Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Little Junior Sister remained in a daze while I went to soothe my chickens and ducks; the Thunder Tribulation had given them quite a scare as well.

“Today is a day for celebration, so let’s have a special meal!”

“Eeny, meeny, miny, moe… who’s going into the pot?”

“Forget it, I’ll just pick the weakest one. You’re it!”

I snatched up a chicken that looked particularly sickly from the fright.

With a swift stroke of the blade and oil heating in the wok, the deed was done.

Half was steamed, half was braised with ginger and soy.

Little Junior Sister finally snapped out of her trance. She watched me cook, opening and closing her mouth as if she wanted to say something but couldn’t find the words.

Eventually, she managed to ask, “Senior Sister, why did you kill the weakest one? It’s still so small; it doesn’t look like it has much meat on it.”

I replied calmly, “When I lived in the mortal world, my mother did the same thing. If she saw a chicken that wasn’t going to make it, she’d slaughter it first. This chicken was so terrified it probably wouldn’t have survived the night. By killing it now, I get to eat fresh meat instead of a carcass. It’s as simple as that.”

Little Junior Sister’s mouth hung open, speechless.

After a long silence, she lowered her head dejectedly.

I gave a noncommittal grunt and focused on my cooking. When it was finished, I invited her to eat with us.

Little Junior Sister refused; she had already reached the stage of Inedia.

However, the food smelled too good, and Fubao and I were eating with such gusto that her mouth began to water. I saw her throat bob slightly as she swallowed, desperate to hide her hunger from me. She forced herself to look away, still clearly reluctant to eat that specific chicken. She looked exactly like I did as a child when my parents slaughtered the rabbit I’d raised to make a stir-fry-heartbroken, yet salivating.

Among all the disciples, she was the weakest in cultivation, which made her naturally empathetic toward even weaker animals.

She relied on the strong, yet her heart bled for the small and helpless.

I always felt she was the type to be easily swindled by anyone who knew how to play the victim.

Once I finished my meal, she summoned her courage and asked, “Second Senior Sister, do you… do you hate me?”

I paused, startled, and shook my head.

“I don’t hate you. Why would I?”

“Senior Sister, don’t lie to me. Everyone hates me now. My Senior Brothers won’t talk to me, and my Junior Brothers avoid me like the plague. It used to be that everywhere I went, people would smile and greet me. Now, everyone treats me like a pariah, terrified that my bad luck will rub off on them. But what did I actually do wrong?”

Her tears began to fall in heavy droplets.

Deep within her dark pupils lay a profound sense of grievance and resentment.

She was still young, just a girl not yet twenty.

If I expected her to suddenly grasp the grand philosophies of life and shoulder every responsibility and rumor with grace, I would be the one being unreasonable.

It would be like me demanding Fubao, a dog, to cook my meals, scrub the pots, and keep the accounts.

He’s a dog; he should do dog things.

Little Junior Sister was just a young girl. She was allowed to be naive, to make mistakes, to be lost, and even to deflect blame.

No one grows up overnight. Everyone has a past they’d rather not talk about.

I imagine that when she reaches thirty, forty, or a hundred years old and looks back at herself today, she’ll probably want to blast her younger self into dust.

But today, she was indeed childish, trying to use tears to win me over to her side, and perhaps a bit slow to take responsibility.

But so what? She’s my Little Junior Sister! Isn’t the whole point of having sisters to find the one who will be biased in your favor?

Besides, whenever I thought about how she died in our previous life, I found it impossible to blame her.

In that life, after Eldest Senior Sister died by self-detonation, the Demon Race opened a grand array, and countless Demon Creatures surged forth.

Someone claimed that the only way to seal the rift was to fill the Formation Eye with a Supreme Water Spirit Root.

Little Junior Sister was born with exactly that.

Even though she was clearly terrified, her face pale as death, she stepped forward. She jumped into the Myriad Demon Formation to fill the Formation Eye.

She was swarmed, bitten, and devoured by those creatures until her body and soul were utterly annihilated.

So, I didn’t hate her at all. She might falter in the small things, but when it came to the ultimate sacrifice, she did not fail.