Female Protagonist Assistance System

Chapter 107 : . The Adopted Child

In the midst of darkness.

Gu Xun'er hesitantly took two steps forward, her feet treading on darkness, with an unreal feeling as if walking on clouds.

She didn't know where this was. After regaining consciousness, she found herself in this place. But for some reason, despite suddenly arriving in this unfamiliar place, she couldn't muster any vigilance, as if her subconscious was certain that this place held no danger.

How strange, Gu Xun'er thought to herself.

Just then, she suddenly heard footsteps behind her. As she was about to turn and look, she felt a pushing force from behind.

A sudden sense of weightlessness overwhelmed her. Before Gu Xun'er could cry out in surprise, she lost consciousness.

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When Gu Xun'er regained consciousness, she found herself in a new place.

She was surrounded by a snow-covered forest. The snow was thick, at least ankle-deep, and falling heavily. Everything around was a vast expanse of white.

"This is..." Gu Xun'er's confusion deepened. She thoroughly searched her memories, confirming that she had never been to this place before.

Whose footsteps were those? Who had pushed her? What was that person's purpose? Could it be they merely wanted to trap her here?

A flood of questions piled up in her mind, but she had no clues. Gu Xun'er could only suppress her doubts and force herself to remain vigilant.

All around, she could only hear the howling wind. Gu Xun'er raised her hand, but the falling snowflakes passed directly through her palm. She then realized she couldn't touch anything.

"A soul state?" Gu Xun'er murmured to herself. She had heard Xiao Han mention some things about souls before, which allowed her to quickly understand her current state.

Shaking her head, she looked around, hesitating, unsure which direction to go.

Just then, she faintly heard some strange sounds. These sounds were mixed with the cold wind, and if not for her strong soul perception, she might not have heard them.

After carefully distinguishing the strange sounds, Gu Xun'er decided on a direction and began walking that way.

As she got closer, the sound became clearer. Gu Xun'er finally discerned that it seemed to be the cry of an infant.

An infant? In such an icy, snowy place?

Gu Xun'er continued forward with confusion in her heart. After circling around several towering trees, she finally saw the source of the sound.

An infant wrapped in swaddling clothes was placed under a tree, its small face purple from the cold. The child seemed to have been born not long ago and was crying vigorously, as if aware of its tragic circumstances.

For some reason, upon seeing this infant, a wave of inexplicable familiarity surged in Gu Xun'er's heart. She slowly walked to the infant's side, hesitated for a moment, then reached out her hand.

Her nearly transparent fingers passed straight through the infant's body. Gu Xun'er then remembered she was in a soul state and couldn't touch anything.

What could she do? Suddenly, she felt a wave of panic, as if unwilling to see this child freeze to death.

"Oh? There's actually a child here?" Suddenly, a crisp female voice came from behind. Gu Xun'er instinctively turned her head to see a woman in white robes walking towards them.

The woman appeared to be in her early twenties, with regular features and a slender figure. Her appearance had a hint of allure, yet she carried an air of careless, lazy indifference, as if nothing really mattered to her.

The woman came to the child's side, bent down and picked up the infant. Strangely, after being picked up, the infant stopped crying and stared at the woman with large, bright black eyes, motionless.

"Poor little thing," the woman muttered. Then, Gu Xun'er saw a faint blue light appear on the woman's hand holding the infant. To her amazement, she discovered that the frostbite on the infant's body visibly disappeared at an astonishing rate.

"Ah, it's a good thing spiritual power can heal these minor injuries, otherwise you'd have suffered quite a bit, little one," the woman said to herself, holding the infant.

Spiritual power? Gu Xun'er blinked, not quite understanding.

"Who would abandon such a small child in a place like this? Aren't they afraid of karmic retribution?" the woman said. "But this works out well. My master has been urging me to take on a disciple lately, which is such a bother. I might as well take you. After all, Yun Jin did say children raised from a young age are more attached."

Whether understanding the woman's words or not, the infant tilted its head slightly and blinked.

"Oh, how cute!" The woman exaggeratedly hugged the infant tightly, rubbing her face against the child's, until the infant's face, which had just returned to normal, was flushed red.

"Is a child's skin really this delicate?" The woman stared at the infant's reddened face, thoughtful. "Ah, I'm envious."

