Xie Bing’s chest hurt.
Every midnight, when the moon was high in the sky, she always felt a terrible pain in her chest, as if someone had pierced her with a sword and then ruthlessly twisted the blade, shredding flesh and blood.
On this day, she awoke drenched in sweat, clutching her chest. The skin there was white as snow, clearly without a single wound, perfectly intact.
She had been rescued by her Shifu from a Mass Grave. According to Eldest Senior Brother, at that time, she had a large, bloody hole in her chest, barely clinging to life. Shifu had used countless Spirit Pills and miraculous medicines to save her life.
After her injury healed, Xie Bing forgot everything that happened before. She only remembered a pair of cold, indifferent eyes looking at her:
—”My Lady, only by killing you can I become an immortal.”
Xie Bing was accepted as a disciple by her Shifu. She was profoundly grateful to him, not only because he saved her life, but also because she was, in fact, a waste:
She had one of the Waste Spirit Roots of the Cultivation World, but unlike the others, hers was the rarest kind. Sometimes it was very powerful, and sometimes it was utterly useless, like an electrical appliance with loose connections, or perhaps a Schrödinger’s Spirit Root, fluctuating between strong and weak, a rarity in the Cultivation World.
From then on, she lived in one of the most powerful sects in the Cultivation World. Ten years had passed.
Her Shifu was lofty, aloof, and righteous, never scolding her for her lack of talent. The Youngest Junior Brother she had personally raised had been soft, cute, and adorable since childhood, and now that he was grown, he was very close to her. She was very content with her current life… and yet, she felt uneasy night after night, suffering from insomnia every night.
Under the moonlight, Xie Bing walked like a wandering spirit through the ethereal and profound sect, her long black hair gently lifted by the wind, the dark circles under her eyes seeming even more pronounced.
She clutched her chest, her eyes finally becoming clear and lucid.
She had been reborn. She had returned.
At the very beginning of the story, Xie Bing actually thought she had transmigrated: she was a corporate slave, who worked with words, bowing and scraping for clients every day.
Once, a client solicited a manuscript. She revised it again and again, until her hair fell out and circles darkened under her eyes. Without sleep for three days and three nights, she revised it a full sixteen versions, only to receive the client’s verdict:
—”I feel the first version was still the best.”
Xie Bing: Vomited blood in anger.
In the blink of an eye after vomiting blood from anger, she transmigrated. At first, she had a cold, stern, and devastatingly handsome fiancé. Her fiancé treated her without any warmth, but she was infatuated with his beauty. Through persistent pestering, she smoothly married her fiancé.
On the very night of their wedding, her freshly-made husband pierced her chest with a single sword strike.
The fresh blood made the fiery red wedding dress even more brilliantly vivid. As wind and clouds interwove in the sky, a massive thunderclap struck down, and her husband ascended to immortality on the spot.
“My Lady, only by killing you, can I become an immortal.”
The life gradually faded from Xie Bing’s eyes. She clutched the large hole in her chest, lying on the icy ground, watching her husband soar into the sky: “…”
A passing Shifu saved her. Traumatized, Xie Bing lost her memory and spent twelve carefree years in the sect.
Twelve years later, her lofty, aloof, and righteous Shifu used her as a Cauldron to refine medicine. It turned out Shifu had suffered a Qi Deviation long ago. And her Youngest Junior Brother, to save Xuan Yao, personally dug out her Inner Core.
The youth she had raised, with his slender frame, casually stated: “Senior Sister, you’ve only lost an Inner Core, but Xuan Yao lost love.”
She, the Cauldron, was literally refined into Medicine Dregs and thrown at the Bottom of the Cliff. She was picked up by the Devil Venerable of the Devil Realm. Knowing everything now, she detested her face, which was eighty percent similar to the Female Lead’s. After cultivating Devil Arts, she underwent the Cultivation World version of plastic surgery, forcefully altering her face into a snake spirit’s pointed chin face. From then on, she followed the great villain, Devil Venerable, cultivating Devil Arts, becoming a vicious and frequently suicidal supporting female character.
Until she learned that the Cultivation World was holding an exceptionally grand wedding. The groom was her husband who had killed his wife to prove the Dao, and the bride was the ever-present Xuan Yao. Fury rising in her heart, she charged in to kill them, only to be annihilated by the combined efforts of the Male and Female Leads.
