“Scholar Wu also says she has been asked to investigate it. She’s leaving at once.” Having delivered the message, the maid handed Prince Baiyu a letter and then left.
My husband quickly scanned the contents and said, “My mother asks me to be ready in case I’m needed.”
“Any details about the secret realm?” I asked.
“It’s stable, and it’s in the Deer clan’s territory,” he said. “That’s all we know until the investigative team submits their report.”
Eggy’s nanny and my apprentices, Lari, Kharli, and Mo, joined us, and I summarized the news for them. The three of them were orphans whom I had added to my System as farmhands, which gave them access to the System. The three of them used to be cute little waifs, all big eyes and skittish mannerisms. Now that three years had passed, they were taller and much more mature, moving and speaking with confidence and grace.
Kharli and Mo were slender, with long black hair and eyes. Lari had the same coloring, but he was taller and had a stockier build. Their daily use of the potent [Ageless Beauty Essence] had made their skin and hair flawlessly beautiful and silky smooth.
[Ageless Beauty Essence:
This potion is formulated with natural ingredients to restore your skin's youthful vitality.
To use, simply apply a few drops of the potion to your face and body after cleansing. Gently massage it into your skin until it’s fully absorbed. For best results, use this potion morning and night.]
Even dressed in the simple brown cotton robes and trousers we used for farming, they had leveled up their physical appearance enough to be called good-looking. Dressed in silk robes and adorned in jewels? People would be unable to stop themselves from taking a second look.
“We should get more information about the secret realm soon. Let’s focus on our work for now,” I said.
“Teacher, the spring ritual is finished,” said Kharli. The staff always held a simple ritual involving prayers and incense burning during the planting season. “We made wreaths for all the doors, and Scholar Wu helped us write spring couplets.”
She then took out three large pieces of fine red paper, which the other two helped them unroll. Two were vertical, to be pasted on either side of the door, while the third was horizontal, for pasting above it. The characters were written in gold ink in the formal, classical style, with each line having characters of perfectly symmetrical meanings and harmonious sounds.
“What does it say?” asked Eggy.
“May all your affairs be fulfilled with grand auspiciousness. May every household find contentment and lasting wellness. Prosperity through the Four Seasons.” Prince Baiyu read them aloud for him.
Eggy tilted his head to the side and looked up at me questioningly.
“It’s wishing us good luck, good health, wealth, and happiness,” I translated the difficult words for him. I turned to my apprentices and said, “These look great, good job!”
They smiled and put away the spring couplet. The paper will be pasted on at an auspicious hour later today.
I was elated at the evidence of their hard work in mastering reading and writing. The old them would never have been able to write such an excellent piece of poetry.
“Shall we start?” I asked.
“Yes, Teacher,” they chorused with eager expressions on their faces.
“Let’s go!” I said.
Prince Baiyu and Eggy followed at my side as we walked to the open field that had been cleared of all large rocks and plant life.
This part of the farm had been where the pigs lived. They had been moved further south, but the soil should be richer because of their manure. I took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of the damp earth, grass, and decaying leaves from the nearby forest. My husband and son stood to the side of the field while my apprentices and I fanned out into its four corners.
I took my [Hoe] out from the System toolbelt and lightly swung it down to the ground, neatly tilling a large area of soil in front of me.
In Adventure Incarnate, Farming skills worked on “tiles,” which in this world were square spaces around three feet wide. In the beginning, one could only till one tile at a time, but this limit increased as one reached a milestone level. At level 1, the player could only use one tile, and at level 50, the limit was increased to 36. The max was 100 tiles at level 99. This was the normal progression in the game, but when I was using the skills in reality, this was sometimes modified by certain factors such as special bonuses.
Now that I was past level 60, my limit was 49, which I could configure in many different ways, such as in one row, two rows, or a perfect square. I opted for a square this time and continued doing so until I reached one edge. Then I tilled in a straight line to keep things neat.
Seeing that I had paused to look around to see how the others were doing, Eggy ran towards me and said, “Mom magic!”
“You like it?” I knew he would like it since even I always marveled at the way the soil would turn itself over with every swing of my [Hoe].
