Chapter 9: Beginning Cultivation

After quickly finishing her own simple yet filling supper in a corner of the courtyard, Qingyun put the bowls and chopsticks back into the food box and placed it together with Yueli’s larger one in a conspicuous spot beneath the corridor outside.

Huzi would come later to collect them. After that, she returned to the room and began tidying the side room.

Just as she had expected, the side room had indeed been meant as a place for servants to rest temporarily. It was extremely cramped, with space for only a bed and a cabinet, and there was also a small window in the wall.

Fortunately, it seemed someone had lived there before. Though a thin layer of dust had gathered, there was not much clutter, so cleaning it was not difficult.

Qingyun dipped an old cloth in water and wiped down the bedboard, the small cabinet, and the floor. Then she opened the little window to let some air in. After that, this tiny patch of space finally began to look somewhat tidy.

Once she had finished cleaning and judged that the time was about right, Qingyun returned quietly to the outer room.

Sure enough, Yueli had already eaten.

On the old wooden table, more than half of her dishes had been emptied. About half the white rice was gone, but several of the dishes had scarcely been touched, especially the plates of meat, which had only been picked at here and there.

“What a waste...” Qingyun muttered under her breath.

She did not mean it affectingly. It was simply the habit of someone raised in poverty, unable to bear seeing food squandered.

Her hands moved quickly as she gathered the leftovers back into the food box, closed the lid, and carefully wiped the table clean again.

Then she carried both food boxes to the courtyard entrance and set them on the low stone platform she had noticed earlier that afternoon, a place clearly meant for placing used dishes to be collected. That way, when Huzi came to fetch them, he would not need to enter the courtyard, and no one would be disturbed.

By the time she finished all this, the sky had already gone fully dark. No lanterns were hung in the courtyard. Only dim moonlight spilled down, casting the plants and grasses into shifting shadows. Inside the house, Yueli’s door had long since shut, and not a sound came from within.

Qingyun returned to her own narrow side room and closed the door. At last, the day’s work had come to an end.

She sat on the wooden bed, hard enough to press painfully through the thin bedding, and changed into another set of old, pale-colored clothes she had brought with her, to use as sleepwear.

Compared with the farm work and household chores that often kept her busy until deep into the night at her parents’ home, today’s sweeping and tidying truly did not count as heavy labor. Yet the strain of keeping herself tense all day and adapting to an unfamiliar environment still left her feeling a faint exhaustion.

“So, now I finally have the time...” She drew in a deep breath and, with both anticipation and a trace of unease, called out silently in her heart, “System.”

Within her consciousness, that familiar light screen appeared once more. The information on it was the same as what she had seen at dusk, except that the line marked 【Cultivation Method】had changed from “None” to “Longevity Art.”

【Name: Qingyun (ordinary-looking)】

【Bone Age: 14】

【Cultivation Realm: Mortal (has not yet drawn qi into the body)】

【Spirit Root Aptitude: Mutated dual ice-lightning attribute (one in ten thousand)】

【Innate Foundation and Comprehension: Outstanding natural talent; soul strength far beyond the ordinary】

【Cultivation Method: Longevity Art (not yet initiated)】

【Owned Magic Treasure: None】

Looking at those few lines, especially “Longevity Art (not yet initiated)” and the still glaring word “Mortal,” the heat in Qingyun’s heart cooled somewhat, giving way to a more practical frame of mind.

Rather than beginning cultivation at once, she wanted first to understand this “system” that had come along with her.

She tried communicating with it in her mind, as though talking to herself, or perhaps asking a question. “Do you... have an awareness of your own? Or are you merely a fixed set of functions?”

The light screen hung there in silence, without the slightest response. Not even a ripple stirred.

Qingyun waited a moment, then tried another question. “Where did you come from? And why did you choose me?”

Still there was only silence.

It seemed this was not an entity with intelligence that could carry on a conversation. It was more like a “tool” or “interface” with preset functions, responding only to certain commands or states.

Then what counted as a certain command?

Qingyun thought back to the process by which she had obtained 《Longevity Art》. It had happened when her will had strongly focused on the need for a basic cultivation method.

Perhaps... it required instructions that were more specific, more suited to its “functions.”

She remembered the system-based novels she had read in her previous life. They often had modules such as a “shop,” “lottery,” or “quests.”

After hesitating briefly, and with a half-testing, half-joking attitude, she formed a clear thought in her mind:

“Open the system shop.”

This time, something changed.

It was not the light screen, but rather a clear and pleasant young woman’s voice, even carrying a trace of lively spirit, that suddenly sounded directly beside her ear:

【The host’s current Spirit Source reserves are insufficient. Unable to open the ‘Myriad Methods Pavilion’ (shop module).】

The moment she heard that voice, Qingyun’s heart jolted violently.

It was crisp and pleasant, utterly different from the cold, rigid mechanical startup notification from before. It sounded far closer to a real person, and... there was even a faint, indescribable familiarity to it. It was as though she had heard it somewhere before.

Yet she searched through the memories of both her past and present lives and still could not grasp where that elusive sense of familiarity came from.

At that moment, she had no leisure to dwell on it. Her attention was caught instead by the content of the words.

“Spirit Source reserves insufficient? Unable to open?” She hurriedly followed up. “Then how is this Spirit Source obtained?”

That pleasant female voice rang out again, this time with the smooth, businesslike cadence of something reciting a fixed entry:

【To open and maintain the operation of core modules such as the ‘Myriad Methods Pavilion,’ ‘Spirit Source’ must be consumed. Spirit Source may be acquired by absorbing and refining heavenly treasures containing unusual energies, such as: high-year spirit herbs, rare ores, demon beast inner cores, high-purity spirit stones, incense-faith crystals, fragments of golden merit light, and so forth.】

Qingyun listened in complete astonishment.

Spirit herbs? Ores? Demon beast inner cores? Spirit stones? And then things like faith crystals and merit fragments?

She had never seen a single one of these things, and had never even heard of them!

In this world where she had lived for more than ten years, a world where she knew only of martial artists and gang qi, did such things truly exist? And where was she supposed to find them?

In an instant, she felt as though she had fallen from the cloud of hope that had just begun to rise back into the cold valley of reality.

This system sounded powerful, but the conditions for activating it were so harsh that it was practically nothing more than a grand promise hanging impossibly far out of reach.

“Forget it...” Her shoulders slumped with discouragement. But she soon drew in another deep breath and forced herself to rally.

“Food must be eaten one bite at a time, and a road must be walked one step at a time. How could immortal cultivation and eternal life ever be achieved in a single leap?”

At the very least, the system had already given her the most important key—《Longevity Art》.

The shop could not be opened for now. Perhaps other functions still remained to be discovered. But at present, the most practical thing was to take the first step onto the path of cultivation.

As she thought this, the restlessness in her heart gradually settled.

Determination returned to her gaze.

She sat cross-legged upon the hard wooden bed. Her posture was far from standard, merely copied from what she had once seen on television in her previous life. Then she closed her eyes and tried to calm herself.

After that, her consciousness sank into her mind, and she began carefully to “read” and comprehend the introductory section of 《Longevity Art》, already branded into her memory.

The obscure text and diagrams, under some invisible aid from the system, transformed into meanings she could understand:

How to regulate her breathing. How to still the mind and turn her gaze inward. How to sense and guide that intangible, elusive “spiritual qi of heaven and earth” into her body, completing the very first step of “drawing qi into the body.”

The night deepened, and the moonlight beyond the little window grew cool and clear.

Within the cramped side room, Qingyun cast aside all distractions and began her first true attempt at cultivation in this world.