Chapter 75: First Rebirth.

“Just relying on the cultivation gained from the system’s cheats? Hah, what if I run into someone with an even stronger system? Wouldn’t I just drop dead on the spot?”
The thought sent a chill through her heart.

The free cultivation was still a bit unreliable.
The system was working hard, but she needed to put in some effort herself too.

More importantly, she had completely skipped the most basic first realm—Body Refining Realm.

Thinking back to the novels she read in her past life, which protagonist dared to play like this?
Which one didn’t polish their physical body until it was like a magical treasure?
Which protagonist didn’t dominate their peers, or even the entire world, by cultivating their body in the early stages?

This situation felt like the heavens were giving her a chance to make up for lost lessons.
She had to seize this opportunity, if only to prove herself.

Creak—

She pushed open the old wooden door.

A gust of icy wind, laced with frost, blasted in, making her shiver.
Outside, a bare, lonely tree stood in the snow, its twisted branches like a frozen, gaunt ghost.

“Tch… loneliness, that’s the real norm, huh.”
Xie Qiyang gave a self-mocking tug at the corner of her mouth.

Her mind uncontrollably flashed back to that absurd scene from a few days ago…
Her cheeks instantly burned red-hot.
She must’ve been possessed! How could she have… half-given in like that?

But… the idea that she could just have fun and watch her cultivation soar was a temptation hard to resist.

This biting cold and dead silence, though, were like a bucket of ice water dumped over her head, snapping her back to reality.
If she kept going like that, she’d probably end up pickled in lust, her mind filled with nothing but dirty thoughts!
The mere idea was terrifying!

She plopped down on the cold doorstep, the wind slicing her face like a knife.
What was the point of cultivation?
The question weighed on her heart like a stone.
Go back? Immortality?
Hah, she couldn’t even muster interest in girls right now, let alone guys.
Everything felt so… pointless.jpg.

The sky grew darker, gray like a dirty rag.
Propping her cheek in her hand, her mind was blank, as if she’d entered the legendary “sage mode.”
In her past life, she was a slacker student who half-assed everything.
Talk about a “heart for the Dao” in this life?
What a joke!

“Hey, hey, hey! My little ancestor! Why are you sitting in the wind like that? You’ll freeze to death!”
Zhang Ming’s booming voice, laced with urgency, came from afar, growing closer.

Wrapped up like a walking cotton ball, his face red as a beet from the cold, he came huffing and puffing toward her.
Without a word, he shooed Xie Qiyang, still “contemplating life,” back into the house like a chick.

He dropped the bulging sack off his back, filled with herbs that smelled of earth and greenery.

With a bang, he slammed the door shut, cutting off the wind and snow outside.
Turning around, Zhang Ming’s face was unusually serious, even a bit anxious.

“Ningshuang! It’s not that Uncle’s rushing you, but at your age, you really can’t afford to dawdle!”
His words came out in a rush.

“Twelve years old, and you’re stuck at the critical threshold of the first ‘Awakening’!
The first realm—Body Refining Realm—is the foundation of a skyscraper!
If the foundation’s shaky, no matter how high you build, it’ll collapse with a gust of wind!”

Rubbing his hands, he looked a bit embarrassed and guilty.
“Uncle… Uncle’s got no skills. I couldn’t get my hands on those top-tier Awakening techniques from the big sects.
What I’ve got are just some common manuals, barely better than nothing.”

He waved his hand irritably, as if brushing away his own inadequacy.
“Forget it, no use talking about that now!
The water’s boiling, and the big tub’s ready!
Throw these herbs in, in order, and soak!
Soak for a full day!
Let it seep into every bone!”

As soon as he finished, he rushed back out, grunting as he hauled in a massive, steaming wooden tub.
Thick white steam filled the small room, carrying a scalding warmth.

“Uncle won’t stick around and get in your way. You can handle this.”
Zhang Ming wiped his forehead, unsure if it was sweat or melted snow, and gave her a complicated look.
“Stay any longer, and your aunt might really lose it.”
With that, he bolted out the door like he was being chased by a ghost, disappearing into the snowstorm.

