Night—
The rain gradually stopped.
Li Qingran looked nervously at the talisman in her hand, preparing to perform the final three steps.
The first step was to replenish the spiritual energy of the talisman.
She wasn't sure how much spiritual energy was needed to make the talisman from the remaining materials of the immortal-grade array flags. She only knew that she had used up all 50 low-grade spirit stones and drained her own spiritual energy just to barely fill the talisman with the required energy.
She rubbed her pale, delicate face, took a deep breath, and said, "Next is the second step!"
Carving the name!
The creator of the talisman had to use their own blood as ink to write the name of the person being protected on the talisman.
This step was supposed to be the simplest, but Li Qingran was even more nervous than before.
"Write it well, write it well, it must be written well…"
She muttered to herself, and finally wrote the three characters 'Chen Huaian' on the talisman.
But her face showed a smile uglier than crying: "It's over, this is even more laughable…"
The characters on the talisman were crooked and twisted, even uglier than a dog's scrawl.
Li Qingran had a natural weakness—her handwriting was terrible.
It wasn't that she was uncultured or barbaric, but before entering the Qingyun Sect, she was the daughter of a military general. Although her parents had urged her to learn the skills befitting a young lady, she had absolutely no interest in them. Her attention was entirely focused on horsemanship, spear techniques, archery, and combat skills—things that were only useful on the battlefield.
Back then, when her parents forced her to learn calligraphy, she would cry.
Riding a horse into battle didn't require beautiful handwriting.
Now she regretted it.
If she were given another chance, she would definitely have learned calligraphy properly from her parents.
"Father said that the most important thing about a gift is the sincerity behind it." Li Qingran waved her fist to cheer herself up and moved on to the final step—bestowing luck.
As the name suggests, this meant giving away one's own fortune.
The fortunes of heaven and earth are self-contained; where there is gain, there is loss.
Fortunately, with the talisman as a medium, the fortune given away would only be temporary.
However, after bestowing the fortune, the giver would suffer a period of bad luck due to the loss of fortune.
But Li Qingran didn't think this was a big deal. Whether the senior needed this meager fortune or not, she only wished for his safety and well-being.
Using a secret technique to seal the fortune into the talisman, Li Qingran's complexion visibly worsened, but she smiled happily.
"I'll just leave the talisman on the table for now."
Li Qingran kowtowed toward the roof, not caring whether the senior could hear her or not. She believed he definitely could.
"Junior Qingran has been greatly cared for by the senior, and my injuries have healed. Feeling that I have nothing to repay the senior with, I have specially crafted this talisman as a gift! Though the gift is small, it comes from Qingran's sincere heart… I hope the senior will not disdain it."
After saying this, she lowered her head, but her eyes nervously glanced upward, carefully watching the talisman on the table.
One second, two seconds, three seconds.
Whoosh—!
The talisman disappeared.
The senior had accepted her gift!
Li Qingran's heart was filled with joy, and a smile unconsciously appeared on her face. She said shyly, "Thank you, senior, for not disdaining Qingran's clumsiness, hehe."
After working all night, her injuries had just healed, and she was now completely exhausted.
Turning back to her bed, drowsiness immediately swept over her.
For the first time in half a month, she slept on such a soft bed, and sleepiness quickly took over her mind.
But she still looked up at the ceiling, struggling, and murmured groggily.
"Senior, good night…"
…
…
"Song Jiaojiao, your cultivation has improved quite a bit recently, hasn't it? You've reached the ninth level of Qi Refinement? Perfect, I have something for you to do."
"What is it?"
"Kill Li Qingran for me!"
"What? Kill Li Qingran?! You… you're still holding a grudge over that matter?"
"Hmph, so what? Li Qingran's reputation in the sect is already ruined, so it doesn't matter if she dies. She deserves it! Besides, if you handle it cleanly, you can completely attribute her death to the demon beasts in Wanshan Mountain… Be good~ If you do this well, I'll get you a Foundation Establishment Pill."
