Chapter 3: The Anchor & The Seed
The morning sun hung low over the Cloud City Outer District, a pale yellow disk barely visible through the thick smog of cooking smoke and industrial alchemy fumes.
The "West Market" was a chaotic, sprawling mess of mud and desperation. Here, there were no opulent pavilions like in the Inner City. Instead, loose cultivators set up makeshift stalls on ragged blankets, selling everything from chipped porcelain pill bottles to low-grade monster meat that had already started to turn green.
Luo Feng moved through the crowd, his head lowered. He wore a patched gray robe, blending in perfectly with the sea of struggling cultivators. In this place, looking destitute was a form of camouflage. If you looked like you had two Spirit Stones to rub together, you were a target.
He clutched a small, coarse pouch in his sleeve. Inside were four Spirit Stones—the absolute last of their savings after paying the landlord.
He stopped in front of a stall tucked away in a corner, sheltered by a rotting wooden awning. The vendor was a hunchbacked old man named "Old Ge," a failed Spirit Farmer who sold seeds and basic tools.
"Old Ge," Luo Feng greeted, his voice low.
The old man squinted, spitting a sunflower seed shell onto the muddy ground. "Luo Feng? I heard you left the Sect. I thought you'd be dead in a ditch by now."
"Not yet," Luo Feng replied dryly. "I need seeds. Yellow Jade Rice."
Old Ge grunted, reaching under his table. "Price went up. The Blood Saber Sect is causing trouble near the transport routes. Three Spirit Stones for five catties."
Luo Feng's heart clenched. Three stones? That was robbery. A week ago, it was two. But he had no leverage. Yellow Jade Rice was the staple food for low-level cultivators; without it, he and Luo Xia would starve or be forced to eat mortal food, which would clog their bodies with impurities.
"Fine," Luo Feng placed three glowing, jagged stones on the table. "And... do you have Star Grass seeds?"
Old Ge paused, his hand hovering over the rice sack. He looked at Luo Feng as if he were an idiot.
"Star Grass? That blue weed that grows near outhouses?" The old man scoffed. "Cultivators only use that to feed pigs or make cheap cooling talismans. Why do you want that?"
"I bought a sick Spirit Goat," Luo Feng lied smoothly, his face a mask of calm. "I need to fatten it up."
Old Ge shook his head, muttering about "wasteful youngsters." He tossed a smaller, dusty bag onto the rice sack. "One Spirit Stone. Take it. Nobody buys that trash anyway."
Luo Feng handed over his very last stone. He was now penniless. But as he grabbed the two heavy burlap sacks, a spark of excitement burned in his chest.
Yellow Jade Rice was for survival.
But the Star Grass... that was for ambition.
Luo Feng hefted the sacks onto his shoulder. Fifty pounds of weight. For a cultivator, it wasn't heavy, but the bulk made him conspicuous.
He turned into a narrow, winding alleyway to avoid the main thoroughfare. The shadows stretched long here, damp and smelling of mold. He checked behind him. No one was following yet.
'This is dangerous,' Luo Feng thought, his nerves pulling tight. 'Carrying bulk supplies makes me look like I have a farm. If the local gangs find out I'm planting without paying their protection fees, they'll burn my house down.'
He stopped in the middle of the alley, hidden behind a stack of broken crates.
'I shouldn't risk walking the rest of the way. I'll just store them in the Space now.'
It was the perfect plan. He possessed a dimensional farming world. He could just stash the goods, walk home empty-handed, and retrieve them later. It was the ultimate smuggling tool.
Luo Feng took a deep breath, visualizing the mist-covered land in his mind.
"System," he commanded mentally, focusing his will on the heavy sacks on his shoulder. "Store."
He expected the weight to vanish. He expected the sacks to disappear into the void.
Instead... nothing happened.
The sacks remained heavy on his shoulder. The rough burlap scratched his neck.
Buzz.
A sharp, jarring dissonance rang in his skull, followed by a cold, red text flashing across his vision.
