A loud scream echoed throughout the inner palace.

This can't be happening. I've turned into a child! My hands and my feet are all tiny. And my chest... I don't have any boobs anymore!

I was in a massive room that looked like something straight out of ancient times. Upon hearing my scream, two girls rushed in.

"What is the matter, Princess?"

I looked at them and realized they were wearing traditional clothing, exactly like the costumes I'd seen in historical dramas. Suddenly, my head throbbed. Images rushed into my brain, triggering a massive headache. As the memories settled, the truth finally came to me.

The setting of this world is the same as the novel I read right before dying at the hands of a stalker after my hospital shift!

I was in a state of total turmoil. The servants of the girl whose body I was now occupying kept fussing over me, asking what was wrong. But their noisy rambling only made me want to cry more as I remembered what the future held for me in this world.

I wasn't the heroine. I wasn't even the villainess. I was a side character who was mentioned in exactly one sentence in the entire novel, a character destined to die a terrible death at the hands of her husband. I only remembered her vividly because she happened to share my name.

How could this happen? After years of grueling medical school, I'd finally made it. I had only been working for six months at my dream hospital before I was murdered by that bastard!

Out of sheer frustration, I passed out.

Three days have passed since I arrived in this world. I've finally had the chance to accept reality and organize my thoughts.

Let's get this straight: the world I'm in now is the novel I finished just before I died, titled "Immortal Heart". It's about a young girl's journey of cultivation and romance involving multiple men. Yes, it's a reverse harem story.

To be honest, I wasn't really into the genre. The only reason I read it was because of an illustration I saw online of a handsome man and his daughter looking incredibly badass together. I looked them up and discovered they were the main villains.

Good grief, why are the father and daughter villain duo more gorgeous than the heroine or any of the male leads? They are the literal definition of "villains are hot." I only kept reading to see them. Watching them ruthlessly deal with betrayers was far more interesting than the heroine, who flirts 24/7 so men will give her loot and upgrades. She has the ultimate luck cheat code, even when she's weak as hell, things just go her way. It's hardly a story about cultivation and power. It's more like a forced romance where men fall for her wherever she goes.

It's beyond annoying how flat those characters are. Wang Yǔxuān, the villain, and his daughter, Wang Língyān, are much better written characters, but they both still died in the end.

"I couldn't help but sigh. While the villains were undeniably attractive, they were always doomed to a tragic end or a cold grave."

Aside from that, I forgot to mention...

The body I have now belongs to the future wife of that villain and the mother of the villainess.

To be honest, I am a little excited at that thought. However, Su Míngzhū, the original host of this body, was not a good person either.

She forced herself on Yǔxuān using an aphrodisiac poison with no cure, a recipe passed down through her family. She then claimed they had to be wed immediately because she was already carrying his child. Yǔxuān had to abide by her wishes to avoid problems with his business, especially since Míngzhū was the Imperial Princess and the Emperor's cherished daughter. But aside from that, the real reason he agreed was so that he could eventually have custody of his child.

After she gave birth, she was brutally killed by her husband. He took his revenge by stabbing her a hundred times with his sword, covering the crime with the excuse that she died during childbirth.

That thought gave me the shivers. Deep inside, I actually agreed that she deserved it because she truly did assault him. But now, that evil woman was me!

Everything will be alright.

I tried to calm myself. Luckily, that future is still far away. I am currently only eight years old. Since those events won't happen for another twelve years, I still have time to prepare and avoid my pending doom.

Eight Years Later

Su Míngzhū is the daughter of the 714th Emperor of the Su Dynasty and the Empress, who hails from the top family of healers and alchemists in the country. She has earned the nickname "The Pearl of the Imperial Palace" and is considered one of the most beautiful women on the continent. With her divine elegance, beauty, and intelligence in medicine and elixirs, men from various powerful families and famous cultivators seek her hand in marriage. This is despite her not having a spiritual root to enable her to cultivate. In a world where strength and power are hailed above all else, she would usually be left in danger.

All these years, I have done everything to master the arts of the apothecary and alchemist. I might not have a spiritual root, but these skills can protect me for the time being.

Luckily, I am rich and my family is powerful. The resources I need to learn these skills were not hard to find, though my movements are controlled as a princess. The only place I am allowed to visit is my maternal family to study.

I might be restricted, but that doesn't mean I can't sneak out. I've done it many times to plan my escape and run away from my dark future. I also need to find the ingredients to refine the mythical Root Elixir. 

This will allow me to grow a spiritual root despite not having an inborn one, so I can finally cultivate and protect myself. With this face, who knows when I might be killed by a creep again or kidnapped and forced to be the bride of some bastard? Besides, if I can cultivate, it means I can do all the cool things I've only seen in fantasy worlds. Thinking about that makes me so excited.

The Root Elixir was considered a myth because, for thousands of years, no one knew how to make it or if it even existed. But since I read the novel, I have clues on how to find it. Just wait for me, freedom and adventure! I'm coming!