Chapter 1: Transmigration and System
Purple Spirit Sect, Outer Sect
In a small courtyard, a 15 year old girl was staring at the night sky with a melancholic expression.
'This is really not a dream, huh? I really transmigrated… and as a girl too! Dammit give me back my little brother!'
Yes, that's right, she was a guy in her previous life. A 33 year old man with everything going perfectly for him: A well-earning job, a car, a home etc.. Overall, he'd had a bright future.
Now, here he was stranded in a world of immortal cultivation, in a sect… as a jade beauty less than half his age.
He felt like he fell from heaven to hell.
He wouldn't mind even if he was transmigrated to this world: after all he was a xianxia nerd. He loved the idea of sitting in a place meditating all the way to immortality; he was a shut-in at heart and the only reason he had a bright future was that he understood the fact that shut-ins didn't have a place in society; humans were social animals, after all. Even the most introverted person required human interaction.
No… his problem was he'd transmigrated as a girl. A very, very attractive one at that. Xiao Hong, despite being in her mid teens, was already incredibly beautiful: fair milky skin, an enchanting body that fueled who knows how men's wet dreams, silky black hair that fell down to her waist, and a face so perfect it looked like it was carved by the Heavens themselves, making the entire world seemingly lose colour as one laid their eyes upon her.
What was even more attractive was a pair of red, doe eyes that were neither blazing like fire nor crimson like blood. There was a mysterious and enchanting glow that flowed around her pupils and faded as they reached the edge of her irides, rippling ever so slightly. One could easily get lost staring at her mesmerising pair of eyes.
If any of her many admirers were asked to describe her in a sentence they would call her 'A fairy fallen from the Heavens.'
And this was why he had a problem.
Which xianxia nerd didn't understand that jade beauties were disaster magnets? Who knew how many protagonists they brought disasters to in the form of young masters and their ancestors, lecherous old men with their human cauldron obsessions and what not.
And he was transmigrated into a girl who was unanimously given the title of No.1 Beauty of the Outer Sect.
And from the girls' memories he'd received 3 days ago when he'd transmigrated, the girl also understood that being too beautiful was a problem.
So she took protective measures: getting close to a powerful 'Senior Brother' who was also a rather simple man and also had potential to join the Inner Sect and grab his thigh. Which succeeded beautifully.
The said senior brother fell in love at first sight and hoped to make her his Dao Companion. But he never forced her, and gave her everything she wanted; from cultivation resources to random gifts, before she even asked for it.
She just needed to widen her eyes, look pitiful and say, "Senior Brother, I…"
Senior brother: "Say no more!"
And he would rush out to get whatever she wanted.
Truly, a simp through and through.
Now, Xiao Hong, having tasted the benefits, used her beauty to manipulate the rather simple-minded Senior Brother into doing whatever she wanted. The little guilt she felt initially evaporated when she felt her soaring Cultivation Base. Things went well for 2 years, she received immense benefits with no loss. Simple things such as a gentle look, a demure 'Thank you, senior brother' with a flushed face, a slight brush of her hand across his, and the Senior Brother whose name she'd forgotten, directly broke through cloud 9 and reached the 33rd Heaven. Even his Cultivation Base rose like a rocket.
However, 2 years into the 'relationship', things went wrong: the Senior Brother died. Xiao Hong was scared that she lost her protection and hastily decided to make a breakthrough in the Sky Spirit realm and… also died. Normally speaking, a breakthrough in such a low realm is almost guaranteed. But, unlike Xiao Hong's beauty, her talent was utter shit. The amount of resources she used was enough to cultivate a dozen to the same realm with much greater battle power.
Anyway, after she died, he was transmigrated in her body.
'What a mess…'
'Xiao Hong' facepalmed.
'Sigh… I guess I have to live as Xiao Hong from now on'
There really was no other choice.
Besides, after receiving Xiao Hong's memories she didn't really reject her. Old Xiao Hong had become a part of new Xiao Hong. Before transmigration, he wasn't exactly a selfless person. In fact, he didn't even consider himself a good person. He manipulated people, even if did try to repay them one way or another, it didn't change the fact that he manipulated their feelings and emotions. In this vein he was quite similar to Xiao Hong.
Compared to him, Xiao Hong wasn't even that bad: she manipulated to protect herself. His old self on earth did it purely for benefit.
With this similarity as a basis, Xiao Hong's remnants smoothly fused with the soul from earth to become a new Xiao Hong.
