This was a classic dilemma for a maid. The instinctive choice was to lie. She could say, "Yes, I'm just putting the finishing touches on this last one!" and then polish the remaining twenty vases as fast as a hummingbird. Telling the truth would mean throwing Xiao Ling under the bus and facing Head Maid Liu's anger.
Her instincts urged her to lie. Yet, the system's promise echoed in her mind. The greater the consequence, the greater the reward.
Chen Yue took a deep breath. She looked Xiao Ling in the eye. "No, they are not finished," she said, her voice steady. "In fact, I have barely started. For the last hour, I have been sitting on the floor, contemplating my existence and imagining filling Head Maid Liu's favorite teapot with pond scum."
Xiao Ling's jaw dropped. She stared at Chen Yue as if she had just grown a second head. "Are you insane?! She will make you scrub the latrines with a toothbrush for a month!"
But Chen Yue hardly heard her. As soon as the brutally honest words left her mouth, a magnificent message flashed in her mind.
[High-consequence Honesty validated. Truth Purity: 98%. Reward: Breakthrough to the Second Layer of Qi Condensation.]
BOOM!
A surge of pure energy flooded her body. It felt utterly astonishing. The barrier to the Second Layer simply vanished. The Qi in her body swirled and settled, twice as dense and powerful as before. She could sense the air around her differently and feel the faint spiritual energy flowing through the hall.
"Yue? Are you alright?" Xiao Ling asked, concerned in her voice. "Your face is all flushed. Do you have a fever?"
"I have never felt better in my life," Chen Yue said, a slow smile spreading across her face.
Xiao Ling decided to make a strategic retreat.
Chen Yue stood alone in the hall, her heart pounding with triumph. It was real. All of it. She had discovered the ultimate loophole in the universe: she just needed to be brutally honest.
This changed everything.
The rest of the evening and into the night, the Chen Family estate became Chen Yue's personal lab for applying truth. She abandoned the vases, feeling liberatingly reckless, and set out on a quest for honesty.
Her first experiment was simple. She found Guard Li, a stoic man who stood watch over the eastern gate and was rumored to enjoy embroidery.
"Guard Li," she said, approaching him with newfound confidence. "Is it true that you are currently working on a cross-stitch of a kitten playing with a ball of yarn?"
Guard Li, a giant of a man who could wrestle a spirit boar into submission, turned crimson like a ripe tomato. He sputtered and glanced around. "That is… classified information," he stammered.
[Honesty validated. Truth Purity: 85%. Reward: Qi refinement increased by 5%.]
The jolt of power was small, but present. She needed bigger truths. More consequential truths.
Her next target was Young Master Chen Bo, a cousin from a branch family known for his arrogance and terrible poetry. She found him in the gardens, preening in front of a group of junior maids while reciting his latest work.
"…and the moon, a lonely pearl," he declared, one hand dramatically on his chest, "weeping dewdrops on a world of churls."
The other maids swooned on cue. Chen Yue stepped forward.
"Young Master Bo," she said, her voice echoing across the garden. "That was a very honest poem."
Chen Bo puffed his chest. "Ah, so you appreciate true art! Tell me, what truth did you perceive in my humble words?"
"The truth is that you have the poetic skills of a constipated goose," Chen Yue replied, her face sincere. "It was painful to listen to, and I believe the moon is now weeping out of embarrassment."
The garden fell silent. The junior maids gasped. Chen Bo's face shifted from pleased, to confused, and finally to a spectacular shade of purple.
[High-impact Honesty validated. Truth Purity: 99%. Reward: Breakthrough to the Third Layer of Qi Condensation.]
BOOM!
Another effortless breakthrough. She felt the power surge through her, solidifying her new cultivation level. As Young Master Bo began to scream for the guards to seize "that insolent wench," Chen Yue was already sprinting away, laughing like a madwoman. The feeling of power was far more satisfying than a steady job.
She spent the next few hours as a whirlwind of truth. She told the head gardener that his prize-winning peonies were quite garish. She informed a group of gossiping servants that their whispers were as subtle as a charging rhinoceros. She found Manager Feng, the notoriously corrupt head of the kitchens, and told him directly that she knew he was selling the family's high-grade spirit herbs on the black market and keeping the profits.
That last one was particularly rewarding. Manager Feng had threatened her, his jowls shaking with rage, but the danger of the accusation had led to another massive power-up.
[Courageous, life-threatening Honesty validated. Truth Purity: 96%. Reward: Breakthrough to the Fourth Layer of Qi Condensation.]
She was now a Fourth Layer expert. In one evening, she had gone from being a nobody to holding a cultivation level on par with the family's elite guards.
As the moon rose high in the sky, she found a quiet spot by the spirit-fish pond to solidify her gains. She was exhilarated by power but knew she needed one more push. The Fifth Layer would put her on par with the junior family members. But what truth was left to tell? She had insulted, accused, and embarrassed half the estate's staff.