You Are the One I Want to Embrace Even When I'm Wielding My Sword (Reborn in a Book) - 001
“Aaaacchhooo!”
Fu Yan woke up groggily from her dream, involuntarily letting out a loud sneeze, as if her movement were somehow exaggerated, causing her entire body to jolt. Rubbing her nose, Fu Yan suddenly felt a chill throughout her body, as if she had just been pulled out of a refrigerator.
“Why is it so cold? Where is my blanket?”
Without much thought, Fu Yan quickly rubbed her limbs vigorously, trying to warm herself up as fast as possible. But before half a minute passed, Fu Yan finally realized something was wrong. This place didn’t seem to be her room. She quickly surveyed her surroundings, and what she saw startled her.
“Oh my god, where am I?”
Surrounded by dilapidated buildings, a broken Buddha statue with a missing arm stood in the center of the house. It was covered in cobwebs, resembling an abandoned temple. Fu Yan found herself lying in a pile of grass beneath the statue, facing a dwindling fire pit with just a faint ember left.
Looking around at the unfamiliar environment, her immediate reaction was – had she been kidnapped? She distinctly remembered sleeping peacefully at home last night. How did she wake up kidnapped and abandoned in this desolate place? And why couldn’t those despicable kidnappers at least bring her blanket along? She almost froze to death!
Just as Fu Yan felt the urge to curse, a sudden sharp pain shot through her head, followed by a rush of something into her mind.
Sitting dazed on the grass heap for half an hour, Fu Yan finally had to accept a fact: she hadn’t been kidnapped but…
She had transmigrated!!!
Recently, a cultivation novel titled “Cultivation Quest” had rapidly risen in popularity among male readers. Intrigued, Fu Yan clicked into it and binge-read two hundred chapters. She had to admit the author’s pacing was excellent, both thrilling and satisfying.
However, as soon as the second wife of the male lead appeared, Fu Yan belatedly realized it was another harem story! Feeling thoroughly disgusted, she mentally cursed the author and the male lead before swiftly dropping the novel.
But now, fate had a cruel twist. Fu Yan found herself transmigrated into “Cultivation Quest”.
“F*ck…”
Her only stroke of luck was not becoming one of the male lead’s harem. She’d rather knock herself out than accept that. She didn’t end up as a villainess or a malicious supporting character either. Instead, she became an inconspicuous extra character with the same name as hers – Fu Yan, an outer disciple of the Shuilin Sect.
Moreover, according to her knowledge, the Shuilin Sect would eventually be annihilated by the male lead single-handedly.
This…
For a moment, Fu Yan didn’t know whether to be happy or worried.
After digesting the reality of transmigration, Fu Yan sighed with sorrow. Since she was already transmigrated, she could only embrace it with a “go with the flow” attitude.
Once she settled down, Fu Yan had to sort through the memories of the original owner. In summary, she – Fu Yan, barely sixteen this year, came from an ordinary background with mediocre cultivation aptitude. She had been in the Shuilin Sect for five years and became an official outer disciple only two years ago.
As for her cultivation level, she had been stuck at the ninth level of the Foundation Establishment Stage for half a year, truly… just ordinary, beyond ordinary.
Fu Yan thought, the original character’s settings were indeed accurate.
In this world of cultivation novels, the first step in cultivation was the Foundation Establishment Stage, which consisted of nine levels. Then came the Core Formation Stage, followed by the Early, Middle, Late, and Consummation stages.
However, the Foundation Establishment Stage couldn’t even be considered the true beginning of cultivation. Throughout history, cultivation had always been an arduous journey for mortals, incredibly challenging.
For cultivators, only by absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, opening up their own dantian (energy center), transforming the spiritual energy into true essence for their own use, and stepping into the Core Formation Stage could they truly be considered cultivators.
But opening the dantian was far from easy.
Countless cultivators with mediocre aptitude spent their entire lives unable to open their dantian and enter the Core Formation Stage. Their cultivation remained forever stuck at the ninth level of the Foundation Establishment Stage.
It could be said that opening the dantian was a filter for embarking on the cultivation path, excluding countless individuals with mediocre aptitude, making cultivation seemingly within reach yet infinitely distant.
The original owner’s cultivation had been stuck at the ninth level of the Foundation Establishment Stage for half a year, showing no signs of breakthrough. Naturally, the original owner was unwilling. So, she accepted a sect mission and went down the mountain for training. After all, besides enlightenment, actual combat experience was crucial.
However, for some reason, the original owner felt cold all over during her descent from the mountain, and she ultimately froze to death in this deserted temple. This is how Fu Yan transmigrated into this world.
After a simple review of the original owner’s memories, Fu Yan roughly estimated the current timeline of “Cultivation Quest”.
