It was early autumn, and the weather remained sultry while cicadas screamed desperately in the trees.
In Maocheng, a remote little town, inside the back courtyard of the wealthy Li residence.
Lixi's eyes were practically popping out of her head, her delicate and pretty face a picture of utter disbelief.
This damn ancient society, and she hadn't even reached her capping ceremony yet, and her family was already trying to arrange a match for her?!
Could there be anything more insane than this?!
Yet her mother, Madam Yu, was still clutching a handkerchief and chattering away relentlessly, "Xixi, the young master of the Xu family is a very good match for you. The two families have known each other for so many years, so you can rest assured."
Rest assured my foot!
"A good match how? Is it his rice-dumpling-like face or his barrel-like waist?"
Sparks were practically flying from Lixi's eyes. "Mother, just how much silver did you take to say such a thing with a clear conscience?"
So it was that stray dog of a man who couldn't move his feet whenever he saw her. In modern society, a guy like that would be heading straight to prison, you know?
Madam Yu looked embarrassed. True, the young master of the Xu family was a bit lacking in the looks department, but the Xu family's business was much larger than the Li family's.
The moment the Xu family brought it up, Master Li's heart was set, and he had practically forced her to come and talk to their daughter.
"You shouldn't judge people solely by their looks; you also have to consider their family background and character," Madam Yu defended herself feebly.
"Heh, family background is the whole point, isn't it?" Pushed to the limit of her fury, Lixi knew it was impossible to reason with an ancient woman like her mother, who viewed her husband as her heaven.
She sprang up abruptly, turned, and bolted out the door.
Madam Yu was greatly startled and hurriedly lifted her skirt to chase after her.
"Quick, quickly stop the young miss!" anxious and flustered, Madam Yu urged the maids and matrons to give chase.
Whenever she lectured her on female virtue and precepts, her daughter would find an excuse to beat her little brother Nan, all while sanctimoniously claiming she wanted to mold Nan into a model youth of five virtues.
With this incident making her daughter throw such a massive temper tantrum, was she about to go beat her Nan again?!
The group hurried anxiously in pursuit, running all the way to the outer courtyard only to find that Lixi had burst into Master Li's study.
Upon hearing the maid's report, Madam Yu heaved a great sigh of relief, sat down, and drank several cups of tea. So she wasn't going to beat her Nan, after all.
She had said all along that the young master of the Xu family wouldn't work—he was simply too ugly, and their daughter would never agree. Now she would just let Master Li deal with the headache himself.
Master Li was totally absorbed in clacking away loudly on his golden abacus when Lixi slammed the door open.
With a loud crash, the door panels violently vibrated back and forth several times.
The sudden noise startled Master Li, making his little heart thump wildly and causing him to lose his place in his calculations.
"What kind of behavior is this? You are a young lady of a wealthy family, where is your poise?"
Lixi was in no mood to put on any airs of poise for him. She cut straight to the chase: "Father, I do not agree to this marriage with the Xu family!"
Master Li looked at her with rare seriousness: "Marriage is a matter of the parents' commands and the matchmaker's words. Right now, the two sides are merely preparing for a mutual viewing. Only after a successful viewing comes the betrothal, and the wedding itself is still a long way off."
"Besides, how wonderful the Xu family is! They have branch stores in other towns, and their business is enormous." Master Li tried to reason with his daughter with great patience.
"Just because their business is big makes it worth selling your daughter?" Lixi was truly infuriated. She pounded on the desk with loud bangs, her hair ornaments practically shaken loose.
Don't try to fool her; didn't she know her own father?
It was obvious he had been blinded by the Xu family's wealth. Once she went for the viewing, the rest of the procedure would just naturally follow.
Master Li's face darkened: "Look at what you look like right now! Anyway, I've decided—it's going to be their family."
Fine, just you wait! Furious to the extreme, Lixi thought, just you wait!
From that day on, Lixi raised hell at home, wielding a club and beating a training dummy with such ferocious skill and viciousness that the wind whistled around her.
That display thoroughly frightened the two Li brothers, especially Lixi's younger brother, Li Nan.
He pressed his face against the door, peeking through the crack.
"Hiss—" He drew in a sharp breath. It was over; his sister had gone mad!
Every time his sister struck the dummy, his own body flinched along with it.
Based on his experience, before that club ever landed on young master Xu, it would most likely end up falling on him.
Don't let his sister's delicate, gentle, and sweet appearance fool you; when she hit people, it really hurt!
No, he had to save himself.
"Big Brother, let's go find Father. That young master Xu is truly unworthy of my Sister; we'll be laughed to death whenever we go out in the future."
Whether they would be laughed at wasn't the point; the point was that his sister's stance meant she wanted to beat young master Xu to death directly! Li Dong shuddered.
The two brothers ran like the wheels of wind and fire, rolling all the way to the study.
