Chapter 4: The Rent Crisis
Time: 10 Days Later (Outside World).
Bang. Bang. Bang.
The heavy pounding on the wooden door shook the entire shack, knocking dust from the ceiling rafters.
Luo Feng was sitting at the small table, counting their remaining mortal copper coins. He froze, exchanging a sharp glance with Luo Xia.
He stood up, adjusted his robe to look presentable, and opened the door.
Standing there was the landlord, a greasy man named "Rat-Eye Liu." He was at Qi Refining Layer 5, and he wore a silk robe that looked ridiculous in the muddy alley. Behind him stood two burly thugs with crossed arms.
"Luo Feng!" Liu sneered, his gaze sweeping over the cramped room with disdain. "Ten days have passed. I'm just here to give you a friendly reminder."
"The rent is due in twenty days, Landlord Liu," Luo Feng said calmly, blocking the view into the bedroom (The Anchor Point). "You will have your 10 Spirit Stones."
"Hmph. Twenty days," Liu picked his teeth with a dirty fingernail. "I've seen plenty of loose cultivators like you. You come here with big dreams, run out of money in the first month, and try to sneak away in the night. Let me be clear."
He leaned in, his breath smelling of garlic and stale wine.
"If you don't have the stones on the 30th day, don't blame me for being ruthless. I'll break your legs and sell your wife to the Pleasure House to cover the debt. The Green Willow Gang protects my properties. Do you understand?"
Luo Feng's eyes went cold, but he bowed slightly. "I understand. You will get your money."
Liu spat on the doorstep. "We'll see."
He turned and left, his thugs laughing as they walked down the alley.
Luo Feng closed the door and bolted it. His calm expression evaporated, replaced by a sharp, cold focus.
"Husband..." Luo Xia whispered, her face pale.
"Don't listen to him," Luo Feng said, grabbing her hand. "He thinks we are cornered. But he doesn't know about the Time."
He pulled her toward the bedroom. "Ten days have passed outside, Xia. That means thirty days have passed inside. The harvest is ready."
[Enter.]
Inside the Space.
The air was sweet and heavy with the scent of vegetation.
What was once a barren black field was now a lush sea of green and silver.
The 1 Acre of Yellow Jade Rice was tall, the stalks sturdy and golden, though the grain heads were still filling out (Needs 60 more days inside).
But the 0.5 Acres of Star Grass was fully mature.
The grass wasn't green anymore. It was a deep, midnight blue, speckled with tiny white dots that pulsed like breathing stars. Under the constant nourishment of the Sun & Moon Rain, the "weed" had mutated slightly, growing thicker and more potent than the trash sold in the market.
"It's beautiful," Luo Xia murmured, running her hand over the cooling leaves.
"It's money," Luo Feng corrected. "Let's harvest."
They worked quickly. Since Star Grass was just the catalyst, they didn't need the Spirit Finger to harvest it. They used simple iron sickles. Within hours, piles of blue grass sat on the black soil.
"Now," Luo Feng wiped his hands. "The Brewing begins."
He walked over to the corner of the field where he had stored the 50kg of Old Spirit Rice.
This wasn't the High-Grade rice they were growing. This was the cheap, stale rice he had bought days ago. It was hard, dry, and full of impurities.
"Husband, can we really make wine with this?" Luo Xia asked, looking at the gray, dusty grains. "It looks like pig feed."
"Alchemy is the art of turning trash into gold," Luo Feng quoted the Inheritance in his mind. "The Cloud Mist Wine uses the Star Grass to dissolve the impurities of the old rice. Watch."
The Brewing Process: Yin-Yang Potting.
Luo Feng took out a large clay fermentation jar.
The Base: He poured the steamed Old Spirit Rice into the jar.
The Catalyst: He layered the fresh, crushed Star Grass on top. The blue juice soaked into the gray rice.
The Water: He added a bucket of Morning Dew collected from the Space's mist.
