Chapter 3: A Space That Can Level Up

Although Qi Yanzhou had been unconscious earlier, he hadn’t been entirely unaware.

He knew full well that Ye Chutang had force-fed him medicine to suppress the fire poison—and used him as an antidote.

The thought of being taken advantage of by a woman enraged him. He punched the ground hard.

“Taking advantage of someone while they’re down!”

Cracks spread across the smooth stone floor, and the oil lamp by the wall flickered violently.

Qi Yanzhou’s pupils contracted when he saw this.

His internal energy had recovered this quickly?

In the past, it usually took at least three days for his inner strength to fully return after a flare-up of the poison.

“Why would Ye Chutang have an antidote that could suppress the fire poison on her? Can she really cure it?”

“But if she knows medicine, how did the servants manage to drug and harm her?”

He couldn’t make sense of it, but there was no time to dwell on it either.

The envoy from the Southern Frontier was nearly back to the capital—he had to rejoin them immediately, or his absence would be discovered.

He threw on the black outer robe left on the vegetable rack and silently left the cellar.

---

The villagers were still busy putting out the fire. Amid the noise and chaos, Ye Chutang didn’t notice that Qi Yanzhou had already left.

Soon, the blaze in the main building was extinguished.

But the flames in the west wing and the kitchen were too fierce—no one could get close.

The village head pointed at the west wing, now burned down to nothing but cinders, his face full of worry.

“Miss Ye… we really did everything we could.”

Ye Chutang replied with understanding, “Village Chief, I already appreciate you all for coming to help. I would never ask you to risk your lives to save three corpses.”

“Thank you for your understanding, Miss Ye. If Lord Ye questions us, please do explain it truthfully. It’s not that we didn’t want to help—there was just nothing we could do.”

The Ye family owned a hundred acres of farmland near the village and often hired villagers during the busy farming seasons.

This gave the villagers extra income and made their lives easier.

As a result, the entire village was grateful to Ye Jingchuan.

Knowing that Ye Jingchuan disliked his eldest legitimate daughter, the villagers had turned a blind eye to her suffering all this time.

Now, as the village chief stood here awkwardly pleading for her to put in a good word, his old face flushed with embarrassment.

Ye Chutang knew full well that the people who had harmed the body’s original owner were the Ye family themselves, so she didn’t blame the villagers.

“Don’t worry, Village Chief. I’ll explain everything truthfully.”

Then, she turned to Aunt Wang.

“Aunt Wang, would you please divide tomorrow’s handkerchief wages among the people who helped put out the fire today?”

Aunt Wang quickly waved her hands. “Miss Ye, we can’t accept that!”

Ye Chutang’s tone was sincere. “You all saved me—and saved half the estate. You deserve it. I don’t have much money, but I hope no one minds the small amount.”

Seeing how genuine she was, Aunt Wang couldn’t refuse any longer.

“Then on behalf of everyone, thank you, Miss Ye.”

“It’s getting late—we’ve been at this all night. It’s almost the Hour of the Ox* already. Everyone should head home and get some rest.”

(*1 AM to 3 AM in ancient Chinese timekeeping)

There was still farm work to be done in the morning, so the villagers gradually dispersed.

Aunt Wang looked at Ye Chutang and said, “Miss Ye, you’ve had quite a scare tonight. Why don’t you stay at my house for the night?”

“The east wing is still livable. I don’t want to trouble Uncle Wang.”

Hearing that, Aunt Wang didn’t insist. “Alright. We’ll come back in the morning to help you tidy up the estate.”

Her son wasn’t married yet, and letting an unmarried young woman stay over would indeed be inappropriate.

After everyone had left, Ye Chutang went to the cellar.

She figured the air quality there was poor and planned to drag the man back to the east wing to sleep.

To her surprise, the cellar was empty. The handsome man she’d just “tasted” had run off.

“A waist like that… gone. What a shame.”

Though she said it was a pity, her face showed no real regret.

Coming from an apocalyptic world, she had long since learned: men are not necessities—supplies are!

But her gaze paused when she noticed the cracks on the floor.

She had just slept with a martial arts expert!

Ye Chutang was exhausted and immediately tossed the martial arts master to the back of her mind before heading to the east wing for some sleep.

As soon as she lay down, something poked her butt.

She reached back and pulled out a top-grade black jade pendant.

Four clawed serpents encircled a single character—Chen.

This pendant belonged to Qi Yanzhou.

When he’d been soaking in the cold spring to suppress the fire poison, he’d stuffed his identity pendant into the sleeve of his robe.

Later, when Ye Chutang wrapped him in that robe and brought him to the estate, the pendant accidentally fell onto the bed while she was drying the robe.

Ye Chutang placed the pendant into her space—and entered it herself.

In her previous life, she was the heir of a renowned ancient martial and medical family. Just after coming of age, she inherited their mystical medical space.

Back then, the space was small—about 20 square meters, with a height of three meters.

After entering, she could still sense what was happening outside, but she could only stay inside for ten minutes at a time.

The space was brightly lit without sunlight, and time stood still.

At its center was a spiritual spring, whose water could enhance physical health and improve plant growth.

Half of the space was used to grow rare medicinal herbs.

With the spring water’s irrigation, they grew just fine and had ten times the potency of normal herbs.

The other half was used as storage.

She stocked it with herbs, western medicine, basic medical equipment, generators, daily supplies, and food.

There was even a small rest area with facilities for eating and bathing outdoors.

Later, when the apocalypse hit and 90% of humanity turned into zombies—with animals and plants mutating too—Ye Chutang awakened earth-based powers, and her space gained the ability to level up.

But it required virtue points.

Rescuing people, killing bad guys, destroying zombies, eliminating mutated plants and animals that endangered humans—all could earn her various amounts of virtue points.

The first space upgrade had cost her 100,000 virtue points.

It became a massive space centered around the spiritual spring, 1,000 square meters in area and 10 meters tall.

Ye Chutang had collected tons of seeds and even managed to preserve some non-mutated fruit trees. She allocated 200 square meters for growing vegetables and fruit.

The rest was filled with labeled crates, organized neatly with all the supplies and weapons she’d stockpiled. It was basically full.

To upgrade again, she needed 1 million virtue points.

She had actually saved up enough before.

But with the chaos of the apocalypse, and the need to burn virtue points to use her earth powers, she hadn’t upgraded it.

She’d thought that with her powers and her space, surviving the apocalypse would be a breeze. But then—

A massive fireball suddenly fell from the sky, and before she could react, her entire base was incinerated—along with her.

When she next opened her eyes, she was the legitimate eldest daughter of Ye Jingchuan, the Minister of Revenue in the Northern Chen Kingdom.

As Ye Chutang marveled at the terrifying power of nature, she was abruptly ejected from the space due to time limits.

She rested her hands behind her head and looked up at the gray canopy above, lips curving upward.

“Compared to the apocalypse, ancient times are way better. This transmigration? Worth it.”

Right after she said that, she felt a tightness in her chest.

The image of the original body’s owner slamming into a wall in despair flashed in her mind.

“After I die, I’ll become a vengeful ghost and kill you all!”

Ye Chutang knew the girl didn’t just want to kill the Liu family trio who directly caused her death.

She also wanted revenge on her scumbag father and stepmother, who had indirectly led to her end.

Clutching her chest, Ye Chutang promised, “Don’t worry. Since I now occupy your body, I’ll fulfill your last wish. Don’t become a ghost—they’re not worth it. Just reincarnate in peace.”

Yes, she had decided—

She was going back to the Minister’s Manor to beat up that scumbag father and his wicked woman!