No Money to Cultivate Immortality?

No Money to Cultivate Immortality?

Ji Zhi had once been a student at Wanfa University.

After graduation, he joined a pharmaceutical company, where he was put in charge of cultivating and growing medicinal herbs.

Thanks to his outstanding expertise and tireless work ethic, he outperformed the veterans on his team and single-handedly took over a vast swath of the herb cultivation zone.

His salary rose. The floor of his rented apartment crept higher.

He switched to branded pills, upgraded his Law Husk piece by piece to high-end models.

He started eating meat once a month and occasionally attended lectures by Nascent Soul cultivators.

He no longer used Magnetic Channels for travel, walking instead through anti-gravity corridors...

Just when Ji Zhi thought he was steadily climbing the ladder to wealth and comfort, fate played a cruel joke.

“Zone 18 has severe miasma contamination. The miasma’s already infiltrated your internal organs. You need immediate surgery. If not, you’ll lose your ability to work within a month.”

When he heard this from the doctor’s mouth, Ji Zhi felt his spirit collapse. His mind went blank.

Only later did he learn that the growth hormones used by the company to cultivate medicinal herbs contained massive amounts of Zone 18 Miasma.

That miasma was essential for the herbs he grew—but long-term exposure to it was highly toxic to the human body.

To afford the surgery, Ji Zhi plunged into debt. Even after the operation, he needed daily Spirit Coins to pay for lifelong miasma-purging treatments—treatments that would continue until death.

He tried switching careers, but soon realized his skillset and experience meant he couldn’t find any job outside pharmaceutical cultivation that could also cover his medical bills.

He sought compensation from the company, but endless red tape and departmental buck-passing wore him down.

He understood, bitterly: “They’re waiting for me to die.”

“Just like they do with the affected customers.”

So, to keep affording his treatment, Ji Zhi had no choice but to stay at the company.

But to minimize further miasma exposure, he had to cut back his working hours—his productivity fell, and so did his performance bonuses.

That’s when Ji Zhi finally understood the looks those “replaced” veterans had given him.

It wasn’t jealousy. It wasn’t hate. They were looking at him the way he now looked at the young college grad who was about to take his place.

To cover the gap in his income, Ji Zhi had to start cutting expenses.

His apartment moved to lower floors. His Law Husk was downgraded piece by piece to budget gear. He relied on the company’s defective pills for medicine.

But that only worsened his performance. Eventually, his name landed on the layoff list.

With no income, he barely survived on temp gigs. His debts mounted. His treatments became harder to afford.

That was when the Black Agricultural Underworld found him. They offered him a job—growing Earthvein Wheat.

The Immortal-grade wheat was rich in edible spiritual essence, but difficult to cultivate. They needed experts like Ji Zhi to produce it at scale.

It started with farming. Then came flour processing. Then, to boost his income, Ji Zhi took on jobs like silencing witnesses and gang warfare.

Eventually, to boost the wheat’s yield even further, he developed a fertilizer project involving blood pools sourced from mortal civilians—turning mortals into his sustenance, to keep himself alive.

“This is Kunxu,” he said. “In Kunxu, you have to eat people to get rich. To keep living.”

“Just like the company eats us. Just like we eat mortals.”

And so Ji Zhi lived in the shadows of the Black Agricultural Underworld, risking his life every day, with his head all but hanging from his waistband.

Until today…

Faced with the siege of Zhang Yu and the others, Ji Zhi roared with fury, explosive killing intent surging: “If I were still in peak form… how could you possibly suppress me like this?!”

Roar!

As he shouted, the auto-injection mechanism in his arm-mounted Law Husk stabbed in a dose of combat stimulant. Ji Zhi’s body swelled once again, and violent Martial Qi surged out with searing heat, flooding in all directions.

His vision was blocked by ad-screens, his moves intercepted repeatedly. So Ji Zhi unleashed his Solar Qi Field in full—a high-temperature field that attacked indiscriminately.

Zhang Pianpian warned, “He’s trying to destroy the goods. Stop him!”

Zhang Yu said, “I’ll hold him off up front.”

Feeling the wave of heat surge toward him, Zhang Yu was the first to charge in, coordinating with several humanoid Martial Qi constructs to pin Ji Zhi down.

As their Martial Qi clashed and compressed, Zhang Yu felt like he’d just caught a hundred tons of concrete with his bare hands.

Yu Xinghan, with his Three-Eyed Divine Sight, instantly mapped everyone’s movements. In a flash, he dodged the heat and drove a punch toward the opening on Ji Zhi’s back.

Boom! A burst of Martial Qi exploded as Yu Xinghan blasted open a hole in Ji Zhi’s back defenses.

Just as the Qi began to knit itself closed again, Zhang Pianpian locked the spot in her eye-husk interface and tagged it with two gold-highlighted words: Hit here.