[SYSTEM ERROR: CONNECTION FAILED.]
[WARNING: RANGE EXCEEDED.]
[Current Distance to Anchor Point (Bedroom): 650 Meters.]
[Maximum Tether Range: 5 Meters.]
Luo Feng froze. The blood drained from his face, leaving him cold.
'Range... exceeded?'
He stared at the red text, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird.
'It's not a portable dimension?'
The realization hit him with terrifying clarity. He had assumed the Space was bound to his Soul—a portable backpack he could open anywhere. He had fantasized about dodging enemy swords by teleporting inside, or stealing treasures from guarded vaults and vanishing.
He was wrong. Dead wrong.
'It's not attached to me,' Luo Feng realized, looking toward the distant roofs of the Green Willow District. 'It's attached to the room. It's a basement. And the trapdoor is fixed to my bedroom floor.'
A chill wind blew through the alley, but Luo Feng was sweating.
This limitation changed everything. It meant that whenever he left his house, he was just a normal, weak cultivator. If he was attacked right now, he couldn't hide the seeds. If he was hunted in the forest, he couldn't hide himself.
He wasn't a god walking among mortals. He was a man with a fortress... but he was currently standing outside the gates.
Snap.
A twig broke at the end of the alley.
Luo Feng snapped out of his daze. He didn't look back. He gripped the sacks tighter, channeled Qi into his legs, and walked. Fast.
He didn't run—running attracted predators. He power-walked, his eyes darting to every shadow, every rooftop. He felt exposed. Naked. The grand ambition of the "Sun & Moon Farmer" felt fragile against the reality of a rusty knife in a dark alley.
Twenty minutes later, Luo Feng burst through the door of his rented courtyard shack.
He slammed the door shut and threw the heavy bolt. He didn't stop there. He dragged a heavy wooden table in front of the door before collapsing against the wall, his chest heaving.
"Husband?"
Luo Xia rushed out from the small kitchen area, wiping her hands on her apron. She saw his pale face and the sweat dripping from his chin. "What happened? Were you followed?"
"No," Luo Feng gasped, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor. He pointed a trembling finger at the bedroom door. "But I learned a rule, Xia. A deadly rule."
He looked up at his wife, his eyes serious. "The Space... we are tethered to this house. I tried to open it in the market. It failed."
Luo Xia's eyes widened in horror. "It failed? You mean we lost it?"
"No. We didn't lose it. But we can't take it with us," Luo Feng explained, his voice grim. "It has an Anchor. We have to be within five meters of the bedroom to enter. Outside these walls... we are mortal. We are vulnerable."
He stood up, the fear in his eyes hardening into resolve. He picked up the sacks again.
"If this house burns down, we lose the door. If we are chased away, we lose the farm. This shack isn't just a home anymore, Xia. It's our Vault."
He walked toward the bedroom. "Come. We need to secure our future before anything else happens."
Luo Xia nodded, her expression shifting from fear to determination. She grabbed his hand.
They stood by the bed. Luo Feng focused. The connection hummed, strong and immediate.
[Enter.]
Whoosh.
The transition was instant.
The smell of rotting wood and alley grime vanished, replaced by the scent of wet earth, ozone, and pure vegetation.
They stood on the black soil of the 10-acre Farming Space. Above them, the white fog swirled lazily, blocking out the sky, creating a cozy, silent world that belonged only to them.
Luo Feng dropped the sacks with a heavy thud. He took a deep breath of the Qi-rich air, feeling his nerves settle.
"Safe," he whispered.
He untied the sacks. The Yellow Jade Rice seeds spilled out—golden, hard grains the size of pebbles. Next to them, the Star Grass seeds looked like tiny specks of silver dust.
"We have ten acres," Luo Feng said, looking at the vast expanse of black soil. "But with our current cultivation at Layer 3 and Layer 1, we don't have enough mana to farm it all. If we try to plant everything, we'll die of exhaustion."
He paced out a section of the land.
"We will plant 1 Acre of Rice. That will provide us with 800 catties of food—enough to eat and sell for next month's rent."
