Gu Er only felt a sharp pain in her head, her vision went black, and all strength drained from her body as she collapsed straight into Du Bai’s arms.
“The young lady fainted?”
“Her face is so pale! Is it an old injury acting up, or…”
“Hurry! Take her back to town first!”
Amid the panicked voices, the mechanical sound was terrifyingly clear:
[Binding successful.]
[Host identity confirmed: Cen Shiqing.]
[Loading mission world…]
[Welcome to… “Soaring Through the Nine Heavens.”]
[Main quest generated: Eliminate “Thousand-Faced Ghost Maiden” Gu Wan.]
[Wishing you a smooth mission.]
Before darkness swallowed her consciousness, Gu Er’s final thought was,
Cen Shiqing… who is that?
And Gu Wan… who is she?
No one knew that the moment Gu Er lost consciousness, on a solitary peak a thousand miles away, the fingertips of a white-robed figure seated silently beneath an ancient pine suddenly trembled.
Beside him, a bronze ancient lamp, whose wick had been dead and silent for centuries, suddenly flickered to life with a faint blue flame.
…
Gu Er’s consciousness plunged into chaos. She felt as though she were suspended in a boundless void.
All around her was blinding white light, stinging her eyes painfully. Her body floated weightlessly, as if it might be devoured by the light at any moment.
[System 0086 at your service.] A mechanical voice sounded in Gu Er’s mind without warning, harsh and cold, jarringly conspicuous in the silent void.
Gu Er jolted with a start, snapping awake. The white light before her gradually coalesced into a clear world.
She, Gu Er, had died in a tragic plane crash in her previous life and had been detected by the system as a soul with high compatibility for hosting. However, when she was first dropped into this world, the system had encountered a bug and failed to keep up with her in time, so when she had called out to the system back then, she received no response at all.
0086 said with dissatisfaction, [Host, it wasn’t a bug. It was magnetic field interference, we lost connection.]
After all, in the system’s world, a bug meant something was wrong with it, and it was a brand-new system that had just “come off the assembly line”, how could it possibly have a defect?
After learning the mission requirements, Gu Er felt her head buzzing. The corner of her mouth twitched, and her voice rose involuntarily, full of disbelief: “Stop the world from being destroyed?!”
She, Gu Er, was a prospective college student who had just finished the college entrance exams, weak and powerless, barely able to run eight hundred meters. Asking her to save the world was nothing short of a pipe dream, an utter fantasy!
[Dear host, I believe you can do it. If you didn’t have the ability, the system wouldn’t have bound you.] the system said in a childish, coaxing voice, trying to soothe Gu Er.
“Thanks a lot…” Gu Er gritted her teeth, squeezing the words out from between them.
Immediately after, the system dumped all the key information from the novel into her mind in one go.
After Gu Er finished reading the entire story, she couldn’t help but remark, “Wow, what a cliché story.”
The original novel roughly told the story of the female lead and male lead joining the Lingyun Sect at the same time. Initially, they couldn’t stand each other and secretly competed. During their trials down the mountain, they gradually developed feelings. It wasn’t until the second great war between immortals and demons, at the brink of life and death, that they finally confessed their true feelings. The story was simple, the plot clear, a very popular type of novel on the market.
As for the female lead in the book, she was cold and aloof, looking down on all others, with explosive combat power. In the cultivation world, she won people over with her sword. Compared to her own personality, it was a world of difference.
Gu Er unconsciously furrowed her brows, a flicker of doubt passing through her eyes: “Do I need to maintain the character’s persona?”
[No need, dear. The current state of this small world is very unstable. Our primary mission right now is to save the world, everything else can take a back seat.] The system answered crisply.
Gu Er pressed further: “How do I stop the world from being destroyed?”
In an instant, the system’s voice lost its former childishness, turning cold and mechanical: [Congratulations, host, on activating the main quest: Eliminate the villain, Guihun City’s City Lord, Gu Wan.]
