“Shadow One, tell Aunt Shuyan to prepare more talismans. They will be useful in a while.”
“She'll be the star of the show when the time comes!”
“Understood.”
Shen Qingci stood quietly in place for a moment before turning back to her quiet room.
Lying flat on her couch, she summoned her character panel, intending to relax her mind.
【Host】: Shen Qingci
【Current Identity】: Eldest Young Lady of the Northern Region Shen Family, personal disciple of Wanjian Peak of the Azure Cloud Sect, Chi Yuan's Dao companion
【Luck Value】: 49
【Reputation Value】: 99
【Belief Value】: 66,862
【Current Realm】: early Foundation Establishment stage
【Spiritual Root】: High-rank Lightning Spiritual Root
【Cultivation Technique】: 《Nine Heavens Lightning Control True Art》
【Items】: Omitted
Her gaze fell upon the “Chi Yuan's Dao companion” entry, lingering for a few seconds.
System Mom sure worked fast, quietly securing this official status for her.
Her Belief Value had climbed all the way from negative thirty thousand to over sixty-six thousand. Shen Qingci scanned the entire panel from top to bottom before reluctantly closing the interface.
She rolled over and sat up.
Taking three sticks of Mind-Focusing Incense from her storage ring, she inserted them into a nearby incense burner and lit them with a flick of her finger.
Faint smoke drifted upward, filling the room with the tranquil scent of sandalwood.
She pressed her palms together, resting them against her forehead.
“System Mom, your darling host daughter wants two things.”
There was no response in her sea of consciousness.
Shen Qingci cleared her throat and rephrased her request. “First, a natural treasure that can repair Master's Dao foundation. Back then, Master fought a half-step Void Refining great demon for three days and three nights, leaving cracks in her Dao foundation. She has been stuck in the mid Soul Transformation stage for over a century, unable to advance a single step.”
“Second, three Cultivation Upgrade Cards. On this trip to the Gu family's birthday feast, we have to make a move on the Sect Master along the way. If my cultivation isn't high enough, I won't feel secure.”
She added, “System Mom~ Mother System~ Universe's Number One System Mom~”
The sea of consciousness remained silent.
Shen Qingci was in no hurry.
System Mom was one to yield to soft persuasion but reject harsh demands. She had acted the exact same way when drawing the Nine Heavens Cloud Realm last time—silent on the outside, but already rummaging through her warehouse.
She repeated her requests over and over like a mantra.
On the third repetition, a soft light illuminated her sea of consciousness.
The system roulette began to spin on its own.
Shen Qingci immediately straightened her posture.
With over sixty thousand Belief Value, it should be more than enough!
The wheel spun at a blinding speed, with gray lights flashing out in rapid succession.
Gray card, gray card, gray card, gray card...
More than four hundred consecutive cards were all gray.
A mountain of dusty “Thank you for playing” cards piled up, but Shen Qingci's expression didn't waver.
System Mom's gacha draws always followed this pattern: the harsher the filtering in the beginning, the better the rewards left at the end.
The 473rd card, gray.
The 498th card, gray.
The 512th card, gray.
The rotation of the wheel slowed down, and the gray lights gradually thinned.
Shen Qingci held her breath.
The last time she drew the Nine Heavens Cloud Realm, the Gold Card had appeared under this exact same rhythm.
On the 647th card, the wheel came to a halt.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining: Gold Card · Golden Soul Essence-Tempering Liquid]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining: Deep Purple Card · Cultivation Upgrade Card ×3]
One pale gold and three deep purple glows emanated from the center of the wheel.
The foremost Gold Card bore the phantom image of a jade bottle. The bottle was ancient and heavy, its mouth sealed with runic wax, and a mass of dark crimson liquid could be seen floating inside.
The liquid churned and surged on its own, and even through the phantom image, a dominant and overbearing blood vitality could be felt.
Shen Qingci reached out to touch the phantom image.
The moment her fingertip made contact, a sharp spiritual energy crept up her finger, and a dense metallic force brushed against her skin.
The description text of the Gold Card followed immediately, appearing line by line beneath the phantom image.
