Volume 1, Chapter 1 – Ten Years

[Gender Swap, No Marriage, Girls’ Love, a vast world setting, and plenty of chapters to keep you fed… Dive in with confidence!!]

[There will be male disciples in the sect, but the female lead will only take female disciples. There won’t be any melodramatic nonsense!]

[The protagonist will have max-level cultivation, but having cultivation does not automatically mean knowing how to do everything.]

[Writing is not easy. I can’t guarantee everyone will like it. If you don’t, you can stop reading, but please don’t mindlessly bash it…]

[Realms: Qi Refinement, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Spirit Transformation, Void Return, Body Integration, Mahayana, Tribulation Transcendence, Immortal Ascension.]

[If you’re planning to follow this book for the long haul, you can leave your name. It may randomly appear in the story later, joining Palace Master Gu Han in battle across the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands…]

The cold wind was like knives, scraping across the drafty walls and drawing out a mournful, whistling wail.

A frail girl was curled up on an icy plank bed.

The thin quilt covering her body was patched all over. It felt more like psychological comfort than actual warmth, unable to keep in even the slightest trace of heat.

Several holes gaped open in the roof, and wan moonlight slanted down through them, illuminating her pale, gaunt profile.

Her name was Gu Han, a transmigrator from another world.

Back then, “he” had still been a man.

But an accident had brought him to this unfamiliar world of cultivation and trapped him inside the body of a young girl.

She had none of the original owner’s memories and had no idea where she was supposed to go.

Then that old man appeared.

“Little girl, I can see that your natural talent is extraordinary. You’re a fine seedling for cultivation.”

The old man looked every bit like an immortal sage. Right in front of her, he conjured a flower out of thin air.

Gu Han had just transmigrated and had never seen anything like it. She was so excited she nearly jumped up.

“Really? Daoist Master, are you going to take me as your disciple?”

“No hurry. Come back to the temple with me and stay there first. This poor Daoist will observe you for a while.”

The old man stroked his beard, a flicker of amusement flashing through his eyes.

Without a second thought, Gu Han believed him and followed him to that dilapidated place called the Heavenly Maiden Temple.

And just like that, she stayed there for three years.

During those three years, the old man never taught her a single thing. Day after day, all he had her do was chop firewood, haul water, and sweep.

“Master, can you teach me some spells today?”

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In the first year, she had still chased after him with eager anticipation.

“What are you in such a rush for? Before cultivating immortality, one must first cultivate the heart. These chores are meant to temper your character!”

The old man always kept a stern face and tossed out one vague line after another.

“Master, when exactly can I begin cultivating?”

By the second year, confusion and a hint of impatience had begun to creep into her voice.

“The time has not yet come. Just do what you’re told!”

The old man only sounded more and more irritated.

At first, she thought he was testing her. After all, this was the same old routine from those storybooks.

But as the days dragged on, Gu Han gradually ran out of patience.

She had even tried sneaking away a few times.

But every single time, the moment she went down the mountain, the old man would appear like a ghost and drag her right back.

“You little brat, stay put on this mountain. Run away? Let me tell you, not a chance!”

There was an indescribable severity in the old man’s voice.

Then, two days ago, he said he needed to go out for a while and left.

Gu Han was secretly delighted and immediately grew restless.

She calculated when he might return and mapped out escape routes in her head again and again.

That very night, she picked up her bundle and was just about to go down the mountain when she saw it.

She saw him.

The old man who had always seemed unfathomable to her was lying halfway down the mountain like a heap of mud, not a breath left in him.

Gu Han froze where she stood, her hands and feet turning cold.

She had no idea how he had died, but looking at that wrinkled face, she could not quite describe what she felt.

Did she hate him? Of course, a little.

Those three years of living like a beast of burden were all because of him.

But there was also a trace of sadness and disappointment.

She was sad because the old man was gone, and from now on, she would be all alone.

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She was disappointed because he had died before teaching her how to cultivate.

In the end, she still dug a pit, buried him hastily, and set up a wooden grave marker.

After finishing all that, she went back to the temple and lay there for two whole days.

That tiny hope called “cultivation” that had sustained her for three years vanished along with the old man’s death.

She was free now.

But that freedom had come too suddenly, and she was not prepared for it at all.

Lying on the bed, she stared at the bleak moon outside the window with hollow eyes.

“To hell with this transmigration…”

“Even a hell-mode start should come with some kind of beginner’s gift pack, right?”

