Opening Up a New Realm

Things had reached this point, and saying lines like "actually, I didn't transmigrate to the Primordial Continent, and my interpretations of the Tao Te Ching just now were all made up" was no longer possible.

She had merely spent the entire summer vacation reading webnovels and fantasizing about transmigrating into a cultivation world.

Yet could such a coincidence really exist? She imparted the Dao to Zhou You, and Zhou You was actually able to cultivate?

Chu Xiaoyao was exceptionally bright, and after pondering it slightly, she figured out the reason behind it.

First, she ruled out the highly unreliable possibility that Zhou You had astonishing talent and could comprehend cultivation methods just by listening to the Tao Te Ching once.

Then the remaining possibility must be the truth.

The truth was that she had truly transmigrated to the Primordial Continent and become the Free and Unfettered Female Emperor.

It was just that she was currently nothing more of a mortal, and her mind could not bear the impact of ten thousand years' worth of memories. If those memories appeared rashly, the best-case scenario would be turning into a fool or becoming demented, while the worst-case scenario would be her brain exploding.

Therefore, in order to protect herself, she had proactively sealed away those memories.

Although her memories were sealed, her experiences in the Primordial Continent deep within her consciousness were still there. Her interpretation of the Tao Te Ching just now seemed fabricated, but in reality, it was just her inadvertently unearthing the sealed memories deep inside her consciousness.

Viewed this way, the various transmigration experiences she had recounted earlier were not the result of fantasy, but rather the Seal of her memories loosening, and her subconscious telling the truth.

It was reasonable, it made sense, and as expected, she truly was the Free and Unfettered Female Emperor!

At this thought, Chu Xiaoyao became even more confident than when she first arrived.

Zhou You, you should consider yourself lucky to have bumped into a friend like me who doesn't forget her roots and helps you cultivate the moment she returns from transmigration.

"To be able to levitate in such a short amount of time, not bad." Chu Xiaoyao put her hands behind her back, gazed out the window, and gave an unenthusiastic comment.

Zhou You's transformation did not catch her off guard.

"Am I considered a cultivator now?" Zhou You had yet to snap out of his shock and collapsed back onto the bed.

He felt clear-headed, brimming with an endless supply of strength throughout his body. He felt light, his joints were much looser, and his condition was better than ever before.

Zhou You still had a surreal feeling. He looked at Chu Xiaoyao with disbelief, feeling that she was unfathomably deep at this moment-the Free and Unfettered Female Emperor who had cultivated into an immortal emperor through ten thousand years of time.

"Do you think you count as a cultivator?" Chu Xiaoyao asked.

Zhou You sensed carefully, then shook his head. "I just feel full of strength, but my maximum physical strength hasn't increased. I suppose... not really?"

The last sentence rose in inflection, as Zhou You was not entirely certain about his own situation.

Chu Xiaoyao steadily nodded. She now possessed absolute confidence, and her entire aura was different from a moment ago. "What you did just now was Qi Induction, allowing spiritual Qi to enter your body to nourish your body and mind, which is why your condition feels exceptional."

"You have stepped through the threshold with one foot. If you insist on labeling it, you are currently at the half-step Qi Refining Stage."

Although in Chu Xiaoyao's impressions she had never heard of any half-step Qi Refining Stage, who was she? The dignified Free and Unfettered Female Emperor, the number one person in the Primordial Continent! Opening up a new realm was a piece of cake!

In the past, Zhou You certainly would not have believed Chu Xiaoyao's words, thinking her chūnibyō had simply worsened.

Yet in Zhou You's eyes today, every word and action of Chu Xiaoyao's was extraordinary, and he trusted her words implicitly.

"Half-step Qi Refining Stage..." Zhou You muttered this realm repeatedly, feeling that the name sounded great and gave him the sensation of being somebody special in the cultivation world.

"Master, then what should I do next?"

"Call me Great Emperor."

"Great Emperor."

Chu Xiaoyao nodded, quite satisfied with Zhou You's attitude. It felt somewhat like returning to middle school.

"Recall the feeling from just now, continue cultivating, and perform Qi Induction."

"Even though you have this seat to guide you, Qi Induction is only a matter of time; but for your initiation speed to be this fast, it shows you have talent. Cultivate diligently."

"Got it."

Before leaving, Chu Xiaoyao patted Zhou You's shoulder to encourage him, looking just like a senior showing concern for a junior.

It would have looked even more like it if she hadn't needed to gather up her copied summer homework.

"Do you want to stay for dinner before you leave?" Zhou You tried to persuade her to stay.

"No need."

Chu Xiaoyao had no heart for eating; she needed to go back and sort through her memories to see if she could piece anything together.

The next day, in the blazing summer heat, Chang'an City's No. 2 Middle School started classes early as scheduled.

The Senior Year students walked into the school drenched in sweat, without a trace of a smile on their faces, their figures swaying like a zombie apocalypse, resentment soaring to the heavens.

"We got a holiday on July first, and school starts on July fifteenth—half a month of summer vacation. Senior Year students are people too, you know!"

"God-forsaken school, starting classes in weather this hot, completely heartless."

