LIGHTNOVELSTORY 33. Data Chaos
When Jiang Mo woke up, she didn’t know how much time had passed, and she was no longer on that bloody beast-fighting arena. However, the excruciating pain from her wounds before fainting was still fresh in her memory, causing her to involuntarily groan as soon as she opened her eyes.
But after that pained grunt, she moved her limbs and found no pain. Surprised, she opened her eyes.
She saw an elegantly decorated bedroom, lying alone on an unfamiliar bed. A screen blocked her view not far away, but her ears twitched, and she heard no sound, clearly indicating she was the only tiger in the room… Where was this? What had happened? With her body in good condition, could her memory of being injured have been a dream?
The little white tiger looked down at herself, finding her fur clean and neat, not looking like she had been injured at all. Increasingly doubting her memory, she extended her paw and found that the tips of her right claws had indeed been shaved off, finally bringing her back to reality from her daze.
Recalling what had happened, Jiang Mo still felt lingering fear. Frowning, she called out, “System.”
The system had been there all along, but for some reason, it hadn’t shown itself, hiding far away with even its light orb dimmed, as if afraid of attracting her attention. But the inevitable still came. After Jiang Mo sorted out her thoughts and didn’t see Yun Qingyu, naturally, the first one she called was the system. No matter how unwilling it was, it had to come out from its hiding corner, adjusting its brightness back to normal.
Perhaps fearing Jiang Mo’s anger, the system instinctively adopted a fawning attitude, swaying as it approached: “Host, host, how are you feeling? Do your wounds still hurt? Are you alright?”
But the system’s fawning didn’t work, and it was still swatted away by the host, having to roll back on its own.
Seeing the system, Jiang Mo first vented her dissatisfaction before asking, “What happened earlier? What happened after I fainted? Where is this now? How did my wounds suddenly disappear?”
She asked many questions at once, but the system didn’t show any impatience. Instead, it seemed relieved as it answered one by one: “After the host fainted, Senior Sister carried you away. This is a guest room in the back courtyard of the Welcoming Immortals Tower. The host was quite seriously injured earlier, but fortunately, Senior Sister had medicine with her, and its effectiveness was extraordinary. As soon as it was applied to your wounds, they healed.”
This was a world of cultivation, naturally not lacking in pills with miraculous effects. Especially since Yun Qingyu was a sword cultivator, it was normal for her not to have other types of pills, but wound medicine was certainly well-stocked, and of the best quality.
So Jiang Mo didn’t pursue the injury issue further and ignored the cautious system. After some thought, she opened her character panel:
[Host: Jiang Mo
Race: White Tiger
Class: Divine Beast
Level: 20
Combat Power: 2,621,545
Experience: 2,525,089/2,621,440
Points: 154
Potential: ∞
Skills: Bloodline Inheritance (Not Activated)]
Compared to before going on stage, these data had undergone minor changes. Jiang Mo then opened the historical messages to check, and sure enough, she saw the record of completing the temporary mission:
[Xuantian Continent Year 75891, September 13, 10:03:21
Congratulations to the host for defeating the same-level opponent “Wind Wolf” and completing the temporary mission “First Trial.” Reward: Experience +5000, Points +25.
We hope the host will continue to strive and create more glory!]
Looking at the words “continue to strive and create more glory,” Jiang Mo felt extremely ironic at that moment. She “pat” closed the historical messages and, regardless of her current thoughts, still had to ask the system: “System, earlier I clearly couldn’t beat the wind wolf, but it suddenly paused, allowing me to find a chance to counterattack. Was that your doing?”
The system could sense a hostility in the awakened host, making it apprehensive. Hearing the question, it didn’t dare delay and answered, “No. The system’s energy is limited, and controlling the wind wolf’s movements would consume too much. I, I can’t afford it now.”
The system was indeed unlucky, encountering a salted fish host who rarely even triggered missions, naturally unable to replenish itself. Previously, helping pick spirit fruits and braising the goose, these actions affecting reality all consumed large amounts of energy. By now, the system was already operating at a deficit… but it didn’t dare say so.
