Volume One, Chapter One: Reincarnation or Entering a Novel

Qingyun Continent

The Gu Family

A beautiful woman and a handsome man were joyfully speaking to the woman’s rounded belly.

Gu Mingxi felt as if she were floating in a warm current, utterly comfortable, though her eyes refused to open, as if she were nestled securely in her mother’s embrace.

She was puzzled—where was she? Was she submerged in water? But it didn’t quite feel like that.

Gu Mingxi tried to stretch her arm, only to find she seemed to touch something.

Just then, she vaguely heard voices, excited ones.

She moved her arm again and heard a woman cry out in pain.

Amid the haze, she heard the woman say that the baby was moving, and with quite some strength.

What was going on?

Had she become a fetus?

She’d often heard people joke about being remade from scratch—so she really was being remade from scratch this time. How curious!

Yet, she could do nothing except sleep. Yes… she felt sleepy again.

The Gu Residence

Main Courtyard

“Husband, did you see that? The baby just moved—twice! Such strength!” Lin Sheng exclaimed, barely containing her excitement.

“I did, I did! No wonder—this is our child. Only a few months and already moving so much. It’ll certainly be a lively, strong baby,” Gu Moyuan laughed heartily, wrapping his arm around Lin Sheng as he gazed tenderly at her belly.

Inside was their child—the crystallization of their love.

Six months passed in a blink. The once-blurry sensations faded for Gu Mingxi, though she still resided in her mother’s womb. Now, however, she could clearly hear voices from the outside and no longer felt constantly drowsy.

Waking from a nap, Gu Mingxi stretched her arms and legs, inadvertently startling the young couple outside yet again.

It was then she noticed all manner of glowing motes appearing around her, their presence oddly alluring.

What were these variously colored, luminous specks?

Instinct told her they were beneficial—she should absorb them.

Trusting her intuition, Gu Mingxi began to draw the surrounding points of light into her body.

Of the yellow, green, purple, red, gold, white, blue, and cyan lights, Gu Mingxi was most drawn to the purple ones, smitten at first sight. She called them to her, absorbing them eagerly.

Ah, the sensation was pure bliss, as if she had swallowed a divine elixir.

She must absorb more, intuition whispered, and Gu Mingxi always trusted her instincts.

From then on, her days became a cycle of sleep and absorbing light.

She did not realize that, alongside the purple motes, she was also drawing in wisps of purple mist—what people called innate vital energy.

Unbeknownst to her, her talent and aptitude were growing more extraordinary by the day.

Somewhere in the cosmos, a star quietly veered off its destined path, embarking on a new trajectory.

This celestial shift did not escape the eyes of those who paid attention to such things.

“The heavens are changing. Is that altered star a blessing or a curse?”

“Another storm brews…”

Time flowed on.

One day, as Gu Mingxi slept soundly within her mother’s womb, she suddenly felt pressure—an inexorable force urging her toward a certain direction.

She instinctively resisted, only to hear her mother cry out in pain, and understood: she was about to be born.

Following the natural urge, she moved forward, and a burst of light filled her vision.

She reached out by reflex, but grasped only emptiness.

“She’s born! She’s born!” an excited voice rang out.

Gu Mingxi felt herself lifted.

Then, a firm hand smacked her bottom. The sting made her want to protest, but when she opened her mouth, all that came out was a wail. She had forgotten—she was a newborn now, incapable of speech, and could only cry her frustration.

Outside, Gu Moyuan, who had been anxiously awaiting, rushed in at the sound of his daughter’s first cries. His wife’s moans had made his heart ache—if he could have, he would have taken her place.

“Congratulations, Master! Mother and daughter are safe!” The midwife brought the child over, offering her blessings.

“Good! Good! Well done! You will all be rewarded!” Gu Moyuan said excitedly, carefully cradling his daughter. He sat beside Lin Sheng, beaming.

He inspected Lin Sheng from head to toe. Seeing that she was only a little depleted but otherwise unharmed, he finally relaxed. They had longed for a child, but if it had cost his wife, he would rather have forgone it. Fortunately, both mother and child were safe.

Lin Sheng, seeing the tension on her husband’s face, smiled at him, her heart full of joy at his concern.

“Sheng’er, look at our daughter. She’s so beautiful! Most babies are wrinkled and red like little old men, but ours is fair and tender—so adorable,” Gu Moyuan said, moving the child closer for Lin Sheng to see.

The two new parents gazed at their daughter, grinning foolishly, a far cry from the imposing cultivators they were to the outside world.

“Husband, have you chosen a name for our baby?” Lin Sheng asked.

“I have. She was born with the first rays of dawn—let’s call her Gu Mingxi. I hope our daughter will always be radiant and joyful, like the morning sun.”

Such was a father’s greatest tenderness and hope for his child.

“Gu Mingxi—Mingxi, Xixi—what a lovely name. Xixi, you have your name now. You’ll be called Gu Mingxi from this day on,” Lin Sheng cooed gently.

Gu Mingxi?

She remembered a novel she’d read before transmigrating: “Mo Yuqing’s Path to Immortal Cultivation.” There was a minor character named Gu Mingxi—a sacrificial pawn, or rather, a bringer of fortune.

She’d paid special attention to the character sharing her name, and had been indignant at the tragic fate that befell her in the story.

Nevertheless, she finished the book. In summary, the heroine, Mo Yuqing, and the hero, Lin Yuan, fell in love, cultivated immortality, fought monsters, and ultimately defeated the final boss to ascend to the Immortal Realm together.

Gu Mingxi had served as a lucky charm for the protagonist—she’d gifted Mo Yuqing a spatial artifact, and when her family retrieved her corpse, they even compensated the heroine with a trove of cultivation resources.

Mo Yuqing had truly profited greatly.

Thus, the Gu family and Gu Mingxi became renowned as the ultimate bringers of fortune.

Later in the story, Mo Yuqing lamented to her divine beast, Phoenix, about Gu Mingxi’s misfortune—a stellar background and talent, yet dying young at the hands of a demonic cultivator. Not once did she mention that Gu Mingxi had only been killed because of her own involvement.

But that was just a fleeting regret. The space she’d obtained from Gu Mingxi she continued to use happily.

As days passed, upon confirming that this world was indeed a cultivation realm called the Qingyun Continent, and that her father was named Gu Moyuan and her mother Lin Sheng, Gu Mingxi grew certain she had not merely transmigrated—she had entered the very story.

Her suspicion was confirmed when her father gifted her the family’s ancestral jade pendant, just as in the novel.

Recalling the tragic fate that awaited her in the book, Gu Mingxi grew a little despondent, and even lost her appetite for spirit milk.

This distressed Gu Moyuan and Lin Sheng greatly, and they hurriedly summoned the Fifth Elder to examine her, but nothing amiss was found.

Realizing how anxious her parents were, Gu Mingxi did not wish to worry them further.

“So be it. Since I am here and have become Gu Mingxi, perhaps it is fate. With such loving parents and clan, I cannot bear to lose them.

I am no longer the Gu Mingxi of the book—I will not allow tragedy to repeat. If the heroine can ascend with the hero, then I, too, shall set a goal.

I will break free from the shackles of fate, live well, and shape my own destiny, unbound by any constraint. In the end, I will become the strongest on this continent, and ascend to the Immortal Realm.”