Death row inmates' fate is sealed.
Chapter 1
"—The jury unanimously approved, and the Supreme Court upheld, sentencing the defendant, Class B guide Kuwano, to death!"
In the videotape, the impartial judge slammed his gavel down, the sound like thunder in the small solitary cell, echoing for a long time.
Tomorrow is the execution day of this "notorious" guide. Today, an officer, representing the justice of imperial law, went through the final procedures and came to the cell to show Kuwano her confession, court judgment video, and other documents to ensure everything was correct.
The videotape finally focused on Sangye's face, which was slightly upturned with a disdainful smile. Her face, which had once amazed the First Military Region of the Empire, was still beautiful and charming.
In stark contrast to Sangye, who was sitting on the single bed with a stiff, ashen face, there was no trace of the arrogant and unruly demeanor he displayed in the video.
Sangye had traveled through time; she felt as if she had stumbled into some absurd dream.
Before transmigrating, she was a female cultivator in the cultivation world. As a child, she was picked up from the street by her master and taken in as a disciple, becoming a member of Shifangwu. Shifangwu was a rare secular sect in the cultivation world. Most of its disciples had earth and wood spiritual roots, were close to nature, and cultivated fruits, vegetables, and even spirit beasts that were comparable to spirit stones and pills, greatly benefiting cultivators. Everyone was a master chef. While other sects competed in martial arts, they competed in culinary arts. The sect's restaurants spread throughout the cultivation world, making them extremely wealthy.
After transmigrating, she became a B-level guide in the Gamma Empire during the interstellar era, sentenced to death for deliberately abusing sentinels during a mental counseling session, causing dozens of them to fall into mental turmoil and become vegetative, and several others to die on the spot, most of whom were children of imperial nobles.
Before her, no Guide had ever been sentenced to death in the Empire. Guides were incredibly rare; they not only enjoyed special status and treatment within the Empire, but even their promotion system was unique. You might not find a single Guide among 100,000 Sentinels, especially a [Growth-type Guide] like her.
99% of guides have their mental strength fixed from birth, and their level is determined by a range that remains unchanged throughout their lives.
"Sangye" is one of the remaining 1%. Her mental strength fluctuates within a certain range, which means that she can continue to grow and advance through later training. In the future, she may be able to advance to SS-level, which is currently the highest level known to humankind.
During the few days she was transported here, she used the terminal on her wrist to catch up on her knowledge and also figured out how to use it. At this time, the terminal's functions were restricted; it could only browse and search, and could not send any information or contact anyone.
Sangye's terminal only had two contacts: her direct supervisor and her landlord. She had no other family or friends to contact.
Her direct superior, Su Mo, was standing right in front of her, handing her the execution order and asking her to sign it.
Sangye didn't answer; she looked directly at Su Mo and said, "You know why I did this."
Su Mo frowned, avoiding her gaze: "You didn't even put up a defense in court, so what's the point of saying all this now?"
In the memories of the original owner that Sangye received, "she" had no parents and grew up in an orphanage. After being identified as a growth-type guide, she was quickly taken to the First Military Region for training and development.
It's obvious what an orphan with no background will encounter in a military region, especially since she's grown increasingly beautiful and acts so cold and cynical towards others, while the sentry and the guide have a natural power imbalance.
Before things deteriorated to the final point, "Sangye" chose to perish together with the enemy. The sentinels are most vulnerable when they completely expose their mental landscape to the guide and receive mental guidance. She conducted numerous experiments to ensure a fatal blow, behaving like a ruthless executioner.
"Sangye" knew that she was of low status and that the "victims" were all noble children. Faced with the attacks from the lawyers hired by the nobles, she remained silent in court, only wearing a hearty, cold laugh.
Back in the present, Sangye, who had transmigrated and taken over the body, turned the storage ring on her hand. She pushed away the death sentence confirmation in front of her and refused to sign it.
Su Mo paused for a moment: "You know, whether you sign or not won't affect the final result."
Sangye disliked this cowardly man, but she didn't choose to provoke him at this moment, after all, he was the only living person she had seen in days. Before he arrived, Sangye had already integrated information and known resources through the terminal, deciding to take one last gamble; she couldn't possibly die again after transmigrating.
“I will sign,” she replied, “but before I die, I have a wish.”
“You said that if it’s something we can do, we will do it for you.”
