Chapter 1: Entering the World

Grand Ancestor Hongjun was, according to legend, the master of Laozi, Yuanshi Tianzun, and Tongtian Jiaozhu.

Whether this legend was true or not was not something Meng Shisan cared to investigate.

She only wanted to reconsider one thing: the Ancestor's original form was a cricket, and her original form was also a cricket.

Based on the principles of her kin, she had resided in the Ancestor's cave for a thousand years. She felt that a figure as formidable as the Ancestor must surely possess a vast and magnanimous heart; perhaps the Ancestor, living alone in a mortal cave temple for endless ages, had felt quite lonely, and was actually delighted to suddenly have her for company.

On this day, a heavy rain suddenly fell—violent, surging, and torrential. It continued with unabated vigor well into the night, showing no sign of relenting.

In her original form, Meng Shisan lay sprawled at the cave entrance, listening to the sound of the rain with utter boredom. She stared blankly at the curtain of rain, and as she watched, as if possessed by some strange force, she poked her head out of the cave.

"Rumble—!"

Thunder and lightning! How terrifying!

Meng Shisan hurriedly retracted her head.

"Crack—!"

Unexpectedly, she was half a step too slow.

Her slippery little head was struck dead center by a bolt!

After an unknown number of hours, in a state of half-sleep and half-consciousness, Meng Shisan felt something warm, soft, and incredibly comfortable beneath her.

The Ancestor's cave temple was a stone temple built casually on level ground in the outskirts of Jinling. Upon entering, one found an incense altar; behind the altar, on a stone platform, stood the golden statue of the Ancestor, flanked by two lampstands. Beside the left lampstand sat a wooden box for pilgrims to add oil. Behind the Ancestor was her nest.

Thinking of her nest, it was merely a tiny space sandwiched between two sides: the Ancestor's golden statue in front and a mottled stone wall behind. It was ventilated on the left and right, with a stone roof above and a stone bed below. It had been her place of refuge for a thousand years, and nowhere else in the four cardinal directions could she find such a soft and warm sensation.

Feeling a heaviness in her head as if Mount Tai were pressing down upon her, Meng Shisan realized something was wrong and snapped her eyes open in shock.

In her daze, she saw a completely unfamiliar environment.

Before she could figure out if this environment was real or a dream, the memory of what happened just before her vision went black flashed through her mind: that lightning had clearly been aimed straight at her, striking directly upon her head!

Yes, she had been struck by lightning.

How could she have been struck by lightning?

Meng Shisan could not help but recall the fragments of her past.

From birth to three hundred years old, she had lived a muddled existence, burrowing through the earth. At five hundred, she gained spiritual intelligence and, in her innocence, moved nearby to keep the Ancestor company. By eight hundred, she took pleasure in cultivating a human form. Today, at fifteen hundred years old, having possessed intelligence for a millennium, she had seen countless pilgrims in the cave temple.

A thousand years had seen the rise and fall of worlds, and countless pilgrims had made countless wishes.

Being born not as a human, she found the wishes of mortals to be bizarre and peculiar; every single one piqued her curiosity. Being idle, she had decided, out of sheer boredom, to enter the mortal world and transform into one of the common folk—be they peasants or the wealthy and powerful. She actively explored the meaning behind every mortal desire.

For example, there was once a scholar who came to pray for success in the imperial examinations. She thought to herself that while so many men wished to become officials, so many others failed to do so from youth to old age; surely, the examinations must be incredibly difficult.

Driven by a spirit of inquiry, a curious mind, and a winning confidence, she read every book a mortal would study during ten years of hard study, and then even transformed into a young man to take the exam herself.

As it turned out, she became the youngest *jinshi* (successful candidate) of that time.

She served as an official for a few years, but found it utterly tedious.

Driven by boredom, she found an opportunity to resign from her post and retire to the countryside, returning to the Ancestor's cave temple to continue her quiet cultivation, listening daily to the various wishes of different pilgrims.

