Jiang Mi

Biodata

Power Progression

Background

In her previous life, Jiang Mi graduated from a Project 985 university and worked as a corporate employee. After twenty-six years, she had finally bought a small, old apartment outright, only to be reincarnated from the womb into a poor family in Great Xia 1.

Her family initially provided enough food and did not treat her especially harshly. When she was eight and her eldest brother was getting married, the village head arranged for her and several other girls to be sold to Dingbei Marquis Manor. Of the seven girls from her village, Jiang Mi alone survived the household’s grueling work and abuse 1 2.

Although educated in her previous life, she initially could not read the local writing. In her first simulation, she chose to study both literacy and martial arts, recognizing that cultivation manuals would be useless to her without reading skills 6.

Appearance

• Youthful features and voice: At sixteen, she still has an unmistakably young face and voice despite her composed behavior 30 31.
• Labor-worn hands: Years of chores leave thin calluses and small, unhealed cracks on her fingertips 32.
• Servant’s clothing: Before gaining her freedom, she wears coarse menial-maid clothing with soapberry-stained cuffs 31.

Personality

Jiang Mi is cautious, practical, and strongly motivated by survival and freedom. As a powerless servant, she conceals her reactions and pretends that blows hurt even when Thick-Skinned protects her. After gaining martial strength, she initially declines a quest to slap the matron because handling the consequences would be difficult 1 2 9.

She approaches simulations as opportunities for trial and error rather than treating their events as established reality. The first simulation’s memories feel like watching a drama about someone with her name: she knows what happened but does not automatically inherit its emotional attachments. She nevertheless comes to acknowledge the matron’s repeated kindness to her simulated selves and decides to provide for her 9 26.

Her restraint does not mean she forgets mistreatment. Once strong enough to act, she settles specific grievances against servants who withheld her wages, reduced her meals, and schemed over her winter clothes. She remains composed before Dingbei Hou, prioritizing her indenture contract over his offers of patronage 28 31.

Jiang Mi is also grateful toward people who help her. She is moved by Liu Bai’s financial support and recognizes her third simulated self’s determination to repay the marchioness, associating that instinct with the moral education of her previous life 8 39.

Abilities & Skills

Divine Tree

Jiang Mi’s system provides a Divine Tree that drops traits when chopped through an interface visible only to her 1.

• Provides one chopping opportunity each year 1.
• Initially produces white traits with a 99% probability; her first fifteen draws are all white 1.
• Cultivation advancement can improve trait odds and increase equipment slots 1 9 33.
• Obtained traits must be equipped to function; her limited slots require her to choose which effects to use 1 9 33.

Simulator

The Simulator is a golden trait that lets Jiang Mi explore alternative lives and retain nonphysical gains afterward 1.

• Transfers simulated memories, martial strength, techniques, and traits after a simulation ends 9 27.
• Does not transfer physical objects 1.
• Must occupy a trait slot, and equipped traits cannot be changed during a simulation 1.
• Offers a free first attempt; later attempts require valuable items or completion of guidance quests 1.
• Allows some influence over the simulated self’s decisions, but that self becomes increasingly independent over a long lifetime 15 23.
• Can return excess submitted value as money: two pieces of jade fund an attempt and yield an additional 250 taels 9.

Failure Is the Progress Bar to Success

Her second golden trait offers a possible route past the otherwise prohibitive gap between Houtian and Xiantian for someone with her spiritual aptitude 24 27.

• Is obtained during the second simulation and inherited when it ends 24 27.
• Is equipped alongside Simulator in her third simulation 33.
• Does not establish an actual Xiantian breakthrough in the supplied chapters 39.

Spiritual Root and Cultivation

The Crippled Spirit Root possesses all five elemental attributes, but its aptitude in each is extremely poor 7.

• Makes cultivation possible despite Jiang Mi’s original lack of spiritual roots 7 9.
• Limits spiritual-energy intake severely enough to stall her second simulated self at Houtian Sixth Layer 21.
• Allows her to sense the spiritual energy in jujubes she previously regarded as ordinary fruit 22.
• Her later training uses the complementary Blazing Sun Art and Flame Sun Skill, both low-grade spirit-tier methods supplied by Dingbei Hou 33 39.

Martial Techniques

Supporting Traits

Practical Skills

• Household work: Experienced in chopping wood, boiling water, washing clothes, sweeping, kitchen work, and cooking 1 4 12.
• Recruitment and sales: Revives Changfeng Martial Arts School’s business by recruiting prospective students for free trials 7.
• Beast hunting: Accumulates five years of team-hunting experience around Severed Dragon Ridge in her second simulation 15.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Azure Frost Sword — Used by her second simulated self to kill Old Li after his betrayal and later to kill Qingfeng 19 26.
• “Trace” jade — Exceptionally fine, thumb-sized white jade planted beneath her pillow. She suspects it caused the assassins to target her in the first simulation and keeps it separate from the other stolen pieces in reality 9.
• Spiritual jujubes — Fruit from her Liu Family Ferry courtyard that supplies gentle spiritual energy and helps overcome her second simulation’s cultivation bottleneck 22 23.
• Disguise jade clasp — Used by her third simulated self when leaving Dingbei Marquis Manor with Nanny 39.
• Indenture contract — Returned by Dingbei Hou and torn apart by Jiang Mi, ending her servitude and completing a guidance quest 31 32.
• Four middle-grade spirit-tier spear manuals — Given to her third simulated self by Dingbei Hou while preparing for the tournament 34.

