Chapter 1

Su Jiu's consciousness gradually drifted away from her body. Once she had left it completely, she saw blood blooming across the dantian of a woman dressed in white. That woman was her own mortal body.

A torrent of demonic qi poured into her body from directly above her dantian.

The one controlling that demonic qi was also the man who had killed her. He wore black, his red lips seeming steeped in blood. His hands were a sickly gray, and demonic qi spilled endlessly from his palms.

Suddenly, the demonic qi paused, and the woman's body shuddered. The qi condensed into a sharp claw and, in the space of an instant, forcibly tore her life-bound artifact from her dantian.

The demonic cultivator controlled the qi, bringing the Magic Treasure before him. He examined the Frostlight Sword, now dull and lightless after being separated from her body, and curled his lips in boredom. "Nothing special."

Just then, hurried footsteps sounded in the grass.

Another woman dressed in white appeared. Judging by the cut of her clothes, apart from the embroidered patterns, her attire was no different from that of the corpse on the ground. She stared at the demonic cultivator in disbelief. "You-you killed her! Are you mad? She isn't like those ordinary disciples!"

Their clothing made it clear that the two female disciples belonged to the same sect. Anxiety filled the woman's face; she clearly knew how grave the consequences of Su Jiu's death would be.

The demonic cultivator merely smiled at her, paying little heed to her words. "Susu, look. This sword is rather good, and you happen to be at the golden core stage too."

The woman shook her head with a bitter smile. "This sword is Junior Sister Su's signature weapon. If I took it, I'm afraid the sect would hunt me down." Besides, only someone with a water or ice spiritual root could bring out the Frostlight Sword's full power. With its master dead, all the spiritual qi nurtured within it had dissipated as well. It was now little different from the ordinary treasures sold on the market, with less than a tenth of the power it had wielded in Su Jiu's hands. Though the woman had envied Su Jiu for possessing such a sword while she lived, seeing that the sword had "died" along with its master left her with little interest in it.

The demonic cultivator sneered. "Your sect really is a nuisance." With that, he carelessly tossed the sword beside her corpse.

The woman pushed at him. "Hurry and leave. People from the sect will find this place soon."

The demonic cultivator did not linger. Thinking of those old fossils, he knew his Cultivation Level was nowhere near enough to deal with them.

After he left, the woman intended to slip away in another direction. Yet the sight of Su Jiu's sword made her hesitate for a moment. She picked it up and put it in her Storage Bag, then hurried away as well.

Su Jiu's soul floated in midair, watching everything before her in bewilderment. Before she could make sense of it, a powerful suction dragged her soul into another world.

By then, her consciousness had fully gathered itself. At last, she remembered what had happened before her death-and who those two people were.

The woman in white was named Bai Su, a fellow disciple who could be considered her senior sister. Yet there had always been something strange about her. She possessed seemingly endless Magic Treasures and pills and was the foremost alchemist among the disciples of her generation. Though they were not close, Su Jiu had heard her master say that Bai Su's fortune practically made her a child of destiny. Even several of Su Jiu's own Magic Treasures had somehow ended up in Bai Su's hands. But Bai Su had not put that good fortune toward cultivation.

All sorts of male cultivators were constantly at her side. Even on the few occasions Su Jiu had seen her, the men accompanying her had been different each time. Though the two women belonged to the same sect, they had little to do with each other. Still, Su Jiu often heard her senior and junior sisters recount Bai Su's absurd exploits, which had left something of an impression on her.

As for that demonic cultivator, he was even more extraordinary. He had intercepted her on her way to visit the Heavenly Music Pavilion, claiming that his beloved had taken a fancy to her Frostlight Sword and wanted to borrow it. But the Frostlight Sword was her Life-Bound Treasure. How could she casually hand it over to someone else? Especially before a demonic cultivator, surrendering her sword would have been no different from suicide.

Su Jiu had chosen to fight. But she had only recently formed her golden core. How could she possibly defeat a demonic cultivator in the nascent soul realm? And so the events that followed had come to pass.

This space was a boundless expanse of white. She could not tell what lay ahead, and there was no end in sight. Paths seemed to stretch in every direction, yet there seemed to be no path at all. Su Jiu could only make out things within ten feet of her.

