Sakura Matou Rewrites Destiny

Instead, some experimental equipment, temporarily assembled from household appliances, was neatly arranged in the basement.

Among them, two semi-transparent tanks, one large and one small, stood out conspicuously.

"Orochimaru, how is it?"

"I've sealed this insect as you instructed using the Sealing Technique. As for this child... his meridians are obstructed by those organs you call Mage Circuits. They need to be removed before the Chakra Seed can be injected. It'll take a few more days."

"Do as you see fit. As long as the result doesn't deviate, it's fine. Also, the materials you requested for the lab renovation might be delayed a bit."

"Hehehe, no matter. Even with the current equipment, it's enough for me to figure out some of this world's information."

"Good. It was the right choice to summon you as the first one..."

With that, Sakura stopped disturbing Orochimaru's experiment records and turned to walk toward the larger tank.

Reaching out to touch the cold tank body, she gazed through the semi-transparent container made of various ordinary materials at Shinji floating in the unknown liquid, murmuring to herself.

"Brother Shinji's resistance against the Plot and fate... let's start with you. When you wake up, you'll touch the power you've dreamed of day and night..."

3. Gazing at the Tohsaka Residence...

Rewriting destiny is far from as easy as it sounds.

Even with the help of the Temple of Destiny, as a young girl who can't carry heavy loads or wield strength, Sakura currently lacks the power to rewrite fate and the Plot on a large scale.

After all, in the Type-Moon world, especially without knowing which Timeline she's in.

Being too reckless would only invite interference from certain entities, or even... the sudden descent of a Human Evil with a group of Servants to smash Sakura's head.

Thus, until she gains enough power to handle trouble, Sakura has decided to operate on a small scale for now, quietly altering the fates of certain unimportant individuals in the shadows, accumulating strength while minimizing impact on history, humanity, and Earth.

But soon enough—if everything goes smoothly—a year from now will be the once-every-sixty-years Holy Grail War.

Once she completely overturns this Holy Grail War and changes the fates of those involved, using that destiny to seize the Holy Grail, Sakura will no longer need to hide. She can begin boldly rewriting the entire world, letting the tide of rewritten destiny roll forward like a snowball.

Midsummer in Fuyuki City. The scorching noon sun baked the entire city.

Driving the car to a slow stop, Tsuruno Matou glanced at the sun outside the window. Even inside the luxury car with its air conditioning, he felt a wave of heat under the blazing sun.

Yet, facing the little tyrant in the back seat.

He, Tsuruno, had no choice but to leave the cool, air-conditioned car and step into the sun-scorched outside.

Jogging to the rear door, he quickly opened the parasol in his hand, ignoring the sweat beading on his forehead as he forced a natural smile onto his face.

Then, with utmost respect, he opened the car door for the little tyrant inside.

Taking the parasol from Tsuruno's hand, Sakura stared at the eerily familiar house in the distance.

After standing still for a moment, she nodded at Tsuruno.

"Uncle Noyoru, go back to the car and rest. The sun outside is too harsh."

"Then please take care, Miss Sakura. Call me anytime if you need anything."

"Mm."

This was the Tohsaka Residence. This was the home Sakura could never forget, the one she once belonged to.

Yet, she could only sigh at how things had changed.

The once-familiar home now felt utterly foreign in Sakura's eyes.

Was it her sister's request? Or her birth mother's arrangement?

Standing on a small hill not far from the Tohsaka Residence, gazing at it, Sakura could no longer see the familiar things she once knew in the garden.

Her traces in this home seemed to have vanished completely.

"Quite the overhaul. Changing the garden layout means the defensive Magic Circle has to be revised too."

Just as Sakura felt a pang of bitterness at the disappearance of those familiar sights.

The inner gate of the Tohsaka Residence swung open at that moment.

First, the elegantly poised Tokiomi Tohsaka appeared in Sakura's view, followed by the bouncing, smiling Rin Tohsaka.

Then, Aoi Tohsaka emerged, carrying various lavish dishes, and joined them in the garden.

Watching the Tohsaka family, seemingly planning to enjoy a sunny picnic by the garden fountain.

Seeing the happy smiles on their faces.

Sakura's small hands clenched into fists, gripping the handle of her parasol tightly...

Hatred?

Jealousy?

Or resentment?

Resentment might be there, but hatred and jealousy did not arise in Sakura's heart.

After all, with the memories of a Foreign Soul, Sakura knew well that the Tohsaka family's happiness wouldn't last long. In most Timelines, the Tohsaka family would end in tragedy...

Taking a few deep breaths to calm the strange impulse inside her, Sakura raised her hand to her chest and broke into a radiant smile.

Don't be fooled by how mature Sakura seems, fused with a Foreign Soul, like a little adult.

But deep down, Sakura was still that little girl who wanted to go home, who wanted to return to her parents and her sister.

Now, it was all over. The new Sakura wouldn't want to go home anymore. From now on, she would only be Sakura Matou...

After this trip firmly settled her heart, Sakura, holding a parasol, took one last deep look at the Tohsaka Residence, then turned without hesitation and returned to the carriage... "Next, I will rewrite destiny and pursue my own happiness!"

Inside the Tohsaka Residence.

As Sakura turned and walked away, Rin Tohsaka, who had been hugging a delicious pudding and eating it in small bites, suddenly turned her head to look at the hill where Sakura had been.

But by then, the hill was already empty.

"Father, I just felt like my sister was watching us..."

Riding the carriage back to the Matou Family, Sakura watched Tsuruno drive away.