Relationships

• Xixi — Her system companion, which announces Divine Tree opportunities and rewards. Its repeated advice to remain optimistic often frustrates her 1.
• Nanny / Rong Shi — The abusive matron who becomes her godmother in simulated lives. Jiang Mi initially separates that affection from reality, but eventually spares her, obtains her indenture, and takes responsibility for her welfare 4 7 9 26 28 32 33.
• Liu Bai — Martial-school senior sister and benefactor in the first simulation. Gives Jiang Mi her savings to help purchase cultivation arts; their apparent generational relationship changes in the second simulation when Jiang Mi is recognized as a great-aunt 7 8 21 22.
• Dingbei Hou — Former master who recognizes her as a martial prodigy and returns her indenture in exchange for a tournament commitment. In the third simulation, he supplies cultivation methods but also treats her as a political pawn against the emperor 31 33 35.
• Dingbei Hou’s wife — Treats Jiang Mi warmly, arranges her residence and necessities, and later helps her simulated self leave the manor. Jiang Mi intends to repay her kindness 32 38 39.
• Old Woman, surnamed Zhou — Hunting teammate and ally in the second simulation. Gives her four low-grade spirit stones and a means of seeking her out; dies before receiving Jiang Mi’s later invitation to share jujubes 19 23.
• Old Li — Hunting teammate who attempts to kill her for a larger reward share. Jiang Mi kills him in self-defense 19.
• Qing Yun and Qingfeng — Senior brothers at Green Bamboo Sect in the second simulation. Jiang Mi later kills Qingfeng and suspects he murdered Qing Yun and seized the sect leadership 11 12 26.

Story Role / Major Arcs

First Simulation: Surviving Long Enough to Cultivate

Jiang Mi receives Simulator while performing chores at sixteen. Her first simulated life exposes a plot by Zhou Pozi and Li Pozi to frame the maids with stolen jade. Using information from a rooster, she removes the jade and hides it in a rat tunnel before the room is searched 1 2 3 4.

She becomes Nanny’s goddaughter and later helps Liu Bai preserve Changfeng Martial Arts School. At sixty-seven, she finally draws a spiritual root, but cannot equip it during that simulation. She instead secures cultivation manuals for future use. After the simulation ends in assassination, its rewards give her real martial strength and the ability to cultivate 4 7 8 9.

Second Simulation: Sect Training, Hunting, and Revenge

Her second simulated self joins Green Bamboo Sect at nineteen. Although the sect provides cultivation methods and attentive care, its refusal to let her visit her godmother—and its failure to teach combat techniques—makes her suspicious 11 12.

After Nanny’s death, she postpones revenge to build strength. Under the name Rong Mi, she becomes a beast hunter at Gathered Worthies Manor. Following Old Li’s betrayal, she leaves with substantial earnings and settles at Liu Family Ferry 15 19.

Spiritual jujubes eventually carry her beyond a cultivation bottleneck to Houtian Ninth Level. Beneath the tree, she discovers a seal pierced by one of its roots, but leaves it untouched. Near the end of her life, she pursues Nanny’s revenge and kills Qingfeng at Green Bamboo Sect 21 22 23 26.

Freedom from Servitude

Back in reality with Houtian Ninth Level strength, Jiang Mi decides to obtain her freedom openly. She overpowers the servants and stewards obstructing her, including Houtian Fifth Layer Deputy Chief Steward Qian, until she is escorted to Dingbei Hou 27 28 29 30.

The marquis sees a sixteen-year-old prodigy and agrees to return her indenture if she represents Great Xia in the Northern Region Five Nations Martial Arts Tournament. Jiang Mi accepts provisionally, intending to investigate the consequences through simulation. She destroys the contract, earns another simulation attempt, and moves into Qingyan Residence as an honored guest 31 32.

Third Simulation: Patronage and Imperial Hostility

Her third simulated self obtains spirit-tier cultivation methods from Dingbei Hou. His attempt to enter her in the tournament meets imperial resistance: the emperor questions her origins, and the marquis subsequently urges her to leave Great Xia 33 34 35.

With the marchioness’s help, Jiang Mi leaves the manor with Nanny and settles at Liu Family Ferry. After a year of cultivation, she reaches the middle stage of Houtian Ninth Level. She then returns to visit the marchioness, knowing that pregnancy will worsen her health 38 39.

Notable Quotes

“There's no need to get physical, Matron. You can't make decisions about my affairs. You'll have to ask the marquis or the madam to come.” 28

“I want to see the marquis. The matron can't make that decision, and neither can you. Bring someone who can.” 29