Her soul leaving her body, dying completely and utterly, Xie Bing finally understood she had transmigrated into a book:
Title: The Path of the Charming Beauty’s Immortal Harem
Heartthrob Female Lead: Xuan Yao.
Xie Bing: …Damn.
So, Xie Bing was actually reborn.
Unfortunately, the timing of her return wasn’t ideal: she had already been killed by her fiancé who proved his Dao by killing his wife… After her husband recited the classic line, “My Lady, only by killing you can I become an immortal,” he had already ascended… Thinking of this, she wanted to vomit blood again—killed by him twice, actually!
And now, she had also recognized her Shifu ten years ago, had painstakingly raised the Youngest Junior Brother single-handedly, and in another two years, she was going to be refined into a Cauldron again.
Xie Bing couldn’t sleep.
Xie Bing was completely and utterly sleepless now.
With dark circles under her eyes, Xie Bing sat at the edge of a cliff, her legs dangling over the void. Looking at the bright moonlight above, she sighed deeply.
She did want to flee, but her Shifu, whom she had once deeply respected, revered, and admired, had said it was for her protection and placed a Soul Tracking Spell on her. Back then, she had been moved to tears, thinking Shifu feared she might encounter another mishap. She never imagined it was a murderous lock fixed on her from the start.
She was a Waste Spirit Root, unable to cultivate. In the Cultivation World, that made her a Mortal with no strength to even truss a chicken, someone anyone could bully. This was also why her later fate was so miserable, yet she couldn’t resist.
A great spirit cultivator once said, one must not be fooled by the brainless, sugar-coated bullets of the original book, but must maintain arduous struggle. Another spirit cultivator also said, destiny must be grasped in one’s own hands. Xie Bing certainly wouldn’t just wait for her death.
She had to cultivate. Fortunately, Heaven never bars one’s way. Just now, she had examined herself and discovered that this time, she had an additional, bizarre system:
—”Immortal Cultivation Training System”
[Immortal Cultivation Training System: Specially created for wastes unable to cultivate! Harness the power of Huaxia literature, a mystical nation, the essential secret manual for increasing cultivation! Every time you learn a book and pass the assessment, your cultivation increases by a degree.]
Waste Xie Bing: …Fine, tailor-made for a waste like her.
Opening the virtual panel floating before her, a line of text appeared in the void:
[Assessment Preparation in progress. Time until exam: 23 hours, 56 minutes]
[Designated Exam Material Distribution Location: Sect Scripture Library]
[Exam Keywords: Three Eras and Seven Stages, High Antiquity.]
[Exam Supplies: Paper, gel pen.]
[Exam Reward: Qi Drawing Stage, stepping onto the Great Dao!]
Xie Bing: ???
Xie Bing, long battered by hardship under the tyranny of destiny, understood absolutely nothing. She needed to go to the Scripture Library to find books. Unfortunately, the library only opened during the day.
And so, Xie Bing sat on the mountaintop cliff, suffering from insomnia all night until day broke. Yawning, she returned to the sect, only to find Senior Brothers, Junior Brothers, Shishu, and Shibo all rushing towards the sect’s main gate.
“Shifu has accepted a new Junior Sister!”
“Junior Sister is far too beautiful! What does the so-called First Beauty of the Cultivation World count for? Junior Sister is the true peerless beauty!”
Amidst this crowd flowing downhill, Xie Bing, moving upstream, was extremely conspicuous.
Someone stopped Xie Bing: “Xie Bing, your Shifu accepted a new Junior Sister. Aren’t you going to see?”
Xie Bing: “…Oh.”
She’d already seen her before. As a cannon fodder supporting female character, in the PK against the book’s Female Lead, Xuan Yao, she would lose so thoroughly that not even her dregs would remain.
She stepped forward.
That person reminded her: “You’re going the wrong way.”
Xie Bing resolutely walked towards the Scripture Library in the opposite direction: “No.”
How did that saying go?
—Knowledge changes the future; learning changes destiny!
…
The entire sect went to witness Xuan Yao, the disciple Shifu had accepted as his Final Disciple. The Scripture Library was utterly silent. The faint scent of sandalwood subtly lingered at the tip of her nose. She walked among the bookshelves piled with various ancient texts and bamboo slips, lifting her eyes to search for the needed books.
