In the world where Liu Fengying spent her previous life, having any constitution favorable to cultivation was considered a true blessing, being found in fewer than 5-6 individuals out of a thousand. However, for the daughter of the Lightning Emperor and his wife Xin Tianyang, also known as the Goddess of Light, having merely a constitution favorable to cultivation was far from sufficient, as everyone expected her to possess a constitution with a great affinity for a celestial element, either lightning like her father or light like her mother, one that would enable her to soar through the levels of cultivation. Therefore, it's not surprising that everyone, including her parents, considered Yu Fengying a great disappointment, as her constitution, Blooming Lotus by Day, had a higher affinity with the earthly elements of earth and water, which formed the foundation of plant creation, while having only a superficial affinity with light and air elements, and didn't guarantee that Yu Fengying would go far on the path to immortality.

   Perhaps the opinion they all held about Yu Fengying could be best summarized by her brother, Yu Tao, who often made remarks about her constitution, suggesting that a lotus flower's place was in a swamp full of filth, not in the high sky. He did this almost every time his sister achieved something, wanting to remind everyone that her success was only temporary, and she would not be able to resist her destiny forever—a destiny of being just a mediocre cultivator, not one with a real chance of becoming immortal.

   'Both in this life and in the previous one, my younger brother was a real garbage...', Liu Fengying thought, recalling how much Yu Tao had tried to destroy all her accomplishments and steal everything precious from her.

   If Liu Fengying were to make a list of the people she hated the most in both her lives, Yu Tao would easily occupy not only the first place but also the second and third places, because, while everyone else she hated had entered into conflict with her due to certain interests, Yu Tao seemed to have the sole purpose of erasing any trace of happiness from her life, which he unintentionally achieved when he was just a baby, enjoying all the affection of their parents while she was treated almost like a stranger, and deliberately as an adult, stealing her lover while she was on the front lines.

   Recalling the moment when she returned from the Wild Territory after 20 years, where she fought almost every day against the armies of the Fire Emperor and the beasts inhabiting the area, and she learned that her younger brother had taken her secret lover as a concubine, Liu Fengying vividly remembered how much she had come to hate her younger brother, often dreaming of having the opportunity to literally turn him into flower fertilizer.

   'I don't know how I managed to keep my sanity that day... But, considering my ending, maybe it would have been better to let rage guide me and try to kill him. Yes, I might not have succeeded in finishing the job, given how many cultivators protected him from the shadows and how many artifacts he possessed, but, at least, I would have had fewer regrets...'

   In her previous life, apart from the moment when she decided to forcibly raise her cultivation level to escape the seal placed on her cultivation by her father, knowing she wouldn't live more than 2-3 hours, Liu Fengying didn't recall any other instances of letting herself be controlled by anger, as she realized from a young age that no one was willing to help her out of trouble, as frequently happened with her brother.

   Aware that she couldn't rely on anyone but herself, Yu Fengying always tried to be the best version of herself and she carefully analyzed every decision she made, not wanting to leave anything to chance. This attitude extended to her cultivation.

   Since her parents believed she had no potential, they almost entirely neglected her initiation into the secrets of cultivation and they only provided her with a teacher when she turned 14, who, although he had an affinity only with fire, knew a bit about constitutions related to plants due to his past apprenticeship in an alchemist sect, and some cultivation manuals to choose from, which, although related to plants, were more suitable for a future alchemist than a warrior.

   With such unremarkable resources, Yu Fengying would have preferred to become an apprentice in a sect, as she thought that in such a place she would have a better chance of finding something more useful than in her father's palace library, which, despite containing many high-level cultivation methods and techniques, mostly focused on those with an affinity for the lightning or light elements. However, she was aware that her parents would never accept such a decision, as they didn't want their daughter, with a constitution found everywhere, to reach the foreground again and diminish their prestige. So, Yu Fengying had no choice but to try to compensate for the lack of appropriate resources with hard work, spending most of the night hours in meditation positions, cultivating according to the method that allowed her the highest offensive capabilities among those available to her, while, during the day, she was trying to master all the skills characteristic to her constitution, such as creating pills and potions and accelerating the growth of plants with beneficial cultivation properties, and common skills to enhance her offensive abilities, such as close combat and mastery of all types of weapons.

