Only the Strong Deserve Potential on the Immortal Path!

One hundred and twenty years ago, Lin Qi was born in the inner ring of Ruqiang, one of the three core cities in the megacorporation Jade Dragon Instruction's metropolitan area.

She was a company child born with a Spirit Root.

She reached Embryonic Breathing at five, then Qi Refinement at eight. After that, it took her just ten more years to build her immortal foundation.

With her company-employee parents making the arrangements, her life had been smooth sailing.

Afterward, she lived up to everyone's expectations and got into university, ultimately earning both her university diploma and her Purple Mansion certificate.

She went on to cultivate a second Divine Ability and earn a postgraduate degree, all by the time she was barely over a hundred.

Everything should have continued to go smoothly. As a Purple Mansion cultivator with two Divine Abilities, she had gained the basic qualifications to enter a company.

But heaven did not grant her wish.

An economic crisis caused by a sudden corporate war instantly bankrupted her parents, who had been speculating.

The company seized their Dharma bodies and Primordial Spirits to pay off their debts.

Lin Qi herself was hardly any better off, only a single step away from bankruptcy.

She also had many expenses to cover. It could be said that, without a position that paid a suitable salary,

she would most likely fail to make ends meet and be cut down by the economic crisis. Quite a few university students like her had been cut down, and there were even more junior college students.

And that meant she was beginning to drift farther and farther away from the company.

It was true that graduating from university and breaking through to the Purple Mansion qualified one to enter a megacorporation.

But mind you, that was only a qualification.

This was no longer ancient times, when Purple Mansion cultivators were so valuable.

To put it bluntly, even if postgraduates like her weren't a dime a dozen to the megacorporations, they could still be found everywhere.

If your qualifications weren't good enough, there were plenty of better-qualified people suited to the company's positions.

Don't keep thinking about what the company can give you. First think about what value you can create for the company.

What? You're about to go bankrupt?

Sorry, the company doesn't need a liability like you.

What? As long as you're given a suitable job, you won't go bankrupt?

Sorry, come back and look for a suitable job once you're no longer going bankrupt.

The strong prevailed and the weak were weeded out; the fittest survived. That was the iron law of the megacorporations. Unless one attained the Dao and became a True Lord, one could never escape that fate.

But how could it be so easy to step beyond the three loans and escape the five taxes?

At least Lin Qi couldn't do it. She was on the brink of being cut down.

And at that point, she made the most rational choice for a Purple Mansion cultivator, and also the one that depended most on luck.

Live a second life!

Rather than wait to be cut down and have her Dharma body and Primordial Spirit seized to pay her debts, she might as well trade it all for another chance!

Of course, given Lin Qi's financial situation at the time, she didn't have many good options for reincarnation.

She could only afford the lowest tier, known as opening a blind box.

That depended heavily on luck.

If she was lucky, she could be born into a company employee's family again. Even without a natural Spirit Root, she could use an artificial one.

But if she was unlucky, she would start out abandoned by her biological parents and adopted by an orphanage, a lower beast of burden who had to work diligently for fifteen years just to get a chance to open a Spirit Aperture.

Leaving aside the gulf between those statuses, just consider the difference between Spirit Apertures and Spirit Roots...

Put it this way: relying on Spirit Apertures alone, the chance of reaching the Purple Mansion was less than one in ten thousand, even with all three loans maxed out.

But because her first life had been such smooth sailing, Lin Qi had great faith in her luck.

And then she ended up in her present situation-

She had spent eight years surrounded by a low-grade city, a low-grade orphanage, and a low-grade factory. It was enough to kill her.

But Lin Qi wasn't without a chance to turn things around. In her previous life, she had still had a small sum left after buying the blind-box service.

And given the worst possible outcome she now faced, that small sum was a fortune.

After all, it was enough for her to open her first and second Spirit Apertures, return to elementary school, and set foot on the immortal path.

Thirty thousand Spirit Stone Vouchers.

She had placed those thirty thousand Spirit Stone Vouchers in a secret account, to be used in her next life.

Of course, because of Corporate Alliance regulations, she had only been able to withdraw the money after her eighth birthday not long ago.

Lin Qi had over a century of experience. Naturally, she couldn't possibly rush off with the money and open a Spirit Aperture right away.

For she had discovered that someone at her orphanage might actually obtain an enrollment place through a factory recommendation.

She decided to make a big gamble for the sake of her potential on the immortal path!

She would keep half, at least ensuring that she could enroll and return to the path of immortal cultivation. As for the other half,

as mentioned above, she was going to gamble.

She knew that the factory's nominee would receive a low-interest loan of fifteen thousand Spirit Stone Vouchers.

And that loan would almost certainly be used to open a second Spirit Aperture.

So Lin Qi would use an equal amount of Spirit Stone Vouchers to gamble against Lü Yuan for the chance to open a second Spirit Aperture!

