Chapter 2: First Meeting by the Lake  

Chu Liuyue cleaned up the three corpses, then picked up the baggage on the side. It belonged to the original Chu Liuyue.

She frowned when she opened and looked through it.

There was quite a bit of money in the bag, alongside a bunch of jewels. Even though they were nothing special to the eyes of Shangguan Yue, who used to be a princess, they were quite a fortune to a downtrodden girl from the meager Chu family.

Was she going to run away? Chu Liuyue scoffed.

Chu Liuyue could never bear to leave her father behind if she were running away, not to mention that Chu Liuyue was a timid girl, who would never have the courage to do that.

Most important of all, how could Chu Liuyue, someone who was pushed around by the Chu family, have the opportunity to get her hands on so much cash and jewelry? Someone was clearly trying to frame her!

If Song Lian and his family were behind it, they had to put on a show just to keep things under wraps.

If people found Chu Liuyue’s body and saw the items, they would have assumed that she had stolen things and ran away under the pretext of shopping.

Thieves deserved to die!

Chu Xianmin was trying to ruin her, even after she died!

Since she was borrowing Chu Liuyue’s body, then she had to settle this for her host. Besides, Chu Liuyue’s identity made her future operations much easier.

After looking through everything, Chu Liuyue looked around. She could hear the faint sound of a stream.

She was covered in blood and dirt right now, and she really needed to take a shower. Conveniently for her, there were fresh clothes in the baggage.

…

Cutting through the lush forest for about 15 minutes, Chu Liuyue finally arrived at an azure-blue lake.

What was astonishing was the layer of fog floating above the lake.

Even from where she was standing on the bank, she could only see the lake water near her. Everything else was obscured.

Chu Liuyue stretched out her hand and was a little surprised when she ran it through the fog.

This fog is formed by extremely concentrated force! If I cultivated here, I would improve drastically!

As the princess, the heir to the Tianling Dynasty, she knew the ten subsidiary countries rather well. Even though such a place could not compare to the places where she used to cultivate, it was considered great in a small place like Country Yao Chen.

At this time, there was a low roar.

She looked up and saw a snow-white tiger by the lake, staring at her with icy-blue eyes! This was a high-stage demonic beast!

Just as Chu Liuyue was thinking of how to deal with it, it suddenly shook its tail and lay down again, closing its eyes.

Chu Liuyue was stunned.

Is it going to leave me alone? However, guardian beasts are supposed to be very hot-tempered!

Before she could finish her thoughts, the lion opened its eyes and glanced at her. It then stood up and walked towards her!

When it reached her, the white lion raised its paw and swept Chu Liuyue’s baggage to the floor and nudged her forward with its head.

“You want me to go in?” asked Chu Liuyue uncertainly.

The white lion sat down on the ground as it looked Chu Liuyue in the eyes as if telling her that it would not leave if she did not enter.

Chu Liuyue was speechless.

She laughed, thinking the white lion was rather cute. She patted it on the head, and the lion closed its eyes contentedly.

She then removed her blood and filth covered clothes and stepped into the lake, allowing the warm water to surround her.

A vigorous and warm force gushed towards her.

Chu Liuyue closed her eyes as she began examining the condition of this body.

…

Mainland Xuan Wu was about survival of the fittest.

There were two kinds of cultivators. One kind was warriors, who absorbed the Heaven and Earth Force into their flesh and blood. The other kind was Xuan Masters, who could muster their force through amulets and see into the workings of Heaven and Earth Force.

Although both were classified as cultivators, the conditions for becoming a Xuan Master were much higher, so they were rarer and more respected.

In order to become a cultivator, one had to possess the Yuan meridian. The Yuan meridian was the only medium through which cultivators could take in Heaven and Earth Force, so it was especially important.

There were four grades to a Yuan meridian: Tianjing, Dijing, Xuanjing, and Huangjing.

Tianjing was the highest grade. Even the Tianling Dynasty had only produced two people with a Tianjing Yuan meridian in 1,000 years.

The first was the founder of the dynasty. The other was… her.

This was also why she was the most revered princess! To her, cultivation was as simple as it could be. However, her current body had a defective Yuan meridian. It could channel force, but it could not contain it, much less transform it into powers for Chu Liuyue’s use.

Chu Liuyue was therefore born a good for nothing!

“Seems like I have to restore this Yuan meridian first…” mumbled Chu Liuyue.

Other people’s jaws would drop if they heard her. How could the Yuan meridian, which was inborn, be repaired?

Probably nobody in the entire Country Yao Chen was capable of doing that! However, it was nothing to Shangguan Yue, who was once the princess of the Tianling Dynasty!

Heavenly doctors were the most secretive and revered existences on the mainland. They could revive the dead and restore skeletons to human form. Nothing was impossible for them! But becoming a heavenly doctor was even tougher than becoming a Xuan Master! Their cultivation was different from Xuan Masters and Warriors as well.

Even if it was a piece of rotten wood, Chu Liuyue could perform magic with it!

I wonder what grade the Yuan meridian will be after restoration… As she was thinking, a red light flashed before Chu Liuyue’s eyes!

She looked towards her hands with knitted brows, only to see a strange crimson amulet text appearing on her palms!

“This is…” She had never seen the text, nor did she know of its origins. Did this belong to the original Chu Liuyue? Just as the thought flashed across her head, she felt a sense of familiarity. It was as if the text belonged to her!

The text flashed, then disappeared quickly.

Before Chu Liuyue could focus on it, she felt a new sensation in her dantian.

The originally withered dantian was filled with a red light! Floating right in the middle of her dantian was the text that Chu Liuyue had seen earlier!

She took a closer look and focused her energy.

The text did not exist alone. It was inscribed on a transparent book page! The page was extremely thin as if it was ripped off from a book. The edges were uneven as the page hovered there. It would be hard to see if not for the crimson text.

Just as Chu Liuyue was about to take a closer look out of curiosity, the transparent book page turned into a puddle and formed a small lake in her dantian.

The amulet text disappeared completely as if it had never appeared.

Chu Liuyue looked towards her palms. There was no trace of anything.

Her body returned to its usual tranquility.

As she pondered, she could not understand what was going on, so she chose to stop thinking about it. It did not seem like it would hurt her.

It was more important to settle the troubles of her host first!

She turned around, about to return to shore when her eyes turned cold. She hid her body in the water and looked straight ahead. “Who’s there?” At the same time, she removed her hairpin and held it in her hand, ready to strike!

In the thick fog, there was an elusive, tall figure. It was accompanied by the deep, gentle voice of a man, which seemed to be concealing a smile. “Little lady, I don’t think it’s good for you to be trespassing on other people’s territory.”

Perhaps it was because of the foggy atmosphere, but his words were a little dragged out, tinted with a hint of laziness. It was like a breeze plucking at the strings of a musical instrument. It was captivating.