After Jiang Ran left, Jiang Xiaowen and Jiang Nancheng exchanged a glance.

“Big Sister was so gentle…” Jiang Xiaowen looked dazed.

Like a bird ready to fly out of her chest, her heart beat with uncontrollable excitement—yet more than anything, she felt disbelief.

“Brother, just now Sister said she wouldn’t abandon us.”

Jiang Nancheng wore the same dumbfounded expression, his hand clutching his still-thumping chest. “Yeah… Sister seems different. She even gave us candy. It was… almost too sweet to handle…”

…

Back in her own room, Jiang Ran found herself in a chamber of simple design, with a touch of exotic flair. Staring into the carved mirror, the face reflected back at her was unchanged, for a moment making her wonder if she was still on Earth.

The not-so-polished glass still revealed a breathtaking beauty—one so striking it seemed to hook the soul itself.

In truth, Jiang Ran’s death had been rather pitiful. If she remembered correctly, she had died from binge-reading until her body gave out.

She tugged at her white robes. She liked the color white, but not the coarse fabric of these clothes. Still, her attention wasn’t on her looks.

“It feels like… I’m already at the early stage of the Fifth Layer of the Spirit Gathering Realm.”

As if by instinct, a current of energy within her body flowed with her will, gathering into her palms, filling them with a powerful force.

This was a world of fantasy, with vast lore and wondrous spiritual veins. Those born with talent could absorb the essence of heaven and earth, training through secret manuals to wield supernatural power.

Her father had carved out a fiefdom and won countless followers largely because he was a cultivator. As his daughter, she had inherited not just his position, but also his cultivation path.

Cultivation here split broadly into martial paths and spell paths.

Warriors included fighters, knights, swordsmen, and more.

Spellcasters ranged from mages to spirit-painters.

There were also special professions: beast tamers, alchemists, artificers, and so forth.

The two paths were quite different: martial cultivators refined their bodies with spiritual energy, while spellcasters refined their spirit, making their inner qi ever purer.

The ways they fought were also distinct.

Most people, with limited talent and lifespans, chose only one path. But a few geniuses could walk both roads.

Regardless of path, all cultivators and even beasts shared the same universal realms: Open Veins, Spirit Gathering, Spirit Refining, Profound Bone, Sea of Consciousness, Pill Heaven, Shedding Mortal, Saintly Path, Divine Union, and Divine Transformation—ten great stages, each split into ten smaller layers.

The original Jiang Ran had been a martial cultivator with a Water affinity, at the Spirit Gathering Realm.

Now, Jiang Ran was at the Fifth Layer of Spirit Gathering.

But what puzzled her was this: when she first transmigrated, the original had only been at the Third Layer peak. In just seven days—without cultivating at all—she had somehow advanced two whole layers.

“Cultivation… is it supposed to be this easy?” she thought.
Her father, Jiang Fucheng, had cultivated diligently for thirty years since the age of ten, and had only reached the Ninth Layer peak of Spirit Gathering.

And yet in half a month, her own changes hadn’t stopped there.

Holding out her palm, a droplet of water formed from nothing, the air around her chilling sharply. Ice spread across the droplet until a solid shard hovered in her hand.

Her Water attribute had somehow mutated into Ice—yet still retained Water’s properties—and what’s more, she had awakened a faint Space affinity as well.

She had discovered it by accident: objects would sometimes flicker into existence about a meter away from her. Tests showed she could shift items no larger than a fist, and no farther than one meter.

“A bit chicken-rib, but still… space manipulation.”

By her reckoning, she was now a tri-element cultivator: Water, Ice, and Space.

All of these changes had only happened after she transmigrated, so she suspected her soul essence differed from the original’s.

After all, cultivation was rooted in the soul.

Fortunately, the original had been cold and aloof, with little social contact, and her father’s sudden death explained away her personality shift. Even if people noticed, so what?

She had already shamelessly taken another’s body—why worry about appearances?

…

Now that her father’s funeral was over, she finally had time to take stock of her situation.

First, her assets.

The most valuable was the Water Incantation Sutra, a Heaven-rank cultivation manual.

It was thanks to this that her father, with average talent, had clawed his way up to the Ninth Layer peak of Spirit Gathering. The manual was a tightly guarded secret, passed only to the original Jiang Ran—not even her younger siblings had learned it.

Next came her two Spirit Bugs.

“Spirit Bugs… what a wondrous existence.”

Even after some time, Jiang Ran still marveled at them.

Summoning them forth, two insect-like creatures appeared, each about the size of a palm, shaped like silkworms.

One had a translucent body shot through with golden veins, glowing faintly, its amber-like eyes shining with spiritual light, and on its brow was a grain-like sigil.

The other was pale purple, with a mulberry sigil on its forehead, otherwise looking almost identical.

Spirit Bugs were plants that had cultivated to the extreme—plants turned spirits.

When a plant reached ultimate vitality, it could transform into a Spirit Bug.

Unlike malicious demons, they had no offensive power. They were recluse by nature, shunning both humans and beasts, which made them rare and precious.

They were beloved by the world itself—no mortal could harm them. Any attempt would rebound on the attacker.

Only cultivators or beasts with “living spirit power” could form contracts with them.

They could be inherited or seized, but not bred. At the end of their lifespan, they faded back into the soil like fallen leaves.

Spirit Bugs were divided into five ranks: Larval Bug, Juvenile Sprite, Young Fairy, Sacred Fairy, and Transcendent Fairy.

The two in Jiang Ran’s possession were both at the lowest rank—Larval Bugs.

Born from wheat and mulberry plants respectively, they were known as a Wheat Spirit Bug and a Mulberry Spirit Bug.