On Fengwu Mountain, more than a dozen wild boars of various sizes were chasing a skinny, disheveled little girl.
The little girl was named Chu Zhiyi, and she was twelve years old.
She had gone up the mountain today to look for medicine for her mother, who was poisoned and on the verge of death.
She hadn’t found the medicine. Instead, she had run into a whole herd of wild boars.
Although she was unusually strong and knew a little martial arts, there was no way she could take on an entire herd of wild boars.
She had better run.
If she really couldn’t escape, then she would just have to leave it to fate.
Feeling her breathing grow more and more rapid, her throat becoming increasingly dry, and her chest feeling as though it were about to explode, Chu Zhiyi stopped running.
She stood where she was, bent over with one hand on her stomach, and stared fearlessly at the charging herd of wild boars.
Then she suddenly jumped up.
“You damn beasts! This old lady is going all out against you!”
Before the last word had even left her mouth, her body was already falling straight down like a stone.
Chu Zhiyi’s mind went blank. Instinctively, she flailed her hands toward the air, trying to grab onto anything that could save her.
And she actually managed to grab something.
A protruding rock.
Unfortunately, the rock was small and couldn’t bear her weight. It only slowed her fall for a moment before it too came loose and fell downward.
Smack!
Her small body slammed heavily onto the ground, nearly breaking apart from the impact.
A huge cloud of dust rose up, making her cough violently.
“Cough, cough… Good heavens, did I crack my tailbone?
And my head… Why am I seeing stars?”
“Huh? Where is this?
It looks like a room.”
Chu Zhiyi rubbed her butt and struggled to get back up. She waved her hand in front of her face, fanning away the dust that was getting into her nose and mouth, then looked around using the light shining down through the opening above.
Oh, so it was a stone chamber.
But this room was way too small. There wasn’t even a table or chairs, let alone a bed.
She felt herself bump into something. Looking down, she saw a skeleton sitting on the ground.
Without even having time to be afraid, she hurriedly reached out to steady the swaying skeleton and began muttering.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bump into you.
You’re the elder, and I’m the junior. Please don’t hold it against me.
By the way, why are you here all alone? Where is your family?”
Suddenly, she heard movement from above.
Chu Zhiyi quickly looked up. Her eyes nearly crossed from shock, and her mouth opened wide enough to fit a goose egg.
A huge, indistinct object was falling straight toward her, looking as though it wouldn’t stop until it crushed her to death.
She hurriedly dodged to the side, not forgetting to drag the skeleton along with her.
She had moved.
But the skeleton hadn’t.
It remained sitting steadily in its original spot.
Chu Zhiyi didn’t have time to wonder about that. Instead, she looked at the wild boar lying on the ground with its head smashed into the floor and bleeding.
She was ecstatic.
Oh my goodness! What kind of good luck was this?
Heaven, I’ve decided. You really are my biological father.
My very, very own father.
Worried that the wild boar might still be alive, Chu Zhiyi picked up a stone from the ground and smashed it against the boar’s head.
Hmm. No movement.
It should be dead.
She cautiously walked over and kicked it twice, making sure it wasn’t pretending to be dead.
After being happy for a while, she was faced with another problem.
She could carry it up the mountain if she had to, but how was she supposed to get this huge wild boar out of here?
Was she supposed to just watch it rot here?
No, no, no! Absolutely not. That would surely bring divine punishment upon her.
She turned around and looked at the skeleton again.
If she hadn’t moved just now, the wild boar would have landed directly on the skeleton.
Ah, it was all her fault. She had nearly dragged an innocent person into this mess.
Forget it. The dead deserved respect.
Besides, this old immortal had probably been dead for who knew how many years.
She should at least bow her head and apologize.
After dragging the dead wild boar away, she used her foot to sweep the ground twice. Then she straightened her bloodstained, tattered clothes and knelt before the skeleton.
“Old Immortal, everything that happened was just a coincidence. This junior didn’t mean to trespass. I disturbed your rest, so please don’t blame me.
And this wild boar… It’s the boar, and I’m me. A sheep doesn’t team up with a dog.
Pfft, pfft, pfft! That’s not what I meant. I mean, I’m not on its side.
Don’t worry. I’ll chop it into pieces later and eat it all up to avenge you.
Ah, whatever. I’ve already apologized to you. If you’re really going to be so petty and refuse to forgive me, then there’s nothing I can do.”
