Chapter 68

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Chapter 68

Xie Fuzhi, who was supposed to keep an eye on others, disappeared. Hu Xiaobai immediately turned his gaze to the water screen of the Nascent Soul Stage.

This time, the perspective of the nascent soul cultivators was arranged by the order in which they received their slots. Yun Chuyou received her slot in the last round, coming in ninth, placing her right in the middle of the first row.

Seeing Yun Chuyou wearing a golden hairpin and a beautiful crown, with her dress shining like the moonlight, it was clear that she was expensive and lived in a very luxurious house.

Hu Xiaobai breathed a sigh of relief; fortunately, the identity drawn by the family master must be quite good!

In a time of chaos, although commoners can become emperors and mountain bandits can become powerful leaders, they are definitely much weaker than the wealthy and powerful sons of noble families.

He glanced over, right next to him was the hot-tempered Guanshan Yue; with just a quick observation, the background and identities of the contestants were quickly revealed to the audience through the people around them.

Yun Chuyou was elegantly dressed, the daughter of the prime minister, and the first among civil officials. Guanshan Yue, on the other hand, was the daughter of a great general, surrounded by three brothers who adored her.

Hu Xiaobai searched the screen; among the three brothers, two of them had individual perspectives, and both were contestants in this round.

The little fox demon irritably flicked its fluffy tail and sharpened its pointed teeth, "Darn it!"

Why does Guanshan Yue have a better identity than the family master’s person?

In a chaotic world, power is very important. The Prime Minister is a civilian official, but Guanshan Yue is the daughter of a military general, which gives her a big advantage.

However, Hu Xiaobai looked at the other competitors and felt sorry for a few unfortunate ones, who were born into poor farming families and often went hungry while working hard in the fields.

Of course, this is a competition, so when the cultivators enter the secret realm, they are all around the same age, appearing to be between sixteen and thirty years old, which makes them young adults in the Mortal World.

In their minds, they will be filled with false memories due to an illusion. Since their powers are completely suppressed, they cannot use their spiritual power in the Dreamland Scroll, and they won’t be able to recall their true memories until the end of the competition.

Before the competition began, the owner of the scroll had tested its effects, and even an Astral Projection Stage cultivator cannot break free from the illusion in a short time, let alone someone at the Nascent Soul Stage.

If a Nascent Soul cultivator can recover their memories right at the start, it means their mind is even stronger than an Astral Projection Stage cultivator, and that person would likely win first place.

Cultivators with good backgrounds also have their drawbacks. For example, Yun Chuyou, whose grandfather is the Prime Minister, does not have much affection for his granddaughter. He would rather not have her become a female official but is instead planning to find her a good marriage.

The current emperor is old, and many princes are fighting for power, so the Prime Minister plans to marry his eligible granddaughter to one of the supported princes.

Although Yun Chuyou is the eldest legitimate daughter, her father died early, so her comfortable life at home is thanks to her grandmother’s love.

Given such an identity and filled with false memories, she easily fell into the struggles of the inner chambers, unable to compare with the freedom of the mountain dwellers.

As for the daughter of the general, Guanshan Yue, she seemed to have the best character setup, but this role also had its own dramatic twists, which was the truth of being a true noble.

The true noble competing against Guanshan Yue in the arena was also a contestant cultivator. Besides the remarkable Yun Chuyou, the one with the most unique personality among the top twenty on the Genius List was this female cultivator, the Holy Maiden of the Green Lotus Pavilion, who practiced the sword techniques of the Green Lotus sword cultivator.

Guanshan Yue disliked this female cultivator greatly, feeling that she was pretentious and a hypocritical fake fairy.

She had previously shown great dislike for Yun Chuyou as well, thinking that Yun Chuyou shared a bit of the same temperament as her sworn enemy.

In conclusion, each character has their own struggles and difficulties, and the plot begins with a dilemma about how each character makes choices.

