Chapter 1

In the Imperial Star, the Chu family.

Chu Ning quietly sat in a corner, enjoying pastries and occasionally sipping red wine, fully absorbed in the enjoyment of her food. She paid no attention to the curious glances and gossiping whispers from those around her.

She had fasted for years, but now, having taken on a new body, she finally understood the pleasures of good food.

And the desserts in this world were especially to her liking.

Chu Ning had transmigrated.

She was originally the Grandmaster of the Pill Sect on a cultivation continent.

She had been preparing to refine the ultimate spirit pill and ascend to immortality.

But who would have thought that her pill refinement was so powerful it triggered nine lightning strikes.

Nine lightning strikes, which only the most powerful cultivators would face when crossing the tribulation to ascend.

She, a mere alchemist with no fighting skills, was no match for such a force.

In the end, she took a pill to barely survive the eighth strike, but when the ninth strike came, she was shattered to pieces.

Chu Ning had thought she was done for, but unexpectedly, her refining of the Soul Returning Pill led to a miracle and brought her to this world.

This world was called the Interstellar Beast World, where there were no cultivators. Here, beings were divided not by gender, but by male or female.

Males were called beasts, and though they appeared similar to ordinary men, they could transform into powerful beasts in battle.

The insectoid creatures ravaged the borders, and the only reason this world had survived was due to the beast soldiers stationed at the borders, fighting to protect against the insect invasions.

Females, though lacking combat power, possessed spiritual energy that could soothe the males, preventing them from going insane.

Interestingly, there was a severe gender imbalance in this world, with a ratio of 1:10, meaning for every female, ten males were needed.

Due to the declining birth rate, the Federation had enacted a law requiring females to marry by the age of twenty and have at least three male partners.

Now, it was Chu Ning’s twentieth birthday.

It was also her adopted sister, Chu Yan’s twentieth birthday.

Chu Ning’s current identity was that of the Chu family’s legitimate daughter, whom they had only recently acknowledged.

Chu Yan, on the other hand, was the fake daughter.

Unfortunately, Chu Ning, the true daughter, was not favored by the family.

In the month since her return to the Chu family, she had been framed by the fake daughter twice, yet no one in the family spoke up for her.

Even her own father sided with the fake daughter.

Today, on their birthday, the Chu family had organized a celebration for both daughters.

But her family only took care of Chu Yan, greeting guests and leaving her in the corner.

However, Chu Ning didn’t mind.

Rather than being paraded around like a puppet, wasting time, she preferred to enjoy her food in peace.

But though she didn’t care, others didn’t let her be.

“Chu Ning!” An unpleasant voice called, drawing her attention.

Three well-dressed men approached her with an imposing attitude.

“Chu Ning, if you’re smart, you’ll take the initiative to break off the engagement with us.”

“You’re a waste with only E-grade spiritual power. You can’t possibly soothe us!” The first man, Zhou Ting, was one of her fiancés.

“Yes! With E-grade spiritual power, you didn’t even pass the university entrance exam. What qualification do you have to be our wife?” The second, Chen Chen, spoke up.

“Hurry and cancel the engagement with us! We would never marry someone like you!” The third man, Bai Yu, added.

Their voices were loud, quickly drawing the attention of everyone nearby.

“Are those the three young masters from the Zhou, Chen, and Bai families? I heard they’re all top students from Lanhua Academy, with B-level combat power. If nothing unexpected happens, they’ll all get into the top military academy!”

“Wait, are they really engaged to Chu Ning? And they’ve come to break off the engagement?”

“I can’t believe it! Zhou Ting just said Chu Ning has only E-grade spiritual power?”

“She’s actually an E-grade waste. No wonder they want to cancel the engagement.”

“Is that even possible? She’s from the Chu family, right? But her spiritual power is only E-grade, unlike her younger sister, whose spiritual power is B-grade.”

“Is that so surprising? Although she’s from the Chu family, Chu Ning didn’t grow up with them. She was abandoned and raised elsewhere, so it makes sense that she’s different.”

As the surrounding gossip intensified, Chu Ning frowned slightly.

She was about to speak up when Lan Yu, her father, and her mother, Chu Xin, arrived with Chu Yan.

Lan Yu, though her father, treated her as though she didn’t exist. He doted on Chu Xin and Chu Yan, often bullying Chu Ning in front of them just to please them.

Chu Ning understood this from her past life. Despite being hurt multiple times, she never gave up trying to please Lan Yu, only to end up crushed and driven to suicide.

As for her, she had no interest in Lan Yu’s paternal love. She felt nothing but disgust for the entire Chu family.

“Chu Ning, what are you doing here?” Lan Yu shouted angrily. “Aren’t you supposed to be behaving yourself?”

Chu Ning looked at him, curling her lips into a sarcastic smile.

“Which eye of yours saw me causing trouble?”

“And by the way, what do you mean by ‘causing trouble’?”

Lan Yu was momentarily stunned, not expecting his usually obedient daughter to confront him so openly.

When he recovered, he became even angrier and tried to lecture her.

But Chu Ning spoke before he could.

“Or are you going to act like before and blame me without knowing a single thing?”

“You know, although I’m your biological daughter, Chu Yan is the one you raised. You swapped me with her when I was just born, and I was neglected for twenty years. But none of that is her fault. She was just a baby at the time. You’ve favored her all this time, and it’s understandable if you’re tired of me.”

At this, the guests began to murmur in shock.

“I can’t believe it! Chu Ning was actually swapped with Chu Yan?”

“And her real mother, Chu Xin, treated her so badly for twenty years? No wonder her spiritual power is so low!”

Hearing the gossip, Lan Yu’s face grew pale with panic.

Behind him, Chu Yan also looked flustered.

“Enough! Chu Ning, how dare you speak like that?!” Lan Yu yelled angrily, raising his hand to strike her.

But Chu Ning wasn’t about to let him.

She immediately grabbed his wrist, her eyes cold.

“You really think I’ll just stand here and let you hit me?” she said, her voice low and chilling.

Lan Yu flinched, feeling a strange sense of dread. Just then, Chu Yan stepped forward, pulling him away.