Heaven rewards diligence: Survive until you reach immortality in the newbie village!

The sky was just beginning to brighten.

The wind at the mouth of the One Line Sky Canyon carried away the last trace of blood and burnt smell, leaving only the chill of the morning dew.

Chen Mo's figure moved through the mountains and forests like a ghost, his steps light and without making a sound.

When he stepped back onto the dirt road leading to Ping'an Village, the cold killing intent and sharp edge on his body had receded like the tide.

In its place came the shy village doctor, carrying a medicine box and walking with a touch of youthful awkwardness.

The sun peeked over the eastern hills, its golden rays bathing the village.

Smoke curls from chimneys, and the sounds of chickens and dogs can be heard from afar.

"Xiao Mo, you're back from gathering herbs?"

At the intersection, Aunt Wang, who was drawing water from the well, saw him and greeted him warmly.

Chen Mo stopped and gave a clean smile: "Yes, Aunt Wang, good morning."

"Go back and rest. Look at you, always busy all day long," Aunt Wang said, looking at him with concern.

Chen Mo smiled and nodded, carrying his medicine box, and walked back to his small courtyard step by step.

Along the way, early-rising villagers greeted him, their eyes filled with respect and trust.

Unbeknownst to anyone, just an hour earlier, this gentle, kind, and even somewhat introverted village doctor in their eyes had cleanly and efficiently taken the lives of three immortal cultivators with a wood-chopping knife.

Back in the familiar courtyard, the moment Chen Mo locked the gate.

"Click".

A soft click, like an invisible switch.

The gentle smile on his face vanished instantly, and his eyes returned to their usual calm and profound depth.

He didn't rush to deal with the spoils of war. Instead, he went into the house first, carefully washed his hands and face, and changed out of a coarse cloth garment that still smelled of mountain dew.

After doing all this, he sat down at the table and, with a thought, brought up the system screen.

Lines of information flowed by.

[Ding! Congratulations, host, for completing the hidden storyline: Creating Something from Nothing!]

You used a perfect lie to deceive someone you couldn't fathom, successfully averting a certain death!

[Reward: 20000 Experience Points!]

[Reward: Skill 'A Thousand Faces' upgraded to Intermediate!]

[Reward: Special item Ancient Dust's Wine Gourd (Imitation)!]

Chen Mo's gaze first fell on the experience points.

20,000 points!

This is definitely a huge sum of money.

You have to understand that all the experience points he had gained from treating and saving people, plus the two battles of wits and courage, amounted to nothing more than this.

"Indeed, the higher the risk, the greater the reward."

Chen Mo thought to himself.

He looked at his attribute panel.

[Host]: Chen Mo

[Cultivation Level]: Qi Refining Level 10 (32500/500000)

[Technique]: Gengjin Sword Qi Technique (Completed)

[Skills]: Concealing Aura (Perfect), Observation, Listening, Questioning and Diagnosis (Master), A Thousand Faces (Intermediate)

[Items]: Chaos Qian Yuan Bell (fragment), Elder Tian Xuan's Token, Shadow Revealing Talisman, Ancient Dust's Wine Gourd (imitation)...

Chen Mo frowned slightly when he saw the section on what was required for the upgrade.

Five hundred thousand.

It takes a full 500,000 experience points to break through from the tenth level of Qi Refining to the Foundation Establishment stage!

The 20,000 experience points he just gained, plus his previous accumulation, are not even a fraction of what he has.

"Killing three late-stage Qi Refining experts and tricking an old monster who seemed to be a Nascent Soul cultivator only earned me 20,000 experience points... This path to Foundation Establishment is truly paved with one's life."

A sense of seriousness flashed through Chen Mo's mind.

He knew very well that his survival this time was seven parts due to the information gap in the system and three parts due to luck.

An existence of Gu Chen's caliber could be reduced to ashes with a single thought.

He didn't want to experience that feeling of leaving his fate in the hands of someone else again.

