My deskmate says she time-traveled

Zhou You's wonderful day ended in the morning.

Today was the last day of summer vacation, and tomorrow's start of school meant the pain of senior year, so Zhou You cherished this day exceptionally. He planned to spend the entire day in bed.

Unfortunately, before the plan had even begun, a hurried knocking on his door shattered it.

Thump thump!

Thump thump thump!

"Zhou You, it's me. Open the door!"

Yawning, Zhou You got out of bed and disgruntledly opened his bedroom door. The summer heatwave rushed straight at his face, waking him up just a bit.

Standing outside was a pretty and cute-looking girl. Sweat trickled down her cheeks, and she carried a schoolbag. Her clothes were simple yet appropriate, exuding the beauty of youthful vitality.

It was Chu Xiaoyao, whom Zhou You had known since junior high and who was also his current deskmate.

"Xiaoyao? What are you doing here this early in the morning?" Zhou You remained disgruntled, preparing to close the door and send her off.

Seeing Zhou You, Chu Xiaoyao became so excited she didn't know what to do with her hands and feet, grabbing onto the doorframe. "Zhou You, you can't possibly imagine what I've been through!"

She paused and said with the utmost solemnity, "I time-traveled!"

As if he hadn't heard clearly, Zhou You continued to yawn, gave a bland "oh," and kept his expression completely normal, showing very little reaction.

"Okay, got it."

Right after, he prepared to close the door and send her off. "If there's nothing else, I'm going back to sleep. Goodbye."

Seeing Zhou You looking like he hadn't woken up yet, Chu Xiaoyao quickly shoved the door open and squeezed into the air-conditioned room.

With a thud, the front door closed.

She pressed both hands onto Zhou You's shoulders, emphasizing with a solemn and serious expression, "Zhou You, I time-traveled!"

With a look of disgust, Zhou You swatted Chu Xiaoyao's hands away. Knowing he wouldn't be able to sleep anymore, he resignedly sighed, "I'm not deaf."

"Why aren't you excited at all?" Chu Xiaoyao asked, uncomprehending. Zhou You's reaction was nothing like what she had anticipated.

Time travel, for goodness' sake! How thrilling! Logically speaking, shouldn't Zhou You be asking her all sorts of questions? Asking why she time-traveled, where she went, what she experienced, and how she got back.

With the dead-eyed expression of someone who hadn't gotten enough sleep, Zhou You didn't directly answer the question, instead starting to count Chu Xiaoyao's rich history on his fingers.

"In the first year of junior high, you said you were the strongest esper in history, raised from childhood by a mysterious organization. Unable to stand the organization's cruel experiments, you escaped and lived a low-profile campus life."

"When I said I wanted to witness superpowers, you said superpowers had a limited number of uses and couldn't be used until the critical moment."

"In the second year of junior high, you said a black dragon that would destroy the world was sealed inside your body. The reason you constantly covered your eyes and arm was because its power was leaking out, and you were suppressing it."

"When I asked to see what the dragon looked like, you said it was sleeping within the seal and shouldn't be disturbed, and that its awakening would destroy the world."

"In the third year of junior high, you said you were the sole descendant of the Nine Li, having received the inheritance of the ancient demon god Chiyou, destined to annihilate the descendants of Yanhuang and become an enemy of the world."

"When I asked where the inheritance was, you said everyone was just ordinary folk and Chiyou was starting infighting, so you didn't want the inheritance."

The more Zhou You spoke, the more energetic he became. He wasn't sleepy anymore, and veins throbbed on his forehead from anger. What made him most furious was that he had actually been bluffed by Chu Xiaoyao back then, believing every word was true. Every day he had walked on tenterhooks alongside Chu Xiaoyao, worried that the mysterious organization would track them down and that the black dragon would break its seal.

It was simply a dark chapter in history too humiliating to look back upon.

He drank a mouthful of cold water to suppress his anger and casually poured Chu Xiaoyao a glass of water. "Tell me, what's this time travel all about this time?"

Seeing Zhou You finally get to the point, Chu Xiaoyao regained the excitement she had when she first walked through the door. Her spirits soared, and an air of confidence emanated from between her brows, as if she had returned to that brilliantly colorful realm of cultivation.

"That was ten thousand years ago... oh wait, for you, it happened yesterday."

"I accidentally touched a spacetime tunnel and my soul mistakenly traveled to a world where people can cultivate immortality, called the Primordial Continent."

"The person whose body I possessed was also named Chu Xiaoyao, a concubine-born daughter of a local prominent clan."

"People there can draw spiritual qi into their bodies-guiding spiritual qi into the body-thereby strengthening their physique and mastering all sorts of unimaginable powers, which they call cultivating immortality."

"Cultivators can split mountains and drain seas, overturn the sun and moon, reverse the cosmos, and even stronger figures grasp the laws and reign supreme over the heavens and myriad realms!"