The room was left with only the rolling steam and the rich scent of herbs.
Xie Qiyang walked to the tub, took a deep breath, and began tossing the variously shaped herbs into the boiling water.

Hiss—

The murky water began to shimmer with faint silver specks, contrasting with the deep brown liquid.
A potent, almost indescribable herbal scent, brimming with strange vitality, erupted and flooded her senses.

The water’s surface rippled violently.
On closer inspection, golden waves seemed to spread silently beneath, mysterious and unfathomable.

Xie Qiyang didn’t hesitate.
She shed her clothes.
Yes, she was a girl now—definitely a girl.

Her budding figure flickered in the steaming mist, her skin glowing white as jade, exuding a holy yet fragile beauty.

Gritting her teeth, she stepped into the scalding liquid and slowly sat down.

“Hiss—!”

A ferocious burning sensation pierced through every inch of her skin, every pore, in an instant.

Deep within her body, it was as if every parched, cracked piece of land was roaring with greed, frantically absorbing the strange energy in the liquid.

Then, a thick, molten “flood” gathered and surged through her limbs and bones.

It rampaged without order, bringing an unbearable itch, a mix of pain and heat—an extreme torment of fire and ice.

If an outsider saw her now, they’d be shocked:
The white steam filling the room no longer drifted outward.
Instead, it was drawn back, as if pulled by an invisible force, forming a hazy vortex around the delicate, jade-like figure in the tub.
Years of accumulated impurities were being forcibly steamed out by the domineering medicinal power.

The tub was spacious enough for Xie Qiyang’s small frame to sit cross-legged comfortably.

The scalding liquid enveloped her, pain and itch intertwining.
The chaotic heat surging inside grew even wilder, as if it might tear her apart.

At the peak of this agony, her hands moved, guided by some ancient instinct beyond her control.

Her fingers danced, forming seals like blooming lotuses.

A series of mysterious, ancient, almost primal hand signs flowed naturally before her chest.

She had never learned these movements.
Even searching through Jiang Ningshuang’s memories, there was no trace of them.

It was as if… a code etched deep within her body had been abruptly awakened by the extreme stimulus of the medicine and pain.

As the mysterious seals were completed—

Buzz!

The chaotic, near-explosive heat in her lower abdomen suddenly stilled.

Then, like rivers returning to the sea, the wild energy was forcibly tamed and gathered by an invisible force.

No longer rampaging, it transformed into a refined, pure stream, flowing like a gentle creek along some mysterious path, surging and cleansing through her body.

Where the stream passed, her muscles and bones hummed.
The tearing pain and unbearable itch miraculously faded.

In their place was an indescribable clarity, as if long-blocked channels had been cleared.

The stream completed a full cycle, returning like a weary bird to her lower abdomen’s dantian.

It condensed, gathered, compressed.

The stream spun wildly in her dantian, collapsing inward like a snowball, growing larger and denser.

A tremendous sense of power began to take shape.

Crack!

At the moment the power swelled to its limit, nearly bursting her dantian—

A crisp sound, like shattering ice crystals, rang out, audible only to Xie Qiyang.

The condensed “energy snowball” in her dantian exploded.

But the explosion didn’t bring destruction—it brought Awakening.

A pure, boundless vital essence, like a flood breaking through a dam, swept through her entire body.

It washed over every inch of flesh, every meridian, every cell.

Xie Qiyang’s eyes snapped open, a fleeting spark of starlight flashing in her pupils.

All exhaustion, haziness, and the chaotic thoughts of lust that had plagued her were gone, evaporated like morning mist under a blazing sun.

In their place was an unprecedented clarity, openness, and boundless energy.

Her body brimmed with power, as if a single clenched fist could shatter the tub, even the house, in an instant.

The first “Awakening” threshold had been crossed, guided by those instinctive seals, as naturally as water finding its course.