Lingyan Temple is located ten miles outside the county town, in the suburbs. It’s the most famous temple in Qingshui County, with carved railings and jade columns, surrounded by lush greenery. Countless pilgrims come and go, and the incense is so abundant that the halls are filled with smoke, making it feel like a fairyland.
Qiao Yue was panting heavily, but his steps didn’t slow as he walked through the temple corridors into the hall. He casually found a prayer mat, knelt down, clasped his hands together, and started muttering, “Buddha, Guanyin Bodhisattva… protect me with Vajra, let the demons and ghosts leave quickly…”
He chanted for a quarter of an hour, until his mouth was dry, invoking every deity he knew, even the bedside granny. After drawing a lot, he got up and walked towards Master Yuantong.
Master Yuantong, the temple’s abbot, had a very kind and gentle appearance. “Master Yuantong, what does this lot mean?” Qiao Yue added ten coins to the incense box, handed the lot to him, and asked for an interpretation.
“After the extreme comes the good, just a step away, the gentleman emerges from the mountain…” Master Yuantong took the lot and explained, “It’s a very auspicious lot, the Hai Palace… turning misfortune into blessing, avoiding calamity…”
Master Yuantong glanced at the man in front of him, a bit surprised, “The light at the end of the tunnel, everything will go as you wish.”
The scent of incense lingered around, and Qiao Yue silently repeated it a few times, finally feeling a bit more at ease, “Thank you, Master.”
He carefully put away the lot and then leisurely walked out of Lingyan Temple. On the way, he even had the mood to give directions to pilgrims visiting Lingyan Temple for the first time.
With no one around and still a long way to Qingshan Village, 009 finally revealed itself. Qiao Yue froze when he saw a black crow suddenly appear in front of him.
“Ahem—Host, no…” It retracted the binding application, now it was still a free system. “Brother, don’t be afraid…”
Qiao Yue turned and ran. “Don’t be afraid! Don’t be afraid!” 009 flew after him, “I’m really not a demon or ghost, really not!”
“Why should I believe your nonsense!”
“You can believe my nonsense.”
“…” Qiao Yue ran with all his might, while the system slowly followed.
Until Qiao Yue was exhausted, 009 landed on his shoulder, “I told you I’m not a ghost, yet you still ran.”
009 was too lazy to fuss, it was in a hurry to find a host and didn’t have time to waste here.
A few days ago, 009 had just upgraded from a sign-in system to a dimension system and received a new task—
According to the management bureau’s data, the spiritual energy of the earth veins in small world C-8901 would quietly revive in five years, then slowly and gently spread until it covered the entire globe. The creatures in the small world would also enter a survival of the fittest situation, and then a child of destiny would lead humanity from chaos to stability and peace.
However, under the management bureau’s monitoring, the balance of C-8901 was prematurely disrupted by unknown factors. The spiritual energy of the earth veins in certain regions surged continuously, causing frequent natural disasters and human calamities due to the sudden imbalance of spiritual energy. The child of destiny, who was supposed to be born, died prematurely, plunging the world into chaos.
In less than five years, humanity was on the brink of extinction, and the small world was in a dying state.
009’s task this time was naturally to find the child of destiny in advance, prevent their premature death, and help them reach the peak, thereby successfully elevating the small world to a higher dimension.
If this task was successful, 009 would enter the top ten of the system rankings! Unfortunately…
009 had a beautiful vision, but there was a mishap during the descent, and both the landing location and target were wrong.
With half of its energy already consumed, 009 wanted to make the best of a bad situation and searched.
—The host had changed from a child of destiny to a lazybones who didn’t lift a finger.
Qiao Yue, male, nineteen years old this year.
A resident of Qingshan Village in Qingshui County, with a small father named Xia He, and a father named Qiao Lao Er who went to serve in the military two years ago. He also has a younger brother. He has a face like jade, eyes like lacquer, and a tall and straight posture, but beneath his handsome exterior is a heart that refuses to move.
Other farming families rise earlier than chickens, sleep later than dogs, and work harder than oxen.
