A Guide to Self-Rescue in the Cultivation World - Chapter 1
It was a mountain she couldn’t remember the name of a village at its foot whose name also slipped her mind, and a dog whose name she didn’t know.
That dog, almost uncannily human-like, ran up and wagged its tail at her.
Driven by a strange impulse, she followed it. The narrow alleyways got deeper and deeper. Her heart pounded, and she stopped, and the dog also stopped obediently, turning its head to look at her.
“Woof! Woof!” It barked twice, a hint of urgency in the sound.
She started to panic and wanted to turn and run, but the dog turned with her, wagging its tail even harder.
Fine, she thought. A quick look won’t hurt.
She steeled herself and followed.
Who knew that this one-time follow would lead her straight into the Dao—to put it simply:
She transmigrated.
If she had to transmigrate, why did it have to be to such a remote corner of an unknown year, month, day, and time? The master said this was the “Era of the Spiritual Dao.” Okay, fine, it’s the Era of the Spiritual Dao.
Anyway, she was an orphan in her previous life, drifting aimlessly with no parents, just trying to get by. Switching places to continue drifting was simply a matter of familiar professional practice.
Master said earnestly, “Don’t let our Dao sect’s current small size fool you. Once you all become successful, the sect will naturally flourish!”
She was shocked at the time. This pitch was practically the ancient equivalent of that online line: “You work hard to be the first-generation rich, and won’t your kids automatically become second-generation rich?” They were two sides of the same coin!
Master added that while their sect had declined over the past few centuries, it used to be absolutely incredible hundreds of years ago! Legend had it that during the primordial chaos, the Human and Demon Realms constantly fought just for fun. One Daoist slapped their thigh and exclaimed, “If this keeps up, the world is going to be ruined!” So, single-handedly, he forcefully put an end to the turmoil between the two realms. After that great battle, the Demon Realm retreated to the far side of the River of the Underworld, and the two realms ceased all contact.
This extraordinary person, after achieving success, left behind the essence of his life’s work before running off: “The world should inherently possess the Dao. The Dao originates from the heart, the heart then originates from the Dao, the Dao then originates from the heart, the heart then originates from the Dao…” He went round and round, successfully confusing even himself. He simply threw up his hands and vanished on the spot, leaving behind this “Heart and Dao Mutually Originating” tongue-twister for future generations to puzzle over.
Hmph, and people actually figured it out.
That benevolent senior said: The Dao originates from the heart, and the heart originates from the Dao. The world’s comprehension of the Dao is varied. The more one immerses their heart in the Dao, the more the Dao will reward the heart. He even divided the world’s principles into three ranks: The Human Dao, the Heavenly Dao, and the Spiritual Dao. When the Era of the Spiritual Dao arrives, it signifies the time when the heavens are about to crumble. Whether Daoists will live or die, meet the King of Hell, or ascend on the spot, will depend on ambitious individuals taking a “trial run.”
“Ah, exactly!” Master clapped his thigh. “You guessed right! That ambitious individual, you see, was our founding ancestor!”
It was the Third Senior Brother who later secretly gossiped to her: That ambitious individual, which is to say, their Grandmaster’s-great-great-great-great-many-times-ancestor—actually did go to break through the Spiritual Dao. He used his body as a crucible, attempting to refine the spiritual energy of the world, and then… and then…
“And then he went to chat with the King of Hell’s great-great-grandfather,” Third Senior Brother shrugged.
In this Dao sect, besides the Master, there were only three Senior Brothers: Eldest Senior Brother Zhou Shanyuan, Second Senior Brother Qu Mingu, and Third Senior Brother Zhou Zonglan. Aside from Second Senior Brother, who had his own surname, the Eldest and Third Senior Brothers adopted Master’s surname, Zhou. So when Master asked her name, she recalled the surname of her birth family, which was practically an insult, and quickly assumed a sweet, obedient posture: “I’ll take Master’s surname!”
“Perfect!” Master clapped his hands, bestowing a name: “Then you shall be called Zhou Pei!”
Good heavens. For the next few days, the sect was filled with the continuous, echoing sound of “Pui, pui, pui” a spitting sound, meaning ‘bah’.