With a loud bang, the door was flung open, vibrating and trembling back and forth.
The teacup in Master Li's hand slipped in fright, and tea instantly splashed all over his body.
He scrambled to his feet, wiping away the water stains in a fluster.
Li Nan didn't care about any of that; he grabbed his father and bolted outside.
"Father, you'd better go take a look at my Sister quickly. This marriage absolutely cannot happen, my Sister has gone completely crazy."
"That's right, that's right, Father, making a marriage shouldn't be making an enemy. If Little Sister isn't willing, then forget it."
Master Li was dragged all the way by the two of them to the outside of Lixi's courtyard.
He clutched his plump belly, took a few heavy gasps for breath, and glared at his two sons.
Young people really were too rash! Making such a fuss over nothing and lacking any composure whatsoever!
He had heard a thing or two about what went on in his daughter's courtyard, though he had never gone to see it for himself. Could she really turn the world upside down?
In truth, when he actually laid eyes on the scene before him, he felt that she had indeed turned the world upside down!
He saw Lixi wielding a club and raining a flurry of ferocious blows down upon the dummy, looking entirely as if the dummy were her sworn enemy.
In particular, the vicious way she specifically targeted the dummy's lower regions made all three Li men instinctively cross their legs tightly.
Master Li fell silent for a long moment, swallowed hard, and then spoke with difficulty: "Good daughter~ Father has thought about it, and this marriage really isn't very suitable. Tomorrow I'll turn them down."
Luckily he had said he needed to consider it and hadn't agreed yet; judging by his daughter's current stance, young master Xu would either be dead or crippled!
Lixi stopped her practice, planted the club heavily onto the ground, and casually took a cloth towel handed to her by a maid, wiping her face haphazardly.
"Father, I've already figured it out. The Xu family must be our family's enemies, and you're just marrying me off to plague their whole family. Rest assured, I will definitely handle it well." Lixi wore an expression of absolute determination, practically patting her chest in guarantee.
Li Dong and Li Nan were struck with sheer terror, their eyes wide as saucers, and they turned simultaneously to look at their own father: You're still the most vicious one, Father!
I didn't! It wasn't me! Don't talk nonsense! Master Li felt like crying without tears.
"We won't marry, we won't marry! I'll notify the matchmaker immediately to call it off. Later on, I'll pick someone for you with a good family background and handsome looks, someone who will definitely make you satisfied."
"I don't want to marry. Can't I just stay at home as an old maid?" Lixi seized the opportunity to bargain. She truly did not want to get married, especially not getting married in ancient times.
"How can that do! Not getting married is absolutely out of the question!" Master Li raised his voice by a full octave.
He would never agree to such a heretical request: "In this world, what proper woman doesn't have to marry, wait on her husband, and teach her children? Unless she becomes an Immortal Master."
What? "Immortal Master?!"
There were Immortal Masters in this world?!
Clutching her heart, which was about to leap out of her chest, Lixi looked at her father with expectant eyes: "Father, what is an Immortal Master? How do you become one? Where do you go to study under a master? Daughter wants to be an Immortal Master!"
Pouring out multiple questions in rapid succession, her eager state of mind was plainly evident.
Master Li cast a sidelong glance at her. This girl of his really dared to dream, didn't she? "Those Immortal Masters are extraordinary beings who can summon wind and rain and travel through the heavens and earth. Is that something an ordinary person like us can be? People who manage to become Immortal Masters all have immortal affinities. What do you have? You can give up on that idea; our old Li family has never produced anyone capable of becoming an Immortal Master."
Lixi was certain—this place was the world of cultivation!
"How do I not have immortal affinity? No one has ever even let me try. I don't care, I'm going!"
How could she possibly lack immortal affinity? She was a transmigrator, after all! Could someone without destiny transmigrate after death?
She had originally thought that upon transmigrating to ancient times, she would either follow a wealth-building farming-novel route or become a formidable businesswoman dominating the commercial world.
Instead, she had been handed the script of a female protagonist in a cultivation epic?
She hadn't found any golden finger yet, but spiritual roots should definitely exist... right?
"Fine, I'll let you see the truth so you can give up on this. Not far from Maocheng, there is a Yunxiao Sect. Tomorrow, I'll take you to try it out."
Master Li humored her as well, intending to let her see clearly that the Li family simply didn't have that kind of fate.
Once she came back, she would finally wake up. A girl still had to get married and settle down.
"How is the Yunxiao Sect's strength? What is their ranking?" Since this was the world of cultivation, she had to apprentice at a major sect, didn't she?
"What kind of daydream are you having? We're only going to this one! Don't even think about a distant one! Take it or leave it!"
Master Li's plump face was scrunched up like a steamed bun, looking ready to renege at any second.
"I'll go, I'll go! I'm going!" She would go, alright? No matter what sect it was, it had to be better than staying home to get married.