Chapter 1 — Prologue

Inside the millions upon millions of continuous scattered roars of violet thunder, a female cultivator with her long hair hanging down loosely was sending a sharp sword inside a male cultivator’s abdomen. Crimson blood spurting out from his mouth while his pair of eyes were wide open, as if he didn’t dare to believe the scene in front of him, but no matter how he tried to deny it, the expression inside the female cultivator’s eyes were really too indifferent as she looked at him before slowly pulling out the chilling blade.

Thunders were filling the whole sky, brightening up the veil of night as if it was daytime. Under the flashing of lights, the male cultivator’s face seemed utterly pallid, “Lin Dan, it’s me…”

The female cultivator’s eyes glimmered slightly without any billows, afterwards, she murmured under her breath, “You’re… not my illusion?”

That’s right, the female cultivator was crossing a calamity. Originally, she thought that the male cultivator was merely a demon in her heart, born from a mirage, but she didn’t expect that he’s a genuine person.

The female cultivator, Lin Dan, finally raised her head to look at the thundering sky before seeing the numerous cultivators flying with their swords in a distant point. She remembered. Today was supposed to be her grand ceremony to tie the knot with her partner, and the man before her was the man who she pursued for thousands of years, he was also her Dao companion who she accompanied for thousands of years.

But, what about that? Her persistent wait, her frenzied chase and long-lasting accompaniment, in the end, they couldn’t compare with a glance from that beautiful woman. Even if their oath was near at hand, with just a soft cry from that beautiful woman’s dark red lips, it would immediately let the man in front of her lose all reasons.

Time goes back one hour before:

Seeing her Dao companion’s unwillingness to pierce his fingertip to make the oath with her, how could Lin Dan not understand? At that moment, when she looked deeply at his eyes that were full of struggle and regret, Lin Dan suddenly accepted the unpleasant fact. She tore down the red gauze on her body, took off the magnificent yet heavy head ornaments before she turned around without the least hesitation.

The guests who came to attend the ceremony burst into an uproar, and the elders from two sides couldn’t help but chided them. The star-studded sky was suddenly swallowed by rolling clouds and layers of thunder, the wind howled to the extreme, pressing down as it bear the heavenly law’s illustrious might, just like a steel knife scraping on those cultivator’s faces, causing them to shiver simultaneously. This was the calamity cloud and thunder; it was really unexpected that someone was going to cross the calamity right at this special moment.

And it wasn’t anyone else who had to cross the calamity, it was Lin Dan. Her cultivation was of the Wuji Immortal School from the Wuji Dao. This Dao’s arts had three thousand secrets and it was one of the most difficult Dao in the world of cultivation. Its law was ‘arts without bound, heart without filth, flesh without desire’, and only if you achieve these three points will you be able to feel the true path.

Lin Dan’s heart was always occupied with one person that she couldn’t give up, how can she be without desire? Therefore, even if she was born with a body of Nine Yin, has a single spiritual root, and was claimed to be a talent that was so rare in the cultivation world, she was also stuck for a full six hundred years from crossing her calamity.

But she wasn’t in a hurry. The stairway to ascend from this world was already somewhat damaged, and even though she can smoothly cross her calamity, she can eventually dissipate in her way to heaven because ascension and death was almost equal. However, she’s not in a hurry not because she feared death, rather she worried that she couldn’t accompany that person anymore.

She knew that the man’s heart was still deeply concerned about another person, but it didn’t matter. When he encountered a calamity, she would stay with him until the end, when he fell to his lowest point in life, she would accompany him closely, if his heart was the eternal black ice, then she was the fire of Nine Yang, vowing to melt him.

She has always believed that she can get his eyes and adoration in the end, until this moment…

Thus, everything changed, everything faded.

Holding it tightly in her hands, but if she still cannot hold the one thing that she tried so hard to reach, the only option was to let it go. She can only lose her obsession and the demon in her heart to gain the boundless sea and sky in return. Lin Dan returned her Dao companion to the beautiful woman who hurried over, and then stepped out of the hall step by step and walked under the pitch-black calamity cloud.

The sentiment that couldn’t be reached for hundreds of years was broken in a split second, so she will cross her calamity and ascend the heaven.