"Yet the Primordial Continent is still a world fraught with danger. Immortal dynasties and sects stand like a forest, enduring for millions of years without falling. The class system is rigid, demonic cultivators are inhuman and refine all living things, and fierce beasts of the mountains and seas roam the great wilderness, periodically invading the human race. Cultivation methods are monopolized by major factions, making it as hard as ascending to heaven for anyone who wants to cultivate."

At this, Chu Xiaoyao recalled her family's treatment right after she transmigrated, a flash of anger passing through her eyes, though it quickly vanished.

Her voice gradually grew impassioned, and her pupils lit up. "Fortunately, my luck was extraordinary, with continuous fortuitous encounters. I fought heavenly prodigies, wiped out demonic sects, swept across the Primordial Continent, and slaughtered everyone in the world until none dared to oppose me. I established the Carefree Sect, sole master of the cosmos, roaming free through the human world!"

Chu Xiaoyao's imposing aura gradually escalated until she finally stood up, hands clasped behind her back, gazing intently at Zhou You with peerless grace and pride:

"Finally, I achieved the position of Immortal Emperor, with the imperial title of Free and Unfettered Female Emperor!"

Clap, clap, clap.

Zhou You gave a hypocritical, perfunctory round of applause.

Yet immediately after, Chu Xiaoyao's peerless grace vanished, turning decadent and her tone heavy as her emotions plummeted.

"Perhaps it was because I was too arrogant, forgetting that the Primordial Continent is full of deceit and treachery."

"I was betrayed by my disciples and friends. Taking advantage of my secluded cultivation, they joined forces to plot against me. Burning with rage, I fought desperately to the death, but plotted against as I was, they had prepared far too many backup plans, and in the end, I fell."

Chu Xiaoyao let out a bitter laugh, tinged with desolation and self-mockery. It turned out she was simply too naive. "Cultivating for ten thousand years, how many brushes with death had I survived? Yet I never imagined that after reaching the very peak, I would end up in such a state."

"Friends made on the Primordial Continent really are unreliable. You're the only dependable one, Zhou You. You're my most trusted friend!"

"That's a pleasant thing to hear." Zhou You nodded. After listening to Chu Xiaoyao spin her tall tale for so long, he had finally heard a shred of truth, and even felt a slight stir of emotion.

Although Chu Xiaoyao's thoughts were often wild and she talked nonsense, she always kept him in mind. It hadn't been a waste to know her for so long.

Seeing Zhou You moved, Chu Xiaoyao dropped all pretense. "School starts tomorrow. Can you lend me your summer homework to copy?"

Zhou You fell silent for a moment, then pointed at the door, signaling for Chu Xiaoyao to get out.

Everything before was pure bullshit; you just came to copy homework because summer vacation is about to end.

"Don't be like that. You're the very first person I looked for after traveling back." The Free and Unfettered Female Emperor condescended to try and salvage their friendship.

Seeing Zhou You remain silent, Chu Xiaoyao sighed helplessly and explained that copying homework was a last resort. "Surely you don't think I wanted not to do the homework? I really have extenuating circumstances."

"To you, second year of high school was just recently, but I spent ten thousand years on the Primordial Continent. Second-year life was ten thousand years ago, and I've forgotten all the knowledge I learned at school. Even if I wanted to do the homework, I couldn't."

Zhou You nodded instinctively, almost agreeing with Chu Xiaoyao's statement before he caught himself. "Hold on. Didn't you just time-travel yesterday? Summer vacation has been so long, and school starts tomorrow. Are you telling me you spent the whole time beforehand just playing around?"

After a moment of silence, Chu Xiaoyao tried once more to salvage their friendship: "Zhou You, you're my most trusted friend..."

Helplessly, Zhou You pointed at the stack of homework resting on the desk, eager to dispatch her quickly. "Get out, get out, get out. The homework's right there, go copy it yourself."

Upon seeing that homework, Chu Xiaoyao looked as though she had obtained a supreme dao treasure, showering Zhou You with profuse thanks.

Chu Xiaoyao quickly displayed extraordinary talent, her pen flying as she wrote at breakneck speed. The homework that Zhou You had spent an entire summer vacation finishing was completed by Chu Xiaoyao in less than a day.

The difference in caliber was stark!

The summer homework also included three eight-hundred-word essays, which Chu Xiaoyao didn't even need to copy.

Zhou You glanced over Chu Xiaoyao's essay. Classical particles were flying everywhere, and obscure vocabulary words followed one after another; it seemed she was writing about her cultivation experiences on the Primordial Continent. He figured she was just betting that the Chinese teacher wouldn't actually read it.

"Phew, done!" Chu Xiaoyao tossed her pen aside and clapped, letting out a long sigh of relief. A heavy burden lifted, she had finally finished her homework on the very last day of summer vacation.

Talk about cutting it close.

"Come, Zhou You! Master will teach you how to cultivate immortality!"

