Her tone was a little stiff, and it was obvious that she wasn’t very familiar with this.
The people in the livestream immediately sent a string of question marks.
[Where There Is Sincerity, There Is Magic: Holy crap, why did she suddenly start selling things?]
[Bear Gall 356: I left the livestream for a moment to check, and sure enough, the streamer did select the livestream shopping category when she started streaming.]
[Autumn Is Coming: Uh… it’s really hard not to suspect that the streamer is a scammer. Anyway, I’m not buying.]
……
That was what they said, but the moment Xie Zhiyu finished speaking, the three spiritual-root products that had just gone on sale in the bottom-right corner instantly sold out.
Some of the viewers who had still been hesitating were completely dumbfounded.
[Just Like the First Meeting: Are you guys even human? Weren’t you saying you wouldn’t buy?]
[Before Summer Solstice: Just got here. I watched the streamer’s products sell out the moment they went up. I clicked on them and saw… spiritual roots? What are those? Don’t tell me they’re the kind of spiritual roots I’m thinking of?]
[Where There Is Sincerity, There Is Magic: I give up. I actually didn’t manage to get one. Are your fingers really that fast?]
……
The speed at which everything sold out surprised Xie Zhiyu as well.
She blinked and repeatedly checked several times before finally confirming that all three spiritual roots she had put up for sale had been sold.
One spiritual root cost 98 Popularity Points, while the System had set the selling price at 198 yuan. In just a few breaths, she had already made nearly 600 yuan.
At this rate, she could earn far more in a month than she had as a concept artist.
The money had come far too easily, giving her an almost surreal feeling.
At the same time, some people in the livestream voiced their opposition.
[Cilantro Princess: Spiritual roots? Come on. Even if the world has undergone a spiritual energy revival, cultivating or whatever is still way too ridiculous, okay? This streamer is obviously a scammer. Don’t get fooled!]
[Lanlan: I think so too. And even if we take it a step further and assume that we really can cultivate, are you sure spiritual roots are something you can just buy and use directly?]
[DF001: Forget it. You can’t persuade someone determined to die. I think all these people who bought spiritual roots deserve to get scammed.]
[An’an Eats Watermelon: I managed to buy one, but it says I’ll receive a spiritual root with a random attribute, and that it’ll be delivered within a day. I’m in City Q, which is incredibly far from City A. Can it really arrive that quickly?]
……
Ignoring the trolls, Xie Zhiyu immediately focused on An’an Eats Watermelon’s comment.
She replied, “Don’t worry. Products in the livestream are generally delivered within a day. As for the spiritual-root attribute, it’ll be randomly assigned, and an instruction manual will be included with your order.”
She answered a few more friendly comments for several minutes. Seeing that it was almost time, she ended the livestream.
The System in her mind cheered excitedly.
“Wonderful, Host! We gained nearly 600 Popularity Points from our very first livestream. At this rate, you’ll be able to unlock new products very soon!”
“New products?”
Xie Zhiyu’s eyebrows twitched slightly.
She opened the shop and flipped through the pages. After the five pages of spiritual-root products, she really did find another new page.
Although the new products were still locked, judging from the pictures alone, they seemed to be some kind of ammunition.
The unlocking condition was to reach 10,000 Popularity Points.
Thinking of the barely 600 Popularity Points she had accumulated when she ended the livestream, Xie Zhiyu silently closed the panel.
Then, as though remembering something, she asked the System, “System, earlier you mentioned Luck. What exactly does that mean? And what about the golden light that appeared on my body just now…?”
Not only were the viewers in the livestream confused, but even Xie Zhiyu herself was still baffled about many things despite having the System’s predictions.
“According to cultivation novels, the golden light in the air just now was essentially spiritual energy spreading through the environment. Your body is extremely well suited for cultivation, Host, so the moment you stretched out your hand, the spiritual energy entered your body.”
The System continued, “As for Luck, it’s closely related to cultivation. The higher your Luck Value, the more opportunities and fortunate encounters you’ll have. There is just one thing I’m confused about.”
“Confused?” Xie Zhiyu frowned. “What do you mean?”
The System said, “Based on your talent, your Luck Value should be very high. But it’s only 34 right now, which puts you among the particularly unlucky people even by ordinary standards.”
The reason it had randomly chosen Xie Zhiyu as its Host in the first place was because it had been attracted by her exceptionally high talent.
Generally speaking, someone like her should have a Luck Value around eighty or ninety. There was absolutely no reason for it to be this low.
And yet she had ultimately been unlucky enough to be killed by a flowerpot falling from her neighbor’s home.
That was the part it found most puzzling.
“How strange…”
Inside the virtual space, a humanoid stone radiating light took the initiative to open a pink-colored novel.
