this place provides meals for all the disciples of the sect at the human level. Several thousand people are waiting to eat, so you can imagine how many people are needed. Just the number of people coming and going is more than a hundred.

Therefore, it can be seen that Old Zhu, who was in charge of the kitchen, held a high position.

Fang Shi entered the kitchen, intending to find Lao Zhu, but everyone inside was busy chopping vegetables and tending the fire. He stood at the door with no idea who to look for.

"Make way! Make way! Don't block the way."

Once the porridge was cooked in a large pot, two strong men immediately lifted it onto a wooden cart and sent it to the dining halls in various parts of the sect.

Fang Shi secretly looked under the stove and found that the fire was no ordinary fire. It was extremely red-hot. The chopped wood was thrown in and turned to ashes in no time, which were then pushed out from the other end.

"Hey kid, what are you standing there for? Aren't you going to work?"

Suddenly, a hand pressed down on his shoulder from behind. Fang Shi immediately turned around and saw that it was Old Zhu.

"It's you, kid, here to get to work?"

Old Zhu immediately recognized Fang Shi. Seeing Fang Shi nod, he pointed into the kitchen and assigned him tasks: "See all that charcoal ash piled up inside the stove? Quickly get a cart and cut it down, take it to the back mountain path and dump it there. Then grab an axe and chop firewood, and haul it back in the cart. Remember to chop those tough, old trees. You don't need me to teach you that, do you?"

Holy crap, it feels like I've been back in my past life as a corporate slave.

The conditioned reflex buried deep in his soul was instantly activated. Fang Shi nodded and ran nimbly towards the tow truck, much to Lao Zhu's surprise.

Shouldering a shovel, enduring the scorching gases from the stove, he shoveled the charcoal fragments onto the trailer.

"Cough cough cough..."

When Fang Shi first did this job, he ended up covered in dirt and grime, which made him the butt of jokes among the other people in the kitchen.

"Hmm, you're quite efficient. Keep up the good work, and don't forget to come back and record your performance when you're done."

Old Zhu at the entrance gave a word of praise, as encouragement for the newbie. Fang Shi simply hummed in response and pulled the tow truck toward the back mountain path that Old Zhu had indicated.

When they arrived at the open space behind the kitchen, Fang Shi immediately put down the trailer and patted his hair.

"Pah, doing this kind of work for too long will definitely give you lung disease."

Why is it that protagonists who cling to powerful figures have such a miserable life, having to endure so much humiliation in the early stages? Is it some kind of legendary humiliation segment?

I wonder when Hezi will be able to complete his cultivation and then come to see his childhood friend.