Chapter 3: Space

At night, the starry sky looms low.

Shuxin lay on the bed where she had woken up during the day, slowly savoring the taste of tonight’s dinner. It had been a long time since she had eaten such a sumptuous meal.

Although the millet porridge was a bit coarse and scratchy, it was the thin porridge that Grandma Liu had cooked, and slowly chewing it brought a unique flavor.

Next were the stir-fried wild vegetables and pickled vegetables. Although they had little oil and salt, the freshness of the vegetables could offset everything.

Finally, there were the scrambled eggs; even now, she could recall the tender texture of the eggs melting in her mouth.

Even though she hadn’t eaten meat today, there would always be opportunities in the future. The Liu family had plenty of laborers, and none of them were lazy, so their lives were relatively well-off.

Grandpa Liu would make meat dishes once a month for Grandma Liu to provide the family with nutrients since good health means having the energy to work.

Overall, Grandpa Liu was a rather forward-thinking farmer who understood that health was the foundation of all endeavors.

Her parents, having worked hard all day, returned home for dinner and then went to wash up before collapsing into bed, sleeping soundly.

Shuxin lay on the bed relishing the flavors of dinner when she thought about the situation in this world, which was roughly the same as the history she had read about before. It was also called Huaguo, and the historical progress was quite similar.

For her, this was good news; she was familiar with the future and had the advantage of foresight regarding her development, so she wouldn’t take the wrong path.

However, she still had to be cautious. The current Huaguo had just been established, the conditions were tough, and it was nowhere near as prosperous as in later generations. For now, the 1950s were manageable, but in a decade or two, one would have to think twice before speaking and avoid taboos.

Most importantly, the three-year Great Famine starting in 1959 would be a tough time, comparable to an apocalypse.

If only her supernatural abilities were still intact! With her strength, there wouldn’t be any worry about work, and with wood-based powers, she wouldn’t have to worry about food and drink!

She wondered if supernatural abilities still existed in this world. As she contemplated this, her mood soured.

“Why not give it a try? Maybe they’ve followed me here,” she thought. With resolve, Shuxin cautiously used her spiritual force to scan her body, focusing on her dantian and brain.

As for why she could still use spiritual power, those with supernatural abilities in apocalyptic times had decent spiritual strength. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to withstand the physical changes caused by developing their powers.

Only those with psychic abilities had particularly high spiritual strength, several times greater than ordinary supernatural users.

Her diligence paid off. Upon careful observation, Shuxin discovered a green, cloud-patterned crystal in the center of her consciousness.

Looking at this object, she hesitated; it seemed familiar. The pattern on the crystal resembled the auspicious pearl her father had given her, said to be a family heirloom from her mother.

Thinking back, it appeared that her awakening of wood-based powers occurred after her father gave her the auspicious pearl. Could it be its influence?

Then it might not have any malice towards her, and perhaps it was actually responsible for bringing her to this world!

With that thought, Shuxin no longer hesitated. She channeled her spiritual power and slowly approached the auspicious crystal, feeling a tremor in her consciousness as her spiritual energy was affected.

After a moment of disorientation, Shuxin found herself no longer in bed, but in a different space.

The ground was covered with grass, and a stream meandered through the grassy area; the water was clear, allowing her to see the sand and stones at the bottom.

Looking ahead, there was a blue brick house at the edge of the grassland, and behind it was a tall hill, adorned with a patch of bamboo forest.

The rest were trees standing in a pleasing array, and behind the hill, clouds and mist surrounded the area, obscuring the distance.

After examining the space, Shuxin walked into the house. She had an inkling that this place was most likely the space associated with the auspicious pearl.

In the era before the apocalypse, there were documents and novels, and whenever she was under stress, she would find solace in reading, so she was not surprised by spaces and systems. Moreover, they even had space-based abilities, although they lacked mountains and rivers within.

Upon entering the house, she saw it was a small courtyard-style residence. The yard was covered in lush grass, but it didn’t feel crowded. There were not many rooms—just a bedroom, a study, a kitchen, a bathroom, and two storage rooms.

The study was filled with various books on the shelves, including ancient texts and modern printed editions. In the bedroom, there was an ancient thousand-layer bed with a matching dressing table, adorned with a treasure chest, a jewelry rack, and the most eye-catching modern dressing mirror.