Hu Xiaobai occasionally glanced away for a few seconds, but most of the time, his attention was focused on the screen where Yun Chuyou was.

Although he knew these scripts were all fake, merely made up by cultivators, seeing familiar faces caught in such a terrible situation still made Hu Xiaobai’s heart race.

The world is in chaos because the current emperor is a foolish ruler, yet he lives long and refuses to let go of his position. His sons are many, and a few of them are fighting for power, unaware that the world has long been in ruin.

In the script, when the city fell, the nobles in the city still remembered to plan for that position.

In troubled times, there are many natural disasters and human miseries. The wealthy families and high officials take advantage of tax loopholes to occupy the good farmland of the common people. Because the taxes are extremely high, the ordinary citizens cannot farm and pay the heavy taxes. To survive, they have no choice but to sell their land and themselves to the local powerful families. The landlords gain more land, and the number of the noble families’ servants increases.

If during a period of prosperity, as long as they can survive, the obedient citizens would not easily rebel.

But when disasters struck, the princes fought for power against each other, each one worse than the last. Along the way, the disaster relief funds were continuously swallowed up, and the good grain sent to the disaster victims all turned into moldy and rotten food.

If there were enough, the old grain could still be eaten, but unfortunately, there was not enough.

A cultivator who can reach the Nascent Soul stage in such a short time is not timid or cowardly; they all have their own strengths to some extent.

So, a cultivator born as a servant on the land did not hesitate to choose rebellion. However, due to their identity, their rebellion was not fast; they merely took the first step, seizing grain from the landlord’s home and leading a group of villagers to become outlaws.

In the areas far from the capital, droughts and floods occurred, and there were even earthquakes. However, restricted by transportation, local officials would cover up these disasters, and by the time news reached the lively and flourishing capital, much time would have passed.

Therefore, on the Nascent Soul Stage competition page, in the same time period in the same country, but in different places, the scenes are completely opposite. Some have already turned into cruel human hells, while others involve silent battles on the war-torn fields.

Besides the internal chaos, there is also external turmoil. In the border areas, outside tribes have raised the flag of invasion. They are tall and strong, with excellent cavalry. Their goal is to seize the food, land, wealth, and beautiful women of the Central Plains.

In the competition, there are two hundred people, and there are fifty cultivators from the capital city. Among them are high-ranking officials, princes, lowly palace servants, and even eunuchs.

Outside the water mirror, the plastic brothers of the familiar senior brother couldn’t help but giggle, generously recording this embarrassing moment of their senior brother with the Camera Stone.

In the capital city, Hu Xiaobai saw a face that had just vanished beside him, Xie Qi!

It is another form of Xie Fuzhi. What is going on? Why is the future partner of the family master also involved?

Little Fox is worried about Yun Chuyou. Although he understands the male’s possessiveness, this is a very important competition. Does Xie Fuzhi’s involvement count as cheating for the master? Will it affect the master’s score?

Although the phoenix is very powerful, it is only when the family master is well that one can be truly good. Hu Xiaobai, with his charming fox eyes, stares hard at that outstanding face in the water mirror, knowing that Xie Fuzhi cannot see him.

Xie Fuzhi is not a contestant, so he does not have his own perspective in the secret realm. Hu Xiaobai can only analyze the role Xie Fuzhi is playing now through the scenes of others in the secret realm.

As mentioned before, many roles in the secret realm are played by real disciples who are not participating in the competition, so their reactions are more genuine and lively.

For example, the emperor, the majority of princes who fight for power and wealth, some palace servants who play important roles in the story, and those despicable corrupt officials.

Of course, there won’t be any real deaths in Dreamland Scroll; these real people playing cultivators will quickly log off and return to reality.

Besides Xie Fuzhi, who already knew the truth, no one noticed that these cultivators, who should have normally logged off, had their spiritual power drawn out. The flowers, plants, and landscapes in Dreamland Scroll that looked ordinary began to emit dark energy.

