My Portable Spirit Farm: Rise of the Humble Servant

Chen Ping had made his decision. He was going to swallow this Wild Boar whole.

He had his shovel tool and the Jade Pendant space; he could definitely do it.

He first tentatively poked the Wild Boar with the iron shovel, confirming it was thoroughly dead. Then, taking a deep breath and enduring the persistent dull ache in his left arm, he began attempting to dismember the behemoth.

This was far more difficult than he had imagined.

He retrieved the Sickle from the space. Although the Sickle was sharp, it wasn’t meant for cutting meat.

He could only search for the joints, using the Sickle to repeatedly cut through the tough tendons and hide.

Sweat mixed with blood and filth streamed into his eyes, stinging. He had no time to wipe it away, just mechanically repeating the motions: find a gap, cut the connection.

Every time he exerted force, his left arm sent sharp protests. He gritted his teeth, low, suppressed growls escaping his throat.

He didn’t know how much time had passed when finally, a thick hind leg was separated from its joint.

He was so exhausted he nearly collapsed, but looking at that massive piece of meat, his mind held only the urgency of having completed one small step.

Dragging that heavy pig leg, he mentally communicated with the Jade Pendant.

HUM.

The pig leg vanished from its spot, appearing in a corner of the space, piled next to the white rice.

No blood seeped out; the ground of the space remained pitch black.

He withdrew from the space, once again facing the bloody slaughterhouse.

Cutting, separating, transporting… a cycle repeated over and over.

Each cut exhausted his barely recovered strength; each time he entered the space to swallow a few mouthfuls of raw rice was only to sustain him for the next, even more difficult cut.

The boar’s head was the hardest to handle. The hard skull and thick neck used up the last shred of his strength. It was almost by instinctive ferocity that he finally managed to separate it.

By the time most of the sun had sunk below the horizon, the entire massive body of the Wild Boar had disappeared.

Only a large patch of mud soaked through with blood and filth remained in the center of the Pigsty, along with an unbearably thick stench of blood in the air.

Chen Ping slumped in a corner, his whole body feeling like it had fallen apart. The pain in his left arm had grown somewhat numb from continuous exertion.

Summoning his last shred of consciousness, he used the shovel to turn over the dry manure and dirt around him, doing his best to cover up that dark stain of blood.

He also made the collapsed rubble and traces at the broken opening of the Pigsty even more chaotic, making it look as if a Wild Boar had violently broken in and then crashed its way out again.

After finishing all this, dragging his utterly exhausted, foul-smelling body, he stumbled step by step back to his own low Shack.

Back at the Shack, he didn’t even have the strength to fetch water to wash. He just roughly tore off the outermost layer of filthy rags and curled up on the cold straw bedding, falling into a dead faint.

“Chen Ping! Where have you crawled off to?! Is your work in the Pigsty done?!”

A sharp, acrid shout lashed into the Shack like a whip.

Chen Ping jolted awake violently, his heart pounding wildly. The intense pain in his left arm instantly became clear again.

The sky was already bright.

Struggling to sit up, he saw standing at the Shack entrance with hands on hips was none other than Manager Wang’s oily, plump face. Beside him stood that Scarred Foreman who had run away yesterday.

“Man… Manager Wang.”

Chen Ping’s voice was hoarse. He tried to stand up, but his body felt impossibly heavy, as if it wasn’t his own.

“Hmph! Look at you! Like a dead dog! You definitely haven’t finished your work!”

Manager Wang waved a hand in front of his nose in disgust.

“Worthless! I told you yesterday to clean that Pigsty. Dawdling until now? And you’re covered in shit and piss! Disgusting! Don’t even think about eating today!”

Chen Ping’s heart sank. Knowing he couldn’t avoid it, he steeled himself and spoke up as calmly as possible.

“Manager Wang… The work… isn’t done. Yesterday… yesterday a huge Wild Boar charged into the Pigsty. It almost killed me… I barely managed to escape…”

He pointed at his left arm wrapped in rags, clearly not in its natural position.

