Chapter 21: The Destined-to-be-Abandoned Good-for-Nothing (1)
Su Mingxiu was unceremoniously thrown into a new world by the impatient system.
The moment she opened her eyes, she felt a bone-chilling coldness, followed by a flurry of white falling from her eyelashes, landing on her eyes, then melting away from her warmth, leaving only faint traces of moisture.
As far as she could see, there was a massive block of black ice.
Wisps of materialized coldness emanated from the black ice, swirling into white mist on the ground. The ground and ceiling, in contact with the ice, were all connected by this icy blue.
Just standing this close and breathing caused her warm breath to instantly turn into frost, covering her hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes in a frosty white.
But her body seemed to have gotten used to this coldness. Even with the chill seeping into her lungs, she didn’t move an inch.
Instead, she used the ice surface as a mirror, catching a glimpse of her own reflection.
The figure was dressed in a long robe with grey ink strokes, the shades of black bold and unrestrained, reflecting the cold and aloof aura of the wearer. But there was a lingering melancholy between her brows, making her look…
Su Mingxiu couldn’t help but lean closer, as if trying to find the difference between her appearance in this world and the last.
As she moved, the shadow cast on the black ice gradually became clearer. At the same time, Su Mingxiu noticed another person seemingly frozen deep within the ice—
Before she could get a clear look, a familiar voice connected in her mind.
[Host deployment successful… Loading world storyline…]
Countless pieces of information flooded into Su Mingxiu’s mind once again.
This world was surprisingly similar to her place of origin, also a small cultivation world. However, starting a thousand years ago, the world gradually lost its vitality, and spiritual energy became scarce. No one in this world could open the Ascension Ladder anymore.
A rumor was widely circulated in the cultivation world, saying that a thousand years ago, after a powerful cultivator ascended, they violated the celestial laws and tainted the bloodline of the immortal race.
Therefore, this world became an abandoned realm of the immortals. For the next thousand years, no matter how talented or brilliant a cultivator was, if they were from this small world, they couldn’t ascend to immortality.
Su Mingxiu, the Jade Elder of the Sword Sect, was recognized as a cultivation genius in the cultivation world. She had reached the Great Ascension stage eight hundred years ago but failed to overcome her tribulation. The celestial lightning destroyed her meridians, causing her cultivation to regress by more than three major cycles and leaving her with a body full of ailments.
Everyone lamented that she was also trapped by the law of this world abandoned by the celestial realm, destined to perish under the rules—
Only she knew the truth behind her failed tribulation.
This Jade Elder, who had cultivated the Heartless Sword Art since childhood, had a secret: she held someone in her heart.
On the eve of her tribulation, Su Mingxiu’s beloved was also facing a breakthrough, a simple advancement from Golden Core to Nascent Soul. It should have been foolproof, but because Su Mingxiu was preparing for her own tribulation, she couldn’t be there to protect her beloved. As a result, her beloved was ambushed by enemies during the tribulation, her cultivation going astray amidst the celestial lightning, her soul almost destroyed.
If it weren’t for Su Mingxiu, who was in seclusion, sensing her beloved’s perilous situation and crossing four continents from thousands of miles away, she would have lost her love that day.
Even so, she was still a step too late.
Her beloved’s soul was damaged. Even though her physical body was only partially destroyed, it was difficult for her to continue on the path of immortality.
Cultivation was about defying the heavens. How could the Jade Elder accept this situation?
During her tribulation, she developed a heart demon and was defeated by it, suffering severe damage to her vital energy.
But she didn’t care. After recuperating for a few days, she left the Sword Sect to slay her enemies. Then, she went to the depths of the northern region and found a piece of black ice that never melted to perfectly preserve her beloved’s body. She also gathered countless treasures from heaven and earth to nourish her beloved’s soul.
Five hundred years passed—
Su Mingxiu finally managed to restore her beloved’s soul but found that her physical body was extremely difficult to recover. No matter how many books and ancient records she consulted, none of the orthodox cultivation methods could save her beloved.
In desperation.
She started searching for unorthodox methods.
Another hundred years passed.
The Jade Elder finally found a recipe: find a baby girl born on the same day, month, and hour as her beloved, with similar spiritual roots. When the girl reaches the Golden Core stage, extract her spiritual roots and Golden Core. With the talent of nine such individuals, even a half-dead old man could become a cultivation genius overnight, let alone repairing a cultivator’s body?