But the Qiao Yue it wanted to bind was someone who slept when others got up, rested when others worked, and still slept when others went to bed.
It was killing the system, working with such a host, it might take a hundred years to complete this task!
Just running this time was probably more exercise than he did in a month.
009 decisively withdrew the application, consuming a large amount of energy, and even the auxiliary system it carried was left on Qiao Yue.
It was a huge loss.
It could only stay hidden by Qiao Yue’s side, scaring him a bit, hoping to recover the card-drawing system.
After listening to the strange bird’s explanation, Qiao Yue finally calmed down and thought for a long time, “So, you’re not a ghost, just a tool… bird that helps people?”
One that can talk, too.
It was somewhat like what storytellers said, where immortals send down spiritual treasures to help people through calamities?
“Your spiritual treasure…” Qiao Yue corrected himself, “The system accidentally fell on me?”
009: “…Yes.”
“Then you can take it back.” Qiao Yue spread his hands.
Seeing the misunderstanding, 009 went along with it, as long as he was willing to open his sea of consciousness to let it retrieve the card-drawing system.
A second later, a roar echoed within ten miles, “You ate it!!!”
Leaves fell to the ground, and Qiao Yue shrank back, feeling wronged, “No, I didn’t.”
Who would dare to swallow a tool whole?
009 went crazy, no wonder it felt an extra layer of restraint when it tried to control the auxiliary system earlier.
If Qiao Yue had fully mastered it, it might not have been able to secretly control the card-drawing system just now.
This time it really lost both the wife and the soldiers.
“Forget it, forget it.” 009 said dejectedly.
The black bird flapped its wings in the air, the sunset casting a shimmering rainbow glow on it.
“I’ll just give you the card-drawing system.” It decided to go find the child of destiny who hadn’t grown up yet.
009 looked at Qiao Yue a few more times, then disappeared into the air.
Qiao Yue stood there, “Immortal? Are you still there? System? Spiritual treasure?! Not here anymore?”
After waiting for a long time, Qiao Yue suddenly put his hands on his hips and laughed, “Turning misfortune into blessing, avoiding calamity…”
So that’s what it meant!
The spiritual treasure, his spiritual treasure! Haha!
It seemed that the big white bun could be eaten, Qiao Yue thought as he happily hopped home.
In early spring, the sky darkened particularly quickly, and by the time Qiao Yue returned home, the sun was almost set.
The family had just finished dinner, and the Qiao family was lively in the courtyard. Qiao Laohan was sitting and smoking a pipe, the eldest son Qiao Laoda and Zhou Shi were whispering about something, the third cousin Qiao Xiaomei was sitting nearby making knots, and the second cousin Qiao Lei, having nothing to do after dinner, was chopping wood.
His small father was tidying up the dishes, preparing to wash them. When Xiaoyuan looked up and saw him return, he ran over, “Big brother, you’re back~”
Xia He quickly told him to sit down and eat.
Qiao Yue greeted Qiao Laohan, picked up Xiaoyuan, and placed him at the dining table. Dinner was nothing special, just wild vegetable buns with pickles, making his face turn green.
After eating, he saw that the chickens hadn’t been fed yet, so he casually took the chicken feed from his small father’s hands, “Small father, I’ll do it.”
He didn’t dare to eat that big white bun just like that, better to feed it to the chickens first.
Xia He avoided him, “No need, I can do it.”
Zhou Shi saw the two of them fighting over feeding the chickens and said indignantly, “Shanzi, you really have a comfortable life, no wonder everyone envies you, even I, your aunt, envy you. You do nothing all day, just eat, and you even lost the family’s chicken.”
Qiao Laoda scolded, “Enough, it’s just a chicken, why do you keep nagging about it?”
“What do you mean just a chicken, an old hen costs at least seventy or eighty coins! I work myself to death every day and don’t even earn ten coins…”
Qiao Laoda awkwardly shut his mouth.
“Otherwise, our second branch…” Xia He thought about the money from selling spring bamboo shoots recently, buying an old hen was doable.
