The next day, after Mu Yanxin had spent an entire night on the Dao Web, immersing himself in the local customs and common knowledge of this world, his initial shock had finally subsided.
He now had a rough understanding of this world, and at the same time, had made his decision.
Although it wasn’t with unwavering resolve and without hesitation, he was sure—right now, his only path was to undergo the surgery and then join Spiritual Moon High Sect.
As for becoming a girl, he could only look for a way to turn back into a boy in the future.
“You little rascal, you finally came out. Heh, maybe before long, I’ll have to call you a little lass instead,” his father said.
He had strongly objected to Mu Yanxin’s surgery before, but now that things had reached this point, he had let it go.
“Don’t scare him, dear, this is a major event in life,” his mother pushed his father gently, then comforted Mu Yanxin: “Don’t be afraid, it’ll be over soon. Once you finish the surgery and enter Spiritual Moon High Sect, you can step onto the path of cultivation.”
“Yes, Mom, Dad, I understand. Thank you.” Mu Yanxin replied with deep sincerity, because last night he had asked the Terminal Ring for every detail about the original owner’s family and parents.
Once, their family had been wealthy. His mother’s father—his maternal grandfather—was a Nascent Soul Cultivator with decent talent and the hope to reach Void Refining. Back then, many people fawned over their family.
However, even then, danger lurked beneath the surface. To break through his bottleneck, grandfather needed vast resources and amassed large amounts of mana and spirit stones by issuing personal bonds.
Mu Yanxin didn’t fully grasp this at first, but after looking it up on the Dao Web, he equated it with the debts of his previous life—something like borrowing nine and repaying thirteen.
Although he still didn’t understand why so many people, many of whom he barely knew or had never even met, would lend spirit stones to his grandfather, the Terminal Ring called this “investment.”
So, on the surface, his mother’s family seemed wealthy, and her brothers all had decent jobs and prospects. But soon, disaster struck—his grandfather died unexpectedly on the battlefield outside the realm.
Glory and wealth vanished in an instant, leaving nothing but fleeting smoke. Grandfather’s enormous debts were passed on to his children.
Those other relatives, who once crowded close to bask in grandfather’s success, now scattered faster than anyone, quickly severing ties.
Fortunately, his mother had already married his father by then. They had fallen in love on their own—classmates in school.
His father was the child of a farmer, and back then, the whole family had objected to the marriage, but his mother insisted, and grandfather doted on his youngest daughter.
Others couldn’t oppose too much, though it made things quite unpleasant.
According to the world’s traditions, a married daughter was like water poured out, no longer part of her natal family, and didn’t need to bear her family’s debts.
But Mu Yanxin’s mother still handed over her precious dowry to her brothers to help pay off the debt.
Now, the original owner’s family didn’t owe any debts, but they also had little money left. Luckily, both parents had stable jobs, so life was still manageable.
This was the greatest difference between this world and Mu Yanxin’s previous one. In his old world, cultivators stood aloof, most needing only to cultivate or search for opportunities, never having to work.
But here, if you wanted to cultivate, to climb higher, you needed a job—either for your sect or a company—in exchange for cultivation resources, especially money, or spirit stones.
Ironically, those unwilling to keep climbing on the immortal path didn’t need to work.
They could stay home all day, their consciousness immersed in the Taiqing Immortal Domain, surviving on government-allocated fasting pills. On the Dao Web, these people were called lying flatters.
His father, a farmer’s child, was also a farmer himself, but more specifically a medicinal farmer, tending the herb fields and spirit plant plots at a Yangxin Hall farm.
So, he joked that he was working for Yangxin Hall.
He earned over five hundred spirit stones a month, plus employee benefits—during festivals, they’d receive some spirit fruit and spirit rice, and each month’s work contribution could be exchanged for a bit of spirit rice as well.
His mother worked as a waitress at the Immortal Realm Club—a general-purpose club that, besides serving spirit wine, also provided cultivation illusion realms and often held auctions.
They had many regular customers.
Each month, she could bring home eight hundred spirit stones, sometimes even a thousand, and occasionally brought back leftover dishes for the family—these leftovers were all immortal cuisine, made from rare spiritual ingredients.
Mu Yanxin had reached the Qi Refining stage by cultivating with the spirit rice and immortal food his parents brought home, and his elder sister had cultivated the same way.
But her situation was better—she had a true spiritual root, allowing her to cultivate properly.
Given their income, the family could have lived a decent, even comfortable life. But his sister and the original owner both wanted to attend a High Sect, to pursue further cultivation.
For a family earning just one to two thousand spirit stones a month, supporting two children on the path of cultivation was a huge burden.
His sister’s situation was better. With a true spiritual root and decent talent, her grandfather had used his mana to perform bone-washing and muscle-changing on her as a child, optimizing her aptitudes.
Her grades were excellent—she’d been admitted to a heaven-rank High Sect, and could even get a scholarship.
According to the Terminal Ring, scholarships here were similar to the cultivation resources, spirit stones, and pills that sects gave to their true disciples in his previous life.
To Mu Yanxin, this was just natural sect welfare, but in this world, it had to be earned—only the top disciples could win scholarships.
Of course, this didn’t surprise him; even in his previous life, the treatment of true disciples and outer disciples was never the same.
In short, his sister’s diligence spared the family much pressure. The original owner, however, was different—he had no spiritual root, and when grandfather died, he was too young to receive bone-washing and muscle-changing.
Supporting his cultivation would require an enormous investment, yet the original owner was determined, with a strong heart for the Dao and decent grades, so his parents supported his attempt to test into an earth-rank High Sect.
That meant almost all of the family’s income went to their younger son, which was why the original owner would rather apply for Spiritual Moon High Sect and Ghost Sect as his first choices, rather than settle for a human-rank High Sect.
Only earth-rank High Sects or above offered a real chance to advance. Going to a human-rank High Sect led nowhere—he might as well work.
And speaking of working, graduates of Spiritual Moon High Sect could earn more spirit stones than graduates of other sects.
Even though Mu Yanxin hadn’t inherited much of the original owner’s memories, from his choices he could feel the resolve to burn his bridges, and the deep gratitude for his parents’ support.
So he didn’t hesitate any longer, and nodded. “I’m ready. Let’s head to the hospital.”