After dealing with the Mountain Tide cultivators, Alexei realized he had a problem. He didn't have any obsidian with him, which meant he couldn't build a Nether portal.
That meant he would have to retrieve some from his storage.
Also, Qingxue needed to know about the one cultivator who had escaped. The guy had grabbed his dead leader's corpse and vanished into the forest while he was busy building stone brick boxes around the other two. That cultivator was probably halfway to Mountain Tide Sect headquarters by now, ready to report that some "demonic cultivator" with weird armor had murdered his brothers.
He sighed. "This is going to be a whole thing, isn't it?"
First, he needed to mark his location so he could find it again.
He began building upward, placing dirt blocks beneath his feet as he jumped. Block by block, the pillar rose higher until he stood roughly a hundred meters above the forest canopy.
The view from up there was surprisingly good. He could see for kilometers in every direction. Endless green forest stretched to the horizon, and in the distance was the Whitepeak Mountain.
"Time to get down."
He walked to the edge of the pillar and looked over. A hundred meters of empty air separated him from the ground.
That would have killed him before. He had tested that plenty of times, mostly by accident, before becoming a cultivator. Afterward, he had been more careful. Dying meant resetting his level. With his farm and access to the Nether, he could climb back to level eighty fairly quickly, but it was still a hassle.
He was pretty sure he would survive.
"Only one way to find out."
He stepped off the edge.
The fall lasted about four seconds. Wind rushed past his face. The ground rose to meet him at alarming speed.
BOOM!
He hit like a falling boulder.
Dust burst outward. The impact carved a shallow crater into the forest floor, cracks spreading through the packed earth beneath the layer of leaves.
His health bar flickered.
He had lost half a heart.
That was all. From a hundred-meter fall, he lost only half a heart, and it regenerated within seconds.
"Cultivation world physics are bullshit," he muttered, climbing out of the crater. "But I'm not complaining."
He had a few minutes before the ender pearl stasis chamber teleported him back, so he pulled out his diamond shovel and started mining dirt.
By the time the teleport triggered, he had collected four stacks.
The world tilted, then snapped back into place. A moment later, he was standing in the courtyard of Aureate Summit, blinking under the late afternoon sun.
Mengyao was feeding wheat to one of the mooshrooms. She looked up when he appeared. "Welcome back."
"Thanks." He walked over to the ender pearl chamber and checked it. "I need your help again. Same thing as before, but this time wait about half an hour instead of fifteen minutes."
"Of course!" She nodded seriously. "It's no trouble at all."
Mengyao was too nice. Every time he asked for help, she acted like it was the greatest honor in the world. And he kept rewarding her with candy, which probably wasn't helping the dynamic.
He should give her something more meaningful. Maybe teach her a few Minecraft mechanics. She had been fascinated by the mooshrooms and chickens. Fishing might interest her too.
He pulled an ender pearl from his inventory and tossed it into the water column, where it bobbed gently in the bubble stream.
"I will be back in a bit."
He turned and headed inside his house, grabbing a few blocks of obsidian from storage. On his way out, he paused, then changed direction and walked toward Qingyue's building.
A few minutes later, he returned with Qingyue.
She stepped forward and mounted her sword. The blade lifted her into the air before she shot off toward the forest below, disappearing from sight within seconds.
Alexei watched her go. "I really hope she finds that guy before he gets back to his sect."
Mengyao looked curious. "What guy?"
"Long story. I will tell you later." He gave her a quick wave and stepped back to the edge of the courtyard. "See you in thirty minutes."
He threw the second ender pearl straight down toward the forest far below.
Mengyao shook her head and went back to the cowshed to feed the mooshrooms, chickens, and sheep.
With one hand, she rubbed a mooshroom, and with the other, she stroked a sheep. The soft, fluffy wool made her squint in contentment.
In her previous life, how had she never discovered such adorable spirit beasts?
---
The teleport deposited him about three hundred meters from where he had left his dirt pillar. Not bad, considering he had been aiming blind.
