"Zhou Xuan, don't come looking for me again."
"I'm afraid Senior Brother and Master will misunderstand!"
Heavenly Profound Continent.
Western Desolate Region.
The Spirit Sword Pavilion.
Outside a dilapidated woodshed in the Chore Disciples' quarters.
The woman wore a moon-white gown for Inner Sect Disciples. Exquisite Spirit Patterns embroidered its hem, and Immortal Qi seemed to drift around her.
Liu Ruyan, the Spirit Sword Pavilion Sect Master's personally accepted disciple and the designated next Saintess.
But she had once been the childhood sweetheart of Zhou Xuan, an Outer Sect Chore Disciple.
When Zhou Xuan had eagerly gone to greet Liu Ruyan, her words had struck him like a bolt of lightning.
Wearing his faded gray Servant Robe, he stood there like a withered tree stump.
"So love just disappears, is that it?"
Zhou Xuan's voice was soft, as if he were asking her, yet also asking himself.
He gazed at the peerlessly beautiful face before him, both familiar and strange, and his thoughts drifted back twenty years.
That year, he had been born into this world.
At first, he had thought it was merely a parallel world resembling ancient Huaxia.
With a mind and methods far ahead of his time, he had made a fortune at the astonishing age of ten and become the wealthy young master of the Zhou family.
It was also then that he had met Liu Ruyan, whose family had fallen on hard times, shivering in a street corner.
He had taken her home and given her the best life he could.
He had thought he would live in wealth and spend his life in immortal bliss, just like the protagonists in every transmigration novel.
It wasn't until an immortal descended on a flying sword and split a river with one finger that he finally understood.
This was a Cultivation World.
And as a transmigrator, he was surely a heaven-blessed child of destiny, one in ten thousand. Cultivation was a must!
Liu Ruyan had merely been brought up the mountain along with his family.
But fate seemed to have played a tremendous joke on him.
He hadn't become a child of destiny. Instead, he'd become a notorious waste throughout the entire Sect!
On the day the Sect tested their Spirit Roots, this transmigrator of his had been found to possess the most impure Five Elements Spirit Root.
A Waste Spirit Root that the Cultivation World deemed incapable of achieving Foundation Establishment.
Meanwhile, Liu Ruyan, whom he had brought up the mountain after spending every last coin he owned, caring for her tenderly all the way—
Had been found to possess a Heaven-grade Water Spirit Root, one in ten thousand.
She had the bearing of a great emperor.
The Sect Master had appeared on the spot, accepted her as a personal disciple, and bestowed countless rare treasures upon her.
And Zhou Xuan had sincerely been happy for her.
Even if he was a waste, he could still live off his wife.
But she had been in the Inner Sect for only a few short days.
He hadn't expected that this would be the first thing she said to him when she returned.
With a few airy words about "misunderstandings," she had erased everything they had shared.
He, Zhou Xuan, had become a complete and utter clown.
A flicker passed through Liu Ruyan's eyes. She seemed unwilling to meet his gaze.
"I'm sorry, Zhou Xuan."
"You're a good person, but you're no genius. The Cultivation World needs geniuses, not good people."
The tenderness that had once filled her voice was gone, leaving only the cold truth.
"Now we're like mayflies gazing up at the blue sky, like mud and clouds—we're on entirely different levels."
She took a small cloth pouch from her Storage Bag and held it out to him.
"There are twenty Low-grade Spirit Stones inside. Consider them compensation for all the years you looked after me."
Zhou Xuan looked at the pouch and suddenly gave a scornful laugh.
There was a trace of self-mockery in it.
"Did you think I looked after you for the sake of things like this?"
"Liu Ruyan, you've got me all wrong!"
He abruptly swept his hand, knocking the pouch heavily to the ground.
Clink, clink, clatter.
Twenty crystal-clear Spirit Stones spilled out, scattering across the ground. They lost their luster in the dust.
He didn't even look at Liu Ruyan again.
A faint, almost imperceptible trace of reluctance flashed in Liu Ruyan's eyes.
Then it was replaced by resolve.
She turned away from him.
"Whether you accept them or not, I gave them to you."
"I've repaid what I owed. From now on, there's Nothingness between us."
"From now on, I don't want to hear any rumors about our past circulating around the Sect."
"Don't worry."
Zhou Xuan's voice came from behind her, frighteningly calm.
"Future Saintess Liu, a Heavenly Daughter like you is far beyond what a waste like me could ever reach!"
Liu Ruyan paused.
"Zhou Xuan, I'll give you one last piece of advice. Take the Spirit Stones and leave the Spirit Sword Pavilion."
"This place isn't right for you."
Zhou Xuan laughed.
"Why should I?"
"Why can you cultivate, but I can't?"
"I'm not leaving today!"
"I refuse to believe that a Waste Spirit Root can't become an immortal!"
With her back still to him, Liu Ruyan sighed softly in resignation.
"Forget it."
"I wanted to free you from this sea of suffering. Since you refuse, do as you please."
With that, she strode away, her figure turning into a streak of light before vanishing into the horizon.
Without the slightest reluctance.
Outside the woodshed, deathly silence returned.
Zhou Xuan stood motionless for a long time.
Not until he could no longer sense Liu Ruyan's presence anywhere around him.
"Damn it!"
He muttered a curse. The cold expression on his face instantly crumpled, and his eyes involuntarily narrowed toward the Spirit Stones.
