Chapter 65: The Endgame Begins in Despair

Looking carefully at her surroundings once more, Sang Zhiyi noticed that this place was somewhat similar to the system space she had been in before—both were rectangular prisms with all six sides made of the same material.

However, this ice prison was obviously much smaller.

Sang Zhiyi knelt inside it, and with just a slight movement of her arms, she could touch the ice walls.

This ice prison was custom-made by Yue Buping for Yi Jinghong, the space so cramped that Sang Zhiyi could barely find a somewhat comfortable position, forced to curl up inside.

Unable to live, unable to die, neither human nor ghost, enduring the passage of a hundred years of sunrises and sunsets.

Sang Zhiyi looked at her own hands and feet, each limb bound with chains made of ice, like nails deeply embedded into this frozen cage.

With her current strength, there was no way to break through this confinement; Sang Zhiyi was well aware of this.

Even Yi Jinghong had been unable to do so in the nearly one hundred years past, let alone Sang Zhiyi, who had just transmigrated into this world and was not yet familiar with how to use the spiritual energy within her body.

After all, Yi Jinghong was someone who had practically single-handedly carved out a reputation as a renowned sword cultivator throughout the Lingyun Continent, and sword cultivators were widely recognized to have the strongest attack power among all cultivators.

In fact, when Sang Zhiyi personally tried to sense the spiritual energy that existed in the various meridians throughout her body according to Yi Jinghong’s memories, she couldn’t even find its presence.

It was only after calming her mind and searching again carefully that she found a few faint traces of spiritual energy fluctuations in her empty meridians.

Sang Zhiyi: “…”

This was no different from searching for a single drop of water in a vast desert!

Knowing that, according to the original plot, Yi Jinghong had only three days left to live, Sang Zhiyi had mentally prepared herself for there to be little spiritual energy left.

But she never expected it to be this minuscule.

That single drop of water in the desert could disappear completely in just a moment.

Sang Zhiyi couldn’t help but feel a sense of solemn respect.

When a cultivator’s spiritual energy dries up, their physical body dies; when their divine sense withers, their soul dissipates.

This was common knowledge in the Lingyun Continent, known even to children.

And yet Yi Jinghong had managed to hold on for three more days with this infinitesimal amount of spiritual energy, nearly zero.

This was no longer the concept of surviving three days in a vast desert on a single drop of water, but rather a person nailed down in the hottest part of the desert, completely immobile, their mind already hazy, enduring the scorching sun for three full days.

Although for cultivators, the concept of a day or even a year was not too long, by the time Sang Zhiyi transmigrated, Yi Jinghong had long since lost all sense of time.

How long she had lasted on this tiny bit of spiritual energy, Sang Zhiyi could not find the answer in Yi Jinghong’s memories.

Sang Zhiyi could not imagine how Yi Jinghong had endured a hundred years of inhuman torture.

A full hundred years…

Withdrawing her gaze from searching for information within the ice prison, Sang Zhiyi was not affected by the feelings of pity and admiration rising in her heart.

Instead, she began to think of ways to break the ice prison other than using her own spiritual energy.

According to Sang Zhiyi’s habit, when she was still weak, she should rely more on external forces.

But unfortunately, when she had actively chosen to enter this advanced world for her mission, her already meager 2058 mission points had plummeted to a mere 58 points leftover.

According to the system store prices, a 200-gram bag of bread cost 2 mission points, so she could buy fewer than thirty loaves of bread.

Sang Zhiyi had an excellent memory; she remembered that an ordinary handgun in the system store cost 100 mission points, let alone an item that could directly break through this ice prison.

As for relying on the power Yi Jinghong originally possessed, that was also impossible.

Yi Jinghong had a reclusive personality, and for the past hundred years, she had no other thoughts in her mind besides practicing swordsmanship.

Any resources she obtained were invested in improving her cultivation and swordsmanship.

She was utterly impoverished.