Repaying kindness with kindness, Chu Xiaoyao was going to impart cultivation secrets to Zhou You. You had to understand that this was a transmission of the Dao from the Free and Unfettered Female Emperor herself-extremely precious. On the Primordial Continent, countless cultivators would have bankrupted themselves just to beg her for teachings, yet she wouldn't even deign to look at them.

Zhou You rolled his eyes at Chu Xiaoyao, treating it as if he hadn't heard her nonsense, and pointed toward the door. "No food, get lost."

"I really can teach you to cultivate," Chu Xiaoyao said earnestly.

Zhou You wasn't buying it. Or rather, having been lied to by Chu Xiaoyao too many times, he knew how to pierce her falsehoods. "Show me a couple of spells and let me see."

Chu Xiaoyao revealed a troubled expression. "Well, about that... not really. After all, I haven't started cultivating yet."

"Right now, it's like there are two little people fighting inside my head-one is the Free and Unfettered Female Emperor of the Primordial Continent, and the other is the student Chu Xiaoyao. After all, the Free and Unfettered Female Emperor has ten thousand years of reinforcement and holds the upper hand, making it easy for her personality to dominate. But I'd much rather let the student personality take the lead."

"Cultivating rashly makes the spiritual platform unstable. Because of this, I need to sort through my memories and suppress the Free and Unfettered Female Emperor's personality. Until then, I can't cultivate at all."

Chu Xiaoyao explained with complete logic, and Zhou You didn't believe a single word of it.

"Really, don't doubt it. What's our relationship? Would I lie to you?" Chu Xiaoyao spoke with utter conviction.

Zhou You chuckled inwardly, thinking to himself: What is our relationship? From junior high until now, you're the only person who has ever targeted me with lies.

She made up a whole mountain of stories, but he never got to see any real skills even once. You'd have to be a ghost to believe her.

"Let me let you witness the peerless cultivation method that allowed me to conquer the Primordial Continent." From her schoolbag, Chu Xiaoyao fished out a book that looked rather familiar to Zhou You.

Zhou You's expression turned odd. "This is... the Tao Te Ching?"

Familiar was an understatement; Chu Xiaoyao had even bought this book using money she borrowed from Zhou You.

The two of them had gone to browse a book stall, and Chu Xiaoyao had wanted to buy this copy of the Tao Te Ching, but unfortunately lacked the funds. Zhou You had lent her the money, and as payment, Chu Xiaoyao had taken over Zhou You's classroom cleaning duty for an entire month.

"That's right, it's none other than the Tao Te Ching. You wouldn't expect it, but the Tao Te Ching of our world is actually a top-tier cultivation method on the Primordial Continent!"

"As I said before, the Primordial Continent has a strict hierarchy, and wanting to cultivate is as hard as ascending to heaven. When I first transmigrated, I was targeted by my stepmother and legitimate elder sister, suppressed at every turn, while my father was away on military campaigns year-round and rarely managed family affairs. Fortunately, I discovered that the Tao Te Ching was actually a cultivation manual, and only then did I open up the path of cultivation and strike back one by one!"

Recalling the thrill of slapping her stepmother and elder sister across the face after cultivating, even after ten thousand years, the memory remained as fresh as ever for Chu Xiaoyao.

"Come, listen as I impart the cultivation method."

Giving Zhou You no room to refuse, Chu Xiaoyao forced the transmission of the Dao.

"The Dao that can be told is not the eternal Dao..."

"Spiritual qi is formless and substance-free..."

"You must sense the spiritual qi..."

Chu Xiaoyao's crisp voice echoed in the room. Her voice was agile and her articulation clear; simply hearing her speak was a form of enjoyment.

Initially, out of politeness, Zhou You tried to listen to the lesson seriously. Gradually, however, Zhou You seemed to find the lecture boring and began to grow drowsy, unable to help closing his eyes to doze off. The sound of the lecture became hazy and vague, imprinting itself upon his mind as he half-understood the Tao Te Ching.

Zhou You found himself in a rather wondrous state, indescribable and ineffable. It was as though he had broken free from the shackles of heaven and earth, floating in midair. Something surged into his body, tingling and numb, feeling rather like a pair of giant hands giving him a massage. His body completely relaxed with exceptional comfort.

At some point, Chu Xiaoyao's lecturing stopped. Gradually shaking off his dozing state, Zhou You opened his eyes in puzzlement. Had she finished the lecture?

Dropping his gaze, Zhou You discovered that for some reason, he was sitting cross-legged on the bed, hovering slightly just a few centimeters above the mattress!

"How did I fly up?!" Zhou You cried out involuntarily.

No matter how composed his mindset was, he never would have imagined that upon opening his eyes, he would genuinely be floating in the air!

Even if it was only a few centimeters off the bed, that was still flying!

"Could I actually be cultivating immortality?!"

This completely subverted Zhou You's common sense.

Zhou You was shocked beyond measure. Chu Xiaoyao really had been transmitting the Dao to him, teaching him how to cultivate immortality!

Chu Xiaoyao was even more shocked than Zhou You.

How on earth could you actually cultivate?!