"I would like to prepare a dinner for His Majesty the Emperor."
"?" Su Mo's usually calm face showed a mixture of shock and confusion.
*
As Su Mo stood outside the cell making contact layer by layer, Sang Ye closed his eyes and let his mind sink into the cave.
If she wasn't mistaken, the spiritual landscape described in the interstellar world was the same thing as her own grotto-heaven; both were products constructed from spiritual power.
Sangye did not know what the original owner's mental landscape was like, but it was clear that her own world had replaced the original owner's.
At this moment, her cave is filled with lush greenery and abundant foliage.
Her spiritual essence—a giant sycamore tree—swayed without wind, welcoming her arrival.
Under the paulownia tree, the melons and fruits planted a few days ago have ripened under the nourishment of the mulberry leaves' spiritual power. Several small spirit pigs lie in the fields. They are not yet fully grown, but the pork is the most tender this month. The spiritual power is not as strong as that of fully grown pigs, but it is the purest.
This is the largest cavern that Sangye has been able to build with her spiritual power so far, but it is far less than one ten-thousandth of what her master possessed.
What Shifangwu is most famous for is its unique cave heaven, which relies on spiritual veins for cultivation. While other sects' cave heavens are merely places for spiritual bodies to reside, their cave heavens can disregard the seasons, cultivate fruits, vegetables, and even livestock, and then be brought out through storage rings and other mediums.
The reason why the food served at Shifangwu Restaurant has effects comparable to spirit stones is also due to the ingredients from the unique cave.
Sangye's storage ring, which had been spinning since the beginning, was a family heirloom given to him by his master. It was filled with all kinds of food ingredients, including common items like rice and noodles, as well as rare and precious items like dragon liver and phoenix marrow.
The disciples of Shifangwu love to travel far and wide. In order not to neglect their cultivation, their masters often give them various seeds and jade containing animal embryos, so that they can place them in the cave to cultivate.
Sangye naturally had one in her storage ring, but her cultivation was not advanced enough, and with her current spiritual power, she was not yet able to construct a cave heaven that could contain all things.
When Sangye opened her eyes, she couldn't help but complain to herself: Master is good in every way, but she doesn't hoard any life-saving magic treasures. If she had a magic artifact that could travel through space, she would have run away long ago and wouldn't be trapped in this cell.
Her only chance depends on whether Su Mo can play a role.
The emperor's son, Lin Changli, a former marshal of the empire, fell into a mental breakdown many years ago, and all the guides, including the emperor himself, were helpless.
Under the combined pressure of the royal family and the military, he was exiled to the planet Black Tower—the final destination for sentinels whose mental disturbances are incurable, where they would fight violently until they died. It was a planet that even interstellar bandits dared not approach.
This was no secret within the empire.
But the emperor did not give up on him; she kept sending guides to Black Tower in an attempt to save him, but all attempts ended in failure.
The returning guides remained tight-lipped, and there was no information about Black Tower on the StarNet.
At this moment, only the emperor could overturn the Supreme Court's ruling and save her life.
*
It's no wonder Su Mo looked so shocked.
This interstellar world is no longer suitable for the survival of most plants and animals due to soil pollution and other reasons. Although scientists have tried to manage it for centuries, the results have been minimal.
Long ago, people relied on nutrient solutions for energy, and this efficient lifestyle became ingrained. Consequently, recipes from even earlier periods were relegated to the back of books, and no one bothered to learn how to cook.
As for food, only military regions are equipped with nutritionists and cooks, but these are mostly cushy positions. Photos of bizarre dishes like steamed pumpkin with melon and stewed crucian carp with potatoes circulating on the StarNet show that the cooks are generally not very skilled, and even military regions prefer to use intravenous nutrition solutions.
Kuwano's request was no less than wanting to perform a dance for his neighbor before going to work—its meaning was unclear.
Perhaps it was because Sangye was destined to survive, or perhaps it was because of her special status as a growth-type guide, but when Su Mo returned, he had an indescribable expression on his face: "His Majesty has agreed."
*
When she was escorted out of prison, Kuwano only wore a red-glowing anklet on her left ankle. If she made any unusual movements, it would immediately release an electric current to paralyze her heart.
The escort consisted of only Su Mo and another guard. There was a significant power disparity between the guide and the sentry, which was sufficient to keep an eye on her.
