My System, My Wife Feng Aotian [Transmigration] - Chapter 20

“Palace Mistress, something’s definitely wrong,” Siyi said to Feng Jue, who had suddenly grown somber.

Don’t deny your ailments.

It’s best to visit the Inner Demon Chamber before entering the Secret Realm.

Feng Jue stood up, gave her a indifferent glance, and vanished from the room in a blink. Siyi picked up her freshly brewed tea and sipped it slowly, listening to the storyteller’s voice from the platform. After a long pause, she sighed.

“When will the world’s turmoil ever cease…”

Lanyang City, nestled against Lanyang Palace, had risen and fallen with the palace’s fortunes for countless years. Now that Lanyang Palace was at the height of its glory, Lanyang City naturally thrived with bustling activity.

From within the city, one could see distant mountains layered like waves, shrouded in mist. Climbing to the highest tower and gazing into the distance, one could glimpse a corner of Lanyang Palace, ethereal and celestial amidst the clouds.

Throughout the Eastern Continent, both rogue cultivators and common folk harbored boundless yearning for Lanyang Palace.

Thus, Celestial View Terrace remained perpetually popular.

The Celestial View Terrace was actually the tallest building in the city, modeled after Lanyang Palace itself, making it extraordinarily opulent. Its lofty structure stood precisely between the Inner and Outer Cities, serving as a monumental gateway that clearly demarcated the two districts.

The Inner and Outer Cities catered to different clientele: the Inner City hosted cultivators, while the Outer City was where mortals lived. However, since roads are meant to be traveled, there were no strict rules prohibiting either group from entering either city. Still, once inside, visitors were expected to abide by the local rules, or risk being taught a lesson by the Lanyang Palace disciples who patrolled daily.

Cultivators of various sects walked the streets of the Inner City, weapons dangling at their sides. Lanyang Palace disciples in crimson robes embroidered with phoenixes passed by, their gazes straight and unflinching. Both cultivators and mortals who passed by couldn’t help but steal glances at them.

A White Water Sect disciple watched the Lanyang Palace disciples with open envy. He’d heard from the Sect Master that the Palace Mistress of Lanyang Palace was young and beautiful, with an arrogant air that made her seem above everyone else. The disciples in the city were the same way; anyone associated with Lanyang Palace seemed to carry themselves with an air of superiority.

“If I’d known back then, I would have taken part in Lanyang Palace’s Spiritual Root assessment,” the White Water Sect disciple muttered under his breath. “Maybe I’d be a Lanyang Palace disciple now! It’s all because my parents thought the White Water Sect was the best. But only after joining did I realize it’s only good in our little town. To other cultivators, it’s barely worth a mention.”

The White Water Sect disciples sighed collectively, feeling a shared sense of regret, as if they had stumbled down a misguided path.

“That’s not entirely true,” another disciple interjected. “At least our sect was once prosperous. You all know about the longstanding feud between the White Water Sect and the Lianshan Sect, but do you understand how that enmity came to be?”

He continued, “Take Xue Bufan, for example. His engagement to the Palace Mistress of Lanyang Palace was arranged even before he was born. Back then, the Lianshan Sect was at the height of its glory, able to forge connections with Lanyang Palace. But look at them now!”

“They’ve fallen into utter ruin, and the engagement was broken off.”

“Same with our White Water Sect,” the first disciple shook his head. “We rise and fall together. When will we finally crush the Lianshan Sect underfoot, leaving them no chance to rise again? Come to think of it, I’ve never heard of Lanyang City falling into decline.”

The same disciple scoffed. “How do you know Lanyang Palace hasn’t faced decline? Don’t you find the character ‘Lan’ in their name—greedy—rather suspicious?”

He didn’t lower his voice, and the other tea-drinking patrons nearby perked up their ears.

A disciple from the White Water Sect said, “Lan—greedy. In short… it’s an unflattering name. I heard from my Master that Lanyang Palace had been dormant for many years. It was only after the grandmother of Palace Mistress Feng Jue—the predecessor to the Old Palace Mistress—displayed her talent and discovered a Spirit Vein that Lanyang Palace was revived and regained its former glory!”

03, holding a virtual brush, scribbled notes on the panel and tagged the entry in his work log as “hearsay.”

It hovered in the center of the table, listening openly to the gossip.

