A Laid-Back Cultivator Lies Flat and Ascends

[Pre-releases: First Secretary (Qing Dynasty transmigration) / Half-Retired Notes from the Tang Dynasty, blurbs below~] Yu Ying was a famous workaholic in the apocalypse. If work couldn't kill her, she'd work herself to death. To survive, she worked her useless light-based ability, which could only illuminate things, all the way up to level nine, becoming a renowned powerhouse among the apocalypse's major bases. But before she could start enjoying the perks of being strong, the apocalypse brought the level-ten Zombie Emperor, whom none of the bases could handle. Yu Ying: I'm tired. Let's just end it all. * After dying alongside the Zombie Emperor, she transmigrates to the cultivation world and becomes an outer disciple of Yaoguang Sect on the cultivation continent. After nine years of cultivation, she's only reached the second level of Qi Refining, and she has a five-element pseudo-spirit root. If she can't break through within another year, she'll be expelled from the sect. Yu Ying immediately lies flat: Whatever. She wants to be a laid-back fish for once, enjoy food and fun while suffering through the days until she's expelled, then go live carefree in the mortal world. Her cultivation will be more than enough for life among mortals. She'll be happy with money, free time, and another lifetime to enjoy. * Who knew her ability would come along too? While everyone else can only cultivate through their dantian, she has an extra brain domain, inside which sits a huge energy-depleted crystal core. Yu Ying: ...So I can light my way along the flower-lined paths at night? But, unexpectedly, whenever her light ability levels up, the purity of her spiritual root also slowly increases. No matter how alluringly she lies down, her cultivation speed keeps getting faster every day. Heaven: You've gone from the most good-for-nothing pseudo-spirit root to a top-tier Chaos Spirit Root. Ascension is within reach. Aren't you going to get back to grinding? Yu Ying, expressionless: I'm never grinding again, not in this life or the next. But a workaholic has only one way to live, while a laid-back fish can lie flat in countless ways. Who says you can't ascend while lying flat? Reader's Guide: 1. A goofy, laid-back progression story with a slow start and a slightly silly tone. There is a male lead, who appears midway through. 2. Paragraph comments are open. Add it to your collection~ --- Blurb for First Secretary (Qing Dynasty transmigration) --- Gu Yunying has been a workaholic since childhood. She started working at twenty-three. In her first year, she worked her way up from assistant at a private company to secretary to the boss. By her third year, she had worked her way up to secretary to the president of a joint venture. In her seventh year, just as she was about to become an assistant to a state-owned enterprise's chairman, her body gave out from working too hard, and she died. When she woke up, she had become Niohuru Yunying, a fourteen-year-old daughter born to a concubine in a duke's household, and the younger sister of Empress Xiaozhaoren. She transmigrated in the autumn of Kangxi's nineteenth year, just in time to enter the palace and care for her dying elder sister, then wait to take her place among the high-ranking consorts. Gu Yunying knows her history well and remembers the life of this Warm and Pleasant Noble Consort. One child is a fool, the other dies young, and she herself dies before turning thirty. Gu Yunying is a little dissatisfied. Surely each life shouldn't be shorter than the last? So after entering the palace, she watches Liang Jiugong for a long time, then turns around and drinks the fertility-ending medicine that would have caused her sister to miscarry and die. She plans to pick a new field and keep working herself to the bone. From assistant to the empress to secretary to the Grand Empress Dowager, Gu Yunying eventually supplants Liang Jiugong and becomes a favorite whom all the officials have to flatter. She works her way into becoming the Qing Dynasty's first secretary. This time, she works her way to success more than she did in her previous life. Kangxi, who once swore he would never marry again, makes an exception and marries her. Kangxi is just a little dismayed. As emperor, he never imagined he'd have to book an appointment in advance just to spend the night with his wife. --- Blurb for Half-Retired Notes from the Tang Dynasty --- Gu Yu, who cleared the levels in an unlimited-flow world, transmigrates into the body of Gu Yu, a young female constable in Chang'an County, Tang Dynasty. She was allowed to join Chang'an County's constabulary because her father had given his life in service to the court. Timid and not very clever, she keeps her head down and works. She's been pushed around so much that she has almost become a kitchen maid who tends the fire. When Gu Yu transmigrates, she finds herself with an empty house, a hundred taels in debt, and a sickly younger brother to support. The original owner died falling while gathering medicine for him in the mountains. Gu Yu couldn't be more pleased with her situation. No more struggling for her life day and night. She just has to clock in every day, sit in the kitchen, sneak a taste of the good food early, and watch everyone else work themselves to death over cases, tearing their hair out... Who understands the joy of having an umbrella while everyone else gets rained on? It's even better when she gets home. Pet the dog, grow flowers, secretly catch a few criminals to feed her golden finger, and raise her little brother. Perfect! This is the kind of retirement life she never dared dream of... It would be even better if that jerk surnamed Zhao in Chang'an County didn't keep trying every which way to expose her identity! Zhao Zheng, heir to the Duke of Lu, is forced to retire from the Imperial Guard after suffering a serious injury. With nothing left to live for, he is strong-armed by his imperial uncle, the emperor, into becoming magistrate of Chang'an County. As soon as he takes office, he faces several difficult cases to solve, including a series of murders that has shocked Chang'an and a poisoning at a nobleman's country estate outside the city. On top of that, he has to deal with mockery from former colleagues and ridicule from his powerful relatives and friends... His only thought is that, after thinking it over again and again, dying still seems like the better option. But before he can decide which way to die would be least painful and cause no trouble for his family, the criminals from several cases are dumped at the county yamen along with the evidence. Zhao Zheng jolts upright from his deathbed. Wait, he can still be saved! If he can find this brilliant detective and... whip her into shape... no, give her the respect she deserves, then get her to solve more cases, he might be able to lie flat and enjoy a peaceful retirement in Chang'an County. Maybe life wouldn't be so bad after all! Theme: Put scientific knowledge to flexible use.