It skimmed through the contents at incredible speed and quickly finished reading the entire plot.
“It wasn’t mentioned in the novel either,” the System muttered, scratching its head.
Unconvinced, it flipped through the novel again, this time reading even more carefully.
Eventually, it stopped at a particular section.
“Host, I know!”
It shouted so loudly that Xie Zhiyu, who had just sat down, paused.
“I found the reason your Luck Value is so low!” it exclaimed excitedly. “I just went through the entire plot of the novel and finally discovered why you’re so unlucky.”
“Your cousin absorbed your Luck!”
It tried to extract that particular passage from the novel, but discovered that no matter what it did, an invisible force prevented it from doing so.
Xie Zhiyu patiently waited for a while before finally hearing the System speak in a dejected tone.
“Host, my power is too weak right now. I can’t break the restriction placed on the book.”
Previously, it had been able to show Xie Zhiyu excerpts from the novel. Presumably, that was because those particular plot points weren’t important to the story, so the Heavenly Dao’s restrictions over them were weaker.
But now it couldn’t do it.
Just now, when it had even tried to directly tell her what it had seen, the Heavenly Dao had silenced it for a period of time.
Damn Heavenly Dao.
The System raged helplessly, silently jumping around inside its virtual space.
“It’s fine.”
Xie Zhiyu could tell what it was trying to say and comforted it.
“At least now I know why I’m so unlucky.”
Just as the System had said, she had been exceptionally unlucky ever since high school.
She had always assumed it was simply a problem with her luck. But now that the System had exposed the truth, she found it quite reasonable after thinking about it carefully.
When she was young, she had actually been quite lucky.
It wasn’t until she and Xie Wenning attended the same high school that, for some unknown reason, her luck gradually became worse and worse.
However, she asked, “Are you sure the Heavenly Dao is preventing you from telling me the truth? If so, why can you tell me that Xie Wenning stole my Luck, but you can’t tell me what was written in the novel?”
Exactly.
The System froze.
A few seconds later, it understood.
“So the Heavenly Dao isn’t stopping me from revealing the truth. It’s stopping me from revealing the contents of the book?”
It looked through the novel’s plot for the third time.
It discovered that although what it wanted to say concerned Xie Wenning, it also involved certain secrets related to the evolution of the Heavenly Dao—things that Xie Zhiyu absolutely should not have access to at this point.
Its emotions went from confusion, to anger, and finally to realization.
It looked at its Host with admiration and sincerely exclaimed, “Host, you’re amazing!”
Xie Zhiyu neither agreed nor disagreed.
She didn’t dwell on the matter any further. Instead, she opened the shop again and randomly purchased three Low-Grade Earth-Rank Spiritual Roots with different attributes, then entered the address listed on her phone.
Her livestream was connected to the System Shop, and the System would arrange delivery according to the address entered by the customer.
Although she had no idea how it actually transported the packages, it had previously guaranteed that even if the destination was in the most remote corner of the world, its deliveries would still arrive within a day.
She handled the process herself the first time so she could familiarize herself with it. From then on, the System would handle all the deliveries automatically.
Each Low-Grade Earth-Rank Spiritual Root cost 98 Popularity Points. The three purchases cost her roughly 300 Popularity Points in total. She still had more than 300 left, which she decided not to use for now and would save for her next livestream.
After finishing everything, she stretched lazily.
Suddenly, her phone chimed.
She opened it, and a hint of coldness immediately appeared on her face.
[Lv Jinhai: Zhiyu, you left the company too suddenly. Some of the projects haven’t been settled yet, so you may need to come back to the company for a while.]
“Lv Jinhai? Who’s that?” The System, which had also seen the message, asked curiously.
“A jerk,” Xie Zhiyu replied.
She didn’t respond to the message. Instead, she turned around and deleted him from her contacts.
She had barely dealt with that matter when another call came in the next second.
Seeing the name displayed on her phone, Xie Zhiyu raised an eyebrow slightly and answered, bringing the phone to her ear.
“Sister.”
A sweet female voice came from the other end. Her tone was incredibly gentle, yet for some reason, it gave off an inexplicably fake feeling.
Xie Zhiyu drawled, “Don’t call me Sister. My parents only have one child.”
The person on the other end fell silent for a moment.
Over the phone, Xie Wenning gritted her teeth, her expression briefly becoming twisted.
Her voice remained gentle and aggrieved. “What? We haven’t seen each other for more than a year, and you don’t recognize me as your younger sister anymore?”
“Yue.”
Xie Zhiyu couldn’t help but gag. She raised her right hand and fanned herself a few times before letting out a cold laugh.