So, after a period of 3 days, he pretty much considered himself as Xiao Hong - a girl. It also helped that his old name was forgotten.
"Sigh… What a mess" she sighed again.
'Well, at least I have a standard transmigrator's benefit. A golden finger.'
"STATUS"
[Ding!
Name: Xiao Hong
Age: 15
Lifespan: 200 years
Primary Profession: Cultivator
Secondary Profession(s): None
Bloodline: None
Special Talents: None
Divine Abilities: None
Inventory (1m3): Empty
Talent: Lowest-Grade
Cultivation Base: 8th Layer of Earthen Origin
Cultivation Method: Standard Breathing Method (Normal Grade)
Skills:
Soaring Crane Sword (Normal Grade) - Beginner
Flash Step (Normal Grade) - Beginner
Battle Prowess: Below Average
Automatic Cultivation Slots: 3
Slot 1: Empty
Slot 2: Empty
Slot 3: Empty]
Xiao Hong's mouth twitched, looking at her abysmal status. Other than her lifespan, everything was utter shit - with tons of 'None's and 'Empty's. The status screen felt more like an insult than an objective evaluation of her abilities.
She directly closed her status screen, unable to look at it anymore.
"System, receive the Gift Pack" she whispered.
[Ding! You've received "System Information Manual: Getting Started and FAQ's"]
[Ding! You've received "Celestial God Essence Cultivation Method (Supreme Grade)"]
[Ding! You've received "Ancient God's Physique Scripture (Supreme Grade)]
[Ding! You've received "Spirit God's Soul Cultivation Method (Supreme Grade)"]
According to System Information Manual: Getting Started and FAQ's, the user can set up a cultivation method, spell art, battle technique, martial art, profession tome etc, in a slot and the system will automatically train it for you. And the speed at which it would train will also depend on the energy source available.
It would also keep training it without any standard bottlenecks. Bottlenecks created due to yourself are not counted; eg, Inner Demons. You need to get past those on your own. The system isn't omnipotent.
The system will also not be discovered by OP immortal beings because the system is part of the soul and is no different from a special talent.
Sighing in relief, she looked at the cultivation methods.
[Celestial God Essence Cultivation Method: One of the best Cultivation Methods for Essence Cultivation. As long as one cultivates with this Method, they will be unrivalled in terms of quantity, quality and recovery of Qi in the same realm]
[Ancient God's Physique Scripture: With this body cultivation method, one can forge the most perfect physique suited to themselves and be unrivalled in terms physical strength and endurance in the same realm, they can also gain special abilities as long as they reach a high enough realm. After reaching Grand Completion, one can become an Ancient God]
[Spirit God's Soul Cultivation Method: Spirit God was a genius who could rival Ancient Gods and Celestial Emperors based on their Soul alone. Cultivating this technique will temper the cultivator's soul to be much stronger, granting eidetic memory, powerful comprehension, greater concentration etc.]
A beautiful smile appeared on Xiao Hong's face. 'Hehe… No one can stop me now!'
Excited as she was, she directly returned to her room and sat down cross-legged as per previous Xiao Hong's habit.
"System, receive the gift pack!"
[Ding!]
A massive amount of information was loaded into her mind, before stopping and starting again, repeating three times for each of the cultivation methods, before stopping completely.
"Phew…" Xiao Hong let out a breath.
"System, use the slots for the cultivation techniques!"
[Ding!
Set Slot 1: Celestial God Essence Cultivation Method
Set Slot 2: Ancient God's Physique Scripture
Set Slot 3: Spirit God's Soul Cultivation Method]
[Searching for energy source…]
[Energy source found: Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth]
[Checking energy source…]
[Done! Concentration: 2.5x of average environment.]
[System operation requires 15% of available energy.]
[Cultivation speed set at 2.125x for each method]
Instantly she felt the surrounding spiritual energy being pulled towards herself at a speed and volume the Old Xiao Hong had never felt before. The difference could only be described as clouds in the sky and mud on the ground.
At the same time comprehension regarding the three cultivation techniques started to appear in her mind one after another.
As her Qi moved through her meridians, her cultivation started… falling.
7th Layer of Earthen Origin…
6th Layer of Earthen Origin…
5th Layer of Earthen Origin…
.
.
.
9th Layer of Qi Gathering…
.
.
.
It kept falling until the 1st Layer of Qi Gathering.
