Feng Jiu had a secret no one in Emerald City knew of. Unlike what everyone believed, she had never awakened a divine bloodline. In fact, she had never awakened a bloodline at all.
[Condition to awaken bloodline: Die, bitch.]
Feng Jiu stared at the jarring red screen in her mind, her teeth clenched tightly.
Every time she opened her mind space in hopes of seeing her bloodline awakened, this text greeted her in cruel irony. She even felt as if the words were gloating at her misfortune.
Feng Jiu had tried to explain her situation to the elders, but all of them scoffed her off with a single question:
"If that's the case, why did your awakening trigger a heavenly tribulation?"
Feng Jiu had no answer to that.
Anyway, being someone believed to possess a divine bloodline was better than having none at all.
She hadn't forgotten the fate of her cousins who awakened lesser bloodlines. The males were sent to the border islands, while the females were married off to distant cities.
Compared to them, her life in the Feng Mansion was peaceful, filled with endless spoiling from relatives and countless pursuers.
However, everything changed the day she found the gift left behind by her mother.
It was a strange stone. The moment she opened the case, it pierced straight into her eye. The instant it entered her eye, she became connected to a strange Dao called "Internet."
There, she gained access to many bizarre things. Among them, what attracted her the most was a section called "games."
The games were so interesting that her time spent in closed-door cultivation only increased, much to the delight of the elders.
They all thought their prodigy had finally decided to fully utilize her divine bloodline.
Feng Jiu cleared the games one by one, oblivious to the fact that with every completed game, her cultivation was slowly and steadily increasing.
By the time she noticed something was wrong, she had already broken through from Body Cultivation into the Qi Condensation Realm.
That too, in just a week.
The entire Emerald City boiled over the news. Even people from distant cities became interested in her. The rumor of her being born with a divine bloodline spread far and wide, multiplying the number of her pursuers countless times.
But Feng Jiu ignored every one of them. She was completely addicted to games. Most of her time was spent gaming, and within five months, she grew bored after completing every game on the market.
Her cultivation stabilized at the absolute peak of Qi Condensation, needing only to establish her foundation to break through.
A sixteen-year-old Foundation Building cultivator—how heaven-defying was that talent?
However, Feng Jiu wasn't excited like everyone else.
First, there were no more games for her to play, and new releases took weeks. That meant the speed of her cultivation would slow down drastically.
Second, her bloodline still hadn't awakened. Although on paper, she was a Foundation Building cultivator, in reality, her firepower was that of a glass cannon.
A single use of a battle technique would drain all her energy.
"I can't continue this act anymore at this rate," Feng Jiu muttered as she read the battle invitation in her hand.
It was from a man named Chen Yu, the eldest heir of the Chen Clan in the east. He had challenged her to a battle under ridiculous terms—if she lost, she would marry him; if she won, he would become her bed toy for the rest of his life.
"Absurd…"
She tore the letter apart without a second glance.
Feng Jiu could break through to the Foundation Building Realm at any moment. But doing so would push her into a completely different circle.
The number of people interested in her would skyrocket, and the chances of her secret being exposed would become terrifyingly high.
If the clan discovered she was a fraud, even if they did nothing because of her grandfather, the pressure from all the alliances formed because of her would be immense.
The aftermath would cripple Emerald City.
This was also the reason Feng Jiu hadn't stepped out of her personal cultivation room.
"But I can't hide for a lifetime…" she breathed, her deep orange pupils narrowing with worry.
The Feng Clan was believed to be descended from the Abyssal Phoenix. Like everyone else in the clan, she had orange eyes and long, shining red hair.
Yet her pupils were brighter than anyone else's, glowing sharply whenever she focused.
Combined with the speculation surrounding her bloodline, rumors spread that she was the reincarnation of the Abyssal Phoenix itself.
Feng Jiu rolled her eyes as she recalled the ridiculous theories her grandfather loved to talk about. Sometimes she wondered if he had intentionally released those rumors himself.
Thinking of her grandfather, a small smile formed on her lips.
"It's been a few weeks since I last saw him…"
Feng Jiu decided to end her closed-door gaming cultivation—only for notifications from the Internet to suddenly ring in her ears.
She raised her brows at that notification, as the Internet only notified her when a new game was released.
Curious, she opened the notification and froze when the game began downloading directly into her Game Stone without her doing anything.
Before she could even mutter in disbelief, the game opened, and a strange pull tugged at her soul.
Feng Jiu blinked. When she opened her eyes, a vast black expanse stretched as far as she could see.
"What's going on?"
[Welcome to Lord Online.]
[Player detected with a bloodline. Measuring quality…]
[Warning! Measurement failed…]
[Warning! Player found to be uncontrollable by the game administrator. Attempting to eliminate player from the server…]
[…]
[Warning! Elimination failed. Control over player profile is being taken over by the bloodline…]
The blue screen shifted into a deep, ominous red. All around Feng Jiu, crimson flames ignited as a merciless, bloodthirsty voice echoed.
[Condition to awaken bloodline: Die, bitch…]
Her eyes widened in terror as her body was yanked backward. The next instant, she was choking in a thick, viscous liquid.