Volume 1, Chapter 2 – The System

Shi Lan let out a long sigh. Just as she was worrying about her future, a searing hunger suddenly flared in her belly.

She frowned uncomfortably, struggled to climb to her feet, and staggered toward the wardrobe.

Pulling open the wardrobe door, Shi Lan, with practiced ease, fished out a bundle from beneath a few sets of simple men’s clothes.

Inside were some dry rations the former Shi Lan had prepared for herself. Sometimes Shi Tianlu would summon her to dine with him. She had a kind of innate fear of Shi Tianlu; with him sitting there, she didn’t even dare move her chopsticks much, so she was often left half-hungry.

After the meal broke up, because of her timid nature, she didn’t dare go to the kitchens on her own and ask for extra food.

Over time, the old Shi Lan had formed the habit of stashing some dry rations to fill her stomach in case of need.

Shi Lan wolfed the food down, choking so hard on the dry rations her eyes bulged. After swallowing several times and finally getting something into her stomach, she at last felt a bit of strength return to her body.

Catching her breath, Shi Lan brushed the crumbs from her hands, shuffled over to the desk, picked up the teapot, and began to soothe her throat, which felt as if it hadn’t seen moisture in ages.

As the cool tea slid down, Shi Lan couldn’t help a full-body shiver, then let out a long exhale, feeling comfortable from head to toe.

“Ding~ All-Heavens Reincarnation System binding in progress…”

“Scanning host sta… status…”

A mechanical voice echoed in Shi Lan’s mind.

Shi Lan’s hand jerked. The teapot slipped from her fingers and shattered on the floor, shards flying everywhere.

She ignored the cold tea soaking into the soles of her feet, staring blankly ahead. In her mind, only a single thought roared back and forth: My golden finger has finally arrived!

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She didn’t notice that the system’s voice had paused for a moment.

……

Deep within Shi Lan’s sea of consciousness, a pitch-black figure floated in place. Before it hung a light screen, on which various data about Shi Lan’s body were marked out.

“How is it a woman? This time my assignment was supposed to be to the Xuanyang Continent, to bind to a man named Chu Yang.”

The shadow let out a small, surprised sound. With a casual wave, it pulled up another light screen. Streams of information flashed rapidly across it.

As he watched the data, the shadow couldn’t help but tremble slightly.

“Lingyang Realm? Headquarters’ terminal databank doesn’t even have it recorded?!”

Right at that moment, the light screen suddenly dimmed, then vanished without a trace.

The shadow stiffened, muttering in disbelief, “Coordinate lost? Connection to headquarters cut off?”

After a long moment, the shadow suddenly turned around. With a sweep of his hand, a vast spatial force surged forth, bursting out of Shi Lan’s body and shooting straight for the sky.

Shaken by the spatial force, Shi Lan instantly lost consciousness and crumpled to the ground.

That massive spatial force didn’t pause in the slightest. It blasted out of Tenglong City, piercing straight into the heavens like a sharp sword, as if it meant to tear the firmament apart.

That surge of spatial power alarmed many powerful beings within the Chengtian Domain. One after another, terrifyingly strong divine senses spanned the void, instantly enveloping the whole of Tenglong City.

Those divine senses did not rashly overturn Tenglong City in search of the source of the spatial force, but chose instead to watch quietly.

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The spatial force ripped open the sky itself. A black rift, nearly ten thousand zhang long and visible to the naked eye, appeared high above.

Threads of bone-scraping, soul-scouring Nine Heavens Astral Wind howled through it. Quite a few divine senses followed the Astral Wind inward to probe, only to suffer varying degrees of damage and hastily withdraw.

That surge of spatial power plunged into the Nine Heavens Astral Wind and gradually faded away.

The black rift in the sky began to slowly knit itself back together until, in the end, everything returned to normal.

“The one who unleashed this strike has strength at least at the fourth level of the Heaven-Man Realm.”

“This person suddenly tore open space—could they be trying to visit the outer starry sky ahead of time?”

“Heh. Without reaching the Emperor level, how could one even dare dream of meddling with the outer starry sky? Utter folly.”

The surrounding divine senses exchanged a few brief remarks. After sweeping Tenglong City several times and finding nothing out of the ordinary, they each dispersed.

From the appearance of the spatial force to the departure of those divine senses, only a few breaths had passed.

All that happened in that fleeting instant, and yet no one in Tenglong City—not even its strongest expert, Shi Tianlu—noticed a thing.

……

“Damn it, how can a world’s level be this high? The power I brought can’t even break through the world barrier…”

After the shadow in Shi Lan’s mind muttered a quiet curse, he turned back toward the light screen showing Shi Lan’s bodily data.

“Bound to a woman for the first time… this feels really damn weird.”

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The shadow twisted his body in discomfort. Once the system completed binding, he and the host shared the same root; every sensation the host’s body felt would be transmitted to him without the slightest distortion.

The myriad sensations coming from a woman’s body left him completely at a loss.

……

Shi Lan blearily pushed herself up, shook her head, and immediately felt as if a skylight had been opened in her skull, cold wind pouring straight through. It was like she’d just gulped down a massive mouthful of wasabi—every orifice felt wide open, and her head buzzed nonstop.

That intense, sharp sensation had her shivering all over; it was a bit more stimulation than she could handle.

“System? System!”

The very first thing Shi Lan did once she came back to herself was call out nervously in her heart.

In her impression, most systems were emotionless task dispensers—fail a mission and you’d be erased, or subjected to some severe punishment, forcing the host to never slack off in raising their strength.

But this suddenly-arrived system was going to be her crucial backing for surviving in the Lingyang Realm, her one and only lifeline. Right now, she just wanted to cling to it for dear life.

No voice sounded in her mind. Instead, a blue, translucent light screen slowly unfurled before her eyes.

Host: Shi Lan

Cultivation: Mortal

Cultivation Method: None

Items: None

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Resource Points: 0

Worlds Traversed: None

Worlds Available to Traverse: None

Overall Evaluation: Unknown error…

Aside from the attribute panel, the light screen also had four major sections: Quests, Lottery, Shop, and Traverse the Heavens. However, apart from the attribute panel, every other section was grayed out and wouldn’t open.

Shi Lan stared at the attribute panel in front of her for a long time, a bit unable to process it. Where’s my newbie gift pack? My newbie quest? Why is there no response at all?

“Where are the system’s other functions? Where’s my gift pack? Where’s my quest?”

Faced with Shi Lan’s three rapid-fire questions, a line of text appeared on the blue, translucent light screen.

“Current world data incomplete. Host must explore on her own.”

Shi Lan quietly stared at it for a while, then asked in confusion, “That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

Seeing those two words appear once again on the light screen, Shi Lan instantly lost hold of her temper.

“That’s it, my ass! Where’s my newbie gift pack? If you’re not giving me a gift pack, at least give me a starter quest with some kind of reward! You’re not giving me anything —what the hell do I even need you for???”