Everyone ascended, but I didn't get on board

Chapter 197 The Truth About Miao Jia

Qiu Ci was speechless. She looked closely at the small turtle, about the size of a palm, at her feet, and then heard a soft snoring sound. Goodness, it was asleep too, sprawled out on its back. Seriously, are all you monsters, mothers and children, so carefree?
What should I do? She looked to the old man from Juanshan next to her for help.

“This should still be a young beast. Why don’t we… form a contract with it and raise it as a spirit beast?” Juanshan suggested.

"No!" Qiu Ci shook her head frantically. She didn't want to raise any spirit beasts; having the dog system was already difficult enough. She suspected this bone-piercing beast was trying to cling to her!

“But the cub has already left the nest, and the mother will no longer accept it,” Juanshan continued. “Why don’t we take it out first? We can either contract it or sell it to the Repair and Management Bureau then.”

Is this thing still for sale?

Qiu Ci's eyes lit up. After thinking about it carefully, although it was just a young beast, it was still an eighth-tier beast and shouldn't be cheap. So she put the little turtle into her spirit beast bag. "Alright, I'll keep it for now."

After dealing with the monster, the two turned to look at Miao Jia beside them.

"Thank you... thank you for saving me." After being treated by Juanshan, Miao Jia's injuries had mostly healed, but her face was still pale, a backlash caused by her forcibly using her internal energy.

"It was nothing, no need to be so polite." Qiu Ci waved her hand dismissively, but thinking of what had just happened, she couldn't help but ask, "But, was it really worth it for you to risk your life to save someone like that?"

"..." Miao Jia's face paled as she recalled the scene of Huo Yanting abandoning her and running away. Clearly, if he had helped her maintain the barrier, they would have had a chance to escape together. But Huo Yanting didn't even consider it; he turned and ran, never even thinking that she might die here.

"That piece of trash surnamed Huo, do you really like him so much that you'd risk your life for him?" Qiu Ci asked again.

“I…” Miao Jia paused for a moment, glanced at her, and then seemed to realize something. “I like him, yes! I like him, I can only like him, so everything is my own choice.” She nodded vigorously, not knowing whether she was answering her words or reminding herself.

"Really?" She turned and exchanged a glance with Juanshan, immediately confirming her suspicions. "Then do you think he likes you?"

"Of course." She nodded firmly. Huo Yanting's affection for her was almost at eighty percent; the system had said that this was already deep love, but...

"He's just not clear about his true feelings yet, that's why he's acting this way... He'll be fine once he understands."

"Oh?" Qiu Ci looked her up and down. "You mean, he's an idiot who doesn't even know his own feelings?"

"Wh...what?" Miao Jia was stunned.

"After all, how could a person with normal intelligence not know what they like? Didn't he just know to run away?" Qiu Ci took two steps forward, squatted down, and looked directly at her. "So, is this nonsense about loving someone without realizing it something you think, or... is it the system inside you that told you?"

"How did you know?!" Miao Jia exclaimed, her eyes wide.

Qiu Ci sighed and didn't bother beating around the bush, saying directly, "Hey, didn't I tell you? You can come to me with any difficulties, including the system you have."

"You..." Her eyes were filled with shock, then as if she remembered something, panic flashed across her face, and she hurriedly grabbed her, saying, "Don't say anything, I can't drag you into this, it's not a good thing, you can't help me..."

"Don't worry, Juanshan just sealed your sea of ​​consciousness, so it can't hear you," Qiu Ci reminded her.

Miao Jia was stunned. She subconsciously called out to the system, but as expected, there was no response in her mind. She was immediately shocked. "How did you do that?"

She smiled but didn't answer. Instead, she changed the subject, saying, "If I said I could help you break free from its control, could you tell me something?"

"Really?" Miao Jia's eyes lit up, and she looked at her in disbelief.

“I swear on my Dao heart.” Qiu Ci raised one hand. Miao Jia fell silent, feeling it was impossible, yet she couldn’t help but want to seize this sliver of an opportunity.

After a while...

"What do you want to know?"

Qiu Ci then asked, "How did you encounter this system, and how did you become bound to it?"

"This... I'm not quite sure either." Her expression darkened, and after a moment she answered in a deep voice, "It's been in my mind ever since I came to this continent. I've tried to get rid of it, but I can't find its existence." That thing was like a heavenly sound that appeared out of nowhere, and its source could not be found at all.

"You mean, you're not from this continent!" Qiu Ci grasped the key point.

“Yes.” She nodded, with a hint of nostalgia, “I was originally the daughter of the sect leader of the Dan Ding Sect on the Huai Feng Continent in Zhongzhou, and I was also the first sixth-grade alchemist in the sect to break through to the Nascent Soul stage. But one day I woke up and found myself on this unfamiliar continent.”

"You don't know how you crossed the continent?" Qiu Ci asked, somewhat shocked.

She shook her head. "I really don't know. When I woke up, I saw Huo Yanting. I was seriously injured at the time. He said he saved me and let me recuperate at the Huo family. Later, because of the system's mission, I became the Huo family's alchemist, and I still am today."

How did you get injured?

"I don't know." A hint of confusion flashed in her eyes. "I only remember resting in the alchemy room the day before, and when I opened my eyes again, I was seriously injured and surrounded by divine light."

"Have you ever considered that it might be the system within you that did it?" Qiu Ci recalled that the insect system back then also had the ability to cross states, so could Miao Jia have been transported there by the system?

“I had my doubts too.” She nodded. “But back then, my injuries were healed with the help of the system. And it said that as long as I could win over Huo Yanting, it would have a way to teleport me back to my original continent across states.”

No need to guess, it was the system that did it.

"Tell me, how does the system want you to win over Huo Yanting?" Qiu Ci asked.

“The system said that as long as you treat him well, you can naturally win him over. I am an alchemist, and all I know is how to make pills.” Miao Jia said hesitantly, “When I first met him, he was just the weakest of the Huo family’s five-elemental-root cultivators, so I made a Spirit Cleansing Pill to cleanse him into a single-elemental-root cultivator, which allowed his potential to be realized.”

"Wait!" Qiu Ci couldn't help but interrupt, "May I ask how long you've been on this continent?"

"Ten years," she blurted out, as if she had been calculating it all along.

"When you first met Huo Yanting, what was his cultivation level?"

Miao Jia recalled for a moment before saying in a deep voice, "It was the Foundation Establishment stage, but after taking the Cleansing Spirit Pill, I formed the Core."

"You mean, you watched him cultivate from the Foundation Establishment stage to the Nascent Soul stage in less than ten years?"

“Yes.” Miao Jia nodded, but didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. “The system said that he was originally a cultivation genius, but was just limited by his spiritual root before.”

"Really?" Qiu Ci was not quite convinced. There were geniuses who could go from Foundation Establishment to Godhood in ten years. Back then, socially awkward Jing and Feng Ting were such geniuses. Even Zhen Yi could have done it if he had tried.

However, such geniuses are all people with excellent mental state and comprehension, which is why they can achieve twice the result with half the effort in cultivation. But Huo Yanting, not that she looks down on people, put aside his comprehension, as for his mental state, based on what she has seen these days, he completely lacks such qualities.

She even felt that it was a miracle that the other party could cultivate to the Nascent Soul stage. Miao Jia might not realize it while she was in the thick of it, but Qiu Ci could guess that his cultivation level was probably 90% due to Miao Jia feeding him pills bit by bit.