On one side, there was a row of vintage wardrobes hanging with both ancient and modern clothing, along with many fabrics folded in the cabinets.

The remaining areas were the kitchen and the storage rooms, filled with food, drinks, clothing, and a hodgepodge of other items, which had been left unattended.

After exploring the entire space and understanding its layout, Shuxin returned to the courtyard. As she entered, she noticed a particularly prominent flower standing out among the lush greenery—a substantial flower that was much larger than the others.

Upon closer inspection, the flower was even more splendid than it appeared from afar. It had twenty-four petals, each in a different vibrant color, and mysterious patterns adorned each petal.

At the center of the flower was the same green crystal she had seen in her consciousness—a gem that looked like jade but had no sharp edges. The swirling cloud patterns wrapped around it, and inside the crystal, there appeared to be a small sprout.

As Shuxin touched it, the crystal transformed into a beam of light that surged into her forehead. Simultaneously, the flower dissipated, and she closed her eyes to digest the information imparted by the crystal.

It turned out that it was not an auspicious pearl or just a green crystal but rather a seed of a miraculous flower, known as the Nine-Color Lotus.

Born in chaos, although it was a Nine-Color lotus, it had its twenty-four petals, each a different color, and each possessing distinct abilities.

So why had it been reduced to a seed? The answer was simple: it had grown amidst chaos under the Azure Lotus. When Pangu opened the heavens, it wasn’t relevant to it; after all, it didn’t possess the overwhelming power of the chaos Azure Lotus to be recognized by the Dao.

Unfortunately, during Pangu’s opening of the heavens, it was too slow and was caught in the residual force of creation, almost leading to its extinction. Fortunately, Pangu, feeling pity for it as it had grown under the Azure Lotus, collected its remaining essence and transformed it into a seed, casting it into the time-space rift to wait for the day it could bloom again.

It just so happened that it landed in the same dimension as Shuxin, transforming into a pearl obtained by her maternal ancestor. Upon discovering its ability to avert misfortune and bring good fortune, it became a family heirloom passed down through generations.

Her ancestors never discovered its connection to space. Why was it that Liu Shuxin was able to benefit from it, reborn with a space ability?

At that time, when it crossed the space-time rift into this dimension, it found the spiritual energy to be thin and had no idea how long it would take to bloom and cultivate properly. So, in the early days of the apocalyptic era, when spiritual energy began to revive after a thousand years, it invested its remaining soul into Shuxin’s maternal line, intending to experience the mortal world and cultivate virtue, thereby accelerating its sprouting process.

Later, when Shuxin died, the seed carried her soul and reincarnated as Liu Shuxin, continuing to experience the mortal world and cultivate virtue. Thus, Shuxin and the seed’s spirit became one; she was the Nine-Color Lotus, and the Nine-Color Lotus was her.

Although the Nine-Color Lotus was a miraculous flower born of chaos, it had grown up without having seen human hearts, and the mortal realm had been dormant for thousands of years. Therefore, even with Shuxin merging with the memories of the Nine-Color Lotus’ body, it would not greatly impact her.

If she had been a mere mortal, she wouldn’t be able to bear so many memories; thus, most of the chaotic divine memories were sealed, leaving only a general understanding.

If all were to be unsealed, with her fragmented soul and mortal body, even a single glance at the memories of the chaos beings would cause her to explode.

The space was an inherent ability of the Nine-Color Lotus; she had only unsealed a minuscule part, which was sufficient for her as a mortal.

The dimension she was currently in was similar to the world before the apocalypse—an age of magic decline, where the Nine-Color Lotus’s spells and treasures were unusable. However, supernatural abilities developed during the apocalypse could still be used in small areas, which was sufficient.

Moreover, the Nine-Color Lotus’s body had collected many resources before the apocalypse and stored them in the body’s space, ensuring she had considered all aspects of food, clothing, and shelter, along with many books and documents.

After her soul reincarnated, the Nine-Color Lotus’s spirit used Shuxin’s consciousness to collect items unconsciously, placing them into the body’s space.

That was why the items she had seen in the storage room had everything she needed, so she wouldn’t have to worry at all about her life in the future.

With a thought, she exited the space and lay back on the bed, preparing to sleep. This day had been enough of a rollercoaster.

She decided to sleep and rejuvenate, anticipating that she could cultivate well and accumulate more virtue; if she did, she might live beyond just this one lifetime.