At this moment, the system was extremely cautious, fearing Jiang Mo would find it useless. But Jiang Mo was furrowing her brow, completely uninterested in dealing with it—earlier on the arena, the wind wolf had the upper hand, and its sudden pause was clearly abnormal.
But if it wasn’t the system’s doing, then who had intervened became obvious.
Jiang Mo suddenly deflated like a punctured balloon, losing her spirit. She lay back down, covering her eyes with her paw. If asked how she felt now, it could be summed up in two words: “humiliated!”
The little white tiger had always known she was useless, from being unable to kill a beetle when she first woke up, to being pecked bald by a food ingredient goose a few days ago. Forget being a noble divine beast; even an ordinary tiger in the mountains would never sink to her level in this lifetime. But her uselessness was her own business, not affecting others, and she was quite content being lazy. Wasn’t that enough?
But reality taught her how to be a tiger. The so-called level achieved through pill consumption couldn’t even beat an opponent of lower level than herself. Not only could she not win, but she had to rely on her senior sister cheating to achieve victory. She had never been so miserable and embarrassed in her life.
The little useless tiger covered her eyes, feeling she couldn’t face her senior sister again. What frightened her more was that after exposing such uselessness, would Xuanqing Sect still want her, still cultivate her? If Xuanqing Sect chose to cut their losses early and abandon her…
Jiang Mo felt anxious because after today’s battle, she more keenly experienced the cruelty of the cultivation world—this was a world where might was right, where there was no concept of innocence, because weakness itself was a sin. If Yun Qingyu hadn’t helped her today, hadn’t called for surrender, and she had been killed on the arena by that wind wolf, no one would have felt sorry for her or thought it unfair.
This wasn’t just because she was a beast; it was the same for humans. The battle arena not only had beast fights but also sword fights, magic duels, and martial arts contests, none of which had rules for stopping at mere touches. Evidently, no one would care if someone died on the arena.
Even so, there was never a shortage of people willing to gamble their lives on the arena, because the path of cultivation had always been about competing with heaven for one’s fate.
After clearing her head and calming down, Jiang Mo seriously examined her current environment for the first time, also realizing for the first time how different it was from before her transmigration—the country she lived in before was the safest in the world, with strong military power externally and strict internal control. She had almost never encountered crime, let alone needed to fight for her life.
But here was different. People in the cultivation world fought for their lives every day. The arena battles could even be considered the safest. What about killing for treasures, exploring secret realms? Which of these wasn’t more dangerous?
And these things happened every day, people died every day, and she wasn’t any different in this world.
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The system had always thought its host was a salted fish, even after possessing a tiger’s body, almost unable to beat a goose. And it was a newly minted system; apart from the original data it came with, all independent characteristics had to be formed through interaction with the host.
So influenced by the host’s salted fish temperament, System 223 also became lazy and dramatic, not urgently pressing the host to complete tasks even though it was in debt. It thought it might continue to be lazy like this forever. After all, the host had said she wouldn’t be an adult until she was three thousand years old, so what was strange about being lazy while underage? It could wait for the host to complete tasks after reaching adulthood. As long as the host eventually reached the pinnacle of life, what did it matter if it was early or late?
But all these thoughts were overturned on the previous arena, because the system saw the host’s displayed bloodline and the fierceness hidden in her bones—ordinary girls wouldn’t think of counterattacking when encountering a wolf, let alone being able to quickly seize the opportunity while covered in wounds, biting the wind wolf’s vital point and refusing to let go.
The system could see that when the host bit the wind wolf’s neck and was counterattacked by the dying wolf, the fierce look in her eyes clearly spelled out “mutual destruction,” completely different from her usual lazy demeanor.
This abnormal host made the system somewhat afraid. Moreover, after the host fainted, it self-checked its data and discovered a secret, making it even more nervous when the host woke up. So much so that it hid and dared not show itself, and when it did appear, it acted extremely subservient, hoping the host wouldn’t notice that secret and come after it.