"The weather forecast said today's high is thirty-nine degrees."

"Why did my thermometer measure forty-two?"

"Who's going to report the school to the Education Bureau?"

"If worst comes to worst, installing an air conditioner in the classroom would work too."

Zhou You was likewise sweating from the heat. In this kind of weather, let alone walking, even standing under the shade of a tree was stifling and sweaty.

However, since he was now able to cultivate, it felt like contacting a new world, and his mood was wonderful. He didn't care about the slight heat, and his pace was brisk.

At the staircase leading up, Zhou You saw Chu Xiaoyao ahead of him. Her back was straight, and she wore her autumn school uniform jacket draped over her shoulders like a peerless female emperor wearing a cloak as she walked the mortal world, looking down on all living beings with disdain. She stood out distinctively in the crowd.

Suddenly, Chu Xiaoyao leaned against the wall, tightly grabbing her wrist with a look of agony. Seeing this, Zhou You quickly took a three-step leap upward and chased after her.

"Are you alright?"

Chu Xiaoyao raised her right hand; it was trembling incessantly, and grabbing her wrist did nothing to stop the shaking. "It's the Black Dragon! The Black Dragon inside my body is breaking through its seal!"

"...If you don't have anything else, you might as well help take a look at my condition. After cultivating yesterday, my body underwent some new changes."

Last night, after receiving encouragement from the Free and Unfettered Female Emperor, he had stopped playing games, stopped scrolling through short videos, and diligently cultivated until bedtime, whereupon his strange bodily changes had occurred. Considering the Female Emperor was asleep at that hour, he had waited until this morning to ask.

Chu Xiaoyao lowered her right hand, casting the matter of the Black Dragon to the back of her mind. "What changes?"

"Like sleepwalking? Or floating up? It's hard to describe. I'll demonstrate it to you in a bit."

The two of them walked into the classroom, where the room was in an uproar of noisy chaos.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry! Who wrote the summer homework? Lend it to me to copy!" This was someone rushing to copy homework.

"What summer vacation homework? Can half a month off even count as a summer vacation? Without a summer vacation, how can there be summer vacation homework?" This was someone in self-denial.

"The old dormitory building is haunted. Will the teacher believe me if I say I left my homework in the old dormitory building?" This was testing the teacher's intelligence.

"Who said they lost their summer vacation homework?" This was the head teacher, who suddenly appeared at the door.

Why was the head teacher here?

The whole class fell instantly silent, and even the sound of Zhou You and Chu Xiaoyao stepping inside involuntarily quieted down a lot.

The head teacher was a middle-aged man in his fifties who taught mathematics. His surname was Gao, he sported a beer belly, and he was stern and unsmiling with a heavy local accent. Even when they hadn't done anything guilty on ordinary days, everyone was afraid when they saw him-let alone now, when they were in the middle of frantically copying homework.

Chu Xiaoyao hurriedly tucked away the autumn school uniform jacket tied around her neck, balling it up and clutching it in her arms.

Zhou You looked up at the wall clock hanging above the back blackboard, confirming they hadn't been late and that the head teacher had simply arrived early, which let him breathe a sigh of relief.

The two of them tiptoed from the back door back to their seats, holding back their strength even when moving their stools so as not to make a sound.

The head teacher stood on the podium carrying a brief case; clearly, he had come straight to the classroom for a stroll upon arriving at the school without even putting his briefcase in the office.

"The entire hallway was filled with your voices."

The head teacher swept his gaze across everyone. The students kept their heads low, wishing they could press their faces against their desks to avoid catching his attention. Those with better mental fortitude carefully examined their final exam papers from the previous semester, pretending to study.

On such a hot day, they actually felt a trace of chill.

"Class reps, collect the homework. Have it all collected before class starts." Leaving behind these words, the head teacher walked out of the classroom.

Even after he left, the students didn't dare speak, worried the head teacher might pull a surprise return-there was precedent for this.

After a while, confirming the head teacher wasn't coming back, the students finally dared to talk, though their voices were much quieter than before.

Once the head teacher left, someone noticed Chu Xiaoyao entering from the back door.

"Xiaoyao, you're here." As No. 2 Middle School's known beauty, Chu Xiaoyao naturally drew more attention than Zhou You.

Thanks to Chu Xiaoyao, a classmate noticed Zhou You's arrival, their eyes lighting up as they lowered their voice to plead, "Brother You, you're finally here! Lend me your homework to copy!"

Usually, everyone called him "Zhou You," and only during homework-collection times would Zhou You's status in the class rise by half a rank, elevating him to "Brother You."

"Brother You, please take this copy of Zhi Yin Man Ke." Others even offered manga up as tribute in exchange for homework.

Soon, Zhou You's homework was looted clean.

"You said your body had new changes just now?" Chu Xiaoyao continued the previous topic.

"Watch me show you a trick." Zhou You closed his eyes and pressed his palms together, helping himself concentrate more deeply.

He felt his body grow light, floating as if shedding his mortal coil to become an immortal. When he opened his eyes again, his field of vision had risen by more than half a meter-higher even than his standing perspective. He could look down upon the entire class, surveying all the mountains from a single peak.

