Volume 1, Chapter 279 – Fortune

After giving her a thorough examination and finding nothing seriously wrong, the doctor prescribed some traditional medicine to relax the muscles and promote circulation, and Ning An was discharged that very day.

Senior year was already a busy time. In less than two months, she would be preparing for the college entrance examination, so Ning An had no time to waste in the hospital.

…

Qin Yinhua took two days of leave from school for Ning An, sent her home to rest, then hurried off to her company. She worked as an internal control manager at a publicly listed company and earned a very good income.

As for Ning An’s father, Ning Kangping, he worked in a government department. His rank was neither especially high nor low, at the deputy division level. In a small county like this one, that was already enough to put him among the notable figures. Compared to ordinary families, theirs could be considered extremely well-off.

Hidden within Ning An’s sea of consciousness, Shi Lan watched her lying on the bed reviewing some long-unfamiliar textbook material and felt rather bored for a while.

Just as she was beginning to feel stifled from idleness, a flash of inspiration suddenly crossed Shi Lan’s mind. With a shift of thought, she began to circulate the Secret Canon of Spirit Refinement: Soul-Expansion Chapter, which she had only recently obtained.

As the cultivation method began to operate, threads of yin qi seeped out of the void and slowly gathered around her from all directions.

Shi Lan’s soul trembled lightly and began to strengthen bit by bit. Though the speed was not as fast as it had been in the Lingyang Realm, the gap was surprisingly not that great.

Those wisps of yin qi nourished Shi Lan’s soul, while at the same time a portion of their energy spilled over and seeped into Ning An’s body.

Ning An, who had been lying on the bed growing increasingly irritable from working through problems, suddenly felt a coolness on her forehead, and all of her frustration vanished.

Though she was no longer annoyed, Ning An nevertheless felt an inexplicable chill in her heart. She flipped over and dived under the blanket, wrapping herself up tightly with only half her head exposed. While glancing around the room in every direction, she unlocked her phone and started playing the Great Compassion Mantra, muttering to herself all the while.

Seeing Ning An’s reaction, Shi Lan could not help finding it a little amusing. After watching for a couple of moments, she sank back into cultivation. Since this method could indeed be cultivated, staying in this world was not too much of a waste of time.

Ning An’s body was already tired to begin with, and listening to the Great Compassion Mantra, she soon drifted off into a heavy sleep without even noticing.

…

…

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Knock… knock-knock…

“An’an, open the door.”

Ning An groggily opened her eyes, got out of bed, and pulled open the door.

“Dad…”

A middle-aged man in formal clothes and glasses stood outside.

“How are you feeling? Still hurting?”

Ning Kangping asked the question with a calm expression, though concern showed in his eyes. Years of work had made him accustomed to controlling his facial expressions.

Only then did Ning An fully come back to herself. She moved her arm and looked a little surprised.

“It seems… not as painful anymore…”

Not only did it not hurt, it even felt a little comfortable. Her arms seemed to have more strength in them.

“Take care of yourself.”

Seeing that Ning An seemed fine, Ning Kangping nodded, gave her a brief reminder, then turned and went into the study, his steps looking somewhat hurried.

…

The next morning, Ning An woke once more to the familiar soreness. But this time, it was far less unbearable than it had been the day before.

After lying at home for two days, Ning An had no choice but to endure the soreness and start going back to school.

At this final stage of cramming for the college entrance examination, it was obviously not enough to stay home and just work through problems by herself.

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Even if she did poorly on the exam, with her family background she could still live a comfortable life without worry. But she did not want to miss this chance to compete with most people her own age, nor did she want to keep relying on her parents forever.

Ding—

Ning An slipped into the classroom right on time, attracting quite a few glances. Bent over slightly, she hurried all the way back to her seat at a trot.

“I took notes for you for the past two days.”

The moment she sat down, a gentle voice came from behind her.

