Thirty minutes later, in the hundred-acre spirit-field half a mile outside the southern gate of Sky-Border Pass, the most surreal agricultural spectacle in the history of the Nine Continents was underway.
Three hundred and one Rank 5 Foundation Establishment sword-immortals of the Supreme Sword Sect—every single one of them sporting a freshly shaved. Sun-reflecting bald head and wearing coarse blue-cotton overalls with [GU FAMILY AGRICULTURAL WORK-STUDY TEAM] printed in bright yellow characters across their backs—stood ankle-deep in black soil holding iron potato hoes!
At the edge of the field, under a shady canvas awning, eleven-year-old Ye Xiao sat behind a wooden proctor’s desk grading farm-quota sheets. Ten-year-old Gu Nian patrolled the furrows riding on the back of their Rank 4 Peak Flood-Bull Braise-Pot. Eight-year-old Su Nuannuan and seven-year-old Jiang Tuntun sat on a picnic blanket testing freshly roasted sweet potatoes.
Down in Furrow Number One, twenty-two-year-old Senior Inner Disciple Jian Feng threw his iron hoe down into the dirt, crossed his arms over his blue farm overalls. Lifted his shiny bald chin toward the sky in tragic defiance.
“I refuse!” Jian Feng declared loudly, his voice trembling with the wounded pride of an aristocrat forced to touch mud. “We are Inner Sect sword-immortals of the Supreme Sword Sect!