He then moved to a separate patch, marking off a smaller area.
"And here... 0.5 Acres for the Star Grass."
Luo Xia frowned slightly, looking at the silver seeds. "Husband, I trust you, but... Star Grass? Old Ge was right. It's a weed. Even if we grow a thousand catties of it, it sells for pennies."
"As grass, yes," Luo Feng smiled, a glint of cunning in his eyes. "But do you remember the Inheritance I received? The Second-Grade Wine Brewing Technique?"
Luo Xia nodded.
"The recipe for 'Cloud Mist Wine' requires Spirit Rice and Star Grass," Luo Feng explained. "The Star Grass isn't the main ingredient, but it's the catalyst. It turns the rice's heavy Earth Qi into light Cloud Qi. A bottle of Cloud Mist Wine sells for 3 Spirit Stones. A sack of rice sells for 3 Stones. Do the math."
Luo Xia's mouth opened in an 'O' shape. "Value added..."
"Exactly. We aren't just farmers, Xia. We are manufacturers."
Luo Feng rolled up his sleeves. "But first, we must plant. No hoes. We use the Spirit Finger."
Luo Xia followed suit, kneeling on the black earth.
Luo Feng closed his eyes. He channeled the Sun & Moon Qi. In his Dantian, the warm and cool currents spiraled, flowing down his arm and into his index and middle fingers.
Buzz.
His fingertips glowed with a sharp, white light. He thrust them into the soil.
Thrum.
The earth didn't just break; it vibrated apart. The soil loosened into a perfect, aerated circle, preserving the natural "Earth Veins."
"Metal tools sever the Qi," Luo Feng grunted, the effort making sweat bead on his forehead immediately. "Flesh and Qi bridge the gap. It keeps the vitality locked in."
Luo Xia copied him. Her light was dimmer, but she focused intensely. Thrust. Vibrate. Seed. Cover.
They worked in silence. It was grueling. Every hundred holes, they had to stop, sit cross-legged, and meditate to refill their empty Dantians.
But strangely, as they drained their Qi and refilled it using the high-quality air of the Space, Luo Feng felt his cultivation base—which had been stagnant for years—loosening. The labor was tempering his body.
Hours passed. In the space, time was fluid.
Finally, 1.5 acres were planted.
Luo Feng stood up, his legs shaking, his robe soaked in sweat. He looked at the neat rows of buried potential.
"One last step," he rasped. "Water."
He stood in the center of the field. He raised his hands, weaving the signs he had learned in the Sect.
Ram. Snake. Dragon.
"Little Cloud Rain Spell!"
Usually, this spell summoned a gray, drizzly cloud. But as Luo Feng pushed his mana into the sky, the Sun & Moon Qi reacted with the atmospheric water.
A cloud formed—but it wasn't gray. It was a shimmering, pearlescent white, glowing with a soft internal light.
Drip. Drip. Whoosh.
The rain began to fall.
Luo Xia gasped, reaching out to catch a drop. "Husband... look."
The raindrop didn't splash like water. It landed on her palm and sizzled, dissolving into her skin like warm oil. It was infused with golden specks of Yang and silver specks of Yin.
As the rain hit the black soil, the ground seemed to sigh.
Pulse. Pulse.
Right before their eyes, tiny green shoots erupted from the Star Grass patch. The sturdy stems of the Yellow Jade Rice broke the surface, glowing with a faint golden aura.
[System Notification: Crops Irrigated with Sun & Moon Qi.]
[Effect: Growth Cycle Accelerated by 20%. Mutation Probability Increased.]
Luo Feng lowered his hands, panting heavily, but he was grinning like a madman.
"Normal rain just quenches thirst," he whispered, feeling the connection to the land deep in his soul. "But my Qi... it feeds them Life."
He put his arm around Luo Xia's shoulders. They stood together in the glowing rain, watching their future sprout from the black earth.
"One month," Luo Feng said fiercely. "In one month of outside time, we will have a harvest that will shock this entire city."