Why is My System Glitching-Chapter 93: All of a Sudden

"Hmm?" 

Kim Simona froze mid-motion, her fingers hovering over the buttons of her robe. A sudden flare of light pierced the dim grotto courtyard, the Dao Fulu igniting with a hiss. Smoke coiled upward, contorting into a leering skull, its hollow eyes burning with ghostly light. Then, from its gaping maw, a crisp feminine voice echoed. "Junior Sister Kim! The Foundation Establishment Pill's alchemy formula—I've found a lead!"

Kim Simona's breath hitched. For a heartbeat, disbelief held her still—then elation surged through her veins like liquid fire. Her eyes sparked with excitement fire.

"Senior Sister Rosa-chan! Are you serious? Where's the formula? What's the price? How much do they want for it?" Her voice trembled with urgency, years of pent-up longing breaking free.

Years of relentless alchemy had made Kim Simona a master of Qi Refinement Stage elixir pills, yet the Foundation Establishment Pill's Alchemy Formula had always eluded her. The Tower of Hundred Treasures didn't put the rare Alchemy Formula on sale, instead, this Sect-owned enterprise guarded such rare special Alchemy Formulas as secret, locking them behind an exhaustive loyalty program—THT Membership (THT stands for Tower of Hundred Treasures)—one designed to bind registered Artisan disciples to relentless labor.

Alchemist like every registered Artisan could earned "THT Points" by supplying pills, Dao artifacts, weapons, or talismans, each contribution inching them closer to milestone rewards, like the Foundation Establishment Pill's Alchemy Formula.

The THT membership program was a gilded cage. The milestones were brutal: accumulate providing ten thousand pills of mid-level quality unlocked the first milestone reward, then the requirement leaped to fifty thousand quantity, before the tower would even consider parting with its prized secrets. For a talented alchemist like Kim Simona, a prodigy with a near-perfect success rate, the path was still grueling. Every hour spent refining elixir pills for the Tower of Hundred Treasures was an hour stolen from her own advancement.

When Kim Simona had joined the Abyss Pit Sect alongside her squad member—Ruru Rosa and the others—her cultivation talent had burned brightest. Her aptitude outshone them all, a star among novices. But alchemy's demands had drained her. While her peers surged ahead in cultivation, Kim Simona lagged, her qi channels starved by endless hours by the Dao furnace. Now, the weakest among her squad, she felt the weight of her choices like a chain.

So she sought another way.

While still grudgingly meeting the THT membership's monthly task quotas, she scoured the shadows, bribing informants, hunting whispers of the Alchemy formula's existence outside the sect's grip. If she could obtain it elsewhere, she could break free—no longer a slave to the Tower's point system, no longer forced to choose between labor like alchemy and her own cultivation advancement.

The news from Ruru Rosa was a spark in the dark—a chance at freedom.

"Junior Sister, this isn't about price." Ruru Rosa's voice, though crisp, carried an edge of solemnity. "The Alchemy Formula for the Foundation Establishment Pill—it's inside the Hanz Clan Estate."

"This comes from the last sect comrade who took the task," Ruru Rosa continued. "I've verified it myself—the source is credible. And there's more. The estate also holds a Crimson Whisker Vine." 

Kim Simona's heart leaped, her pulse quickening. "The Hanz Clan Estate task? Who's claimed these treasures?"

"No one." A pause, Ruru Rosa replied, her tone heavy. "You've been in seclusion, refining pills, so you haven't heard. This Hanz Clan Estate task... it's cursed. Four attempts. Four failures. One more failure, and this task would be escalated to an Inner Sect mission. The first three Outer Sect squads sent there vanished—wiped out, not a whisper of their fate. No bodies. No messages. Just... silence."

Kim Simona's breath hitched. "And the fourth?"

"The fourth battle squad on this task was led by Senior Brother Hughie Wing." Rosa's voice dropped. "Failed again. Yet he crawled back alone— bleeding, broken, with grievous wounds."

"What?!" Kim's eyes widened. "Senior Brother Hughie Wing? He's at the peak of the Eighth Layer of Qi Refinement two years ago, rumored said he's about to break through to the Ninth Layer. He led a whole squad by himself and they still failed?"