The dark energy lingered as the cultivators logged off, and it was quietly taken out with them.

The role Xie Fuzhi played was neither a prince in the palace nor a government official, but the grand master of the kingdom.

To some, the grand master might seem like a trickster, but in reality, he was not like that.

The person who set up the secret realm only created two hundred random options; the cultivators playing roles were all arranged in advance. Since Xie Fuzhi was added as a last-minute actor, the cultivator who took out the Dreamland Scroll as a magical tool and the cultivator from Tianji Sect who wrote the script felt a bit annoyed with this outsider.

So when Xie Fuzhi entered, he was clearly neither an actor nor a contestant, yet like the contestants, he ended up having his memories and abilities sealed, relying solely on the scroll for a random identity.

Thanks to the special identity of the phoenix and Xie Fuzhi’s true abilities, the secret realm assigned him as the grand master.

In this script, Xie Fuzhi still has the slightly immature appearance of Xie Qi. The only difference from real life is that, in reality, Xie Fuzhi has hair as dark as ebony, while in the illusion, the grand master has hair as white as snow, with not a single black hair.

Because he is too beautiful and too young, many people do not find the grand master trustworthy.

Of course, there is another saying that the grand master is actually very old, and his white hair is the best proof. With his youthful appearance, he looks eighteen but is actually eighty.

However, the grand master rarely leaves his home, and even in the Imperial Capital, the emperor has seen him only a few times, so very few people know the truth about the grand master.

The audience outside the illusion knows, because on the water screen, whenever a character appears, there is a brief description of that character’s background and story.

In the illusion, the grand master can see the secrets of the heavens, summon the wind and rain, and influence the fate of the nation. But this grand master Xie Fuzhi is not a schemer and does not seek power and riches.

He usually stays alone in the Grand Master Mansion, neither attending court nor refining alchemy. Though the emperor desperately desires immortality, the grand master is very strong-willed, and the emperor cannot do anything to him.

Until the story begins, when the grand master sees the stars misaligned and the world in chaos, he makes a prediction and finally leaves the Grand Master Mansion, deciding not to be a recluse and to seek a worthy leader again.

If the main character, Song Mingzhu, is in this scroll, with her incredibly strong fortune, the world will surely fall into Song Mingzhu’s hands.

But there was no Song Mingzhu in this illusion, so those highly talented cultivators, who had similar fortunes, all had the chance to chase after power in the central plains.

It must be emphasized that Grand Master Xie Qi is a cold-hearted person who sees all humans as fools.

Therefore, no prince will receive the favor and help of the Grand Master. In those places of disaster, cultivators stirred up chaos, knowing that great turmoil was coming, and the Grand Master remained indifferent.

The world that has been divided for a long time will surely unite, and what has been united for a long time will eventually divide. Outdated things will always be replaced by new ones. Today’s dynasty is like a ship that has long been rotten; it will sink sooner or later, and sinking has nothing to do with him.

This indifferent state quickly ended when the Grand Master saw the eldest daughter of the prime minister’s family. He felt his heart stir; that dead heart suddenly came to life, almost bursting out of his chest with excitement.

His eyes followed Yun Chuyou’s departing figure, and his icy face instantly turned into a warm spring.

The Grand Master is a person who cultivates, valuing instincts and actions, unlike those ascetic monks who force themselves to go against their nature. Being a Grand Master does not stop him from marrying and having children.

Seeing this scene, Hu Xiaobai couldn’t help but cover his face with his fluffy tails, then quietly peek through the gaps, thinking that the appearance of the Phoenix Lord is truly hard to look at.

He really didn’t understand what Xie Fuzhi was thinking, wanting to enter the Dreamland Scroll and let so many eyes watch him act so out of character.

Those who knew that Xie Qi was the elder cultivator Xie Fuzhi of the Qingxu Sect widened their eyes at this scene. They became very interested in Yun Chuyou’s exceptional talent for alchemy.

