Book 1 Chapter 2: The 29th Daughter of the Tao Family


    Tao Jinghua opened her eyes as she blinked in confusion for a split second. In her vision, she can see the ceiling of a painted silk bed that has two wings of red and blue butterflies and one large pink peony flower with a background of light green. Tao Jinghua blinked as she gracefully set up.


    The first thing that she noticed was that her body was strangely very weak. The next thing she noticed was that she seemed to be sleeping in a bed from ancient China. You know, one of those frame beds from the ancient time that wasn''t soft like the one in the modern time. A Kang bed.


    Even though the sky outside should still be dark, inside the room, Tao Jinghua can see everything as if it was in daylight. Tao Jinghua looks around the room that she is in. The room that she is in was rather simple. A wooden tea table in the middle of the room, a closet in the far corner of the wall, next to the bed was a table with a bowl of water and a white towel, and a couple of meters away from the table that has the bowl of water was a hanging rack that had two robes of clothes hanging on it. Ancient style clothes.


    Tao Jinghua takes a deep breath as she feels her mind going into confusion for the first time in ten years. That was, until 13 years'' worth of memories suddenly entered her mind, making her expression pale rapidly as pain throbbed inside her brain.


    Tao Jinghua''s expression was grim for a split second as sweat gathered on her forehead.


    The real owner of this body had the same name as Tao Jinghua. She is the 29th daughter of a Pottery family in Xichang Town. According to this girl''s memories, this country was called [Wuzhi Kingdom] and this town is located in the Southernmost part of Wuzhi Kingdom. Closer toward the sea and yet farther inland than a Port Town or City was.


    This world was very similar to Ancient China''s history that Tao Jinghua knows of. However, there were a lot of different perspectives that this world has that China on Earth does not have.


    One of them was the fact that beasts/monsters like dragons, phoenixes, and all those fantasy animals are real in this world.


    This was going to get some use to.


    The second thing that was different was the fact that this world has immortal. No, really. Immortal. As in those that cultivate and can live up to thousands of years. Those immortals.


    The third thing that made Tao Jinghua''s brain shut down in one mere second was the fact that there was no such thing as guns or nuclear weapons in this world. Any defense that this world has is all Martial Arts, Dao techniques, talismans, formation protection, and such. Does that mean that I can''t use or make my own pistol?


    ....


    ...


    ...


    Shit!


    One thing about Tao Jinghua''s hobby was that she was a weapons collector.


    JInghua loves to collect old weapons and modify them into something else completely.


    For example, her Ruger SR1911 was a Semi-Automatic pistol that shoots the .45 Auto ammunition with a load of 7 bullets. However, after she modified it, the capacity of 7 bullets per load increased to 18 bullets per load. The average of 0.45 Auto bullet has 467 ft-lbs. of energy at the muzzle, however, after modifying it, that 467 ft-lbs. of energy increase by another 580 ft-lbs. of energy at the muzzle, enough to kill a rank SS Martial Artist who practices Internal Martial Arts at close range.


    You have to know that one of the reasons why Tao Jinghua was so feared was because of her 100% accuracy shooting precision and her guns. It wasn’t just because she’s a martial artist that she was so feared. The majority of the reason was due to her 100% accuracy hit chance that no one had ever got away from.  After all, in that world, during that age and time, she certainly wasn''t the only martial artist to be at the Grandmaster level. And yet, she was the most feared one.


    Most of the time, she didn''t even have to use her martial arts to get her jobs done since most of the time, it wasn''t even worth it. The only times that she had to use martial arts were when her targets were martial artists too.


    However, now, you are telling Tao Jinghua that this world doesn''t have guns?


    This was going to take her a long time to get used to. At least there were still swords and all other weapons. However, from this girl''s memories, weapons cost a lot of money.


    The currency in this world was different from the ancient china that Tao Jinghua knew of too.


    These coins from ancient China were made of copper, iron, lead, gold, and silver with different shapes, weights, and marks. However, the currency in this world was totally different. It is all purely made out of either Gold, Silver, Lead, or Copper. They can not be made into currency if there is another mineral mixed in. For example, a gold coin has to be made out of 100% pure gold to be counted as a gold coin.


    A copper coin has to be 100%, pure copper. A Lead coin has to be 100% lead.


    This caused Tao JInghua to twitch slightly. Lead? Really? Using pure 100% lead to make currency? And people had to carry those with them daily? Do the Leads in this world not cause lead poisoning?!


    Oh? I see. Due to Spiritual Energy, the people who lived in this world’s bodies were much stronger than Earth’s human bodies. You have to digest a lot more lead than a couple of tens of Lead Coins worth for lead poisoning to become a thing. Not to mention, the money pouches that the majority of the people in this world use normally are made with fabrics that were specifically grown to have lead resistance and neutralized. So, for a long time now, lead poisoning hasn’t been a problem for the people of this world.