“My arm… got injured too.”

“Wild Boar?”

Manager Wang narrowed his beady eyes full of suspicion and glanced at the Scarred Foreman beside him. The Scarred Foreman’s eyes darted away as he stammered.

“There… there was some commotion. Pretty big… I… I was far away. Didn’t see clearly…”

“Bullshit!”

Manager Wang suddenly raised his voice sharply; flecks of spittle almost hit Chen Ping’s face.

“A Wild Boar? Where would a Wild Boar come from that could get into a Pigsty? I think you’re just lazy and slacking off! Making up lies to fool me! Or maybe you broke that Pigsty yourself and want to blame it on a Wild Boar! You lowly scum! Getting bold now!”

He gave Chen Ping no chance for further explanation, pointing a finger at his nose and cursing.

“Work not done means not done! No excuses! Today! Now! Get your ass over to Back Mountain Stone Quarry right now and move stones! If you don’t move at least one hundred pieces before you come back! Try slacking off and you’ll taste my whip!”

He turned and roared at the Scarred Foreman.

“You keep a close eye on him! One stone short and I’ll flay both of you alive!”

The Scarred Foreman shuddered and quickly assented. The look he gave Chen Ping now held viciousness and transferred anger.

Chen Ping’s heart sank completely as if falling into an icy pit.

Not because of doubled punishment or hard labor at the Stone Quarry but because of Manager Wang’s undisguised malice and suspicion.

In those eyes was not an ounce of concern for his encounter with a Wild Boar nor any care for his injury—only an excitement akin to a hound spotting something amiss with its prey mixed with greed!

He’s onto me.

This thought surfaced crystal clear in Chen Ping’s mind.

Not because of any wild boar or because I didn’t clean that pigsty properly. It’s because I’ve gotten stronger; my body has improved. He suspects I stole something or… encountered something.

A chill shot up from Chen Ping’s spine colder than any filth from that Pigsty.

From today onward, life would become even harder.

Back Mountain Stone Quarry was one of Servant Peak’s most grueling tasks.

Massive bluestones needed quarrying from halfway up that mountain then transported downslope toward material yards below. Each stone weighed hundreds of pounds—an ordinary servant moving just one piece already pushed their limits.

Dragging along his injured arm under the cold, even gleeful gazes from the Scarred Foreman plus several other servants assigned “watch duty,” Chen Ping began moving stones.

His left arm was completely useless—every bend and exertion sent piercing pain through the fracture site.

He could only rely on his right hand plus back strength, struggling, prying, and lifting rocks, stumbling step by step downhill.

Sweat instantly soaked through his ragged clothes, mixing with blood seeping from the wound, sticky and uncomfortable.

One hundred pieces? This task seemed nearly impossible.

But he couldn’t stop.

He knew Manager Wang intended precisely this method to crush him, force him to slip up, or… force him to die outright.

From this day onward, Chen Ping’s life plunged straight into the abyss.

Manager Wang found endless ways to torment him.

The dirtiest, hardest jobs always fell upon him: clearing clogged cesspools, dredging silt-filled irrigation ditches, gathering herbs within damp valleys teeming with poisonous insects…

Each task drained his Physical Strength and was fraught with danger.

Assigned workloads always exceeded normal human limits. The slightest delay or mistake meant light punishment whipping, or heavy punishment withholding already meager rations entirely.

Even more suffocating, wherever he went, at least one pair of eyes watched secretly always.

The Scarred Foreman plus several other servants bribed by Manager Wang clung like maggots, monitoring every move. Even slightly longer trips to the latrine invited interrogation immediately afterward.

Like a trapped beast inside a transparent cage without a moment of respite ever.

Physical exhaustion coupled with persistent pain in his slowly healing left arm tormented him day and night alike.

Fellow servants within the Shacks looked upon him differently now too—aloof, fearful lest associating the slightest bit incur Manager Wang’s wrath transferred onto them.

Chen Ping clenched his jaw, burying the hatred deep within his heart.