Grumbling under his breath, he crouched down and began feeling around on the ground.
His mouth said no, but his body was honest.
What a haul.
Twenty Low-grade Spirit Stones!
As a Chore Disciple, he chopped wood and hauled water, doing the hardest, most exhausting work, and didn't even earn half a Spirit Stone in monthly pay.
Those twenty Spirit Stones were an unimaginable fortune to him.
Only a fool would turn them down.
Dignity?
When it came to the resources that could keep him alive and make him stronger, dignity wasn't worth a thing.
Zhou Xuan bent down, his fingers just brushing the first cold Spirit Stone.
Suddenly.
A mechanical voice, utterly devoid of emotion, rang in his mind without warning.
[Ding!] [Ding! Because the host is shameless but loves money, the Salted Fish Turnaround System has activated!] [This system is dedicated to helping its host turn things around, put waste to good use, and reach the pinnacle of life!]
Zhou Xuan's face lit up with delight, and his heart pounded wildly.
A system!
My system!
The essential cheat for every transmigrator had arrived twenty years late, but at least it had finally come!
He suppressed his excitement and communicated with it through his thoughts.
"Put waste to good use? What does that mean?"
[Ding! A low-grade energy resource is present before the host: twenty Low-grade Spirit Stones.] [They can be converted into sixty Gold Touch Value.]
The mechanical voice sounded again.
[Spend Gold Touch Value to bestow Enlightenment upon all things and turn waste into treasure.]
Zhou Xuan's breathing instantly grew ragged.
Turn waste into treasure!
Did that mean—
"What about my Spirit Root? Can you upgrade my impure Five Elements Waste Spirit Root too?"
His voice trembled.
This was the greatest Heart Demon he faced right now!
[Yes.]
The system's answer was brisk and decisive.
It was like the Heavenly Dao's own voice, sweeping away the gloom in Zhou Xuan's heart!
"Hahahaha!"
"HAHAHAHAHA!"
Zhou Xuan could no longer hold himself back. He threw his head back and roared with laughter, the sound jarringly loud outside the silent woodshed.
"Liu Ruyan!"
"You think I'm a waste?"
"You think my future is hopeless?"
"I, Zhou Xuan, am the true child of destiny!"
All his pent-up bitterness vanished, and Zhou Xuan laughed wildly—until a sudden cold snort cut him off.
"Hmph."
"A useless Chore Disciple who chops wood and hauls water dares call himself a child of destiny? What a joke!"
Zhou Xuan's laughter cut off at once.
He whipped around.
Beneath the shade of a tree not far away, a young man stood there. No one knew when he had appeared.
The young man wore the same moon-white Inner Sect Disciple robes as Liu Ruyan. An expensive jade pendant hung at his waist, and he stood with his arms crossed, looking at Zhou Xuan with disdain.
Zhou Xuan furrowed his brows.
He didn't know the man, but he knew that uniform all too well.
An Inner Sect Disciple!
The young man clearly had no interest in wasting words with Zhou Xuan.
His gaze slid past Zhou Xuan and locked onto the twenty Spirit Stones scattered on the ground.
A flicker of greed passed through his eyes.
He raised his chin and ordered Zhou Xuan:
"You. Pick up the Spirit Stones and hand them to me."
Then he added disdainfully:
"Junior Sister Liu is kindhearted. That's why she gave a waste like you compensation."
"But do you deserve to use Junior Sister Liu's Spirit Stones?"
"You're a piece of trash who can't even sense spiritual energy. Spirit Stones would be wasted on you!"
Waste, again and again.
Trash, again and again.
Zhou Xuan was furious, but he didn't move.
The faint spiritual energy emanating from the other man was far beyond anything a Body Forging rank-one like him could match.
The weakest Inner Sect Disciples were already at the Spiritual Energy Realm.
If Zhou Xuan charged at him, it would be no different from asking to die.
Endure!
He'd endure it for now!
But he could endure the insult. The man still wouldn't get his things!
A humble smile instantly spread across Zhou Xuan's face.
He bent down and picked up the spirit stones from the ground, issuing a command to the system in his mind.
"System, convert all these spirit stones into Gold Touch Value!"
[Ding! Command received.] [Absorbing low-grade Spirit Stones!] [Gold Touch Value +3] [Gold Touch Value +3] ...
Every time Zhou Xuan picked up a spirit stone, a notification chimed in his mind.
He could clearly feel the warm, smooth touch of each stone and the faint spiritual energy within it rapidly disappear as the system absorbed it, leaving behind an ordinary, worthless rock.
Soon, he had gathered all twenty spirit stones into the little cloth pouch.
He stood up and respectfully handed the pouch over.
"Senior Brother is right. I'm not worthy."
"Please accept these spirit stones as a small token of my respect."
The Inner Sect Disciple took the pouch with satisfaction and weighed it in his hand.
He glanced at Zhou Xuan, and the haughty look on his face softened a little.
"Not bad. You know how to play your cards."
"If you run into any trouble in the menial service office, you can go to Green Bamboo Peak in the Inner Sect and give them my name."
"My name is Zhao Long!"
"Yes, Senior Brother Zhao Long! I'll remember!"
Zhou Xuan nodded and bowed, his face brimming with gratitude.
But inside, he was ice-cold.
Zhao Long, was it?
Green Bamboo Peak, was it?
I'll remember you.
Before you continue