"Now for the technique," Luo Feng muttered, his eyes glowing with the System's knowledge.
He dug a hole in the Black Spirit Soil. But he didn't bury the jar completely. He buried it exactly halfway.
"Why only half?" Luo Xia asked, watching him pack the earth tight around the bottom.
"This is the Yin-Yang Potting Technique," Luo Feng explained, wiping dirt from his hands. "The Black Spirit Soil is full of vitality and Earth heat—that is Yang. It heats the bottom of the jar, causing the rice to ferment and bubble upward."
He pointed to the exposed top half of the jar, which was surrounded by the cool, swirling white mist of the Space.
"The Mist is cold—that is Yin. When the hot vapor rises, it hits the cold neck of the jar and condenses back down."
He made a circulating motion with his hand. "Heat rises. Cold sinks. It creates a convection cycle inside the jar. The liquid will rotate on its own for thirty days, filtering itself over and over again until every impurity is ground to dust."
He sealed the lid with mud and slapped a basic preservation talisman on it.
"Done," Luo Feng exhaled. "In the outside world, this takes a month. Here? It will be ready in 10 Days."
The Training Montage.
With the wine bubbling silently in the earth and the rice growing steadily, the couple didn't rest.
Luo Feng stood in front of a large, gray boulder he had dragged from the edge of the mist.
Skill: Spirit Finger Plowing.
According to the Inheritance, this farming skill had three combat stages:
Stone Finger: Fingers become as hard as iron tools. Capable of piercing rock.
Qi Projection: Being able to shoot a weak "bullet" of Qi from the fingertip (Range: 10 feet).
Golden Plow: A beam of solid energy that can till an acre in one swing—or cut a man in half.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Luo Feng struck the boulder with his index and middle fingers.
At first, his fingers bled. But after soaking them in the Sun & Moon Spring Water and applying the System's healing logic, the skin healed thicker and harder.
"Hah!"
Luo Feng thrust his hand forward. Crack. His fingers sank an inch into the solid stone.
He pulled them out. His fingertips were dark and calloused, shimmering with a faint metallic luster.
"Stage One complete," Luo Feng panted, looking at his hand. "I'm touching the edge of Stage Two. I can feel the Qi wanting to leave my body."
He aimed at a leaf five feet away and thrust. Phwip.
A tiny, invisible distortion of air shot from his finger. The leaf fluttered, a small hole punched through its center.
"Weak," Luo Feng critiqued himself. "But it's a start. It's a hidden weapon. If I'm disarmed, I can still kill."
He turned around. Across the field, Luo Xia was moving through a series of forms. She held a wooden practice saber he had carved for her.
"Keep your elbow tucked!" Luo Feng called out. "The Willow Leaf Saber style is about fluidity, not brute strength. Flow like the mist!"
Luo Xia gritted her teeth, sweat dripping down her neck. She swung the blade, twisting her body.
Whoosh.
A faint, pale light coated the wooden blade. It wasn't Sword Qi yet, but it was the sign of full Qi saturation.
She stopped, breathing hard, her face flushed with healthy color—a stark contrast to the pale, sickly woman who had left the sect.
"Husband," she walked over, wiping her face with her sleeve. Her eyes were bright. "I feel it. The bottleneck."
Luo Feng handed her a ladle of spring water. "The Layer 2 bottleneck?"
"Yes," she nodded excitedly. "The Sun & Moon Technique... it's terrifying. It's been scrubbing my meridians every night. I think... within a few months of inside time, I will break through to Qi Refining Layer 2."
Luo Feng smiled, a look of genuine pride on his face. "Good. If we both reach Layer 4 or 5, we won't have to fear the likes of Rat-Eye Liu."
He looked at the half-buried wine jar, sensing the vigorous activity inside.
"Ten days inside," Luo Feng said. "That's just three days outside. When that jar opens... our poverty ends."