"Even if it's just an egg now, it's not something a minor Qi Refining Stage cultivator like me can control."
"In the original story, Su Xinrou managed to contract the Phoenix Egg at the Qi Refining Stage because she had the protagonist's halo and the blessing of Heavenly Dao Fortune."
If it were her, there was a ninety-nine percent chance she would suffer backlash from the Phoenix bloodline. At best, her meridians would be completely destroyed, turning her into a cripple; at worst, her soul would scatter, never to be reincarnated.
Su Jin was no fool. She didn't want to gamble her life on the chance that contracting the Phoenix Egg wouldn't cause backlash.
"Yikes! Terrifying! The contracting route is definitely not viable!"
Then… sell it?
Su Jin shook her head, dismissing the idea.
Who would believe such an ugly egg was a Phoenix Egg? Even if someone knowledgeable recognized it, she understood the principle that "a man's wealth is his own ruin."
A minor cultivator at the Qi Refining Fifth Layer, flaunting a Phoenix Egg in public? She'd likely be killed and robbed before even leaving Biluo City.
Even if she managed to sell it by some stroke of luck, the spirit stones she obtained would be a hot potato. "A man's wealth is his own ruin." With her current level of cultivation, she couldn't protect any wealth at all.
"What should I do?"
Clutching her painfully throbbing chest, Su Jin's mind raced.
She couldn't contract it, couldn't sell it, and couldn't keep it by her side either—those three unreasonable members of the Su family might come and snatch it away at any moment.
Was she truly at a dead end? Was there no other way?
"Wait…"
"The female lead's dimensional space!!"
Su Jin's eyes suddenly lit up.
She slapped her own forehead hard. "How could I forget the female lead's second great Opportunity!"
She recalled the second great Opportunity for Su Xinrou in the book. The description of this Opportunity and the details of how the female lead obtained it were written very thoroughly.
It was a white jade pendant that, once contracted, contained a small world inside.
Timing-wise, seven days later, Su Xinrou would go outside the city with her two brothers to pay respects at her biological mother's grave. During the memorial, she would encounter two Monster Beasts fighting.
One of the Monster Beasts would be thrown by the other, crashing right into the grave mound and exposing the coffin inside.
While Su Xinrou, with her brothers' help, was reburying her biological mother, she would accidentally discover an ancient white jade pendant inside the coffin.
Her finger would be cut by the coffin's edge, and her blood would drip onto the jade pendant, unexpectedly contracting a jade pendant space that contained a small world.
Inside the space were a Spirit Spring, medicinal fields, an Artifact Refining room, an Alchemy Room, and mountains of cultivation techniques and heavenly and earthly treasures.
The jade pendant space was Su Xinrou's greatest golden finger in the early stages, helping her cultivation advance by leaps and bounds. Moreover, using the heavenly and earthly treasures inside, she befriended many powerful figures.
And now…
There were still seven days until Su Xinrou went to pay respects at her biological mother's grave.
Su Jin licked her dry, cracked lips, her eyes burning with excitement at the thought of doing something mischievous.
Seven days—that was plenty of time.
Since she knew about it, this Opportunity… would naturally become hers for the taking. The most important thing now was to get her hands on that jade pendant first.
With the Space, she could safely toss the Phoenix Egg inside and wouldn't have to struggle like the Original Host, fighting desperately for meager cultivation resources.
Moreover, in the book, on the very night the Original Host was forced to hand over the Phoenix Egg, the female lead Su Xinrou successfully contracted it.
Afterward, she would come to flaunt it in front of the Original Host every day and even snatch away the cultivation resources the Original Host had worked hard to obtain.
The Original Host was tormented physically and mentally by Su Xinrou and her own family until three months later, when the immortal sect recruited disciples, they finally stopped.
Not to mention the egg hasn't been snatched away yet. Once those people come to their senses, she definitely won't fare well. Su Jin had no inclination toward self-torture.
She absolutely couldn't stay in the Su residence any longer; she had to leave as soon as possible. She had no intention of obediently enduring abuse like the Original Host.
Deciding to leave, Su Jin stood up, patted the non-existent dust off her butt, walked to the window, and pushed it open a crack.
The night was deep, and the surroundings were eerily quiet.
In the distant Liuli Pavilion, lights blazed brightly, and she could faintly hear Madam Su's anxious voice and Su Chen's comforting words.
Su Xinrou's "illness" seemed quite severe, successfully keeping those three occupied.
A moonless, windy night—a heaven-sent opportunity!
Su Jin took a deep breath, her eyes resolute.
She returned to the bedside and poured out everything from her storage pouch with a clatter:
106 low-grade spirit stones, five bottles of First Grade low-tier Qi Gathering Pills, one bottle of Healing Pills, three Swift Movement Talismans, six hundred-mile random Teleportation Talismans, along with various other talismans and elixirs, and a low-grade Flying Sword that the Original Host had gritted her teeth to purchase.
The haul was pitifully meager.
Yet this was the entirety of the assets the Original Host had scraped together over fifteen years.
—Su Jin: "Fifteen years as the Su family's eldest daughter, and this is all she had. Truly pathetic!"
Su Jin tucked three Teleportation Talismans into her sleeve, held a Swift Movement Talisman in her hand, and then packed all her remaining belongings back into the storage pouch.
Finally, she carefully wrapped the dull, grayish Phoenix Egg in a clean cloth and tossed it into the storage pouch, keeping it close to her body.
Storage pouches could only hold inanimate objects. Fortunately, the egg's aura was concealed, showing no fluctuations of spiritual energy or signs of life on the surface; otherwise, it truly couldn't have been stored.
Everything was ready.
Su Jin walked to the bronze mirror and looked at the pale, gaunt girl reflected in it.
At fifteen, she should have been radiant like a flower, but the girl in the mirror had sunken eyes and a pale, haggard face—only her eyes shone with startling intensity.
"From today onward, the old Su Jin is dead. Standing here is a brand-new Su Jin!" Su Jin whispered, as if speaking to the reflection, or perhaps to herself.
Su Jin walked to the window, glanced back one last time at the room, and without a trace of nostalgia, pushed the window open and vaulted out.
Her figure melted into the night, silent as a shadow.
Outside Liulige Pavilion was a secluded path flanked by dense bamboo groves. Su Jin knew the layout of the Su residence like the back of her hand.
After all, the Original Host had lived here for fifteen years; she knew exactly which paths were quiet and when the guards changed shifts.
Crouching low, hugging the wall, she slipped out of Liulige's perimeter like a shadow.
The journey was tense but uneventful.
Passing by the garden, she overheard two maids whispering behind a rockery.
"Did you hear? The eldest young lady made the second young lady faint from anger!"
"Really? Isn't the eldest young lady usually the most timid?"
"Who knows? But I heard the second young master attacked the eldest young lady—hit her really hard. She's probably in grave danger…"
"Shh!!! Keep your voice down! Things are chaotic over at the main courtyard! Madam's eyes are swollen from crying."
Hiding in the shadows, Su Jin curled her lips into a cold smirk.
"Damn green tea bitch, putting on quite the act."