The system got its wish; after asking it a few questions, the host didn’t pay attention to it anymore, instead becoming withdrawn.
At first, the system was happy, thinking it had dodged a bullet. But out of caution, it still opened the detection data, continuously observing the host’s data changes. Then it watched as the host’s emotions sank lower and lower, seemingly not just withdrawn but almost depressed… The system was bound to the host as one, and if the host truly became depressed, it wouldn’t be good for the system either.
What made the system more anxious was that the data kept rapidly declining, falling until the system panicked and had to circle around the host, trying to console: “Host, host, what’s wrong? Why are you in such a bad mood?”
It just asked once, not expecting the host to actually answer: “System, am I really that useless?”
How could it answer this? The system stuttered, not daring to say yes or no, finally cautiously saying, “H-Host, I think you’re quite good. Didn’t you win and complete the mission?”
But Jiang Mo wasn’t comforted at all. Her low mood was partly due to feeling embarrassed and realizing the reality, but the sudden self-awareness and self-positioning made her feel even more lost—she had consumed pills to reach level 20, about to reach Foundation Establishment, but couldn’t even beat a level 15 Qi Condensation stage 5 wind wolf. If this continued, would she still be a tiger with only levels and no substance after three thousand years?
By then, she might be level 100, a mighty Tribulation Transcendence powerhouse, yet get beaten by a Nascent Soul or even Golden Core cultivator or spirit beast… The scene was unimaginable; just thinking about it made her want to die on the spot.
Jiang Mo was just thinking this, but the system monitoring her data was almost scared to tears—What, what was happening? Why did the host suddenly have thoughts of ending her life? It had already brought the host’s soul back to life once, which had almost depleted all the full energy it came with. If the host died again now, it really had no way to bring her back to life again.
If the host died then, it would also be recycled and scrapped by the main system… It’s not worth it, really not worth it!
The system cried in fear, asking the host tearfully: “Host, what’s really wrong with you? Didn’t you win and complete the mission? Your wounds are healed too. Isn’t it good to continue eating and drinking like before? Why do you have to think about giving up?”
Hearing this, Jiang Mo sighed but didn’t answer, just feeling heavy-hearted.
The system circled around the host a few times. Although there was no “suicide” alert in the current data display, it still didn’t dare to be the least bit careless. It flew around the host in circles, softening its tone to say comforting words, as if persuading someone standing on a roof intending to commit suicide. At the same time, its processor was rapidly operating, trying to calculate what the host was really worrying about through computation.
This wasn’t too difficult, as analysis was what the system was best at. After a moment, it got the analysis result—the host had performed too poorly in the arena battle. Although she had won the fight, she had fallen into self-doubt.
The system fell silent. It opened the data panel again, looking at the host’s high combat power of 2,621,545, feeling that it wasn’t strange for the host to fall into self-doubt…
Just then, Jiang Mo, who was also staring at the panel, suddenly spoke: “System, tell me the truth, is your combat power data inflated? Or has there been hyperinflation?” After saying this, she concluded on her own: “It must be hyperinflation, otherwise, with this kind of doubling, the experience needed to reach level 100 and the displayed combat power would be astronomical numbers.”
Jiang Mo wasn’t bad at math and had always known the terror of data doubling, but she hadn’t cared about it before. After all, combat power was just a number, and she didn’t need to take action herself. Leveling up was just consuming pills, so what did it matter how much or little?
But now it was different. She had fought a battle and suddenly found these numbers strangely false.
The system felt guilty for a moment, but constrained by the host’s previous thoughts of ending her life, it didn’t dare to be perfunctory at all. After hesitating for a while, it suddenly said: “Host, these data aren’t the point. The point is that you’ve forgotten you’ve been under a debuff all along.”
Jiang Mo was startled by this, then remembered something and looked down. Sure enough, the “congenital weakness” debuff was still on her status panel. But because she could run and jump after leveling up before, she hadn’t felt weak, so she hadn’t taken this debuff seriously. Could it be… Before she could finish her thought, the status panel flickered, and another debuff called “Death and Rebirth” appeared.