    Not only do they not have to worry about lead poisoning due to their own money, but they also don’t have to worry that their lead coins would be rusted because the lead, coppers, silvers, gold, and such mineral resources in this world have far higher durability than Earth’s minerals resources. Thus, copper coins last for a long time even being submerged in salted water for years.


    After all, everyone in this world has a skill that they learned from a young to identify currency coinages, causing the people of this world to be very Gold, Lead, and Silver sensitive, and can tell if it has impurities in it or not. Jinghua just knows that the people of this world were born with sensitivity toward pureness- such was the result of living in a spiritual world.


    A copper coin, which is about the size of a 10 cents dime that the American used to have, is the start of the currency. Normally, for a commoner, 10 copper coins are already worth 2 days of food or 20 buns. A commoner''s year annual income was around 5 Lead Coin(L.C) and that was already a lot of money for them.


    The exchange and value of the mortal currency was this;


    1,000 Copper coins(C.C) = 1 Lead coin(L.C).


    1,000 Lead coins(L.C) = 1 Silver coin(S.C).


    1,000 Silver(S.C) = 1 Gold coin(G.C).


    A lot of commoner people called any copper coins below the 1,000 coins marked “Wens”. Or in English, that would be Cents. From Lead Coin, they would call it


    After gold coins are the coins that large factions like sects and groups use called Diamond Coin that is made out of 100% Spiritual Diamond. Not the normal diamonds that mortal tends to use in jewelry crafting. But Spiritual Diamonds.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Just One Diamond Coin is worth 10,000 Gold coins or more. Sometimes, in periods when natural disasters occurred, the price of Diamond Coins to Gold Coins exchange rapidly changed. This could cause people who had saved their Diamond Coins to either get rich overnight or court death to themselves.


    This was already the equivalent of a low-grade spirit crystal - Jingshi - the main currency that immortal uses.


    From the girl''s memories, One Diamond coin can have as much as 100,000 di[滴- meaning droplet] of Spiritual Qi Liquid. Just one drop of Spiritual Qi Liquid was enough to increase 10 points of spiritual power so you can imagine how much 100,000 is worth. Spiritual energy isn''t something that is easily gained after all. One drop of Spiritual Qi liquid has as much as 100 points worth of spiritual energy but because human bodies have too many impurities, they can only cultivate up to 10 points. Or so this girl''s memories said.


    For cultivators of this world, meditating for 10 days can increase your spiritual power by 10 points. This discovery made Tao Jinghua very surprised.


    This was just common knowledge that everyone in this world has. The levels of cultivation for immortal cultivators in this world are also common knowledge too. After all, knowing the levels doesn''t mean that you can cultivate them. It all depends on talents, resources, comprehension skills, innate talents, and hard work.


    Not everyone can cultivate. Everyone can have the knowledge but it doesn''t mean shit when you can''t use it.


    Well, whatever. It''s not like Tao Jinghua cares whether or not she can cultivate. Her martial arts is the kind that could be learned with or without Qi since she will be using Internal Martial Arts to infuse it. Actually, it would be better if she doesn''t have Qi but that''s asking too much for this body.


    Still, there was one question that Tao Jinghua just doesn''t understand. How the hell did the former soul of his body die in the first place? She should be dead not even an hour ago since rigor mortis hasn''t even started yet. Taking into account the temperature in this room, which was abnormally warm, this body''s former soul should have died about 15-20 minutes ago.


    Well, whatever. Since I am nowhere, living her life, I have to thank her. I still don''t even know why or how I die - or if I even did die- from that damn pearl in the first place. Tao Jinghua thought to herself.


    It''s not like she has any attachment to her former life. She only has a couple of friends that she trusts. Ah, that''s right. The boss might be very pissed and annihilate the Taoist Temple since she did die there.


    Mei Mei will probably cry her eyes out and then send all the governments that were involved in that accident to the depth of hell.


    Yun, her other partner, will probably faint from shock and rage when he found out that Tao Jinghua died but that''s it. Tao Jinghua doesn''t particularly have any big attachment that would make her feel sad.


    She''s pretty damn bored with that world after 20 years of living there. She did everything that she could and wanted already. Like learning to make all kinds of food to even taking a part-time job doing dishwashing. Let''s just say that she did everything that a lady could do, including Chinese embroidering.


    That''s how bored she was when she wasn''t on a mission.


    Ah, that''s right. According to her memories, when she turned 15 years old, this girl was supposed to marry the 4th son of the Tang family who owns a couple of large restaurants in this town.


    Finally, something that actually made Tao Jinghua look forward to it. After all, she died (?) before she was married, so Tao Jinghua didn''t know what marrying someone was like. Right now she is only 13 years old so she will have to wait another 2 years.


