Crush's Cold Senior Sister is Actually Childhood Sweetheart - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Road Ahead Seemed to Vanish, and the View Outside the Car Window Was Completely Obscured by a Dense Fog.

The road ahead seemed to be swallowed up, and everything outside the car window became blurred. The view was completely obscured by thick fog.

The car moved along on the bumpy and uneven ground.

An Jin sat in the back seat, her body swaying from side to side with the car’s bumps and jolts.

Suddenly, the car braked sharply, and her head nearly hit the roof. She instinctively grabbed the handle on the car door to stay stable.

In that instant, An Jin’s eyes landed on the navigation screen—it had been over half an hour since she got into the taxi, and they had only traveled a little less than three kilometers.

“Sir,” she said, struggling to keep her balance. “At this rate, we’ll get to the city two hours after the big selection ends.”

“Ah, we’re not really going to the big selection, are we? Just to watch the fun. Whether you see it early or late, what’s the difference?” The driver waved his hand nonchalantly, his tone dismissive.

“…How do you know I’m not going to participate in the big selection?”

The driver laughed twice, a look of disbelief on his face. “What kind of people can get into the Divine Lord’s disciple selection? They must have an immortal root—a natural immortal bone, get it? The kind that can fly through the clouds and mists.”

“Why would an immortal like that take a taxi? Did they suddenly discover they’re afraid of heights or something?”

“…Yeah, haha, that makes sense,” An Jin laughed awkwardly, her eyes darting around. “I’m just a tourist in Liucheng. I just happened to catch it, so I’m going to take a look.”

Her eyes shifted everywhere, clearly feeling a little guilty.

“Little girl, where are you traveling from?”

The driver in the front looked to be in his early fifties and was very talkative. Seeing that An Jin didn’t answer, he started chatting on his own. “Have you been to the Qingyuan Temple yet? That place enshrines the world’s only bronze statue of Emperor Qingyuan. So many people take a twenty-hour train ride just to get a glimpse…”

An Jin didn’t hear a word of what the driver said next.

The road was full of potholes, and the car kept braking suddenly. The smell in the car made her stomach churn.

She felt like she was going to throw up any second.

She thought to herself, I should have just flown here if I knew my carsickness was this bad.

“Oh, that’s right.” The driver suddenly remembered something he was saying and asked, “You don’t look very old, little girl. You must still be in school, right? Are you on vacation now?”

“Yeah, just started not long ago…”

An Jin could only laugh awkwardly and give a perfunctory answer.

Let alone being in school, it was a blessing from the heavens that she was alive and had managed to find her way to Liucheng on her own.

…

Three months ago, An Jin woke up in a small, shabby apartment in the next city with a completely blank memory.

Besides a phone, a few hundred in cash, and an invitation letter, there was nothing else around her. She was truly penniless.

Fortunately, in modern society, the internet was well-developed. She spent a few weeks relying on fragmented information online and finally slowly figured out the details of this world.

This was a world that sought immortality and the Dao.

For thousands of years, the mortal realm and the higher realms had adhered to a non-interference agreement. Mortals could no longer give birth to children with immortal bones in their bloodlines, and if an immortal or a divine lord stepped into the mortal realm, even for a short stay, they needed the Emperor’s permission.

Occasionally, an immortal would abandon a child in the mortal realm, but Emperor Qingyuan would quickly notice and bring the child back to the higher realms.

Everything was in order, and the boundaries were clear.

Until Emperor Qingyuan passed away eight hundred years ago.

With the Emperor’s demise, the higher realms suddenly became leaderless and chaotic.

The various divine lords were too busy with their own affairs to care about the children with immortal bones who had been abandoned in the mortal realm.

As a result, more and more children with immortal roots grew up in the mortal realm. They had no one to teach them and mostly didn’t know how to control their spiritual power, let alone how to cultivate.

But even though they couldn’t go to the higher realms, it was easy for them to mess up the mortal realm.

Over time, mortals’ attitudes toward immortals changed from the initial reverence and admiration to fear and dread. An Jin didn’t want to expose her identity, fearing she would be kicked out of the car the next second.

Fortunately, every hundred years, a divine lord would send their personal disciples to the mortal realm to hold a disciple selection. They would give invitation letters to people with immortal bones and good talent, and select some with spiritual potential to take back to the higher realms.

The invitation letter in An Jin’s hand had “Liucheng” as the location and “Divine Lord Chongguang” as the sender.

…

“Little girl, get ready. We’re almost there.” The driver hadn’t heard An Jin’s response for a long time, so he assumed she was asleep and called out to the back seat.

“After this bridge, it’s the next intersection. Look ahead—”

Before he could finish, a vast white fog suddenly rolled in like thick smoke.

The road ahead seemed to be swallowed up, and everything outside the car window became blurred. The view was completely obscured by thick fog.

The driver panicked and slammed on the brakes.

The car braked sharply, and the tires screeched against the ground. Then there was a loud “bang,” and the car shook violently, as if it had been pushed from behind by a huge force.

An Jin was thrown forward, and the seatbelt tightened around her shoulder.

At the moment the two cars collided, the white fog that had enveloped the car disappeared completely.

An Jin: “…”

When it rains, it pours.

I should have just flown here!

