Jiang Xiaoxuan was twenty-two years old, and her occupation was that of a professional stay-at-home bum.
Unable to find a job after graduation, she could only accept her parents’ financial support with a clear conscience. These days, her greatest hobby was waking up every day and playing on her phone.
As usual, she naturally woke up a little after noon today. After having a warm lunch with her parents, she spent the rest of the time lying on the sofa scrolling through her phone.
She especially loved watching livestreams. The allowance her parents gave her was enough to leave her with some money to spare every month, so she would occasionally send gifts to streamers she liked.
Today, as usual, she sent a luxury airship to one of her favorite small-time streamers. However, she accidentally tapped somewhere else, and the screen instantly switched to another livestream.
She had intended to return to the previous livestream, but an accidental glance caught her attention.
The title of this livestream was:
“Livestreaming the Spiritual Energy Revival?”
Jiang Xiaoxuan immediately became interested.
She glanced at the viewer count in the upper-right corner of the livestream.
It was still in the single digits.
Having spent plenty of time watching livestreams, she immediately understood.
Isn’t this just someone trying to attract traffic?
Without hesitation, she posted that comment.
Unexpectedly, the streamer immediately refuted her.
The streamer’s voice was so pleasant that, although Jiang Xiaoxuan should have been annoyed at being contradicted, she somehow didn’t get angry.
She looked at the countdown in the livestream.
It’s only a few minutes. I don’t mind waiting.
She wanted to see how the streamer would get proven wrong once the countdown ended.
With that thought in mind, she patiently waited.
Then she watched with her own eyes as the countdown reached zero.
——And then a miracle happened.
She watched in astonishment as the scene displayed on the camera suddenly turned golden, while even the streamer’s hand began shining brightly.
At first, she suspected that it was an AI-generated video.
But then she seemed to remember something and immediately ran to the balcony of her home.
Her family had a small balcony. Since her mother loved plants, it was filled with all kinds of potted plants.
Her parents had already gone to work, leaving her alone at home.
She hurried onto the balcony and looked down.
“Holy crap!”
Her eyes widened.
She watched as the golden light floating in the air outside seeped through the gaps around the transparent windows and eventually merged into the plants.
The scenery outside the window was exactly the same as what had been shown in the livestream.
“No way…”
Jiang Xiaoxuan sucked in a breath, feeling a chill run down her scalp.
She didn’t dare touch the plants glowing with golden light.
Instead, she held onto her phone, imitated the streamer’s actions, opened the window, and cautiously stretched her hand outside.
After a long silence, she pulled her hand back, her face expressionless.
Unlike the streamer, who seemed to be welcomed by the golden light, the golden light actively avoided her touch whenever she tried to touch it, as though it possessed a consciousness of its own.
“Damn it!”
Having read plenty of cultivation novels, Jiang Xiaoxuan threw her head back and let out a long sigh.
“Could I be the useless cannon-fodder character from a novel?”
“No! My fate is mine to control, not Heaven’s!”
Her inner chuunibyou spirit was burning fiercely.
Thinking of the streamer she had doubted earlier, her old face flushed with embarrassment, but her curiosity still got the better of her, and she wanted to ask some questions.
However, before she could even type a few words, the streamer suddenly started promoting her products.
Spiritual root?
Her brain didn’t even have time to process it.
Her body instinctively tapped the screen.
The product that had just been put up for sale didn’t even remain available for a second before it showed SOLD OUT.
At the same time, an address box popped up on her livestream interface.
Did I actually get a spiritual root?
Even if she had never seen a pig run, she had at least eaten pork. Jiang Xiaoxuan understood just how important a spiritual root was and didn’t dare waste any time.
She hurriedly entered her home address.
[The product you purchased will be delivered within one day.]
“One day?”
Jiang Xiaoxuan was skeptical.
“Will it actually make it in time?”
She opened the streamer’s profile and took a look.
Ironically, the streamer’s username was “This Hate Sea and Passionate Sky’s Work”, while her profile picture was a fluorescent-colored, non-mainstream bear lying on its side.
The corners of Jiang Xiaoxuan’s lips instinctively curled upward.
Then she noticed that the streamer’s IP location was listed as City A.
Her own location, City Q, was extremely far from City A. Even the fastest delivery service would normally take around a day and a half.
“Did they enter the wrong delivery time?”
She carefully examined the product page.
Then she noticed something even more shocking.
“Wait, how much does this spiritual root cost?”
As though she couldn’t see clearly, she quickly moved closer to the phone screen.
Then she sucked in a sharp breath.
“Only 198? Seriously?”
Her expression immediately twisted.
198.
The price wasn’t too expensive.
It was far too cheap.
So cheap that even buying a piece of clothing would cost her more.
“Could it really be real? This is a spiritual root!”
Jiang Xiaoxuan bit her lip.
Thinking about how accurately the streamer had predicted the spiritual energy revival, she wrestled with herself for a while before ultimately deciding to take a chance and trust her.
She closed the streamer’s profile, then went back and followed her.
She even spent one cent to become the very first follower of this Work Sis.
By now, her initial suspicion had completely disappeared.
Given that Work Sis had accurately predicted the spiritual energy revival, the streamer with the non-mainstream profile picture had instantly risen to No. 1 among her favorite streamers, while also becoming shrouded in an air of mystery in Jiang Xiaoxuan’s mind.
Unfortunately, the other party’s livestream hadn’t lasted very long.
Jiang Xiaoxuan returned to her room.
She was filled with tremendous curiosity about the spiritual energy revival. After Work Sis ended her livestream, she continued watching many similar livestreams.
Whether the people streaming actually knew what was happening or were simply pretending, Jiang Xiaoxuan was having a great time watching them.
Until an hour later, when she received a call from the courier informing her that the product she had purchased had arrived.