Despite being a peak late Golden Core stage cultivator, her entire belongings couldn’t even fill the lowest-grade storage pouch.

Later, after being targeted by the beast Yue Buping, she directly handed over whatever good things she could get to him, making her storage pouch even emptier.

Sang Zhiyi now had nothing on her except the clothes she wore.

Asking others for help was even more impossible.

Yi Jinghong’s social circle was already extremely narrow, and the people she interacted with most were those in her family, but her relationship with every single one of them was worse than the last.

In contrast, the culprit Yue Buping was popular everywhere he went, a big shot in every circle, and his current strength was quite high.

Considering everything inside and out, Sang Zhiyi realized that what she faced was a complete dead end.

So this was the difficulty of an advanced world?

Sang Zhiyi couldn’t help but mock herself inwardly.

“I thought I was poor before when I had only a few dozen mission points and looked at all those tempting items in the system store, but I didn’t expect to find out so soon that I could be even poorer.”

At least before, she could buy dozens of loaves of bread.

A faint sound of static passed through her mind, and the system’s voice sounded.

[Miss Sang, I detect that you are facing rather severe difficulties.

Do you need me to provide assistance?]

Sang Zhiyi was momentarily startled, then realized that she hadn’t deliberately avoided System Sir with her words just now.

System Sir never accessed any of her thoughts without her permission.

As long as she consciously chose to avoid it, that was fine, but she hadn’t paid attention to that just now.

Then, Sang Zhiyi smiled.

“I’m really quite curious now, just how many privileges you have that you can make exceptions for me.”

Truly worthy of being the successor the Main God most favored.

System Sir’s abilities were indeed formidable.

Such an outstanding talent, and from her real world, unwavering unto death for her—the scope had already narrowed down this much, so why couldn’t she think of even one possible candidate?

Sang Zhiyi didn’t think that being the eldest daughter of the Sang family, the de facto head of the Sang family, made her omnipotent.

But for someone to develop such deep feelings for her, they must have interacted with her, right?

With her memory, she had searched through every recollection she could bring to mind and still couldn’t find any trace whatsoever.

She wasn’t so great that someone would be utterly devoted to her based on reputation alone, nor was his devotion a form of worship.

Unless…

Unless, when she had interacted with him, he had not yet been noticed.

That would be even more impossible to solve.

After all, Sang Zhiyi had never before noticed the existence of such a person.

To obtain more clues, she would probably have to wait until she had earned enough mission points to afford the [Real World Return Ticket] to conduct a deeper investigation.

In other words, she still had to get as high a score as possible on this world’s mission first.

Her thoughts raced, but in reality, after casually saying “I’m really quite curious,” Sang Zhiyi had no intention of hearing System Sir’s answer.

She directly declined.

“Thank you, I know you’re doing this for my sake, and I know that with your abilities, you must have many methods I can’t even imagine to help me through this dead end.

But no need.”

If you want to gain something, you must be willing to lose something—this was a creed Sang Zhiyi had engraved in her bones for over twenty years.

Even though System Sir had appeared as an exception, willing to give everything to her without any cost, he was still just an exception.

Moreover, when System Sir used his privileges to help her cheat, was there really no cost?

Even if she didn’t have to pay the cost herself, Sang Zhiyi was unwilling to let System Sir bear those completely unknown risks for her.

How to choose between doing something and not doing something, Sang Zhiyi would weigh the gains and losses.

Last time, when she actively asked System Sir to use his privileges to make an exception and send her to an advanced world, it was because coming to an advanced world to complete missions would allow System Sir to regain his memories and humanity faster.

To Sang Zhiyi, the benefits outweighed the drawbacks.

But this time, between System Sir helping her escape this ice prison at an unknown cost, and solving the problem herself, Sang Zhiyi chose the latter.

The corners of Sang Zhiyi’s eyes curved into crescent moons once more.

“Even in a dead end, I still have a way to break free.”