### Chapter 2: The Rocky Road (5)
[Ding! Item “Ask the Way for Five Thousand Years” is damaged. To compensate for your loss, the system will pay out 1 Spirit Coin as consolation.]
[Ding! The Cold Value System has stopped linking with character card extraction. Existing character cards are retained but you can no longer draw new ones. To compensate for your loss, the system will pay out 1 Spirit Coin as consolation.]
[Ding! Hidden main mission updated: After long years of baptism, the Ji Shen organization has prepared many valuable items and equipment to welcome the final judgment day. You need to gain the Ji Shen, instead of destroying them. Become the new master of the Ji Shen! Mission duration: 6 months. Success reward: You will receive exclusive equipment crafted by Ji Shen for you. Failure penalty: None.]
[Ding! The fear of your enemies serves as nourishment for your growth. From now on, the more fear you collect, the more your Cold Value will be converted. When your Cold Value reaches a peak of 10,000,000 points, you can transform the Sighs Temple into a personal space, and from then on, the bl**d of All Spirits Formation will no longer appear in this world. The current Cold Value is 123,910 points.]
Lin Nan had just returned to her body from the consciousness transfer with the male character when a series of prompts from the system bombarded her.
Well, well, it seems the system really has some ties with the Divine Clan, because just as the Heavenly Sword Sect dealt with Ling Xiaozu’s assassination and Luo Ying taking the blame, she received two bad news from the system.
The “Ask the Way for Five Thousand Years” item might be a scam, but after spending enough Spirit Coins, it let her know everything about the target—it wasn’t a complete waste.
It had even provided her with critical help at crucial moments.
Clearly, the system was worried she might uncover more dirty secrets about the Divine Clan using that item, as it promptly yanked it back the moment she returned to the Cold Wind Cave. This clearly showed that the system wasn’t omnipotent; sometimes, it faced constraints from the outside world.
As for the cessation of the character card system? That really ticked Lin Nan off.
She initially planned to keep drawing cards to build a powerful, unbeatable army. When the Divine Clan descended, they’d be met with a mighty assault from her character card legion.
But poof! The system cleverly blocked that path.
Who wouldn’t see the threat in that? After all, the more Cold Value she had, the greater the chance of high-level character cards appearing. Plus, with that lucky duck Shiyuan, given two years and enough Cold Value, it wouldn’t be impossible to muster dozens or even hundreds of platinum-level character cards.
But the system decided to cut her off, leaving her no shortcut to success.
It was like telling her, if you want to save the world, quit dreaming about card draws—drawing cards won’t save the world!
As for the hidden mission, it was completely optional. Even without the system’s prompt, Lin Nan would still make sure to have a good chat with Ji Shen.
After all, it was an inheritance from the Flowerless Palace.
When the time came, accepting them in the name of Second Palace Master White Peach might face less resistance.
Regarding that personal space, Lin Nan really wasn’t too keen. What use was that broken temple? There weren’t any unbeatable elder figures inside, just a rebellious kid who hated her guts—a complete waste of space!
In summary, the system pulled a fast one on her future development, leaving her feeling pretty darn unhappy.
The only silver lining was that those character cards she drew earlier all had upgradeable attributes; if she poured effort into upgrading them, it could somewhat compensate for the shortage in numbers.
Everyone’s platinum level!
You character cards, no rest for the weary! All of you get ready to level up!
Rather than counting on unreliable enemy forces to change their hearts and unite against a common foe, it was way more reliable to power up her own team.
For instance, at this moment, Luo Ying from the Heavenly Sword Sect was framed, and the enemy’s intentions were crystal clear: they wanted to eliminate anyone who knew the truth. Even if the Flowerless Palace had bought two extra years, it was all for naught if nobody knew the real story. It just meant those cr*p-producing machines had been granted an additional twenty-four months.
So, it was time for the character cards to make their move!
Toss those platinum cards into the Small Thousand World; she didn’t believe that with Ling Xiaozu already out of the picture, Wang Qianshan and the remaining elders could fend off the Extermination of Immortals attack.
But just as Lin Nan was pumped and ready to show off her skills, an unexpected situation occurred.
She could no longer send character cards to the maps she had visited before.
d*mn it!
Without warning, the system slapped her with another restriction.
What the heck! The reason she left the male character to return to the Cold Wind Cave was so she could use character cards for a bold move to rescue Luo Ying and the others from the Heavenly Sword Sect.
After all, Luo Ying was such a hard-headed fool, leaving her there was like asking for trouble.
Even if she didn’t care about her, she had to think of that poor male character! As her male doppelgänger, his happiness in later life couldn’t just be tossed away like that.
But now, she’d lost her once most relied-upon aerial drop ability.
This was bad news.
Even if she returned to the male character, with his current power level, breaking into the Heavenly Sword Sect was pure delusion.
Was she really going to blow her last chance to summon her main body?
Lin Nan contemplated this and ultimately decided it had to be done.
As long as she got there, the character cards could appear in the Small Thousand World.
Otherwise, the Second Palace Master White Peach might not survive the night.
After all, as the main character and the last seed of the Flowerless Palace, the enemy would undoubtedly see her as a thorn in their side. Once they killed her, the Flowerless Palace would have no chance to wash away the stigma.
Moreover, with White Peach around, the Ji Shen would definitely take the Flowerless Palace’s face into account, preventing them from being quite so antagonistic as they were with Cold Wind City.
[Ding! Friendly reminder! Your male character’s summoning ability is on cooldown and will take about twelve more hours to return to normal.]
Lin Nan, “…”
Holy smokes! The system is really out to get her!
It’s like they’re desperate to weaken all her abilities!
How come she never knew this thing had such a long cooldown time?
Since that’s the case, there’s no point in possessing the male character now.
Looks like White Peach is on her own.
After all, even if a Dark Feather Crane was speeding its way from Cold Wind City to Heavenly Sword Sect, it would still take at least three or four days.
Waiting for the cooldown to finish would be faster than hustling on the road.
In the meantime, all she could do was pray that White Peach would be lucky and safe during her imprisonment and interrogation.
Not that Lin Nan was cold-hearted.
First, she really was powerless, and second, at the moment, both NPCs and players had a significant misunderstanding about the Flowerless Palace.
To reverse that trend would take all her effort.
As a key figure, the Heavenly Sword Sect wouldn’t be so reckless as to let her meet a bad end.
Even the Divine Clan would likely exploit the situation to hype up the Flowerless Palace issue.
Heavenly Sword City was murky waters; who was fishing in them?
Lin Nan suddenly found herself very interested in that question.
