On the sprawling school playground, beneath a sky hazy with the lingering smog of industry, a scene of profound societal stratification played out. Despite this world possessing technology no weaker than Su Min's previous life, with sleek digital displays and advanced audio systems present even here, the true hierarchy was not based on circuits and code.
Yet cultivators held absolute authority, their power transcending any technological advantage. Not to mention their extended lifespans, which alone placed them in a different category of existence. Take the nuclear bomb from earlier. Su Min had clearly sensed its delivery system several seconds before detonation, its trajectory as clear to her as a thrown rock. She chose to tank the blast purely out of scientific curiosity, to measure its effects against her new defenses.
Any weapon, no matter how powerful, was meaningless if it couldn't hit its target. In this era where productivity had developed to such advanced levels, the ruling powers had instituted a grand social contract, nearly everyone received one chance at awakening, one shot at ascending from the mundane. To cultivate, even at the initial Body Refining stage, one needed the innate spiritual roots to absorb and refine the ambient spiritual energy. Without them, advancement was absolutely impossible, a biological and spiritual dead end.
As for Su Min's own spiritual roots? She could tell you without hesitation, five element mixed spiritual roots, the most chaotic and difficult type. All Five Elements Holy Bodies had these specific roots, and the lowest grade mixed roots at that. They were practically dormant, requiring external divine artifacts to activate even partially, like a complex lock needing five unique keys.
If she hadn't obtained the Nanming Lihuo so early on, she could never have killed that old witch so quickly back in her sect days, her path would have been one of endless, grinding struggle.
Below, the students watched the proceedings with a mix of hope and terror, their futures hanging in the balance. The principal's voice boomed through crystal clear loudspeakers, the audio technology so advanced that even Su Min, hiding in the dimensional shadows, could hear every pompous word.
"Students, listen carefully. This is the turning point of your lives, the moment that will define your destiny. You've all seen the news, the threat of the Divine Graveyard, what scholars call the Ancient Battlefield, looms ever nearer. The massive blood pollution from that accursed place has mutated countless sea creatures and contaminated all oceans, severely impacting global security and our very way of life. According to the global salvation protocols, those who cannot awaken spiritual roots, those without the gift..."
"Ugh... Not this again."
Watching the long-winded, self important principal below gave Su Min a genuine headache. Unwanted memories flooded back of her own tedious school days, of that one particular administrator who spoke with agonizing slowness, pausing for dramatic effect every few words, then repeating entire sections for emphasis.
Listening to those speeches had been pure torture, a test of patience she had always failed.
"Fucking hurry up already! Let me see if there's any suitable candidates!!!"
Finally fed up with the bureaucratic drone, Su Min gave him a little mental nudge, a tiny pulse of spiritual pressure aimed at a specific meridian point. The principal shuddered violently mid sentence, his words cutting off.
The Foundation Establishment stage principal swayed on his feet, his eyes rolling back, then collapsed backward into the arms of a startled teacher.
"Huh?"
The entire crowd froze in confusion. A Foundation Establishment cultivator falling ill was no joke, they were supposed to be impervious to common ailments. People rushed over, and when one cultivator-teacher checked the principal's chest and spiritual flow, his expression turned deeply strange.
"The principal... he has heatstroke."
"What? Heatstroke?"
"Woohoo!!!"
Teachers exchanged bewildered looks while many students cheered openly, unable to contain their glee. Clearly Su Min wasn't the only one who couldn't stand the man's rambling. Nobody enjoyed listening to pointless, self aggrandizing speeches. Of course, Foundation Establishment cultivators didn't get heatstroke. This was entirely Su Min's doing. At her level, a subtle spiritual strike like this would go completely undetected by anyone present.
The principal would just sleep it off for a few hours and wake up confused.
"Ahem, since this... unfortunate event has happened, let the awakening ceremony begin immediately. Students, your moment of destiny has arrived."
With the principal temporarily indisposed, the vice principal, a more pragmatic woman, quickly took charge and declared the ceremony started. Instantly the school grounds buzzed with raw excitement and nervous energy, this was the moment they'd all dreamed of and feared since childhood.
Su Min narrowed her eyes, her focus sharpening. She needed to find the right candidate, and fast. Since her arrival in this world, that specific connection to the Kirin had severed. She needed to establish a base of operations, a cover identity, and having a local, pliable assistant would make everything much easier.
"Top tier talents won't do, they're usually too arrogant and independent to listen. They have their own paths. As for the others... let's see... hmm?"
Her immense divine sense swept over everyone present like an invisible tide. While the school needed the ceremonial orb to formally assess aptitudes, Su Min could see their fundamental spiritual qualifications at a single glance with her superior soul power. Soon her attention locked onto a specific target, a girl who suddenly stood out in her spiritual perception like a sore thumb.
