Chapter 3
“Yu Tai, where were you during the Hour of the Goat yesterday?”
In a great hall perched above the clouds, a man whose face she could not make out sat upon the high seat. The pressure radiating from him made Yu Tai tremble where she knelt below.
“Sect Leader, this disciple was practicing swordsmanship in her cave dwelling during the Hour of the Goat yesterday,” Yu Tai replied after thinking back.
A long silence followed. Then a weary sigh drifted down from above.
“And yet someone saw that you were not within the Qingshan Sword Sect.”
The pressure intensified, forcing a mouthful of blood from Yu Tai.
“Junior Sister Yu! So this is where you are!”
In that critical moment, a young man’s voice rang out from beyond the hall.
The newcomer wore the robes of an inner disciple of the Qingshan Sword Sect. His looks were unremarkable, yet there was something about him that naturally inspired affection.
“Father.” He first bowed to the sect leader above, then turned to Yu Tai, who remained kneeling on the floor. “Junior Sister, I just realized one of my jade pendants is missing. I must have left it behind when I visited you yesterday.”
Yu Tai wiped the blood from her lips and looked up at the man beside her. “Senior Brother Jiang, I was just about to bring it back to you.”
With that, she drew a jade pendant from her sleeve and handed it to Jiang Yibai.
It was indeed the one Jiang Yibai always carried. The man on the high seat studied Yu Tai for a moment without betraying any emotion.
“Yibai, what time did you visit Yu Tai yesterday?”
Jiang Yibai answered without hesitation. “Father, your son went during the Hour of the Goat.”
—
“Senior Brother Jiang, thank you.” After leaving Xuanqing Hall, Yu Tai thanked the man before her.
Jiang Yibai had actually left the jade pendant behind the day before yesterday, but he had claimed it happened yesterday. He had plainly come to help Yu Tai.
Heartache flickered through Jiang Yibai’s eyes. His fingers twitched inside his sleeve, but in the end, he lowered his hand.
“Junior Sister, are you all right?”
The pressure of a Spirit Transformation expert was not something an ordinary person could withstand.
Cultivators in this world advanced through the stages of Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Spirit Transformation, Void Refinement, Out-of-Body, and Body Integration. Beyond those lay the legendary Mahayana and Tribulation Transcendence stages.
Jiang Wenyi, sect leader of the Qingshan Sword Sect-the foremost sect in the Middle Realm-was a Spirit Transformation cultivator.
Yu Tai publicly claimed to be at Foundation Establishment. With her above-average aptitude, that cultivation was already respectable. In truth, however, she had taken a different path as a demonic cultivator and reached Nascent Soul.
Yu Tai shook her head, unconcerned.
Her indifference dimmed Jiang Yibai’s eyes.
“Several Qingshan Sword Sect disciples died for no reason yesterday. They were all close to you, Junior Sister Yu. Please don’t blame Father.”
Surprise crossed Yu Tai’s face. “Senior Brother Li and the others…”
Her voice trailed off. Disbelief and helplessness filled her eyes, making Jiang Yibai’s heart ache all over again.
Junior Sister Yu was such an innocent, delicate young woman. For Father to suspect her was the greatest joke in the world.
“Junior Sister, why don’t you pair up with me when the Bishui Secret Realm opens in a few days?” Afraid to dwell on the subject, he changed the topic.
Yu Tai refused.
The Bishui Secret Realm was a small world opened specifically for Foundation Establishment disciples from every sect in the Middle Realm, where they could search for spirit herbs, medicinal plants, and fortuitous encounters.
Of course, in the dog-eat-dog cultivation world, the inevitable fighting and plunder were encouraged as well.
The Foundation Establishment disciples regarded the coming trial with equal parts fear and anticipation. For Yu Tai, who had already reached Nascent Soul, it would be no different from an adult masquerading as a kindergartner-she could slaughter everyone at will.
The original Yu Tai had not intended to go, but Yu Tai knew the realm held a tremendous opportunity meant for the male lead.
