[After the excitement passed, drowsiness swept over you. You lay on the bed and soon fell into a deep sleep.]
[In the middle of the night, a loud crash woke you.]
[You raised your head, only managing to catch sight of a group of masked figures in black. They held a picture, and once they had confirmed your appearance, they struck to kill.]
[They were experts in the Houtian Realm, and you were utterly powerless to resist. As your consciousness faded, you felt immensely grateful that you had booked two rooms tonight. This fatal calamity probably would not implicate your senior sister Liu Bai next door.]
[You died.]
[Simulation ended!]
[Simulation evaluation: Sixteen years of beatings bought a life; fifty-two years finally earned a Spirit Root. You went to the underworld in Gathered Worthies Manor—a survival-focused player met a cruel scripted death.]
[Congratulations! You received the following rewards:
1. Fifty-two years of simulated memories!
2. The strength of a Low-Rank Martial Artist and the Mid-Grade Mortal Rank martial technique "Changfeng Fist"!
3. Traits: Crippled Spirit Root (green), fists as big as sandbags (green), high-quality sleep (white)...]
[Requirements for the next simulation: submit items worth one thousand taels of silver! Or complete the guidance quest!]
[Guidance quest: How could a martial artist cower and let others butcher them at will? Slap the matron before nightfall to avenge today's humiliation!]
Jiang Mi had no time to read the evaluation or inspect this round's rewards.
Outwardly, she remained calm and composed, but the fingers she used to operate the simulator kept trembling slightly.
She swapped out [Chickens and Ducks Can't Understand Each Other] and equipped [Crippled Spirit Root].
From now on, she could cultivate.
Jiang Mi stood there, thrilled and excited, staring blankly at the pile of firewood before her.
Once she came back to her senses, she immediately hurried back. The matron was still waiting, and she would have trouble explaining herself if she returned late.
The guidance quest passed through Jiang Mi's mind, and she decisively chose the former option.
Tonight, Zhou Pozi and Li Pozi would personally deliver her next simulation attempt.
As for the latter option, leaving aside how the matron had treated her in the simulation, simply dealing with the aftermath of striking her would be difficult for Jiang Mi.
When she returned to her work station, the matron did indeed raise her hand to slap her.
As the palm swept toward her, Jiang Mi instinctively seized the matron's wrist.
It was a Low-Rank Martial Artist's instinct.
The matron froze for a moment, seemingly unable to process that this little girl, whom she had beaten and berated for eight years, actually dared to resist.
"You're rebelling!" The matron raised her other hand high and brought it down in a vicious slap.
Jiang Mi still did not dodge.
The hand gripping the matron's wrist did not budge, while her other hand rose and steadily blocked the descending slap.
With her two hands, she held both the matron's hands suspended in the air.
The matron struggled once but could not break free.
The scene grew rather awkward for a moment. The surrounding maids and manservants all looked over, each appearing more astonished than the last.
"She actually dared to treat the matron like that! She's going to get slapped several times."
"How is this going to end? Jiang Mi is definitely going to be taught a lesson. She'd better not drag us into it!"
She certainly did not dare rebel!
Jiang Mi came back to her senses and immediately let go, lowered her head, and obediently retreated to the woodpile to continue stacking firewood.
The matron stood there watching her for a while, her thoughts unknown, then walked away, cursing under her breath.
In any case, she had escaped disaster.
Jiang Mi kept her eyes lowered and her hands moving, but her mind raced.
Advancing from an ordinary person to a Low-Rank Martial Artist also counted as an increase in realm. The number of traits she could equip had risen from three to four, while the probability of white traits appearing had fallen from ninety-nine percent to ninety-seven percent.
After nightfall, Jiang Mi lay on her bed.
When she had seen the matron that afternoon, her feelings had briefly become complicated, but only briefly.
After all, the matron's slap had come at her the very next second.
The kind-faced old woman in her memories would not slap her across the face at the slightest provocation.
The fifty-two years of memories gained from the simulation flashed past like flowers viewed from horseback, but it was like watching a television drama whose protagonist was also named Jiang Mi. Jiang Mi knew the plot perfectly, yet she had inherited none of the characters' feelings.
A simulation was a simulation. It had not truly happened.
The matron had shown kindness to the Jiang Mi in the simulation, not this Jiang Mi in reality.
Every effect had a cause. If the cause had not even occurred, how could Jiang Mi remember only the effect?
Perhaps because she had become a martial artist, Jiang Mi did not feel tired at all, despite having worked all day as usual.
Lying on the bed, she thought again of the simulation's evaluation.
A survival-focused player met a cruel scripted death?
What did that mean? Was her death at Gathered Worthies Manor inevitable? Or had it become inevitable from a certain moment onward, or after she did something?
Jiang Mi pondered for a long time and felt that the problem still lay with that piece of jade.
Those people had held a portrait and carefully confirmed her appearance before killing her. They had definitely come prepared.
Aside from that piece of jade, Jiang Mi could not imagine why anyone would hunt down an utterly unremarkable old woman using a portrait.
As she was thinking, she suddenly noticed a sound outside the door.
Jiang Mi's lips curved. She closed her eyes and lay still, thinking, They finally came.
Everything that happened tonight was the same as in the simulation. The difference was that Jiang Mi was now a martial artist, with sharp hearing and vision, and could clearly hear the two old women's departing footsteps.
Once they left, Jiang Mi rolled out of bed, took the three pieces of jade, and examined them carefully in the moonlight streaming through the window.
The jade beneath the other two maids' pillows could only be considered upper-middle quality. Only the piece beneath her own pillow was of exceptionally fine quality.
It was the size of a thumb, snowy white throughout, and warm and smooth to the touch.
She rubbed the jade with the pad of her finger, repeating the character on it inwardly: Trace.
What special meaning did this character hold?
After a moment's thought, Jiang Mi tucked this piece of jade separately into her clothes and opened the simulator to submit the other two pieces. Not only did she receive a simulation attempt, but she also received two hundred and fifty taels of silver converted from the excess value.
Jiang Mi held the banknote. "..."
This simulator was pretty smart, huh? It even paid out the excess value.
In the simulation, pawning all three pieces of jade for only a few hundred taels really had been a rip-off! Still, Liu Family Ferry was only a small place, and Jiang Mi had already been pleasantly surprised that its little pawnshop could produce a few hundred taels.
Time was precious, and Jiang Mi could hardly wait to begin cultivating.
Without needing to think, she chose to equip fists as big as sandbags directly for this round's traits.
[Generating simulation world...]
[Generation complete.]
[Welcome to the second simulation!]
[Equipped traits: simulator (gold), Crippled Spirit Root (green), fists as big as sandbags (green), thick-skinned (white).]
[Current identity: Great Xia-Dingbei Marquis Manor menial maid-Low-Rank Martial Artist-Jiang Mi (16 years old)]
[You lowered your head and looked at your hands. They were still the same hands that had done eight years of menial labor, but you knew they could now kill someone with a single punch.]
[Although your identity had barely changed, you knew that everything was different now.]
[First year, age sixteen.]
[You sat cross-legged on the bed, with your palms, soles, and the crown of your head facing heaven, and closed your eyes.]
Before you continue