The rent for the spiritual fields is calculated in spirit grain. Every year, you must hand over spirit grain and earn enough sect contribution to continue qualifying to stay in the sect as an outer disciple. If you want to learn new techniques, then keep increasing your sect contribution.

After all is said and done, what you actually get to keep for yourself is pitifully little. Even the spirit grain that Old Black grows, he can’t bear to eat himself.

No one understands how hard it is to be an outer disciple better than Brian Carter.

Yet even so, countless people still scramble to get into a small sect like Wukong Sword Sect. Although it’s tough, you can learn things here, and in the future, you can find a decent job. For someone like Old Black with no family background, this is a pretty stable job.

Brian Carter’s life is much better. Although he’s an outer disciple, at least he was picked up by the sect leader, so no one dares to bully him. He’s quite talented and perceptive; after comprehending the third level of the Little Cloud and Rain Technique on his own, his days have become even more comfortable.

Brian Carter has no great ambitions, and there’s not a single clue about his origins. Other than wanting to live a more comfortable life, he has no other desires.

After finishing his work, he leisurely made his way back to his own residence.

There’s only one sect on the whole Wukong Mountain, and the place is huge—the entire western peak is designated as the living area for outer disciples. You can live in as big a place as you want, and you can even build your own. However, most people choose to live in the courtyards left behind by previous outer disciples. Even though no one has lived in them for a long time, a simple cleaning is all it takes.

Brian Carter’s courtyard covers a huge area. Although he’s thin and weak, he likes big things, so he chose the largest courtyard on the western peak. Seven rows of side rooms, a fish pond half a mu in size, and about five mu of spiritual fields. The senior brother who originally built this courtyard was definitely a planting fanatic. There’s no artificial mountain in the fish pond, no flower beds or gardens in the courtyard, no decorations at all—this senior brother turned everything into spiritual fields.

Others have no interest in such a courtyard with no aesthetic appeal, no charm, and incomplete formations, but Brian Carter loves it.

There’s no need to keep anything in the fish pond; just soaking in it during the summer is an extremely enjoyable experience. The spiritual fields are great too. Brian Carter is shrewd—spiritual fields rented from the sect require rent, but the ones in this courtyard don’t. Besides that, there’s also a cold spring in the yard.

There are rules for building houses. Generally, it’s best to build on top of a spiritual vein. Staying long-term in a place rich in spiritual energy increases your cultivation faster, which is why those blessed lands are so expensive. But there aren’t many places with spiritual veins to begin with—how could outer disciples like them ever get a chance?

No one expected that this abandoned courtyard would actually have a spiritual vein underground!

When he first moved in, Brian Carter looked everywhere for a place to meditate and found a quiet room. As soon as he opened the door, a pungent, rotten smell hit him. There were many meditation mats scattered on the floor, already rotted into a pile of messy straw. Only one mat was still mostly intact.

Brian Carter spent a huge amount of effort cleaning the quiet room, keeping only that intact mat.

The first time Brian Carter sat on the mat, he was stunned.

The spiritual energy at the mat’s location was far denser than anywhere else!

Brian Carter’s heart pounded wildly. At first, he thought it was thanks to the mat, but he quickly found the real reason—a small branch of a spiritual vein lay beneath the mat! This branch was tiny; just one step away from the mat and you couldn’t feel anything.

Only then did he gradually realize why that unknown senior brother had built such a large courtyard—most likely to conceal this little branch of the spiritual vein.

That unknown senior brother quickly became Brian Carter’s idol.

To find such a tiny spiritual vein on the vast western peak and even open up spiritual fields on his own—such skill is simply not like that of an ordinary outer disciple.

After discovering the secret of the spiritual vein, Brian Carter became even more low-key. He knew the importance of not showing off wealth. If others found out about this spiritual vein, he’d surely be targeted, and the best outcome would be the sect reclaiming it.

He placed more than thirty meditation mats on the floor of the quiet room in one go, and in addition, piled another seventy or eighty mats in the corner. These mats came in all colors and shapes, all handwoven by him. Zombie Xiao Mo’s odd hobby of weaving meditation mats was well known among the outer disciples. So much so that when people wanted to ask him for help, they’d buy a few finely made mats as gifts. This directly led to more and more mats, filling the quiet room.

But Brian Carter always insisted on meditating on the old mat he’d preserved. After lasting so long without rotting, maybe there’s something special about it. That mysterious and unfathomable senior brother made him treat every item left in the house with great care, never daring to take anything lightly.

The only thing Brian Carter regretted was that the spiritual field had been abandoned for too long and had dropped a grade; now it was only a first-grade spiritual field. It took Brian Carter countless efforts to restore its vitality, but it would take time to upgrade it back to second grade.

He planted all five mu of spiritual fields with spirit grain. The spirit grain grew to half a person’s height, with serrated edges on the leaves that were very sharp—if you weren’t careful, you could easily get cut. These spirit grains were all sown at the same time, so they were very uniform in height, lush and green, and very pleasing to the eye.

It’s just that at night, the place felt a bit eerie.