Suddenly burdened with another debuff, feeling a bit heavy on her back, Jiang Mo: “…”
Seeing the host’s cool gaze sweep over it, the system hurriedly explained: “No, host, this debuff didn’t just appear, it’s been there all along. It was just hidden before, and I only uncovered it during my previous self-check.”
Hearing this, Jiang Mo withdrew her gaze, not doubting the system’s words, because the name of this debuff clearly showed it had been there since her rebirth. Moreover, it was better for debuffs to be revealed than hidden. After all, she was someone who could ignore even the glaringly obvious “congenital weakness” debuff. If it was truly hidden, even if she knew about it, she might forget.
However, since “congenital weakness” was already there, she had to ask about the effects of this “Death and Rebirth”: “Alright, I understand. So what does this ‘Death and Rebirth’ do?”
Being debuffs, they were obviously not good things.
The system hesitated, not giving a clear explanation for a long time, finally saying: “Host, you should just consider this debuff as data disorder. From now on, just look at your level. As for the experience needed to level up, don’t look at it anymore.”
This explanation was ambiguous. Jiang Mo was initially confused, but later seemed to have some understanding. She reopened her character panel, then used her paw to cover the experience bar, looked at it again, and said to the system: “The weakness debuff should affect combat power. Now help me drain this combat power data and show the real value.”
This time the system was a bit nervous. It flew farther away from the host before operating in the system backend. Soon, Jiang Mo’s character panel changed, and the true combat power data was displayed:
[Host: Jiang Mo
Race: White Tiger
Class: Divine Beast
Level: 20
Combat Power: 2,621,545 (315)
Experience: 2,525,089/2,621,440
Points: 154
Potential: ∞
Skills: Bloodline Inheritance (Not Activated)]
A parenthesis appeared after the combat power data, with the number inside being Jiang Mo’s true combat power after draining. The difference was… quite large, the contrast particularly brutal. Even though Jiang Mo was mentally prepared, she couldn’t help but widen her eyes.
People who have played games know how annoying debuffs can be, but they’ve seen debuffs that reduce stats, not ones that reduce combat power to one ten-thousandth… No, this kind of thing shouldn’t even be called a status reduction, it’s more like a devastating blow, right?!
Jiang Mo felt her entire tiger self wasn’t good. So she had gone to fight the wind wolf on the arena with this kind of combat power? Not dying immediately was really lucky, and it was also thanks to her senior sister’s quick intervention—all thoughts of embarrassment and humiliation disappeared in this moment. She was just grateful to still be alive.
The system could sense the host’s volcano-like suppressed anger. It immediately retreated further, hurriedly explaining: “No, host, this is data confusion. Normal Qi Condensation stage spirit beasts can’t possibly have such high combat power. At most, you’ve been reduced to one-tenth, not one ten-thousandth. Really, it’s not that bad!”
Hearing this, Jiang Mo took a deep breath and first asked: “Alright, then tell me how this true combat power of 315 came about.”
This time, the system didn’t dare conceal anything and quickly answered: “Host, this 315 combat power comes from 210 due to leveling up, and 105 from battle rewards.” It then explained in detail: “Reaching level 1 rewards 10 combat power, level 2 is 20 points, level 3 is 30 points. And so on, reaching level 20 should be 2100 combat power. However, the host has an inherent debuff, reducing it to one-tenth, so it’s 210 combat power. The remaining 105 combat power, 3 points came from soaking in the spirit spring, 52 points from farming points in the Hall of Inquiry, and the other 50 points are the reward for defeating the wind wolf. These rewards weren’t affected by the debuff, they’re all solid gains.”
After listening, Jiang Mo mentally calculated and immediately felt a chill of fear. Because according to this calculation, the level 15 wind wolf’s base combat power would be 1200, and at that time, she hadn’t even added the 50 combat power from completing the temporary mission, so her drained power was just 265… With this comparison, it really was thanks to her senior sister that she survived. Otherwise, being killed by the wolf would have been inevitable.
