Smelling the damp earth in the air, she struggled to get up and staggered toward a moist area not far away.
Arriving beside a mountain spring, Shi Yu looked down at the water and blinked.
The face reflected in the spring water was all too familiar, looking identical to her own, except younger than before she transmigrated, her facial features not yet fully developed.
The strange bell in her Purple Mansion, the identical appearance, the original host's Supreme-grade Fire-attribute Spiritual Meridian...
—She had transmigrated from the game.
After taking some time to accept this fact, Shi Yu pondered her current situation.
“Rejuvenation Pills... The alchemy system here shouldn't differ much from the game. I wonder how alchemists are treated here.”
She had been born in the Mortal Realm and had only cultivated with Xuanqing Immortal Venerable in the Origin Realm for a mere three months, leaving her knowledge of the Origin Realm half-baked.
“Now that Second Senior Brother has sent me back to the mortal realm, I must find a way to return to the Origin Realm.”
Shi Yu's family had been exceedingly wealthy, and she had been doted on as the apple of her family's eye since childhood. Everyone she met growing up was either polite to her because of her family background or captivated by her stunning face, flattering and fawning over her.
Because of this, Shi Yu had developed a petty, vengeful temperament.
She might not pay much mind to people treating her well; raised in comfort, how could she be easily overjoyed just because someone gave her a piece of candy?
But if anyone crossed her or made her unhappy, they were in for serious trouble—she would hold that grudge for a lifetime.
Yet there was no Shi family to dote on and protect her here. Though she had grown up surrounded by luxury in the royal palace of the Zhao Kingdom, a mortal royal family was as insignificant as dust in the eyes of cultivators from the Origin Realm.
If she wanted revenge, she had to return to the Origin Realm.
Clearing her thoughts, Shi Yu redirected her attention to the bell in her Purple Mansion.
Within the murky gray Purple Mansion, only this item emitted a gentle, lustrous glow. The light spread like mist and gauze from her Purple Mansion throughout her entire body, slightly easing the excruciating pain of having her spiritual meridian forcibly extracted.
Considering her situation couldn't get any worse, Shi Yu thought for a moment and used her divine sense to touch it.
The instant she touched it, Shi Yu naturally learned the name of the bell: the Yin-Yang Fate-Tapping Bell.
At the same time, light flowed over the surface of the bell as if something were swimming across it. Looking closely, she realized they were intricate, profound characters.
Although Shi Yu didn't recognize these characters, she instantly understood their meaning.
These characters formed a cultivation manual titled 《Yin-Yang Fate-Tapping Record》.
The manual presented before her was not the complete 《Yin-Yang Fate-Tapping Record》, but only the cultivation method for the Qi Refining Realm. The rest would likely appear once her cultivation reached higher levels.
Once no more characters appeared, Shi Yu extended her divine sense inside the Yin-Yang Fate-Tapping Bell and discovered an entire pocket realm within.
It was a perfectly round plot of land, bisected by a stream into two fish-shaped halves. Each side held a spring head, one black and one white, forming the shape of a Taiji diagram.
The plot was small, only about three feet in diameter, and the black and white spring heads were no larger than the mouth of a bowl, containing a small amount of liquid. When her divine sense approached the white spring, a rich and gentle vitality wafted out; turning toward the black spring, she felt a sharp, dangerous aura of slaughter.
Beside the white spring was a small herb garden. Since the plot itself was tiny, the herb garden was even smaller, holding only a few spirit plants that were still in their sprout stage, with only one fully mature.
Looking at the mature spirit flower, Shi Yu felt a stir in her heart.
The moment the thought of retrieving the flower crossed her mind, ripples seemed to spread from her pale fingertips. Shi Yu opened her eyes, withdrawing her divine sense from her Purple Mansion, and saw a flower the size of a fingernail materialize out of thin air, floating before her.
The flower had an elegant, open shape, completely crimson with no leaves or stem. Every petal was as translucent as ice crystal, with faint specks of light gleaming among the stamen.
“Scarlet Glass Flower.” Shi Yu recognized it.
Back in the game 《Xian Yuan》, she had been lavish with her money, hiring top-ranked players with high-grade pills to do nothing all day except trek through secret realms and dragon lairs, hunting down every rare plant and exotic herb.
When it came to knowledge of spirit plants, few in the game could match her.
The Scarlet Glass Flower had no leaves or stems, floating in midair, and could only form in places with the purest spiritual energy, making it exceedingly rare.
This flower possessed the power to change one's appearance.
In 《Xian Yuan》, even the highest-level inspection technique would most likely fail to see through a player disguised with a Scarlet Glass Flower.
This Scarlet Glass Flower had come at just the right time.
Shi Yu knew all too well how easily a face like hers could invite trouble.
Right now, her facial features hadn't fully developed, making her look quite inferior compared to before she transmigrated, yet her memories contained countless praises of the original host's stunning looks.
With her spiritual meridian extracted and her cultivation dispersed, her body was miserably weak. Forget cultivators, even an ordinary mortal could easily knock her down.
Shi Yu didn't want her striking appearance to attract unwanted attention and trouble.
Moreover, in the Mortal Realm, she currently couldn't protect herself, and traveling as a woman carried the constant risk of drawing trouble.
She supported the floating Scarlet Glass Flower on her fingertip, slowly drawing it into her forehead.
A wave of coolness sank into her forehead, followed by a subtle shift across her face.
Shi Yu looked at the water's surface and saw her face becoming blurry and illusory.
Finding it amusing, she suppressed the relentless pain. “Time for the character customization phase. Let's see what kind of face I should make.”
Shi Yu had always been quite obsessed with good looks. Though forced to hide her face, she absolutely refused to create an eyesore.
“Thicker eyebrows, smaller eyes, a lower nose bridge...”
The face on the water's surface shifted according to her thoughts.
After playing around to her heart's content, Shi Yu scrutinized the face currently reflected in the water and said somewhat reluctantly, “This will do.”
The faint red mark of the Scarlet Glass Flower on her forehead flashed and slowly faded, locking her appearance into that of a delicate young man.
Shi Yu reached out and tapped the water's surface, the ripples blurring the face.
The Yin-Yang Fate-Tapping Bell was truly extraordinary. The white spring was rich with vitality and would likely be of great benefit in repairing her body. However, she couldn't draw any out yet; the spring's volume seemed fixed, and she would have to wait a few days until more accumulated to retrieve even a few drops.
Shi Yu felt a bit disappointed, but she could only wait.
After exploring the mysteries of the Yin-Yang Fate-Tapping Bell while the pain inside her still raged, Shi Yu packed up the belongings left by Second Senior Brother. Her hand paused for a moment before she pulled out the crescent-shaped saber.
The scabbard of this crescent saber was quaint and unadorned, completely inconspicuous and unlikely to covet unwanted attention. Yet unsheathing it revealed a vast gleam of blade light with a faint, chilling aura of slaughter—clearly no ordinary weapon, making it perfect for self-defense.
She tucked the crescent saber into her cloth boot against her calf, changed out of her dress, removed her hairpins, combed her hair into a male topknot, and secured it with a wooden hairpin. Only then did she drag her weak body down the mountain.
Rate on N.U.