The instant Ning An turned around, Shi Lan, who had been cultivating in her mind, suddenly opened her eyes.

“Current world’s Child of Fortune ‘Lin Mo’ detected.”

“Mission module not activated. Mission assignment failed…”

Because she was in soul form, Shi Lan’s senses were exceptionally sharp. Her whole being tensed as she felt several gazes locking firmly onto Ning An.

Following those gazes back, she saw only a few students, male and female alike, none of whom looked particularly unusual.

But with Shi Lan’s current eyesight, it only took an instant for her to realize that blood had definitely stained those people’s hands, and not just a little of it. They were absolutely not ordinary students.

…

“Thank you.”

Ning An’s face reddened slightly as she accepted the notebook Lin Mo handed her.

A young girl in the first stirrings of love was obvious enough. She clearly liked Lin Mo.

Lin Mo’s appearance was plain, at most somewhat delicate, but there was a special quality about him that naturally made people feel well-disposed toward him.

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“What is a Child of Fortune?”

Shi Lan tried asking the All-Heavens Samsara System for an answer.

“In worlds below the middle grade, the world consciousness is relatively underdeveloped. It will often concentrate most of the world’s fortune and destiny in one place, using fortune to nourish fortune and destiny to generate even greater fortune. Over long years of accumulation, this raises the world’s overall level.

“The carrier of that fortune and destiny is the Child of Fortune. The entire world exists for him.”

So that meant Lin Mo was the center of this entire world, or perhaps an incarnation of the world consciousness itself…

It was Shi Lan’s first time encountering this sort of existence, and she could not help feeling somewhat astonished.

If that was the case, then those few people who clearly did not look like anything good had probably come with some purpose in mind.

…

More than a month passed in the blink of an eye, leaving only a dozen or so days before the college entrance examination.

Ning An had completely entered the final sprint toward the exam. The soreness she had felt before gradually faded away, and every morning when she woke up, she instead felt refreshed and full of strength, as though she had energy to spare.

Aside from that, her appetite had become astonishing, and she had developed an especially intense craving for meat.

At first, she simply ate a few extra bowls of rice. Later on, she was eating over twenty jin of beef in a single meal. An appetite like that was obviously far from normal.

Ning Kangping and Qin Yinhua had both noticed these changes. At first they were very worried, but after taking her to the hospital several times and finding nothing abnormal, they could only let it be.

According to the doctors, Ning An was built like an ox and healthier than most ordinary people.

Ning An herself had also noticed that something was wrong. She felt as though her strength had grown by a great deal. But at the moment, her mind was entirely on her studies. Whatever it was, she wanted to wait until after the college entrance examination to deal with it.

…

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Late at night, just as usual, evening self-study ended and Ning An followed the crowd out through the school gate.

“An’an, something came up for Mom today, so I can’t come pick you up. Take a taxi home yourself, okay? Call me when you get back.”

“Okay.”

Ning An hung up the phone, looked around, and stepped into the bustling crowd.

There were too many people trying to get taxis. Ning An waited for more than half an hour and still could not get one. As the school lights behind her gradually went out, she could not help growing anxious.

“Why aren’t you home yet?”

An old-looking bicycle stopped beside Ning An. It was Lin Mo.

After hearing Ning An’s explanation, Lin Mo scratched his head, turned around, pulled two stacks of exercise booklets out of the basket in front of the bike, laid them on the back seat as padding, and smiled at her.

“Get on. I’ll take you.”

“Wouldn’t that be kind of inappropriate? It’s almost midnight, and my house is still a bit far from here.”

“Get on.”

Lin Mo repeated himself.

Left with no choice, Ning An sat sideways on the back seat, carefully gripping the corner of Lin Mo’s shirt, her heartbeat quickening of its own accord.

Ring-ring… ring…

The bicycle gradually went farther and farther away. With midnight approaching, some of the streetlights on the road had already gone out. To save time, Lin Mo began taking shortcuts and turned into a dark alley.