The Eternal Farmer: I Trade My Harvest for Immortality

“The rumbling has been constant for days. It should be time.”

Despite the palpable excitement in the air, the ordinary Earth Spirit Root disciples remained disciplined and silent. The oppressive atmosphere of the Earth Vein’s thirty-eighth layer weighed heavily on them, both physically and mentally.

Only a group of five stood at the precipice, chatting casually while staring into the abyss. Tie Xin was among them.

Jiang Chen, currently wearing the face of Jiang Chen, found the situation baffling. He stepped forward, his voice cutting through the low drone of the cavern. “Senior Sister Han, what is happening here?”

Tie Xin turned. Recognition softened her gaze. “Over the last year, the Earth Lotus ripening cycle has accelerated. The consensus is that it’s a precursor to a massive Earth Qi eruption. Someone calculated that the dam breaks today.”

She offered a wry smile. “You aren’t an Earth Spirit Root, so you can’t appreciate what this Qi means to us. But prepare to be amazed.”

“Tie Xin,” a male Formation Master standing beside her interrupted, his tone laced with impatience. “Who is this?”

The man frowned. They were moments away from a critical event; having an outsider intrude was annoying enough, but seeing Tie Xin chat and laugh with him was insulting to their elite circle.

“A friend,” Tie Xin shrugged. “Wood Spirit Root.”

The revelation caused a ripple of surprise among the group.

Wood restrains Earth. By the laws of the Five Elements, a Wood cultivator should be dominant here. However, during an Earth Qi eruption deep underground, the environmental suppression should be crushing. A Wood cultivator should be gasping for air, their spiritual power stagnant.

Yet, this man stood there as if he were on a leisurely stroll.

Jiang Chen ignored their scrutiny. He had come to deliver a gift of Spirit Wine to Tie Xin, but reading the room, he realized this wasn’t the time for pleasantries. He stepped back, blending into the shadows of the rock face.

Best to stay low and watch, he thought. Something big is coming.

Seconds ticked by. The deep, rhythmic thrumming from the abyss grew louder, evolving into a deafening roar that sounded less like shifting tectonic plates and more like the bellow of an ancient, terrifying beast.

Crr-rack.

The sound of something immense fracturing echoed through the cavern.

Every eye turned toward the dark expanse. The underground world wasn’t pitch black; the bioluminescent glow of raw Spirit Stone veins embedded in the walls cast an eerie, shifting light over the chasm.

Far in the distance, accompanied by a wet gurgle, a mass of yellow fog drifted out of the deep dark.

To the untrained eye, it looked like ordinary dust. But Jiang Chen’s eyes narrowed. He remembered Tie Zhu mentioning this phenomenon.

Yellow Earth Essence.

A single wisp weighed ten thousand jin.

And this wasn’t a wisp. It was a cloud.

Whoosh!

Sizzle—Crack!

The yellow fog moved with terrifying inexorability. Nothing could impede it. Hardened bedrock, metallic ore, reinforcement arrays—the moment they touched the mist, they were ground into fine powder.

Jiang Chen watched, wincing as the fog sheared through an exposed Spirit Stone vein.

There goes at least a hundred thousand Mid-grade Spirit Stones, he calculated, his merchant’s heart aching at the waste.

The mass was so heavy that its movement generated a low-frequency hum, vibrating the very air and making scalps tingle. It was as if a mountain were floating by, crushing space itself.

“Gentlemen,” the tall Formation Master—a man standing over two meters in height—spoke up, his eyes burning with greed. “Whether we can capture a wisp depends on our own ability.”

The others nodded, their expressions feverish.

Jiang Chen finally understood why Tie Xin was holding a geomancy compass instead of her usual wine flask.

Four of the masters launched themselves off the ledge.

They didn’t fall.

One master summoned a layer of translucent yellow armor, glowing with heavy, earthen light. A vertical line of text burned across his chestplate:

[Inscription: Empress Houtu of the Earth]

Others stepped onto the air, illusory Earth Lotuses blooming beneath their feet to support their weight.

