“Left hand pick the bud, right hand nip the two tender leaves! Keep your backs straight and don’t drop a single leaf in the dirt, or Inspector Su will add ten notes to our bill!”
Early the next morning on the sunlit, emerald-green hillsides of World 32, a line of three thousand former elders, deacons, and inner disciples of the Venom-Spider Sect stood waist-deep in the fragrant Self-Draining Cloud-Tea Terraces.
Every single one of them was wearing a pair of indestructible Rank 5 Blue Worker Overalls topped with a bright yellow DRY-WELL DEBTOR vest, a wide bamboo sun-hat on their head, and two woven wicker tea baskets strapped to their hips.
At the very front of the line stood former Sect Master Poison-Heart Old Freak, former World 34 Branch Chief Elder Eight-Eyes, and former World 31 Tax Collector Deacon Wu!
Their cultivation dantians were sealed to ordinary Rank 2 Martial strength by their iron Debtor Collars, forcing them to move their fingers at top speed as they plucked the dew-kissed leaves of Rank 5 Sober-Mind Spirit Tea under the warm morning sun.
“Sect Master, move your left thumb a little faster!” Deacon Wu whispered helpfully, tossing a handful of glowing green tea buds into his basket like a seasoned pro. “I’ve been here three days longer than you—if our squad fills five hundred baskets before the noon bell rings, Chef Guo’s lunch cart gives us each a double portion of Five-Spice Bug-Nuggets, a whole steamed Tea-Blossom Carp from the bottom…