The first disciple to speak said, “No matter how much we talk, we still don’t have a clear explanation of how Lanyang Palace fell into decline. I do know that our sect shares a similar fate with the Lianshan Sect—both gradually faded into obscurity as our numbers dwindled and new disciples failed to replenish our ranks.”

That’s why Xue Bufan’s discovery of a Supreme Grade Spiritual Root caused the Sect Master so much anxiety, and why no one was more relieved than the Sect Master when Xue Bufan’s Spiritual Root was later crippled.

As the disciples continued chatting, a direct disciple of Bai Fenghui approached. Hearing their conversation, he placed a hand on one of their shoulders and encouraged them, “That’s true enough, but times have changed. The White Water Sect has us!”

He lowered his voice, shooting them a conspiratorial glance that made them lean in closer. With a smug grin, he whispered, “Just wait until Master… emerges. We’re going to be rich!”

The disciples beamed in delight, nodding in agreement.

Meanwhile, 03 lowered its small panel, and a small circle appeared beneath its eyes, gradually expanding.

These people were practically advertising their secrets on their foreheads.

The System was speechless.

Seeing them begin to chatter about other matters, the silver-white System slowly drifted upstairs to a private room.

This establishment catered to cultivators, with guest rooms equipped with spirit-gathering arrays for cultivation. The private rooms also possessed spirit-gathering properties, though not as potent as those in the guest rooms. Both accommodations came at a steep price.

******

After compensating Lanyang Palace with a substantial sum of spirit stones, the White Water Sect found itself financially strained. Apart from Bai Fenghui, all the disciples were staying in ordinary rooms. They often used the excuse of insufficient spiritual energy in their rooms to gather in the hall to drink and chat.

03 located Xue Mengtao in a booth near the railing. She had changed out of her Lanyang Palace robes into a simple azure robe and was meditating silently. A faint aura of spiritual energy swirled around her as she drew it into her body, listening to the cheerful chatter from below. A trace of worry between her brows added a delicate fragility to her appearance.

03 opened its work log and noted: “Xue Mengtao is on a mission.”

It hadn’t forgotten that tailing Xue Mengtao was part of its mission.

Just as 03 was about to find a vantage point to keep watch, a low male voice flashed past the booth, drowning in the waiter’s enthusiastic calls to customers. Xue Mengtao, who had been sitting cross-legged, startled and abruptly stood up, rushing out.

“Young Master?” She looked around at the bustling crowd, her eyes wide with shock.

Had Xue Bufan also come?

03 floated out and activated its scanning function on the crowd. None of the moving figures matched Xue Bufan’s recorded profile. Perhaps Xue Mengtao had misheard, or perhaps Xue Bufan was deliberately disguising himself. 03 suspected the latter.

The Secret Realm, reopened after the protagonist’s downfall, couldn’t proceed without his participation.

I wonder why Xue Bufan came to Lanyang City.

03 scanned the crowd again, undeterred. Although the Host wasn’t earning points through side quests to buy cheat codes, at least it was an excellent, high-level System capable of assisting the Host with its core functions.

But… how it missed the Shop and all its gadgets.

The lonely System opened the Shop, staring at the Host’s zero-point balance, desperately wishing a single point would appear.

Undeterred was Xue Mengtao as well. She drifted aimlessly with the crowd, moving upward. When she reached the corner, a sudden arm grabbed her, pulling her into the alley.

03’s eyes lit up, and it surged forward.

[Warning: Approaching 100-meter range limit from Host!]

[Warning!]

03: …

The silver-white System, dark circles under its eyes, retreated, staring at the wall.

Warning: System is monitoring you.

It watched for a long time until Xue Mengtao emerged from the corner, tearful. A hooded man followed her, his posture hunched, his face grotesquely aged and scarred with black lesions—the System couldn’t bear to look directly at him.

Yet Xue Mengtao gazed at that face with tender affection. No wonder the Main System said human potential was limitless.

Xue Mengtao said to the disguised Xue Bufan, “Young Master Xue, please take care of yourself, no matter what happens.”

“You too,” Xue Bufan murmured, his voice unchanged. “Lanyang Palace isn’t as free as Lianshan Sect. There are many rules, so you must be careful with your actions.”

Xue Mengtao nodded, touched. “If I could find a way to help Young Master Xue restore his Spiritual Root…” She paused, wiping away tears. “I wish I could take his place. Why was it me who lost my Spiritual Root, and not him?”

