Chi Miao is a transmigrator who has spent ten years as an orphan in a cultivation world where the strong prey on the weak. Lacking any natural talent or protective family, she survived by becoming a professional swindler. She carries a system known as the Gou Shi System, which commands her to lie low until the end of time and become the strongest. After a decade of failed attempts, she finally completes her first task by successfully scamming one hundred people within an hour. Upon unlocking the system, she receives a novice gift pack containing a top-grade fire spiritual root, a slight charm boost, and what the system describes as pretty good comprehension. Despite the system's harsh and sarcastic commentary, Chi Miao uses her new talent to enter Nine Sword Mountain, the premier sword sect in the world, during its annual recruitment ceremony.
At the recruitment, Chi Miao encounters Jin Shengfei, a wealthy and seemingly naive young prodigy from the Jin family. She scams him with a fortune-telling stall, using vague statements that he interprets as profound insights. Jin Shengfei, convinced by his own logic and her apparent connection to the sect, decides to team up with her. During the spirit root testing, Jin Shengfei reveals a root value of ninety-two, shocking the assembled elders. When Chi Miao takes the test, her root value initially appears to be only ten, causing the testing stone to remain inert. However, as the tester inspects it, the value rapidly climbs past ninety, eventually causing the stone to explode. This anomaly draws the attention of Elder Yan, the sect's strict punishment elder, who subjects Chi Miao to a soul probe to uncover her secrets.
During the soul probe, Elder Yan witnesses bizarre visions within Chi Miao's mind, including a nonsensical cartoon about a pink pig, followed by a terrifying scene of a girl in red enduring eternal torture by a hundred chains and soul-nailing hammer. This reveals that Chi Miao bears the Yanluo Curse, a fate that has plagued her across multiple lifetimes, causing her to die young and remain a cultivator in previous lives. However, the curse has also tempered her soul to an extraordinary degree. The elders decide to accept her, with Elder Yan deliberately recording a lower root value to avoid drawing excessive attention while secretly planning to help her.
In the second round of testing, the candidates must climb the Heavenly Ladder, a trial that measures soul strength. While other disciples suffer excruciating pain from the soul pressure, Chi Miao finds the experience refreshing and pleasurable because the ladder's torment is far less than the constant agony of her curse. She climbs to the five hundredth step, breaking the existing record and triggering a blessing from the ancient artifact that pushes her directly into the mid-stage of Qi Refining. Her shameless behavior, including taunting Jin Shengfei about a bet, irritates the Heavenly Ladder itself, which verbally tells her to leave. Meanwhile, Chi Miao accidentally encounters Ying WuHuo, a cold genius with an extreme Yin body, while he is bathing. She shamelessly negotiates compensation for a minor injury he caused her, leaving him flustered and speechless. Unbeknownst to her, Ying WuHuo suspects she may possess the rare Yang spiritual root needed to balance his condition. The story concludes with Chi Miao beginning her cultivation journey at Nine Sword Mountain, unaware of the full extent of her cursed destiny and the powerful figures now watching her every move.
