Chapter 1: The Child Who Should Not Exist
Pain.
That was the first thing Yue Ling felt when consciousness returned.
The second was the shouting.
"Freak!"
"Neither man nor woman — how can such a thing touch the Dao?!"
"Throw her out before she taints the spiritual spring!"
She opened her eyes to a circle of white-robed elders and hundreds of staring disciples. A massive jade mirror floated in the air — the aptitude testing treasure of the Azure Cloud Sect. The mirror showed her new body: delicate face, long silver hair, small breasts… and the unmistakable yang root that had torn through her robes during the spiritual energy infusion.
Sixteen years in this world, and today was the day they found out.
A slap sent her sprawling. Blood filled her mouth.
"Ling Xiao," the grand elder sneered, "from this day forward you are expelled. Take your abomination and leave before we cleanse you with fire."
She tasted iron and laughed — a low, broken sound.
In her previous life she had died pushing a child out of the path of a speeding truck. Was this her reward? To be hated for a body she didn't choose?
As the guards dragged her toward the mountain gate, a cold, genderless voice rang directly in her soul.
[Primordial Harmony System binding complete.]
[Host possesses Perfect Yin-Yang Constitution — theoretically strongest physique in recorded history.]
[Current realm: Qi Gathering 1st layer (trash)].
[Goal: Ascend beyond the heavens. All discrimination will be corrected by absolute strength.]
[First gift: Divine-grade foundation-building method "Eternal Harmony Scripture" now etching into host's soul.]
Golden characters burned across her vision. Pain lanced through her meridians, but for the first time in this life, it was the pain of something being built instead of torn down.
She stopped walking. The guards stumbled.
Ling Xiao turned, blood still dripping from her split lip, and smiled at the entire sect.
"Thank you," she said clearly. "Thank you for showing me exactly what this world thinks of me. I'll remember every face."
Then she walked down the mountain on her own, head high, robes torn, barefoot on the stone steps.
Behind her, the elders laughed.
In front of her, the system spoke again.
[In 73 days the secret realm "Thousand Lotus Grotto" opens. Enter it and take the Harmony Lotus Heart.]
[That will be the first step to making them kneel.]
Ling Xiao wiped the blood from her mouth and kept walking.
"73 days," she whispered. "Plenty of time to make some friends… and some enemies who will regret ever opening their mouths."
Far away, a white-clothed girl clutching a sword watched her leave with complicated eyes.