"I can’t believe my eyes. Didn’t I remember him as Yun Chuyou’s master?"

In the world of cultivation, it is normal for senior brothers and sisters from the same sect to develop feelings for each other and eventually become partners.

After all, during the long time spent together while practicing, people get to know each other well. If they are good-looking and their personalities match, it is easy for love to grow over time.

Even among martial uncles and nephews from the same family but different sects, many end up together.

However, student-teacher relationships often face criticism. After all, a master is like a father; to some more traditional cultivators, they cannot accept such feelings.

The leader of the Tianyuan Sect chuckled, "Teacher-student relationships are normal. Don’t be so old-fashioned. They are both single, and there is no blood relation. A handsome man and a beautiful woman make a perfect pair."

Not to mention that the two have no blood relation; they are different species. One is a human, and one is a demon. The demon race does as they please and does not care about human ethics and morals.

He knew his old friend disapproved, but what could he do? If those nagging comments reached that phoenix’s ears, she might unleash her true fire and burn their faces off.

Several traditional and conservative cultivators shook their heads. They not only looked down on the Qingxu Sect, but they also held a bit of disdain for the overly open-minded leader of the Tianyuan Sect, "This is truly improper. The Qingxu Sect is just a small school, and judging by this atmosphere, it is not much different from the Hehuan Sect."

The Hehuan Sect has always had a bad reputation, after all, it is not a serious sect and they are quite open about it.

Yun Chuyou went out, of course, to solve her marriage problems. This time she entered the illusion, and she did lose her memory, but only partially.

She did not remember her time as a cultivator, only her memories from her past life as an ordinary university student.

With the false memories stuffed into the illusion, she believed she had traveled to another world, becoming a young girl whose father had died, and whose mother had also died, only loved by her grandmother.

Yun Chuyou once lived in a country that was quite free, and her family atmosphere was good. In that environment, she was not willing to easily step into marriage, so how could she possibly obey her cheap grandfather’s wishes, becoming a pawn for the family, tied to the prince her grandfather favored?

As a powerful chancellor, he certainly could not tie his whole family to one boat, so he arranged for his several daughters to marry different princes.

Naturally, caring for his legitimate granddaughter, he chose the most promising crown prince for Yun Chuyou. The crown prince is supported by the queen, and the queen is from the Yun family—yes, the same Yun family as Yun Chuyou’s, making them even more closely related.

Although the two Yuns are not the same Yun, they are still quite close; the chancellor and the current queen’s father have the same grandfather, making them direct cousins.

When Yun Chuyou heard about her cousin relationship with the prince, she almost rolled her eyes in front of her grandfather.

According to this calculation, she and the prince were distant relatives. Although marriage was legal in this era, such a blood relationship could easily lead to having unhealthy children if they married.

No, she didn’t want to get married and have children in this time, let alone join the palace and compete with countless women for one man.

Instead of getting married, she would rather cut her hair and become a nun. Forget it, it’s not easy to maintain such beautiful hair, so she might as well go to the temple and become a Taoist priest; that way, she could still enjoy food and drink.

When the grand master saw Yun Chuyou outside, she was pretending to pray for her grandmother while actually going out to observe the temple.

While in the house, there were no spies, so the information she could gather was quite limited. In that small courtyard, most people were caught up in competition, fighting for resources and affection.

With children, she would have to plan for them, fully dedicated to raising them. As a wife, she not only had to win her husband’s love but also manage the household and think about the family’s food and drink, and worry about her daughter’s marriage and her son’s future.

Yun Chuyou didn’t want to be trapped in that small house, so her first reaction upon hearing about marriage was to find a way to escape.

But as she left the Prime Minister’s Office, she sharply noticed something was wrong. There were more beggars on the streets than she remembered, and from the conversations in teahouses and taverns, she learned that many places were suffering disasters, and the number of refugees seemed to have exceeded normal levels.

