Chapter 2: Junior Sister, Have You Broken the Heavenly Rules?

Lu Qingfei had transmigrated.

Before she came to the cultivation world, she had grown up in an orphanage and had just attended the graduation ceremony at Jinghua University. After the graduates left, the school would clear out any remaining belongings in the dormitories, but she hadn’t had time to retrieve her mattress and quilt. Now, all she possessed in the world was two thousand yuan earned from selling scrap.

Taking a cab was entirely out of the question.

The ancestors were not daunted by arduous journeys, and neither was Qingfei intimidated by rugged roads. Cultivators, too, had their own Long March.

With only her own two feet, she made her way through brambles and forests, crossed swift rivers, and finally arrived in a bustling city. After selling a jar at the antique market, she officially set foot on the precarious bridge of job hunting.

These days, job searching was almost entirely online. Without a phone or a computer, she had no choice but to spend money at an internet café and find a computer.

Using the internet had become second nature to modern people. She deftly opened the browser, searched for the most popular job websites, registered, filled out online resumes, and proactively messaged HRs.

The HRs asked a barrage of questions, most of them along the lines of: [You graduated in June, but it’s already September. Why haven’t you worked these past three months?]

Qingfei typed slowly: [I went to cultivate immortality.]

Delete.

She retyped: [I received several offers, but none were satisfactory, so I didn’t accept any.]

HR: [Sorry, we only want fresh graduates with two years’ work experience.]

Qingfei: [I have ten years’ experience in cultivation. Would you consider that?]

After an hour of effort, thanks to her impressive academic record—graduating from a top university—someone took a chance on her school’s reputation and reluctantly offered her an interview.

Switching to another website, Qingfei continued messaging HRs, smiling as she typed: [Marital status? I’m single and don’t want children.]

Suddenly, a boy playing games beside her shouted with excitement, “Thanks for the rocket, OnlyYouBigBro!”

“Of course! The top supporter said he’d pick Zhong Kui, so I won’t pick Li Bai!”

“Let me tell you a joke—there’s a girl dressed in an ancient style next to me in the internet café, looking for a job online. You never know what weird things you’ll see these days.”

Qingfei glanced at him. The boy, about seventeen or eighteen, sported flamboyant red hair and was pounding madly on his mouse and keyboard.

His screen showed a game, with a live-stream indicator in the lower left. The viewer count was a million.

When she was in college, though she spent most of her time doing odd jobs or in the library, she knew the livestream industry was booming.

“Thanks to NotGoingCrazyThisYear, you’re my mechanical cat for the skyrocket!”

Qingfei’s eyes landed on a new reply on her computer: [Sorry, this position is for males only.] Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at the “one million” on the neighbor’s screen.

A bold idea took root in her mind.

Streaming.

She could do it too.

Mainly, Qingfei was out of money, and in a city as expensive as Cloud City, finding a job that provided food and lodging and wasn’t exhausting was near impossible.

Besides, her Third Senior Brother, Yan Guilai, relied on her to stay alive—she couldn’t leave for long.

More importantly, the Heavenly Extremity Sect needed spiritual energy, which came from humans.

She’d planned to earn money first, then promote Lingxiao Mountain to attract visitors. The more famous it became, the stronger its spiritual veins would grow.

If she started streaming, she could both make money and advertise.

Killing two birds with one stone—how wonderful!

She decided on the spot.

Qingfei searched for streaming platforms, downloaded several industry reports from Zhihu, and studied the trends in cultural and entertainment streaming over the past few years.

Gaming streams, fortune-telling streams, debt collection streams... All kinds of content, but no one streamed cultivation.

Understandable—modern people believed in science; who in their right mind would pursue immortality?

The cultivation streaming niche was a blue ocean, untapped.

Qingfei was forging a new path.

Her decision made, she let the computer session end without adding more money.

She left the internet café, went to the second-hand market, bought a smartphone at a low price, and got a SIM card.

At noon, under the scorching sun and shimmering air, Qingfei carried a couple of rough steamed buns, two yuan each, and went to find Zhong Qin.

On the construction site, Zhong Qin was working hard, carrying bricks.

Fifty cents a brick—ten thousand bricks was five thousand yuan; twenty thousand bricks, ten thousand yuan.

The revival of the Heavenly Extremity Sect was just around the corner!

Qingfei bit into her steamed bun, staring in disbelief at the man not far away in a short-sleeved work uniform, his hair damp with sweat clinging to his forehead.

Unbelievable.

Her hair was as black as ink, her face as fair as jade, exuding an elegant and aloof beauty. Yet her handsome, immortal-like Second Senior Brother had become like this.

Zhong Qin steadily set down a stack of twenty bricks and, wiping sweat from his brow, caught sight of his little junior sister standing as composed as ever.

“Junior sister, what brings you here?” Zhong Qin asked as he wiped his sweat and walked over.

“Second Senior Brother.” Qingfei handed him a clear plastic bag with three steamed buns. “I brought you some buns.”

Zhong Qin took the bag and sat with Qingfei on a clean stack of bricks to eat.

The hot summer wind ruffled Zhong Qin’s short hair. Qingfei had cut it herself—not to fit in with the twenty-first century, but because long hair really used too much shampoo!

A junior sister so frugal and resourceful was truly a blessing to the sect.

“Second Senior Brother,” Qingfei said, taking a talisman from her pocket and handing it to Zhong Qin.

“What’s this?” he asked, eyeing the item curiously.

“A medium-level warding talisman,” Qingfei replied.

The sect leader and senior brothers had different constitutions—easily attracting evil spirits, which could harm the soul and hinder cultivation.

“Where did you get yellow talisman paper?” Zhong Qin asked, puzzled. “And why is there a footprint on it?”

“It’s not yellow talisman paper. I picked up some paper ingots from a grave,” Qingfei answered nonchalantly. “As for the footprint, probably left by the deceased’s family.”

“…”

Zhong Qin’s hand, midway through moving bricks, trembled as he looked at his utterly unbothered junior sister.

The Heavenly Extremity Sect of the cultivation world had fallen so far as to pick up paper offerings from graves.

His silence was deafening.

Qingfei was about to take out her phone to show her senior brother some of the modern world when, in the distance, two uniformed police officers approached.

They stopped in front of her and presented their badges.

“Hello, Cloud City Police. Please come with us.”

Zhong Qin turned to his bewildered junior sister. “Junior sister, did you break any heavenly laws?”

Qingfei replied innocently, “I didn’t.”

“You are suspected of tomb robbery and the illegal excavation of national treasures—painted pottery. Please come with us,” the officer said, his tone impartial and official.

Qingfei’s eyes were full of question marks.

Suspected of what?

Tomb robbery?