And she intended to steal it.
—
Back at her cave dwelling, Yu Tai could finally relax. The original owner had been proud and aloof, and Yu Tai was not going to master that role overnight.
[Beep… Contact with the host established. Connecting…]
Yu Tai stopped short as she entered the courtyard. Then she hurried inside and activated every formation.
Of course. Other people got a System when they transmigrated into a novel. How could she possibly have arrived empty-handed?
[Beep. Connection successful. Greetings, Host. I am your System.]
Yu Tai took a spirit fruit from her spatial pouch, bit into it, and nodded. “Mm. I know.”
[Please give me a name, Host.]
The System secretly began to brim with anticipation. It had dreamed of having a name ever since it was born. All the other systems had adorable, reduplicated names, and at last it would have one too!
Yu Tai thought for a moment. “I’ll call you System. It’s convenient.”
The System fell silent.
Huh?
Once a host chose its name, a System could not change it. In the end, it could only accept the name through its tears.
[Host, we are the Even Villainesses Can Turn Over a New Leaf System. As this is our first binding, you will receive a starter gift.]
Here it came! Yu Tai’s eyes lit up. This was what she had been waiting for.
[The gift contains three special advantages. Please choose one.]
[1. A mysterious ring left behind by the original owner’s father, the former Demon Lord. 2. The spirit-spring dimension every great heroine in a cultivation novel needs. 3. The undying love of a handsome man whose identity is unknown.]
Yu Tai eliminated the third option without hesitation.
A spirit-spring dimension?
After reading no fewer than a thousand novels, Yu Tai knew it should let her grow medicinal herbs, with one day outside equaling ten years within-an absurd, cheat-like advantage.
If everything worked as expected, she could also hide inside it whenever she faced a life-or-death crisis.
It sounded excellent.
Still, to be safe, Yu Tai asked one more question. “What does the spirit-spring dimension do?”
The System answered cheerfully, [You can bathe in the spirit spring! Its water beautifies your skin and raises your cultivation. If you practice dual cultivation inside, the results will be twice as effective~]
Yu Tai fell silent.
That was it? That was all?
“I choose the first option.” Her face darkened as she forced out the words and rubbed her forehead.
She should have known. As a mere supporting character, what earth-shattering advantage could she possibly expect?
She was lucky to get anything at all.
Holding the ancient-looking ring, Yu Tai pricked her finger and claimed it with her blood without the slightest hesitation.
The scene before her blurred. When she came to her senses, she was standing in another dimension.
Before her rose mountains of artifacts, spirit herbs, and scrolls, each collection taller and larger than the entire Qingshan Sword Sect. Yu Tai stared blankly as she wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth.
She… She was rich!
Thank you, former Demon Lord Daddy, whom I never met and who is already dead and reincarnated.
I will carry on your legacy!
Even after returning to her room, Yu Tai still felt as though she were floating. Who would have thought a single choice could make her fabulously wealthy?
The sensation continued for half an hour before she realized there was actually something wrong with her body.
When she tried to circulate her spiritual qi, she discovered that her meridians were hopelessly blocked. Yu Tai stared in shock.
“System, what’s wrong with my body?” she asked.
[Host, an unidentified stream of righteous qi has fused with the spiritual qi originally in your body. The two energies sustain one another. At present, you do not have enough righteous qi, so your spiritual qi has begun raging through your meridians, causing blockages that prevent circulation.]
Righteous qi. It had come from Shu Li…
“Are you saying I need a constant supply of righteous qi to maintain the balance inside me?” Yu Tai ground out.
She had miscalculated. She thought taking the chosen one’s primordial yang essence would conceal the demonic qi within her.
It had. That problem was gone for good.
But now she had a new one.
She had thought that she and Shu Li could go their separate ways from now on. What a joke.
Without him, she could no longer cultivate.
[Host? Where are you going?]
Yu Tai’s face was unreadable, but her voice seethed with resentment.
“To kidnap the male lead!”