“A system? Some old grandpa?”

“Anything at all. It’s already been three years. Can something at least say a word?!”

And yet, the only thing that answered her was even colder wind pouring through the holes in the roof, along with the rumbling protests of her empty stomach.

Struggling to her feet, she searched the old man’s room from top to bottom and found nothing but a few taels of broken silver and several coarse grain cakes as hard as stone.

She gnawed at the cakes bit by bit with cold water.

The next day, she went down the mountain to the tiny village at its foot, a place with only a handful of households.

“Well, if it isn’t the little girl from the temple up on the mountain?”

Old Li, who was sunning himself at the village entrance, narrowed his eyes as he looked her over.

“Rare guest.”

Gu Han forced out a smile and clutched the small piece of broken silver in her hand.

“Grandpa Li, I… I want to trade this for some food.”

Several women gathered around, staring curiously at her delicate yet haggard face.

“Girl, where’s your master? Why didn’t he come down with you?”

One of the women asked.

“He… passed away a few days ago.”

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Gu Han spoke in a low voice, a tremor in it.

“Ah, that old man had a hard life too.”

Aunt Wang sighed and took the broken silver.

“Wait here. I’ll get you some newly milled millet and a bit of dried vegetables from my house.”

Gu Han took the small sack of grain and thanked her softly.

“Thank you, Aunt Wang.”

“Girl, what are you planning to do from now on?”

Old Li tapped his pipe against the ground.

“It’s no long-term solution for a young girl to keep watch over that broken-down temple by herself.”

“Our village may be poor, but the young men here are honest enough.”

“If you don’t mind, then…”

“Thank you for your kindness, Grandpa Li.”

Gu Han cut him off, lowering her eyes and avoiding his probing gaze.

“I… haven’t decided yet.”

She practically fled the village.

Get married? Not in this lifetime.

When she returned to the temple and looked at that blurred statue of the Heavenly Maiden, she suddenly realized that the place she had once desperately wanted to escape had become the only shelter she had left.

“Forget it,” she told herself, her voice so light it sounded like a sigh. “I’ll make do and stay here for now…”

And that “for now” lasted another full seven years.

Seven years were enough to wear down many things.

The frail and pretty girl from back then was long gone.

Now she stood a little taller and bore the outline of a mature woman, though it was hidden beneath coarse hemp clothing.

Only her hands remained the same: large-knuckled, with thick calluses across the palms, telling the story of ten years of hardship.

Her eyes were so still they were like a pool of dead water.

Only when she lowered her head and caught sight of the full curves on her chest would an indescribably complicated emotion flash through her eyes.

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Most of the time, she remained silent. Only when she went down the mountain and dealt with the few villagers would she reveal the sort of smile that had nearly gone numb.

“Girl, here to trade for millet again?”

“Mm. Uncle Zhang, these are wild mushrooms I dried myself. Do you want them?”

“Of course I do. The vegetables you grow are even better than ours!”

“Girl, it’s cold out. Put on some more clothes.”

“Thank you, Auntie. Aren’t I doing just fine like this?”

Over the years, she patched the holes in the roof, cleared the weeds from the courtyard, and opened up a small vegetable patch.

She also learned how to identify nonpoisonous mushrooms in the mountains, and the crude traps she set would occasionally catch a pheasant or a wild rabbit.

The money the old man had left behind had run out in the very first year.

For the six years after that, she survived entirely on her own.

Life was like a dull knife, grinding away all her sharp edges and temper bit by bit, until she had almost grown used to this body.

Even the unwillingness and anger she had once felt toward transmigration and changing sex had become blurred under the pressure of survival day after day.

The old man she had once both hated and feared had also grown hazy in her memory.

All she really remembered was his skinny figure, his clouded yet keen eyes, and that ridiculous lie about her having extraordinary talent.

Cultivation?

Cultivation my ass!

Over those seven years, she searched every corner of the temple.

But aside from one or two old Daoist robes bleached pale by time and a few comic-style picture books, there was nothing.

No secret manuals. No pills.

This so-called Heavenly Maiden Temple had nothing to do with cultivation at all besides its grand-sounding name.

That old man had probably lured her there in the first place just so she could care for him in his old age and bury him when he died.

Once she figured that out, the last bit of unrealistic hope she had been clinging to snapped as well.

And so the days passed, one after another…

Until the final day of her tenth year in this world.