I Ascended to Immortality on Cafeteria Food

Lu Youyou died.

The good news: She wasn't completely dead. She transmigrated, and even got a System golden finger.

The bad news: She transmigrated into the heroine of an angsty master-disciple romance novel. She has to win over the male lead and change the tragic ending.

System: Would you rather be the male lead's disciple or his cultivation partner?

Lu Youyou: Since things have come to this, I'll be the cafeteria lady serving meals!

Everyone knows cultivators don't like eating. The only people who come to the cafeteria are new disciples and odd-job workers from the sect.

There are no powerful people to bump into and no perks to take advantage of. Being assigned to the cafeteria is something everyone tries to avoid. Once assigned there, the staff all lie flat. Cooking the food through counts as a victory; trying anything new is practically murder. Every person who eats at the cafeteria looks as if they've survived a tribulation. They all eat with pale faces, then cultivate with boundless enthusiasm.

When Lu Youyou, a mortal woman who had once saved the Sword Venerable's life, volunteered to work in the cafeteria, everyone thought she was a schemer, playing hard to get. People started showing up at the cafeteria on a regular schedule, waiting for her to reveal her true colors.

But the pancakes are delicious!

Another serving of potstickers!

The malatang is amazing!

And there's hot and sour vermicelli, fried chicken, barbecue, luosifen...

Their regular visits to watch Lu Youyou reveal her true colors turned into a daily mad dash to grab seats. Her true colors? Huh? What colors? Is the cafeteria serving noodles today? Charge!

System: Your mission! You have to win over the male lead, earn the sect's approval, and become a role model for female cultivators in the cultivation world!

Lu Youyou: Just tell me, does the sect approve of me or not? Am I a role model in the cultivation world or not?

As for the male lead...

Doesn't beating him up so badly he can't move count as winning him over?

Reader's notes:

1. My own take on cultivation. It's not traditional cultivation; food is the focus, and there are lots of original worldbuilding details.

2. The male lead isn't the original novel's male lead, Sword Venerable Mingji. He appears much later.

My next planned book, The Beauty in the Restrictive Painting. Please add it to your favorites!

Blurb: One moment, Yun Rong is staying up late to revise a proposal for work. The next, she opens her eyes in a strange new place.

The scenery is beautiful, the air is full of immortal energy, and she lives in a classical villa in the mountains. She has an entire building to herself, and all her neighbors are fragrant, beautiful women. But damn it, there's still KPI pressure!

And the KPI is the number of outside men she can keep around and have further interactions with each month!

That's right. Yun Rong didn't transmigrate to a mountain resort. She transmigrated into a mural and became one of the beauties in it. Her task is to keep luring in men from the outside world to provide energy for the mural. Otherwise, she, a beauty in the mural, will have her soul scattered.

Yun Rong: “...”

This KPI is inescapable, and what seemed like a legal job is now starting to look illegal. I'm tired. Let it all fall apart. I'll live as long as I can.

As it turns out, Yun Rong lies flat, but then a serious-minded Taoist priest suddenly enters the mural. When he sees that Yun Rong isn't putting in any effort, he thinks she can still be saved and decides to guide her onto the right path.

Yun Rong: Since I can still live, I guess I'll try harder.

She asks: So what's the process for guiding me onto the right path? Tell me, and I'll see if I can cooperate.

The Taoist priest Xuan Chentong replies: First, we have to destroy this mural.

But the mural has an illusion-inducing effect, and there's no way to resist it without coming into contact with the beauties inside.

One is an honest man with an abundance of theoretical knowledge. The other is disciplined and proper, but in excellent physical condition and very strong, a practical sort. To get out of the mural, the two of them put in the work together.

Again and again.

Yun Rong: How much longer?

Xuan Chentong apologizes earnestly: I'm sorry, we need to try again.

Yun Rong: ...Then let's try again.

At last, the two of them manage to get out. Yun Rong is thrilled: I'm free!

But then she realizes there's a silent tail following her, insisting he has to take responsibility for her.

Yun Rong: I don't need you to.

Xuan Chentong presses his lips together: Then could I ask you to guide me onto the right path, too?

Theme: Put your heart into every little thing you do, and strive to become your own role model