This Woman-Did She Want You Dead or Not?

Little A, couldn't you see that Han Changqing had already decided to kill you?

He was so cautious that he would surely rather claim less credit and eliminate the threat first.

Lu Ping chose B.

[You chose B.]

[You raised your right hand and pressed it toward the remnants of the formation at the bottom of the Pill Furnace.]

[Han Changqing snorted coldly and stepped on your wrist bone.]

[Han Changqing sent out a surge of spiritual power, and your bones shattered.]

[The golden sigil lit up again, dispersing every poison pill in the cave abode.]

[All your backup plans were cut off.]

[Han Changqing raised his hand and brought his palm down, caving in your chest.]

[The storage ring you had kept hidden on your person was driven into your flesh by your broken bones.]

[Blood seeped onto the face of the ring, and it frantically absorbed your Qi and Blood.]

[The ring finally lit up.]

[You froze for a moment, then gave a bitter smile.]

[So the way to open the storage ring Jiang Mutian left you was that simple.]

[If she had said earlier that it needed to be opened through Blood Refining, you might not have bitten it.]

[A wisp of white spiritual light emerged from the storage ring.]

[Jiang Mutian's phantom appeared before you.]

[She was only a strand of Divine Sense.]

[But the instant she appeared, the golden sigil in front of Han Changqing's brow trembled violently.]

[A brief cry of terror came from the Golden Core Divine Sense behind the sigil.]

[It recognized her.]

[Han Changqing, however, did not recognize Jiang Mutian.]

[All he saw was a female cultivator's Divine Sense standing in front of you, and an expression of confirmation appeared on his face.]

["Lu Ping, there really is someone backing you!"]

[Jiang Mutian's Divine Sense paid no attention to anything else in the cave abode. She merely glanced at you.]

[That glance was so brief that you could not tell whether she was checking if you were dead or checking whether what she had left behind had taken effect.]

[Then Jiang Mutian raised her hand.]

[The golden sigil shattered, and the Golden Core Divine Sense inside it was erased outright.]

[Han Changqing froze in place.]

[In the next breath.]

[Han Changqing's brow split open, and the life of a Foundation Establishment Perfection cultivator was extinguished.]

[Han Changqing, sect master of the Greenwood Sect, fell. Just as he was preparing to wipe out a minor Qi Refining Fifth Layer cultivator.]

[Jiang Mutian's Divine Sense dissipated with him.]

[Your cave abode fell quiet again.]

[You lay in the shattered Pill Furnace, your Dantian ruptured and your breastbone broken. One hand had already been reduced to bloody mist, and every bone in the other had been shattered as well.]

[The spiritual power in your body was dissipating.]

[You watched the storage ring go dark again, with only one thought left in your mind.]

[*Did this woman want you dead or not?*]

[*As for whether Jiang Mutian would fall in love with you?*]

[*Heh heh...*]

[You died.]

[You died at the age of twenty-five.]

[This simulation has ended.]

[Simulation duration: seven years.]

[Total Traits generated: eight.]

[Final Traits inherited: eight.]

[Currently equipped (6/6): Heavy Tomato User / Salty Fish / Bully at Home / Friend of Women / Artisan Spirit / Cost Reduction and Efficiency Improvement.]

[Trait library (49): Flattery, Fall Guy, Passing the Buck, Paid Pooping, Nameplate, Green Plant Killer...]

[Cultivation inherited: Qi Refining Fifth Layer.]

[Cultivation Methods inherited: Body Tempering Instruction, Greenwood Art · Qi Refining Chapter.]

[Skills inherited: level-one alchemy, Spirit Infusion Method.]

[Pill Formulas inherited: low-grade Pill Formula ×1 (Spirit-Eroding Powder), Mortal Grade Pill Formula ×5 (Grain Avoidance Pill, Qi-Replenishing Pill, Hemostatic Powder...)]

[Memories inherited: complete memories of seven years of life.]

[Five years bound by Greenwood's debt, one furnace hid a murderous heart in poison smoke.

A wisp of white robes settled debts and grudges, yet love and hate remained hard to tell apart.]

The final line appeared.

White light burst from the center of the results panel, swallowing Lu Ping's vision completely.

Then the white light faded, and Lu Ping was still sitting in the woodshed.

