[Vol. 1] Chapter 19 - Something's Wrong
A striking smile appeared on her face, blooming with faux innocence. She truly resembled the enigmatic villainous empress, though at this point in time, she hadn't yet fully "matured."
She stepped forward and struck Xiaolan's dantian. The spiritual qi inside dissipated, leaking out like water from a cracked vessel, and her cultivation dropped entirely.
Feng Yue clapped her hands once, then, with a look of disgust, conjured a water sphere specifically to wash them.
Sizzle~
With a pinch of her slender finger, she extinguished the tip of her burning dream incense. Pleased with the result, Feng Yue took out her jade slip.
Skillfully, her qi sent a message into the jade slip before she withdrew her attention and flicked her other hand to free Xiaolan from her trance with her qi.
Silence settled over the room like a held breath. Feng Yue stood motionless, her crimson gaze fixed on Xiaolan's sleeping face.
She was here for something else.
"You're interesting," she said, the words soft and utterly devoid of warmth. "But I have something else more important."
The Moonfire Fruit. The Lu family's secret. The real reason she'd come to these trials at all.
With long strides, she reached the clothes Xiaolan had thrown on the ground, the very clothes she'd worn in the trials.
With a flick of her slender finger, they floated, and immediately something fell.
Thud.
It was the jade slip.
She picked up the jade slip and closed her eyes, transmitting her consciousness into it. Just briefly, before opening them again.
She uttered, "As expected, it's not so easy."
But it was fine. Dealing with clever people was far more interesting.
Whoosh.
She disappeared without a ripple in the air, as if she had never been there at all.
...
"Xiao… lan…"
"A-Lan…"
A soft voice called for her. Not her name, not really. She knew it wasn't her name, but it was now. A quiet lament surfaced through the fog: This body was loved. Mine wasn't.
Her eyes fluttered open, weak and heavy-lidded. A-Ling sat at the edge of her bed, her young face soft with concern as she stirred a bowl of something steaming.
Congee. The smell hit Xiaolan's nose. It was warm, savory, faintly herbal, and her stomach screamed.
A-Ling's eyes widened at the sound, then crinkled with barely suppressed amusement. "Oh my, Miss. You really are hungry."
Xiaolan's face burned, but before she could form words, a spoon appeared before her lips.
"Here. Open."
She opened. The congee was perfect...warm, soothing, sliding down her throat like life itself.
A-Ling scooped another spoonful. "Sister Hong said you'd wake soon. She made this herself, said you'd need it after… whatever happened in that bathroom."
Xiaolan swallowed, the warmth spreading through her hollow stomach. "How long…?"
"Half a day, maybe more." A-Ling's expression flickered with concern, curiosity, then carefully smoothed away. "You had us worried, Miss."
Another spoonful appeared. Xiaolan didn't argue.
A warmth spread through A-Ling's chest. Her young miss looked so docile, so obedient, eating the congee like this. It was adorable.
She wondered when the last time she'd seen Xiaolan in such a state was. Maybe fifteen years ago, when Xiaolan had been a head shorter than her and clung to her like a little tail.
"Eat more, young miss."
One spoonful after another, gentle and patient. An Alpha needed to eat more, she observed. Her young miss had lost weight and was still weak after the early differentiation.
Her eyes brimmed, almost as if they might spill over.
Xiaolan, meanwhile, remained stiff and awkward throughout the feeding. Her thoughts churned: Oh my god, almost half a day? My body feels so weak. What the heck happened?
Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by A-Ling's scolding tone.
"Young miss, don't just lie down directly on your bed after taking a bath! When I didn't receive a response after knocking multiple times… and then I saw you… you… barely covered up on your bed…"
Half a day? And barely covered? Xiaolan finally understood. "Alright… so that's why I feel so weak."
Her brain started working through the muddleness, and she happily ate the congee. Focused entirely on the warm food with excitement—the reason was simple.
In Crimson Dynasty, you could get a permanent boost of sorts if you finished eating a dish whole. And with all the unique dishes came different traits and bonuses.
They were categorized into tiers: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, and Legendary.
