Chapter Five: Cheap is Not Always Good

  Song Jie was holding the door and screaming loudly, when suddenly she found herself in a different place. She was so scared that her cry was stuck in her throat. Her head was dizzy and for a moment, she couldn't come back to her senses.

  Where is this? This isn't where I was just standing, Song Jie's mind couldn't keep up...

  She held her hands carefully and walked forward, at this time she had no idea what she was doing, even forgot to throw away the big door teeth, just holding it silly and walking.

  After a while, she finally caught her breath and her mind started to turn over. This inexplicable change of place, if it wasn't a portable space, how could it be possible?!

  Song Jie's heart was filled with excitement, her pupils constricted with agitation, and her hands trembled uncontrollably. Was the era of her great conquest finally arriving? Should she raise her arms and shout something? Or should she come up with a more meticulous plan? But this girl had completely forgotten that it was also possible that she had crossed over again...

  She was alone, indulging in wild fantasies for a while. When Song Jie lowered her head to take a look, she still had the tooth in her hand and hastily threw it far away. It wasn't until then that she realized she was a bit too much, not even crying yet, but already thinking of conquering the earth. How come she hadn't discovered this potential in herself before?

  She regained her composure and began to return to normal, also becoming more vigilant about her surroundings and no longer gloating over taking advantage of herself.

  What just happened was actually very dangerous, it's a severe test of space. If you put human greed to the maximum and can't wake up in time to regain your sanity, you'll be forever trapped by illusions and won't be able to escape.

  Song Jie was an orphan, from a young age everything had to be fought for by herself, there were no free lunches, and even if there were, they were all traps. This time, thanks to her past experiences, she managed to escape unscathed, without being fooled, and unknowingly passed the test.

  At first glance, this space is roughly the size of a football field, all black soil, with some unknown plants scattered about. A clear small river runs through it from end to end.

  Next to it stood several ancient buildings, with green bricks and glazed tiles, crimson carved wooden windows, the main house was a two-story small building, which was more exquisite than the other houses in terms of craftsmanship.

  Next to the building complex, a pool of spiritual spring water has a single stem of jade lotus planted in it. Upon closer inspection, it is surprisingly real jade lotus. The lotus flowers are all blooming and have turned into jade color, like they were carved out of jade. The spiritual spring water rises with swirling mist, making people feel as if they have entered an immortal realm. I thought the pool water must be icy cold, but when I reached out to touch it, surprisingly it was warm.

  With this spring water, Song Jie washed all the bloodstains off her face.

  She walked into the small building and was immediately dazzled by the golden nanmu wood furniture, which was used exclusively for royal families in ancient times. The first floor appeared to be a large hall, but upon ascending to the second floor, it turned out to be a man's bedroom. The entire room was decorated in shades of gray, with very simple furnishings that clashed greatly with the style of the hall downstairs.

  Thinking that she couldn't stay for too long and someone would definitely come looking for her, Song Jie roughly looked around the few rooms.

  Next to it are a medicinal material room, an alchemy laboratory, a storage room, a practice room and a study.

  There were many small medicine cabinets in the medicine room, filled with all sorts of medicines and seeds. Song Jie only recognized a few of them, but even these were enough to astonish people, extremely precious ginseng and lingzhi mushrooms and so on.

  In the alchemy room, there is a large alchemy furnace and some split firewood, making one wonder if the owner of this space was once a Taoist practitioner?

  The storage room was the most astonishing to Song Jie, with several boxes of gold, silver and jewels inside. She trembled as she counted them several times but couldn't get a clear count, so she gave up and stopped paying attention to it.

  The training room was very empty, with only a carpet in the middle and a few weapons. Song Jie wasn't interested in these things, so she just took a glance and then retreated out of the room.

  Finally arriving at the study, she swore that she had never seen so many books. All sorts of books filled the shelves, all written in traditional characters, and there were also various bamboo slips and jade slips placed on the cabinet. A particularly large desk was placed by the window, with the Four Treasures of the Study on top.

  A painting on the wall caught Song Jie's attention, depicting an old man with a slender figure and elegant demeanor, wearing a long robe, with his black hair tied up, holding a feather duster in his hand.

  Isn't that what they say, the portraits of ancestors on the wall are to be worshipped with a bow, and this treasure will be given to you. For some reason, Song Jie's brain suddenly went blank, she knelt down and "thudded" three loud heads, and indeed knocked out an accident.

  The figure in the painting suddenly appeared out of thin air, and Song Jie was so angry that she wanted to slap herself twice. What's the point of this? Are you looking for trouble? This space is yours too, what a waste.

  That figure seemed to know what Song Jie was thinking and spoke out: "Hmph, stop daydreaming, even if you didn't kowtow I would still appear."

  Song Jie was startled and asked cautiously: "May I ask who you are?"

  "I am indeed your ancestor, and before I ascended, I left this space for my descendants. For thousands of years, only you have opened it. In your past life, you encountered danger, and this Void Space saved your life, but it has degenerated to its initial state, so you will need to slowly manage it from now on." The old ancestor said.

  After listening to her ancestor's words, Song Jie finally let out a sigh of relief and calmed down, confirming: "So you're saying that this space will be mine from now on?"

  She obviously relaxed too early.

  The old man glanced at her: "How is it possible? Of course there are conditions."

  What? Song Jie was stunned, she had never heard of this before...

  "There is one more condition to fully obtain the space. That is, you will marry a man in the future, and that person has done a great favor for our family. You must repay that kindness, only then will this space completely belong to you."

  A huge thunderbolt struck Song Jie's head, burning her to the point of smoking, and finally she asked with a determined tone: "Why must I marry him? Can't we repay kindness in other ways?"

  "Absolutely not, it's out of the question. Don't even think about trying to weasel your way out of this. If you don't get married, this space will disappear right now. It will only truly belong to you if you sign a contract and fulfill its terms in the future."

  It's really a scam. Even if I made a contract, this space only temporarily belongs to me before I marry someone else. Is there such a thing?

  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

  The old man nodded: "You're right, that's it." That relieved expression, as if seeing his own descendants being very intelligent and talented, made Song Jie want to vomit.

  Finally, the old ancestor let Song Jie think slowly, don't rush, there is plenty of time. Because the time here is different from outside, it's in a 50:1 ratio.

  Song Jie fell into a deep contradiction...