“I like Mom magic.” Eggy pretended to till the soil with an invisible hoe.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Prince Baiyu gently took him away to one side as I worked on the rest of my part of the field. With each use of my tool, my energy bar went down a little, and I stopped when it was halfway empty.
“Help mommy fertilize the soil,” I said to Eggy.
I took out a sack of [Mysterious Goo] and opened it to show him the contents, which were bright, fluorescent green.
[Mysterious Goo:
An extraordinary blend of slime excreta and worm-made compost, this potent fertilizer fuels flora with a potent cocktail of nutrients. Can only be applied to soil once a year. Do not touch with your bare hands.]
When I first transmigrated into this world, I had an inventory full of every useful item from my favorite Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game, Adventure Incarnate. It was originally a simple social farming game, but it had been bought out by a Chinese developer who made it into a full-fledged MMORPG with a Chinese-style fantasy martial arts setting.
My oldest friend in the game, GodIAm, told me that he had found a way to duplicate items and invited me to check out his hacked character. The moment I logged into his character, I was transmigrated into this world as a player with a System based on Adventure Incarnate, and with an inventory full of every useful item in the game, with each slot holding the maximum number of items: 2,147,483,647. The only problem was that the items were all bound to my character. Thus, other people couldn't use or even touch them.
However, we recently found out that Eggy was an exception, perhaps because he was born from my dreams.
“Do you want to help Mom pour out the fertilizer?” I asked.
Eggy was nodding even before I finished speaking.
We each took hold of one side of the sack and lifted it over the soil before tipping the contents out. The [Mysterious Goo] flew over 49 tiles, coating them completely and then soaking into the ground with a satisfying whooshing sound.
[Congratulations, you just advanced a Farming level!]
[Your Farming level is now 63.]
Bright but harmless fireworks exploded around me. The nanny was startled and drew Eggy away from me, but my apprentices came running over.
“Yes! Level 63!” I said.
“Congratulations, Teacher!”
“Congratulations, Teacher!”
“Congratulations! First level up of the year!”
Prince Baiyu also congratulated me, and Nanny saw that the fireworks were just System shenanigans, so she let Eggy go.
“Mom, let’s work again, I want to level up, too!” he said.
I laughed. “But, baby, when you help me, only I get the exp.”
“Try spreading the fertilizer by yourself,” said Prince Baiyu.
I took out a smaller sack, and Eggy tried to throw the contents out, but the [Mysterious Goo] refused to move, no matter how much he shook the sack.
I kissed him and said, “Sorry, it seems you can’t do Mommy magic. But don’t worry, when you grow older, you’ll be able to do dragon magic, just like how your Dad uses White Tiger clan skills.”
Eggy struck a pose and threw something invisible at his father. “Dragon magic missile!”
Prince Baiyu laughed and pretended to catch it. “Tiger throw!”
I chuckled and continued fertilizing the soil while they played. Lari, Kharli, and Mo also returned to their work. Then I took out a packet of seeds, ripped it open, and poured the contents into a [Seeder].
[Tea Plant Seeds:
The tea plant (Camellia sinensis) contains spiritual energy that potentially offers health benefits and may boost cultivation slightly.]
Shuye, my Farm Guide and Sales Manager, said that a few people who drank tea brewed from the Emberstone Farm had awakened valuable special skills, which sent the price of [Tea] sky high. Therefore, since this product was in high demand, we planted it on the first day. Planting a crop on the first day and harvesting it on the last day gave it an extra month’s worth of growth time, boosting its yield and quality.
I waved the seeder, and the seeds flew from it and embedded themselves in the ground.
Eggy stopped playing and ran over to me. He knelt on the ground to peer at the places where the seeds had buried themselves.
“Stay back, my dear. The seeds need to be watered. Watch this.” I tipped the [Watering Can] and a shower of water shot out from its holes, neatly and precisely watering exactly 49 tiles.