Receiving an exam paper requires analyzing the questions. Obtaining the exam content the system gave her required the same approach.
The system only told her the keywords: “Three Eras and Seven Stages,” “High Antiquity.” Unfortunately, she knew nothing about them. But that didn’t matter; she had already gleaned some information.
For instance, during the broadcast, the system had said something like: “Harness the power of Huaxia literature, a mystical nation.” And this Huaxia was the nation she came from before transmigrating.
From what she understood, the current Cultivation World was largely similar to Huaxia, but they diverged from the Ming Dynasty, without foreign invasions or the like; it was still an agricultural society. Apart from this, there was the Cultivation World, the Devil Cultivation World, the Higher Divine Realm, etc. …So, the information to extract was: the exam topics were Huaxia literature.
“Three Eras and Seven Stages,” and “High Antiquity,” shared one overlapping character, “Antiquity.” This meant it was highly likely that “High Antiquity” was one of the “Three Eras.” Therefore, “High Antiquity” was a subset of “Three Eras.” And “Seven Stages” had a parallel relationship with “Three Eras.” So, the conclusion was: This was the first phase of Huaxia history. Knowing this made things much easier. Thank heaven for the nine years of compulsory education; she still remembered a bit of history. Although so many years of transmigration and rebirth had made her forget most of it, blurry impressions remained. Huaxia’s historical dynasties roughly traversed: Pre-Qin and Han, Wei-Jin, Tang-Song, Yuan-Ming-Qing. The very beginning was, of course, Pre-Qin and Han!
The coordinates of knowledge in her brain instantly locked onto “Pre-Qin and Han,” and then… and then, Xie Bing didn’t know any more. But it didn’t matter; she had analyzed the question. The next step was solving the problem—finding the right books.
Solving the problem after successful analysis cleared things up considerably. However, the Scripture Library contained every kind of book, extremely jumbled, not categorized neatly like libraries in her previous life, making them very difficult to find.
Xie Bing wasn’t impatient or irritable. She earnestly bent down, carefully flipping through bamboo slip by bamboo slip, the faint light casting a delicate glow on her silhouette.
Azure Sun Imperial Pole Mystic Book, Forbidden Scripture of the Scorching Sun Celestial Realm, Numinous Treasure Heavenly Spider Immortal Record… Her slender, pale fingers flipped through one volume after another. Time quickly passed…
Suns rose and set, clouds rolled and unfurled. Xie Bing, drawing upon the stamina for all-night manuscript revisions, actually stayed in the Scripture Library for three full days and nights.
When she finally came back to her senses, exhausted, she held a book in her hand: Nineteen Ancient Poems.
Having stayed up for three days, Xie Bing understood—she had found it! Eyes unfocused, dark circles stark, she opened the book. She didn’t know why, but the front pages were all blank. Only on the very last page was an ancient poem written: Far, Far Away the Oxherd Star.
She softly read the words on the paper. A faint glimmer of light flickered, and the last line, “Gazing Across the Water, Longing but Unable to Speak,” flashed with a golden light, floating into her right hand in specks of starlight.
[System: Key text located. Comprehend the essence of “Gazing Across the Water, Longing but Unable to Speak.” Gained spell: “Speech Ban Spell”!]
Xie Bing froze. She had never imagined that a waste like her could actually use a spell!
At the same time, she heard the sound of massive ceremonial fireworks exploding within the sect. Looking out the window, she saw endless, dazzling fireworks blooming in the misty, ethereal fairyland. This signified the sect was about to hold a grand ceremony!
She took the Nineteen Ancient Poems and left the library. Only then did she learn that Shifu was holding an exceptionally grand apprenticeship ceremony for Xuan Yao!
She smiled bitterly. Back then, when she was brought to the sect, she had been overwhelmed with gratitude towards Shifu. But Shifu hadn’t visited her even once. After her body recovered, she only learned from others’ gossip that she had become Shifu’s disciple.
At that time, she had been humble and overflowing with gratitude, believing this was Shifu’s care and tolerance for her. Yet when Xuan Yao came, he announced to the entire Cultivation World that she was his sole female disciple.
Then what, exactly, was she—this Senior Sister who had existed in the sect for ten years?