Empowered by her Frost Abyss Technique, Le Mulan struck with a single finger—cold mana infused with medicinal force lanced straight into Ji Zhi’s exposed back before the Qi could close.

Already in a high-stress state, Ji Zhi’s blood vessels dilated, and his heart pounded violently in response.

At the same time, Zhang Yu unleashed his Nine Heavens Cloudstride Force again. As the humanoid Qi constructs pinned Ji Zhi, Solar Qi erupted from his core.

“What?!” Ji Zhi gasped. “That’s my Solar Qi?!”

His body temperature had already spiked from his own Solar Qi. Now Zhang Yu’s attack was like adding fuel to the fire—his internal heat shot up again.

This, in turn, catalyzed the medicinal agents in his body. His heart pounded even harder. His head swam with dizziness.

Then came the final blow.

After the Solar Qi strike, Zhang Yu followed up with a palm strike—this one laced with brutal cold. The chill shot into Ji Zhi’s core.

Inside his body, Zhang Yu’s icy Qi and Le Mulan’s medicinal frost power converged—then detonated.

Heat and cold clashed within him. Some of his blood and energy accelerated wildly; others slowed to a crawl, freezing. His meridians exploded in shock.

Pfft!

Ji Zhi coughed a massive mouthful of blood. His Martial Qi faltered, leaving his defenses wide open—right in time for Yu Xinghan to land a barrage of heavy punches.

Zhang Yu and Le Mulan immediately followed up. In seconds, their combined onslaught overwhelmed and swallowed Ji Zhi whole.

Just a few seconds later, the three stopped attacking and looked at the now-silent hideout. Instinctively, they all exhaled in relief.

They had known this mission would pit them against the Black Agricultural Underworld. To say they weren’t nervous would’ve been a lie.

These gang members were vicious and merciless—the kind who’d kill or die without hesitation. If even one escaped, the consequences would be catastrophic.

But thanks to Zhang Pianpian’s intel, they had chosen the weakest point in the enemy’s defenses, and had the upper hand from start to finish.

“Don’t celebrate yet,” Zhang Pianpian’s voice chimed in. “The real task starts now.”

She stepped into the room, eyes scanning the flour bricks stacked around them.

Because offensive talismans were too likely to be detected by Righteous Gods, Zhang Pianpian had stayed out of direct combat, offering support from behind.

Now, gazing at the bricks of flour, she said, “We need to transport this batch out.”

Yu Xinghan asked, “What about the Earthvein Wheat still growing in the planting room?”

Aside from this storage room, the hideout also had a planting chamber filled with live Earthvein Wheat.

Zhang Pianpian replied, “Leave the wheat in place. Pulling it now would raise red flags. Let the Cleanup Division deal with it.”

“As for this flour…” She did a quick mental estimate. “Market price is over a hundred Spirit Coins.”

The moment she said it, Zhang Yu, Yu Xinghan, and Le Mulan all felt their breath quicken.

“This batch is worth over a hundred Spirit Coins. Plenty for us to divide.”

Yu Xinghan said, “This is so valuable, and they only had one Foundation Establishment guard? That’s reckless.”

Zhang Pianpian said calmly, “Usually there are two. We hit them when the other was off-shift.”

“Besides, more Foundation Establishments wouldn’t matter. If a patrol squad found this place, they’d all be finished anyway. The key to the Black Agricultural Underworld is staying hidden. This place is well-concealed. Their Law Husks and surveillance weren’t even networked externally.”

“If Zhang Yu hadn’t stumbled on a clue and I hadn’t forced a network breach, this place would’ve kept running smoothly for a long time.”

Zhang Yu thought to himself, “If not for the Evil God Ritual, I wouldn’t have confirmed the Black Agricultural Underworld was here, either.”

Yu Xinghan squatted beside the corpse, examining the Law Husk. “They had goods worth a hundred Spirit Coins, but their gear’s all budget models.”

“The Qi Refinement goons all looked half-starved.”

Zhang Pianpian said casually, “Who told you farmers get to eat well? You think just because they grow Earthvein Wheat, they can afford to eat it?”

“Most of the profits go up the chain.”

“Think about it—if they pulled off an underground base here in Huolongyuan, you think they did it without an inside man? And I bet that mole isn’t low-ranking, either.”

Yu Xinghan’s eyes narrowed. “So some people are cracking down on the Black Agricultural Underworld… but others are secretly backing it, making money from it?”

Zhang Pianpian said, “Alright. Enough talk. Zhang Yu, split off a tenth of the bricks.”

“One-tenth?” Zhang Yu balked. “That’s just ten-plus Spirit Coins. Isn’t that too little for us?”

Zhang Pianpian replied, “That tenth is for the patrol squad.”

“We keep the other ninety percent.”

Zhang Yu blinked. “How do we even smuggle it out?”

“This is a graveyard,” Zhang Pianpian said. “The simplest way? We ship it out as cremated remains.”