Chapter 2

Chapter 2

My name was Wei Chunruo, and I had transmigrated into a novel.

Unfortunately, I awakened to that truth rather late. By the time I remembered who I was, I had already fallen hopelessly in love with Xie Qingxing.

He was the novel’s beautiful, powerful, tragic second male lead.

He met the heroine, Meng Zhiyuan, during the war between immortals and demons. Gravely wounded, Xie Qingxing was rescued by a descendant of Medicine Immortal Valley who lived in seclusion in the mountains.

That descendant was Meng Zhiyuan. Innocent and lively, she soon won his heart. But a second male lead was destined to remain a second male lead. Though he met her first, he could only watch as she fell in love with the hero.

By the time Xie Qingxing truly understood that he had lost her, the story was nearing its end.

Demon-Sealing Mountain was about to collapse. Xie Qingxing took the place of Meng Zhiyuan, the reincarnation of the mountain god, and sacrificed himself to the great formation.

I remembered all of this while searching for Xie Qingxing after he disappeared in the chaos of battle.

The moment I realized which part of the story this was, I practically threw myself onto my flying sword and raced toward the mountains outside Medicine Immortal Valley.

If I could stop Xie Qingxing from meeting Meng Zhiyuan, perhaps I could change the fate that ended with him sacrificing himself.

But I was still one step too late.

Xie Qingxing, who had once reserved his faint smiles for me alone, watched Meng Zhiyuan gather herbs with a tenderness he did not even realize was on his face.

I could not accept it.

I had missed my chance by a single step.

Before the expedition, Xie Qingxing had sat with me beneath the moon on a lonely mountain.

Under the influence of wine, I asked him, “Senior Brother Xie, if we both come back alive… will you see the green mountains of summer and the clear mountains of autumn with me?”

In the moonlight, Xie Qingxing stood tall and straight as a pine.

I waited so long that I thought he would never answer. Then, at last, his quiet reply reached me.

“All right.”

“Come back alive.”

Later, both of us did come back alive.

But he no longer wished to see those mountains with me.

Now I lay drained of strength in my youngest junior sister’s arms. She cried my name in panic while pouring spiritual energy into me.

But all of us on Yuzhao Peak practiced pure-yin techniques. Her energy could do nothing for my injuries.

Agony spread from my spiritual core into every limb and bone.

Through my blurring vision, I saw Xie Qingxing hesitate at the alarm in her voice.

She immediately pleaded with him. “Senior Brother Xie, please look at Senior Sister. Her body—”

Xie Qingxing cut her off.

“Chunruo, you never used to stoop to such despicable tricks.”

My junior sister stared at him.

When his meaning sank in, she erupted. “What despicable tricks? Have you forgotten who my senior sister shattered her meridians for? The only reason you can stand there holding that shameless woman is because—”

A vicious flash of sword light cut through the air.

The hair beside my junior sister’s temple fluttered to the floor.

Xie Qingxing’s voice was glacial. “Slander Little Dumpling again, and do not blame me for forgetting that we are fellow disciples.”

My junior sister shook with rage. Her hand went to her sword, but she could not draw it while I leaned against her.

So I drew it for her.

I had given her that sword.

Once, a spiritual sword had moved in my hand as naturally as my own arm. Now its weight felt unbearable.

I gathered the last scrap of spiritual energy in my body.

The blade shot from my hand and sliced through the hem of Xie Qingxing’s robe.

He went still.

Perhaps he had suddenly remembered that before I ruined my meridians for him, I too had been a prodigy of Ziwei Sect.

Wuxiang Peak had Xie Qingxing.

Yuzhao Peak had Wei Chunruo.

Yet now, even after exhausting all my strength, I could do no more than cut the corner of his robe.

Xie Qingxing followed the sword’s path and looked at me.

I lay against my junior sister, my face white as paper, the hand hanging by my side trembling uncontrollably.

For a moment, rare panic flashed across his face.

“Chunruo…”

Then Meng Zhiyuan stirred faintly.

“Sword Lord,” she said weakly, “perhaps you should put me down. Immortal Wei needs you more.”

Xie Qingxing instinctively tightened his arms around her.

“It’s all right. My junior brother Ning Buchen is no weaker than I am. He can nourish Chunruo’s meridians in my place.”

“But without me, you have no one to rely on.”

He convinced Meng Zhiyuan.

And he convinced himself.

All he left me was one sentence.

“Chunruo, wait for me.”

Xie Qingxing left.

I closed my eyes as my junior sister cursed him and shouted for someone to fetch Ning Buchen.

In my ears, I seemed to hear again the sigh my master had given when she learned that I had destroyed my cultivation for Xie Qingxing.

“Chunruo, no man is worth that.”

Master, you were right.

I regretted it.

Ning Buchen came quickly.

He murmured, “Forgive me,” and lifted me from my junior sister’s arms.

His warm hand closed around mine. Pure-yang spiritual energy streamed from his palm into my ruined meridians.

Cradled against him, I could not help looking at his face.

The truth was, I had known him even before I knew Xie Qingxing, his direct senior brother.

Years ago, while descending the mountain with my master to slay a demon, I dug Ning Buchen out of a pile of corpses.

The shock left him mute for a long time. He did nothing but clutch my sleeve and follow wherever I went.

My fellow disciples all suspected he could not speak.

But when my master said she would find a prosperous town and place him with a childless family, Ning Buchen suddenly caught the hem of my skirt and spoke his first words to me.

“Don’t send me away.”

My heart softened. I begged my master to bring him back to the sect.

Yuzhao Peak accepted only women. Harboring a young girl’s private hopes, I sent him to Wuxiang Peak instead.

…

My junior sister’s voice broke through my memories.

“Senior Brother Ning, are you all right?”

I came back to myself and felt the long-lost fullness in my spiritual core.

“That’s enough.”

I pulled my hand free.

No one understood the agony of an empty spiritual core better than I did.

The fool had given me most of his strength.

But Ning Buchen seized my hand again.

“Senior Sister, I can keep going.”

I tried to pull away, but his grip did not loosen.

Only then did I notice that the hand holding mine was trembling.

“Senior Sister.”

He stared at me without blinking, the faintest catch in his voice.

“Don’t marry him. Please?”