"Exactly," Ruru Rosa said. "Now this task becomes a magnet for the bold and strong cultivators. At least three sect comrade squads are preparing to depart soon. I've joined Senior Brother Garrick Blackthorn's squad, setting out in two days. He's at the Ninth Layer Qi Refinement Stage, and this senior brother is regarded as one of a strongest frontrunners for the coming Outer Sect Grand Martial Tournament. His Thorn Squad is strong—so go on the task with them is safe, and our chances are good. And he's made an attractive offer: Refine two Foundation Establishment Pills for him. Then this senior brother will swear Inner Demon oaths to ensure the squad safety and ensure you claim both the alchemy formula and the Crimson Whisker Vine."

Kim Simona's mind raced. The task to Hanz Clan Estate sounded like a deathtrap, but Garrick Blackthorn's strength and reputation offered a rare shield. The alchemy formula and the key raw material Crimson Whisker Vine were her key to escaping the Tower of Hundred Treasures' endless demands. She nodded, her voice firm. "Tell Senior Brother Blackthorn I'm in."

Rosa's tone warmed with relief. "Excellent! I'll let him know. But listen Simona, this task is perilous, even with Senior Brother Blackthorn leading. We need to be cautious. How about I visit your courtyard tomorrow to go over the details in person? When's good for you?"

Kim Simona calculated swiftly, factoring in her body-tempering cultivating session. "Tomorrow morning works. I've finished refining several batches of elixir pills, so I'm free for now."

"Dawn it is, then," Ruru Rosa agreed. "See you soon."

The Dao Fulu's eerie flames guttered out, the skull dissolving into smoke. Silence reclaimed the cavern—but Kim Simona's heart thundered.

After the voice transmission ended, the eerie flame on the Dao Fulu slowly faded and extinguished, the smoky skull dissolving into wisps that curled back into the Fulu paper as the paper collapsing back onto the table.

Kim Simona's lips curled into a smirk as she whispered to herself, "A blessing in disguise, it seems."

The theft of the Ice Pith Fire still burned in her memory—yet now, fate had delivered an unexpected boon. "To think such fortune would follow loss... Perhaps losing that Dao Flame wasn't entirely misfortune after all." This news of the Foundation Establishment Pill's Alchemy Formula and the Crimson Whisker Vine was a balm to her wounded pride.

Then her eyes darkened. "Hmph! No—whoever dares snatch my chance will regret it."

Her heart flickered with a mix of joy, lingering sorrow, and steely resolve. She shed her robes, each layer falling like a shed grudge, standing bare before the Nether Chill Spring. The water lay still, its surface an abyssal mirror, reflecting nothing but the grotto's gloom. Without a moment's hesitation, she plunged into the bathtub, the frigid water swallowing her whole.

Cold.

Soul-shattering, bone-gnawing cold.

Not the gentle chill of winter's touch, but a soul-rending, marrow-deep freeze—as if the very essence of glacial death had seeped into her bones.

The Nether Chill Spring lived up to its name. The instant submerged, Kim Simona breath seized. Her muscles locked. For a heartbeat, she barely remember she's a cultivator, but a dying mortal, trapped in glacial abyss.

Even her thoughts slowed, each flicker of consciousness struggling through frozen sludge.

And the pain—

Thousands of invisible icy needles pierced her flesh inch by inch, relentless, unending.

"No wonder they say this spring rivals the Ice Pith Fire," she thought, teeth clenched against the torment, her body trembling, but within her, a fire burned—ambition, defiance. "One night tempering here. Just one night of this hell... and I'll break through to the Eighth Layer of Qi Refinement Stage."

Gritting her teeth, Kim Simona forced her mind to focus, circulating her spirit energy according to the Bone Tempering Art. Her pores gaped open, greedily drinking in the spring's frigid essence. As minutes bled into hours, the spirit energy in her meridians swelled, a tide of power and certainty flooding her veins and mind. She sank deeper into the steady rhythm of cultivation advancement, the pain fading beneath the thrill of her rapid rising cultivation strength.

However, just at this moment—

A flicker of movement shattered her focus. A ghostly red blur breached into the grotto courtyard.

At first, Kim Simona dismissed it as a trick of her mind, a side effect of the Nether Chill Spring.

Until she opened her eyes. Her blood and mind froze again.

A male cultivator, his form materializing from the blur into a faintly familiar face, stood in her sanctum.

What?!!! How was this impossible?!