Immediately after, more detailed information about Gu Wan flooded into her mind:
Gu Wan, also known as the “Thousand-Faced Ghost Maiden.” She was the child of the Demon Lord Xuansha and a mortal woman, born with a half-demon constitution. Taken in out of pity by Xie Zhi, the sect master of Lingyun Sect, she became his first disciple.
She was cold and ethereal, exceptionally gifted yet vicious and ruthless, narrow-minded and jealous. Because she resented that her junior brother, Mu Ci, was more favored, she framed him repeatedly. When Xie Zhi named Mu Ci as the next sect master, she killed her master, betrayed the sect, and fell into the demonic path, wreaking havoc on the world. Three hundred years ago, she was slain by her junior brother, Mu Ci.
However, she never fully disappeared, her remnant soul lingered, leaving calamity in the world. That was why Gu Er had been bound and brought here to complete the mission.
Gu Er suddenly recalled what the system had said at the very beginning about the host’s information, it had mentioned someone named Cen Shiqing, but that wasn’t her name.
Gu Er probed indirectly: “System, since you’ve bound me, you should understand my specific situation, right? How can you be so sure that I’m the one to save the world?”
[I only know some basic information about the host. Hosts are carefully selected by the main system, we don’t know the selection criteria either.]
[The host’s name is Cen Shiqing. She died in a plane crash and was bound to this system, transmigrated into a cultivation world. Host, you’re now the waste eldest miss of the Cen family, one of the three great families, and they’ve dumped you in this godforsaken countryside.]
The system rambled on, its tone growing more excited, brimming with fighting spirit: [But don’t worry, host, with me here, I’ll make sure you have spirit beasts on your left, pills on your right, and handsome men surrounding you…]
Then it shifted gears, asking curiously: [By the way, host, how did you end up in the jungle? Did the Cen family throw you there? They’re so awful, bullying you like that!!]
Gu Er listened to its indignant yet dreamy chatter, lost in thought. Who is Cen Shiqing? She had nothing to do with her, she didn’t even know anyone surnamed Cen. She inwardly groaned: “I’ve transmigrated into someone else, and the system has mistakenly bound me as its host.”
But she didn’t dare tell the system the truth right now. If she told it had bound the wrong person, would it just unbind her and run off? Gu Er didn’t dare take that risk. Until she fully understood this world and her situation, she had to maintain this “misunderstanding.” It was just a bit unfair to the original female lead.
Gu Er silently recited: “Miss Cen, I’m truly sorry, but I had no choice but to take over your system.”
[Don’t worry, once we join Lingyun Sect, we can go back and properly deal with those snobbish Cen family members. We’ll…] The system was still chattering on about its plans.
Just then, the door creaked open. Du Bai walked in, carrying a bowl of steaming porridge.
The system spotted the newcomer and its voice shot up an octave, full of delight: [Cangxian Mountain’s Wanhua Mirror, that’s the attire of Lingyun Sect’s inner disciples. Host, we’re so lucky! Can we go back to Lingyun Sect with them? Then we won’t have to take the sect entrance exam.]
“…I don’t think that’s likely.” Gu Er held no hope for the system’s naive idea.
Du Bai walked over to Gu Er, bent down slightly, and handed her the bowl, speaking gently: “Little sister, have some porridge. The physician said you fainted from hunger and exhaustion.”
Gu Er quickly took the bowl with both hands, looked up, and gave a faint smile, two dimples appearing at the corners of her lips: “Thank you, big brother. I’m sorry for the trouble.”
“No trouble at all. Little sister, where’s your home? Do you need us to send someone to take you back?” The young man waved his hand and asked with concern.
Gu Er’s heart tightened at those words, her gaze flickering slightly.
Then she set down her spoon, quietly moved her hand to her thigh, and gave it a hard pinch. Her eyes instantly reddened, and tears fell like broken beads, dripping “drop by drop” into the bowl.
She sobbed: “I don’t have a home anymore. My parents were killed by bad people, and there’s no one left in my family.” With that, she looked up, eyes glistening with tears at the young man, her voice trembling slightly: “Big brother, can I come with you?”