The little white tiger deflated immediately, but soon she remembered the culprit and pounced on the system no matter how far it tried to hide: “Tell me, by issuing this kind of mission, were you trying to get me killed?!”
The system’s light orb whimpered pitifully under her paw: “I didn’t, I wasn’t, I hadn’t self-checked before, I didn’t see the hidden debuff and hidden data either. I thought it was all real… Host, you have to believe me, the system won’t harm you. The system’s purpose is to help you reach the pinnacle of life. If you die, I’ll be recycled and scrapped too.”
Hidden debuffs were a trap. Perhaps coming back to life was originally a defiance of heaven’s will, especially since the one being resurrected was a divine beast. Even with the system’s cheating, the heavenly dao had its eye on them immediately and mercilessly intervened.
So the system’s database was tampered with and hidden, just waiting to trap her at any time.
It was fortunate that Jiang Mo was lucky, and when she was trapped, Yun Qingyu was there to help cover for her. Otherwise, she would have certainly died.
Even so, both tiger and system were badly tricked, each with their own indescribable grievances. It was also fortunate that Jiang Mo had encountered a newly minted system, whose personality formation was entirely influenced by her, and they still retained the most basic trust in each other. Otherwise, after this incident, Jiang Mo could have fallen out with the system, and without the system’s cheats, her future path would only be more difficult.
At this moment, Jiang Mo was very angry, but no matter how angry she was, she hadn’t lost her cool and could listen to the system’s explanations. So after venting by beating up the system’s light orb for a while, she finally let it go.
The system’s light orb swayed as it floated up, like a little wife who had suffered abuse, with “whimpering” sound effects to match.
Jiang Mo lost her temper at this drama queen, jumping back onto the bed and lying down. She asked the system again: “Alright, enough fooling around. Tell me about those two debuffs. When can they be removed? Especially that ‘congenital weakness,’ it’s weakening my combat power too severely.” As she spoke, she suddenly blinked: “Leveling up weakens combat power, but rewards don’t. So is it more cost-effective to get combat power from defeating monsters?”
Hearing this, the system’s light orb flashed, hastily agreeing: “That’s right, host. You work hard to consume pills for days to reach level 21 and only gain 21 combat power, but defeating monsters can quickly gain that much. Look, you casually gained 52 combat power as a reward while farming points earlier. How cost-effective is that?”
Now for Jiang Mo, combat power and points were the real deal, while she was too lazy to even look at the inflated experience values.
However, Jiang Mo didn’t respond to the system’s words. Instead, she tapped the bedhead and reminded: “I’ll consider the monster-defeating matter myself. First, tell me if those two debuffs can be removed. I won’t have to carry them for life, will I?”
Debuffs usually have a duration. After careful calculation, the system came to a conclusion: “They can be removed, but only after the host reaches level 41.” It then explained: “The divine beast white tiger is born at the Nascent Soul stage, which is level 41. The host hasn’t even reached the birth level of a divine beast yet, so you’re ‘Innately Weak.’ When you reach level 41 and meet the ‘birth’ condition, things should improve.”
Although the system used “should,” Jiang Mo felt somewhat reassured hearing this. But this meant she couldn’t give up on experience points either; she needed to reach level 41 as soon as possible.
In conclusion, defeating monsters was necessary. She needed to at least raise her combat power to the base level of her current level, which was 2100 points. Consuming pills was also necessary, even though the leveling data was chaotic and inflated to the point of making one’s head ache. But even if she had to consume pills until she vomited, she had to reach the Nascent Soul stage as soon as possible.
Thinking about this, Jiang Mo felt somewhat exhausted, but she didn’t dare to remain lazy anymore. Then she thought of something and said to the system: “System, let me hear that slogan you shouted when we first bound again.”
The system was stunned for a moment before quickly reacting, shouting with enthusiasm: “Host, go for it! With this system’s assistance, we guarantee Foundation Establishment in one month, Golden Core in three months, and Nascent Soul in a year is not a dream!”
So, reaching Nascent Soul… Let’s set a one-year deadline.