Xue Bufan was moved, his wrinkled face softening with emotion.

03, with its eyes one looking up and the other down, avoided direct eye contact. Finally, it opened the portrait of Feng Jue.

Alright.

It was working again.

The System retracted the surface electricity.

Xue Mengtao reluctantly parted from Xue Bufan.

“If Feng Jue asks you to do anything difficult, you must tell me,” Xue Bufan said quietly.

“No, the Palace Mistress has been very kind to me,” Xue Mengtao replied, shaking her head. She didn’t reveal Feng Jue’s instructions. The fate of the palace attendant who had previously leaked information about Lanyang Palace was still fresh in her mind. She wanted to stay at Lanyang Palace to find a cure for Xue Bufan, so she couldn’t take unnecessary risks.

Xue Bufan sighed and bid her farewell.

Xue Mengtao walked away, glancing back three times.

03 didn’t move.

It hovered outside the police cordon, watching Xue Bufan motionlessly.

Alone in the deserted area, Xue Bufan frowned, muttering to himself.

“Feng Jue must know about the Secret Realm too. And with the unrest outside Lanyang City recently, she wouldn’t have… Never mind, let’s focus on our task first.”

He pulled up his hood, hunched his shoulders, and climbed the stairs.

Wouldn’t have what? What task are you referring to?

He was clearly talking to himself—why not be clear?

Humans are truly inexplicable.

03 drew a massive question mark on its panel, its glowing form flickering as it drifted downstairs.

The White Water Sect disciples’ conversation had escalated into a heated debate over which immortal beauty reigned supreme in the Cultivation World. Nearby guests, unable to resist, joined the fray.

The entire hall erupted in argument, each faction passionately declaring their candidate as the foremost beauty of the cultivation realm.

03’s glow pulsed erratically as it hastily recorded the scene.

We’ve received some big news!

Today is truly a fruitful day.

“So, this is the big news you were talking about?” Feng Jue stared at the panel, her eyelids twitching as she read the list of names followed by eloquent verses.

Among them was her name, described as “the Eastern Continent’s peerless beauty, worthy of admiration but not to be approached.”

A ball of fire erupted in Feng Jue’s palm, her face icy cold, as if she might incinerate the person who wrote those words at any moment.

“Very important,” 03 said. “I believe these names will all appear around the Protagonist in the future. The Host should strike first.”

Take them all down. Follow the Protagonist’s path and leave them no way forward.

Feng Jue: “……”

“Xue Bufan is in Lanyang City?” she asked, changing the subject.

This was the second big news.

03 opened the work log (Host’s task version), providing a live feed of the scene.

Feng Jue picked up her teacup.

A few minutes later, 03 stopped. “Due to the distance limit, that’s all I could hear.”

“Like a lingering ghost,” Feng Jue muttered. “I wonder if Xue Bufan has told Xue Mengtao about the Spiritual Root.”

A smirk played on her lips.

“Xue Mengtao is now under the Palace Mistress of Lanyang Palace. For now, I’ll spare her life, considering she keeps her mouth shut and does her work quietly.”

Having said everything that needed to be said and reminded the protagonist of her responsibilities, Feng Jue turned her attention to the next matter at hand.

03 raised the panel covered in names and waved it back and forth before Feng Jue.

Feng Jue felt a sudden headache coming on. She pinched the bridge of her nose between two fingers, her freshly painted crimson nails, adorned with glistening golden feathers, contrasting sharply against her snow-white skin.

How had things come to this? A profound sense of absurdity washed over Feng Jue. She had simply broken off her engagement with Xue Bufan, yet now she found herself forced to choose a Dao Companion from a group of women.

Fine, I’ll just make this clear to the little thing.

Feng Jue resolved to cut through the Gordian knot, but when she looked up and met 03’s wide, round eyes, she suddenly found herself speechless.

Under the gaze of those peculiar, almost alien eyes, Feng Jue found herself unable to utter a word.

“Fine, you wouldn’t understand anyway. Just go through the motions for now. At least it’ll give you something to do,” Feng Jue muttered under her breath, unwilling to see 03 continue to hang on the wall like a candlestick—visible only to her, and straining her eyes.

“Come here,” Feng Jue beckoned.