The wooden bed pressed against his bones, a tattered cotton quilt lay heaped in the corner, and a chipped earthenware bowl sat upside down on the floor.

In the real world, everything was still as it had been before he ran the simulation.

Lu Ping's body stiffened slightly.

The next instant, a warm power surged from deep within his Dantian and slowly flowed through his limbs and bones.

Spiritual power! It's spiritual power!

Lu Ping's bones hummed silently, and his muscles tightened inch by inch.

One second ago, he had only been at the early Body Tempering Realm, not even at the threshold of cultivation. After all, even the Greenwood Sect's expendables had to start at the Qi Refining, First Layer.

The next second, Lu Ping was at the Qi Refining Fifth Layer.

Seven years of memories were compressed into that instant.

A blue panel silently unfolded before Lu Ping's eyes.

[Name: Lu Ping]

[Age: 18]

[Cultivation: Qi Refining Fifth Layer]

[Cultivation Methods: "Incomplete Body Tempering Instruction," "Greenwood Art · Qi Refining Chapter"]

[Skills: level-one alchemy, Spirit Infusion Method]

[Law Treasures: none]

[Currently equipped Traits (6/6): Heavy Tomato User (S-rank) / Salty Fish (S-rank) / Bully at Home (Grade A) / Friend of Women (Grade A) / Artisan Spirit (Grade A) / Cost Reduction and Efficiency Improvement (Grade A)]

[Trait library (49): Flattery (B-rank), Fall Guy (B-rank), Passing the Buck (B-rank), Paid Pooping (C-rank), Nameplate (D-rank), Green Plant Killer (D-rank)...]

[Change Traits?]

Lu Ping considered it and decided not to.

Then Lu Ping circulated the Greenwood Art through one full cycle.

Spiritual Qi made a circuit through his meridians and returned to his Dantian.

The increase in spiritual power within his body was almost nonexistent.

The Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi here was too thin.

Lu Ping had already experienced this feeling once in the simulator, when he had advanced to the Qi Refining Stage in the Ascension Hall.

Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi that was unbelievably abundant to someone in the Body Tempering Realm was so thin to someone in the Qi Refining Stage that it might as well not have existed.

The concentration of Spiritual Qi within the Greenwood Sect's grounds was at least twenty times higher than here.

And the Greenwood Sect was only at the bottom of the cultivation world.

The Greenwood Sect also had Void Spirit Blanks.

Not to mention alchemy, one of Lu Ping's greatest gains from this simulation.

There was no Pill Furnace here, no medicinal ingredients, no earth fire, no cave abode on a Spirit Vein, and no sect channels.

The four essentials of cultivation were methods, wealth, companions, and land.

Lu Ping had only methods.

The other three were all inside the distant sect grounds.

Sure enough, only a sect on a Spirit Vein was a ticket to cultivation.

Just then, new gray text appeared at the bottom of the panel.

[KPI mission issued—]

[Having seen a legitimate company, you have developed serious doubts about the prospects of the black workshop and begun to consider changing jobs.]

[Job-change mission: successfully join the Greenwood Sect, become a formal disciple of the sect, and leave the secular workplace.]

[Mission rewards:]

[1. Unlock the third simulation.]

[2. Trait draw of D-rank or above ×1]

[3. Ability to change Traits at any time in the real world.]

Lu Ping looked at the words "legitimate company" and laughed in exasperation.

The Greenwood Sect?

A legitimate company?

At most, it was a regional outsourcing sweatshop affiliated with a superior sect.

But no matter how rotten the Greenwood Sect was, it had a Spirit Vein, Cultivation Methods, pills, and the rules of the cultivators' circle.

A place like the Black Tiger Gang would be rejected by even a black workshop for failing its fire inspection.

"This crappy job at the Greenwood Sect..."

"Looks like I still have to take it."

As for the other two rewards, Lu Ping felt they could only be described as ordinary, better than nothing.

Lu Ping rose from the wooden bed and gently pushed open the woodshed door.

Above the courtyard wall, three presences stopped at the same time.

Lu Ping ignored the three presences and followed the base of the wall toward the rear courtyard.

In front of the rear courtyard storeroom, two gang members leaned against the doorframe, chatting.

There was also a hidden sentry on the roof, half his body concealed in shadow.

The gang member guarding the door froze for a moment when he saw Lu Ping.

"Stop."