“Quick, quick! The time for the City Lord's Manor to test children's spiritual roots is almost up. If we miss this, there won't be another chance!”
“I wonder if my little one has a spiritual root.”
“Whether they have one or not, we'll know once we test them. If they do, they'll have some backing in the clan in the future, right?”
“Exactly. I heard that if their talent is decent, they'll have a chance to become a disciple of the City Lord's Manor, and the family will even be given one hundred taels of silver!”
“Oh my, it used to be fifty taels. We must seize this opportunity—it's doubled!”
“Hurry up, let's go!”
...
Jiang Lu's ears twitched at their words, and she poked her head out from the roadside bushes. Her hair was a tangled mess, and her face was flushed with anxiety and smudged with dirt, making her look rather disheveled.
The surrounding trees, the village in the distance, and the conversation of those older men just now all proved that she had already left her familiar Blue Planet far behind.
Her expression turned blank for a moment, and then an unbelievable thought welled up in her mind.
She seemed to have transmigrated.
She looked down at her clothes. Fortunately, they were the same clothes she had been wearing before. She hadn't transmigrated into someone else's body.
That morning, she had been attending a gathering for her Hanfu club.
In the evening, her boss had asked her to go back and work some overtime. Who would have thought that as she was preparing to go home, the lights would flicker, and she would instantly lose consciousness?
The moment she opened her eyes, she was here.
She didn't want to transmigrate!
She had worked so hard to find a dream job—weekends off, no overtime, full benefits with a seven thousand yuan monthly take-home pay, simple tasks, and a friendly boss.
Just how unlucky was she?
This was the very first time she had worked overtime in the six months since she started. It had felt a bit novel to her, but who would have thought it would also be her last!
Fortunately, she was an orphan. It was just a shame about the ten thousand yuan in her bank account, which she had saved for a long time. She wondered if she would ever have a chance to go back in the future.
She sighed, but since she had an easygoing nature, her thoughts turned to what the crowd had just said, and she couldn't help but feel a secret surge of excitement.
Spiritual roots?!
If nothing went wrong, she seemed to have transmigrated into a world where one could cultivate.
At least it wasn't just ancient times. She exhaled a sigh of relief, feeling much lighter.
She immediately scrambled out of the bushes. There were many other solitary travelers on the road, so she didn't stand out too much among them.
However, she didn't think this place would be like the novels she usually read. If foreign countries back home were already so chaotic, then this cultivation world—where one fought against heaven for their very life—was bound to be far worse. Whether it was a high-dimensional or low-dimensional world, it was not something an ordinary person from a peaceful era could easily comprehend.
Before she fully understood the rules of survival in this world, she couldn't afford to act rashly.
After following the crowd for a long distance, just as her lips were starting to chap and her clothes were growing increasingly disheveled, she finally saw the towering city wall. It was twice as high as any ancient city wall she had ever seen.
She stopped, catching her breath slightly. She saw many people walking back with dejected expressions, while many others eagerly headed inside the city gates.
Looking to both sides, she saw about a dozen booths set up along the flanks of the city wall. The people who had run over with her were all lined up in front of them.
She quickly found a shorter queue and joined the back. Before long, a crowd of people lined up behind her. Fortunately, she had run fast.
“Place your hand on it.”
Soon, it was Jiang Lu's turn. Before her brain could even register the command, her hand had already reached out. The speaker's voice was so full of vigor that she had instinctively obeyed him. Perhaps he was a cultivator.
“Twelve years old. Qualified.”
Jiang Lu placed her hand on a round red stone, which displayed twelve glowing circles. As the man spoke, he handed her a wooden token.
“Take this and go inside to test your spiritual root.”
Then, he called out to the person behind her, “Next.”
Jiang Lu took the wooden token and stood aside, studying it for a while. Only then did she realize that this was a preliminary screening; only those aged twelve and under had the chance to go and test their spiritual roots.
Normally, disciples of prominent clans began testing their spiritual roots at the age of six. Twelve was already considered somewhat late.
But she... twelve years old? That meant she was ten years younger!
She hadn't grown much after turning twelve—only going from 1.5 meters to 1.58 meters—and her weight hadn't changed much either, which was why she hadn't realized it at first. In that case, did this mean she had a chance to grow taller?
She had only been 1.58 meters tall before. If she had a spiritual root and could cultivate, there might be hope for her to reach 1.7 meters.
She looked left and right, then immediately headed into the city. She was stopped at the city gate, but after she showed her wooden token to the two imposing guards standing by, they let her through.
She couldn't help but steal a cautious glance at the two of them before quickly avoiding their gaze. Her body tensed up slightly. There was no mistake; the aura radiating from these two was definitely not something ordinary people could possess.
A surge of intense excitement then welled up inside her. Cultivating to become an immortal, soaring through the skies, and tunneling through the earth—it was a yearning engraved deep in her bones!
After all, who back in her homeland didn't have a dream of cultivating immortality? She absolutely had to have a spiritual root. Even if she didn't, as long as she was alive, she would definitely find a way to cultivate. At this moment, her heart grew resolute, and the anxiety brought on by her transmigration was quietly smoothed away.
Jiang Lu looked at the bustling streets as she walked along with the crowd. Suddenly, a harsh shout rang out. The crowd immediately scrambled to the sides of the street. Jostled by the throng, she was pushed to one side. The surroundings abruptly fell silent, so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.
Jiang Lu carefully looked up. At the end of the road, two columns of people were marching forward. Leading them was a massive white elephant with long, fierce tusks. Its trunk swayed slightly as it walked, and there was a rune between its brows. Its eyes were pitch-black, with endless ferocity swirling in its pupils.
Upon the back of the giant elephant rested a carriage palanquin glowing with a soft white light, inside of which sat a veiled woman.
The people in the two columns behind her were also riding giant elephants, though they were much smaller than the leading one.
A cold, biting aura radiated from them. Suddenly, a deafening roar erupted from the giant elephant's mouth, causing everyone to hastily cover their ears.
They paraded past Jiang Lu, with no one daring to obstruct their path. Only after the procession vanished from sight did the crowd resume their previous clamor, though it felt noticeably more subdued than before.
“Who was that? How dare they act so arrogantly in the city! Aren't they afraid the patrol squad will give them trouble?”
“How can you not even recognize her?”
“Oh? From the sound of it, brother, do you know who she is?”
“Of course. She is He Xiao, the niece of the City Lord of Xijiang City. At only twenty years old, she already has the strength of the fourth layer of Qi Condensation!”
“The fourth layer of Qi Condensation? No wonder she has the right to be proud.”
“And what kind of power is this He family?”
“The He family also belongs to the Xijiang City region. They are one of the rare Foundation Establishment clans in Xijiang City. On the surface, they have three Foundation Establishment cultivators in the clan, but in secret, there are surely more.”
“And look at the giant elephant she's riding. That is a Rank Three spirit beast—the long-tusked giant elephant. The He family has beast tamers, so they carry quite some weight in Xijiang City.”
“So that's how it is. No wonder they dare to be so arrogant here.
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