Looking down, he saw another half of a body emerging from his own physical form.

That emerging half-body was nearly transparent, and his current consciousness was lingering within it.

He couldn't maintain this state for long, and he snapped back in.

"Well? Did you notice anything?" Zhou You asked expectantly.

After returning home last night, Chu Xiaoyao hadn't managed to sort out any memories. From her perspective, Zhou You had simply closed his eyes, pressed his palms together, opened them, and asked what she saw-which was asking a bit too much of her.

"...Did you forget that I can't cultivate right now and am still a mortal? Some changes are invisible to me."

"Oh, oh. That makes sense."

With a mix of speaking and gesturing, Zhou You pantomimed the situation for a long time. Finally, Chu Xiaoyao experienced a flash of enlightenment and concluded, "You're experiencing Soul Projection!"

"Soul Projection? That was a soul state just now?" Zhou You was astonished. There were plenty of legends about ghosts and souls in folklore, but there had never been actual proof they truly existed. Now, verified by the Female Emperor, souls really were a thing.

Thinking about it, it made sense: if he could cultivate, having a soul was completely normal.

Does that mean ghosts existed too?

"Precisely so." Chu Xiaoyao spoke with certainty. Although she still hadn't recalled the memories concerning the Free and Unfettered Female Emperor, she believed whatever she said was correct.

"One of the signs of reaching the Qi Refining Stage is the ability to perform Soul Projection."

"The fact that half your soul came out shows that you aren't far from reaching the Qi Refining Stage."

Hearing Chu Xiaoyao put it this way, Zhou You's confidence in cultivation soared.

"After you transmigrated to the Primordial Continent, what else happened?" With a living immortal emperor sitting right beside him, Zhou You was exceptionally curious about Chu Xiaoyao's experiences.

Speaking of this, Chu Xiaoyao grew excited. "Let me tell you, back then I relied on cultivating the Tao Te Ching to step my stepmother and older legitimate sister under my feet. Coincidentally, my father returned from a campaign, saw this scene, and sternly reprimanded me..."

By evening self-study, not only had it failed to cool down, but it had grown muggy and humid, reminding Zhou You of the Amazon Rainforest from documentaries-the only things missing were a giant electric fan overhead and a pair of spitting pythons slithering about, making it increasingly unfit for human habitation.

The classroom lacked air conditioning, and even with the large electric fan turned to its highest speed, it couldn't alleviate the heat.

"Turn the speed down a bit," a classmate shouted to the student sitting next to the fan switch.

When the large electric fan spun like a meat grinder, setting the speed to maximum made that sensation even more apparent, as if it were about to fall off at any moment-just thinking about it was terrifying.

Some students hung damp towels around their necks, others prepared palm-sized spray bottles to mist themselves from time to time, and some ran to the restroom during breaks to wash their faces repeatedly, all just for a fleeting minute of coolness.

Head teacher Teacher Gao sat on the podium, holding a steaming tea mug and taking a gentle sip, wearing an expression of extreme enjoyment as he savored the tea's aroma.

The students wore ghost-like expressions. Drinking boiling water on a day this hot?

Zhou You deeply felt his own lack of cultivation; the head teacher had already reached the realm of being impervious to heat and cold, and he couldn't even compare to the head teacher.

He passed a note to Chu Xiaoyao: "Are there any spells to cool down?"

Chu Xiaoyao replied quickly: "What spells are you learning at the half-step Qi Refining Stage?"

Zhou You drew an angry fist.

Chu Xiaoyao drew a piece of cloth.

A student dared to complain to Teacher Gao, feeling this simply wasn't a life for humans: "Teacher, when can our school install air conditioning? It's so hot we can't study."

"Yeah, our test papers are sticking to our arms." Another classmate displayed the writing on their arm; the ink on the freshly printed test paper hadn't dried yet, and resting an arm on it easily transferred the characters.

As someone who drank hot water in summer, Teacher Gao naturally didn't care about air conditioning, and he gave his usual boilerplate response: "A calm heart brings natural cool."

Following that came the students' rolling waves of complaints, though under Teacher Gao's forceful sweep of his gaze, they quickly quieted down, not even daring to make eye contact.

Zhou You quietly conspired with Chu Xiaoyao, his curiosity burning: "I heard the old dormitory building is haunted and super cool. Do you dare go take a look after evening self-study?"

No. 2 Middle School was an old school, and the reason air conditioning had never been installed despite the students' endless complaints was due to the wiring being too old.

Ever since he enrolled, Zhou You had heard the school was built on a graveyard, and the government wanted to use the students' iyang</i> energy to suppress the graveyard's iyin</i> energy, and that the old dormitory building was frequently haunted, which was why it had been abandoned and left unoccupied near-by.

In the past, Zhou You had been extremely curious about this but never dared to approach. Now, however, he was a dignified half-step Qi Refining Stage cultivator, and coupled with the Free and Unfettered Female Emperor guarding him, he wanted to go see what was really going on.

Chu Xiaoyao sneered, seeing right through Zhou You's clumsy provocation.

"What does this seat have to fear?"