Gu Xun'er stood nearby, watching their interaction, or rather, the woman's one-sided monologue.

"Oh, wait, I still need to go back and test your spiritual root. If you don't have a lightning spiritual root, you can't be my disciple," the woman suddenly said, as if remembering something. "Little one, now we'll see if you have a connection with our Qishan, oh no, I mean if you have a connection with me, Xiao Yunxi."

Qishan? Gu Xun'er was suddenly startled. Wasn't this the sect her Senior Sister had mentioned? When she had "expelled" herself from the sect, she had said she was a disciple of Qishan.

Was the Qishan this woman spoke of the same place her Senior Sister belonged to?

With these doubts, Gu Xun'er followed the woman's departing steps. The woman moved quickly. To Gu Xun'er's eyes, though the woman seemed to take only a small, careless step forward, she would instantly appear dozens of meters away, forcing Gu Xun'er to follow with all her might.

Before long, she followed the woman to a set of stairs made of blue stone. Gu Xun'er looked up and saw that these stone stairs extended all the way to the mountain peak, reaching into the clouds, with no visible end. She was surprised for a moment, then her vision suddenly blurred. When she regained clarity, she found herself in a courtyard.

In the courtyard, the woman she had just met was holding the infant and talking to another woman. Gu Xun'er was dazed for a moment before focusing her attention on the two.

Unlike the self-proclaimed Xiao Yunxi, the other woman had a cold demeanor, her face stern, looking extremely unapproachable. Gu Xun'er didn't know what they had said, but the cold woman turned her gaze to the infant: "...If she doesn't have a lightning spiritual root?"

Xiao Yunxi was unconcerned: "If she doesn't have a lightning spiritual root, we'll just send her down the mountain. There are so many orphanages down there, surely one of them can take in this little one."

The woman snorted coldly without speaking.

"After all this talk, Senior Sister, lend me your spirit detection tool," Xiao Yunxi said with a grin.

"Where's yours?" the woman asked, furrowing her brow.

Xiao Yunxi replied nonchalantly: "Don't know where I threw it. I don't need that thing anyway, it just takes up space in my spatial storage."

The woman remained silent. Gu Xun'er could clearly see that she seemed somewhat annoyed by Xiao Yunxi's frivolous attitude, but she still produced a transparent crystal ball from somewhere and handed it to Xiao Yunxi.

Xiao Yunxi didn't take the crystal ball. She held the infant with one arm and grabbed its chubby little paw with her other hand, unceremoniously pressing it against the crystal ball as if playing with a toy: "Come on, accept the judgment of fate."

The woman looked at Xiao Yunxi's childish behavior with exasperation, about to say something, but was interrupted by the sudden anomaly in the spirit detection tool.

The tool suddenly burst forth with an intense, dazzling silver light that nearly engulfed both of them. Quickly, the silver light gradually converged, transforming into a pillar of light shooting straight into the sky.

This silver light was extremely pure, without any impurities. The pillar of light was about as thick as a bowl and perfectly straight.

The woman's expression changed, finally settling into one of shock.

Xiao Yunxi was also incredibly surprised. Looking at the silver light, she muttered: "No way? Am I this lucky? A random kid I picked up actually has a top-grade single lightning spiritual root?? It's really a lightning spiritual root?? Are you kidding me??"

As the silver light faded, both were still in a daze, looking at the infant in Xiao Yunxi's arms with complex expressions.

"This child..." the woman spoke first. She paused, seeming to choose her words carefully, and after a long while continued, "You should take her as your disciple. Train her well, consider her the next Sect Leader."

Xiao Yunxi also came to her senses. She looked at the sleeping infant in her arms, oblivious to everything, and suddenly burst into laughter.

"Hahahahaha, as expected of me! I can just casually go out and pick up a disciple with a top-grade lightning spiritual root! This is great! The position of the next Sect Leader is settled!! I can retire early!!"

Gu Xun'er, watching Xiao Yunxi's triumphant demeanor, couldn't help but smile. But in the next moment, she raised her head in astonishment, revealing an expression of disbelief.

Because she heard Xiao Yunxi's voice say:

"Since you've become my disciple, you should follow the sect's surname. From now on, you'll be called... Xiao Han."