   On one hand, Yu Fengying's hard work yielded results, as in less than a year, she became a skilled fighter and mastered all the basic knowledge of alchemy. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for her cultivation level, as it took her over six months to enter the Qi Refining Realm, an unusually long time for someone who daily consumed food made from the meat of spiritual beasts and had access to as many pills as she desired.

   Yu Fengying didn't believe that the slow progress of her cultivation was necessarily due to her constitution. Instead, she suspected that the cultivation methods available to her, while suitable, were not of a very high level, as even if she had used the most common qi-gathering technique, she speculated it would have taken only an additional 2-3 months to reach the Qi Refining Realm. However, finding a cultivation technique of a higher level proved challenging. She initially thought her parents' cultivation methods were unimpressive because they never bothered to collect high-level cultivation methods suitable for constitutions different from theirs, yet, after some research, she concluded that there were hardly any better methods suitable for her, mainly due to the complexity of creating a cultivation method for a constitution with affinities for more than three elements, such as those related to plants. Additionally, even though plant-related constitutions were quite common, they varied greatly, making it almost impossible to create a cultivation method perfect for each one.

   Seeing that her cultivation level was increasingly difficult to raise, Yu Fengying eventually decided to halve the time spent cultivating and training, dedicating the remaining time to the palace library to find solutions to her predicament.

   For over two years, Yu Fengying continued to analyze various cultivation methods, both somewhat suitable for her, trying to uncover anything useful, and completely unsuitable but of a higher grade, as she desired to understand the reasons behind their effectiveness. However, all these new insights didn't help her make significant progress, and she even began to consider if it might be better to choose a cultivation method focused solely on the water element, the element with which her constitution had the highest affinity, as suppressing some affinities was relatively common among cultivators with constitutions having affinities with multiple elements. However, after hearing her teacher's explanations about the potential adverse effects of such a method, especially in constitutions like hers where the affinities formed a whole, she realized that this option wasn't a solution either.

   In the end, Yu Fengying accidentally found a way to solve her cultivation issues while studying some books on plant structures to better understand her constitution, specifically, while reading a book written by her great-great-granduncle from her mother's side—a man who also had a constitution with an affinity for plants and, although he only reached the Golden Core Stage, he was an expert in growing plants, as that was the sole focus of his life.

   While reading that book, Yu Fengying was initially surprised by the author's description of his interaction with the plants he grew, as she got the impression that the author saw his plants as pets, taking care of both their material well-being, providing them with the right amount of water and fertilizer and shading them during midday, and their spiritual well-being, often playing tunes on a flute for them and telling them jokes.

   Initially, Yu Fengying found the author's attitude amusing, thinking he might not have all the tiles on the house when writing that book. However, as she continued reading his notes, she began to take him more seriously, suspecting that there might be a chance he could see certain things that others couldn't or chose to ignore.

   Eventually, after many days of contemplating the book and implementing the plant-growing techniques the author discussed, Yu Fengying started to grasp some of the ideas he wanted to convey, the most important and useful insight for her being that plants could be considered the bridge between the material and spiritual worlds, as they could harbor both the purest form of energy and the purest emotions.

   Based on that idea, Yu Fengying began to work on her own cultivation method, using fragments from various high-level cultivation methods related to the elements of water, earth, light, and air, which she combined into something similar to a soul-strengthening technique, aiming to illustrate the process of the emanation of the spirit from the matter. This work was done secretly over almost 8 years, during which Yu Fengying created and tested various versions of the cultivation method. Some had some success, encouraging her to go further, while others were catastrophic failures, sometimes not only almost rendering her unable to cultivate but also endangering her life.

