Volume 1, Chapter 192 – Startled Awakening

A Qi slowly loosened his collar, but still didn’t dare actually undress.

“A man ought to act like a man. What are you squirming for?”

Shi Lan yanked A Qi over to the tub, gave his tattered clothes a couple of hard tugs, leaving only his underpants, and tossed him into the barrel.

In Shi Lan’s eyes, A Qi was just a child. Besides, it wasn’t as if she didn’t understand a man’s body. Naturally, she felt no discomfort at all.

Falling into the tub and wrapped in the warm medicinal liquid, A Qi only felt his face burning like fire, his blood surging straight to his head.

A pair of hands settled on his shoulders. Before A Qi could react, a stabbing pain drilled through him. Unable to endure it, he let out a miserable scream.

Crack!

Hearing that scream, Shi Lan’s fingers trembled. It felt as if a mirror shattered in her heart, and her thoughts suddenly came alive.

What… was she doing?

Shi Lan took a step back, raised a hand to her forehead, her gaze somewhat dazed.

Just because of some inheritance left behind by a person who’d died who knows how long ago, because of some incomprehensible “trial,” she was interfering in someone else’s life, dragging a child down with her?

From beginning to end, she had never once asked A Qi what he wanted. She’d made decisions on her own, acting purely on her own will.

What was worse was that she’d actually had thoughts of actively starting a war?

Since when… had she become this kind of person?

Cold sweat seeped down her back in thin lines. Shi Lan’s eyes flickered, her breathing growing heavier.

From the moment she stepped into this world, she’d never even considered refusing the trial. She just started planning how to complete it, letting a strand of divine will lead her by the nose…

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She… had let a dead man dictate her actions?

A Qi turned his head and saw the shifting, stormy look on Shi Lan’s face, and he panicked a little.

“Sister Lan… I…”

Shi Lan’s expression gradually calmed. She lifted her head to gaze at the ceiling of the guest room, as if her eyes pierced layer after layer of planks and swept across the sky beyond.

Where exactly… was this world?

After a long silence, Shi Lan lowered her head, looked at A Qi, and asked in an even tone, “A Qi… what kind of person do you want to become?”

“…”

Seeing that Shi Lan wasn’t angry, A Qi let out a breath, thought for a while, and said, “A rich man…”

Then he added,

“With more silver than I can ever spend…”

A Qi knew that dream was unlikely. After all, even someone as powerful as Shi Lan was short on silver.

She could only afford such a ragged skirt, and when she saw the silver they took off those two strongmen, she’d been as happy as Old Hongtou seeing a roast chicken…

But if it could be achieved easily, it wouldn’t be called a dream.

What a… practical dream.

Shi Lan’s feelings were a bit mixed. Once upon a time, that had been her dream too.

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“This dream… will be very hard to achieve…” Shi Lan said slowly. Then her tone shifted. “But I can teach you skills. Maybe one day, you can become the richest person under heaven. Do you want to learn?”

Sneaking a look at the hem of Shi Lan’s skirt, patched all over and even missing a piece, A Qi fell silent.

Though Shi Lan was amazing, if she really had that kind of ability, she probably wouldn’t be this miserable.

He didn’t believe it at all in his heart, but A Qi still grinned, nodding hard.

If Shi Lan was going to teach him skills, that meant she’d keep him by her side. As long as he could always follow Shi Lan, whether he became rich or not didn’t really matter.

“Good.”

Shi Lan nodded, the corner of her mouth lifting slightly. She flexed her fingers and stepped forward. “It might hurt even more than just now. Bear with it. It’s good for your body.”

In terms of entering the martial path, A Qi was no longer that young, and his body was rather thin and weak. This tub of medicinal liquid, combined with Shi Lan kneading his muscles and bones, could replenish him with a bit of vital energy and lay a solid foundation.

…

An hour later, Shi Lan hauled the already unconscious A Qi out of the tub, roughly wiped him down a couple of times, threw him onto the bed, pulled the covers over him, then left the room and closed the door.

Back in her own room, after bathing, Shi Lan changed the medicine on the wound on her leg.

The Flesh-Regrowing Powder was working wonderfully. The cut on her leg had already scabbed over; it wouldn’t be many days before she was fully healed.

Shi Lan pushed open the window, sat on the sill, and stared at the horizon, her gaze cold and sharp.

Her earlier abnormal state was definitely inseparable from the Guiyun Sword Sovereign.

Being played by a dead man—Sovereign or not—still left a shadow in her heart.

The dead ought to act like the dead. Dying, then still causing trouble for the living…

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“Thud—clatter, clatter…”

The heavy beat of hooves mixed with the rumble of wheels sounded, as a convoy hundreds of zhang long passed along the street below.

Black-armored soldiers in full gear surrounded the convoy, escorting all kinds of construction materials toward the city outskirts.

Shi Lan glanced down twice, then withdrew her gaze, stood up, and shut the window.

From this moment on, all the turmoil of the Qianyuan Dynasty had nothing to do with her.

It was only three years at most. She’d just treat it as enjoying the sights of another world once more.

Sitting on the bed, Shi Lan suddenly felt relaxed, with nothing in particular to do. Bored, she began to inspect the system’s functions, wondering if she could find any loopholes.

After checking for a while, Shi Lan actually made two new discoveries.

Of the two divine abilities she’d mastered, Heaven’s Eye Qi-Sight was completely unaffected, while Black Domain made her head feel like it was splitting open the instant she tried to activate it. Clearly, with her current cultivation, she was nowhere near qualified to use it.

Aside from the divine abilities, Shi Lan also found the one function of the system that could still run normally.

The system’s virtual space.

This was a function she hadn’t used in a very long time.

…

Upon entering the system’s virtual space, that familiar, immense power flooded her whole body. Her heart felt free and unrestrained, without the slightest constraint.

With a thought, the plain cloth skirt on her body vanished, and the Yueji Skirt draped over her.

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Lightly clenching her palm, Shi Lan looked around once and said,

“Begin environment simulation: Tenglong City… Shi Residence.”

The white, blank space twisted, transforming into a scene deeply familiar from Shi Lan’s memories.

Following the small path back to her own room, Shi Lan lay down on the bed.

The environmental simulation was so realistic that if not for her clear mind preventing her from falling asleep, Shi Lan would have almost believed she’d truly returned to the real Shi Residence—there wasn’t the slightest difference.

“Begin environment simulation: Shi family training ground.” Shi Lan rose to her feet and spoke slowly, her expression calm from start to finish.

The room vanished in an instant, replaced by a training ground paved in bluestone.

Shi Lan opened the character simulation list. The four characters “Guiyun Sword Sovereign” at the very top were somewhat glaring.

She stared for a long time at the “simulation degree: one in ten thousand” written after the Guiyun Sword Sovereign’s name, then tapped it.

[Character Simulation Function activated. Target: Guiyun Sword Sovereign. Current simulation degree: one in ten thousand. Adjust?]

“Don’t adjust.”

Shi Lan hesitated for a moment but did not change the simulation degree.

As soon as she spoke, a young man in black robes stepped out of the void—the very same man she’d seen seated atop the jade steps in the Guiyuan Hall.

A figure who had been dead for who knew how many tens of thousands of years.