He could see the pillar in the distance. It took him about ten minutes of jogging through the forest to reach it.
The stone brick box was exactly where he had left it.
He walked over to the first one and knocked on the wall. "Still alive in there?"
There was a long pause, then a weak voice said, "...yes."
"I need you for something."
"What... what do you want?"
"Science," Alexei said cheerfully. He started pulling obsidian from his inventory. "Also safety testing. You are going to help me figure out if the Nether portal is safe to use."
"Nether portal? What is a Nether portal?"
"You'll see."
He built the frame quickly. Then he pulled out his flint and steel and struck the base.
Purple fire whooshed to life, filling the frame. The portal stabilized a moment later.
A strong pulling force radiated from the portal, making nearby leaves rustle and small branches bend toward it. After a few seconds, the gravitational effect faded, and everything went still.
He turned back to the stone box. "Time to get you out of there."
He broke open the top of the box.
The cultivator inside blinked up at him. He had recovered from the paralysis, but his eyes were red, his face pale, and his robes were stained from sitting in a stone box for over an hour.
"I can explain," the man said immediately. "We weren't really going to kill you. It was just a test. The sect sends us to test young talents, and..."
"Stop." Alexei held up a hand. "You were going to rob and murder me. We both know it. Let's not waste time with bullshit excuses."
The cultivator's mouth snapped shut.
"Now, here is the deal. I'm going to let you out of this box. You're going to walk through that portal." He pointed at the Nether portal. "And if you survive what's on the other side, I'll let you go. Sound fair?"
"What is on the other side?"
"A test."
"That's not an answer!"
"It's the only answer you are getting." Alexei crouched and looked the man in the eye. "Your other option is to stay in this box until you starve to death. Or until I get bored and fill it with lava. Your choice."
The cultivator stared at him. Then he glanced at the portal. Then back at Alexei.
"If I go through," he said slowly, "you'll let me go?"
"If you survive, yes."
"And if I don't survive?"
"Then I guess you don't have to worry about it anymore."
The man swallowed. "That's... not comforting."
"It wasn't meant to be."
Alexei stood and stepped back. Then he pulled out a wooden boat from his inventory and placed it on the ground next to the box.
The cultivator blinked. "What is that for?"
"Insurance. Get in the boat."
"What?"
"Get in the boat," Alexei repeated. "It's a vehicle. You sit in it, and it keeps you from running away."
The cultivator looked at the tiny wooden boat, then at Alexei, then back at the boat. "How does a boat keep me from running away?"
"Magic."
Before the cultivator could respond, Alexei reached down, grabbed him by the robes, and hauled him out of the box. The man yelped and tried to struggle, but Alexei was wearing full diamond armor.
The struggle lasted about two seconds.
Alexei dropped him into the wooden boat.
The cultivator's ass hit the seat, and immediately, the boat's mechanics activated. An invisible force locked him in place, binding him to the boat like he was glued there.
"What..." He tried to stand and failed. He shifted his weight, trying to tip the boat over, but it didn't budge. "What's this? What did you do to me?"
"It's a boat," Alexei said. "You sit in it. That's how boats work."
"This isn't how boats work!"
"It's how my boats work."
He walked over to the stone brick box and knocked on it. The cultivator who had taken the Thorns damage was still breathing, but barely. His face was grey, his eyes half-closed, and each breath came as a rattling wheeze. Blood had pooled beneath him.
"Can you hear me?"
The man's eyes focused on him. "...please..."
"Yeah, I figured. I'm not going to torture you or anything. But I'm not saving you either. You tried to kill me for my stuff. Actions have consequences."
The cultivator's mouth moved, but no sound came out.
Alexei waited. After about thirty seconds, the man stopped breathing.
[Level 124 → Level 125]
He pulled out his trident and drove it through the corpse's chest to make sure it was dead, then began digging. A few blocks down, he made a shallow hole two blocks deep. He dropped the body in and poured a bucket of lava over it.
The body ignited immediately, burning away to ash in seconds. He scooped up the lava source with his bucket and moved on.
