Chapter 20 – The World Beyond the Gate (Patreon)

By now, the news of Lynn Naya’s selection for the intermediate medicinal field had already spread. That same evening, several well-connected people arrived with gifts to congratulate her. Of course, Scarface Qing was one of them.

He wasn’t the last to arrive. After exchanging pleasantries with the others, he and Xue Yong sat down in the kitchen to warm themselves by the fire. Everyone else knew they were business partners and assumed they wanted to talk in private, so they didn’t disturb them.

“You can give the gift to her for me later. I’ll leave after a while.” Scarface Qing said, his hands in front of the stove. The orange firelight flickered on his face, making the scar on his face even more terrifying.

“Why don’t you wait for Healer Lynn to come back?” Xue Yong asked, pouring him a cup of water. “She should be home soon.”

“She told me to not see her too often either.” Scarface Qing sounded a little helpless. He knew he wasn’t handsome, but he wasn’t so ugly that people didn’t even want to see him, was he?

“That’s just Healer Lynn’s way.” Xue Yong said. He knew that Healer Lynn hated trouble. It was normal for her not to want to be publicly associated with Scarface Qing, whose name had a lot of baggage. “By the way, how are things for you in the Hall of External Affairs?”

The Spirit Snake Gang had disbanded, and many of their people had died. Xue Yong was worried that some of them might not let him off the hook so easily.

“When you have money to pave the way, why would things be bad?”

Scarface Qing’s tone was dismissive, but it made Xue Yong think of what Lynn Naya had said on the winter solstice. He chuckled. “Did you really go to the Hall of External Affairs to be the hand behind the curtain?”

Scarface Qing looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“Like, getting a master to trust you and then using their power to achieve your own goals. You can’t show your face right now, so you’ll just hide behind the scenes for a decade or two until the old masters die, and the new ones take over. Then no one will remember what happened half a year ago, and you can come back into the public eye and even become the new head of the Hall of External Affairs.”

Scarface Qing chewed on Xue Yong’s words and then nodded in agreement. “That’s a great idea. I might just try that.”

Xue Yong was stunned. “Huh?”

“I never thought you, of all people, would have such insight. I underestimated you. Why don’t you join me in the Hall of External Affairs? You can be my advisor.” Scarface Qing invited.

“No way,” Xue Yong said, waving his hand without a second thought. “If I had come up with that myself, I’d be confident, but I heard it from someone else.”

Scarface Qing was curious. “Who?”

“Who else?”

Scarface Qing fell silent.

After a moment, he couldn’t help but say, “How did that little girl get so wise? She doesn’t look very old, but she acts so old-fashioned.”

“And she doesn’t leave a single trace.” Xue Yong added.

“True,” Scarface Qing agreed. “Luckily, a person like that is a friend and not an enemy. She’d be a tough one to deal with.”

His words made Xue Yong think of the two unlucky men from last year. “I hope you always think that way.”

“…” Scarface Qing fell silent again. “Are you giving me a warning or did something I don’t know about happen?”

“Both. But I can’t tell you.”

Scarface Qing looked at the honest man across from him for a while. Seeing that he wasn’t going to budge, he gave up. “Alright. I was going to give her this later, but it looks like I can do it tonight.”

This time it was Xue Yong’s turn to be curious. “What is it?”

Scarface Qing used Xue Yong’s own words against him. “I can’t tell you.”

Xue Yong groaned. “…Stingy!”

As Scarface Qing was getting the gift ready, he heard a commotion outside. The guest of honor was back.

Lynn Naya heard the voices as soon as she was close to the house. She assumed they were all there to see Xue Yong. After all, his medicine shop was doing well, and many people came to curry favor with him. But when she opened the courtyard gate, she saw that all eyes were on her.

“Healer Lynn, I hear you’ll be in charge of the mountainside medicinal field from now on?” Xue Yong spoke first, explaining why everyone was there. “These are all stewards who came to congratulate you.”

He introduced everyone to Lynn Naya. Most of them were subordinates of the twelve Hall of External Affairs masters.

“I only temporarily qualified. Whether I get to stay depends on luck.” Lynn Naya said humbly, all the while thinking that the position of intermediate medicinal farmer wasn’t as simple as it seemed. First, there was Supervisor Zhang’s change in attitude, and now these people who usually looked down on others were here to congratulate her. A simple medicinal farmer wasn’t worth this kind of treatment.

“An ordinary person wouldn’t even get this kind of opportunity,” one of them said with a laugh. “Healer Lynn, when you get rich and famous, don’t forget about me.”

“That’s nonsense. I’m just changing places to grow herbs.” Lynn Naya waved her hand as if she were flattered. “If anything, it’s I who need all of you to take care of me.”

“You must really not know. The masters on the mountain prefer to choose servants from their own people at the foot of the mountain. A master’s servant has to know about medicine. The high-grade and spiritual fields are run by the immortals of the Dao Palace. Only the medicinal farmers of the intermediate fields are qualified to be chosen. You know Senior Xiefrom the west side, right? He used to be a medicinal farmer before he was chosen by the immortals. Healer Lynn, at your age, joining the Dao Palace is only a matter of time.”

There’s a rule like that?

