My Portable Spirit Farm: Rise of the Humble Servant

Chapter 209: Core Area?!

Han Feiyu’s heart plummeted into an icy abyss.

He turned his head to look at his sister, Han Jingying, and a wave of infinite regret washed over him.

If only he hadn’t been so greedy from the start.

If only he had reported this information to the family elders immediately.

At the very least, they wouldn’t be like meat on a chopping block, waiting for the butcher’s blade to fall.

His eyes bulged from suffocation and terror, fixed unwaveringly on Chen Ping’s face, which remained as calm as a stagnant pool despite the violence.

Foundation Establishment, Fourth Layer!

A mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator under the age of thirty!

How is this possible?

Who could tell him what was wrong with this world? Was he failing to keep up with the times, or was he simply a frog in a well, ignorant of the vastness of the heavens?

But… it shouldn’t be.

Even among the cultivators he knew—even the most talented core disciples of second-rate Sects—absolutely no one had broken through to the Fourth Layer before thirty!

The Fourth Layer and the Third Layer were not concepts that existed on the same plane.

That was the chasm between the Mid-stage and the Early-stage.

Han Feiyu’s heart turned to ash.

His own breakthrough to the Third Layer had been a stroke of immense fortune, entirely due to a “Po Yuan Pill” he had accidentally discovered in the outer perimeter of this legacy site. That Pill possessed domineering medicinal properties, helping him forcibly smash through the Bottleneck of the Third Layer, though it left behind significant hidden dangers.

At thirty years old, reaching the peak of the Third Layer, he believed his cultivation speed surpassed any core disciple of the Heavenly Spirit Sect.

His sister, Han Jingying, possessed similar talent but lacked his Fated Chance, leaving her stranded at the peak of the Second Layer.

For the resource-rich core disciples of the Heavenly Spirit Sect, reaching the Third Layer before thirty was the mark of a top-tier genius. Mo Xiuyuan, for instance, had only stepped into the Third Layer a year or two ago.

But this man before him… what was he?

He actually possessed the cultivation of the Fourth Layer?

To the uninitiated, the Third and Fourth Layers might seem separated by only a single small step. But the moisture within that assumption was vast enough to drown a man.

The transition from Early-stage to Mid-stage was a massive divide.

Ordinary geniuses, even with ample resources, often required ten years of arduous polishing before they dared to attempt the breakthrough. With slightly worse luck, getting stuck at the Third Layer Bottleneck for decades was commonplace.

A Fourth Layer cultivator under thirty?

This was no longer a genius.

This was a monster. An anomaly.

A sense of defeat and absurdity swallowed Han Feiyu whole.

He had prided himself on his intellect and resourcefulness. He had meticulously laid out his plans, playing Mo Xiuyuan, Liu Mubai, and the others like puppets, viewing them merely as blood sacrifices to open the cave dwelling.

Even Chen Ping had been nothing more than a fattened sheep in his eyes—someone to be slaughtered for treasure to fuel his own rise.

But now…

Han Feiyu felt as if his spine had been ripped out. He couldn’t even lift his head.

I am the prey.

He was the one who had fallen into the trap without realizing it. From the moment Chen Ping bought those dying insect eggs and the withered vine at a high price, Han Feiyu had fallen into the other’s calculations.

This man’s depth of thought and weight of scheming far exceeded his imagination.

He had deceived everyone.

Han Feiyu looked at his sister again.

His foolish twin sister. She was simple and happy, lacking in guile. She could have lived a peaceful life.

But he had dragged her into this. He had forced her to wade into these muddy waters.

He deserved to die. But his sister… her crimes did not warrant death. She was merely his helper.

The instinct to save his sister instantly overwhelmed his unwillingness to admit defeat.

She must live.

Only if she survived could he give this disastrous outcome any semblance of closure.

With great difficulty, he raised a trembling hand, trying to pry at Chen Ping’s fingers, while signaling his sister with his eyes not to act rashly.

Chen Ping sensed Han Feiyu’s intent and loosened his grip slightly, allowing him to force out a hoarse rasp.

“Chen… Brother Chen… you… you can’t kill us!”

“Oh?”

Chen Ping’s eyes flickered, carrying a hint of dark amusement.

“Why can’t I kill you? Give me a reason. If it’s interesting enough, I might not mind sparing your lives.”

Han Feiyu coughed violently, greedily sucking in air before speaking in a rush.

“The Core… the final Fated Chance in the Core Area… it requires the bloodline power of the Han family’s direct lineage to open! If anyone not of the Han bloodline tries to force it open, they will suffer a Restriction backlash and be annihilated, body and soul! Jingying and I… we are the direct descendants of the Ancestor!”

He spoke with frantic speed, terrified that Chen Ping would snap his neck before he could finish.

Chen Ping stared into Han Feiyu’s eyes, seemingly weighing the truth of his words.

After a few breaths of suffocating silence, he released his grip.

Han Feiyu staggered back two steps, clutching his throat and gasping for breath, his face drained of blood.

Chen Ping was persuaded.

He truly didn’t dare to gamble. If bloodline power was indeed required to access the core Fated Chance, killing these siblings would be a catastrophic loss.

“Bloodline power?”

Chen Ping’s gaze swept over the terrified Han Jingying before settling back on Han Feiyu. His tone was flat.

“Sounds interesting. However, if I kill you and keep your sister, wouldn’t the result be the same? She is also of the direct lineage.”

He stated it as a simple fact. Simple, brutal, and indifferent—as if discussing crushing an ant.

“No!”

Han Jingying’s face turned deathly pale. A flash of resolve crossed her eyes, and she abruptly raised her hand. A chaotic surge of True Essence gathered in her palm, aimed directly at her own crown!

“If you kill my brother, I will destroy myself right here! You won’t get anything!”

Her voice was sharp with fear and agitation.

The atmosphere in the cave froze instantly.

Chen Ping looked at Han Jingying, who was ready to commit Self-Destruction at any moment, then at Han Feiyu, whose expression was tense to the breaking point.

Suddenly, the corner of Chen Ping’s mouth tugged upward, revealing an expression that couldn’t quite be called a smile.

“Just a joke, Miss Han. Why get so worked up? I have no interest in destroying such a delicate flower.”

Hearing this, Han Feiyu did not relax in the slightest. Instead, a deeper chill surged through his heart.

A joke?

In that fleeting moment, he had seen only cold scrutiny and calculation in Chen Ping’s eyes. It was absolutely not a joke.

This man was testing their bottom line and resolve.

Han Feiyu was certain that if Han Jingying had shown the slightest hesitation, or if they couldn’t prove that both of them were indispensable, Chen Ping would have killed him without a second thought.

This man was not only terrifying in strength but was a master at manipulating the human heart.

He was far more ruthless than the siblings could ever hope to be.

Cold sweat soaked Han Feiyu’s back. He forcibly suppressed the tremors in his heart, daring not to harbor any more illusions.

He had to offer sufficient “value” to buy their survival.

Chen Ping seemed to pivot, more interested now in how Han Feiyu had obtained the information about this place.

“Speak. Since this is the meditation site of your Han family Ancestor, why didn’t he pass away within the Cloud Water Sect? And how did you find this place? If there is even half a word of falsehood…”

He didn’t finish the sentence, but his icy gaze said everything.