    From her memories, Tang Beifeng was a hardworking boy who was 2 years older than her. It should be fine. Marrying that kind of boy should let her experience what a housewife was like - especially since the cultures and morals in this kingdom were a lot alike to ancient China.


    Sighing mentally, Tao Jinghua gets up and starts to get ready for the day according to this body''s daily routine.


    Since she''s the 29th daughter of the house, she and her two other sisters live together in a simple two-story house that has three bedrooms on the second floor, while on the first floor was where the washroom, storage room, and a stone hearth room for pottery was. Foods are delivered by the maids that her father had hired so this girl doesn''t even know how to cook, unlike Tao Jinghua.


    After she finished washing her face, Tao Jinghua went over to the table where a large glass mirror along with all the necessities that a lady used was on.


    The image that reflects on the mirror wasn''t the one that Tao Jinghua was used to though. Jinghua had to take a couple of breaths to steady her heart. So, this face will be hers from now on.


    Her face was strangely white and didn''t feel natural, she noticed that when she was washing her face. Her eyes are a bit larger than her old ones. The eyelashes are also longer. Skins were fairer and there wasn’t even a spot of acne or pimples to be seen.


    In one word, this girl has a face that will make even the goddess jealous. However, for some reason, this face was like a block of frozen ice. No, more like a block of wood that doesn''t move. Is it because she died that her expression was frozen in this natural position?


    Her bangs were longer than normal, hiding her eyes and nearly half her face away. Does this girl have an inferiority complex about herself? But that''s not possible since she clearly was more beautiful than all her sisters. She wasn''t bullied either. She wasn''t hated by her father or her mothers.


    Her father has 5 wives so the family was pretty damn big after all.


    It won''t be strange if she was bullied but according to her memory, her father loves every of his child equally. Her stepmother wasn''t a bitch either, unlike what Tao Jinghua had expected.


    She has 18 brothers that are older than her and 4 younger brothers. She has 28 older sisters and 3 younger sisters.


    All in all, she has 53 siblings.


    All ranging from age 1 to 30 years old.


    That''s one hell of a lot of siblings.


    8 of her oldest brothers were married and living by themselves now. 12 of her sisters were also carried out.


    The only ones that are still living in the Tao household are her other 10 years older brothers, two of them are immortal practitioners, her 4 other younger brothers who were still in school learning how to read and write, 16 of her older sisters are still here along with 3 younger girls. Wait, 1 of her older sisters was also an immortal practitioner too. Both her two older brothers and sister are students of the Tuanfeng [摶風, meaning to rise very quickly] Sect, the largest immortal sect in the far South of Wuzhi.


    This girl - the original girl- has a pretty bright personality compared to Tao Jinghua since she likes to play around like a kid a lot. So why does she hide her face? Even her own fiance doesn''t know what she looks like fully.


    No, it wasn''t just her fiance that doesn''t know what she truly looks like; even her own mother and father don''t know what she looks like fully- since she always has her bangs covering her eyes and half her face.


    It''s not like she was afraid either. So what is with this girl''s personality of liking to hide her face? Well, whatever. Since Tao Jinghua was now living as her, she should continue hiding her face for herself. Although there will be people who are suspicious about her since her expression can no longer smile like before. Oh well... Whatever.


    This place was just a small town in this world, being too beautiful yet having no power to back her up will lead to her misfortune instead of helping it. Clearly, the former Tao Jinghua also noticed that too, which might be why she likes to hide her face.


    Besides, this girl spends nearly all her time in the stone hearth room, creating ceramics for the family, that nearly no one in the family notices how she looks like fully. Even when New Year''s events happen, she would rather stay in her room reading about how her brothers and sisters are doing in the sect than go outside to have fun with the rest of the family members.


    The only time that she would go out was when her soon-to-be father-in-law and mother-in-law came visiting with her fiancé. Mainly because she is the Principle Fiancé so whenever he wants to have another concubine, he must let her know and have her accept and acknowledge the new concubine. This is a law that the Kingdom created long ago to make sure that the husband doesn''t bully his wife by marrying a bunch of other wives.


    This law was the reason why the Tao family was so large yet didn''t have internal struggles between all the wives for the husband''s favor. This law was also the reason why Tao Jinghua’s father doesn’t have an illegitimate child outside.  It was the reason why the Wuzhi Kingdom was the most peaceful one out of all the other nine Kingdoms on this continent.


    For Tao Jinghua, this was slightly unbelievable. After all, no woman would like to share their husband with another woman.


    But... for the common people, this was really just the norm. Only Nobles and people who cultivate to be Immortal would only take One Person in as their spouse due to their Beliefs and Concepts. After all, karma and fate aren''t a joke for Immortal Cultivators.