The congee was an Uncommon type. If she remembered correctly, eating this dish gave a bonus effect: +1 Vitality.
She remembered it specifically because this was her first go-to whenever she reset her gameplay. It was simply useful!
Vitality, in other terms, meant qi flow...it allowed the character to cultivate better.
But her frantic thoughts were interrupted.
"Ah, young miss, Elder Guang tried to summon you earlier. But since you were passed out after differentiating… he said it was fine and that you needed rest."
"Hm?" Xiaolan murmured. She ate mechanically, but somewhere deep in her gut, where her dantian should have hummed with warmth—there was only… silence. She was too tired to question it.
"Young miss, it's already… night…"
Cricket… cricket…
Two moons were already in the sky. She turned her head to look at the wide window, its ridge thick enough to accommodate a person sitting on it…
It really was a picturesque scene.
"Ah… what did he want to say?" Xiaolan asked, turning back to A-Ling as she gulped down the last bite of congee.
"He said you needed to prepare yourself after tomorrow." A-Ling settled the bowl onto her lap.
"After tomorrow?" Xiaolan couldn't help but feel nervous inside. She stared at her locked system screen, cursing herself entirely. She couldn't save or load for four days.
The three slots appeared before her, and with desperation born from needing to pay off debt, she whispered quietly, "Delete. Delete."
[Ding!]
[+50 Charge points]
[Ding!]
[+50 Charge points]
[Current charge points: 201]
She didn't know when it had happened, but it felt so natural—like this knowledge was already known and settled inside her mind.
Soon, two nodes in the slots were deleted, leaving only the saved node point from when her future self had once loaded into. It might be useful in the future.
A-Ling wore a thoughtful expression as she passed along the message: "Miss Lu Xiashi will finally be arriving by the 19th day of the second lunar month."
Xiaolan calculated silently in her mind: So it's March 19th. Which means today is March 17th… She nodded and said, "What do I need to prepare?"
"Young miss, haven't you already prepared?" A-Ling looked confused.
Eh? Xiaolan blinked and played it off. "Ah, right…"
A-Ling sighed, her voice thick with emotion. "It's been a month since Miss Xiashi was found. Ever since then, you've been so restless… But finally, she's coming. You've prepared so much, Miss. She'll definitely appreciate it!"
Xiaolan's confusion deepened. Xiashi? Who?
She could only pray that her reckless original body hadn't done something catastrophically stupid...like creating another enemy.
Dealing with Feng Yue alone was already a nightmare. Add three rival men(Lin Zheng, Wenhui, and Lin Eishou) and the Wusheng Yin Sect to the list, and she was running out of breathing room.
And if she added the cute-but-deadly Chen Mingyuan to that list? She'd have the whole world coming for her neck. Xiaolan shuddered, regret settling deep in her bones.
A-Ling's mouth opened and closed, but Xiaolan couldn't hear any of it. Her soul was already elsewhere, dreading the day her neck would snap too easily.
By the time she snapped out of it, A-Ling had already excused herself. "Rest well, A-Lan," she said with a warm smile.
Click. The door closed fully.
Xiaolan let out a sigh. What should she do now? She had vowed to make herself happy in this new life of hers.
After her rough and dull experience in her past life, wrongfully dying without anything worth saying, she cherished this new life more.
She turned and saw a thick red pouch sitting on her table, bulging with something heavy. She opened it and her breath caught.
Spirit stones. Loads of them.
It shook her.
She was filthy rich.
This should have been a joyful occasion. Any normal person would be celebrating. But instead... she felt empty inside. As if she had no energy left.
Her entire experience in just three days made her think back. Empty. She felt empty.
Crossing her legs into a lotus position, she closed her eyes. She wanted to feel the warmth of circulating her qi, to experience her path of cultivation. But it felt empty.
Was it always like this? No, it wasn't. She was aware she hadn't utilized her body's full potential, but why was there no warm current like the first time she'd tried?
She focused harder. Harder.
Sweat dripped down her forehead. She didn't even realize she'd been holding her breath until she gasped, breathing heavily.
Something's wrong.