The cultivator in the boat watched all of this with wide eyes.
"You are insane," he whispered.
Alexei walked over and started building stone brick walls around both the cultivator and the Nether portal, boxing them in together. "Now, about that test."
"I don't want to take your test!"
"Too bad. You're taking it anyway." Alexei placed the last brick and stepped back. The enclosed space was just large enough for the boat, the cultivator, the portal, and himself. "Here is how this works. That portal leads to another dimension. It's very hot in there. Your job is to go through and see if you die immediately or just eventually."
"That's not a job! That's murder!"
"You're the one who tried to rob me, remember? I could have just killed you outright. Instead, I am giving you a chance." Alexei removed the boat with a flick of his wrist, depositing the cultivator on the ground. "So go on. Step through the portal. Let's see what happens."
The cultivator stared at the rippling purple surface. Then he looked at Alexei.
"What if I refuse?"
"Then you never leave this box."
"You are trapping me in here with that thing?"
"Yes."
The cultivator's hands clenched into fists. For a moment, it looked like he might try to fight. Then his shoulders sagged.
"If I go through," he said quietly, "and I survive... you'll really let me go?"
"I will."
"I have your word?"
Alexei thought about it. "You have my word. If you survive the Nether, you are free."
The cultivator took a breath. Then he stood, turned toward the portal, and took one step closer.
He stopped at the edge. For a moment, he hesitated. Then he reached out.
His fingers passed through the rippling surface.
He jerked his hand back with a gasp. His skin had turned bright red, blisters already forming.
"It's..." He stared at his hand. "It's like sticking my hand into a forge!"
"That's the Nether." Alexei crossed his arms. "So? Are you going through, or are you staying in the box forever?"
"I..." The cultivator swallowed. "I need to circulate my qi to protect myself from the heat."
"You have ten minutes," Alexei said as he sealed the box.
The cultivator's face paled, but he nodded and sat down cross-legged, closing his eyes.
Alexei watched him for a moment, then turned and headed toward the portal.
"Where are you going?" the cultivator called out.
"To the other side. I need to set things up so you don't die immediately when you come through." Alexei paused at the portal's edge. "Ten minutes. Don't make me come back for you."
He stepped through.
---
The Nether was exactly as Alexei had left it. A crimson forest stretched before him, red fungal trees rising toward a ceiling of netherrack. In the distance, he could hear the low grunts of piglins.
He had switched to his golden boots so the piglins wouldn't attack him on sight. The last thing he needed was a horde of angry pigmen ruining his experiment.
He pulled soul torches from his inventory and started placing them around the portal, creating a perimeter of light. Then he built a low wall of netherrack blocks, just high enough to keep piglins from wandering into the area.
It wasn't perfect, but it would do.
He stood in front of the portal and waited.
Ten minutes passed.
Then another minute.
Then another.
"Is he really going to make me go back and drag him through?" he muttered.
Just as he was about to return to the Profound Sky Continent, the portal's surface rippled.
A hand pushed through.
It stayed there for a moment. Then it quickly withdrew. A few seconds later, it emerged again. This time it stayed longer before pulling back.
Alexei grinned. "Come on. You can do it. Just take the plunge."
The hand appeared a third time.
And then, slowly, a head followed.
The cultivator's face pushed through the portal's surface. His eyes were squeezed shut, sweat already pouring down his forehead. His head stayed there for some seconds, before he took it back.
He held there for a few seconds before retreating again.
Alexei watched for a moment, then sighed and turned away to craft the items he needed for his experiment.
----------
[POV: Test Subject]
Some few minutes earlier...
The Mountain Tide cultivator stood before the Nether portal, staring at the rippling purple surface, and tried to convince himself this was a good idea.
It wasn't a good idea.
But as that kid had pointed out, he didn't have many options. Actually, he had exactly one option: go through the portal or stay in this stone box until he died of dehydration.
He was starting to suspect that the only reason the boy had kept him alive was to use him as some kind of test subject for this bizarre "secret realm."
