It was very chaotic and noisy.

“With just over ten days left, can Brother Song still sit in the classroom and listen one more time?”
Someone laughed, trying to put a hand on his shoulder, but Song Ming, who had been lazily drooping his brows, slightly narrowed his eyes and sidestepped.

“I heard Brother Song has already passed the bone test, but has a special cultivation method. We still can’t grasp it, so we hope you can give us a few pointers…”

“That’s not a special method; it’s just that he has good talent. The elder personally evaluated him. We can only wait for Brother Song to take us under his wing once he enters the inner sect.”
The surrounding chatter became more direct, and the intentions clearer, causing Song Ming’s brows to slowly furrow.

“Brother Song, you said you had something to do yesterday. Are you free today? We can meditate together and share insights. Maybe we can make some breakthroughs before the test.”
The voices in his ears began to blur, and he couldn’t make out the content; it just felt noisy. His hand, hanging by his side, lightly tapped the jade pendant, and after a final pause, he slightly raised the corner of his eye and finally spoke, “Get lost…”

“Song Ming.”

Just as he was about to spit out those words, he heard someone calling his name through the haze. Following the direction of the voice, he saw a hand pushing through the crowd.
A thin, slender hand, the sleeve pushed up, revealing half an arm, and then he met a pair of familiar eyes.
Using one hand to clear the way, Lin Zhusheng successfully climbed out of the window, breaking free from the crowd, and turned to apologize to a fellow disciple who had been squeezed beside him before finally reaching the center.

The hand he extended didn’t retract; he jumped straight towards his good buddy, grabbing the other’s arm and blocking the people in front of him while his smile brightened, saying to the others, “Sorry, he can’t today. He has an important appointment with me this afternoon.”

Whenever he smiled, it looked so sincere, his eyes clear and bright—there was no hint of him just making things up. A hand gripped his arm with a light but firm touch. Song Ming lowered his head to look at the hand holding his arm, then raised his gaze to the face of the person who was earnestly babbling nonsense, and then looked away.

Suddenly, a completely unfamiliar person popped up, and the surrounding people took a long time to recognize who it was, their minds blank with no impression, leaving them momentarily stunned, only able to turn their puzzled gazes towards the person who had been mostly silent.

Song Ming lowered his eyes, just in time to meet the quietly raised eyes of Lin Zhusheng, who was signaling him with a look. Unable to hold back a smile, he casually said, “There is some truth to that.”
Having been preempted, the others could only regretfully disperse, hoping to chat another time.

Lin Zhusheng easily pulled his good buddy out of the crowd, waving goodbye politely to those left behind, not giving them a chance to lower their favorability.

As the crowd dispersed, the wind blew away the noisy atmosphere.

Song Ming was led away, the crowd gradually fading into the distance. He took a long stride to keep pace with Lin Zhusheng and finally chose to speak up amidst the chatter, “Where did you just come from?”
Glancing back at the direction of their fellow disciples, Lin Zhusheng loosened his grip and gave a thumbs up, saying, “I climbed out of the window.”

Convenient and quick, without needing to take a detour.

Song Ming slightly opened his drooping eyes and said, “In front of the teacher?”
Lin Zhusheng nodded, smiling, “Well, you looked like you were in a hurry.”

He didn’t think much of the window-climbing incident. He simply climbed out of the window, not stepping over the teacher’s head. The teacher didn’t lose any favor upon seeing him climb out; in fact, it seemed to have increased, showing a very high level of acceptance.

【Song Ming Favorability +10 (45/100)】
This guy’s favorability also increased.
—Wait a minute.

Thinking it was just a 1-point increase, upon closer inspection, he realized the tens digit seemed to have changed. Lin Zhusheng was shocked to find it had increased by two digits, quickly glancing at the fellow disciples beside him, unable to figure out where this favorability came from.
A favorability of 45 meant a relationship stage where they could walk home together after school and grab a meal without any awkwardness.

They were already on the path down the mountain, scratching his head in confusion, he said, “Let’s stop here. I have to go down the mountain to complete a task.”

The previous lie was so far-fetched, but he couldn’t really take someone along to do a task in the afternoon; that would be pure exploitation of labor.

Song Ming glanced back in the direction of the return, his feet unmoving, and asked, “Can I go with you?”
Sure.

Eager to be free labor, Lin Zhusheng had no reason to refuse and led his good buddy down the mountain. After reaching the bottom, they found the designated area assigned to him by the sect under the guidance of the staff.

“……”
Standing in front of the lush forest, the laborer Song finally learned that the target wasn’t the flowers and plants under the trees, but rather the trees that were as thick as two people hugging each other, and there was more than one.

