12 Legacy World 1.2 The Leads

There were books on plants, poison, martial arts, and spiritual cultivation.

The only thing in this world that had piqued her curiosity and interest was the existence of spiritual energy. It was something that could be cultivated and was mixed in with martial arts. Something that her original world did not have.

One's spiritual energy was classified into four realms. There was Earth, Sky, Heaven, and God realm. Each realm was then divided further into three levels that signified how well they have assimilated their spiritual energy into their martial arts. It consists of low, mid, and high levels. An average person could practice and cultivate their way to high level sky realm by 15 years old. Whoever progressed beyond that would be considered talents and geniuses.

Since normal martial artists without any spiritual energy were basically powerless in this world, people who could not cultivate were considered wastes. Xinyi was one of those wastes in society, due to her supposed weak constitution.

To change her fate and prevent permanent damage from being done to her immune system, Xinyi had to first focus on studying the plants and poisons in this world. As soon as she nursed her body back to health, she could then begin to cultivate and practice her martial arts.

With that plan in mind, she chose her first book and read it till some time before dawn when the servants and maids of the household would wake up and bustle around. After she returned the book to where it belonged, she went back to her room.

Xinyi's life soon and very easily fell into a routine.

She behaved like a nocturnal animal by studying at night then sleeping through the day. Proper rest was also essential for her very broken body to heal, so she had no qualms with sleeping so much.

Whenever her mother came by with the tonic, she always pretended to be extremely weak and only able to stomach a little. As soon as BaoBao informed her that her mother had left the courtyard, she would go to the window and spit the tonic into the water jug she hid by the wall outside.

Over the week, Xinyi managed to finish several books. Her reading speed was pretty good. It was her comprehension that was often the problem.

After a long and hard investigation and multiple crosses, she finally arrived at the explanation for her body constitution.

The poison in her body was merely poorly prepared common food. Some food when not prepared well could turn into poisons and toxins. The buildup of toxins in her body ended up weakening her considerably. If this continued for too long, the toxins in her body would become impossible to purge and her immune system would begin to break down.

Xinyi guessed that this started ever since the much loved third concubine joined the family causing her mother to lose favour. In a bid to fight with the soft image of the third concubine, her mother likely used Xinyi to make herself look like some loving self-sacrificial person, and it worked. Her father pitied her mother enough to try and impregnate her with another child who would be more able to love her back. After years of trying, she was finally pregnant.

Xinyi had no doubt that her mother would use the same trick if the next child was a daughter. Since sons were valued much more, she was sure her mother would only feel assured enough if she bore a son. Either way, Xinyi would likely soon be a forgotten character who would get further neglected.

Now that she has an estimate of how much toxin buildup there was in her body, she planned meals that would help purge the toxins out. It was a good thing that her family was wealthy. There was an abundance of ingredients in the kitchen that she could choose from.

For the next hour or two after she ate, she would always sweat out icky dark brown coloured liquid.

Once the purging stopped, she would lethargically draw her own bath using water from a well at the back of her courtyard.

Afterwards, she would return to studying in the library until it was time for the servants and maids to wake up.

Another week passed like that and she finally felt well enough to add one more item into her routine. At the same time, BaoBao made an announcement in her mind. [First hurdle passed! Permanent damage done to your immune system is avoided!]

After acknowledging his announcement, she quickly went back to her planning.

Instead of returning to sleep after spitting out the "tonic" from her mother, she would cultivate.

Cultivating in this world required circulating the spiritual energy within one's body, while absorbing the free spiritual energy in the air through one's pores before melding them together into one.

Since the real Xinyi had hardly cultivated in her life, Xinyi had to practically start from scratch. She must first familiarise herself with the spiritual energy within her before she could even think of drawing more into her body, much less melding them together.

More time passed and during the final two months of her mother's pregnancy, her mother finally asked a maid to take over her visits to Xinyi's courtyard. On the maid's first visit, Xinyi looked and behaved very sickly and weak with the help of makeup. Acting like she was afflicted with some contagious disease, she advised the maid out of good faith to forget about her and that it was okay to keep it a secret. The maid was more than happy to obey.

Convinced that no one would come by her courtyard anymore, she took this chance to revamp her room. She got rid of the heavy sandalwood incense, changed the deep yellow curtain drapes to light gray ones that looked close to silver, added pink freesia flowers into some of the empty vases, and opened up the windows to air out the room.

A nice and cool spring breeze breathed life into the room.

During this entire time, Xinyi managed to cultivate enough spiritual energy within her to qualify as part of the Earth realm. However, she only recently started her martial arts practice, so would take a little longer before she could determine her level. She could only thank her lucky stars that she had learnt martial arts in her original world so it should not take as long for her to master.

During this entire period, BaoBao witnessed Xinyi's non-stop hardwork and determination. She delved herself into work and that was all she thought about. There were no stray thoughts at all.

Unbeknownst to them, the favourable feelings that BaoBao has towards her continued to grow overtime, and with time, he also became more comfortable with her.

Another two months passed and her mother's baby was born. Hearing that it was a boy, Xinyi decided that this was her chance to end her nocturnal lifestyle.

With a baby boy, Xinyi knew that her mother would be guaranteed a life of comfort even if she was not favoured. Now that her mother no longer needed her to earn the pity and compassion of others, Xinyi bet that her time had come to be completely neglected. At least until she would be useful in the story again.

She stole a small pot that was never used in the kitchen and built a stove for herself in the back of her courtyard behind her house. It looked shabby but she did not mind as long as it served its purpose. Now she could cook her food in daytime instead of only surviving on one meal a day with rations for the rest of the day.

An idea to test how much of a neglected character she was came to mind.

She took a good look at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were grey like it was in her original world. Her hair was much longer and sleeker now and her features were also a little more dainty.