Her heart demon was still struggling, transforming to many, many sweet memories that were wrapped in poison, trying to hinder Lin Dan’s pace, but she cut them all off with a wave from her sword. The stairway to heaven had been destroyed, her failure to cross the calamity was death, and her success to cross the calamity was also death, but what about it? She no longer wants to be entangled with these people. The mortal life was too corrupted while the sky was too vast, even if she had to turn into a wisp of breeze, she still wanted to travel over the horizon.

But she didn’t understand what her Dao companion was thinking about; he rushed into the thunder tribulation, entered the illusions, and sent himself to the tip of her sword. One must know that the other party was similarly a powerful sword cultivator in all of Southern Mainland, there’s no reason for him to be unable to dodge her attack.

“Lin Dan,” the male cultivator couldn’t care less about his bloody abdomen as he held Lin Dan’s sharp blade tightly, begging her, “Don’t go.”

“Don’t go.” Lin Dan slowly took out the sword from his palm, her tone was fleeting, “Then, where should I go?”

Yes, where can I go if I don’t leave? Still desperately chasing your footsteps, your unfeeling back like before? I stumbled and staggered to follow you for countless years, until now that I finally discovered that one still has to go their own way.

Thinking about this, Lin Dan didn’t even need the sword in her hand anymore, so she flung it to the side and flew towards the broken ascension stair. The male cultivator hurried to chase, but because his injury was too heavy, he could only helplessly see the big hole ripping the sky apart, swallowing Lin Dan along with the myriad of thunder tribulation within one big bite. There was nothing left when he finally arrived at the horizon, the calamity cloud, the calamity thunder, and the beautiful woman all seemed like a foam, disappeared completely.

“Lin Dan!” The male cultivator shouted until his voice became hoarse and exhausted into the boundless dim light of the night, his grievances reverberated for a long, long time…

…

“Congratulations on the host’s return.” Lin Dan just opened her eyes and heard an inorganic voice beside her ear, “The host entered the S-class world and successfully obtained the special item [Wuji Dao’s Heart], will the host exchange the points immediately?”

“Exchange, then open my personal space.” Lin Dan lightly said.

In a blink of an eye, she entered a pure white space surrounded by smooth metal walls, there’s a bed in the center, but nothing else could be found.

“Host, you got a total of 9990000 points for this task, I’m honored to inform you that your points had reached the upper limit, System has two options for you to choose: One, return to host’s original world after unbinding. Second, relocate to a higher plane after unbinding, please let me know what you wish to choose.” A cold mechanical sound reverberated inside Lin Dan’s mind.

After Lin Dan died, she was somehow bound with this supporting system and was forced to go through countless small worlds to do tasks. She had to accumulate a certain amount of points to unbind the system with her before she can be free and choose where she wanted to go. Lin Dan had planned her choice earlier, but she hesitated at this time. She knitted her eyebrows for a moment while pondering, “If it’s relocation…”

“I apologize, host.” System suddenly interrupted her, “The person who recommended you withdrew his recommendation in the previous realm’s assignment, if you want to relocate, please quickly choose another person to recommend you.”

As expected, canceling the recommendation… Lin Dan shook her head, her smile was filled with self-mocking.

If you want to relocate to a higher plane, the system’s approval alone wasn’t enough, you have to get a referral from the high plane. The one who recommended Lin Dan was none other than the male cultivator whose stomach she pierced. Lin Dan didn’t know what the other party’s full name was and neither his background, but Lin Dan knew that he came from a higher plane, and his authority was far higher than that of system, or even the main system.

She shuttled back and forth through each and every small worlds like an immortal. Others said that it was a great luck, but only Lin Dan knew what a painful and desperate journey she had gone through. After going through much experiences, the countless memories stored in her brain were like a pair of big hands, dragging her into the abyss. Too much love and hate, too much parting, and even more helplessness, anger, pain, despair… flooding her heart and mind, gradually making her lose herself.

For a long time, she couldn’t figure out who she was and where she came from. When she was on the verge of collapse, she met that man in one of the worlds for her mission. He rescued her from the bleak prison, teaching her how to get out of her predicament, how to defeat her enemies and how to get points. With his help, Lin Dan gradually recovered herself, she then willingly became his vassal, constantly chasing his footsteps in various small worlds.