Sangye didn't bother trying to escape; with her current strength, she couldn't possibly escape anyway.
The disciples of Shifangwu focus their skill points on cooking, farming, and animal husbandry. As for spiritual arts cultivation, they are practically nonexistent in the cultivation world. Their physical abilities are only slightly better than ordinary people, and at most, they can hold their own against martial arts masters.
The aircraft carrying Sangye was very fast, and it transported her to the palace within half an hour.
The silver-gray building gleamed with a sharp light, like a giant beast lurking in the night, silently staring at visitors and bringing an immense sense of oppression.
The palace was solemn and imposing, with the guards looking serious and not sparing a single glance at the three uninvited guests.
The head eunuch of the palace personally escorted Sangye to the kitchen, and she was also very curious about what Sangye planned to do.
For the royal palace, the kitchen was merely a decoration. Only during banquets would a plethora of overly sweet and fragile desserts be prepared to accompany the drinks. Otherwise, it was more like a warehouse. The title of "head chef" was more like that of a warehouse manager.
The kitchen was quite simple, with two stoves, two woks, a steamer, and about a dozen ovens—naturally, the ovens were the most numerous since they only made desserts. Standing against the wall was a giant refrigerator storing ice cubes and different flavored nutritional drinks and energy bars.
The head chef would put these three things into an ice bucket every day, and if the royal family members were in the mood, he would add a bottle of wine, which would then be delivered by the interior decorators.
He doesn't even have three meals a day; one meal a day is enough. This is his simple job, his simple day.
On the bar counter were the "special drinks" the head chef had made for himself: alcohol and several bottles of nutritional supplements, emitting a pungent odor.
While in prison, Sangye learned about the kitchen utensils of this era and even tested them through a terminal projection simulation. It was much more convenient than in the cultivation era, where they had raised many disciples with fire spirit roots within the sect to control the fire in the restaurant; now, all they had to do was adjust the switch in time.
The head chef casually opened a door: "Inside here are some meat and some kind of powder that has been passed down for a long time. You ask how old it is? It's older than me, and probably older than His Majesty's ancestors."
He looked at the notorious guide with a dismissive and somewhat disgusted expression.
Guides are certainly valued, but the sentinels are the true heroes of the empire. It is the sentinels who expand the territory and defend the country, and they also bear the consequences of mental breakdowns. Guides who commit evil deeds will naturally be hated by the common people.
This ingredient was obviously unusable, but Sangye still went in and pretended to rummage through the pile of family heirloom ingredients.
The head chef shrugged and nonchalantly left Sangye in the warehouse.
She didn't expect to find any usable ingredients inside; even the best preservation techniques only made them edible, they had long lost their original flavor. She just wanted to see what she could swap out from her own little world to replace them.
Out of the corner of her eye, Sangye saw that Su Mo, the guard, the supervisor, and the head chef had already walked outside the kitchen and were leaning against the outdoor bar, drinking their drinks, completely unaware of what she was doing in the warehouse.
Her movement was only permitted because of her special status as a guide; after all, she was once a promising guide on whom the Empire placed high hopes. Moreover, with the ankle bracelet, she had nowhere to escape.
Their lack of concern for the kitchen meant that Sangye had fewer unnecessary secrets to keep hidden.
She casually tossed a few pieces of ancestral meat and some miscellaneous side dishes into her storage ring, pretending to have consumed the food.
A note from the author:
----------------------
My next update is "Spring and Autumn Snack Shop" / "Daily Life Running the Academy Convenience Store," please add it to your favorites, ladies!
Synopsis for "Spring and Autumn Snack Shop":
[Food, Management, Farming, Relaxing]
When Man Weiying transmigrated, her biological father had been missing for half a year and was presumed dead;
The mother, Manxun, was frail and sickly, and the younger sister was an infant.
Grandparents and her uncle's family were eyeing Manxun's dowry of houses and land, waiting to devour it all.
Man Weiying packed up several strings of copper coins and fled the snake and ant nest with her widowed mother and younger sister overnight. They endured wind and rain all the way back to Man Xun's maternal home - Yunmeng Mountain in the State of Jin.
The mother and her two daughters, weary from their journey, were stunned when they arrived home to find their once magnificent two-story tile-roofed house inexplicably smashed to pieces! Their fertile fields had also been abandoned for a long time!