"A special constitution, lying dormant. A Netherflame Body. A self contradictory and ultimately fatal physique. Let's see if her circumstances make her suitable."
The Netherflame Body was exceptionally rare but notoriously, fatally flawed. "Nether" represented dark, cold, abyssal energies, while "flame" embodied pure, destructive yang energy. These opposing properties constantly warred within the body, making it essentially useless for cultivation and usually leading to a painful, early death. But according to the Glass Medicine Buddha's ancient notes she had absorbed, balancing these two conflicting attributes with a specific catalyst could permanently resolve the issue. Several complex methods existed, but Su Min preferred the straightforward, alchemical approach, a single high grade Tier 4 Netherflame Spirit Pill would suffice, forcing a stable symbiosis.
Refining a mere Tier 4 pill was as easy as breathing for someone of her mastery.
Once activated, while not matching the top tier physiques like her own, it would rank solidly in the second tier, vastly superior to Su Min's own initial Blazing Sun Body before it was blessed and transformed by the Nanming Lihuo. Many of these special constitutions also locked the user's spiritual roots into a specific, powerful type, guaranteeing post awakening superiority over even standard heavenly spiritual roots.
She waited patiently for the right moment to approach, observing the girl's situation.
As Su Min observed, the playground became a stark microcosm of human joy and sorrow. Those with spiritual roots and talent could resonate with the special crystal orb, causing it to glow and manifest the color and pattern of their roots.
Those without got nothing, a silent, unresponsive sphere.
Faces fell across the field, dreams shattering in an instant. Cultivators held supreme status in this society, occupying all elite positions in government, military, and industry, while ordinary people were relegated to menial, low paying jobs. One could theoretically advance through sheer intellect alone, but that path was vanishingly narrow and fiercely competitive.
"Wahh... It's over..."
Some broke down crying upon learning they had no potential, their futures collapsing before them. The dimensional rift's appearance had devastated the old global civilization. Humanity had nearly lost the oceans entirely to the endless mutated creatures, fracturing global infrastructure and cutting off vital maritime trade and resources.
This forced surface populations into dire economic straits. With constant monster attacks on coastal cities and shipping, nations maintained massive, expensive militaries and defense expenditures.
Thus cultivators, being the primary defenders against these existential threats, received priority access to all resources. Each cultivation breakthrough brought greater power, longer life, and higher social status. Those who couldn't cultivate had almost no future prospects. Just look at the school itself, the principal was Foundation Establishment, while other administrators required at least Qi Refining level just to be considered.
"This gap, this systemic despair, is truly something to behold."
Watching the emotional rollercoaster from her vantage point, Su Min sighed softly. She herself was a supreme beneficiary of this very system, and even she knew she couldn't single handedly change its fundamental nature. But for every sorrow, there was joy. A massive commotion erupted from one testing station when a girl's touch made a crystal orb erupt with a brilliant crimson light that shot skyward like a beacon.
Heavenly Fire Spiritual Root
The display screen above the orb confirmed it. Even in Su Min's own powerful sect back home, this would immediately qualify the girl as an inner disciple, personally trained by a Golden Core elder. Competition for heavenly root disciples sometimes turned physically violent among elders in her world.
Su Min had personally witnessed several such undignified brawls. While she understood the excitement, heavenly roots barely registered in her eyes now, they were merely good, not extraordinary. She'd never been particularly interested in taking disciples anyway, finding it a tedious responsibility.
"Heavens, a heavenly root!"
"That's basically a Golden Core guarantee! Maybe even higher!"
"Gulp..."
Students gazed awestruck at the proudly preening youth, their envy palpable. Teachers reacted with similar shock and calculation. These testing orbs required constant energy infusion from a Foundation Establishment cultivator during operation, something ordinary families could never afford on their own.
Thus governments conducted unified, free testing when students entered high school. Only wealthy merchant clans or established cultivator families tested their children privately, making talented commoners discovered this way exceptionally rare and valuable here. Each discovery meant tangible political achievements and budget increases for the school district.
The groggy principal, who had been revived with a healing pill, even slapped the table in excitement, "Hahaha! We're definitely topping the district rankings this year! Not just bonuses, we might get additional technique rewards from the central government!"
"Indeed. A city of millions might go years without discovering a single heavenly root. They naturally reach Golden Core, possibly even Nascent Soul with enough resources."
Teachers voiced their envy openly, this youth would soon become someone they could only look up to. Already they were pondering what gifts to offer, hoping to curry favor for future benefits. Most teachers here had no hope of further breakthroughs themselves, but they could pave the way for their descendants through connections. Amidst the celebration, the girl Su Min had noted, a relatively pretty but plainly dressed girl named Lin Yao, trembled as she stood before an utterly unresponsive orb.