Master endured it for a few days but couldn’t hold out. He hauled her over: “Never mind, never mind. That name is crude. From now on, you’ll be called Zhou Suyao.”
My inner self: Whoa! So Mary Sue! I love it!
She curiously asked Master why he had only picked the four of them as disciples. Master spread his hands, rolling his eyes: “How should I know? Wangcai brought you all here!”
Wangcai was the dog at the village entrance that led her to transmigrate. As she followed it, the mud houses on both sides transformed into green mountains, and the flagstone path under her feet became stone steps. Then, she saw her Master, who looked like an immortal hermit but was actually picking his toes.
She asked again, “Master, aren’t you worried we don’t have the roots of wisdom?”
Master stroked a non-existent long beard and pretended to be profound: “Do you really think Wangcai wouldn’t help me judge?”
She choked, then, after a moment, clapped enthusiastically: “Wow! Wangcai is awesome! Wangcai is mighty!”
On second thought, they probably did all have some roots of wisdom. Eldest Senior Brother Zhou Shanyuan told her he entered the Dao at six months old, and Third Senior Brother was the same. Second Senior Brother Qu Mingu was even more incredible, finishing the process in just two months.
As for her, while not as heaven-defying as Second Senior Brother, she also successfully entered the Dao in four months. In Master’s words: “Congratulations! You have successfully defeated 98.8% of all little Daoists across the world!”
“Wow!” She clapped for herself with an expressionless face.
Of course, she couldn’t help but suspect her three Senior Brothers might also be modern transmigrators. She tentatively threw out secret codes like “Odd changes, even doesn’t,” “Palace jade liquid wine,” and “Before my bed, the moonlight shines,” but the three of them just looked at her as if she were suffering from cultivation-induced madness. She gave up.
Before she entered the Dao, Eldest Senior Brother was instructed by Master to play chess with her. She secretly celebrated, as she had learned Go early on and was quite proficient, consistently crushing Eldest Senior Brother every time.
Eldest Senior Brother rubbed his forehead: “Junior Sister, your chess style… is a little too brutal.”
It was certainly brutal. It carried a fierce, wild-style recklessness—snatching up any open space, attacking any weak point. She always started with a small corner point paired with a diagonal move, completely ignoring the fate of her own pieces, first attacking then frantically wedging her way in. How was this one of the Six Arts of a Gentleman? If not for her small frame, one would think she had honed this killer chess style in a man-eating, bone-crunching field of battle.
The Eldest Senior Brother’s head was buzzing from the relentless play.
Of course, her head was soon buzzing too—why were Second and Third Senior Brothers always practicing their swordsmanship and looking cool, while she had to painstakingly follow Eldest Senior Brother, silently copying incomprehensible talismans and practicing hand seals! It wasn’t fair!
Later, she learned that the path of cultivation was divided into different schools: The Guangming Dao specialized in Weapon Cultivation, using armaments; the Ance Dao specialized in Spell Cultivation, casting magic; the Suqian Dao specialized in Healing, essentially acting as a ‘healer’ or ‘support’; the Cuoma Dao specialized in Defense… and so on. Second Senior Brother also whispered mysteriously that the number one great Dao in the world, the Qijia, actually used musical instruments as weapons!
She: System Daddy, come out now and tell me I haven’t transmigrated into some ancient online game!
Of course, there was no system and no cheat ability. She could only ask seriously, “Master, why divide things so finely? Do we have to hold some kind of ‘Mount Hua Sword Competition’ or ‘Martial Arts Convention’?”
To her utter disbelief, she had actually hit the nail on the head.
Now, she stared at the towering Xinzong Mountain, which seemed to pierce the sky, and fell into a deep silence—she had been in this world for six years, and she desperately wanted to ask: Do people in the Era of the Spiritual Dao not understand what a fear of heights is?!
And whenever her acrophobia kicked in, her Third Senior Brother, Zhou Zonglan, who cultivated the Guangming Dao, would annoyingly summon his long sword, step on it elegantly, circle the mountainside twice, and then zip right in front of her to make a face.
Zhou Suyao could only roll her eyes stoically and form a hand seal. Instantly, spiritual energy gathered beneath her feet, coalescing into a deep-red Linque (Scale Sparrow) that steadily lifted her into the air.
