In the twilight, the dense forest appeared exceptionally tranquil, but the noise from a group of people chasing a young girl startled countless birds into flight.
The young girl was running till she was out of breath, pursued by her once trusted team members who now had a murderous look in their eyes, chasing her with knives.
Just moments ago, she had completed another assassination mission for the organization.
However, she has now become the organization's next target. She had entrusted her trust to her comrades with whom she had once fought side by side and showed them her back, only to be ruthlessly stabbed by them.
"Hurry! Anyone who kills Chu Jiuling will be rewarded two billion by the boss!"
In her weakened state, she heard her former teammates shouting crazily. Her physical strength was exhausted, and the excessive blood loss had caused her to hallucinate, but she heard that sentence loud and clear.
"Oh, two billion…"
She laughed mockingly, chiding her naïve trust, surprisingly overlooking that greed is intrinsic to human nature.
Driven to the edge of a cliff by the assailants, Chu Jiuling’s wounds continued to bleed, spattering the ground and blooming into a series of enchanting yet perilous Yantai flowers.
"Why?" She held up her frail body and asked the man in the lead for the last time.
"Don't blame me, blame your abilities being too strong and your knowledge of too many organization secrets. The boss fears you!" the leading man in black exclaimed.
Chu Jiuling laughed self-deprecatingly, "So, I was never worthy of trust…"
Then, she glanced down despairingly at the abyss below, akin to a black hole, but she was already fearless.
Under the gaze of everyone's astonishment, she leapt off, leaving behind a poignant yet despairing smile...
Chu Jiuling, after jumping off the cliff, felt as though she was trapped in a long dream.
In this dream, she saw a young girl struggling in despair, her mouth dribbling with black blood, pleading in pain on the bed for her half-sister to give her the antidote.
However, her half-sister was watching her with a sinister grin, allowing her to struggle in pain, "Set your mind at ease, after this, I will be the only young mistress of the Chu household, and the position of Prince's Consort, will eventually become mine..."
The girl's consciousness began to blur, her ears filled with the cruel laughter of her deranged half-sister.
Growing more desperate yet helpless, the girl cried out in her heart, "For heaven's sake, wouldn't someone come to help? I don't want to die, I don't want to die..."
Chu Jiuling shut her eyes tightly, knitted her brows, and initially just wanted to be a bystander to this betrayal she had just reached. But the girl's plea was so pitiful that she opened her eyes and surprisingly found herself saying, "I'll help you..."
To her astonishment, the girl actually heard her response and suddenly opened her eyes wide. But the girl's figure slowly disappeared amidst the darkness.
Looking at Chu Jiuling, the girl gave a poignant smile, saying goodbye for the last time, "Thank you, but I can't hold on any longer. Please live on for me…"
Chu Jiuling failed to comprehend what was happening. She attempted to grasp the girl's hand but couldn't feel anything.
"Wait, where are you going..." Chu Jiuling called out to the girl, but she had already disappeared.
Next, she saw everything go black in front of her, as if someone was tugging at her, pulling her away from there.
As her consciousness slowly returned, Chu Jiuling opened her eyes and tried to observe her surroundings. She found herself in a dilapidated room, a place utterly unfamiliar to her.
There wasn't much furniture or decor, the only valuable thing may have been a tea set on the table.
She looked down at her hands and her outfit. The back of her hands were riddled with frostbite, but her palm lacked the calluses from years of martial training. Though her clothes were worn out, they were clearly not from the twenty-first century.
Chu Jiuling was bewildered by her current state, she ran into the courtyard, her face reflected in the large water tank at the entrance. Although she still looked somewhat childish, Chu Jiuling knew that this was undoubtedly her face.
What exactly is going on? She recalled that her last memory was of her falling off a cliff...
Just as she was trying to sort out her thoughts, a flood of memories rushed towards her, causing her head to ache with a throbbing pain.
It was then she realized, she had transmigrated. The original owner of this body was also named Chu Jiuling, from the Chu family.
"Since we share the same name, I will live well for your sake!" she said, recalling her promise to the young girl in her dream.
The original Chu Jiuling had been unable to gather spiritual energy since she was young, and thus was incapable of cultivation. She was seen as the shame of the General Chu's family.
The concubine of the Chu family, Li Lilan, and Chu Jiuling's illegitimate sister Chu Yunfei were always coveting her identity as the legitimate daughter, they treated her horribly. Li Lilan colluded with the servants to control her daily necessities since she was a child.
Chu Yunfei and her gang often insulted or even attacked Chu Jiuling physically.
This time, Chu Jiuling died from poisoning after drinking tea that Chu Yunfei had brought.
Before she died, she begged Chu Yunfei for an antidote, but Chu Yunfei ignored her, watching her suffer in pain until she died.
Chu Jiuling had received all these memories. She felt sorry for the original Chu Jiuling's experience and clenched her fist.
"Don't worry, I will make those people pay a bloody price for their actions!" she said, the corners of her lips curling upward in a slight smile. The original Chu Jiuling had died unjustly, and she too had died betrayed by her most trusted teammate.
In a certain sense, her fate and that of the original host were quite similar!
Since she had already promised to live well for the original host, Chu Jiuling always honored her promises. She would make those who had harmed the original host pay a heavy price!
However, the first step towards revenge was to make herself stronger as soon as possible, to possess the capability for self-preservation, only then could she avenge the original host step by step.
Thinking of this, Chu Jiuling began to encounter difficulties.
Although she was a top agent from the twenty-first century, she had transmigrated to this cultivation world where spiritual energy was the source of power. She didn't even know how to cultivate, so how could she increase her own strength?
Just as she was troubled, an aged voice suddenly echoed in her mind: "Gather your qi and your strength, converge them in your dantian, convert the essence of heaven and earth to your own..."
The voice lingered in her mind, causing Chu Jiuling to feel somewhat strange. She asked cautiously: "Who is it? Who's speaking?"
No one answered her, but the voice in her heart quickly faded.
However, Chu Jiuling could clearly feel a force crashing against her lower abdomen. Rather than pain, it gave her a sensation of lightness.
According to the original host's memory, she simply sat in meditation in the courtyard. The voice in her heart rang out at just the right time, as if to instruct her what to do.
Chu Jiuling followed the voice's instructions. She could feel energies from all directions surging towards her. Near her, they coalesced into a force that rushed straight into her dantian!
As if experiencing a long-awaited rainfall after a drought, her dantian greedily absorbed this force until it could no longer accommodate any more, and only then did it stop absorbing.
Chu Jiuling stopped. She could clearly feel that the veins in her body were as if they had been unclogged, and even her body felt lighter.
"How incredible...is this cultivation?"