Though the plan was unreliable, maybe he’d have a momentary lapse and agree to take her to Lingyun Sect.
“Huh?” Du Bai was only a few years older than Gu Er, and the sudden request left him at a loss.
He opened his mouth, struggled for a long time, and finally managed only two words: “My condolences.”
Du Bai knew he couldn’t make that decision and couldn’t answer Gu Er’s question, but seeing her pitiful state, his heart softened. He said, “As for whether you can come with us, that requires the approval of Senior Brother and the elders. Senior Brother is right outside the door, you can ask him.”
“Really? Thank you, big brother!” Gu Er immediately set aside her tear-soaked porridge, roughly wiped her face, put on the clothes and shoes Lingyun Sect had prepared, and rushed out impatiently.
“Hey, little sister, slow down!” Du Bai quickly got up and followed.
…
Outside the door in the corridor, the atmosphere was somewhat tense.
A young man in his early twenties, wearing the same inner disciple robes, stood with his back to the door, his posture tall and straight as a pine, arms crossed with a sheathed longsword held against his chest. Facing him stood several young disciples, all with their heads hung low, not daring to breathe.
“Can you lot just be more careful? If you can’t pick the Biluo Orchids, gather the others first, why are you fighting with other sects?”
The young man’s expression was cold and stern as he scolded: “The senior disciple’s eyes haven’t healed yet, and you all pull stunts like this. Go report to the Discipline Hall yourselves for punishment.”
Gu Er paused mid-step. That silhouette, and that tone of reprimand… She felt a strange sense of familiarity, but no matter how hard she racked her brain, she couldn’t piece together who this person was.
She stopped overthinking it, trotted over, stood on her tiptoes, and gently tugged at the sleeve of the sword-holding young man.
The youth turned around, revealing a delicately featured face. He looked down at Gu Er, his gaze lingering on her face for a moment. A flicker of barely perceptible surprise seemed to dart through his eyes before settling back into calm.
“Big brother, can I walk with you all? I don’t have a home anymore.”
The youth, Lin Xunan, furrowed his brow slightly, a hint of reluctance crossing his face. He crouched down to meet Gu Er at eye level and reached out to gently ruffle her hair, his movements somewhat awkward. “Little sister, the sect is no ordinary place, and taking in outsiders goes against our rules. Even if I were to bring you back, without spiritual root aptitude and passing the entrance assessment, the elders would not allow you to stay.”
Gu Er wiped her tears, her eyes filled with disappointment. She let out a soft sigh and murmured, “Alright then, thank you, big brother.”
Seeing this, the disciples nearby wore expressions of reluctance. One with an elongated face couldn’t help but call out, “Little sister, don’t lose heart! In five days, all the sects will hold recruitment ceremonies in Jinling City. As long as you pass the test, you can enter a sect fair and square. You must come and try!”
“That’s right! Come to our Lingyun Sect!” The other disciples chimed in as well.
Lin Xunan glanced at his fellow disciples but said nothing. Instead, he untied a pouch from his waist and pressed it into Gu Er’s hand. “Little sister, there’s some silver here. Use it as travel money to get to the sect testing grounds. If you decide not to go to Lingyun Sect, you can also find a safe place, settle down with an ordinary family, and live a peaceful life.”
Gu Er nodded obediently on the surface, but inwardly she complained to her system: “I told you this method wouldn’t work. How could crying a little get me into a sect?”
[Hey? But the big villain also met the Lingyun Sect’s sect leader in a rundown temple and got in by crying. It must be that the person you cried to has too low a rank. Didn’t they say the senior disciple is coming? Cry to their senior disciple.] The system continued offering terrible advice.
“Seriously, are you insane?” Gu Er retorted irritably in her mind.
Just as the girl and the system were bickering, her stomach suddenly let out a “gurgle.” She had only taken a few small sips of that porridge, it wasn’t nearly enough to fill her up. Gu Er rubbed her belly, thinking that eating was the priority. After saying goodbye to the Lingyun Sect disciples, she headed downstairs.