They charged toward the drifting death cloud.

“You’re not going?” Jiang Chen asked quietly.

Tie Xin shook her head, her eyes fixed on the suicidal charge. “That cloud weighs millions of jin. The closer you get, the exponential pressure could crush your organs. Even with protective spells, it’s a gamble. I’ll wait for the fallout.”

She wasn’t alone. The surrounding formal disciples, lacking the cultivation base and high-tier artifacts of the masters, held back. To approach now would be to seek death.

Junior Brother Tie Zhu mentioned this, Jiang Chen recalled. To become a Core Disciple, one must either dominate the competition or prove their body can withstand a wisp of Yellow Earth Essence.

The crowd on the thirty-eighth layer swelled. More disciples arrived, naturally segregating themselves: the elite Formation Masters in their small, arrogant cluster, and the hundreds of formal disciples watching with envy from the back.

Out in the void, the vanguards were already making contact.

Jiang Chen observed closely. Though not an Earth cultivator, he recognized the principles of the [Earth Pull] technique. The two-meter-tall master was the most aggressive. He hovered closest to the fog, nibbling at the edges.

As he absorbed the essence, his yellow armor solidified, taking on a metallic, golden sheen. The [Empress Houtu] inscription on his chest pulsed with a heavy, divine rhythm.

He was within a few hundred meters of the cloud. Everyone else kept a safety buffer of at least a kilometer.

“The density is absurd,” Jiang Chen muttered. “Can a human body really take that?”

“Not the whole cloud,” Tie Xin said. “But a strand? Yes.”

Suddenly, a sound like a rushing river erupted from below. Gurgle… splash!

Jiang Chen, Tie Xin, and the crowd looked down.

The Spirit Stone vein that the yellow fog had sliced in half earlier was reacting. The structural integrity of the vein had been compromised, and now, the pressurized Spirit Qi trapped inside was venting.

Whoosh!

A geyser of pure, white Spirit Qi blasted upward, slamming directly into the heavy yellow mist above it.

The collision was catastrophic. The high-pressure Qi jet tore through the heavy fog, shredding the cohesive mass. Strands of Yellow Earth Essence were flung outward like shrapnel, while a tidal wave of displaced Spirit Qi flooded the cavern.

“Damn!”

Jiang Chen didn’t hesitate. He dropped into a cross-legged meditative pose instantly.

While the Earth disciples scrambled to catch the scattered yellow strands, Jiang Chen saw the real prize. The erupting Qi was attribute-less—raw energy from the destroyed vein. Anyone could use it.

He uncorked his gourd and, while Tie Xin was distracted by the chaos, swigged a massive mouthful of Golden Wine.

Burn.

The alcohol hit his stomach, igniting a furnace of energy. He immediately cycled his cultivation method.

[Green Lotus Art] (Max Level).

His body became a vortex.

While others struggled to filter the chaotic energy, Jiang Chen’s max-level technique acted like a high-powered industrial pump. He devoured the free-flowing, attribute-less Spirit Qi, dragging it into his meridians.

Refine. Convert.

The neutral energy rushed into his Dantian, instantly transformed by the [Green Lotus Art] into his dual affinities.

Since breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage, his progress had been steady but slow. He possessed six drops of liquefied Wood Spirit Power and a single drop of Fire Spirit Power.

As the massive influx of Qi hit his system, amplified by the high-grade wine, the reaction was explosive.

Drop seven formed.

Drop eight.

The vortex spun faster.

Drop nine.

His Dantian trembled violently. The nine distinct droplets of emerald Wood Spirit Power swirled together, losing their individual shapes. They collided, merged, and expanded.

Crash.

The drops dissolved into a cohesive, swirling liquid mass.

Jiang Chen’s eyes snapped open, a sharp glint of green light flashing within them.

A pool formed.

[Foundation Establishment: Mid-Stage]