It is better to be a dog in a peaceful world than to be a person in a chaotic one.

Yun Chuyou had never experienced such terrible distress, but she understood that in troubled times, the lives of common people were very hard.

After all, it was her first day in this new world. Because of the limited ways to get information, she could only learn a little, so she couldn’t guess how chaotic the world really was. But the chaos was not good for her.

While staying outside and trying to gather information, Yun Chuyou sharply noticed that someone was watching her. That gaze was very intense and uncomfortable, making her feel uneasy.

When she went out, she wore a cone-shaped hat with light fabric covering it, which slightly hid her face. Her appearance after traveling to this world was not very different from her last life; perhaps her skin was better, fair and translucent, making her a refined version of her former self.

She was not an extraordinarily beautiful woman. Reflecting on her time at the estate, Yun Chuyou did not think she had any special charm.

Perhaps she just had bad luck and encountered a creepy person.

As a young lady from a wealthy family, Yun Chuyou could not run around every day. She quickly entered the carriage, planning to stay quietly at home for the next few days and have her loyal maid gather information for her.

Compared to going out to gather information herself, the maids had their own channels. Common people might hear bits of news but couldn’t analyze the deeper changes, only seeing the surface. However, they were indeed well-informed, and they understood more than Yun Chuyou, who had never left her home.

The news that came the next day made Yun Chuyou feel that the situation might be worse than she thought. Even the price of food in the capital city had risen, and it seemed to be growing worse. The disaster appeared to be serious, and some people were trying to suppress it. The people from the Prime Minister’s Office also stepped in to help keep the refugees away from the bustling capital.

Every dynasty has its share of troublemaking disaster victims, but that does not mean the world will fall into chaos. However, Yun Chuyou still felt that there would be trouble, and this came from her keen sixth sense.

As the daughter of the Chancellor, even though her parents had passed away, she was the only one left in the main family. She inherited a significant amount of her mother’s dowry, but many of her father’s possessions belonged to the public, so not much had come to Yun Chuyou.

She sold some space-consuming antiques, and also sold famous paintings and calligraphy. She turned everything into valuable gold. If something really happened, having money did not guarantee safety and might even bring danger, but without money, one would be in big trouble.

Moreover, Yun Chuyou discovered one more thing: as a traveler from another world, she had a special power.

She had bound herself to a strange system that had storage space, which she could not use yet because it required certain conditions to be activated.

Due to her memory loss, along with the ban on her abilities and modification of her consciousness, Yun Chuyou would overlook things that belonged to cultivators until she awakened.

However, Yun Chuyou was familiar with the system’s storage space; which modern person hasn’t read a few novels about time travel and space?

Knowing that she had a space made Yun Chuyou even more determined to create chaos.

She also learned from her cheap cousin that Guanshan Yue from the lord’s mansion is actually an imposter.

With imposters, disasters, and strange spaces, she thought she might have entered a story themed around fleeing disasters, and she felt like a background character!

After all, civil officials and military generals have never gotten along, and she remembered that she and the fake heiress Guanshan Yue did not seem to get along very well.

But now that the other person was in trouble, Yun Chuyou didn’t plan to mock her; she would not meddle in someone else’s family matters.

Having successfully found logic for herself, Yun Chuyou planned to use the system space to store things. Of course, to avoid the space causing her issues, like putting things in and then being unable to take them out, she also didn’t plan to rely completely on the space; she just wanted to have a backup.

The system increased the requirements for using the backpack because Yun Chuyou had not remembered its other features, which were temporarily disabled to avoid letting outside cultivators notice something strange about her.

It might not have realized that its existence caused Yun Chuyou to misunderstand the development of the plot.

However, Yun Chuyou had not stored much food yet when an unexpected guest arrived at the Prime Minister’s Office. This sudden visitor disrupted Yun Chuyou’s plans and made her waver in her thoughts.

With an ethereal presence, the grand master, who usually ignored others, came knocking to propose marriage.