Chu Zhiyi stood up, still muttering to herself. After thinking for a moment, she knelt down again.
“Forget it. I’d better kowtow three more times.”
[Don’t dislike the female lead just because she talks too much. She’s genuinely a bit of a chatterbox.]
This time, she kowtowed sincerely. Chu Zhiyi could even feel the skin on her forehead getting scraped.
When she finished the third kowtow, she suddenly heard a cracking sound.
Crack!
Chu Zhiyi jumped in fright.
She thought the wild boar hadn’t actually died and had come back to life.
But when she saw that the boar was still lying on the ground exactly as before, she breathed a sigh of relief.
The cracking continued.
The sound was coming from a section of the stone wall.
Chu Zhiyi stared nervously at it and prayed desperately that whatever was about to appear wouldn’t be some monster she couldn’t handle.
Actually, she wanted to run.
But she couldn’t get out in such a short time.
So she could only face whatever was coming head-on.
Under Chu Zhiyi’s watchful gaze, a rack slowly extended from the stone wall.
The rack wasn’t large, but it was rather tall. It was filled with bottles and jars of various sizes.
In the middle was a red sandalwood box about the size of an urn.
There wasn’t a speck of dust on it. It was completely clean.
Everything had been arranged neatly.
Chu Zhiyi didn’t touch anything. She waited until the rack stopped moving before slowly approaching it.
The words “Sleeping Drug” were written on a clay jar about the size of a basketball.
None of the other containers had labels.
She didn’t dare touch them carelessly.
She stared at the red sandalwood box for a long time before wrapping her hand in her sleeve and carefully reaching up on tiptoe to take it down.
After checking that there was nothing unusual on her sleeve, she finally dared to handle the box with her bare hands.
There was no lock, but she couldn’t open it either.
Chu Zhiyi’s stubborn streak kicked in.
“Damn it, you’re really going to fight me on this?
If I can’t open you, I’ll smash you!
I refuse to believe that a box made of wood can withstand being smashed!”
After a great deal of struggling, enough to make the wounds on her hands start bleeding again, she finally managed to open the box.
When she saw what was inside, Chu Zhiyi was a little disappointed.
She had thought there would be a box full of gold and silver treasures.
But this was it?
Two battered books and two tiny gourd-shaped ceramic bottles that she could easily hold in one hand.
She picked up the bottles and took a closer look.
To her surprise, they were labeled.
One bottle contained Detoxification Pills.
The other contained Great Strength and Brain-Refreshing Pills.
She knew what the Detoxification Pills were for.
But what on earth were these Great Strength and Brain-Refreshing Pills?
Forget it. Whatever.
She picked up the book lying on top.
It was a manual detailing various methods of making poisons.
The contents were extremely thorough.
It even included methods for making antidotes.
Chu Zhiyi tossed it aside disdainfully.
She was a good girl.
She wasn’t going to mess around with poisonous substances and hurt people.
If she wasn’t careful, she could end up poisoning herself instead.
Her eyes fell on the book underneath, and they immediately froze.
“Holy crap! Th-this… Is this a cultivation manual?”
Chu Zhiyi flipped open the first page.
“Oh my heavens! It really is a cultivation technique!
Wait, are there actually people who cultivate in this world?
Why have I never heard anyone mention it?
Ahhh! This is so fantastical!”
Chu Zhiyi felt her heart surging like turbulent waves, so excited that she could hardly contain herself.
Heaven, my dear father, did you think your daughter was too useless, so you deliberately left this cultivation manual here for me? Did you want me to become someone extraordinary?
So I can walk sideways like a crab!
She hugged the cultivation manual and treasured it for a long while before finally noticing that there were still other things inside the box.
It was a gleaming bracelet.
She couldn’t tell what material it was made of.
Beside it were two medicinal herbs covered in dense roots.
They were actually the legendary thousand-year-old ginseng, but Chu Zhiyi didn’t recognize them, so she didn’t pay much attention to them.
Instead, she picked up the bracelet and admired it lovingly before putting it on her wrist.
When she first put it on, it was much too large.
But slowly, it began shrinking until it became exactly the right size for Chu Zhiyi’s wrist.
This made Chu Zhiyi panic a little.
“Oh my goodness! This bracelet can actually change size?
And what’s with this light? Why did it turn red?”