Chapter 2: Hidden Immortal Town

“Hey, don’t be mad. These are the fish you’ve been raising in Sweetwater Lake and Little Sea. I’ve already gathered them for you—here!” Yun Feng handed over two storage bags, pressing them into Mu Tong’s arms.

Mu Tong gripped the bags tightly, not even bothering to look before storing them away in her personal storage space. These freshwater and saltwater fish were hatched from fish eggs she had brought from Earth, nurtured in the Sweetwater Lake and Little Sea of the town.

Raising fish in Sweetwater Lake and Little Sea required paying a leasing fee. Yet, compared to the value Mu Tong created with these fish, the fee was negligible.

Although Yun Feng was annoying at times, he had his likable moments—such as always eager to help her. Tasks like gathering the fish were done proactively without Mu Tong needing to say a word. Since leasing Sweetwater Lake and Little Sea, Mu Tong had only seeded some fish fry; everything else was handled by the proactive Yun Feng.

And indeed, the fish Yun Feng raised were all plump, large, and incredibly tasty. Mu Tong often wondered what exactly he fed them to make them grow so well.

Still, if given a choice, she would rather do without Yun Feng’s help. She was perfectly capable of feeding the fish herself. The only downside would be the fish not growing as fat, but she would free herself from Yun Feng’s constant interference. Even so, escaping Yun Feng’s persistence wouldn’t be easy unless she never returned to this Hidden Immortal Town again.

But if she didn’t come back to this town, how would she find chances to unlock her potential and seek her opportunities?

Hidden Immortal Town was a strange place. Though just a small town, its actual area was comparable to a bustling metropolis.

Everyone living in Hidden Immortal Town, except for children, was at least an immortal-level cultivator. The highest tier residents were beyond Mu Tong’s comprehension due to her low cultivation, but from gossip overheard at the teahouse, she knew that even Divine Lords had once appeared within the town’s bounds.

The population was sparse, and with the town’s vast expanse, houses were spaced far apart. Except for residents on the busiest street, most lived in large ancient-style homes with front and back yards.

Mu Tong’s small courtyard was located at the end of the bustling street. It was an ancient-style shop-front-with-backyard residence. Shops facing the street opened and closed at irregular hours, each having a door leading to the backyard. There, a two-story building stood—Mu Tong’s living and cultivation place.

Behind the building was a yard covering about one acre, where Mu Tong cultivated spiritual rice and other plants she used to trade for spirit stones. Of course, these spiritual grains and vegetables were also necessary ingredients for her shop.

Though the town’s population was small, many people came and went daily. This was mainly because beneath the floating Divine Mountain statue at the town center lay a teleportation array. Each day, numerous people arrived or departed through this teleportation.

Mu Tong had tried using this teleportation array herself, but she simply couldn’t get on it.

She had arrived in the town not through the teleportation array but by entering from her personal storage space—something she never revealed to anyone, as it was too extraordinary and would attract unwanted attention.

Though she wished to stay unnoticed, she had already drawn the notice of certain powerful beings: to enter Hidden Immortal Town, one needed not only extraordinary cultivation but also a special teleportation token.

These tokens were not easily obtained; one had to compete in strength, background, and character to acquire one. Moreover, the number of these tokens was strictly limited and very few. Though many people came and went daily, compared to the billions of immortals and divine beings, they were but a tiny fraction.

For someone like Mu Tong—an ordinary person who was nothing special upon arrival—their presence was unprecedented. People below immortal rank simply could not enter Hidden Immortal Town unless they were born there.

When Mu Tong first arrived as an eighteen-year-old with no cultivation, she already owned a house. Although her current residence was modest by town standards, owning property in Hidden Immortal Town was itself a rare feat.

Powerful beings who silently observed Mu Tong scanned her divine sense and made a startling discovery: her soul was incomplete.

For an ordinary person with an incomplete soul, the most likely explanation was that they had been a powerful being in a previous life but, for some reason, their soul was fragmented during reincarnation.

With this understanding, the powerful beings were less surprised. No matter what strength she once had, being reincarnated with an incomplete soul and such poor aptitude meant she was unlikely to become a god—unless she could somehow restore her fragmented soul.

But that was impossible. An incomplete soul after reincarnation usually meant the soul had been shattered by lightning during ascension or scattered by an enemy, with pieces scattered across the cycles of reincarnation.

No one knew where the scattered soul fragments had drifted in this vast multiverse. To find and reunite them was nothing but a fool’s dream.

Thus, Mu Tong was simply an unfortunate reincarnation. Not only was her current soul incomplete, but she likely would not achieve greatness in this life or any future lives. At best, she might have better aptitude or cultivation in subsequent reincarnations.

Even if her aptitude improved after reincarnation, incomplete souls could not achieve immortal or divine cultivation without extraordinary fortune. Mu Tong was therefore destined never to become a god, especially given her poor talent.

Yet what puzzled these powerful observers was that, although her aptitude was poor, Mu Tong began cultivation only after arriving at Hidden Immortal Town at age eight and managed to establish a foundation within three years.

Completing foundation establishment in three years was undeniably a prodigious feat! But after reaching that stage at eleven, her cultivation had not progressed at all. Now at twenty-five, she remained stuck at early foundation establishment.

This led the powerful beings to conclude that five spiritual roots truly made for poor talent.

They speculated her rapid foundation establishment might have been due to some extraordinary chance. Yet even with such a chance, she had remained stagnant at the early foundation stage with no further advancement.

Perhaps, like her property in the town, which might have been purchased by the powerful being she had been before reincarnation, she had preserved some rare treasures or natural wonders enabling her swift foundation establishment. But so what? In this town, she was still essentially a failure.