So the next day, the Jade Elder’s cave abode on Mount Lingyu of the Sword Sect opened its doors to accept disciples.
Three hundred years later.
The protagonist of this world, Gui Mian, was the last ingredient the Jade Elder had chosen for her beloved’s recovery.
Gui Mian had an innate sword bone. Since being brought back to Mount Lingyu by Su Mingxiu, she had mastered the first eight levels of the Heartless Sword Art but couldn’t grasp the ninth level.
Moreover, her cultivation had been stuck at the Qi Refining stage, unable to progress.
The Jade Elder knew that Gui Mian’s spiritual roots were chaotic. If she hadn’t stumbled upon the Heartless Sword Art and embarked on the path of cultivation, even if she had been picked up by other sects, she would have only been used for her sword bone and met a tragic end. She hadn’t intended to choose this cultivation waste, but… this Gui Mian looked very similar to her beloved when she was young.
There was another point.
Unlike all other mortals in this world, Gui Mian was born without emotions or desires. Rather than saying she was human, it was more accurate to say she was a lump of human-shaped clay that Nuwa had forgotten to breathe life into after creating her.
Seeing this, the Jade Elder was even more certain that this Gui Mian was destined to be a medicinal ingredient for her beloved.
[Storyline deployed! Ultimate mission released: Teach Gui Mian emotions and desires, help her cultivate to the Golden Core stage, then extract her Golden Core and spiritual roots to rebuild your beloved’s body and meridians.]
Su Mingxiu pressed her finger against her forehead, a nameless anger rising within her. She had a gut feeling.
The system had deliberately chosen a world so similar to her origin, deliberately making her, an upright cultivator, do such a monstrous thing. It seemed like she had really angered it in the last world.
Even so, looking at the block of ten-thousand-year-old black ice in front of her, Su Mingxiu wished she could just slash it with her sword and let this so-called “beloved” become spiritual energy to nourish the world—
“Evil and depraved.”
Her voice was cold, her thin lips parting slightly as she spat out these words, clearly expressing her contempt for the system’s arrangement.
Even if she resurrected the person in this black ice, so what?
To bear such a sin, if she were the Heavenly Dao, she wouldn’t tolerate such evil.
[What do you know about the Heavenly Dao?] As if knowing her thoughts, the system responded indifferently. “You just need to complete your mission. Don’t forget, this is just your mission world. Your righteous indignation won’t do anything to help restore your soul.”
But as soon as its voice fell, a crisp sound rang out.
Su Mingxiu had summoned her natal sword from her spiritual core at some point. With a flick of her finger, the sword hummed, then split into two, then four…
In the blink of an eye, eighty-one identical divine swords appeared in the icy landscape, each pointing towards the block of ten-thousand-year-old black ice.
The system’s furious voice overlapped with the sound of the swords falling:
[No OOC(out of character) behavior allowed!]
“Clang—”
One-third of the black ice was sliced off, and the face of the person sealed inside was now only a thin layer away from the surface.
Su Mingxiu heard the ice crashing against the mountain wall. She shrunk the swords and twirled them around her finger, replying to the system slowly: “After eight hundred years of longing, wanting to see my beloved’s face again, can that be considered OOC…?”
As she spoke, she casually glanced at the beautiful face beneath the ice, wanting to see what kind of person could capture the heart of a Heartless Sword Master.
But as her gaze shifted, the small swords wrapped around her finger trembled as if sensing her intention.
The person beneath the black ice had a face she was all too familiar with.
It was the face of her first love.
And also the face of Yu Yinglan from the last world, a fragility emanating from her even with her eyes closed.
Remembering the world setting where Gui Mian resembled this woman, Su Mingxiu narrowed her eyes, laughing in anger. She lowered her gaze and asked the system:
[Playing the substitute game, are we?]
The system didn’t deny it: “Kill one, save one, love one, you can choose carefully.”
“What if I choose none?” Su Mingxiu asked deliberately.
“Then I’ll choose for you—” The system seemed to have developed a condition called “Su Mingxiu PTSD,” still holding a grudge against her for influencing the plot in the last world. Now, in this world line, it vowed to prevent her from exploiting any loopholes.
It was a monotonous, emotionless mechanical voice, but Su Mingxiu could hear an inexplicable sense of smugness in its words:
[Want to know what kind of impact your 5 OOC points from the last world will have on your mission completion in this world?]
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