The male lead should have just obtained his cheat system recently and hadn’t started to shine yet. His cultivation level might not be as high as her current ninth level of Foundation Establishment Stage. As for the destruction of the Shuilin Sect, it would happen several years later.
“Well, since I’ve transmigrated into a cultivation novel, I naturally need to cultivate. In this world where life is as cheap as ants’, I understand that only sufficient strength can guarantee my safety. This is an eternal truth.”
As for the male lead, Fu Yan didn’t care much. He had the protagonist’s halo and a powerful cheat system. She certainly wouldn’t become cannon fodder.
While the male lead hadn’t grown much yet, Fu Yan had no intention of sucking up to him. After all, the male lead would eventually gather a harem, and if she went to cling to him now, she’d end up being one of his concubines. Just the thought of it sent shivers down her spine.
With her mind made up, Fu Yan finally relaxed a bit. She slowly got up from the grass heap, and her originally cold body finally began to warm up.
The dawn was breaking outside the window, and the fire pit in the dilapidated temple had finally extinguished, leaving no trace of warmth.
Perhaps due to just transmigrating, Fu Yan felt her limbs were still a bit stiff. To quickly adapt, she decided to do some radio calisthenics in the temple.
“One, two, three, four…”
“Two, two, three, four…”
Jumping and panting vigorously, Fu Yan didn’t notice that in the sky above the temple, someone was flying on a sword, slowing down when passing by.
This person was none other than Bai Yueli, an inner disciple of the Shuilin Sect.
Having closed her doors for two months of cultivation, Bai Yueli had just come out and planned to take a stroll down the mountain. Little did she expect to see this scene in the dilapidated temple.
For Bai Yueli, who had reached the late stage of Core Formation, although she didn’t deliberately explore her surroundings, the sight of Fu Yan doing radio calisthenics in the temple still caught her attention.
The dance Fu Yan was doing was something she had never seen before, which piqued her curiosity, causing her to stop and watch for a while.
“This dance… is quite interesting,” Bai Yueli couldn’t help but chuckle as she watched Fu Yan in the temple.
Thinking of this, Bai Yueli’s eyes fell on the identity wooden plaque hanging from Fu Yan’s waist: “Fu Yan? So, she’s an outer disciple of my Shuilin Sect. It’s a pity her aptitude is a bit mediocre.”
After saying this, Bai Yueli shook her head. Fu Yan’s cultivation level was naturally discernible to her; although she had reached the ninth level of Foundation Establishment, there were no signs of any breakthroughs. Without opportunity, it would be difficult for her to successfully open her dantian and step into the Core Formation stage. On the path of cultivation, opportunities were something that couldn’t be sought but only encountered.
Fu Yan in the dilapidated temple seemed tired from jumping. Bai Yueli didn’t think much of it and soon flew away on her sword. “Whew, that was exhausting!” Fu Yan was unaware that someone had peeked at her while doing radio calisthenics. By now, she was panting heavily from exhaustion. Fortunately, she finally felt vitality coursing through her body, and her limbs moved much more smoothly. She felt rejuvenated. To further adapt to her body, Fu Yan rested for a while and then jumped again until the sun rose. Only then did she finally prepare to leave the temple.
After tidying herself up, Fu Yan picked up the original owner’s iron sword and walked out of the temple. “Let me see what sect mission the original owner accepted for this descent from the mountain.” Saying this, Fu Yan took out the sect mission guide from her bosom. It turned out that fifteen hundred miles east of the Shuilin Sect, there was a place called Heiquan Town. It was said that a notorious flower thief had recently emerged there, causing all the women in the town to be afraid to go out easily, fearing they might be abducted by the flower thief. Because of this unscrupulous flower thief, the entire Heiquan Town was in a state of anxiety. It was precisely because of this that they had sent people to seek help from the nearby Shuilin Sect, hoping that someone would come to help them get rid of this flower thief.
Seeing this, Fu Yan couldn’t help but smirk, “Even in the background setting of this cultivation novel, there are still such despicable flower thieves.” According to the information received by the Shuilin Sect, the cultivation level of this flower thief was probably at the ninth level of Foundation Establishment, and he had not yet opened his dantian to step into the Core Formation stage. So, this task was assigned to outer disciples for training. The original owner’s cultivation level was also at the ninth level of Foundation Establishment, so she needed a collision and confrontation with someone of the same level. Therefore, she readily accepted this task. Overall, this task wasn’t particularly difficult, so the original owner didn’t choose to come with fellow sect members but instead came alone.
In modern terms, calling the flower thief a flower thief was just a euphemism for a shameless criminal. Fu Yan despised such people the most. “Alright, a flower thief, huh? Let’s consider you the first stepping stone for my transmigration journey.” Fu Yan put away the sect mission guide, smiling softly as she spoke.