How is that possible?!
That was the first thought that flashed through her mind.
Half skeptical and half convinced, she opened the door.
Then she saw it.
A box no bigger than her palm was quietly lying on the floor outside her door.
“What’s this?”
She bent down and picked it up.
On the left side, she saw the shipping information for her order.
It was the exact spiritual root she had purchased from Work Sis’s livestream.
Unlike ordinary delivery packages, this one was entirely black, with mysterious runes silently flowing across its surface.
Whether it was the delivery time or the appearance of the package, everything about it hinted that it was far from ordinary.
For some reason, Jiang Xiaoxuan suddenly became nervous.
She quickly closed the door, placed the package on the table, and examined it for a while before finally finding a red switch.
The moment her finger touched it, she heard a mechanical voice.
[Beep! Verification successful!]
Is this an intelligent lock?
Jiang Xiaoxuan was both astonished and uncertain. The moment the delivery box in front of her passed the verification, it immediately melted into a puddle of black water, seeped into the surface of the table, and disappeared.
A soft glow appeared before her eyes.
The seed-like object emitted a gentle blue light. The light trembled, creating layers of ripples in the air.
Like ripples spreading across the surface of water.
The moment she opened it, she keenly sensed that the surrounding air had become noticeably more humid.
Jiang Xiaoxuan couldn’t help but swallow.
For some reason, the moment she saw this spiritual root, an urge to swallow it arose in her heart.
With sharp eyes, she noticed a piece of paper tucked beneath the seed. She opened it and discovered that it was indeed the instructions for using the spiritual root.
【Name: Water Spiritual Root】
【Quality: Earth-Rank Low-Grade】
【Method of Use: Simply swallow it.】
【Note: If the person consuming it already possesses a spiritual root, and the spiritual root within their body is of a higher grade than this one, this spiritual root will have no effect.】
【Ordinary people without spiritual roots can cultivate after consuming it. This product is not a one-time-use item and can be replaced with a higher-grade spiritual root.】
Holding her breath, Jiang Xiaoxuan read every word carefully. Worried that she might accidentally lose the instruction sheet, she even took detailed photos of it with her phone for safekeeping.
Remembering that her parents had left for work after lunch, she suppressed the urge to eat it and sent a photo of the spiritual root to the family group chat.
There were quite a few new messages in the family group. Jiang Xiaoxuan skimmed through them and found that they were all messages her parents had sent during the spiritual energy revival, expressing their shock and concern for her.
She replied with an emoji. Before she could type anything else, her mother sent another message.
【Jiang’s Mom: What’s this?】
She had quoted the photo of the spiritual root Jiang Xiaoxuan had sent.
Jiang Xiaoxuan mischievously sent another emoji saying, “The world is about to change.”
After her mother sent a string of question marks, she finally replied with a voice message.
“Mom, it’s like this. You probably won’t believe me, but I bought a spiritual root from a livestream. You know what a spiritual root is, right? The one from cultivation novels? Apparently, you can even cultivate after eating it…”
Something similar was happening in more than one place.
At this moment, the atmosphere in Xie Zhiyu’s home had completely frozen.
The three of them were sitting on the sofa. Xie Zhiyu’s expression looked relatively normal, but her father, sitting beside her mother, had gone pale. He stared at the flame in her mother’s hand as though he had seen a ghost, his face ashen.
Her mother, Wang Yuerong, looked much calmer than him. She cleared her throat and turned her gaze toward her daughter.
“Xiaoyu,” she asked, “I’ve read novels before. Is this flame in my hand one of those abilities or something from the novels?”
Her tone was calm, but there was a hint of anticipation in her eyes.
Wang Yuerong was forty-seven years old. With her black wavy hair and fiery red dress accentuating her graceful figure, she looked nothing like her actual age.
There was a tiny flame in her right hand that looked as though it might go out at any moment, while her left hand held a cigarette. She carefully brought the tip of the cigarette toward the flame.
A few seconds later, smoke curled upward as the spark successfully lit the cigarette.
“This is way too ridiculous.”
Ms. Wang, who hadn’t smoked in a long time, finally broke her abstinence today. She slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, her eyes somewhat unfocused.
“Xiaoyu, you have no idea. This flame suddenly appeared while I was on my way home. The crazy thing is, I can’t put it out no matter what I do. When I ran into Ah Hu and the others on the way, they looked at me like I was an animal in a zoo.”
Xie Zhiyu knew exactly who she meant by Ah Hu.
Wang Yuerong had been an orphan since childhood. She was broad-minded and clever. Although she didn’t like studying, she had clawed her way up through life and, before she was even an adult, had already become the head of a local gang.
If the government hadn’t later cracked down on organized crime, and if she hadn’t happened to reunite with her biological father, Xie Feisong, she might have continued enjoying her carefree life on the streets.
Although she had been the head of a gang, she had never done anything truly harmful. At the time, she had simply stepped in to clean up some local thugs, and before long, everyone had started calling her their boss.
Ah Hu was one of the younger men she had taken under her wing more than twenty years ago. Even after she had retired from that life, these fiercely loyal former subordinates still found opportunities to become security guards in her residential complex.
Now that spiritual energy had revived, Ah Hu and the other security guards would naturally be patrolling the area. So it wasn’t strange that they had run into Wang Yuerong.
Xie Zhiyu’s father, however, looked solemn.
“This ability… isn’t it dangerous?”
He knew nothing about cultivation novels. All he could think about was whether the flame in his wife’s hand might hurt her.
His words made Xie Zhiyu chuckle. She stroked Xiao Hei, who was lying across her, and slowly said,
“Dad, don’t worry. Mom’s body simply awakened a Fire Spiritual Root on its own.”
“A spiritual root?” Her father looked confused. “What’s that?”