If he went through, there might be a chance of survival.
If he stayed here, death was guaranteed.
As for waiting for his third senior brother to bring reinforcements from Mountain Tide Sect? The sect was more than twenty days' travel from here. By the time help arrived, his corpse would be food for scavengers.
He took a deep breath and circulated his spiritual energy, forming a protective barrier around his body. Then he stepped into the purple curtain.
The world twisted. His vision warped as colors bled together. For a brief moment, it felt as though he were being forced through a space too small to contain him. Then it ended.
The first thing he noticed was the heat.
Even with his qi protecting him, the temperature was unbearable. Sweat immediately began pouring down his face.
He stood in a crude room constructed from red stone bricks. The walls were rough, hastily assembled, with gaps between some of the blocks. Through those gaps, he could see more red stone and a faint crimson glow.
Behind him, there was a sound like shattering glass.
He spun around.
The purple portal was collapsing. The water-like surface fractured into countless purple particles that dissolved into the air. Within seconds, it was gone completely.
In its place, set neatly into the obsidian frame, was a smooth stone brick.
His face went pale.
His escape route had been sealed. If he wanted to leave this place, he would need to find another way out. But that wasn't his biggest problem.
His biggest problem was spiritual energy.
He extended his senses, reaching out to feel for the ambient spiritual energy that saturated the world, but there was nothing.
Panic clawed at his chest. Without spiritual energy, he had no way to recover what he spent. Maintaining the barrier against the heat was already draining his reserves.
He had maybe half an hour, forty minutes at most.
After that, his energy would run dry. The barrier would collapse. The heat would take him, cooking him alive within minutes.
This wasn't like a body-tempering medicinal bath, where the heat was balanced by constant moisture. This was just heat.
"I am going to die here," he whispered.
Then the wall in front of him started moving.
The stone bricks vanished one by one, revealing the boy on the other side. He held something that looked like an obsidian barrel, along with a torch.
He stepped inside and set both items down. The barrel went into the empty portal frame, and the torch was placed in the corner. Then he reached into his spatial storage artifact again.
This time, he took out a block of glowing yellow stone, small enough to fit in his palm.
"Throw this into that purple container," the boy said, pointing at the barrel.
The cultivator hesitated for a brief moment, then decided that cooperation was his best chance of survival. He reached out and took the block.
The moment his fingers closed around it, his arm dropped like a stone. His shoulder joint screamed in protest as he scrambled to get his other hand under the block before it pulled him to the ground.
He stared at the block, then at the boy, who had been holding it casually in one hand like it weighed nothing.
"How..." He couldn't even finish the question. His arms were shaking from the effort of holding the thing.
"Just throw it in," the boy said patiently.
The cultivator gritted his teeth, shuffled closer to the barrel, and heaved the glowing block into the opening at the top.
The moment it left his hands, the barrel's interior erupted with purple particles. They swirled for a few seconds, then coalesced into a flat, rippling surface that looked exactly like the portal he had just come through.
A progress indicator on the front of the barrel showed it was now one-quarter charged.
"What..." He stared. "What's this thing?"
The boy didn't answer. Instead, he pulled out another object and held it out.
The cultivator's blood ran cold.
It was that dark green pearl they had tried to steal from the boy, the reason some of his companions were now dead.
His hands trembled as he took it.
"Throw this out as hard as you can," the boy said, pointing to a gap in the wall.
The cultivator looked through the opening.
Outside, barely ten meters away, was a crowd of massive pig-like creatures. They had broad shoulders, thick torsos, and faces that looked almost human except for the tusks and snouts. Each one carried a golden sword or axe.
His survival instincts screamed at him. He couldn't sense their cultivation levels, but their mere presence felt dangerous.
"You want me to throw this at those demons?"
"Throw it outside. As far as you can."
The cultivator swallowed. His throat was dry. "And then what happens?"
"Then we find out if my theory is correct."
That wasn't reassuring.