“What century are you living in, riding a sword, Third Senior Brother?” Her voice, trembling from fear of heights, was shaky like a sieve. “You’re—so—uncool!”
This giant of a mountain was called Xinzong Mountain. Naturally, the sect on the mountain was called the Xinzong Sect. As soon as she heard the name, she asked Eldest Senior Brother, “Do all the Daoists here have the surname ‘Cong’?”
Eldest Senior Brother Zhou Shanyuan was silent for three seconds: “…Junior Sister, your thought process is quite expansive.”
“Of course,” she nodded.
In reality, why was the sect called Xinzong Sect? Simple and direct—the founding ancestor’s name was Xinzong. Any deep meaning? Nope. Doesn’t exist.
“Why care about deep meaning? Do we even have the face for it?” Second Senior Brother Qu Mingu mumbled, chewing on a blade of grass. “Even without deep meaning, it sounds better than our ‘Path to Immortality’ Dao, right?”
Okay, fair point. She looked up at the three bold, expressive characters
 (Path to Immortality)—on their sect’s stone archway. It truly… expressed the most fundamental pursuit of immortality by generations of Masters in a simple, unadorned way.
“Sigh,” that sigh came from Second Senior Brother.
“Sigh,” that sigh came from her.
“Woof!” That sigh came from Wangcai.
“What are you three muttering about?” The Eldest Senior Brother’s voice drifted over gently.
The three people and one dog instantly scattered like frightened birds.
Back to the Xinzong Sect. Even at the foot of the mountain, Zhou Suyao hadn’t figured out why they had come. Given their little-known “Path to Immortality” sect, would they even qualify for a high-level event like a sword competition or a great meeting? Maybe… right?
Well, she was wrong.
The scene before her was spectacular: countless figures were scaling the rock faces with lightness skills, leaping up like monkeys; in the air, cultivators on various flying artifacts, just like her, were densely packed, resembling a massive Spring Festival travel rush. This was clearly no small matter.
“So,” she finally couldn’t help it, turning to ask Eldest Senior Brother, who was calmly riding a golden Xuanwu (Black Tortoise) beside her, “What exactly are we here for?”
Eldest Senior Brother looked even more lost than her, turning directly to Second Senior Brother: “Didn’t I tell you to inform Suyao? You didn’t?”
“Ah!” The Second Senior Brother slapped his forehead. “Shoot! I completely forgot!”
She stared blankly, flicking her eyes back and forth between the two of them. Eldest Senior Brother sighed helplessly, maneuvering his Xuanwu close to her Linque: “We’re here to accompany you for the exam.”
“The exam?” She was even more confused. “What exam?”
Seeing her look, Eldest Senior Brother sighed heavily again: “All disciples in the Thirty-Two Great Daos who are sixteen years old must attend the Grand Competition at Xinzong Mountain today to evaluate their rank. But don’t worry, the exam scenarios are all illusions created by the Dao Inquiry Spirit Stone; there is no real danger.”
However, Zhou Suyao’s focus wasn’t on the latter part of Eldest Senior Brother’s sentence. Instead, she recalled her days oppressed by tests and instinctively asked, puzzled, “Evaluating ranks? What’s the point of that? There’s no scholarship.”
“Who says there isn’t?” Master’s voice popped up from behind them. “The top five will each get fifty taels of gleaming silver.”
Boom!
Zhou Suyao felt the bl00d in her body instantly ignite.
That was fifty taels! Of beautiful, shining silver!
She snapped her head around to look at Master’s drifting back, and when she turned back, her eyes were blazing with fighting spirit: “Eldest Senior Brother, what are the important details about this evaluation? I’m definitely bringing one of those top five ranks back!”
“Just use the skills you practiced with me, but…” Eldest Senior Brother began, hesitating.
The words “Just use the skills” were like music to Zhou Suyao’s ears at that moment. Her mind was instantly filled with the glittering image of fifty taels of silver. Before Eldest Senior Brother could finish, the Linque beneath her feet flashed red, shooting out like a small dot on the horizon, vanishing without a trace.
The Eldest Senior Brother watched the direction she disappeared in and slowly finished the second half of his sentence:
“…Ah, actually, winning it won’t do much good. Master will just take it all, claiming he’s saving it for you.”