As for where the Spirit Stone Vouchers for the wager came from-

In an environment like the orphanage, where everyone had received prenatal education, she could pass five thousand of them off as five years' wages.

The remaining ten thousand could be passed off as support from her biological parents, who had come back.

And that was the whole story behind Lin Qi standing before Lü Yuan and saying she wanted to challenge him.

Hearing Lü Yuan raise his head and proudly declare himself a "special-grade third-class worker,"

even Lin Qi, who had been a dignified Purple Mansion True Person with two Divine Abilities in her previous life, would have been lying if she said she wasn't nervous.

It had nothing to do with experience, or with cultivation.

It was entirely because, given Lü Yuan's body-tempering strength, if he gave her no chance and simply threw a punch, she wouldn't have any hope of winning.

Though they had no Spirit Apertures and couldn't cultivate immortality, body tempering and beast-of-burden martial arts were essential on the assembly line.

Lin Qi wasn't good at those things, but Lü Yuan happened to excel at them. Otherwise, he wouldn't have received the factory's recommendation.

So of course what she wanted to wager on with Lü Yuan wasn't who could fight better.

At that thought, Lin Qi stepped forward, and Lü Yuan narrowed his eyes at the movement.

Interesting. Instead of backing away, she's coming toward me?

Low-grade third-class worker, I acknowledge your will to dominate. At a time like this, you actually dare challenge me, a factory nominee and special-grade third-class worker.

Then I'll reluctantly grant you a defeat!

With that thought, Lü Yuan stepped forward as well.

As he advanced, he loosened up his muscles and joints, considering how to avoid killing the low-grade third-class worker before him with one punch.

"Wait-" Lin Qi raised her hand and spoke softly. "I said I wanted to challenge you, but I didn't say I wanted to fight."

Lü Yuan thought she was making fun of him. "You're here to pick a fight, aren't you?"

"Forget it. I don't know how a low-grade third-class worker like you dares provoke me, but I'd better beat you up first after all. For no other reason than that I, Lord Lü, want to take you down a peg!"

"Wait, wait-"

Lin Qi cried out hastily, afraid that if she were a moment too late, Lü Yuan would punch her to sleep.

"What I mean is, don't you want a more interesting challenge?"

"We could even put something on the line for it-"

"For example, I'll put up fifteen thousand Spirit Stone Vouchers... five years of my wages, plus the compensation our biological parents gave me a while ago."

"And you'll put up one chance to open a Spirit Aperture. Nominees usually get two chances to open Spirit Apertures, don't they?"

"Well, what do you say to that wager? Do you dare sign a contract?"

"Only the strong deserve this potential on the immortal path!"

When Lin Qi finished speaking, she stared straight at Lü Yuan. She paid no attention to how badly her words had crushed the other children her age in the cafeteria.

Nor did she care that their expressions had instantly turned obsequious after she revealed her potential on the immortal path.

She simply waited for Lü Yuan's answer.

"Interesting," Lü Yuan murmured.

Fifteen thousand Spirit Stone Vouchers—that was fifteen years' wages for an ordinary third-class worker.

Leaving aside whether the money had really come from where the girl who had suddenly appeared before him claimed-

the mere fact that she dared propose such an earth-shaking wager was enough to make everyone present's hearts pound.

She's putting her own future on the line to gamble for a better one?

Was her name Lin Qi?

You, even though you were just a low-grade third-class worker before, I never expected you to have such a profound heart for the Dao!

So, would Lü Yuan accept the wager?

Or would he painfully give up the temptation of fifteen years' wages and walk away?

Everyone present had the same question on their minds.

Gambling was common in their capitalist immortal cultivation world, but among lower beasts of burden like them, stakes this high were unprecedented.

They asked themselves and knew they definitely couldn't make a judgment on the spot, firstly because they were young and ignorant, and secondly because the temptation was too great.

The choice was far too difficult.

Lin Qi also thought Lü Yuan would hesitate and ponder for a long time.

Even though she didn't think someone from the lower classes, especially an eight-year-old child, could resist such temptation.

After all, could you still want a future and not want money?

But making a decision would surely require a prolonged inner struggle.

Yet, to her surprise, she found that there had been no hesitation in Lü Yuan's eyes from beginning to end.

There was no surprise at how she had come by such a large sum of money.

Nor was he awed by her "earth-shaking wager."

After a moment of distraction, he simply smiled and looked at himself, his gaze full of "appreciation" for himself.

"All right."

Lü Yuan had already answered before Lin Qi had even said what the contest would be.

"I haven't said what we'll compete in yet," Lin Qi said.

"Anything will do," Lü Yuan said casually. "As long as you're not being unreasonable, I'll take you on at whatever you choose."

"After all, just like you said-"

"Only the strong deserve potential on the immortal path."