But what choice did he have? The boy was standing right there, watching him. Refusing wasn't an option.
He adjusted his grip on the pearl. It was far lighter than the glowing block. He stepped up to the opening, drew his arm back, and threw.
The pearl arced through the air, traveling thirty or forty meters before dropping into the middle of the pig-like creatures.
For a brief moment, nothing happened. Then something seized him.
The world twisted. In the next instant, he stood in the middle of the horde.
The nearest creature turned its head. Its eyes fixed on him. Then it raised its sword.
The cultivator reached for his weapon.
It was gone.
The boy had taken it, along with everything else.
"Let's talk—"
The sword came down.
There was no pain, only a sudden disorientation, as if the world had tilted.
For an instant, he saw his own body. Blood burst from the severed neck. It collapsed to the ground.
The pig-creatures rushed forward. His corpse was torn apart, reduced to chunks of flesh within seconds.
Then his vision went dark.
----------
[POV: Alexei]
Alexei watched the cultivator vanish and immediately turned his attention to the Respawn Anchor.
This was the moment of truth.
In Minecraft, respawning was instantaneous. You died, you respawned, done. But this world was not Minecraft. The mechanics worked differently here. He needed to know how differently.
The purple surface inside the Respawn Anchor began to glow.
Light gathered, coalescing into streams that flowed forward. The streams took shape, forming the outline of a human figure.
He counted the seconds.
A full minute later, the cultivator appeared in front of the Respawn Anchor.
He stood there, staring at nothing. Then his hands went to his neck, searching for the wound that was no longer there. Then he slapped himself hard across the face.
"I am alive!"
He threw his head back and laughed.
Alexei let him have his moment. Then he poked the man in the lower back with another glowstone block.
The cultivator went rigid. Slowly, he turned around.
Alexei was holding out the glowstone and another ender pearl, smiling pleasantly.
The cultivator's face went from elated to horrified in the span of a heartbeat.
"No, please, I cannot..."
"You can."
"I just died!" The cultivator's voice rose to a shout. "I felt my head come off! I watched them cut me apart!"
"I know. That's why this is useful." Alexei pushed the glowstone into the man's hands. "Charge the anchor, then throw the pearl again."
The cultivator looked at the items. His shoulders sagged in defeat.
"If I cooperate," he said quietly, "will you let me live?"
"I won't kill you. Now charge the anchor."
The cultivator's hands shook as he lifted the glowstone. He stumbled over to the Respawn Anchor and dropped it in.
Another purple light curtain appeared.
"Now throw the pearl."
The cultivator closed his eyes, took a breath, then threw.
---
By the fifth death, the cultivator had stopped screaming.
When he revived in front of the Respawn Anchor, he didn't move right away. He simply stood there, eyes unfocused, as though he had forgotten how to exist between one moment and the next.
Alexei watched him, quietly noting the results.
The first death had been quick, a clean decapitation, and it took about a minute for the man to return.
The second had taken longer. The golden blade had opened him up, and the end hadn't been immediate. He had respawned slightly faster that time.
The third had been brutal. A piglin's fist crushed his skull in a single strike. The delay before revival remained consistent.
By the fourth, Alexei had begun paying closer attention. The man had been stabbed through the heart, and it took roughly twelve seconds for him to die, followed by just under a minute before he revived.
The fifth had been the worst.
He had been trampled, his bones shattered and his body wrecked by internal bleeding. It took nearly half a minute for him to die, yet the respawn itself showed no meaningful variation.
Behind him, the anchor pulsed faintly, now fully charged after consuming four glowstone blocks. The cultivator had died five times.
Alexei let out a slow breath.
"That is enough for the respawn testing. Now we move on to ender pearl mechanics."
The cultivator didn't respond. He was staring at the wall.
"Hey." Alexei snapped his fingers. "Focus. I need you to throw the pearl inside this room. Just toss it against that wall."
The man blinked slowly, then nodded.
Alexei handed him an ender pearl.
The cultivator took it, turned toward the indicated wall, and threw.