Fortunately, it is backed by Yunmeng Mountain, and at the foot of the mountain lies the bustling Yunmeng City.
With her culinary skills, Man Weiying set up a stall in front of her dilapidated house. Starting by selling breakfast, she repaired the house, opened a restaurant, and made a prosperous life for her mother and sister!
*
The people of Yunmeng City have been discussing something lately:
The defeated only daughter and granddaughter of the Man family are back! Apparently, they were kicked out by their in-laws! The granddaughter is an excellent cook, preparing a bunch of dishes that no one had ever seen before—
Soup dumplings, pork floss bread, Sichuan-style boiled chicken, pickled fish, medicinal chicken, Yunnan rice noodles... one after another, it's all so novel!
An insider dismissed the title with disdain: "What's with all this talk about granddaughter? She's surnamed Man, she's just trying to establish her own household!"
*
On Yunmeng Mountain, it is said that the disciples have recently been running down the mountain, apparently because they have fallen in love with the food in the small eateries at the foot of the mountain, and even look down on the cooking skills of the chefs on Yunmeng Mountain.
Wang Xu thought that it had been a while since he had gone down the mountain to see the bustling world, so why not go down the mountain and try what was so special about this "Manjia Small Eatery"?
Synopsis for "The Daily Operations of the Academy's Convenience Store":
Jiang Yeli transmigrated to another world, only to find her parents dead in an accident and her younger sister still young. The two were cruelly abandoned by her uncle and sent back to her parents' home.
When I got home, I found out that my uncle had passed away from a serious illness, and the family had incurred huge debts for his medical treatment. My aunt, unable to bear the burden, remarried, leaving behind my young cousin and my mother-in-law, who was nearly fifty but still full of energy.
Looking at her destitute home, Jiang Yeli was filled with sorrow as she wondered how she would support her large family.
Until she discovered that her mother-in-law's house was located at the foot of Cangchun Academy Mountain.
Zangchun Academy is an academy founded by a prince of the Chu Kingdom. It selects young children to cultivate talents specifically for the Chu Kingdom.
As for why it wasn't held in a developed capital city, it's because the prince believed in the idea that "Heaven will bestow great responsibilities upon him," and therefore he had to "endure hardship and toil."
Jiang Yeli had a sudden inspiration and discovered a great opportunity to make a fortune.
It's well known that students' money has always been the easiest to earn.
So one day, a sharp-eyed boy from Cangchun Academy, while secretly going down the mountain, saw a signboard fluttering in the wind with the words "Ginger and Pear Convenience Store" written on it, and next to it were brightly colored drawings of a ginger and a pear.
As for what the convenience store sells? — It has everything.
Selling breakfast, fruit, stationery, clean clothes, and daily necessities...
Jiang Yeli runs her small shop with great success, earning money to support her family while also dealing with her mother-in-law's pressure to get married.
*
One day, while hunting in the mountains, Jiang Yeli found a handsome man.
The man was seriously injured. With his last breath, he told Jiang Yeli not to report to the authorities before he fainted.
Jiang Yeli, emboldened by lust, took him home, only to find that the man had lost his memory when he woke up and knew nothing about her.
So Jiang Yeli said, "You are my fiancé. After your parents died, you came to live with me. From now on, you will work in my small shop. I will provide you with three meals a day, but there will be no salary."
Handsome men: ?
*
The bodyguard finally found his master in this inconspicuous little town. He lay in wait, watching his master work from morning till night.
I get up before dawn and sell tea eggs and breakfast with an old lady.
Before the tea egg soup had even cooled down, he and a beautiful young woman were already busy buying, arranging, and moving goods up and down.
Before they even had a chance to eat, he and his wife rushed off to inspect the duck and chicken products delivered by the poultry farmers and settle the accounts using an abacus.
A little while later, the tenant farmers from the hillside brought over another season's harvest...
Late at night, the man finally fell asleep, only to be shaken awake by his bodyguard, who was filled with tears: "Master, you have suffered so much! I will escort you back to the capital right away!"
The man looked at the guard, as if only then remembering who he was, and said "Oh" as if suddenly realizing something, and then said: "Did you bring any money with you this time? Give me whatever you have, I haven't saved up enough for the bride's dowry yet."
Bodyguard: ...?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