This grotto coutyard was Kim Simona's alchemy lab. Although it was temporarily built as a temporarily residence for Kim Simona to live in on the Alchemy Peak for alchemy purpose. It had been warded by six intricate defense arrays around the structure—each lethal, each requiring her personal token to bypass. Even Kim Simona herself had to use her sect nameplate and tread carefully to avoid triggering them.

What unholy power let this intruder glide through, silent as death?

Before she could process the violation—

The intruder's hand shot out. And snatched her premium-level Jade Tempering Pill from the table.

"HOW DARE YOU?!" The scream tore through her skull, trapped behind clenched teeth.

If not for the critical juncture of her cultivation, she would have leapt from the spring, shattered his bones, crushed his throat—

That pill was her masterpiece.

A thousand attempts. Countless rare ingredients. Days without sleep. The pinnacle of her alchemy, the proof of her Great Dao on Alchemy—

And now, this filthy thief!

With infuriating calm, the male cultivator popped the pill into his mouth, as if it were nothing more than a common candy.

Kim Simona's vision burned red, her rage a molten storm, helpless to stop him.

——

~ Ding! System Notification Chime ~

The AllFullOS System chimed meticulously, its voice cold and mechanical as usual.

[AllFullOS: Version 1.0.0]

> Breakthrough Elixir: [Premium-level Quality Jade Tempering Pill] x1

 - Status: Gifted successfully.

> Resuming cultivation process...

Lordi Payne's mind shut down—frozen in pure, primal panic.

He was a prisoner, trapped inside his own flesh, forced to watch as his limbs moved without his command. Horror clawed at his chest, his breath coming in short, ragged gasps—

But the AllFullOS System cared nothing for his terror.

In the next heartbeat, his body pivoted sharply, turning ninety degrees with mechanical precision. Against his will, his gaze locked onto the furious grotto courtyard's owner before him—a young woman whose face was a storm of shock and unyielding fury. Her eyes burned into him, blazing with righteous anger, as if she could incinerate him with a glance.

What the fuck! Senior Sister Kim Simona?!

~ Ding! System Notification Chime ~

[AllFullOS: Version 1.0.0]

> Detected Optimal Environment for Cultivation Breakthrough.

> Pending...

...

~ Ding! System Notification Chime ~

[AllFullOS: Version 1.0.0]

> Pending... 

> All-Smart Full-Host Cultivation System™ has decided to be *GENEROUS* today! 

> A small pond of Nether Chill Spring will be gifted to the host for FREE.

> Processing... 

The next instant, Lordi Payne moved—not with the hesitation of a trespasser, but with the unnatural certainty.

Kim Simona's stunned gaze followed him, her shock morphing into disbelief as the intruder began to disrobe. With eerie precision, he shrugged off his robe one by one with careless efficiency, unfastened his pants, letting them pool at his feet, each motion cold and deliberate.

Before she could process the audacity, the fully nude intruder leaped into the Nether Chill Spring with a resounding splash. The water surged, waves crashing against Kim's body, nearly breaking her meditative stance as the bathtub rocked violently.

The violation cut deeper than the spring's icy bite, but the humiliation was far from over.

With chilling detachment, the man turned his blank face toward her—then raised a hand.

His hand shot out, pressing against her cheek—not with malice, but with the dismissive indifference of swatting a fly or shoving aside an obstacle. The force pushed Kim Simona to the tub's corner, her back pressed against the cold rim as he claimed the center of the Nether Chill Spring—the most potent spot for cultivation.

As if she were nothing. As if she didn't even matter.

His body settling into the water as if the sacred space were his alone. And then—

With mechanical grace, he assumed a perfect cultivation stance. The intruder began to cultivate.

~ Ding! System Notification Chime ~

[AllFullOS: Version 1.0.0]

> Optimal Environment for Cultivation Breakthrough: [Nether Chill Spring]

 - Status: Gifted successfully.

> Resuming cultivation process...

"..." Lordi's mind emptied—no thoughts, no words, just dull, hollow shock.

Across from him, Kim Simona's world splintered.

"!!!!"

A silent scream tore through her skull, her wide eyes screamed with a fury that could rend the heavens. Her once ironclad resolve shattered like glass.

A hot gush of blood burst from her lips, staining the Nether Chill Spring's inky surface.

The spirit power coursing through her meridians spiraled into chaos, a violent maelstrom of rage and ruin.

Every vein burned. Every muscle locked.

She had lost control.