“Xie Wenning, quit putting on an act. Just tell me—why are you looking for me?” She couldn’t be bothered pretending they were close sisters.
Ever since meeting Xie Wenning in high school, this woman had constantly targeted her. She had bullied her during school, spread rumors about her in college, and even after Xie Zhiyu started working, she would occasionally subject her to those hypocritical, faux-sweet verbal attacks.
Xie Zhiyu felt that it was truly a miracle she had survived until now.
Of course, she wasn’t a pushover either. She had retaliated against everything Xie Wenning had done to her. As a result, even now, Xie Wenning didn’t dare provoke her recklessly.
So when Xie Zhiyu received her call at this particular moment, she simply found it amusing.
Wasn’t this just walking straight into the line of fire?
Hearing Xie Zhiyu’s completely unapologetic gagging, Xie Wenning became annoyed, and her voice instinctively rose several pitches.
“Xie Zhiyu!” She was furious. “Do you have to be like this?”
“Of course I do. Didn’t you know a long time ago that hearing your voice makes me sick? And yet you still called me. Aren’t you just asking for trouble?”
Xie Zhiyu looked puzzled, as though she genuinely couldn’t understand.
“Who gave you the nerve to come looking for me?”
“You—”
She flew into a rage, but seemed to remember something. She swallowed the rest of her words halfway through.
After taking a deep breath, she spoke again in the same gentle tone.
“Xiaoyu, it’s like this. I came to ask you to get together with everyone. You know, Grandpa’s eightieth birthday is coming up soon. No matter what, this birthday banquet is quite important. Don’t you think?”
Xie Zhiyu fell into thought.
She did remember this.
In another week, her grandfather, Xie Zhendong, would be turning eighty.
She didn’t have much contact with Xie Zhendong. She would only visit him occasionally during the usual holidays, and over the years, her father had gradually cut ties with the main branch of the family.
Considering how unusually attentive Xie Wenning was being now, it was difficult not to suspect that she had some sort of scheme planned for the birthday banquet.
But Xie Zhiyu wasn’t the kind of person who would let others bully her without fighting back.
She came back to herself and replied casually, “Sure. We’ll get together then.”
Perfect. She could use the opportunity to see exactly how Xie Wenning had stolen her Luck.
Xie Wenning was very satisfied with her answer. The two didn’t exchange many pleasantries, but just before hanging up, Xie Wenning suddenly asked,
“Xiaoyu, you know what happened outside today, right? Has anything changed about you?”
The question sounded casual.
Xie Zhiyu deliberately pretended not to understand.
“What happened? I’ve been at home. I haven’t even gone outside today.”
“Nothing. It’s just that the world seems to have undergone a spiritual energy revival just now. I remember the Lanyuan residential complex where you live has a very high percentage of vegetation, right? Maybe some of the plants there have mutated.”
“These mutated plants aren’t easy to deal with. Since we’re relatives, I’m kindly warning you—try not to go outside.”
She spoke in such a righteous and concerned manner.
Xie Zhiyu sneered inwardly, but replied obediently, “Okay, don’t worry. I just resigned, so I’ll probably be staying home and catching up on sleep for a while.”
“That’s good.”
The two hung up.
Xie Zhiyu yawned. Seeing that she had more or less dealt with everything, she simply stood up, opened the study door, and walked out.
She had just been about to return to her bedroom when she collided head-on with something black.
“Meow~”
The black cat with golden eyes made an agile leap and accurately jumped into its owner’s arms.
“Xiao Hei.”
Xie Zhiyu smiled and stroked the black cat’s head, weighing it in her arms a few times.
“You seem to have gotten fatter again,” she commented.
“Meow!”
The black cat froze for a few seconds before its voice suddenly became shrill.
Before she could say anything else, there was a click.
The electronic lock on the front door unlocked, and a middle-aged couple walked inside.
The two sides came face-to-face, and Xie Zhiyu froze.
“Mom, Dad, why are you only coming back now?”
As soon as she finished speaking, her gaze shifted to her mother, who stepped out from behind her father.
Her eyes suddenly widened.
“Sweetie, what is this?”
Qin Lu tremblingly raised her hand, revealing a faint little flame flickering on her finger.
Meanwhile.
Jiang Xiaoxuan, whose ID was An’an Eats Watermelon, was sitting on her sofa at home.
She had spent nearly two hours watching livestreams about the spiritual energy revival before finally feeling satisfied enough to put away her phone.
However, just as she was preparing to rest, an unfamiliar phone call suddenly came in.
Puzzled, she answered it, only to hear an electronic, mechanical voice from the other end.
“Hello. The package you purchased in the livestream an hour ago has arrived. Please open the door and collect it yourself.”