Xin Mei was merely a Qi Condensation Realm disciple, so she still had many of the weaknesses of mortals. Instead of supporting herself solely through respiration of Yuan Qi like a Core Formation expert, she needed to eat and drink to live. She also needed to sleep for several hours a night.

Thus, since the sun had set long ago, Xin Mei fell asleep within moments of being shown to a bed. Xiao Lu had slept some in Xin Mei’s pocket during the trek to the Misty Mountain Sect, so he was not as tired. Also, Xiao Lu would have found it difficult to sleep without addressing some matters first.

[Physique Token Redeemed. Please specify the target.]

[Cultivation Method Token Redeemed. Please specify the target.]

Xiao Lu pointed at himself.

[Target selected. Scanning.]

A light shimmered over Xiao Lu’s body. He felt suddenly exposed, as if an old monster had decided to divine all his secrets.

—Status—

Name: Xiao Lu, etc.

Titles: Dao Guardian, System Novice, Transmigrator, Unlikely Protagonist, Distributed Consciousness

Age: 0.3

Species: Common Green Spider

Cultivation Base: Qi Condensation Realm — Third Layer

Cultivation Method: Spirit Beast Companion Art

Martial Techniques: None

Spiritual Roots: Yin — 32% Purity

[Analyzing Potential]

Spirit Talent: 3

Body Talent: 5

Subsidiary Method Talent: 1

Dao Potential: Extremely Low

[Generating Build Options]

Physique:

Extreme Yin — Increases efficiency of yin cultivation and techniques.

Extreme Omnivore — Increases absorption efficiency and benefits when consuming materials and spiritual essences.

Clean Jade — Increases physical beauty, durability, and efficiency of defensive techniques.

Thousand Poison — Increases efficiency of poison cultivation and techniques.

Method:

Ghost Apotheosis — Cultivate yin qi and martial prowess through binding and nurturing yin specters.

Heretical Breath — Cultivate origin qi and innate talent by consuming spiritual essence.

Turtle Mantra — Cultivate a body and qi with great defensive properties, achieving quasi-invulnerability when perfectly completed.

Poison Spirit — Cultivate extremely deadly qi by collecting spiritual miasma formed from conflict and ill-will.

[Awaiting User Selection]

Xiao Lu felt vaguely insulted. In four months, he had already achieved the third stage of the qi condensation realm despite being a common spider. Admittedly, that had mostly been Xin Mei’s doing, and he hadn’t been conscious for most of that time. Still, the system thought he had ‘Extremely Low’ potential? The system was really looking down on him too much.

He had relatively impure spiritual roots—so what?

He had the weak, fragile body of a common house spider—so what?

He lacked talent in both spiritual and body cultivation, and had no capacity for subsidiary arts like alchemy or formations—so what?

Xiao Lu thought the system was being unfair and overlooking his strong points. After all, even if he was incredibly weak and lacked potential, Xiao Lu still had … the system!

Xiao Lu was a Dao Protector! How could he allow himself to be found lacking in comparison to his charges, the children of heaven? He needed talent that defied the heavens to be strong enough to protect people like Xin Mei. If he was born without strength and talent, he simply had to steal those things from others!

All the physiques and methods were each appealing in their own way. Because the system had scanned him, they were all extremely suitable for Xiao Lu. However, the spider thought the two options with the greatest synergy and utility were glaringly obvious, even to a ‘System Novice’ like himself. After all, the most important aspect of cultivation was one’s innate talent, which ultimately determined the maximum level one could attain, assuming one faced no disasters on the road to immortality. If there was an opportunity to raise that threshold, he had to seize it. Imitating Xin Gui, Xiao Lu made his choice with unparalleled decisiveness!

[Acquired Rare Bodily Constitution: Extreme Omnivore Physique]

[Acquired Cultivation Method: Heretical Breath Technique (Peak Heaven Grade)]

Immediately, Xiao Lu lost control of his limbs and fell over onto his side. Spiders lacked the ability to scream. Instead, Xiao Lu twitched and shuddered involuntarily. He felt some regret. Clearly, the system was not a being he could afford to take lightly, even in his thoughts.

So the system looked down on him—so what? How dare he take offense!

As Xiao Lu internally humbled himself before the system, the immense pain gradually faded. When Xiao Lu was able to think clearly again, he still carefully avoided thinking anything negative about the system. In fact, in his heart, he quietly praised the system for its unique and effective character-building methods. After all, how would he become a capable Dao Guardian if he always took the easy route and relied on the system? After this, he would avoid the crippling pain of system tokens unless it became absolutely necessary.

Still, he did not regret it. In such a brief period of time, he had attained initial mastery of a heaven-grade cultivation technique that would have otherwise taken months if not years of diligent study to comprehend. Moreover, neither the affluent Xin clan nor that treasure-hoarding Elder Zhao possessed a heaven-grade cultivation technique.