We must lay the foundation as soon as possible!

Only by reaching the Foundation Establishment stage can one truly shed the status of an ant and gain a sliver of capital to protect oneself in this world.

His gaze shifted downwards, landing on the newly acquired skills and items.

【A Thousand Faces (Intermediate)】: Passive skill. Allows for fine-tuning of bones and muscles to alter appearance and physique based on the host's needs, simulating corresponding aura and expression. Note: This skill cannot alter the essence of spiritual power; it works best when used in conjunction with 【Aura Concealment】.

"nice one."

Chen Mo's eyes lit up.

If [Concealing Aura] makes him disappear, then [A Thousand Faces] makes him become anyone.

This was a huge boost to his plan to stay in the newbie village.

Then look at that wine gourd.

【Gu Chen's Wine Gourd (Imitation)】: Special item. Contains three mouthfuls of Blazing Sun True Fire Wine. Each mouthful instantly restores 30% of spiritual power within three breaths and temporarily increases the power of fire-type techniques by 30% for the duration of an incense stick.

This is our trump card!

Instantly restoring 30% of one's spiritual power is enough to turn the tide of battle in a life-or-death struggle between cultivators of the same level.

Chen Mo took a deep breath and took all the spoils.

Including the [Shadow Revealing Talisman] and the several storage bags looted from Zhao Wu and the other two, everything was put into a hidden compartment under the bed.

These things cannot be touched for the time being.

That old fox Wei Changfeng, having suffered such a huge loss, will never let it go.

Although Gu Chen was in charge, no one could guarantee what insidious methods he might use to investigate.

For the foreseeable future, I must be more low-key than ever before, and act more like an ordinary village doctor.

After doing all this, Chen Mo pushed open the back door and walked into his small vegetable garden.

The vegetable garden wasn't large, but several rows of lush green vegetables were growing well, with glistening dewdrops still clinging to them.

The morning sun felt warm and cozy on my skin.

Chen Mo picked up the hoe from the corner of the wall and began to quietly loosen the soil and weed the vegetable garden.

The hoe fell, turning over the damp soil.

His movements were slow but steady, just like his state of mind at that moment.

When he committed murder, the machete in his hand was the sharpest weapon in the world.

When saving lives, the silver needles in his hand can bring the dead back to life.

At this moment, the hoe in his hand was just a hoe.

He was just a young boy who farmed.

With his mind completely absorbed in the repetitive motion of each stroke of the hoe, the clamor of the outside world, the battles of the cultivation world, the threat of Wei Changfeng, the unfathomable depths of Gu Chen... all of it seemed to be shut out.

In his world, only the fragrance of the soil and the rhythm of life remained.

This is his way.

The truly wise live in seclusion in the city, seeking longevity amidst the hustle and bustle of life.

Just as he was completely absorbed in this tranquility, a system notification sound, which hadn't been heard in a long time and had a mechanical feel, suddenly rang out in his mind without warning.

[Ding! Host detected engaging in 'cultivation' activity...]

[A state of mind and behavior perfectly aligned—the true master lies hidden within the city's core principles...]

Chen Mo paused.

Farming?

This can trigger the system?

Why didn't I trigger this before?

Before he could react, new prompts came one after another.

Farming skill activated, current proficiency 1/100.

[Congratulations, host! You have unlocked the Life Skills panel!]

A brand new, pale green light screen, carrying the scent of earth, slowly unfolded before Chen Mo's eyes.

On the screen, there were only two lonely icons.

One is the lit-up "Cultivation" icon.

The other one is gray, with the character "丹" (dan) engraved on it.

Chen Mo looked at the "farming" icon, then at the hoe in his hand, and fell into a long silence.

He suddenly realized that his previous ideas about how to gain experience points might have been... completely wrong.

Murder and arson bring wealth and power?

No.

Perhaps, farming is the fastest way to level up in this world!