Name: Golden Soul Essence-Tempering Liquid
Grade: Heaven-grade Low-rank
Origin: Condensed from the source essence blood of a metal-attribute Tribulation Transcendence cultivator before their fall, preserved to this day.
Use: Repairs cracks in the Dao foundation and reshapes the origin of the spiritual root. Fills damaged areas with metal-attribute source power; with the circulation of spiritual energy, the cracks will gradually heal.
Optimal for Soul Transformation stage cultivators. Also effective for Void Refining stage, but the medicinal efficacy decreases at the Body Integration stage and above.
Usage: Dissolve with spiritual energy and drip into the dantian, then circulate thirty-six cycles using an Earth-grade cultivation technique.
Note: Formed from metal-attribute source essence blood, its nature is sharp but not harmful. Upon entering the body, it automatically directs itself to the cracks in the meridians, using sharp metal qi to stimulate new life. When consumed by a metal-attribute Soul Transformation cultivator, most of the cracks can heal within three to ten years.
Shen Qingci pinched the Gold Card, and her tense thoughts slowly eased.
When she made her request to the system, her mental baseline had been Heaven-grade Low-rank.
Damage to a Dao foundation was practically an incurable disease in the cultivation world. A treasure capable of repairing such injuries would never be low in grade.
The one System Mom gave her was right at Heaven-grade Low-rank.
It was enough to be useful, yet wouldn't attract unwanted greed.
Although the essence blood of a metal-attribute Tribulation Transcendence cultivator was rare, the top forces of the four regions all possessed a few similar natural treasures, so it wouldn't stir up a bloodbath.
Most importantly, it was of the metal attribute, which perfectly matched her master's spiritual root. The medicinal force would automatically find its place upon entering her body, saving the trouble of guiding it.
She retrieved the jade bottle from the Gold Card and placed it inside an empty storage bag. She pasted a sealing strip on the bag's opening and wrote four characters: “For Master's Eyes Only.”
Giving it to her in person was definitely out of the question.
With Master's temperament, she would surely refuse if given face-to-face, and going back and forth would only waste time. It would be better to have Qinghe slip it into the side hall right when they left the sect for the Gu family's feast.
Once the item was in Master's hands, there was no way she could return it.
In addition, she would send a message to Martial Aunt Liu when she left. As for how things developed afterward, that would be beyond her control.
Hehehe~
Shen Qingci silently imagined her master's expression upon receiving the Golden Soul Essence-Tempering Liquid, and then pictured Martial Aunt Liu rushing to the side hall upon hearing the news. Her lips couldn't help but curve upward.
She patted her cheeks, setting aside these playful thoughts for the moment, and sent her divine sense into the three Deep Purple Cards.
Her sea of consciousness prompted: [Please select the target.]
“Shen Shuyan.”
[Confirm target: Shen Shuyan. Current realm: mid Soul Transformation stage. Realm after use: early Void Refining stage. Do you confirm?]
“Confirm.”
The three cards shattered, and a deep purple light flashed briefly in the room before vanishing.
Shen Qingci withdrew her divine sense and fell back onto the couch.
Her senior sister had been in the Sword Tomb for almost a month.
Transmission talismans couldn't be used, and there was no news of her at all.
She practiced her swordplay, laid out plans, and drew cards in the quiet room, keeping her schedule packed to the brim every day just so she wouldn't have idle time.
The moment she was idle, her mind would be filled with the image of her senior sister pinching her ear before departing.
She ground her teeth, her gums itching slightly. Perhaps her oral fixation was acting up.
Like a thief, she fished out a few secretly stashed undergarments from her storage ring.
Mmh~
Unwashed!
Her senior sister hadn't had the time to clean them with a cleansing spell!!!
Shen Qingci rolled back and forth on the couch a few times while hugging the undergarments, burying her face against the chest area, refusing to let go.
She gathered the clothes close and curled into a ball like a food-guarding scoundrel, utterly unwilling to let go even a fraction.
After hugging them for a while, she buried her face in them again and took a deep breath.
The scent was already very faint.
Yet, it was this tiny trace of lingering scent that brought up all the longing she had suppressed deep in her heart over the past days, clogging her chest with a sour, aching feeling.
The days without seeing her were simply too long.
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