Chapter 100: Jianshan

Chapter 100: Chapter 100: Jianshan

The golden light surrounding Xi Yunxui, King C, Hui, and Biyu flickered once before swallowing their figures completely.

A familiar sensation of weightlessness swept through Xi Yunxui, followed by a brief distortion in space. The next moment, her feet touched solid ground.

She staggered half a step before catching herself.

The room around her gradually came into focus.

Her room in the staff quarters.

Xi Yunxui stared at the familiar bed, table, wardrobe, and other simple furnishings, and only after confirming that she was truly back did she release the breath she had been holding.

"We’re finally back."

King C landed beside her with a soft thump, immediately looking around the room as though making sure nothing had followed them. Hui clung to Xi Yunxui’s leg for a moment before peeking out cautiously, while Biyu fluttered onto the back of a nearby chair and shook its feathers.

Xi Yunxui rubbed her forehead.

What a day.

She had gone to the mountain intending to investigate the reward she had received from the system. Instead, she had awakened an ancient creature that had apparently been sleeping beneath the mountain for thousands of years, agreed to become its master—or perhaps the other way around—and somehow ended up with a powerful ancient beast residing within her spiritual consciousness.

Her life had become increasingly difficult to explain.

A faint movement caught her attention.

The young man’s presence stirred within her spiritual consciousness.

He was not standing in the room. Instead, his figure appeared within the vast, dim space of her spiritual consciousness, watching everything in silence.

He looked completely different from the enormous creature that had towered over the mountain earlier. His long black hair flowed freely over his shoulders, his black robes falling neatly around his tall figure, while those striking crimson eyes remained unchanged, their black pupils giving him an otherworldly appearance.

He glanced around the unfamiliar room before turning his attention back to Xi Yunxui.

"What did you just do?"

Xi Yunxui blinked.

"What?"

"That transportation technique." His gaze remained fixed on her. "You disappeared from the mountain and appeared here. Do you know teleportation techniques or spatial spells?"

Xi Yunxui shook her head.

"No. I don’t know any of those."

She reached into her clothes and touched the empty place where the teleportation talisman had once been.

"It was a talisman I obtained from somewhere. I used it to get to the mountain before, and it still had a little spiritual power left, so I used the remaining energy to come back."

The young man’s expression did not change.

He stared at her for a moment longer, as though considering her explanation, before simply saying nothing.

Xi Yunxui did not find his silence strange. After everything that had happened, she was too exhausted to question it.

She walked over to the bed and dropped onto it, letting her body sink into the mattress as she released a long, weary sigh.

"Today has really been a long day."

She stared at the ceiling for a few seconds before sighing again.

"I only wanted to look around my mountain."

Instead, she had nearly awakened an ancient disaster.

Xi Yunxui closed her eyes.

At that moment, a translucent panel appeared above her.

[Congratulations, Host.]

Xi Yunxui opened one eye.

[Current Problem Solved: 1]

She sat up immediately.

"How?"

The panel remained suspended in front of her.

[You have successfully resolved the problem involving the ancient creature beneath the mountain.]

Xi Yunxui stared at the words.

"The ancient creature?"

[Yes.]

[If the ancient creature had gone on a rampage, the resulting destruction would have been extremely dangerous. Instead, Host successfully communicated with it, prevented it from causing widespread destruction, and established a peaceful resolution.]

Xi Yunxui’s expression softened.

So that counted as solving a problem?

She had not even realized she had been doing a system mission.

She thought back to the enormous creature beneath the mountain, remembering how easily it could have destroyed everything around it if it had chosen to.

A small smile appeared on her lips.

"Well, I suppose that’s something to be happy about."

Her gaze shifted toward the young man’s presence within her spiritual consciousness.

Since he was now residing inside her spiritual consciousness, there was one thing she had to settle.

"You still need a name."

The young man looked at her.

"A name?"

"Yes. You said you used to have one, but you don’t remember it anymore."

Xi Yunxui rested her chin against her hand, thinking carefully.

She wanted to give him a name that suited him, something that carried the feeling of strength and reliability.

After considering several possibilities, one name finally came to mind.

"How about Jianshan?"

The young man’s expression changed.

It was subtle, but Xi Yunxui noticed it immediately.

His crimson eyes widened slightly, and for the first time since she had met him, a complicated emotion crossed his usually unreadable face. Surprise, confusion, and something that almost resembled recognition flickered through his eyes so quickly that Xi Yunxui might have missed it if she had not been watching him closely.