The entire area visible to the naked eye was the task zone.
He glanced at the sturdy tree trunk, then turned to look at the person beside him holding an axe thicker than his own arm. For a moment, he didn’t know what this seemingly frail-looking person was thinking when they took on this task.

Lin Zhusheng had no particular thoughts; he simply wanted free wood, and even thought he could get paid for it, feeling like he was making a huge profit, he energetically dragged the axe to start working.
Technology changes life, and abilities benefit humanity. Although there was no chainsaw from the new era, the cultivation world had other means. The axe provided by the sect had small symbols drawn on it that resembled formations, making it effortless to use; with just a little strength, he could chop out large notches.

At this rate, they should be able to return home before nightfall, especially since his good buddy was genuinely willing to be free labor. He even asked the staff for an axe, which he held in his hand like a small toy, and walked over.
Before the person got close, Lin Zhusheng asked the little cat, “By the way, what do we need to repair the cooking station?”

Since he had already decided to make a wooden box, he might as well fix the cooking station while he was at it. Practicality aside, at least the room would look much nicer.
Although Master Lin lived a rough life, he had quite high standards for the comfort of his living environment.

The little cat settled on the grass and said, “We need 20 stones, 6 pieces of wood, and 1 fire crystal.”
Both stones and wood could be obtained from here, and he had seen fire crystals on the commercial street halfway up the mountain, where the prices were quite reasonable. Lin Zhusheng noted it down, deciding to buy one next time he passed by.

Song Ming approached, a tall figure, lazily carrying an air of indolence. If one ignored the axe in his hand, he looked quite presentable.

LV3 truly deserved its title; Master Lin had to swing the axe dozens of times to fell a tree, while he could do it in just a few swings.
“Boom—”

The big tree crashed down, shaking the ground a couple of times. The amateur tree-felling master, who always provided ample emotional value, applauded Song Ming enthusiastically, sincerely expressing his admiration.

He clapped earnestly, his eyes wide open like copper bells, while Song Ming held his fist against his lips, the corners of his mouth lifting.

He smiled again. This person really had a low threshold for laughter.

He looked completely different from when he was standing with others today. Finally remembering the previous incident, he thought of something to say and directly asked, “Why didn’t you just refuse those people earlier?”

With the axe planted in the tree stump, Song Ming leaned on the axe handle with one hand and replied sideways, “Probably because I didn’t want to make a mistake.”

He had a good background, and the people surrounding him were either trying to make breakthroughs through him and establish connections with his family—after all, besides him, the other disciples were all in the inner sect of the big sect, making it hard to interact with them—or they were like today, knowing their own strength wasn’t enough to enter the inner or outer sects, yet didn’t want to give up on their cultivation path and wanted to explore some side paths.

It was difficult to refuse clearly; if the meaning was misinterpreted and the news went back, he might not be able to stay here anymore.

“?”

It sounded like he was portraying an image of a good-natured, honest person who didn’t stir up trouble. But if his eyes didn’t misread the lip movements, Lin Zhusheng felt that this person seemed to want to tell others to “get lost” today.

Worried about being misunderstood, he decided to be straightforward to avoid any chance of misinterpretation… right?

After thinking for a moment, he decided to skip the topic and suggested, “What about directly entering the outer sect?”

As long as he entered the outer sect, there would be basically no intersection with the current environment, and these matters would be avoided.

Song Ming didn’t answer immediately but instead asked back, “Do you want to go to the outer sect?”
This person had been buried in books for the past two days; if there wasn’t an urgent need, someone who was so disinterested in studying wouldn’t actively touch a book.

Lin Zhanshu, the disinterested student, nodded decisively and said, “It should be more interesting than being a miscellaneous disciple.”

Mainly because there would be a small courtyard included, he could enjoy the freedom of farming, satisfying his desire to be a cyber farmer, which was of utmost importance.
“……Interesting indeed.”
Song Ming leaned on the axe handle with both hands, his drooping brows slightly lifting as he said, “Perhaps it really is quite interesting.”

The small talk came to an end, and there were still plenty of trees to chop down. The eager Master Lin began to work hard again.

The two of them worked together, and the good buddy was very loyal, helping from start to finish. While it was still light out, they finished processing the designated area.

As the last tree fell, Song Ming watched as the person beside him quickly stood the axe aside, leaped into the thicket, and bent down to collect every fallen tree without leaving a single one behind into a small pocket hanging at his waist, resembling a farmer having a bountiful harvest.

The small pocket was bearing too much, and it even seemed like there were stones thrown in there too.
…Stones?

For a moment, he couldn’t help but stare for too long. The diligent farmer Lin noticed the gaze from afar, turned his head, and their eyes met precisely.

“……”

After two seconds of eye contact, the hardworking farmer seemed to have an epiphany and shouted, “Do you want wood too?”

He waved his hand, generously offering, “If you want, I can share half with you!”