Both mortals and immortals must learn to adapt.
After careful consideration, Du Xinghe decided to rent an empty building in the county market instead.
Who decreed that cultivation must take place in remote mountain peaks far from worldly noise?
Why not follow the path of urban cultivation like in modern novels? Though the protagonist might party and chase women daily, he remains an untainted celestial banished to the mortal realm. If being surrounded by earthly pleasures prevents one from cultivating, then such spiritual resolve would shatter at the slightest touch.
Du Xinghe didn’t have enough spirit stones to rent a cave dwelling enhanced with arrays and spiritual energy, but she had more than sufficient funds to lease a shop in the market. The scraps she let slip from her fingers could make her the wealthiest person in this remote county. The established laws in the imperial city also offered her an additional layer of protection.
On her first day, she carved eight characters into the wooden door with her sword tip:
“If you wish to succeed, you must first castrate yourself.”
Then, Du Xinghe summoned the Imperial Harem Intrigue System: “I now possess my own palace. Shouldn’t this warrant some points?”
The summoned system scanned the palace where its host resided.
Its emotions cycled through delight, shock, confusion… to rage in mere three seconds: 【Host, what kind of palace has such a name?!】
“This precisely reflects my transcendent status,” Du Xinghe replied with unshakable composure.
She wanted the points but refused to have her residence associated with the emperor’s consorts.
After rigorous contemplation, she arrived at this perfect name—a constant reminder that the best way to dismantle feudalism is to turn it into a joke.
The palace plaque was now complete, hand-carved by her.
The suffix was “Palace,” and you needn’t concern yourself with what preceded it.
The system wavered: 【Host, are there truly no other options?】
“There are. You can choose between ‘Don’t Develop Here Palace,’ ‘Turn the Corner and Kiss Residence,’ or ‘What Grudge Manor.'”
The system: 【…】
Ultimately, it selected Don’t Develop Here Palace.
【Acquired personal palace! Points +100!】
As the system’s humiliated notification sounded, Du Xinghe’s sword tip flicked, striking through the original “If you wish to succeed, you must first castrate yourself” and adding beneath it “Don’t Develop Here Palace”—each character vigorous and deeply engraved.
Drawing from the original owner’s memories, she carved restrictive runes on the door. While they couldn’t stop cultivators at higher realms, they could keep out common thieves and pests. Even in her absence, no mortal could intrude uninvited.
Inside, Du Xinghe performed basic cleaning.
As a transmigrator, her understanding of the cultivation world remained incomplete—she learned while living. She once assumed cultivators needn’t bother with trivial chores, only to realize she’d been too optimistic. Though cultivators could summon wind and rain, directing these elements required precise commands—hundreds of specialized spells.
Comparing the five elements to artificial intelligence, spells were like inputting correct keywords.
Without meticulous control, she ended up like now: attempting to wash the floor only to flood it, her spiritually empowered water violently saturating the wooden boards until they swelled into grotesque shapes.
“This isn’t what I envisioned,” Du Xinghe mused thoughtfully.
In the cave, she’d effortlessly subdued two Qi Refining Stage cultivators, yet now she faced her Waterloo in daily life.
With her last shred of reason, she restrained the wild impulse to “dry out” the room—primarily because she possessed Water, Wood, and Earth Spiritual Roots and couldn’t summon fire.
“Let me think this through again.”
Du Xinghe sat directly on the floor, the water automatically diverting around her body without dampening her in the slightest.
The next moment, the water covering the floor froze into ice.
“For a Water Spiritual Root cultivator, turning water into ice requires maintaining it with spiritual power—it’s too mentally draining.”
After dealing with the flooded floor, she went out to the cultivators’ market to purchase a copy of “100 Common Spells.” Following the established methods of predecessors helped her avoid another impulsive mishap.
Just as she reached her doorstep, the neighbor running a breakfast shop downstairs called out to her:
“Immortal, water was leaking from your room earlier, but it stopped after a while. Do you have any idea what happened?”
Du Xinghe apologized, “I’ll compensate for any damaged items at full price.”