The pearl hit the wall, bounced, and teleported him three meters to the left.
For the next fifteen minutes, Alexei put him through a series of tests. He threw the pearl from different angles and distances. He checked whether teleportation worked through solid blocks. It didn't. He measured the maximum range, which seemed to be about sixty meters in the enclosed space.
The cultivator answered every question and followed every instruction. His earlier resistance had completely vanished.
Alexei almost felt bad about it.
When the testing was finished, he walked to the corner and placed a chest on the ground. From his inventory, he took out several items: bread, cooked pork, a few golden carrots, and four blocks of glowstone.
"This is for you. I'll come back in a few days to check on you."
The cultivator stared at the chest. "You are... leaving me here?"
"I need to see how long someone can survive in the Nether with enough spiritual energy and food," Alexei said, gesturing to the spirit stone torch. "That will keep the air breathable and provide enough qi to maintain your barrier. The other torches will keep the piglins out of this area. The food will sustain you. And the glowstone will let you respawn if something kills you."
He stepped through the gap.
Outside, the piglins milled around, going about whatever business piglins had when they were not murdering people. A few of them glanced in his direction but showed no interest.
He walked straight into the crowd.
The cultivator watched as the boy moved between the monsters. When one blocked his path, the boy simply pushed it aside. The piglin shuffled over without complaint.
It was like they couldn't see him. Or they could see him but didn't care.
The boy walked twenty meters, thirty, forty, until his figure disappeared into the crimson forest beyond.
The cultivator stood there for a moment. Then his legs gave out and he collapsed.
His ass hit the scorching netherrack floor.
He yelped and scrambled back to his feet, swearing in pain.
---
Alexei walked through the crimson forest with a lodestone compass in one hand and his diamond pickaxe in the other, mining netherrack as he went.
The distance between the two Nether portals wasn't particularly far. After about fifteen minutes of walking, and collecting several stacks of netherrack in the process, he spotted the small shelter he had built near his first portal.
He stepped inside, shut the door out of habit, and walked straight through the portal.
The familiar purple shimmer deposited him on the mob farm platform inside Whitepeak Mountain, right beneath his house.
He stood there for a moment.
"I should have set this up weeks ago."
Although, to be fair, he hadn't anticipated needing to make regular trips to the forest floor. The whole "imprisoned cultivator as Nether test subject" situation had been somewhat improvised.
He climbed the ladder up to his house, walked through the building, and headed outside toward the courtyard.
Mengyao was still standing near the ender pearl chamber, poking at the bubble column. She clearly hadn't expected him to emerge from his house.
Before she could ask the obvious question, Alexei pulled a handful of spirit fruits and candy from his inventory and shoved them into her hands.
"Thanks for helping earlier. Here, have some fruit."
Mengyao blinked at the sudden armful of snacks. "You didn't need to..."
"Also, don't eat too much candy. Bad for your teeth."
He patted her on the shoulder and turned to leave. "I have got more work to do. See you later."
He was halfway across the courtyard before Mengyao recovered. She looked down at the spirit fruits in her arms, then back up at him.
Alexei reached the edge of the courtyard, pulled another ender pearl from his hotbar, and threw it over the cliff into the sea of clouds below.
Mengyao walked over to stand beside him, munching on one of the fruits as she watched the pearl vanish into the mist.
"You are going back down already?"
"Yep. Still have a lot of dirt to collect." He glanced at her. "Go play or study or whatever. I'll be busy for a while."
She made a face at the "go play" comment but didn't argue.
The ender pearl activated a few seconds later, and Alexei's vision lurched sideways as the teleport yanked him off the mountain.
----------
[POV: Yi Mengyao]
Mengyao stood at the courtyard edge for a moment after he vanished, staring down at the clouds. Then she sighed, turned away, and walked back toward the pavilion where she had been reading earlier.
She settled into her seat, set the spirit fruits on the table, and picked up the cultivation manual she had been studying.
It was the Qi Awakening Art.