   However, Yu Fengying was determined not to give up, even though she knew she was putting her life at risk. Progressing slowly, she eventually arrived at a version of the cultivation method she had been working on, which could be considered of the highest level, and she believed it would allow her to increase her cultivation level even faster than her parents did, naming this new cultivation method the "Light Devouring Technique."

   Around the same time Yu Fengying finalized her own cultivation technique, her younger brother, who had reached the age of 14—the ideal age to begin cultivation—began to be personally taught by their father the high-level cultivation technique he used, everyone believing he would surpass his sister, who had made almost no progress in the past 10 years, within just 1-2 months.

   However, this didn't happen because, once Yu Fengying started practicing the cultivation method she had created, she made remarkable progress and, in less than two years, her cultivation advanced three levels, reaching the Golden Core Realm. This rapid progress was due to her new cultivation method being perfect for her and to the fact that, during the eight years she worked on it, both her understanding of cultivation and her mental power significantly increased.

   Upon learning from Yu Fengying's teacher about the significant advancement in her cultivation, Yu Fengying's parents began to suspect that she might be using some demonic cultivation technique, so her father sent a large group of cultivators to spy on her, and her mother ordered Yu Fengying to let her check her dantian on several occasions, but all these investigations found nothing suspicious and they concluded that it was possible that Yu Fengying had inherited knowledge from a cultivator who had successfully ascended in the past or had experienced a revelation sent by Heaven—events that had occurred in the known history of that world.

   However, the fact that Yu Fengying had overnight become a cultivation genius did not bring her much closer to her parents, as she had secretly hoped. Instead, their relationship went from almost non-existent to awkward, as her father had already decided in his mind many years ago that Yu Tao would be his successor, and the fact that Yu Fengying appeared to be a greater talent irritated him because it demonstrated his ignorance, and Yu Fengying's mother, who had seen her daughter as the biggest failure in her life, didn't quite know how to communicate with her since she had almost completely ignored her since birth.

   In preventing the normalization of relations between Yu Fengying and her parents, Yu Tao also made a big contribution, as he was not at all satisfied with the situation he was in, having to cultivate almost all day, thus not having any free time to have fun, the main reason being the fact that the place as the future ruler of his father's empire, which he considered to belong to him all his life, was going to be taken from him by his sister, because, in cultivator families, the age and gender of the heir were irrelevant; only the cultivation level mattered.

   Yu Fengying was not too disappointed with her parents' attitude, as she had low expectations of them and was accustomed to not seeking approval from others. So, she continued to progress at the same pace, and after about five years, she managed to enter the Nascent Soul Realm, easily passing her third tribulation. This achievement was more noticeable to all the palace residents and its surroundings because almost the entire sky was covered with dark clouds before Heaven sent nine lightning bolts to test Yu Fengying, this event changing the way everyone perceived Yu Fengying.

   The following period was quite peaceful for Yu Fengying as no one dared to disrespect her anymore, and her brother couldn't irritate her since he was sent by their father to live in the Crystal Caves, a place filled with spiritual energy, because his progress in cultivation didn't meet expectations.

   During this time, Yu Fengying also experienced what it was like to have someone close, as she secretly started a relationship with the granddaughter of an elder who was a subordinate of her father. In cultivator circles, it wasn't uncommon for two women to be in a relationship. However, this didn't align with the position she desired as the future ruler of the empire, as that position required her and her future partner to have heirs, which was impossible if her partner was also a woman, so Yu Fengying concluded that it would be better to make the relationship public when she would have more achievements and would enjoy the support of the majority of the empire's residents, to reduce the opposition.

   Yu Fengying didn't have to think too much about how to become more popular, as the war for the possession of the Wild Territory between her father and the Fire Emperor began, this being the perfect opportunity to prove to everyone what she was capable of. Although there was a treaty stating the Wild Territories should be considered neutral ground, and each party could exploit it as long as it didn't affect others, the appearance of fragments from the legacy of a sect contemporary with the last cultivators who successfully ascended reignited the conflict for that territory, both the Lightning Emperor and the Fire Emperor wanting to seize the majority of the resources to ensure their chance at ascension.