Moments later, despite already being capable of Grain Avoidance, she found herself carrying a steamer of soaked meat buns back to the second floor.
……
Back in her room, Du Xinghe took another Warm Passion Pill purchased from the System shop.
Harnessing the surge of heat flowing through her meridians, she sat cross-legged with closed eyes and circulated her Cultivation Method. Pale blue spiritual energy slowly coursed through her entire body. The concentration of spiritual energy here was indeed inferior to that in the secret realm, which was why it was widely believed that having more Spiritual Roots led to impurity, making it harder to progress on the cultivation path.
In matters of cultivation, Du Xinghe employed countless unconventional strategies and stopped at nothing—except laziness, which she never considered.
Living in poor conditions didn’t matter.
Being surrounded by ordinary people couldn’t shake her competitive spirit.
The more she cultivated, the more Du Xinghe discovered her own exceptional qualities.
After Yuanming Zunzhe took the original owner as his disciple, he never taught her a single powerful sword technique or skill. She practiced the most basic Cultivation Method—a standard manual issued to every outer sect disciple of major sects, devoid of flashy or astonishing moves, solely focused on gathering spiritual energy from heaven and earth.
This one practice, which the original owner had trained in from childhood to adulthood, laid a foundation far surpassing her peers.
Unlike her senior brother, whose single move “Crimson Wheel Sword” amazed the Nine Yang Sect, her astonishing perseverance had always remained unseen.
Now, however, it became a treasure chest opened for Du Xinghe.
Transmigrators often brought their own opportunities, frequently encountering great masters willing to impart all their knowledge. Yet the first mentor Du Xinghe encountered was the original owner herself.
The original owner, once a street child, was accepted into the Nine Yang Sect and assigned to Yuanming Zunzhe due to her decent aptitude. Grateful for his kindness, she revered him as a father and marveled at the jade towers and palaces of immortals. But what awaited her was a decade of consistent neglect, indifference, and bullying from her senior brother. Only at the moment of her death did she realize she lacked the sharpness expected of a Nine Yang Sect sword cultivator—she was too meek, honest, unable to refuse or demand.
Compliance makes one mortal; defiance makes one immortal.
How could one cultivate immortality by submitting to everything?
When her master tossed her a copy of “Qi Refining Art,” she practiced it obsessively, never realizing she could advance even after filling her experience bar.
This was one reason Du Xinghe broke through to Foundation Establishment so effortlessly.
The causality in the cultivation world was profoundly mysterious—one couldn’t unjustly seize another’s body and cultivation fate. While circulating her spiritual power, Du Xinghe could still sense a trace of hope left behind by the original owner.
Du Xinghe softly asked, “Do you have any regrets in this life?”
—She had wasted half her life, sabotaging her own immortal fate. Could you strive for the path of immortality on her behalf?
“Of course.”
As Du Xinghe gave her promise, that wisp of remnant energy slowly dissipated.
……
The newly arrived immortal became a hot topic of discussion in the market.
Du Xinghe meditated until morning, a wisp of light smoke rising behind her—
It wasn’t due to qi deviation, but rather the steam from the breakfast stall downstairs starting to steam buns.
“Immortal Du on the second floor is truly remarkable. Don’t other cultivators need to practice their skills? She just comes down on time every day and stands in the alley doing nothing, just standing for a while. Her imposing presence is beyond description.”
“Standing? What is she standing there for?”
“She’s an immortal, must be absorbing the essence of the sun and moon. Let’s learn from her, might help us live longer.”
There was a distinction between immortals and mortals; ordinary cultivators wouldn’t stand among crowds.
Even at the Qi Refining Stage, they kept their distance from the residents in the market. Not knowing the daily routines of cultivators, they instinctively believed Immortal Du’s actions were beneficial for both body and mind, and promptly began imitating her.
So the next day, the alley beneath her building was filled with people.
Meanwhile, Du Xinghe, who started this trend, demanded rewards from the System:
“Where’s today’s reward for completing the morning and evening greetings? Hurry up!”
Feeling a bit dizzy from a cold today, will make up for it tomorrow!