Seeing that the driver had already gotten out of the car, An Jin slowly unbuckled her seatbelt and lightly raised her hand.

A faint golden light flashed.

Spiritual power silently swept over the entire car.

The twisted and deformed trunk was restored to its original state, and the shattered taillights put themselves back together.

She clapped her hands and was just about to open the car door when she heard a strange female voice from a distance, filled with sarcasm and anger, “Are you driving with your eyes closed?!”

An Jin looked up and saw a short-haired girl walking quickly toward them.

The girl was wearing a white shirt and cropped jeans, her chin slightly raised, her eyes full of impatience. “I’m in a hurry to get to an exam, and now look, this car is completely undrivable!”

“I don’t have time to waste with you two here. How about we just cut to the chase?”

She crossed her arms over her chest, looking a little disdainful and a little annoyed. “Tell me, how are you going to compensate?”

An Jin frowned, slightly displeased by the other person’s attitude.

But judging by the other person’s appearance, she was probably also going to the disciple selection, so her being in a hurry was understandable. An Jin didn’t say anything more. She waved her hand gently, just like she did in the car.

Spiritual power instantly spread out, quickly enveloping the short-haired girl’s car.

The dented part of the car’s hood was restored to its original state at a visible speed, the scratches disappeared without a trace, and even the dust was wiped away, making it look as if it had just been driven out of the shop.

The driver standing next to them was dumbfounded.

The short-haired girl was even more incredulous.

“You… how… how did you do that?”

“Huh?”

Hearing this, An Jin became the one who was confused.

She looked a little lost. “Aren’t you going to the exam too? You can’t do this?”

Was the exam she mentioned not the Divine Lord Chongguang’s disciple selection?

The short-haired girl, who had to drive because her spiritual power was too weak to fly, was speechless. “…”

That’s too hurtful!

After getting back in the car, the driver’s attitude changed completely.

He suddenly became very reserved, his back straight. He was no longer as casual as before and didn’t ask any questions.

He just kept glancing at the back seat through the rearview mirror.

After a while, the car slowly stopped by the side of the road.

Not far ahead was an ancient temple, with several towering oak trees around it. The temple was surrounded by mortals who had come to watch the fun.

The place for the Divine Lord’s disciple selection was only accessible to those who had received an invitation letter.

They all wanted to see who could enter the ancient temple’s gate.

There were a few mischievous children, about seven or eight years old, who ignored their parents’ warnings and insisted on trying to get in.

But they were stopped by an invisible wall, stumbled, and fell to the ground, crying loudly.

An Jin gave all the cash she had to the driver, got out of the car amid his humble thanks, and walked to the entrance of the ancient temple.

Above the temple gate hung a plaque that was already mottled with age.

Three golden characters were carved on it from right to left:

Chongguang Temple.

After stepping over the threshold of the ancient temple’s gate, there were two long corridors on either side.

A few steps forward was the Hall of the Heavenly Kings, guarded by over a dozen guards wearing heavy iron armor and long swords at their waists.

The armor was made of cowhide with an external iron mesh, and the patterns were intricate and complex. The swords were dark, and their handles were carved with complicated, incomprehensible patterns.

Even the person who greeted them was wearing a pink pleated skirt and a twin-bun hairstyle.

An Jin thought for a moment that she had traveled back in time to ancient China, but in the next second, her eyes met a large LCD TV screen hanging in the main hall.

It was an extremely jarring scene.

There were no statues of gods or Buddhas in the main hall, only this TV looping a video about the rules of the exam.

The video was only a dozen seconds long, telling them that the main hall and each of the side halls in the temple had a different portrait of a divine lord hanging in them, and they should choose one that looked pleasing to them as their exam location.

The process was as casual as picking out cabbage at a supermarket.

There were very few people in the hall. Most of the candidates had rushed off to find their exam locations. An Jin also walked out of the hall, planning to look around first before making a decision.

Suddenly, a figure came rushing from the side. The person was running very fast, and An Jin didn’t have time to dodge, so she was hit on the shoulder.

She was about to speak, but she found that the person didn’t even turn their head or say a single word of apology. It was as if she hadn’t seen her, and the person quickly ran toward the back.

“What was that…” An Jin muttered to herself and looked in the direction the person had run off to.

The Grand Hall of the Great Sage behind her was already packed with people, and many more candidates were trying to squeeze in.

The candidates in the hall were pushing and shoving each other, and it looked like a fight was about to break out any second.

She craned her neck to see whose portrait was inside, but the main hall was already filled with people, and the portrait was surrounded by layers of them.

All she could see were heads.

An Jin couldn’t help but click her tongue and said to herself, “Who is that? That’s so exaggerated…”

“That’s a portrait of Emperor Qingyuan in the main hall.”

“Oh…” An Jin nodded slowly, her mind clearing up.

When she first learned how to use the internet, she was a little shocked to see the mortals’ almost crazy worship and remembrance of Emperor Qingyuan. By now, she had long gotten used to it.

But looking at the crowded people in front of her, she couldn’t help but sigh. She hadn’t expected that these candidates, who were all quasi-immortals with immortal bones, would also be so devoted to that Emperor.

Huh?

Wait a minute.

An Jin suddenly realized something.

Who was it that just spoke to me?