Chapter 1: Go Pick Mushrooms

Early May.

It had just rained all night.

Jiang Heng got out of bed, stretched lazily, and casually opened the window.

A cool breeze swept in, making her shiver and wake up completely.

When she glanced at the vegetable patch she’d reclaimed behind the house over the past two days, an unconscious smile appeared on her face.

After just a single day, the seeds she’d planted on the first day were already sprouting green shoots.

The tomato and strawberry seedlings she planted on the second day looked vigorous as well, visibly standing tall and straight.

She really had an eye for the weather, working herself to exhaustion over two days just to finish before this rain.

She managed to catch it, and the results were just as good as people online said.

Of course, it probably helped that she’d nurtured the seeds in advance.

She enjoyed the sight with satisfaction.

Truthfully, there wasn’t much to see yet.

The plants were still small—especially the patch she’d opened up on the first day.

Even the fastest-growing ones were only just sprouting; on the large expanse of dark soil, they looked like scattered green dots.

Still, this was Jiang Heng’s first time planting a field by herself in this world.

Speaking of which, Jiang Heng had always felt a bit unlucky.

She was born in a village in a third-tier city, starting out a little behind many others.

For example, when she saw “spring outings” and “autumn excursions” on test papers as a child, she had no idea what those were.

Fortunately, while her family was poor, her parents were rare among rural families for having only one child, so her childhood was actually quite decent.

By luck, she was also good at studying.

She did even better than usual on the college entrance exam, getting into a top 985 university.

Given her limited options, she followed the crowd and chose the then-popular computer science major.

She graduated smoothly, just started working, and as life at home was finally improving, her mother fell seriously ill and needed expensive medical treatment, while her father had an accident on a construction site from overwork.

The compensation from her father’s accident happened to cover most of her mother’s medical bills.

The remaining gap emptied the family’s savings and required borrowing a bit more.

But even so, the illness couldn’t be cured.

In a single night, she lost both parents and became an orphan.

Attending their funerals one after another probably made her boss realize she had no one to rely on, and what followed was endless overtime, until she finally worked herself to death.

Yet luck favored her again.

She didn’t actually die from overwork, but instead transmigrated to the Cultivation World, her soul taking over an orphan with the same name.

Unfortunately, because she had water, wood, and earth as her three Spiritual Root, as soon as she arrived, she was unlucky enough to be captured by a Demonic Cultivator and forced to work as a medicinal herb servant.

Luckily, she only endured for ten years before the Demonic Cultivator was wiped out by the Righteous Path.

The unfortunates like her were rescued, and she took the chance to join a Sect, becoming an ordinary Outer Sect Disciple and diligently cultivating.

Perhaps because she had experienced so much in her short life, she maintained a good mindset and was lucky enough to never encounter any bottlenecks in her cultivation, advancing smoothly all the way to the Nascent Soul Stage.

When she tried to break through from Nascent Soul to the next stage, the Rain Tribulation struck her and she was zapped back to the Modern World—right at the moment of her overwork death.

Sure enough, extremes beget reversals.

But there was no changing what had already happened.

Fortunately, she didn’t die—she just became an ordinary person again, so weak that even a short walk left her dizzy and light-headed.

Jiang Heng stayed calm.

It’s fine, it’s fine.

Dramatic ups and downs were normal in her life.

At least in this world, everyone else was just an ordinary person.

[Half-alive smile.jpg]

Thinking about it this way, Heaven wasn’t so cruel after all.

Even though she’d been tossed between worlds by lightning again and again, she was still alive and back in her own body. Though her body was a bit broken, in this world, she definitely wouldn’t starve to death.

And this time, not only did she come back, she also brought back a treasure!

In theory, when preparing for a tribulation, she’d made thorough preparations, deliberately choosing a desolate place and setting up a bunch of Formation Arrays, Talismans, and Magical Tools.

Yet she still couldn’t escape the law of extremes begetting reversal. The place she’d chosen happened to have a living being gestating.

Just as it was about to be born, it encountered her ascension Rain Tribulation.

That being was unusually powerful, so its own tribulation was triggered as well, and the two tribulations stacked together.

That was how she failed to withstand it and got struck down.

Now, Jiang Heng herself had returned to this world, but that being… was even more miserable, losing more than half its cultivation and now only able to exist in her Sea of Consciousness.

The reason she called it a treasure was, first—

It was a Spiritual Vein that had developed sentience!

Spiritual Vein almost never gain intelligence.

In the Cultivation World, a Spiritual Vein is akin to a gold or silver mine in the mortal world.

The difference is, Spiritual Vein produce Spirit Stones, which can be used not only as currency, but also as cultivation resources.

Especially when breaking through, cultivators need a surge of rich spiritual energy to help them.

If there isn’t enough spiritual energy, some people create Gathering Spirit Arrays, some draw Gathering Spirit Talismans, and some directly absorb spiritual energy from Spirit Stones.

For example, in the past, Jiang Heng always had to painstakingly set up Gathering Spirit Arrays every time she broke through.

It took longer, but at least it was cheap.

So, all the major sects would search everywhere for Spiritual Vein. Once found, they’d seize and mine them at once for their own use, never giving them time to grow.

Secondly, for plants or spirits to gain sentience is already one-in-ten-thousand, let alone a mineral vein.

But by sheer luck, this one survived undetected for tens of thousands of years, then by chance encountered a Scattered Cultivator.

The Scattered Cultivator wanted to keep the benefits for himself, so he used a Concealment Formation Array and used the abundant spiritual energy to try to break through.