Occasionally, when she encountered something that piqued her curiosity, she would still run to the mortal realm to explore and verify it.

Over a thousand years, there were few things left to arouse her curiosity, and even fewer things she did not already know she needed to explore.

And right now, she was in a state of utter confusion and bewilderment.

Meng Shisan was at a loss, her eyes vacant and her mind stalled.

The head maid, Jinyin, entered the room carrying a bowl of medicine. Passing the sandalwood screen carved with "Flowers Blooming in Prosperity," she lifted the colorful gemstone bead curtain and walked straight toward the *babu* bed (canopy bed) in the inner chamber. As she approached, she witnessed this scene.

"Miss, what is wrong?" Jinyin placed the medicine tray lightly on a table beside the bed and turned back to ask her mistress, who was sitting on the bed staring blankly while clutching a quilt, with utmost caution.

Hearing the voice, Meng Shisan's seemingly frozen body finally moved. Her eyes slowly regained a spark of life, settling on Jinyin's face, unblinking.

This gave Jinyin quite a fright, and she called out even more softly, "Miss?"

Meng Shisan blinked, but her gaze shifted to the furnishings before the bed.

The platform before the bed had pillars at the four corners inlaid with sandalwood railings, with a small fan-shaped window on each side, resembling a corridor. A footstool sat in the middle, with tables and stools on either side. On the table to the left sat a bowl; judging by the scent, it was a bowl of medicinal soup.

Meng Shisan's eyes rolled slightly as she surveyed the bed she was currently lying on.

Pale yellow curtains hung down, held up by golden hooks on both sides. The eaves and the lintels were both intricately carved with openwork patterns, while the front railings and panels were engraved with various auspicious motifs. The knifework was mature and the craftsmanship superb; the whole piece was exquisite, magnificent, stable, and elegant.

Based on her knowledge of the mortal world she had traveled through in the past, this was a sandalwood *drooping-flower-pillar babu bed*.

This was a mortal object.

Had she come to the mortal world?

Was she struck here by lightning?

Impossible.

Absolutely impossible.

Meng Shisan felt that her way of waking up must have been wrong. She quickly lay back down, pulled the brocade quilt up to her neck so the edge pressed against her chin, and closed her eyes again.

She must be dreaming; once she wakes up, she will be back in the Ancestor's cave temple!

Jinyin was stunned by this series of actions from Meng Shisan. It was only after Meng Shisan's breathing became long and steady and she entered a dream state again that Jinyin belatedly realized the gravity of the situation.

"No..." Jinyin had just managed to shout a single word when, seeing that her mistress was still sleeping, her hands instinctively moved faster than her brain to cover her own mouth.

Controlling her urge to cry, she retreated from the room.

As soon as the curtain fell, Jinyin saw another head maid, Baozhu, returning from the end of the corridor carrying a food box. She rushed toward her immediately: "Baozhu! Baozhu, something is wrong!"

"Did Miss vomit the medicine again?" Baozhu remembered that before going to fetch dinner, Jinyin had said the medicine was almost ready; in the time it took her to get food, the medicine should have been administered.

Thinking of how the medicine given this morning and at noon had both been vomited up by the Miss, and how she couldn't even keep food down, if the Miss vomited again now, wouldn't that mean her condition hadn't improved at all?

However, Jinyin did not answer. She merely nodded and shook her head in a panic, her face pale and her lips trembling slightly. Baozhu's heart sank even further.

"No... it's not that!" Jinyin's mind was in a whirl as she struggled to describe what she had seen while trying to recall it, "Miss woke up, the medicine was still there, but Miss was dazed. She looked at me, then looked at the bed, didn't say a word, and then finally lay back down and fell asleep again!"

Now it was Baozhu's turn to be stunned: "What are you talking about?"

"It's just—it's just that Miss seems as if she doesn't recognize me, and she doesn't even recognize the bed she has slept in since she was a child!" Jinyin spoke her feelings directly, her tongue nearly tripping over itself in her anxiety.