"Sorry, no resonance at all. You have no spiritual roots."
The operator spoke coldly, his tone bored. After witnessing countless such scenes year after year, he'd long stopped offering comfort, mechanically completing his task and marking her form.
"I... There must be some mistake..."
The girl shivered, her face ashen. Her family was desperately poor, her parents, ordinary factory laborers, had accidentally contacted industrial pollutants on the job. They now carried crippling medical debt with payment deadlines looming. Default meant losing everything, including their small apartment, and evicting her now bedridden father. She dared not imagine the consequences. Her only hope had been awakening a high grade root to prove her potential and value.
Such discovered talents received immediate government support, debt extensions, even partial repayments from special funds. She gazed with bitter envy at the celebrated boy. With his roots, his family debts would vanish instantly, paid off by eager sponsors. Even the corporate officials responsible for her father's unsafe working condition would face consequences, fearing his future power. A heavenly root meant destined greatness, a ticket out of the abyss.
"..."
Emotions churned within her, envy, pain, jealousy, coalescing into a bitter, helpless resentment and utter despair for her future.
"Stop holding up the line, move along now, "
The operator began impatiently urging her away when a calm, crystalline voice spoke directly into her mind, in her ear:
"Girl, do you crave power? Do you wish to change your fate?"
Suddenly she realized everything around her had frozen solid, the cheering crowd, the impatient operator, even the dust motes in the air hung motionless. This was Su Min's application of a basic temporal law. In this world with far weaker heavenly suppression than her original one, and with no genuinely powerful figures present, stopping local time was trivial for her. A full Dao Comprehension expert could still move under such a weak temporal suspension, albeit greatly slowed.
"Who's there? What's happening?"
Only the girl's eyes and consciousness could move as her body turned statue still. Su Min had only freed her awareness, not her limbs.
"Just a passing kamen rider. If you are willing, sign this contract."
A glowing scroll of spiritual energy unfurled within her soul's perception, containing meticulously crafted terms that ensured she could never reveal Su Min's presence or origins, even under torture or through soul searching after death.
Su Min didn't yet know this world's true depths or the power of its hidden masters. While she estimated no openly active Divine Transformation experts here could comprehend profound laws, otherwise they'd have handled that sea monster themselves, something or someone had clearly harmed or displaced the entire qilin clan.
Thus she needed to remain completely hidden, a ghost in the machine, until she could safely uncover this world's secrets.
"This is... a soul contract?"
"A soul contract binding even immortals. Think very carefully before you agree."
"I accept. I'll do it."
"Oh? So readily?"
"Someone like me, with nothing left to lose, could never hope to resist someone with power like yours. Whatever you want, if it gives me a chance, I'll take it."
"Tch. A pragmatic one. Good."
With the girl's verbal agreement, the contract seared itself into her mind, a permanent, unbreakable spiritual seal.
As the pact completed, Su Min descended from her hiding place, appearing before her in the frozen time. To Lin Yao, it was as if a goddess had stepped from a painting, a radiant, nobly dressed woman descending like a celestial being, her transcendent aura and unique, commanding presence utterly intoxicating. Higher level cultivators naturally emitted mesmerizing auras, not necessarily sexual, but profoundly attractive and intimidating, a side effect of their refined souls and dense spiritual energy.
For a moment, the girl was completely entranced, her despair forgotten in the face of such majesty.
"Lin Yao, the contract is sealed. Your service for my patronage. Now for the down payment."
Before Lin Yao could even process a response, dozens of rare, glowing herbs materialized in the air around her. Multicolored flames surged in the woman's hands as the ingredients flew into the conflagration, instantly fusing and purifying into a single, pulsating pill that was unceremoniously popped into Lin Yao's open mouth.
A strange, cooling yet burning energy flooded her body, surging through her dormant meridians.
"Ah, what...!"
Before she could speak another word, time snapped back to its normal flow. The impatient Foundation Establishment cultivator's next words died in his throat as the orb under Lin Yao's hand, which she had never moved from, now blazed with intense, ghostly blue and violet flames.
"Fire spiritual root... a mutated one? Not quite heavenly grade, but high grade, very high grade! Congratulations, young lady, your unique root constitution must have caused the initial misreading. It sometimes happens with rare types!"
Lin Yao felt dreamlike, disconnected, yet the pill's lingering warmth in her stomach and the strange taste on her tongue confirmed it was all real. Her body felt different, lighter, more alive, with a new energy humming just beneath her skin.
"Hey girl, you'd better work hard for me now. Don't waste my investment."
The familiar, otherworldly voice whispered in her mind once more before being drowned out by the sudden cheers and stunned congratulations that surrounded her. Her new spiritual root quality had been officially recorded on the main display for all to see:
High grade Mutated Fire Spiritual Root.
Her life had just been utterly upended.