However, he failed and died, but the Spiritual Vein gained intelligence from the Rain Tribulation.

Once it had sentience, the Concealment Formation Array remained, and the Spiritual Vein, being cautious, managed to grow for thousands of years.

When it was about to cultivate a physical form and enter seclusion, Jiang Heng happened to come to its location for her tribulation.

Jiang Heng’s Rain Tribulation arrived first.

The massive spiritual energy and laws involved triggered the Spiritual Vein’s tribulation early. With both tribulations stacked, Jiang Heng failed, all her defensive Magical Tools and Talismans were destroyed, and even her soul was struck back to her original world.

Likewise, the Spiritual Vein’s physical body was destroyed, and most of its cultivation lost.

In a desperate move to survive, it actively bound itself to her, following her soul to this world.

This was probably yet another example of Heaven never cutting off one’s path.

The world Jiang Heng was now in was originally one where cultivation was impossible. There was spiritual energy, but it was too thin to absorb.

If she’d simply transmigrated back, even if she knew cultivation methods, she’d only be an ordinary person for life.

At best, after years of practice, she might be a bit healthier than others.

But with the Spiritual Vein, it was different.

For instance, she could now afford to directly use the spiritual energy in the Spiritual Vein to cultivate!

Unfortunately, her body in this world was on the verge of death at the time, and the Spiritual Vein had to help her a bit to save it.

She didn’t die, didn’t even need to go to the ICU.

After being rushed to the hospital and checked, she was found to be out of immediate danger.

She stayed for observation for a while, and when she was discharged, she had no aftereffects—just some lingering weakness.

Which meant the company didn’t have to pay her any compensation!!!

Thinking of this, Jiang Heng couldn’t help but feel annoyed.

Without the Spiritual Vein, she might really have died, or at least spent days in the ICU, slowly gathering spiritual energy to heal herself.

But because of this, the Spiritual Vein, which had retained a trace of sentience, fell into a deep sleep.

Now, it was like a refined Magical Tool, and as its master, Jiang Heng could use its power at will when needed.

But if she wanted it to awaken again, she’d have to cultivate to the Foundation Establishment Stage herself, and then use Soul Binding to call it back.

Not only the Spiritual Vein—her own life-bound Magical Tool, the Huoyue Bow, was also heavily damaged in the Rain Tribulation and now lay dormant in her Sea of Consciousness. Most crucially, the Spirit Artifact Spirit she had painstakingly raised was nowhere to be found!

The only thing she could be sure of was that it wasn’t dead.

The two of them were soul-bound. If her life-bound Artifact Spirit died, she would also suffer a severe backlash.

So it was either left behind in the Cultivation World or had come with her to this world.

If it was still in the original world, she could simply keep cultivating and, when she ascended again, break the void and summon the Artifact Spirit back. It would take time, but since the Artifact Spirit’s fate was linked to its master’s, there would be no real problem.

But in this world…

It was uncertain.

Because the rules of this world didn’t allow for cultivation, and the spiritual energy in the world wasn’t enough to even let her reach the Qi Refining First Layer.

Without the Artifact Spirit, Jiang Heng might be an ordinary person for life—even if she remembered cultivation methods, she’d just be… a slightly stronger ordinary person.

If the Artifact Spirit had drifted who knows how far away, it would really be hard to find it.

After pondering for a while, Jiang Heng felt hungry.

Even though she was now a Qi Refining First Layer cultivator, she hadn’t learned to subsist without food yet.

Plus, the world’s spiritual energy was so thin it couldn’t be used for cultivation at all.

Except for sitting in meditation and drawing spiritual energy from the Spiritual Vein, at all other times her spiritual energy only depleted without replenishing, so she still needed three proper meals a day.

Of course, even if she could eventually live without food, she’d still prefer eating.

Enjoying delicious food was always a joy.

For example, right now, she went to the kitchen and boiled water first thing.

Then she took out the noodles she’d prepared and put in the fridge last night.

After oiling them, each strand was cold but not sticky, and after being separated and tugged a bit, the noodles naturally became long and elastic.

The benefit of reaching Qi Refining First Layer was that she was now strong and healthy, and the dough she kneaded turned out especially well.

At the very least, it was better than the noodles made by the chefs at the town’s noodle shop.

Once the water boiled, she tossed in the noodles, added a few vegetable leaves, and let the boiling water stir the noodles around.

Meanwhile, she put a spoonful of lard, a bit of salt, some pepper, chopped green onions, and a dash of dark soy sauce in a bowl.

When it was almost ready, she scooped some broth into the bowl and stirred it a couple times.

The lard immediately melted into little oil spots on the soup.

Then she fished out the noodles and vegetables, and the handmade noodles with pale brown broth and green onion floating on top were done.

She took a small taste—delicious.

The noodles were chewy and tasty, the flavor light but not bland. Jiang Heng ate with satisfaction.

After a bowl of steaming noodles, she felt warm all over.

Since there was no one else at home, Jiang Heng casually cast a Dust Removal Technique, instantly making the kitchen spotless. Even the bowl that had just held noodles looked as if it had just come out of the dishwasher.

With her hunger satisfied, it was about time to go.

Jiang Heng picked up her somewhat worn bamboo basket, changed into her oldest sneakers, locked the door, and headed out in high spirits.

Their home was near the mountains.

After last night’s rain, her aunt had said there’d be plenty of mushrooms to pick, and told her to remember to collect some—they tasted much better than the ones sold in the supermarket.

She’d been eating cabbage every day lately, and her taste buds were about to die of boredom.

Time to get something tasty!