At the same time, the Qi in her body was purified, tempered and strengthened to an unimaginable degree. The Qi from before felt like she was circulating shit instead of Qi in her meridians compared to now, which was pure, gentle and incredibly powerful.
It couldn't be helped: Xiao Hong's Talent was too shit. Her cultivation was practically built with pills and natural treasures.
On the other hand, her body also started strengthening at an incredible rate. Her body that was supposed to be tempered to the 9th Layer of Body Refining felt like… well, like shit. Again.
The Ancient God Scripture completely ignored the old Xiao Hong's efforts and refined her body from the beginning.
On completion of the 1st layer of Body Refining, it purged more impurities than she did from before in all 9 Layers put together.
2nd Layer of Body Refining…
3rd Layer…
.
.
.
9th Layer…
At this point she was completely covered in a thick, black shell made purely from impurities.
The Spirit God Method also strengthened her soul, filling her mind with a refreshing feeling as if taking a cool drink on a particularly hot day. Her mind felt more agile, her focus increased, her cognitive abilities rose, her memory strengthened and she even had more insights into the sword technique and movement skill she cultivated. Out of the three Cultivation Methods she received from the system she felt this was the most miraculous cultivation Method.
Unlike the dry, boring and demanding experience of cultivation from Xiao Hong's memories, the cultivation now felt more pleasurable than a massage at a famous spa, as if every inch of body and soul were massaged by soft, professional hands.
It felt even better than carnal acts from her memories of Earth.
***
Just like that a week passed in the haze of cultivation and her progress slowed down to a crawl after having spent all the accumulation in her 5 years of cultivating and devouring resources. All the remainders pills and natural treasures her body couldn't absorb due to her shit talent had been used as an energy source by the system.
Feeling the turtle-like speed compared to the supersonic jet from before, Xiao Hong smiled wryly, "As expected, the talent of this body is utter shit."
But she became happy again after feeling the surging strength in her body.
"I feel like I can casually slap ten of the previous-me to death!"
"STATUS"
[Ding!
Name: Xiao Hong
Age: 15
Lifespan: 350 years
Primary profession: Cultivator
Secondary Profession(s): None
Bloodline: None
Special Talents: None
Divine Abilities: None
Inventory (1m3): Empty
Talent: Lowest-Grade
Cultivation Base:
Essence: 1st Layer of Earthen Origin
Physique: 1-star Ancient Godling (Peak Qi Condensation equivalent)
Soul: 1st stage Colourless Soul (Peak Qi Condensation equivalent)
Cultivation Method: Celestial God Essence Cultivation Method, Ancient God's Physique Scripture, Spirit God's Soul Cultivation Method
Skills:
Soaring Crane Sword (Normal Grade) - Beginner
Flash Step (Normal Grade) - Beginner
Battle Prowess: High. Equivalent to 1st Layer of Sky Spirit
Automatic Cultivation Slots: 3
Slot 1: Celestial God Essence Cultivation Method
Slot 2: Ancient God's Physique Scripture
Slot 3: Spirit God's Soul Cultivation Method
Details: Speed is 2.125x per Method
]
"Even more than 2 times the cultivation speed is so slow…" she sighed.
"Hmm. Perhaps…"
Reaching out to her lowest-grade bag of holding, she poured out her belongings. Ignoring girl stuff like mirrors, make up and what not, her gaze was attracted by a small pile of walnut-sized glowing blue stones.
Spirit Stones.
The resource that the Xianxia world goes mad for.
The resource that countless cultivators die for.
The resource that Xianxia Protagonists find in spades.
She had about 1500 low-grade spirit stones. This was the savings of her 5 years of cultivation from doing sect missions and given to her by Senior brother.
It might seem like a lot. And it was. For an Outer Sect disciple of Earth Origin realm at least. And it was barely enough for her to cultivate for 3 years all the way up to the initial stage of the Divine Sea realm; at least that was the case before. Now it wouldn't last 3 months. Her cultivation methods were a veritable resource black hole. Even the legendary Taotie would be shocked:
I thought I ate a lot! But I'm actually still inferior to you! Take this salute as a sign of respect!
"This should barely be enough to reach the peak of the Sky Spirit realm." she muttered in her heart.
Taking out two stones in each hand, she continued her cultivation.
[Ding! Detected new energy source: Spirit Stone (Low Grade)]
[Modifying Cultivation Speed… ]
[Done! New Speed: 212.5x]
Instantly she felt her cultivation rate soar, reaching 100 times the previous rate and quietly fell into the joy of cultivation.