This was magical enough on its own, but since it was Eggy’s first time watching me work like this, I added a funny special effect from the Cash Shop, the [Bunny Bubbles]. Multicolored bubbles accompanied the water, and inside them were cute little rabbits around two inches tall who dove into the earth, disappearing in a splash of light.
“Bunnies!” Eggy tried to catch some of the bubbles, but they passed right through his hands.
“Don’t stop them. They’re going into the soil to help the seeds grow bigger,” I said.
“Bunnies,” he whispered as he took his father’s hand. “Dad, magic bunnies.”
“Very nice,” said Prince Baiyu.
Watering the seeds was the last task of the day. My energy bar dwindled until it was almost completely empty.
“That’s it, I’m out of energy.” I put my tools back in the System toolbelt and looked around. My apprentices were also finished with their work, and I waved them over. “Done? Let’s move to Wood’s End.”
That was the name I had given a particular field so that we would have an easy way of referring to it.
They nodded, and I turned to my husband and child to say, “I’m tired, so I’ll fly there.”
Eggy giggled. “Mom, you can’t fly.”
“Nooooo… I can't fly like a clan member, but I have my own way.”
I detached my puppet from my belt and threw it up while simultaneously giving it the command to enlarge.
[Puppet Name: Mr. Bear
A magical plushie unlike any other. This cute and cuddly bear is made of a special type of plush cloth and magical stuffing that gives it special powers. When its owner is in danger, this bear will come to life.
Though Mr. Bear is a wizard type, this puppet is also equipped with hidden metal claws and teeth.
Type: Magic
Base spell: Fireball
Upgrades: 34→42/99]
“A bear?” Eggy’s mouth fell open.
I hadn’t shown him my puppet before because I knew he would pester me to let him play with Mr. Bear, and I wasn’t ready for that yet. After all, how could a mere mother compare to a magical bear? However, I had decided that it was time since I often used my puppet when I was working.
“My bear!” I said with a wide smile.
My puppet knelt, and I climbed onto his shoulder. Then I made Mr. Bear float three feet above the ground. Prince Baiyu picked up our son and flew up beside me.
“To the Woods End!” I accidentally pointed in the wrong direction, but it didn’t really matter since all I had to do was right-click on the right spot on the System map to command my puppet to fly there.
“Mom has a flying bear?”
Nanny and my apprentices followed behind us.
“A cute flying bear.” I gave Mr. Bear a kiss on the ear. “The best bear ever!”
Eggy tentatively reached out and tried to poke the bear. I laughed and waved him over. Prince Baiyu helped him sit on my puppet’s other shoulder.
“Bear bear beary beary bear.” Eggy ran his hands all over Mr. Bear’s head, paying special attention to his round ears, and marveling over his soft fluffiness.
And so we arrived at the experimental field where all of Emberstone Farm’s staff were waiting for us. I made my puppet slowly shrink until I could easily dismount. Eggy cried out in protest, but I pacified him by telling him he could play with my bear later. I shrank my puppet down to palm size and reattached him to my belt. He hung there like an ornament.
I turned to my staff and said, “Are you all ready to plant today’s seeds?”
Of course, my apprentices and I were the only ones who could use the System, but I thought I had found a way to let others plant crops on Emberstone Farm, and it was time to give it a try.
One moment he’s dying in a warzone — next, he’s naked on a moon full of real cultivators.
Jake Sullivan just woke up in the wrong body, on a moon called Verdis, inside a cultivation academy where failure means getting culled back to Earth to live as a powerless mortal—and probably die uselessly in the upcoming alien invasion.
His memories are mostly gone, but his spirit’s intact. His classmates? Rich kids with qi crystals and family techniques. The school? Doesn’t give a damn. Let the strong survive. With enemy agents already on campus, Jake will need to out-cultivate, outfight, and outsmart everyone around him. He has only one year to become a real cultivator.
No dying this time!
Dark humor. Sharp dialogue. Flower picking, teeth flying. A fresh blend of sci-fi, xianxia, and LitRPG.
***
- Sorry for not updating. I had an adverse reaction to a new drug. It was not fun!
- Don't worry, I'm fine now.
- Thanks for reading!
- Please let me know if there are any errrors.