Everyone ascended, but I didn't get on board

Chapter 198 The True Host

"And what happened to your injuries?" She suddenly thought of the hidden injuries on the other person's body, as well as the regression in their cultivation level.

Miao Jia's face paled before she replied, "This is because... it was caused by the lightning tribulation."

"Lightning tribulation?!" Qiu Ci was stunned for a moment, subconsciously thinking, "You're trying to break through to the Transcendent Tribulation stage."

"No, no!" she gritted her teeth and replied with some shame, "It's Huo Yanting's tribulation lightning."

"..."

"When he was attempting to break through to the Nascent Soul stage, the tribulation was extremely dangerous. He was on the verge of perishing on the final bolt of lightning, so..."

“You took the hit for him!” Qiu Ci said affirmatively.

Her eyes dimmed further, and she lowered her head for a long while before answering, "That was the system's task." At the time, she had no choice but to comply.

Qiu Ci finally understood why she was so badly injured and why she possessed such a special energy—the pressure of the tribulation lightning. Normally, no one should interfere during a tribulation, otherwise the lightning strike would be ten times stronger. But Miao Jia intervened, meaning she had taken ten times the force of the tribulation lightning for Huo Yanting.

"So your Nascent Soul cultivation was shattered by the lightning tribulation back then?"

“Not entirely.” Miao Jia frowned and continued, “I originally had a protective magic artifact. Although it was destroyed when I blocked the tribulation lightning, it still blocked ninety percent of the tribulation lightning’s power. However, I didn’t expect that the remaining ten percent would still remain in my body and continue to damage my meridians. It was only two years later that my cultivation level dropped from the Nascent Soul stage to the Spirit stage.”

"So Huo Yanting only succeeded in becoming a Nascent Soul cultivator with your help." Qiu Ci continued, "Then how long did it take him to go from Nascent Soul to his current half-step Tribulation Transcending stage?"

She thought for a moment before answering, "It's also two years."

"What a coincidence?" Qiu Ci was somewhat surprised, but her guess became more and more certain.

"In other words, he actually only took eight years to break through from Foundation Establishment to Nascent Soul, and another two years to reach the half-step Tribulation Transcending stage. Such speed..." She turned to look at Juanshan beside her, "Don't you think it's...?"

"Penetrating the body!" Juanshan blurted out, naturally guessing what it meant, his brows furrowing into a deep frown.

The thing that had been puzzling to the two of them suddenly became clear.

"What do you mean?" Miao Jia still looked bewildered, but she vaguely sensed something, and a hint of panic flashed in her eyes.

Qiu Ci sighed, then looked at the other person seriously and said, "Miao Jia, have you ever thought that the system that exists in your mind is not yours, and that its true owner is someone else?"

"What?!" Her eyes widened, her face filled with disbelief.

"As far as I know, a system is essentially a cultivation aid. Regardless of the type of system, the ultimate goal of all its tasks is to improve the host's cultivation level." Of course, most people choose to directly penetrate the body. "Do you think your system has improved your cultivation level?"

"..." Miao Jia's face turned pale. Of course, that was not the case. Not to mention improving her cultivation, in the past ten years, she had fallen from a genius alchemist in the Nascent Soul stage to the Spirit stage, and was still falling.

"So, since you bound yourself to the system, who has been continuously improving your cultivation level?"

Miao Jia seemed to finally realize what was happening. Her eyes widened, and she began to breathe rapidly, her spiritual energy surging wildly as if it were about to explode. Her face changed completely, and after a long while, she gritted her teeth and uttered three words, "Huo, Yan, Ting!" It was him! It had always been him! He had been plotting against her all along! Ruining her path!
What system? What strategy? What's the method for accumulating energy to send her home?

It was all a scheme!
"Hahahaha..." She suddenly burst into wild laughter, her voice filled with boundless hatred, her eyes bloodshot with rage. "So that's how it is! How ridiculous... I was actually genuinely grateful to the Huo family for taking me in, and I felt guilty for using their feelings. I even thought the system could really send me back to Zhongzhou... Hahahaha, how ridiculous! So ridiculous!"

She seemed unable to suppress her raging emotions any longer. Her spiritual energy began to surge violently, her newly healed wounds burst open again, and her aura became unstable, showing signs of descending into madness.

Juanshan was the first to notice something was wrong. He immediately formed a hand seal to control her rampant spiritual energy and warned her in a deep voice, "Calm down quickly, you're about to suffer a qi deviation!"

"Hahahaha..." Miao Jia was completely unable to calm down. The hatred around her was almost tangible. Suddenly, as if she had thought of something, her eyes became even more vicious. "That thing called the system is in my sea of ​​consciousness, isn't it?"

She suddenly turned to look at Qiu Ci, her eyes filled with a desperate madness, "If even the sea of ​​consciousness is destroyed, it won't survive, right?" After saying that, she immediately began to form hand seals, the hand seals for self-destruction.

"Stop!" Qiu Ci was startled. She hadn't expected that she would be so resolute after learning the truth, willing to sacrifice everything to destroy the system controlling her. She quickly reached out and grabbed her. "You don't have to do this. I can help you expel the system."

She then turned around.

“Not only that,” Qiu Ci continued, “I can also send you back to your original continent, back to your Dan Ding Sect.”

"..." She was completely stunned, staring straight at her, as if she couldn't believe her ears.

After a while, two lines of tears suddenly fell from her eyes, and then she couldn't stop crying, her face covered in tears, but she couldn't make a sound.

"Trust me!" she said firmly, patting her shoulder.

After a while...

"Why... why?"

Qiu Ci thought for a moment before replying, "Maybe... it's because we're all people who want to go home!"

Who wouldn't miss home when they're all alone? At least she's luckier than me; she can cross state lines to go back, while I don't even know where to find Blue Star.

Perhaps because she didn't want to give up the chance to go home, or perhaps because she believed Qiu Ci's words, Miao Jia actually calmed down, wiped away her tears forcefully, and her eyes began to shine as she looked at her, "Then, senior, what... what should I do?"

"You don't need to do anything." Once it was confirmed that the system was in her sea of ​​consciousness, it would be too easy to catch it. "I need to enter your sea of ​​consciousness in a moment to find the main body of that system. You just need to cooperate with me and open your sea of ​​consciousness without resisting."

"Okay." She nodded vigorously and obediently sat down. After thinking for a moment, she added, "Senior, you only need to find that thing. You don't need to worry about my safety. I just want it to die!" Her eyes were filled with murderous intent, showing how much she hated that so-called system.

"Don't worry, nothing will happen," Qiu Ci reassured her, as it wasn't a matter of life or death.

“Shang…Young friend Chu, shall I do it?” Perhaps infected by Miao Jia’s fearless attitude, Juan Shan spoke with some concern.

"It's okay, I can handle it." With that, she sat down directly in front of Miao Jia and began to perform hand seals.