***
More than 2 months had passed. Winter passed and spring arrived.
In the middle of the room sat a beautiful figure. In each of her jade-like hands, was a spirit stone. And on both sides of her were small piles of dust from used spirit stones.
Crack!
The two spirit stones in her hands cracked and turned into ashes and fell through her fingers, becoming part of the piles.
A short moment later, her eyelids lifted to show a pair of mesmerising, ruby red eyes.
[Ding!]
[Energy source lost… ]
[Recalibrating… ]
[Defaulting to original energy source: Environmental Spiritual Energy…]
[Done! Cultivation speed: 2.125x]
[To speed up, please find a better energy source.]
"STATUS"
[Ding!
Name: Xiao Hong
Age: 15
Lifespan: 400 years
Primary profession: Cultivator
Secondary Profession(s): None
Inventory (3.375m3): Empty
Cultivation Base:
Essence: 1st Layer of Sky Spirit
Physique: 2-star Ancient Godling (Peak Sky Spirit Equivalent)
Soul: 2nd stage Red Soul (Peak Sky Spirit Equivalent)
Cultivation Method: Celestial God Essence Cultivation Method, Ancient God's Physique Scripture, Spirit God's Soul Cultivation Method
Skills:
Soaring Crane Sword (Normal Grade) - Novice
Flash Step (Normal Grade) - Novice
Battle Prowess: High (Early Divine Sea Equivalent.)
Automatic Cultivation Slots: 4
Slot 1: Celestial God Essence Cultivation Method
Slot 2: Ancient God's Physique Scripture
Slot 3: Spirit God's Soul Cultivation Method
Slot 4: Empty
Details: Speed is 2.125x per Method
]
Xiao Hong smiled bitterly. Thousand spirit stones should have been more than enough to reach peak Sky Spirit thrice over, but with how demanding her cultivation technique was, she just reached 1st Layer of Sky Spirit. In terms of resource utilisation, she was absolutely sure no one could match her. The system used every single bit of energy to its fullest extent. This time it was not due to her shit talent, but her Cultivation Method being too awesome. She had less than 500 spirit stones remaining.
In this world, Cultivation began with Body Refining, where a to-be-cultivator refined and tempered their body to be strong enough to bear the full might of the Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth.
Then came Qi Gathering, where they gathered the Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth and refined it into Zhenqi (or True Qi, usually just called Qi) and opened up the meridians of the body.
After opening a minimum number of meridians they can connect the said meridians through the Dantian and form a cycle of Qi in their bodies and achieve Earthen Origin. In the Earthen Origin realm one's Qi is strong enough to shatter the ground with a stomp and explode the air with a punch. Aft
In the Sky Spirit realm, one can directly fly in the sky with their own power. At this stage, they temper their Zhenqi to become denser and denser. A cultivator also awakens their Divine Sense in this realm with the nourishment their Soul gets from Zhenqi. This process is supposed to be dangerous; the awakening of Divine Sense requires one to open the door (Soul Gate) to their Sea of Consciousness (A.K.A. Soul Sea, Mindscape etc.) and gain access to it.
After one has tempered their Qi nine times (corresponding to nine layers) until it turns into a liquid from the initial mist-like state, they accumulate more and more liquid Zhenqi until it forms a veritable ocean of Qi in the Dantian. This state is called the Divine Sea.
Once a Divine Sea expert reaches the peak they can call down the disaster from the Heavens. As long as they survive the disaster, their strength will receive a massive boost. They will even gain a decade of extra lifespan. This is called the Disaster Realm. Technically speaking, the Disaster stage is not really a cultivation stage. They are still considered Divine Sea Realms, just that each disaster tempers and refines their Divine Sea to the point it feels like an entirely new realm.
After nine disasters of Fire, Water, Earth, Metal, Wood, Yin, Yang, Wind-Thunder and the final and most dangerous Life Destruction one can attain Nirvana and be reborn, receiving a massive upgrade in all directions. Including talent. Nirvana can be considered the absolute peak of the Divine Sea realm. These people can squash non-Nirvana Divine Sea experts like bugs.
Above Nirvana were the Soul Palace, Celestial Bridge, Fusion, Transformation, Core Formation, and Essence Soul realms.
Shaking her head to get rid of her messy thoughts she came back to reality, 'These things are too far away from me. Now, it is more impertinent to find a way to gather Spirit Stones.'