   Since the Lightning Emperor, like the Fire Emperor, couldn't directly involve himself in exploiting the Wild Territory to avoid a direct confrontation, as both would have more to lose, he readily accepted his daughter's proposal to go to war, as he believed her participation would keep the army of cultivators he would send more united, the presence of someone from the imperial family boosting the enthusiasm of the truly loyal ones and making the less loyal ones think twice when they found a treasure that tempted them to keep it only for themselves.

   The first few months in the Wild Territory were very challenging for Yu Fengying, as she had never left her father's palace and she never made contact with the wild and violent side of life, not taking even a fly's life until then. If, before leaving for the Wild Territory, she believed that the qualities of a good warrior were honor and heroism, as written in the books about past cultivators who rose above all, her first battle proved that everything she believed was just a layer of paint over reality, as, in the midst of a battle, nothing else mattered for a warrior than the ability to kill without being killed.

   Seeing that she couldn't sleep for an entire night after killing her first spiritual beast, and almost a whole week after killing her first human, Yu Fengying began to believe that she might not be suitable for such an environment. However, aware that if she gave up, all her dreams would have no chance of coming true, and she would be seen by everyone as a coward, she had no choice but to learn to live with both the feelings of guilt and the fear of the next confrontation, where the curses of those she had killed might catch up with her, and she could lose her life.

   As both factions wanted to seize as large an area as possible from the beginning, leading to almost daily battles, Yu Fengying was able to return home only after 20 years had passed, but, instead of the admiration of everyone and the embrace of her loved one, she was met with only a hostile atmosphere and a lot of disappointment, as her father had started to show in recent years his desire for his son to succeed him at the helm of the empire, and her beloved betrayed her feelings by accepting to become the concubine of her brother.

   Fed up with all the plots and calculations taking place within the walls of her father's palace and because she wanted to escape from her father's control, Yu Fengying decided to give up all claims to the throne, negotiating with her father that if she managed to conquer the entire Wild Territory, a third of those lands bordering the empire ruled by the Fire Emperor should belong to her, as she wanted a place where she could be the absolute leader and not answer to anyone.

   Having nothing to lose, the Lightning Emperor accepted his daughter's proposal, so Yu Fengying headed back to the Wild Territory, determined to achieve her goal at any cost, even if it meant staining all the rivers that flowed through it with the blood of those who opposed her.

   Yu Fengying spent more than a quarter of a millennium on the front lines. During this time, due to her understanding of cultivation and the abundant resources she discovered in the Wild Territory, her cultivation continued to make great progress, as she ascended three levels and entered the Body Fusion realm, and her ability to lead an army and annihilate her enemies increased directly proportional to the time she spent in battle, many people, both from the opposing camp and her own, referring to her in the last years as The Bloody Lotus.

   However, looking back at the events of her previous life, Liu Fengying couldn't help but think that her many achievements paved the way for the end of her life because they made the Lightning Emperor consider her a threat to the takeover of power by his son, he ultimately deciding to get rid of her by forcefully marrying her to the youngest son of the Fire Emperor.

   'Whether you're seen as good-for-nothing or the best, you have a lot of enemies. Yes, the soup for drinking shouldn't be too cold or too hot, just a little warm... Heh, it's good to know that the dead can't hold grudges... or drink soup...', Liu Fengying said in her mind after managing to sort out all the emotions stirred up by the dream about her previous life, intending to live her life from then on without letting anyone have the power to influence her destiny.

Cantis

It was a very long chapter (I wrote for a total of 14 hours), with a lot of information (perhaps even a bit too much information), but it was necessary to establish a solid foundation for this story. From now on, most of the events described will take place in the modern world (for the first volume), but there may also be some flashbacks from the previous life of Liu Fengying, like the one in the previous chapter. Anyway, from now on, I believe it will be somewhat easier to write this story, so I'll try to provide updates more frequently (it's a bit challenging to handle three novels at the same time, but if I worked on just one, I would probably get bored of writing...).