She could even faintly sense the emotions coming from him through the connection between their spiritual consciousnesses.

Xi Yunxui tilted her head.

"You don’t like it?"

The young man was silent for a moment before shaking his head.

"No. I like it."

His gaze remained fixed on her.

"It’s just... the name sounds familiar."

Xi Yunxui’s brows lifted.

"Familiar?"

"Very familiar."

He lowered his eyes slightly, as though searching through memories buried beneath countless years.

"But I don’t know why."

Xi Yunxui thought about it.

Could it really be a coincidence?

She had chosen the name because of what it represented—strength, dependability, and the feeling of someone who could stand firm even when everything around him collapsed.

But if the name was somehow familiar to him, perhaps it had a deeper connection to his forgotten past.

"Maybe that was your old name."

The young man looked at her again.

Xi Yunxui shrugged.

"Coincidences don’t usually happen like that. If the name feels familiar to you, perhaps you’ve heard it somewhere before. Maybe you simply don’t remember where."

The young man remained silent for several breaths before giving a small nod.

"That is possible."

Xi Yunxui smiled.

"Then we’ll use it for now. Until you remember your real name, you’ll be Jianshan."

The young man did not object.

"Jianshan..."

He repeated the name under his breath, as though testing how it felt after being separated from it for countless years.

Xi Yunxui left him to his thoughts and turned her attention back to the system.

There was something else she needed to know.

"System, if I want to continue cultivating, can I still use the cultivation manual you gave me before?"

The translucent panel flickered.

[No.]

Xi Yunxui stared at it.

"No?"

[The Beginner Cultivation Manual provided previously is only effective from the Beginner Level through the Intermediate Level.]

Xi Yunxui’s expression became serious.

She had already advanced to Intermediate Level, Stage 3.

That meant she had reached the limit of what her current manual could provide.

"So what do I need now?"

[Host requires a Middle Level Cultivation Manual.]

Xi Yunxui frowned.

"Middle Level?"

[Yes. From this point onward, Host will need to obtain the appropriate cultivation manual for each major cultivation level. The previous manual cannot continue guiding Host’s cultivation indefinitely.]

Xi Yunxui leaned back slightly.

"So I have to buy a new manual every time I advance?"

[Correct.]

She stared at the panel.

"Is the Middle Level Cultivation Manual available in the system store?"

[No.]

Xi Yunxui’s mouth twitched.

"Of course it isn’t."

Why did the system always seem to have perfect timing whenever something useful was unavailable?

Before she could complain further, a knock sounded from outside the door.

Knock, knock, knock.

Xi Yunxui immediately sat up.

Someone was outside.

She glanced toward King C, Hui, and Biyu before standing from the bed.

She crossed the room and opened the door.

A familiar figure stood outside.

"Auntie Zhang?"

Auntie Zhang was looking at her with obvious concern.

The moment the door opened, her eyes swept over Xi Yunxui from head to toe as though checking for any sign that something was wrong.

"Yunxui, are you all right?"

Xi Yunxui blinked.

"I’m fine."

Auntie Zhang’s worried expression did not disappear.

"I’ve been knocking on your door for quite some time, but you didn’t answer."

She glanced into the room before looking back at Xi Yunxui.

"At first, I thought you had gone out but nobody saw you leave. You usually wouldn’t go out without telling anyone, so I started getting worried. And it’s afternoon already."

Xi Yunxui’s eyes widened slightly.

Afternoon already?

She had not realized how much time had passed.

Auntie Zhang continued, her concern evident in her voice.

"I was actually about to find a master key and open the door myself. I was afraid something had happened to you."

Xi Yunxui looked at the older woman for a moment.

A warm feeling spread through her chest.

She had been away from the room for far longer than Auntie Zhang could possibly know, and yet the moment she noticed that Xi Yunxui had not answered, she had become worried enough to consider forcing her way inside.

It was a small thing, but after everything that had happened on the mountain, that simple concern felt strangely comforting.

Xi Yunxui smiled.

"I’m really fine, Auntie Zhang. I was just exhausted and slept more deeply than usual."

Auntie Zhang studied her face for another moment before finally relaxing.

"That’s good. As long as you’re all right."

Xi Yunxui nodded, her smile lingering.

For the first time since leaving the mountain, she felt that she could finally let her guard down.