Then, pushing open the gate of the Matou residence, Sakura quickly crossed the garden and returned to the cold, quiet Inner Residence of the Matou house.

The reason she called it cold and quiet was simple—right now, aside from Sakura herself, the entire above-ground Matou residence was empty of people.

"Once Orochimaru finishes his business, maybe I should ask Tsuruno to hire some servants... Never mind, I'll think about it then. For now, the Matou Family's situation isn't really suitable for ordinary people to know about... System."

Sakura called out.

The Panel, visible and audible only to her, and the voice of the Spirit of the Temple of Destiny appeared before her eyes and in her mind almost simultaneously.

Correction, I am... Never mind, System is here.

"Can you help me arrange a suitable path for cultivation and exchange based on my current thoughts?"

No, that would require me to read your thoughts, Master, which is not permitted.

"Hmm, such a stubborn insistence. Fine, I'll do it myself. Show me all the introductory Qi Cultivation Methods."

As Sakura's words fell, the Panel before her began to shift rapidly. Before long, a dense, seemingly endless array of basic Qi Cultivation Methods and related information appeared on the Panel.

Done.

"Isn't this too many?"

Basic Qi Cultivation Methods, total: 379,425 volumes.

"Then filter again. Remove those with insufficient potential, incomplete ones, and those requiring specific environments or prerequisites to cultivate."

Filtering complete. Methods that cannot connect to higher-level techniques, incomplete methods, and those requiring specific environments or prerequisites have been removed. Remaining: 84,227 volumes.

"Still this many?! Filter again. Keep only those suited to my physique, that won't cause any negative effects after cultivation, and that include the most functions. After this round, rank them directly according to how well they meet my requirements."

Understood... Done. Remaining: 3,784 volumes.

Though there were still many left, the one at the very top of the Panel was undoubtedly the most suitable for Sakura.

"Yellow Court Scripture—Daoist Hongjun Annotated Edition... Can I afford this?"

PS: Regarding update times, they will generally be around 7 AM and 7 PM.

4. Yellow Court Scripture and Income Planning.

Yellow Court Scripture—Daoist Hongjun Annotated Edition—Sakura could naturally afford it.

After all, having already changed the fate of everyone in the Matou Family, Sakura had also received a fair amount of Destiny Points over the past few days.

Still, it was expensive.

To manifest knowledge of this level into Sakura's hands using the power of destiny...

Sakura would have to spend most of her Destiny Points to do it.

1,500 points—that was the cost of this basic Qi Cultivation Method.

At this moment, aside from the 1,000 points left after summoning Orochimaru, Sakura only had the 800 points she had earned from initially rewriting the fates of the Matou Family members.

In other words, Sakura's total Destiny Points now amounted to just 1,800.

Whether to spend those 1,500 points—this doubt made Sakura hesitate.

Facing the Holy Grail War, which would likely erupt in a year, Sakura naturally needed to reserve a good number of Destiny Points for it.

At the same time, to counter the correction force of the Plot, Sakura also needed a portion of Destiny Points to ensure that her most important income sources for the coming period—Shinji and Zouken Matou—wouldn't suffer any unexpected changes due to the correction force.

300 points was far from safe.

Thus, whether to immediately invest this "fortune" left a look of hesitation on Sakura's face.

Master, I remind you: you are Sakura Matou!

You are Sakura Matou—these words struck Sakura like a sudden enlightenment, and her eyes lit up.

That's right. She, too, was a character within the game, manipulated by fate. Breaking free from the Plot would also bring her Destiny Points.

And, just like Shinji and Zouken Matou, as long as she wasn't stuck in some bizarre Timeline, the situations that generated Destiny Points from her own existence would generally last until after the Fifth War's timeframe. She herself was a stable source of Destiny Points.

Of course, if Sakura's plans went smoothly, there probably wouldn't be a Fifth War at all...

But having an extra version of herself to harvest Destiny Points meant Sakura didn't need to worry about insufficient reserves right now.

Thanks to the System's reminder, Sakura quickly thought of many small changes she could make.

So without hesitation, Sakura directly summoned the Yellow Court Scripture through the system.

A puff of mist drifted by—fragrant, soothing, and pleasant to the senses.

In the blink of an eye, a very ancient-looking book, written in Chinese that Sakura could read, appeared before her.

She told the system to close the panel in front of her, then carefully picked up the Yellow Court Scripture and sat down in the Matou residence to flip through the thin cultivation manual.

After a while, as she turned to the last page, a strange expression crossed Sakura's face, followed by a fatal complaint...

"Mmm... I really can't understand it."

Yes, Sakura couldn't understand it.

This wasn't surprising. Without enough relevant knowledge as a foundation, she couldn't grasp even the most basic vocabulary in the manual, let alone the cultivation methods it contained.

Fortunately, all of this could be learned. With the Matou family's assets, she could easily afford to bring in real experts from that continent to teach her.

Not to mention, if she had enough Destiny Points, Sakura Matou could even summon Pangu, the primordial god, to personally guide her.

But using Destiny Points to find a teacher—Sakura decided to put that on hold for now. She wasn't exactly rich at the moment.

She carefully tucked the Yellow Court Scripture close to her body.

Facing the empty Matou residence, her mind involuntarily drifted to that happy family. With a trace of loneliness, she turned and headed for the basement, which had already been converted into a laboratory.

Under the dim light, weaving through various experimental instruments, Sakura soon found Orochimaru sitting deep in the lab on a test bench, studying some kind of sample through a microscope.

"Orochimaru, any results?"

"Sakura, no scientific research yields results in just a few days."