Chapter 2

Everyone relaxed.

Ye Junhua was the finest swordsman in the Nine Provinces, the male lead of the novel—and Cui Fuling’s master.

A man stepped out of the torn void, snow-white hair streaming behind him, his immortal robes stirring without wind. He walked over, picked Cui Fuling up, and healed the wound on her forehead in a few breaths. She buried her face against him and sobbed.

“I was gone for only one day. How did you end up in such a state?” Ye Junhua asked with indulgent amusement, patting her back. When he looked down at me, it was as though he were looking at an insect.

His gaze passed over my bloodstained body with distaste. “Lock her in the isolation chamber. We will hear the case later.”

He carried Cui Fuling away without allowing a reply. I pulled my numb lips into an ugly smile. What was left to hear? He was nothing but a sanctimonious accomplice. He deserved to die too.

I opened my mouth to curse him, only to discover that someone had secretly cast a silencing spell on me. Third Senior Brother stood beside the hall, hiding a communication talisman in his hand. At last I understood: their offers to take Cui Fuling’s punishment had merely been a performance to delay matters until Ye Junhua returned.

As I was dragged away, pain wracking my body, I nearly laughed. Noble cultivators, indeed. If I survived, I would grind the entire Spirit Sword Sect to dust.

That night, Cui Fuling and I were confined in separate chambers. The rooms were cut off from the outside world and bitterly cold. Her cultivated body could endure it. Mine was mortal, and within minutes I had lost all feeling.

Curled in a corner, shivering and weeping, I chewed the last medicinal herbs in my pouch and plastered the dregs over my shattered, bleeding wrist.

When I had gone gathering herbs that day, I had fallen from a cliff and struck my head. Upon waking, I learned that this world was only a cultivation novel—and that my name appeared nowhere in it.

The story merely said that Cui Fuling stormed out of her sect and, in a fit of rage, used her fire root to burn Little Fragrant Mountain bare. My home stood at its foot. By the time I stumbled back, it was too late for Father, Mother, my younger brother, and my two little sisters.

I wiped my tears away. I could not die. I had to avenge them.

Deep that night, guards secretly escorted me to Ye Junhua’s main peak. Cui Fuling was kneeling there too. He sat at a stone table drinking tea, aloof and cold.

“Cui Fuling acted rashly and will be demoted to an outer disciple. As for you—if you put aside your worldly obsessions, you may enter my tutelage and become an outer disciple of Spirit Sword Sect.”

His gaze left Cui Fuling’s reddened eyes and settled on my face. Everyone praised Immortal Junhua as righteous and impartial, an unparalleled gentleman. To become his disciple was a blessing mortals could not earn in three lifetimes.

I wanted no such blessing. “I refuse to accept this judgment.”

“The Hall of Justice has entrusted the decision to me. If you agree, I will grant you one further promise.” A quiet threat lay in his eyes.

There would be no justice. The verdict was final, whether I accepted it or not. My choices were obedience or death.

Under the cold night sky, I endured the pain and nodded. First, I had to live.

Ye Junhua smiled, contempt flickering across his face. “Once you enter an immortal sect, you must sever mortal ties. Do not mention those petty mortal grudges again. They are tiresome.”

“Very well,” I said through clenched teeth.

A nearby disciple sneered. “And here I thought she cared so deeply for her family. She was only making a scene to grasp at an immortal destiny.”

I remained on my knees. Cui Fuling swayed beside me and congratulated me through tears. “Congratulations, Junior Sister. We are fellow disciples now. Master is kind; he will surely look after you.”

In the novel, Ye Junhua had promised to accept no other female disciple and to give Cui Fuling all his tenderness for life. My arrival was an accident. Her emotions mounted until tears streamed down her lovely face. After shooting me a hateful look, she fled.

Ye Junhua sighed indulgently, set down his cup, and flew after her. I remained alone on the peak, held kneeling by the immobilization spell he had cast when I arrived. It would probably last until dawn.

On my third day in Spirit Sword Sect, the inner and outer disciples gathered to have their spiritual roots tested. Although I was called an outer disciple, in truth I only swept floors and had no right to learn immortal arts. Some mortals possessed weak mixed roots, but I had been born entirely ordinary.

“Cui Fuling: superior-grade fire root,” the steward elder announced.

The crowd gasped. Cui Fuling descended the platform pale-faced. Her root had once been a heavenly-grade root, but killing my family had damaged her Dao heart and left it incomplete.

“Don’t worry, Junior Sister. We will find a way to repair it,” her admirers promised.

“I’m fine. Look, aren’t I perfectly well?” She forced a brave smile and spun playfully, making them ache for her even more.

“You are simply too kind and conscientious,” one said. “You have slain demons among mortals for years and accumulated great merit. You only killed a few mortals by mistake. Don’t torment yourself.”

“But I feel guilty.” She stubbornly shook her head.

Then she noticed me sweeping nearby and approached, biting her lip. “I’m sorry. I never meant to kill your family. This storage pouch contains many miraculous medicines—”

“Get lost.”

I kept sweeping. Cultivation depended on a stable Dao heart. A guilty cultivator could stagnate or develop inner demons. She wanted my forgiveness only to heal herself. How could I grant it?

Her face fell. It was probably the first time she had humbled herself before a mortal. “Then what must I do for you to forgive me?”

“I. Want. You. Dead.” I met her eyes, each word deliberate.

After a long hesitation, she whispered, “If I kneel to you, will you forgive me?”

I gripped the broom and turned away before my hatred drove me to die with her. Inside the sect, I had no way to kill her.

I had taken only two steps when a burst of spiritual power struck my back. I flew through the air like a severed kite and crashed down in a cloud of dust. Agony tore through my chest, and I vomited blood.