03 perked up, holding the panel wide open for Feng Jue to make her selection.

“A peerless beauty, a flower that topples nations, a woman who stands alone above the world—the Saintess of the Red Lotus Sect,” Feng Jue recited lazily, a cold smile curling her lips. “The Red Lotus Sect has always shunned worldly affairs, secluding themselves in cultivation. Their sect rules decree that the Saintess shall never marry, and the Saint shall never take a wife. This is utterly impossible.”

Oh, a lifelong bachelor.

But nothing is impossible for the Protagonist. Even as supporting characters, we must carefully consider and create possibilities.

03 suggested an alternative path: “She won’t marry, so why don’t you marry into her sect?”

No sooner had the words left 03’s lips than a crimson and golden whip cracked through the air, piercing through 03’s body and slamming into the floor. With a thunderous boom, dark-red fissures split the flooring, flames still sizzling along the whip’s trail.

03’s voice, as frosty as snow, remained calm: “Next.”

Feng Jue raised her hand, scoffed coldly, and withdrew her Natal Artifact into her Sea of Consciousness, continuing to review the list.

“Yu Xuefei of Thousand Beauty Valley is a Medical Cultivator. She has a Wood Spiritual Root, which is incompatible with my elemental affinity. Eliminated.”

“Meng Xiangfei of Profound Yin Mountain. Profound Yin Mountain is also known as the Minor Demonic Sect, and Meng Xiangfei is called a Demoness. How could the Palace Mistress of Lanyang Palace associate with a Demoness? Out of the question.”

“Zhu Shiyu of the Taiyan Sect practices the Path of Emotionless Dao. Unacceptable.”

“Qiu Jingyue of the Ten Directions Sect. Though she’s at the Golden Core Stage, she’s two hundred years older than me. Unsuitable.”

“Qiu Shuangshuang of the Autumn Water Pavilion. She came of age just last year—still a greenhorn. Too young. Ineligible.”

*******

Feng Jue meticulously scrutinized the list, picking out flaws one by one. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed 03’s dark circles under its eyes seemingly float to the top of its head. She slowly closed her lips, frowned, and asked, “What are you staring at? Is there something on the ceiling?”

03 nodded.

Yes.

A flag.

But the one to retrieve the flag would most likely be the Host.

As Feng Jue meticulously listed why each potential candidate was unsuitable due to their potential entanglement with the Protagonist, 03 seemed to see countless plotlines flash before its eyes.

“The Host dislikes Xue Mengtao, yet still admits her to Lanyang Palace,” 03 suggested, supporting and encouraging the Host to continue this course of action.

“Don’t be defeated by the difficulties before you. Humans, learn to overcome them.”

Feng Jue gasped, tempted to lash out at 03 again. “You think I’m some kind of prodigy,” she snapped.

Setting aside whether it was even possible, even if she did follow through, she would become the epitome of a lecherous Palace Mistress of Lanyang Palace, a ruler who would make enemies of the world for the sake of beauty! She had no desire for Lanyang Palace to become the second Nine Heavens Sect.

03 calmly replied, “Take them one by one.”

Feng Jue was speechless. She couldn’t let 03 run unchecked like this. She narrowed her eyes, her long lashes drooping to conceal the turmoil within.

“03, you’re just trying to hurry me into marriage to sever ties with Xue Bufan. I understand your intentions, but I have absolutely no interest in opening a harem,” Feng Jue said. “Instead, I’ll give you a task: There are countless cultivators in this world. Go through them all and find me the perfect Dao Companion—one who truly suits my tastes. How about that?”

03’s recently disappointed heart instantly perked up.

A new mission?

This was the third task the Host had entrusted to it.

“Is this a promise?” 03 asked.

Feng Jue smiled faintly, lifting a finger to virtually high-five the matchstick-like gesture 03 made in the air.

“Is this a promise.”

Her smile was radiant, her confidence unwavering. Whatever gods, demons, or monsters you summon, she thought, I won’t respond to a single one. Go ahead and exhaust yourselves!

Whether it was a Dao Companion or a marriage partner, she had no need for either.

03 was equally resolute.

It, Cheat System 03, was the most outstanding employee in the Book Transmigration Department, the only Advanced System under the Main System, and had never failed a mission since its creation.

Whatever the cost, it would find the Host a Dao Companion!

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