With the mindset of giving it a try, Pei Luo followed all the typical methods she had seen in novels. She tried them one by one—soaking it in water, burning it with fire, using blood from her fingertip, blood from her tongue tip, even squeezing out a drop of blood from her chest. But the jade pendant remained completely motionless.
“Ma li ma li hong?”
“Open Sesame?”
“Balala energy?”
“Ruyi Ruyi, follow my wish, quickly reveal your power?”
“……”
Pei Luo tried every spell she knew, almost to the point of kneeling down, yet the jade pendant still did not react at all. She was about to go crazy. Finally, in frustration, she decided to bite the jade pendant. Since she couldn’t smash it, at least biting it a few times would help her vent her anger.
She was furious. Sure enough, she must really be an illegitimate child of fate.
Just when she was about to bite it hard, the jade pendant suddenly turned into a streak of light and flew straight into her mouth.
“Ugh—!”
Pei Luo was startled and immediately began trying to make herself vomit. Honestly, she was afraid she might choke to death. She was still young and wanted to live a few more years.
But after gagging several times, the jade pendant still did not come out. Fortunately, the red string was still there; otherwise, she would feel even worse.
She had actually swallowed the jade pendant?
Other people’s golden fingers only required a drop of blood or a chant, but hers had to be taken orally. Was there anything more ridiculous than this?
Just as Pei Luo was being driven half crazy by the situation, she suddenly sensed the jade pendant floating inside her mind. It seemed to have fused with her body. She could not see it, but she could clearly feel its presence.
Pei Luo closed her eyes, intending to sense it more carefully. However, the next moment she discovered that she was standing in an empty space.
Fresh air rushed toward her face, making her take a deep breath involuntarily.
Looking ahead, she saw a lush fruit tree. Beneath the tree was a spring, and in front of the spring was a patch of black soil. Aside from these things, everything around was blank white—seemingly endless, yet also like an invisible barrier surrounding this small world.
Could this be the legendary Spirit Spring Space?
Pei Luo was so excited that she almost burst out laughing. Just a moment ago she had been complaining that she was an illegitimate child of fate, but the next moment fate had slapped her in the face.
Heaven really loved playing tricks.
Even without this spirit space she believed she could still thrive here, though it would certainly be much harder. But now…
With this space, she would never have to worry about lacking medicinal herbs again. According to the stories she had read, spirit spring spaces could grow hundred-year-old ginseng in just a few days.
Unfortunately, she did not have any seeds right now, so she could not test it.
However, the water from the spring was exactly as described in novels—sweet and refreshing. She just didn’t know whether it also possessed miraculous effects.
Pei Luo wandered around the space and discovered a stone monument behind the big fruit tree. When she looked closely, she saw several characters written in seal script:
“Ancient Breath Soil Spirit Spring Space.”
The handwriting looked elegant, as if it had been left by a woman.
Next to those characters were several smaller lines of writing. Pei Luo examined them carefully.
They explained that the Spirit Spring Space required spiritual energy to nurture and sustain all living things within it. The spiritual energy came from the spiritual fruit tree beside the spring water. In order for the tree to release spiritual energy, one needed to gather the power of merit.
Pei Luo almost exploded in anger.
Could she refuse this ridiculous space?
If it sounded nice, it meant she had been given a golden finger. But if one looked at it differently, it simply meant she had become free labor.
She wondered what would happen if the space had no merit power. At worst, she could just stop using it.
To gain merit power, she would have to constantly help others. She would have to be crazy to help people just for that.
She had always lived freely and disliked being restrained. Even in her previous life, when treating patients, she would only do so if she felt like it. If a patient dared show her attitude, she wouldn’t save them even if they lost their entire fortune.
In anger, Pei Luo kicked the stone monument over.
As the monument fell, a half-buried white bone was revealed beneath the soil.
“What the—what is this?!”
Pei Luo jumped three feet into the air in fright. She looked up at the sky and then around her surroundings.
She seriously suspected that someone was watching her… and even threatening her.
Otherwise how could it be such a coincidence? Just a moment ago she had been complaining about quitting the job, and the next moment she kicked up a bone.
It felt like a warning.
Wasn’t it just collecting merit?
Fine. She would collect it.
She bowed toward the bone a few times and apologized to the “senior,” then buried the stone monument back again.
If the previous owner of the space knew that the roasted lamb bone they had casually buried would cause such a misunderstanding, they would probably crawl out of their grave laughing.
After returning to the house, Pei Luo’s excitement quickly faded and turned into sighs.
Now that the jade pendant had fused with her body, it meant her plan to smash it and return to her original world was completely impossible.
She was such a lively and cheerful person. If she had to stay in this rigid and poor ancient world for the rest of her life, she might truly go crazy.
Although the original owner was only seventeen this year—much younger than her previous body—there was absolutely no entertainment here.
She would lose many pleasures in life.
At the very least, she would never see those young handsome men with eight-pack abs again.
And the large amount of money in her bank account—she hadn’t even had time to spend it yet. Now it would probably be confiscated forever.
With such a depressed mood, Pei Luo only managed to fall asleep late in the night.
When she opened her eyes in the morning, she found that the two children were already awake and had even washed themselves. The little girl had thoughtfully prepared a basin of water for Pei Luo to wash her face.
Pei Luo absolutely adored this little “cotton-padded jacket.”
“Xiao Man, you don’t need to prepare these things for Mother in the future. Mother is an adult and can take care of herself.”
Pei Luo looked at Xiao Man gently.
The little girl shook her head somewhat nervously.
“Xiao Man isn’t tired. Xiao Man can take care of Mother and little brother.”
Pei Luo didn’t say anything further. She knew the girl didn’t fully trust her yet and was trying her best to behave well.
She understood this, but she couldn’t rush things. She believed that one day she would heal the wounds in the girl’s heart and help her return to her true nature without fear.
“Take your brother to the yard to play for a while. Mother will cook for you.”
After making breakfast for the children, Pei Luo told them to eat at home while she ate a few bites quickly herself. Then she took a bow, arrows, and a machete and headed toward the mountains.
When the villagers saw her entering the mountains early in the morning with a bow, they assumed she must have been driven by hunger and gone hunting.
But hunting was not something a woman could easily do.
Afraid she might run into trouble in the mountains, someone went to the Lu family’s old residence to inform Old Madam Lu as soon as Pei Luo entered the mountain.