"Hellish Start"

"Earth and Wood Spiritual Roots? No, no. Earth and Wood won't do. Next."

Reloaded.

"Water and Fire Spiritual Roots? Hiss, these roots are mutually incompatible—how was she supposed to cultivate like that? No good."

Reloaded.

"Metal, Wood, and Water Three Spirit Roots? Too ordinary. Next."

Reloaded.

Bai Lan wore a serious expression, her gaze locked on the rows of values constantly refreshing across the transparent panel before her, while her hand kept tapping the refresh area.

Her eyes remained fixed solely on the topmost entry: the "Spiritual Root" column.

Based on her gaming experience, none of the other values mattered. Spiritual roots alone were the foundation of cultivation, and barring surprises, they could not be changed.

"Wood and Water Dual Spiritual Roots? Next."

"...Next."

"..."

Two hours later...

"Lightning Single Spiritual Root? Ehm, save this first and keep rolling. There had to be even better attributes."

Bai Lan rubbed her neck and clicked the refresh area once more.

"Stop, stop, stop! I'm just saying, your save interface already has files for Single Spiritual Roots of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, and Wind! Sis, what earth-shattering spiritual root are you still hoping for? A Single Spiritual Root is already great, isn't it?!" The gray-robed youth floating beside her bristled, clearly having run out of patience.

Why would anyone spend four hours rerolling starting attributes?! Why?!

Bai Lan slowly raised her head and spread her hands helplessly. "Why are you in such a rush? I still haven't rolled the spiritual root I want. Aren't cultivation protagonists usually Five Spirit Roots? Why hadn't I gotten Five Spirit Roots even after rolling for five hours?"

"Why are you so obsessed with getting Five Spirit Roots?!" The gray-robed youth slapped the table.

Bai Lan blinked, her tone full of anticipation. "The Five Elements generate one another! You can control five kinds of spiritual qi at once, and they can even evolve into Wind, Lightning, and Ice spiritual qi! Wouldn't it look awesome when you fought, with colors blazing everywhere?!"

"...Fine. As long as you're happy. I'll keep waiting." The gray-robed youth ground his teeth. Forced by his identity as a system, he could only yield to his host's little quirk.

Another two hours passed...

Under Bai Lan's relentless repeated save-scumming...

A line of dazzlingly multicolored black text suddenly appeared on the pale blue panel before her!

Chaos Spiritual Root (Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth)!

"Oh-ho!" Bai Lan perked up at once and grabbed the gray-robed youth by the collar, rising to her feet. "Wake up. I rolled the attributes I wanted. Get ready to enter the game."

The long wait of four whole hours had all been for this moment...

"How many times have I told you? It's not a game, not a game! This place is real—Aah—!"

Before the gray-robed youth could finish speaking, Bai Lan dragged him by the collar through the golden curtain of light before them.

Golden radiance abruptly swallowed the two of them, along with the youth's startled cry, and they vanished from this world.

After a wave of dizziness, Bai Lan shook her head and struggled to open her eyes.

"Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth Five Spirit Roots. Low aptitude. May enter the outer sect and temporarily serve as a menial." A cold, detached voice sounded from ahead.

Bai Lan quickly came to her senses, accepted the jade token handed over by the cultivator before her, and walked in the direction he pointed.

Her mind was still a complete muddle, and she felt as if she had just gotten off a hell-difficulty roller coaster.

Suppressing the churning, river-and-sea upheaval in her stomach, Bai Lan looked around at the architectural style surrounding her.

Mm, this style was very cultivation world.

Several blue-robed cultivators stood in the air atop flying swords, doing who knew what, while a massive flying ship floated in the distance—a sight she had never seen in the real world.

No, hold it in. She could not act like Granny Liu entering the cultivation world for the first time and be curious about everything. Her image was very important!

Bai Lan swiftly withdrew her gaze.

The surrounding area was a sea of people, and behind her stood countless mortals lined up to test their spiritual roots.

Good, good, good. Testing spiritual roots at the start—she knew this plot well.

Before Bai Lan could even steady herself, a burst of shocked cries rang out behind her.

"A Heavenly Spiritual Root?!"

Cries of alarm rose one after another from behind her. Bai Lan turned around and met a pair of somewhat provocative eyes.

The white-robed woman held her chin slightly high, her expression proud. When she looked at Bai Lan, there was thirty percent flaunting, thirty percent hatred, and forty percent disdain in her gaze.

Bai Lan analyzed the situation for one second. What did that mean? Did she have a grudge against her?

Unable to make sense of it, she could only grab the gray-robed youth idly floating nearby and fishing for slack. "System, who is she? Does she have a grudge against me?"

"Just as you thought, her name is Bai Ling. She is this world's Destined Female Lead, she has a grudge against you, and she is also your mission target." The gray-robed youth's tone turned excited. "Seize opportunities, battle the female lead, tread the immortal path—one day, you too will be able to..."

Just as he was about to launch into a lengthy introduction of the mission, another burst of shocked cries erupted from a different spiritual-root testing platform.

"Another Heavenly Spiritual Root?! And it's the rare Lightning Spiritual Root!"

Bai Lan swept her gaze over and saw a black-robed man standing atop another platform.

When he saw Bai Lan looking at him, the black-robed man suddenly gave a crooked smile for some reason, his expression containing thirty percent arrogance, thirty percent utter disdain for the world, and forty percent hatred.

Bai Lan: "..."

What was with this? One gave her a baffling cold sneer, and the other gave her a baffling wickedly charming smile.

They were both so strange.

Bai Lan spoke softly. "Could he be the legendary..."

The gray-robed youth nodded slightly. "Just as you thought, this man is this world's Destined Male Lead. His name is Long Aotian, he has a grudge against you, and he is your other mission target!"

"One is Bai Ling, the Destined Female Lead, who possesses a Portable Spirit Field Space, a Single Fire Spiritual Root, and Phoenix Bloodline. She has the script of half-sisters born of the same father fighting each other."

"The other is Long Aotian, the Destined Male Lead, who possesses a Pocket Grandpa, a Single Lightning Spiritual Root, and True Dragon Bloodline. He has the script of a useless nobody whose engagement you broke off three years ago."

Both were favored children of heaven, both had grudges against her, and both were her mission targets.

Other than their genders, everything else was exactly the same.

"Good, good, good. What a gathering of heroes!" Bai Lan sighed.

"Our ultimate mission is! To use your kindness and love! To stop the Destined Female Lead and Destined Male Lead from destroying the world!" The system raised an arm and shouted. Although only Bai Lan could hear him, he still could not suppress the rising pitch of his voice.

Bai Lan shot him a sidelong glance, her voice faint. "Use love to reform two Children of Destiny and stop them from destroying the world? You might as well tell me to go take out Tang Sanzang and his disciples."

"Tang Sanzang? Who's that?"

"A walking immortality medicine protected by an invincible monkey." After sighing, Bai Lan grabbed the youth by the collar again and gritted out, "Why didn't you tell me from the start that this mission was this high-difficulty?!"

By all rights, shouldn't a world have only one Child of Destiny?

Why did this world have two?! And both of them even had grudges against her.

Especially that Long Aotian—his three-year deadline had arrived, and he had even obtained Grandpa's Golden Finger to wash away the name of useless trash.

"Before entering the world, mission details are classified information and cannot be disclosed..." The gray-robed youth gave an embarrassed smile. "Sis, could you be understanding about this..."

If you think this book is good, please remember to add it to your bookshelf so you won't be unable to find it next time.