Qingxue had given it to her two days ago with instructions to memorize it in preparation for reaching the Qi Refining stage.
She had read through it three times already, and she still wasn't sure what to make of it.
The technique itself was fine. It covered the basics of qi circulation and foundation-building without any glaring flaws. There was nothing about it that stood out as particularly powerful or innovative. It was just a standard cultivation method that tens of thousands of other cultivators probably used.
Which made no sense.
Aureate Summit Sect was supposed to be some kind of hidden powerhouse, right?
So why was Qingxue giving her a manual that looked like it came from a bargain bin?
Or maybe Qingxue was testing her, waiting to see if she would complain or ask for something better.
Another thought surfaced. Perhaps the Aureate Summit Sect wasn't impressive.
She shook her head.
That didn't make sense.
The spirit fruits alone were proof of the sect's wealth. Over the past weeks, she had eaten things most cultivators would kill for. A sect with such resources would not rely on Yellow tier manuals.
Which meant Qingxue had a reason for giving her this particular technique.
She only wished she understood what it was. She turned the page and continued reading.
----------
[POV: Alexei]
Three days later, Alexei stood in his storage room, looking at five large chests full of dirt, and felt a sense of accomplishment.
It sounded ridiculous when he thought about it. He had spent three days collecting dirt. But this wasn't Minecraft dirt. This was real dirt, from the forest floor, rich with nutrients and ambient spiritual energy. And once he MC-ified it, it would become proper farmland blocks that could grow spirit herbs at accelerated rates.
He had already started the MC-ification process. The chests glowed faintly as experience poured into the dirt blocks, converting them one by one.
Each block took a significant chunk of experience to convert. But he had been grinding mobs in the farm regularly, so his levels were holding steady.
Over the next week, he converted all five chests worth of dirt.
Then he began construction.
---
Five weeks later, the spirit field project was complete.
Alexei stood in the newly expanded section of the mountain base and admired his work.
Rows of farmland stretched across the cavern floor, lit by glowstone embedded in the ceiling. Water channels ran between the rows, fed by an infinite water source he had built in the corner. And standing among the crops, wearing their distinctive brown robes, were five farmer villagers.
They worked steadily, planting seeds, harvesting ripe crops, and replanting them without pause. The cycle never stopped.
Wheat, carrots, potatoes, and beetroot grew in neat rows. Once he got his hands on spirit herb seeds, those would replace the mundane crops, but for now, this would do.
Near the iron farm, he had set up the villager housing properly. Thirty-two villagers now lived in the mountain, representing every profession Minecraft offered.
He had twelve librarians alone. Which meant twelve sources of enchanted books. And over the past month, those librarians had been very productive.
His new collection included Protection V, Thorns III, Disarm V, Blindness III, Fire Aspect II, Frost III, Sharpness V, and Magic Resistance V.
He had also gained several useful enchantments from leveling and random trades, including Lifesteal III, Aqua Arrow II, Armor Shatter II, Harvest I, and Bloom Spirit I.
He had already applied most of the defensive enchantments to his armor. Every piece carried Protection V and Magic Resistance V, with Thorns III on the chestplate.
His weapons now had Sharpness V, Fire Aspect II, and a few others he was still experimenting with.
The upgrade was significant.
The problem was spirit stones.
He had run out.
The spirit field construction had drained his reserves. MC-ifying the dirt had cost experience, but maintaining the ambient qi levels in the expanded base required spirit stone torches, and those consumed spirit stones over time.
His original plan to turn the mountain into a proper cultivation holy land had stalled halfway through due to a lack of resources.
He needed more spirit stones. Which meant he needed to sell something.
But selling spirit herbs was a non-starter. Every plant he grew was identical to every other plant of the same type. They even had that weird floating-and-rotating thing when dropped on the ground.
Any competent appraiser would notice something was wrong at a glance. His sect wasn't strong enough to deal with the consequences of selling such suspicious goods.
So that left one option: secret realms.