He’d also attained a heaven-defying physique, which was an advantage more rare than phoenix feathers and qilin horns. The cultivation method and physique complemented each other perfectly. Xiao Lu thought that the system welcome package was truly generous.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

Still, in the short term, he was absolutely unwilling to redeem his other system tokens. He would not budge on this point. Deciding it was time to cultivate, Xiao Lu climbed up to a web he had made earlier that day. There, a flying insect had foolishly activated his trap card.

Xiao Lu had not eaten at all since he’d found himself in this body. It was not unusual for spiders to go without eating for weeks, so he had not felt particularly hungry. Also, in the society he’d been raised in before coming to this world, bugs had not been considered food. Now that he had a physique that made practically anything edible and beneficial, he found the prospect more agreeable.

He crawled over to the insect, which was struggling to free itself. He wrapped it more firmly in silk, trying to avoid looking in its multifaceted eyes. It was probably just a dumb bug, but what if it was like him? What if the Dao had granted it spirituality and intelligence, or even worse, it was a reincarnated human? There was no way to know. This wasn’t a children’s movie, there was little in the way of interspecies communication.

Finally, Xiao Lu had no choice but to look directly at his victim. He clapped his forelimbs together.

Itadakimasu.

…

It wasn’t bad.

While he consumed the bug's body, he operated the Heretical Breath Technique for the first time. The bug was not a spirit beast or cultivator and consequently had very little spiritual essence, but as a living thing, it did have some. As the insect's spirit energy left its body and flowed into Xiao Lu, thanks to his tyrannical breathing technique, he found himself able to control it nearly as simply as if it were his own Yin Qi or the Yuan Qi of heaven and earth.

He circulated it in a specific pattern through his meridians. After a few revolutions, the qi lost its former nature, and became an incredibly pure and gentle qi. This was Origin qi, the primordial qi that exists in its pure state before undergoing the myriad transformations of the Dao.

Origin qi could be used to cultivate or perform martial techniques by anyone regardless of their root affinity and the elemental requirements of the technique. However, when compared to using qi with which one had great affinity, the results were slightly worse. The only exception to this was in the case where the cultivator was born with origin roots, and cultivated origin qi techniques. Unfortunately, such cultivators and techniques had not been seen since the primordial era.

Xiao Lu had not known any of this prior to acquiring the Heretical Breath Technique. He suspected that very few people in the present era would believe there was such a heaven-defying thing. Xiao Lu shuddered to think what all the old cultivation monsters in the world would do to be able to perform any technique regardless of their innate affinity. Xiao Lu resolved to not reveal that particular aspect of his cultivation method unless he found himself in a life or death situation.

After several cycles, Xiao Lu could tell that his cultivation speed using the Heretical Breath Technique was several times faster than it had been using the Spirit Beast Companion Art. Disregarding the spiritual foods that his companion lavished him with, even practicing the Heretical Breath with common creatures was enough for him to keep pace with a cultivation genius like Xin Mei.

Feeling energized, Xiao Lu built several more webs, feeling eager to continue his training. He could only circulate the origin qi for so long before it was completely refined, at which point he had no choice but to store it in his dantian and return to absorbing yin from the Yuan Qi of heaven and earth. The faster he could catch more victims, the faster he could become strong enough to protect Xin Mei.

Unfortunately, the room they were in was rather nice, so he only had one or two more bugs offer themselves up to him. It was a start.

A few hours later, Xiao Lu noticed as Xin Mei began to stir. She appeared reluctant to open her eyes, but her brows furrowed in confusion.

“Why am I so sore?” She mumbled sleepily. A questing palm blindly reached out to adjust her pillows and blankets, only to be met with a stone bed and a rough canvas sheet. Her eyes fluttered open, and she was momentarily startled by the unfamiliar surroundings. Then she grew still as her memories of the previous night appeared to have at last returned to her.

“That’s right … Elder Brother Gui beat up Father and spirited me away to his … Cloudy Valley Sect? Foggy Hill Temple? Whatever. Hmph, he could have at least asked my opinion first. At least here I will no longer have to listen to Father ramble on about that loathsome Xiao Wang.”

Xiao Lu thought that carrying on one-sided conversations with spiders had perhaps led Xin Mei to develop a habit of talking to herself. As a Dao Guardian, his gut instinct was to warn her against this habit. This was a cultivation world after all—secrets were often matters of life and death, and you never knew who might be lurking in the shadows. At the moment, however, he was at a loss as to how he could express such complicated concepts through gesticulation alone. He would just have to increase his vigilance and become skilled at sensing the presence of others.

Xiao Lu began crawling around the room, searching for invisible threats.