Lin Dan thought that meeting that man would be her redemption, but she found out that it was just another futile struggle in the end. Fortunately, the man’s teaching wasn’t all useless, she had learned how to be strong and independent, learned to respect and love herself, and learned how to be indifferent on everything.

It’s said that if you fall in love with a good person, even if you can’t get to be with each other, you will eventually obtain your better self. That was true for Lin Dan. She didn’t regret her hard work and patience, because without these thousands of years of chasing, she wouldn’t have experienced flowers blooming and withering, all of her life would only be like a thin cloud and light wind.

[Wuji Dao’s Heart], even if it was converted into points, those sentiments lingered in her heart. She smiled with a relief and shook her head, “He probably wants to recommend that woman?”

That woman wasn’t a mission taker, but her charm was out of the ordinary. The man would encounter her at some worlds when he’s doing his task, henceforth, things that have happened can hardly be controlled anymore, just like Lin Dan who pursued him, he also pursued her into lots of worlds. The beautiful girl of the previous cultivation plane was also one of her reincarnations, that’s why the man would be on tenterhooks for her, infatuated, and even not hesitating to be the enemy of the whole cultivation world.

No matter where the woman would go for her reincarnation, that man can always find her with his vast power and ability. In the end, the man was just like a humble follower, even if the woman has no previous memory after going through reincarnation, the man is willing to give her all he had and lead her into his own world.

Lin Dan admired the woman very much; she was even a little jealous. But now when she thought about it, she didn’t feel anything anymore.

System’s tone was lowered by half a degree, making it somewhat melancholic, “I can check it if the host wants to know, but the other party’s authority is higher than me, I may not necessarily find it.”

The supporting system was only responsible for promoting the development of the small worlds and fixing bugs, and the host they chose was just the same tool which can be sacrificed at critical moments. To make an unpleasant analogy, if a pot has a hole and needs a scrap of iron to mend it, then Lin Dan would be that scrap of iron, she had no other use except for throwing herself into the sea of flames as an offering.

Many of the tasks that she received were harming to herself and even impervious to reason, but what about that? Once the mission fails, she would be wiped out by the system. Therefore, eight or nine out of ten mission takers bound by the supporting system couldn’t endure until the end and chose to take their own lives halfway or lose themselves into madness. Lin Dan, who always did her tasks smoothly and even accumulating such a huge amount of point was said to be as precious and rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns. This was thanks to the man’s help, but it was also because of Lin Dan’s own firm and tenacious disposition.

The Lin Dan at present looked at everything indifferently, without longing and demand, it was natural that she didn’t care where she would be going. She opened her mission board and resolutely said, “There’s no need to check, rescind the application for relocation and send me back to my own world.”

“Yes, host. I also have good news to inform the host. Since you are the first supporting mission taker to get the highest point, the main system decided to reward you with 100 million points which can be exchanged to your world’s currency by 1:1 ratio, does the host wants to exchange?”

“Exchange.” Lin Dan nodded without hesitation, then afterwards she laughed at herself once again. What the heck with ‘Supporting mission taker’? To boil it down, wasn’t it just an indispensable supporting role? However, she won’t be one anymore, she wants to be herself, living a glorious and wonderful life.

“Yes, host, system will exchange for you, please wait a moment.”

It took about a minute to settle the host’s points and money. After system removed her binding, it initiated the delivery device and prepared to send Lin Dan back to her original world. Lin Dan thought that she could retire with peace of mind this time, but she didn’t expect that a huge wave of energy to suddenly hit the conveyor belt, disrupting the flow of time…

TL NOTE:

Hello, MadPanda here with a new novel. ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ I really like this novel's writing and summary, but because I'm busy (cough) and this novel is full of flowery words and idioms (which I hate to translate), there won't be any fixed update schedule, it might be once a week or once a month depending on my mood and condition. I really hope I can finish this novel tho, so stay with me peeps! ۹(ÒہÓ)۶

Edit: I'm sorry, I didn't make more research and didn't know that someone had already been translating this, so I'm just gonna stop translating this.

PR: ElainaWalker