Secret realms, as he understood them, were basically dungeons. They appeared at intervals, filled with treasures, monsters, and opportunities for cultivation. Whenever one opened, major sects, merchant guilds, and even entire kingdoms would send teams to explore it.
It was the perfect place to acquire rare materials, sell goods without raising suspicion, and generally make a lot of money in a short time. And conveniently, there was a secret realm opening nearby.
The Verdant Vine Mystic Realm, located in the territory of Yureth Kingdom.
Yureth Kingdom was a small nation bordering the Aurelon Dynasty. Under normal circumstances, it would have been conquered or absorbed by one of the larger powers centuries ago.
But Yureth Kingdom had one thing going for it: the mystic realm.
The moment the realm had been discovered within their borders, the kingdom's leadership had done the smart thing. They reported it to the Immortal Alliance, publicly announced their cooperation, and invited Alliance forces to set up a permanent garrison.
In the seven hundred years since, Yureth Kingdom had made absurd profits just by facilitating trade around the realm's entrance.
The realm itself had a cultivation restriction. No one above Golden Core peak could enter.
Which meant Alexei, currently sitting at the lowest possible realm as a fresh Body Tempering cultivator, would be among the weakest people there on paper.
In practice, he had full enchanted diamond armor, a trident that hit like a ballistic missile, and enough defensive enchantments to shrug off attacks from people several realms above him.
In other words, he was like a smurf account entering low-level content with high-tier gear. Then again, calling it endgame might be a stretch in a cultivation world.
He was going to that realm. The only issue was convincing Qingxue.
---
Qingxue stared at him.
They were sitting in her building, in the small receiving room she used for tea. She sat across from Alexei with her hands folded in her lap.
"Why do you want to go to a secret realm?"
"I need a lot of spirit stones, and I can't get them here."
"I can provide spirit stones."
"You have already provided a lot of spirit stones. I have burned through all of them." He gestured vaguely in the direction of his house. "The base construction ate my entire budget. If I want to keep expanding, I need an independent source of income."
Qingxue's expression didn't change, but her fingers tightened slightly.
"Secret realms are dangerous."
"I know."
"People die in them regularly, even experienced cultivators."
"I know that too. Don't forget, I have armor that can withstand attacks from Foundation Establishment cultivators. We tested it multiple times. I understand that you're worried. But I won't be going in blind. I have the gear, I have experience fighting things far above my level, and I know when to retreat if things go wrong."
"That's not really reassuring."
"It's the best I can offer."
For a moment, she just looked at him. Then she sighed.
"You are going regardless of what I say, are you not?"
"Probably, yes."
"I see." She stood, walked to the window, and stared out at the courtyard. "You are the most frustrating disciple I have ever had."
"I am the only disciple you have ever had."
"That does not make the statement less true." She turned back to face him. "If you are determined to do this, then I will not stop you. But I want you to promise me something."
"What?"
"If it becomes too dangerous, you will leave."
Alexei nodded. "I can do that."
She walked back to her seat and sat down. "When does the realm open?"
"Two weeks."
"Then we have time to prepare."
Before Alexei could respond, there was a knock at the door.
"Come in," Qingxue called.
Yan stepped inside, looking between the two of them. "Am I interrupting?"
"No," Qingxue said. "Alexei was just informing me that he plans to enter the Verdant Vine Mystic Realm."
Yan's face lit up. "Oh! That is actually perfect timing."
Both of them looked at her.
"I was going to suggest the same thing. I have a large stock of pills that I need to sell, and the realm entrance is the best market for that kind of thing. Plus, I wanted to buy spirit plant seeds from the realm's unique ecosystem."
Qingxue frowned. "You want to go as well?"
"Not inside the realm itself, just the market outside," Yan said with a smile, glancing at Alexei. "And I think his idea is excellent. With his equipment, he will be safer than most Golden Core cultivators who enter."
"That's not the reassurance you think it is," Qingxue muttered.
"It is fine," Alexei said. "I will be careful. And if Yan is going to the market anyway, we can travel together."
Qingxue looked between the two of them and sighed.