“Okay!”
“No way!”
Qiao Yue and Zhou Shi spoke in unison.
Qiao Yue looked at Qiao Laohan, “Grandpa, you be the judge, I suddenly fainted, and someone helped me, aren’t they my savior? Am I not part of the Qiao family?”
Although he didn’t get along well with Fang Chuyue, the help was real.
Qiao Laohan: “…Yes.”
Hearing this, Zhou Shi rolled her eyes and said, “Shanzi, you really don’t know the cost of firewood and rice, the chicken is ours, and you lost it, you should at least inform everyone first…”
“Aunt, you didn’t miss eating the eggs the chicken laid, and I’ve never seen you feed the chicken, but now you say the chicken is everyone’s.” Qiao Yue knew that his aunt actually thought the family’s chickens weren’t theirs to eat, they should all belong to their branch, and now that one was lost because of him, she felt she was at a loss.
She always wanted to make up for it.
Qiao Yue felt a bit guilty about this, but then thought, they’re all Qiaos, so what if he ate it?
Could a chicken really compare to years of tuition?!
“Well, I’ve never seen you feed it either!”
“You too…”
Qiao Laohan knocked his pipe on the ground and scolded, “Enough, all of you shut up!”
“An elder not acting like an elder, bickering with the younger generation!” Qiao Laohan scolded Zhou Shi, then turned to Qiao Yue, “And you, not respecting your elders! What kind of behavior is this!”
“Oldest’s wife, just let the chicken go, otherwise people will say our Qiao family doesn’t know gratitude, doesn’t do things right, and it will affect our prosperity.”
Zhou Shi, somewhat afraid of her father-in-law, lowered her head and mumbled in agreement.
Qiao Yue turned a deaf ear, grinning as he cozied up to Qiao Laohan.
A few years ago, Xia He had thought about splitting the family and living separately.
As the saying goes, “The emperor loves the eldest son, the common people love the youngest,” but in reality, Xia He knew that Qiao Laohan only truly loved the eldest son and grandson. Qiao Xingsheng could go to school, and he studied for over ten years.
His son Shanzi was only a year younger than Xingsheng, but they had the same surname and different fates.
But later, when his husband Qiao Lao Er went to serve in the military and never returned, and since Qiao Laohan treated their branch fairly well and was quite just, Xia He never brought it up again.
Thinking of Qiao Lao Er, Xia He felt a bit down, and Xiaoyuan came over to him, singing a little tune he learned from the cowherds.
After cozying up to Qiao Laohan, Qiao Yue went to joke with his small father for a bit, then remembered he needed to feed the chickens, so he quickly ran to the chicken coop.
He hid from people and took out the bun card.
Following the previous method of use, Qiao Yue held the blue card and muttered a phrase, and in its place appeared three large white buns, each as big as a face, still steaming hot.
Seeing they were about to topple, Qiao Yue quickly placed the chicken feed on the ground, wrapped the buns in his clothes, and ran back to the house.
The buns emitted steam, and the aroma of the bread was faintly present.
Qiao Lei sniffed, “I think I smell buns…”
“Second brother, you’re just imagining it because you want to eat buns,” Qiao Xiaomei laughed, resting her chin in her hand, dreaming, “I wonder what delicious things big brother will bring back in a few days?”
Qiao Lei chuckled foolishly and said no more.
Qiao Yue returned to the house, swallowing his saliva as he placed the buns in a basket. He had never eaten such large buns before. Buns weren’t something you could eat whenever you wanted, let alone pure flour buns this big.
Qiao Yue resisted the temptation, placed the basket on top of the cabinet, and with a small piece of bun he had broken off, he ran back to the chicken coop to feed the chickens.
He was tall, and with the piece in his hand, no one could see what he was holding unless they looked closely.
They just thought he was running back and forth, really avoiding hard work.
Qiao Yue picked the fiercest-looking chicken to feed, its tail feathers beautifully colored.
He squatted in the chicken coop for a long time.
When it was time to sleep, the chicken was still lively and energetic.