/I actually don't look too bad./

After she used a little make-up powder to hide the rosiness of her cheeks, she left her courtyard to take a stroll around her home.

None of the servants bothered with her since they recognised her as a miss of the household.

She came across the daughter of the first concubine, Chen MeiRuo. "JieJie." Xinyi greeted her with a polite small bow. MeiRuo was a meek and quiet girl only 2 years older than her and already at the high level Sky realm.

She later came across the daughter of the main wife, Chen ZiYao, and the daughter of the third concubine, Chen HuiShan. At only 14 years old, Xinyi could already tell that they were blooming into fine young ladies, especially HuiShan who had started off as an ugly duckling based on the original soul's memories.

Xinyi immediately found it fishy that ZiYao would be so friendly with HuiShan when she had many reasons to dislike her.

The one whom their father brought to parties, social gatherings, and shopping trips was often HuiShan and her mother. These opportunities allowed HuiShan to become acquainted with important people.

Normally, such opportunities would go to the children of the main wife first. However, because HuiShan and her mother were very well-liked, everyone decided to close one eye about their father's obvious display of favouritism. Otherwise, her father's reputation would have taken a small hit for such unconventional behaviour.

Among the people that HuiShan got acquainted with, there were the two people that made her father very proud of her.

One was the 6th prince of the royal family, WangWei. Although he was only the 6th prince, many people recognised the potential in him, including the emperor, and that earned him a lot of support that was enough to make the crown prince feel threatened.

The other was the prodigious son of the commander of the troops protecting the West border, who was also WangWei's trusted aide, ZhangYong. He was groomed from young to take over his father's position and steadily gained merits over the years by his father's side.

Besides the lost opportunities, HuiShan clearly outshined ZiYao, which was part of the reason why she caught the attention of WangWei and ZhangYong.

HuiShan gives off a warm and friendly aura, was a natural people person, and showed talent in both cultivation and the arts that women were expected to be good at.

In contrast, ZiYao was more of the perfect female that was expected in society. She was pretty, demure, skillful in the various art forms, and has a glib tongue.

It did not help that people could not stop comparing the girls since they were the same age.

She walked directly past the two girls, but the two paid her no mind. Moreover, no one seemed to wonder how Xinyi could suddenly be healthy enough to be walking around without anyone's support.

So, Xinyi decided that it was safe to venture beyond her courtyard from now on. She even had an idea of where she could do her readings.

She had come across a small pond with a plum blossom tree that looked tucked away and separate from the main compound. No one other than Xinyi would go there since there was nothing there for anyone to sit on besides the grass, and there was a prettier, more convenient, and well-maintained gazebo within the main compound.

Another month passed and a full-month celebration was held for the newborn baby, Chen EnLai.

Although it was a huge celebration where many people of notable positions were invited, Xinyi was not expected to make an appearance. Apparently she was still the sickly bedridden absent daughter in everyone's minds.

While everyone was all dolled up, only Xinyi was dressed simply with her long hair kept up in a simple style. She did not even bother with any makeup anymore and has been going around bare faced for days.

Xinyi was now sitting below the plum blossom tree and reading when BaoBao informed her of WangWei and ZhangYong's arrival to this part of the estate.

[They rejected being entertained in the sitting room so that they could take a stroll around the estate while waiting for HuiShan. She's still busy greeting the incoming guests.]

Xinyi glanced up from her book and saw the two men with gentle and graceful demeanours walking on the footpath a short distance away from her. Their gentle facade may have fooled a dumb person into thinking that they were harmless men, but any trained person would be able to sense the dominating aura emanating from their bodies. Even from far away, XinYi could feel how WangWei's aura was warmer than ZhangYong's sharp aura.

ZhangYong who was walking a step behind WangWei felt a gaze on him and a presence near the plum blossom tree. With a slight frown on his face, he instantly raised his guard in case it was an attack against the prince. He stopped in his tracks and looked towards the plum blossom tree to see a girl sitting on the grass below the tree.

He instantly thought that the woman was odd. Not only did she look out of place because of the way she dressed so simply despite today's occasion, she was sitting on the grass like some unlearnt maiden.

/Which family is she from?/

Not wanting to be careless, he took a step towards her. Just then, a clear energetic voice called out to him. "Zhang Yong! Where are you going? Are you perhaps lost?"

"Goodness, I really need to cultivate harder. I didn't even notice you slinking away." WangWei remarked with slight astonishment.

HuiShan lightly punched him in Wang Wei's arm. "Wangye… You're already a genius for being a low level Heaven realm martial artist at 15. Don't compare yourself to that monster there."

WangWei raised an eyebrow. "Are you secretly praising yourself? Although you're 14, you're already at the bottleneck before a breakthrough to Heaven realm."

Hui Shan only grinned smugly in response, prompting Wang Wei to laugh aloud at her audacity.

Meanwhile, Zhang Yong was also chuckling in the background. He has already instantly forgotten about the girl by the tree and made his way to his friends.

Their entire conversation was overheard by Xinyi who had hidden herself behind the tree in her surprise of being noticed. /And here I am, at least a year older than them, but still struggling to break through to Sky realm./

[Does that matter? This is just the beginning, isn't it?]

BaoBao suddenly said. Just as she thought that he was trying to comfort her, what he said after that made her expression turn colder.

[As long as you'll eventually become a high level God realm martial artist, all's fine!]

/… What gave you the idea that I can achieve something like that? Didn't you say that you went through my memories of my life?/

[It doesn't matter! Your talent in Legacy Worlds is of the bodies you inhabit, not your own. Also, based on the history records of hosts transmigrating into cultivation worlds, hosts always do really well!]

/I'll definitely do all that I can, but please don't raise your hopes up./ Xinyi was beginning to doubt if BaoBao had really found the right person.