Becoming a master’s servant meant getting a connection to cultivators. That explained Supervisor Zhang’s and everyone else’s enthusiasm.

Lynn Naya didn’t think they were being fake. It was human nature to seek advantages and avoid harm. As long as they didn’t try to curry favor when she was successful and didn’t kick her while she was down, it was fine.

“I honestly didn’t know that. With all your blessings, if I ever get that kind of opportunity, you will all be my lucky stars.” Lynn Naya said with a smile.

“Of course, of course.”

The atmosphere was so harmonious that it would have been rude not to stay for dinner. But things were different now. The visitors knew that Lynn Naya’s family wasn’t well-off. After exchanging pleasantries and leaving their gifts, they all politely left.

When everyone had left, Lynn Naya chatted with Xue Yong and his wife for a bit before starting to deal with the gifts in the living room.

Everyone was very generous, leaving a bag of medicinal herbs, a bag of meat, and ten or so pounds of fine grain. They were all very valuable gifts.

As Lynn Naya was putting things away, a land deed for twenty acres of fertile farmland fell out of one of the medicinal herb bags.

Fertile farmland?

Lynn Naya looked closely at the deed. The farmland was not within the safety zone but in the pre-sold land in the farm area. The name on the deed was Scarface Qing.

When she saw the deed, Lynn Naya suddenly understood why Scarface Qing had joined the Hall of External Affairs. He couldn’t get a good position there right now, so he was using his power to get things done outside. This way, he wouldn’t be competing with anyone else, and the Dao Palace would probably be happy to see it and not interfere.

That sly fox.

This deed was a pre-sale. When the farm was officially set up, she would become a small landowner.

The thought made her happy.

After putting everything away, Lynn Naya took out some of the meat and fine rice and gave it to her neighbors.

She and the Xue family were close, so Xue Yong’s wife accepted the gifts without hesitation. The next day, when Lynn Naya woke up, she found that Xue Yong’s wife had made breakfast for her too.

This was great. It saved her a lot of trouble.

In return, Lynn Naya took out all her own stored food and gave it to Xue Yong’s wife. She told her that from now on, the two families would eat together.

As for the expenses, she knew Xue Yong’s wife wouldn’t take it from her, so she took out the land deed Scarface Qinghad given her and showed it to Xue Yong. She told them that when the farmland was ready, she only wanted 30% of the produce. The remaining 70% was theirs to either farm or rent out.

With two problems solved, Lynn Naya felt a sense of relief.

She ate and drank to her heart’s content, picked up her hoe, and left for her three-month trial period.

To be honest, the trial period was quite easy.

Since the spiritual energy on the mountainside was more concentrated, she would wake up before dawn and go to the herb forest. She would stay there until dark and even eat her lunch there.

She often felt someone watching her, but she acted as if nothing was wrong. She just wanted to grow herbs and treat the forest as her second home. This was a very reasonable thing to do.

The three-month trial period passed in the blink of an eye. Spring turned to summer, and at the end of summer, perhaps because of her “diligence” she successfully passed the trial and officially became an intermediate medicinal farmer.

On the day she became a full-time employee, Lynn Naya thought she would continue to take care of the Purple Mother Clove field. However, the old woman who had tested her took her to another herb field and told her to take care of a plant called Cold Moon Grass.

The Cold Moon Grass was just as its name suggested. It was a pale, icy color, and each blade of grass looked like a crescent moon. It was very beautiful. Most importantly, it not only looked like ice, but it also gave off a cold aura. This was a new experience for Lynn Naya.

“Your main task is to water the Cold Moon Grass every morning, noon, and night. Not a single time can be missed, no matter if it’s windy or raining.”

“?” Lynn Naya thought she had misheard. “Even when it’s raining?”

The old woman looked at her. “You’re not watering it with ordinary water. You’re watering it with the cold water from the cold pond.”

A cold pond?

Lynn Naya knew all the rivers and ponds at the foot of the Dao Palace mountain, and she was sure that none of them were called a cold pond, unless it wasn’t at the foot of the mountain.

The old woman didn’t explain. She just turned around and told Lynn Naya to follow her.

They walked through a dense forest with ancient trees blocking out the sun. After about two hours, the old woman stopped in front of an ancient pine tree.

Lynn Naya saw her take out a white jade token from her pocket and press it against the tree. In the next moment, Lynn Naya’s eyes blurred, and the dark forest around them instantly turned into a frost-covered creek.

This is… a space law?

Lynn Naya’s pupils contracted, and she was amazed. A restriction needed spiritual energy to work, but she hadn’t felt any spiritual energy on the way here.

Was it because her cultivation was too low, or was this the Dao Palace’s power?

She subtly looked around at the new space. The frost-covered mountains were layered on top of each other, creating a world of ice and snow.

The closer she got to the creek in the middle, the thicker the frost on the grass and leaves got, and she could hear a crunching sound with every step.

What surprised Lynn Naya the most was that there were several people in the creek. Their faces were covered in frost.

As fate would have it, she recognized one of them. It was the younger brother of the siblings from whom she had bought a straw mattress.

She hadn’t seen him in a year. The young boy had grown a lot, his face had filled out, and he had successfully entered the Qi Condensation realm and was at the first layer.