Heedless of her spirit companion’s worries, Xin Mei stretched while moaning about how much softer the bed in her room at the Xin Mansion had been. Pouting, she performed her beast controlling art, directing Xiao Lu to tie up and braid her hair in her preferred style. When he was done, she looked around for a mirror before realizing with a huff that mirrors were another small luxury which she would have to do without for the time being. She settled for taking Xiao Lu into her palm and giving him a deadly serious look.

“Xiao Lu, do I look elegant?”

Xiao Lu bobbed vigorously. He was not entirely autonomous when Xin Mei executed the beast controlling art, but Xiao Lu was nonetheless a fierce advocate of his work and stylistic decisions. Seeing this attitude, Xin Mei nodded curtly, but was still not completely satisfied. Her expression flattened further, becoming several degrees more serious.

“Do I look cute?”

Xiao Lu bobbed again, this time with even more vigor.

Faced with this unreserved praise, Xin Mei’s expression finally became sunny. The nascent killing intent she had unconsciously released was also abruptly withdrawn. She tossed Xiao Lu onto her head before bouncing to her feet and racing out of the small abode.

“Let’s go find my elder brother, Xiao Lu!” Xin Mei exclaimed.

Xiao Lu would have bobbed again in reply, but he was preoccupied with clinging for dear life to one of her carefully woven braids. Being out of Xin Mei’s field of view, the gesture would have been largely meaningless, but Xiao Lu appreciated the chance to engage in discussion. If no one talked to him, how would his life be different from that of any other spider?

So, he’d only figured out how to express one sentiment so far—so what? He had a very positive perspective! At least in that regard, he was an excellent conversationalist!

Unaware of Xiao Lu’s struggles for internal and external stability, Xin Mei ran through the third peak of the Misty Mountain Sect. The sect facilities on this peak were clearly developed with an eye toward ascetic practice. There was little in the way of ornamentation, allowing the buildings, common areas, and pathways to be laid out in an efficient and functional manner. Because of this, it took very little time for Xin Mei to travel from the cave abode to the area where her brother had said he would remain during these few days. Coming upon the collection of squat wooden buildings that acted as cultivation chambers, Xin Mei slowed her steps and took a deep breath.

“Elder Brother, I’m awake! Come out!” Xin Mei called loudly. On her head, Xiao Lu covered his eyes with a forelimb in exasperation. Clearly, his charge did not recall which chamber her brother had said he would be in, and had taken the most aggressive approach to compensate. Xin Mei waited a few moments. Seeing no one appear, she called again. Still, no one appeared, so with a huff, she charged over to the nearest chamber and knocked forcefully.

“Brother, are you in—?” Xin Mei cut herself off as a muffled shout emanated out from the chamber interior. Moments later, the wooden door flew open forcefully. From inside, a male disciple appeared, looming over Xin Mei and nearly filling the doorway with his tall and broad physique.

“Are you blind? Can you not see the light?” he asked, anger lacing his tone.

“What light?” Xin Mei responded, blinking in confusion. The older disciple rolled his eyes in annoyance and gestured toward a stone embedded in the door frame that was glowing dimly with red light. A hidden clan’s sheltered young mistress would naturally not be easy to intimidate. In contrast, Xiao Lu was already twitching with anxiety and mentally formulating a request to the Jade Emperor.

Xin Mei was a chosen daughter of heaven. Unparalleled cultivation talent aside, the heavens could spare her a little self-awareness. This was Xiao Lu’s first day as a Dao Guardian. Moreover, he was a tiny spider with tiny, spider-sized shoulders. Technically speaking, he didn’t even really have shoulders. He wasn’t sure that he could bear the responsibility. He was, however, powerless to prevent this event from unfolding along the standard lines of a xianxia random encounter.

“The red light means you shouldn’t disturb the cultivator inside unless there’s an emergency. I was in the middle of cultivating a dangerous scripture. You nearly caused me to experience a Qi Deviation. How are you going to compensate me?”

“There’s nothing posted in this area to indicate that rule, and I was never informed,” Xin Mei said quickly, dismissing her responsibility with a wave of her hand. Her eyes narrowed as she continued, “Moreover, you’re clearly unharmed. Even if you had deviated in your cultivation, you would only have yourself to blame for taking risks and shortcuts. Why should I compensate a fool for failing to injure himself?”

Xiao Lu covered his eyes. Xin Mei’s young-mistress aura was simply too dazzling.

Unable to stomach such ridicule, the large disciple’s face darkened. He took a large step forward, forcing Xin Mei a small step backwards to remain standing.

“Good, good, good. A mere Qi Condensation ant has the face to bully a Foundation Establishment practitioner of the Inner Sect?” The male disciple laughed coldly and raised his arm, preparing to strike Xin Mei with the back of his hand. “I, Cong Wen, don’t mind teaching you a lesson!”