After drifting for an unknown length of time, she finally saw a table. It seemed to be made of some unknown white jade. Since it was the same color as this world, she had almost missed the only thing she could find here.

The white jade tabletop rippled like a pool of clear water. Then a book slowly emerged from the ripples.

Su Jiu tried to pick it up, but the book was like an illusory image, and her hand passed straight through it.

A line of words gradually appeared on the cover: "Keeping Handsome Men in the Azure Realm." At the sight of the title, Su Jiu's lips twitched involuntarily.

The Azure Realm was the name of the continent where she lived.

Then the pages turned without any wind. Once Su Jiu had finished reading the entire book, she finally understood what sort of world she had inhabited in her previous life. She also finally understood how her friend had lost her life.

Bai Su was unquestionably the heroine of this story. Her soul had come from another world, and she had accidentally bound herself to a Mustard Seed Space. Throughout her cultivation journey, she repeatedly encountered extraordinary opportunities, and whenever danger arose, different male leads helped her turn peril into safety. For some reason, however, the later plot seemed to stray off course. Once Bai Su reached the golden core stage, the story stopped discussing her cultivation and instead revolved around her romances with several male leads. It ended when she took those men into seclusion with her.

It had to be said that, cultivation aside, Bai Su's life was something of a legend. Even the Mustard Seed Space was something Su Jiu had only heard her master mention in passing. Almost no one had ever seen a true Mustard Seed Space capable of sustaining the growth of living things. Yet Bai Su had been so fortunate that she had accidentally obtained one as soon as she transmigrated into this world. So had this so-called child of destiny been chosen by the Heavenly Dao long ago?

Su Jiu laughed mockingly at herself. Almost everyone in her sect had been cultivating desperately, striving to ascend as soon as possible. Yet this supposed child of destiny had ended her story by retreating into seclusion with a group of handsome men.

The female cultivator who had appeared beside the demonic cultivator was none other than Bai Su, this world's child of destiny. That demonic cultivator was also one of her harem: Gong Hao, the young master of the Heavenly Devil Palace.

At the thought of Gong Hao, a bloody hue seeped into Su Jiu's eyes. Her friend had died at his hands. He was cruel and ruthless. To gather Magic Treasures for the heroine, and to satisfy his own twisted pleasures, he had killed as many as half of her fellow disciples below the golden core stage by the end of the story-all merely to plunder their Life-Bound Treasures.

Su Jiu wanted to laugh: at the injustice of the Heavenly Dao, and at how every effort fell short before the two words "good fortune."

At the same time, she finally understood why the natural treasures she had painstakingly collected always fell into Bai Su's embrace in all manner of bizarre ways.

Still recalling the book's contents, Su Jiu failed to notice the ripples spreading across the white jade tabletop once again. A wave of dizziness swept over her, and she soon lost consciousness.

The white jade table gradually grew still again.

So noisy.

That was Su Jiu's first impression upon regaining consciousness.

She slowly opened her eyes and, sure enough, saw a group of people gathered around her. More precisely, they were a bunch of little sprouts.

Looking at those faces, at once familiar and unfamiliar, Su Jiu felt as though the past hundred years had been one long dream. Out of habit, she touched the outer corner of her right eye.

Mm, that mole was still there.

"Jiu, you're finally awake!"

"If you hadn't woken up, Mianmian would've beaten Qingqing to death."

"Qingqing? How affectionate of you. She's nothing but a concubine's brat."

The girl who spoke had bright eyes and pearly teeth. She wore red, with a long black whip hanging at her waist, and her words were brazen. Yet her name was the complete opposite of her temperament: Su Mianmian.

Su Mianmian glanced disdainfully at the little girl huddled at the very back. Then she turned her fire on the newly awakened Su Jiu. With both hands planted on her hips, she looked down scornfully at Su Jiu lying in bed.

"You're useless too. You nearly threw your own life away trying to save someone. Does that make you feel so noble? What is she, to deserve you risking your life for her?"

Looking at the face she had not seen in so long, Su Jiu could not help laughing.

Seeing Su Jiu laugh even as she lay sickly in bed only made Su Mianmian angrier. "You can still laugh!"

Su Jiu smiled. Mianmian, it's been so long.