"A… a Foundation Establishment Pill? Okay, okay! Wait for my good news!"
…
…
Early the next morning, before dawn.
Chen Huaian's first task was to start up .
[Your remaining lifespan: 131 days]
"Ridiculous!"
What kind of game starts with something like that?
He knew he had a terminal illness, but for a mere game to predict when he'd kick the bucket.
Funny!
However, Chen Huaian thought about it and concluded that this must refer to the fact that his in-game 'senior' character had only 131 days left to live. But since it was a game, there would surely be a corresponding solution later on.
"Tsk, just when my relationship with Li Qingran is getting better, this senior is about to die, and then they'll make me spend money to extend my life!? I've already seen through their money-grabbing tactics!" Chen Huaian sneered.
Then another prompt popped up.
[Due to your divination of heavenly secrets, you have suffered backlash from the heavens, resulting in a loss of fortune.]
[Today's divination: Li Gua - Minor Auspiciousness - Suitable for marriage, avoid mountain climbing]
[Tomorrow's divination: Zhen Gua - Inauspiciousness - Suitable for cleaning, avoid mountain climbing]
"Oh ho, it's even doing divination now?" Chen Huaian curled his lips. "I, Chen Huaian, already have one foot in the underworld. What's there to avoid?"
Moreover, since he was terminally ill, every day should be extremely inauspicious. Clearly, this game was just spouting nonsense. I won't believe a word of it.
But Chen Huaian had always been somewhat interested in these mysterious things.
So, driven by a bit of curiosity, he went to Baidu to look it up: the so-called Zhen Gua signifies thunder and vibration, corresponding to a person's feet. Generally, when Zhen Gua appears with an inauspicious trend, it's inadvisable to travel. Inauspiciousness is easy to understand—extremely inauspicious means death, while inauspiciousness is just below that, indicating severe injuries, losing limbs, and the like.
What, is he going to climb Mount Tai and get struck by lightning?!
He checked the weather forecast.
For the next two days, the weather around Mount Tai would be over 30 degrees Celsius. Where would the rain come from?
He closed the two prompt windows; they were blocking Li Qingran's beautiful sleeping face.
Li Qingran was indeed still asleep. The little girl slept very soundly, not moving an inch all night. It was just that her complexion didn't look too good. Last night, he had gone to bed after reading the Mount Tai guide and hadn't paid attention to Li Qingran's condition. Before he went to sleep, she had been meditating and cultivating. You had to admit, this girl was really dedicated, cultivating whenever she had the chance, like a perpetual motion machine.
He tapped on Li Qingran's face and checked her information.
He noticed a new debuff: Loss of Fortune.
"Strange, does divining heavenly secrets also affect Li Qingran?" After thinking about it, this seemed to be the only explanation.
[Status: Sleeping]
[Current Favorability: 25 (Respect)]
[Favorability has reached 25, triggering a small gift]
[Your electronic girlfriend 'Li Qingran' has made a small gift for you, which has been delivered]
"A gift system, huh? Pretty common."
Chen Huaian nodded, stroking his chin. However, he searched for a long time but couldn't find Li Qingran's gift in the game's inventory.
There was no such thing as an in-game mailbox.
This game was very pay-to-win; it definitely wouldn't give out hundreds of free draws at launch.
"It probably just hasn't refreshed yet." Chen Huaian came up with this explanation.
Some small indie games were like this.
Announcements and updates came quickly, but the actual items took a while to appear. Maybe it would show up by 8 or 9 in the morning.
Just then, there was a knock on the door outside.
Chen Huaian, puzzled, went to open the door, but there was no one outside.
As he was about to close the door, he glanced down and saw a palm-sized package.
"Huh? I didn't order anything, and what kind of delivery person delivers at 5 in the morning…"
He picked up the box.
There was no logo of any delivery company on the label, nor was there any tracking number.
There was only a line of small characters in regular script: