The Abused-Novel Female Lead Holds a Mad Brush - Chapter 24
Chapter 24: Beep
Yu Jiaxue had no idea that her simple three-character name had once again stirred up a wave of chaos in front of the Water-Moon Mirror.
She vigilantly scanned her surroundings.
When facing the unknown, a project manager is always on high alert!
White feathers fluttered, smoke rolled lazily, and heaven and earth were obscured in a hazy, boundless white.
Yu Jiaxue only vaguely remembered a floating vessel before her—wide at the top and narrow at the bottom—before a mechanical voice asked for her name.
Put this in anyone else’s shoes, and wouldn’t they think the system was lagging?
[…Normal people wouldn’t!]
Yu Jiaxue: Oh!
Yu Jiaxue: “It really wasn’t you?”
System 999 was speechless for three full seconds before finally speaking: [No. This is the beginning of the second stage of the trial. In this trial, the host’s memories of arriving in this world and the plot of the book “After I Died, They Went Crazy” will be temporarily sealed.]
[But the host need not worry; this system will assist in a timely manner from the sidelines and won’t let anyone discover the host’s identity as an outsider.]
Yu Jiaxue frowned.
“My memories have to be sealed? Even with you here?”
Having one’s memory sealed by someone else felt a bit weird.
[No.] 999 flatly refused. [Floating Life Gourd is a supreme treasure of this realm, tied to the karma of heaven and earth. As an external force, the system cannot contend with it either.]
Especially given how thoroughly Yu Jiaxue had scrambled the previous task.
However, this realm happened to be the most suitable place for System 999 to retire. If it could accumulate enough energy to replace the fading Heavenly Dao, it would naturally surpass all artifacts of heaven and earth.
999 fell silent for another few seconds, intending to communicate this to the host later.
But right now…
[It is best for the host to fill in your name as soon as possible.]
The mechanical voice of 999 was filled with a familiar numbness.
Stop messing around!
It couldn’t take much more!
Fine, whatever.
Once Yu Jiaxue figured it out, she didn’t offer much resistance.
She’d have to get through this trial sooner or later anyway. Close your eyes, open them again, and it’ll all be over.
Yu Jiaxue glanced at the Floating Life Gourd floating about half a meter in front of her. Wisps of white smoke drifted from the mouth of the pot.
As if sensing Yu Jiaxue’s gaze, the white smoke drifted and twirled, forming the shape of a writing brush before leisurely landing in the palm of her hand.
The surroundings remained stark white, yet this white was far from thin. At the very lowest layer were pristine white clouds, thick and heavy enough to cradle everything in this realm.
The white mists billowed upward like unopened flower buds, dissolving the instant they rose to the highest vault of the sky.
Layer upon layer of bright white, drifting and pristine.
Only this golden gourd spun ceaselessly, becoming the sole splash of vibrant color in the quiet void.
Even with all the bizarre and supernatural methods 999 had witnessed as a system, it couldn’t help but be dazzled for a brief second.
As expected of the Xihe Sect! Their aesthetic is truly top-tier!
Taking a moment to check on its host, 999 found that Yu Jiaxue was also standing quietly in place.
Her eyes—unrealistically gorgeous—were fixed firmly on the spectacle before her.
The deep, churning emotions swirling within them inexplicably sent a chill down 999’s spine, breeding a sense of ungrounded panic.
What is she thinking? Does she want to tear up this trial again?
No, she can’t do that!
But why were her eyes full of such dark, churning emotions? The system panicked. In all sorts of angst novels, this usually meant—
“…Such a cool opening!” Yu Jiaxue muttered.
Her internal genes as a game project manager surged wildly, and her sense of possession spiked dramatically.
Even as she raised her hand to write the characters for “Your Ancestor,” she still couldn’t help but stare longingly and fiercely at the Floating Life Gourd.
So pretentious.
It matches her so well.
She wants it!
System 999: “?”
Sect Master Xihe-jun: “?”
As the owner of the Floating Life Gourd, why did he suddenly feel the goosebump-inducing sensation of being locked onto by a fierce beast?
The joys and sorrows of mortals are never truly connected.
Unless they share the exact same experience.
Take right now, for instance.
Instantly reading the look in Yu Jiaxue’s eyes, Du Shuangxiao cast a sympathetic glance at the Sect Master.
And was caught red-handed by his own master.
Daoist Yuanru found it rather novel.
His eldest disciple always wore a stern expression.
Even when junior brothers and sisters gathered to brew tea, drink wine, and enjoy moments of refined leisure, Du Shuangxiao would still sit upright with a solemn face.
As a master, Daoist Yuanru rarely saw Du Shuangxiao display such clear and transparent emotions, so it was inevitable that a sense of wonder arose in his heart.
Of course, considering his status as a Daoist, Yuanru wouldn’t show it too obviously.
Maintaining the most popular “cold and aloof master” persona in the current immortal cultivation world, his expression didn’t shift; he merely raised an eyebrow slightly, let out a low, soft chuckle, and asked, “Shuangxiao, why are you looking at the Sect Master like that?”
Du Shuangxiao’s facial muscles twitched violently. He lowered his head, bowed in salute, and said with restrained grievance, “Master, please forgive this disciple’s rudeness…”
Seeing him like this, a wave of emotional resonance welled up in Daoist Yuanru’s heart.
“Speak your mind!” Daoist Yuanru waved a grand sleeve, kicking up a gentle breeze as he assumed an ethereal posture.
How many years had it been? Every time he immersed himself in romance scripts and personally acted them out—cough… all in the name of seeking enlightenment—anyway, whenever he did this, his eldest disciple would always pull a long face and stay dead silent, completely failing to give this master any face.
Extremely unappreciative.
It was rare for his eldest disciple to be so cooperative today—
“—Master, when you laughed just now, you made a ‘kheh-heh-heh’ sound.”
Du Shuangxiao remained expressionless, as if completely unfazed.
Only the nerves at the corners of his eyes kept twitching, belying the boiling, restless state of his inner heart.
Daoist Yuanru: “…”
Daoist Yuanru: “…………”
Three seconds later, Daoist Yuanru hypocritically twitched the corners of his mouth.
“Shuangxiao, the tone you used when you uttered those three words just now was unprecedentedly lively as well.”
Such a kindly smile, yet such a sharp tongue!
Every single word pierced through all illusions of a calm and perfect facade like a blade, leaving the dripping, bloody truth scattered right before their eyes, completely unconcerned with whether the onlookers could bear it or if their hearts felt broken into pieces…
As expected of his own master! As expected of the Peak Master of Xihe Sect’s Yuge Peak, who entered the Dao through “scrolls”!
Du Shuangxiao was inwardly terrified, but on the outside, he grew even more serene.
“Master.”
The eldest disciple of Yuge Peak lowered his eyes slightly, concealing the dark vortex gathering within them, making his usually stern face soften.
He didn’t look like Yuge Peak’s solemn and dignified senior brother at all but rather like a handsome, literary scholar playing with ink in the mortal world.
However, Daoist Yuanru knew that all of this was an illusion!
The moment Du Shuangxiao opened his mouth, everything would change!
Daoist Yuanru tried to stop him.
“Shuangxiao…”
Yet, he was ultimately a step too slow.
Du Shuangxiao parted his lips and said with unflustered poise, “Master, why did you use ‘those three words’ as a substitute instead of saying the original sentence?”
Hitting the nail right on the head.
Such a calm face, such a vicious heart.
Daoist Yuanru looked up with a heart-rending expression, while Du Shuangxiao stood his ground without backing down an inch.
Their gazes clashed in mid-air with crackling intensity, neither willing to yield.
The hypocritical master-disciple bond was teetering on the edge of shattering at this very moment!
The junior disciples at the bottom of Yuge Peak were long used to such spectacles, but the disciples of Chiyun Peak to the side were watching with dropped jaws.
A little girl reached out timidly.
Bound by propriety, she didn’t dare point at the two of them, so she could only cautiously extend a single finger, her voice trembling as she asked, “Senior Brother L..Liu… is…is everything really alright over there?”
Do they really not need someone to give them a medical checkup?
“It’s fine.”
Check what? They brought it on themselves.
Liu Rushiu pondered for a moment, then lowered his voice.
“Next time a disciple from Yuge Peak comes for treatment regarding heart or brain ailments, charge them double.”
Judging by the mental state of Yuge Peak’s Peak Master and senior disciple, their Chiyun Peak was about to make a fortune!
The little girl came to a sudden realization and said brightly, “Understood, Senior Brother!”
Mu Yihe, the second disciple of Yuge Peak who had always maintained his “elegance” and kept silent, suffered a violent twitch of his facial muscles.
“…Ahem, ahem!”
I’m not deaf! I heard that!
Logically speaking, the commotion over here was just a fleeting moment. Even though Daoist Yuanru and his disciple hadn’t hidden their conversation from others, it shouldn’t have drawn too much attention.
However, Yu Yinglian had just recovered his memories, and his spiritual intellect was in a state of hyper-excitement.
Although his spiritual energy had not yet recovered even one-tenth of its former peak, his years of instinct for picking fights and stirring up trouble prompted him to listen in crystal-clear detail to the exchange between Yuge Peak’s master and disciple, as well as the conversation between Chiyun Peak’s senior brother and junior sister.
Heh-heh-heh, Du Shuangxiao, you big brow-and-big-eyed hypocrite, your day has finally come!
Thinking back to when his memories were temporarily sealed, this same Senior Brother Du had used a rigid, by-the-book tone to lecture him.
“Do not act rashly,” “Do not move rashly,” “Actions must be upright, words must be elegant.”
Looking at Du Shuangxiao now, Yu Yinglian couldn’t stop laughing.
Laughing to the point where he knew he shouldn’t make too much noise, yet he wasn’t someone who could hold things in.
Back then, he had made it to Demon Lord purely by “being able to fight.”
You could say that under heaven, there was virtually nothing capable of giving Yu Yinglian pent-up frustration.
Seeing more and more people noticing the commotion over here, Shen Xuezhu felt helpless in his heart.
He curved his brows, offered an apologetic smile to the disciples casting curious glances around them, and then sighed, drawing an item from his storage ring.
“Junior Brother, it’s time for your medicine.”
Yu Yinglian, whose mouth had just been stuffed with a giant spiritual ganoderma: Mmm-mmm-mm-mmm-mmm!
Fine.
There was something in this world that could frustrate him.
Dammit, Shen Xuezhu, you dog, you just wait! This Lord isn’t finished with you!
Curse words filled Yu Yinglian’s mind as he chewed on the spiritual ganoderma.
Once he calmed down, however, he managed to taste a somewhat different flavor.
In the past, the entire Xihe Sect had felt dead and gloomy, draped in the name of “elegance.”
The Seven Peaks stood loftily isolated, with disciples from each peak holding themselves in high self-regard, almost never interacting.
Even when they crossed paths, their chins were kept parallel to the ground.
Especially those from Yuge Peak—leaving aside Du Shuangxiao for a moment, that Mu Yihe wore an icy expression every time they met, his gaze full of disdain, arrogant as if he were the supreme sovereign above the heavens and everyone else was beneath him.
Right now, though, there was unexpectedly a bit more… well, vitality?
“It’s cohesion,” Shen Xuezhu corrected.
He lowered his eyes, a faint smile still lingering at the corners of his mouth.
At the same time, without changing his expression, he pulled out a short section of a soul-refining chain that had embedded itself into his wrist.
The chain had been buried deep in flesh and bone for far too long, almost fusing with him; pulling it out produced a bone-chilling, muffled sound.
Even though Yu Yinglian had once run amok in the demon realm and witnessed countless bloody clashes of blades and swords, hearing this still made his teeth ache.
Yet Shen Xuezhu himself remained entirely unaffected.
That otherworldly, pure-and-transcendent face still wore a gentle layer of smiles.
The blood welling up from his wrist evaporated into the air the moment it emerged, leaving only a red ring on his porcelain-white skin.
Having set up layers of illusion arrays, Shen Xuezhu naturally didn’t worry about outsiders noticing anything amiss.
While tearing off all the chains he could pull free, he offered an explanation to enlighten Yu Yinglian.
“The Xihe Sect has been lax up and down, each plotting for themselves. It has been far too long since they gathered together with such unified purpose.”
One had to admit, when he wasn’t losing his temper, Shen Xuezhu’s disposition was genuinely pleasant.
He truly lived up to the praise the crowd had given the Jiuyou True Monarch back in the day and easily bore the title of the top spot on the “Glaze Beauty Rankings.”
Yu Yinglian hooked the corners of his lips, revealing the seductive, unbridled smile that belonged to the Demon Lord of those years.
“Hh, indeed. Who knows what these people are thinking every day? Even after cultivating immortality, they still scheme against each other just like mortals. If they don’t purge their mental karmic obstacles, aren’t they afraid of falling into demonic deviation?”
Shen Xuezhu fell silent for a brief second, then gently reminded him with a good temper.
“The one who suffered a deviation and went crazy back then was you.”
Yu Yinglian: “…”
Fingering that section of the chain, Shen Xuezhu thought for a moment, furrowed his brow, and pondered earnestly.
“As for what they think about every day? Probably most disciples are worrying about whether their soul-imprints will appear or if their soul-imprints will be too faint.”
Yu Yinglian, once again catching a stray bullet: “…………”
“Also,” Shen Xuezhu lowered his gaze, his fingertips tracing the soul-refining chain as he spoke lightly, “can you stop smiling so weirdly all the time?”
Yu Yinglian: “?”
Yu Yinglian: “Why?”
Shen Xuezhu said earnestly: “Noisy.”
As he spoke, the chain at Shen Xuezhu’s fingertips began to emit a faint, ghostly glow.
Silver mixed with dried blood, extraordinarily chilling.
That dim yet dazzling color seemed to reflect the resentment-filled souls of ghosts from the netherworld, making anyone feel a bone-deep freeze at a single glance, utterly unwilling to cast even a fraction of a glance more.
Yu Yinglian opened his eyes wide in horror.
This is a threat, right? It definitely is a threat!
What is the meaning of this! She can smile like that, but I can’t?!
Besides, is repeatedly whipping the corpse of a socially-dead-crane truly going to bring you joy?
Shen Xuezhu nodded, his tone mild and elegant: “Yes.”
Yu Yinglian: “…”
Some questions aren’t actually meant for you to answer!
Seemingly recalling something, Shen Xuezhu’s eyelashes fluttered, and the hostility that had just risen in his brows dissipated greatly, turning soft and earnest.
“And… it is indeed true that she can, while you cannot.”
After all, there is still an essential difference between a vibrant, interesting junior and a long-winded, noisy crane.
Yu Yinglian, who had accidentally let his thoughts slip out loud at some point: “…”
“Ahem, let’s keep watching the Junior Sister, then.”
Catching sight of the soul-refining chain dissolving between Shen Xuezhu’s fingertips, Yu Yinglian shivered, abruptly changing the subject with a tone of submissiveness he hadn’t even noticed himself.
Hmph, so what if the Yu family produced one, two, three, four, five, six, seven… ahem, at most a few hundred traitors!
Did he really have to hold such deep prejudices against their Honghu Jade Crane clan?!
“This stage requires someone to mix in and hold down the fort. That dead bird from Poshang Peak is no longer present, and Zhu Xingchui is likely inside as well. Speaking of which, why on earth did you insist on letting Fourth Junior Sister go in? Weren’t you afraid that dead bird would stab her in the back? KHeh-heh-heh—oh wait, no, it’s ha-ha, no, that’s not right either…”
Yu Yinglian opened his mouth, and amidst a heart full of panic, he let out the most primitive call of an avian species—
“Caw.”
He had decided!
From now on, this would be his only modal particle!
Shen Xuezhu let out a slow laugh.
“No matter, I wasn’t targeting you just now.”
He paused, looking thoughtful.
“The destinies of everyone on Wangshu Peak are entangled with the Way of Heavenly Travel. I have also divined a path out before, but my karmic affinity was too shallow, and I never found the method.”
“Only this trial… is a complete unknown.”
Since it was an unknown, it meant the predetermined fate had already begun to sway.
Yu Jiaxue remained oblivious to the strife both inside and outside the Water-Moon Mirror.
In fact, due to the effect of the Floating Life Dream, she had completely forgotten she was even participating in a trial.
On the edge of a sheer cliff, raging waves crashed against the stone walls, their heavy, overlapping roars sounding in succession.
The sea wind swirled upward from below, carrying a fishy stench that made breathing difficult, as if it intended to grind a person to pieces amidst the gale.
“Hahahahaha!”
The man in black let out a strange laugh.
“Young Master Xuan surely never expected to have a day like this!”
Yu Jiaxue looked silently at everything before her.
She was currently being taken hostage.
Not just her, but beside her was also… well, probably a woman?
Yu Jiaxue blinked, and everything before her remained unchanged.
Simply preposterous.
[…The host need not panic. You have transmigrated into a book. I cannot mention the name, but right now you are in the sect trial…]
The system’s intermittent electronic voice arrived, striving to use every unrestricted condition to explain the current situation to the host.
However, Yu Jiaxue’s deeply furrowed brow did not relax: “I know all the tropes…”
She glanced sideways at the entity resembling a young girl beside her, shifted her gaze to the man in black holding her hostage, and finally even took a look at the tormented man forced into a difficult choice opposite them.
“…But why do they all look like pixelated sprites from an RPG game?”
[Caw?]
The system, which had been lecturing endlessly, abruptly cut off its train of thought.
[…Please, Host, do not joke around.]
Yu Jiaxue’s brow furrowed even deeper.
She wasn’t joking at all.
In Yu Jiaxue’s current field of vision:
The distant mountain was a lump of irregular stone-gray pixel blocks;
The nearby trees were long strips of irregular brown-and-green pixel blocks;
The man in black holding her hostage right in front of her was a lump of black pixel blocks;
The woman held hostage alongside her was a cluster of dark-reddish pixel blocks;
The man not far away, who looked conflicted and in agony, was a pixel block twisted into a shape fit for crawling;
Put them together:□□□□□
In short, all living beings were equal—they were all blocks.
Either a cluster or a lump, with no fundamental difference in essence.
What a hellish, horrifying art style!
Yu Jiaxue drew a sharp breath, her inner suspicions growing heavier.
What kind of xianxia novel adopts this kind of immortal-hero RPG art style?!
If the fellow in her head calling himself “System 999” wasn’t lying…
Then she must be undergoing a trial at some backyard, second-rate sect!
What proper sect uses an art style like this for trials?!
Still… this ugly-cute pixel art style—why did it look more and more familiar?
Yu Jiaxue tried hard to recall, attempting to dredge up a memory.
Seeing her remain silent, the dark-red lump beside her seemed to glance at her, while the black-clad man holding her hostage laughed even more frantically.
He tightened his grip, shoving the two women in front of him forward.
“Hahahahahahahahaha! For all Young Master Xuan’s meticulous planning, I’ll bet he never expected these two women to fall into my hands, eh?”
The next second, the expression on the man in black’s face twisted fiercely.
“If you and your guards dare take even one step closer, I’ll throw both of them into the sea!”
Xuan Yeyang’s handsome face grew even colder. He raised a hand to halt his eager subordinates and said in an icy tone, “Neither of these two women has anything to do with me. Your grievances are with the Xuan family—do not drag innocent bystanders into this!”
“Hmph! Unrelated?”
The man in black laughed wildly, his face covered in twisted madness.
“Does Young Master Xuan take me for a fool?”
“These two women—one is your childhood sweetheart and fiancée, the other is your newly favored flame who has been the talk of the town. Tsk tsk, with a little face like that, no wonder your heart is all aflutter.”
The man in black tried to pinch Yu Jiaxue’s cheek but suddenly gave a start, as if he had been locked onto by some hidden, lurking beast.
Why was that?
Seeing him pause, Zhu Xingchui, who was being held captive by him, cast a faint glance his way.
The man in black dazed for a moment, a mechanical bewilderment flashing through his eyes, and completely abandoned the thought of pinching Yu Jiaxue’s face.
“Hmph, anyway, only one of them gets to live! As for who survives, Young Master Xuan can choose for himself!”
Xuan Yeyang took a deep breath, attempting a soft-handed approach.
“I can give you the Xuan family’s secret treasure, the Chengxin Sword, and promise never to pursue—”
“Too late!”
The man in black stiffened his neck, twisted, manic grins spreading across his face.
For a moment, his features were so ferocious he looked less like a human and more like a mindless beast.
“I don’t want anything now!” The man in black gnashed his teeth, pulling the two women in his grasp tighter as he took another step back.
“I just want you to taste the pain I once experienced!”
“Hahahahaha! The high-and-mighty Young Master Xuan surely never imagined that one day he’d be stepped under the foot of a lowly commoner like me!”
Xuan Yeyang clamped his teeth together, the arrogance that always graced his features vanishing instantly.
Powerless.
He looked at the two women being used as leverage against him, his eyes gradually turning red, the fingertips hanging at his sides beginning to tremble.
Xuan Yeyang parted his lips, only to find his throat too dry to squeeze out a single sound.
Or perhaps, he didn’t want to make any sound at all.
If he could, Xuan Yeyang would rather be covered in scars himself than see either of these two women suffer the slightest injury.
“Hurry up and make your choice, Young Master Xuan!”
A flash of extreme, agonizing pain crossed Xuan Yeyang’s eyes.
He was the young master of the Xuan family.
The woman in red opposite him was the daughter of the renowned Golden Saber Zhu family across the four seas and various nations—and his betrothed since childhood.
Childhood sweethearts, a match made in heaven.
They should have united amidst everyone’s blessings, held a grand wedding, treated each other with mutual respect, played the zither and flute in harmony, and become a legendary romance whispered across the lands.
But all of that changed the moment Xuan Yeyang laid eyes on the woman in white standing beside the red-clad woman.
She was clearly just a little maidservant.
Though her features were delicate, moving, and deserved the word “stunning,” her background was truly too humble.
Logically speaking, she wouldn’t even be able to touch the hem of Young Master Xuan’s garments.
Yet on that day—amidst a fine drizzle, beneath the flowers and the moonlight—he turned back for one extra glance in the crowd.
A single glance of breathtaking beauty, a sudden turning of the head.
Four eyes met, and it was total damnation.
From that moment on, Xuan Yeyang knew he had fallen into a tightly woven net of emotion, and the tension of that net was controlled entirely by another.
He had plunged into an abyss, and the name of that abyss was love!
Xuan Yeyang closed his eyes in agony.
Logically speaking, Xuan Yeyang knew he should stay away, but emotionally, he simply couldn’t control himself from thinking about her.
The moment he closed his eyes, he could picture her face; the moment he lifted his gaze, her voice materialized; the moment he turned back, her laughter echoed…
Wait a minute.
Her laughter?
Xuan Yeyang’s painful expression suddenly froze for a split second.
At that exact moment, a scene abruptly popped into his mind—
A cool night breeze, the moon sinking like water.
Before a massive expanse of blooming poppies, a young girl in white stood quietly.
A gentle breeze blew, her sleeves fluttering, and her ink-black hair danced with the wind.
A shred of moonlight gently draped over her, rendering her all the more dreamlike.
Floating independent, as if about to transform and ascend to immortality as an immortal.
He had stood behind her, calling out with deep affection, “Xue’er.”
The moonlight softened that call, adding a threefold layer of deep sentiment.
The peerless beauty turned her head, her face—so breathtaking it didn’t belong to the mortal realm—glowing with stellar moonlight.
The peerless beauty curved her brows.
The peerless beauty smiled brightly.
The peerless beauty parted her delicate lips.
The peerless beauty said—
“Ah-ha-ha-Kheh-Kheh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh!”
Xuan Yeyang instantly went black in front of his eyes, feeling as though he had been slammed by some heavy object, and a fierce, sharp pain struck his chest!
What is heartache?!
This is heartache!
Pulling time back to the very beginning.
In front of the Water-Moon Mirror, things were bustling with lively chatter.
“Hey, that female disciple has already forgotten her name…”
“Don’t go in there! There’s an assassin in that room!—Ah, how tragic!”
“Alas and alack! What this disciple fears most is rats, but the moment he entered the Floating Life Dream, he saw a house full of rats… Ah, I’m afraid he’s done for.”
“Fearing abandonment by parents and older brothers most… what a pitiful child.”
“Eh? This person’s greatest fear is being unable to write characters? What an earnest little fellow Daoist—”
“Jiuyou True Monarch above! How is there someone still worrying that they won’t be able to spend all their money?!”
The final exclamation clearly piqued the interest of most disciples present, and everyone simultaneously turned their gazes toward the Water-Moon Mirror from which the voice originated.
There, the Water-Moon Mirror displayed a young master of tender years.
He possessed handsome features, deserving of the description “youthful and dashing,” except…
The onlookers couldn’t help muttering:”Isn’t this outfit a bit too wealthy?”
On top of this young master’s head rested a giant golden crown about two feet long, carved into the shape of a lotus flower.
However, what made up this flower were not petals, but nine golden dragons of various shapes and postures, each holding a night-pearl the size of a fist in its jaws.
The dragon bodies gleamed brightly, inlaid with countless colorful gems and dazzling treasures.
And that was just what was on his head.
“His clothes are made of pure gold thread paired with top-tier warm jade…”
“Hiss! Look at his fingers! He’s stacking thumb rings right up to his nails!”
“Even his shoe-lasts are carved from gemstones!”
The disciples below watched with dropped jaws.
Unable to suppress their emotions any longer, completely swept up by the scene within the Water-Moon Mirror, Sect Master Xihe-jun looked on with a few moments of interest.
“Is this the young Master Pei mentioned earlier by Master Yiyao?”
Master Yiyao nodded.
He didn’t care about Pei Tianming’s current disheveled state, instead stating frankly, “This child has a pure disposition, steady brushwork, and exceptional talent on the path of cultivation.”
Hearing this, Daoist Yuanru immediately raised an eyebrow and said with acidic sarcasm, “It’s rare indeed to hear Master Yiyao offer such praise. But when it comes to temperament, I’m afraid no one in this batch can be steadier than that little friend Yu. How come I didn’t hear Master praising her?”
Master Yiyao’s hand paused mid-gesture, a complex look crossing his face as he failed to immediately retort.
To be honest, from the very first glance, he hadn’t liked Yu Jiaxue.
Master Yiyao came from a mortal aristocratic family.
Though he had spent many years in the Xihe Sect, he still carried some stubborn biases regarding certain matters.
In his eyes, women should primarily be submissive and delicate.
If Yu Jiaxue’s behavior belonged to a young man, it would naturally be considered dashing and unrestrained—even praised as “quick-witted.”
But she was a woman after all; acting in such an uninhibited, unruly fashion was simply too unconstrained.
Such had been Master Yiyao’s initial thought.
And now, a slight shift had occurred.
“…Though that female disciple acts absurdly and without restraint, her heart doesn’t truly seem bad.”
Master Yiyao gave a cold snort, lifting his chin proudly.
“If no one else wants her in the end, this peak master wouldn’t mind taking her into Poshang Peak.”
His words sounded far too arrogant. Not only Daoist Yuanru, but even Sect Master Xihe-jun beside him furrowed his brow.
Yu Yinglian felt his internal anger flare up even more; he had long since regarded Yu Jiaxue as his own junior sister and made to slam the table and stand up—
“Master’s words are quite mistaken.”
A voice was faster than his, and to everyone’s surprise, the speaker was Shen Xuezhu, who had remained quiet and silent for a long time.
Suppressing his smile, Shen Xuezhu put down his teacup, his expression flat as he said, “This little friend Yu has an exceptional temperament, a purely kind-hearted nature, and is adept at flexible adaptation and cherishing comradeship. Such a disciple, wherever she is placed, will surely be a sought-after figure who achieves greatness in due time. Where does ‘no one wants her’ come from?”
“Master’s words are truly biased.”
Shen Xuezhu stared fixedly at Master Yiyao, the smile on his lips fading until only the natural upward curve of his mouth remained.
“Even… to the point of being laughable.”
The entire hall fell silent.
Even the disciples who had been noisily watching moments before didn’t dare make a peep.
Cyan garments and a jade hairpin, black hair and snowy skin.
This ought to have been an extremely beautiful, extremely cold look.
Yet the moment Shen Xuezhu stopped smiling, that stunning visage instantly went cold, his brow imbued with aloofness.
His eyes, however, were like the ripples of a freezing abyss—pitch black, casting a terrifying chill when fixed upon someone.
It gave people the unknown dread of being locked onto by a non-human entity.
Under that gaze, Master Yiyao felt his blood freeze in an instant.
A creep-out sensation surged, yet he didn’t dare try to escape.
The feeling came and went too fast for Master Yiyao to catch it before it vanished.
Was it an illusion?
Recovering his wits, Master Yiyao instinctively glanced at Shen Xuezhu.
After all, the entire Xihe Sect knew that though Shen Xuezhu had possessed methods in his early years, for many years he had lingered in the early Foundation Establishment stage without progress, which had nearly become his inner demon. Coupled with his chronic frail health—even his master, Qingyunzi, had traveled far and wide seeking medicine for him, leaving his whereabouts unclear—it was one thing for clueless little disciples to praise him wildly, but he, Master Yiyao, was a dignified Nascent Soul cultivator; there was no reason for him to be scared like this by a sickly, frail disciple.
Snapping back to reality, Master Yiyao prepared to crush him with his superior aura.
“After all, she’s just a junior—”
“I actually think the acting peak master of Wangshu Peak makes a fair point.”
True Monarch Ninggui raised a hand, her slender fingers casually tracing the outline of an osmanthus flower in the void.
Watching it drift down to land in her palm, she let out a soft sigh, “That child’s posture and temperament are flawless in every way, and I happen to quite like her myself. Since you said that, Yiyao, don’t fight me for her when the time comes.”
Master Yiyao choked on her words, belatedly remembering that after Qingyunzi left on his long journey, all matters of Wangshu Peak were managed by Shen Xuezhu in his stead.
An acting peak master possessed all the authority of a true peak master.
In other words, Master Yiyao truly couldn’t suppress Shen Xuezhu with mere pressure.
Thinking of this, Master Yiyao’s face grew even darker.
“People haven’t even come out yet, and they’ve already caused two peak masters to dispute over her. It seems this little friend Daoist is indeed quite a hot commodity.”
Sect Master Xihe-jun stroked his beard, smiling good-naturedly.
“Ninggui speaks wisely. But let’s establish this first: even if Yiyao won’t fight you, I’m afraid I’ll have to contend with you for her when the time arrives.”
The implication was crystal clear.
For Xihe-jun, who was accustomed to using “refined speech” to euphemistically express his views, this was already considered rare.
The scene fell silent once more.
To everyone’s surprise, however, it was True Monarch Wanren who spoke first.
“Let’s watch the upcoming trial first.”
Before Master Yiyao could feel grateful for someone changing the subject, he heard the other add thoughtfully,”Who knows, in the final stage, her soul-imprint might turn out to be related to the sword.”
Master Yiyao: …
Plastic friendships, every single one of them!
Accustomed to viewing himself as extraordinary, how could Master Yiyao stomach such repeated gibes? Just as he was about to retort, a commotion suddenly erupted from the side of the water screen.
“Oh! It’s the number one of the Hongmeng Scroll!”
“First or second? Watch your tongue, that’s the young master of the Xuan family, Xuan Yeyang.”
“I have to say, this Xuan family young master’s opening is quite interesting.”
“Yeah, I heard from their dialogue that both kidnapped women share romantic ties with him? Looks like Young Master Xuan’s theme revolves around ‘choice’?”
A wave of discussion rippled through the crowd.
“I’m truly curious, who is that person opposite him? Why are they so hazy and blurry, refusing to show themselves clearly?”
“Most likely just a manifestation conjured by the Floating Life Dream.”
Mu Yihe withdrew his gaze and sat gracefully behind Daoist Yuanru.
“This scenario is indeed interesting. What does Senior Brother think?”
Du Shuangxiao pondered briefly and replied, “It could be hesitation.”
“It’s arrogance.”
A clear, crisp voice cut into their conversation, coming from a seat on another peak.
Du Shuangxiao instinctively turned his head to see Shen Xuezhu—seated front-right of them—turning his face slightly, smiling delightfully as he enlightened them.
“You shouldn’t just look at the surface of things; one must peel back the layers to extract the key. For instance, what that man in black said clearly indicates a grievance with the Xuan family in this scenario, hinting between the lines that Xuan Yeyang looks down on ‘lowly commoners.’ Thus, what this little friend Xuan has to overcome in this trial, aside from those subtle ‘hesitations,’ is most importantly the arrogance buried deep within his heart.”
Shen Xuezhu’s explanation was exceptionally detailed, his attitude wonderful, completely devoid of the rumored cold hostility. Instead, he felt as gentle as a spring breeze capable of melting a drizzle.
Du Shuangxiao and Mu Yihe were instantly flattered.
“Thank you for the guidance, Eldest Senior Brother.”
Shen Xuezhu shook his head.
“Hardly guidance, I’ve merely lived a few years longer than you and seen more.”
“If you need anything afterward, feel free to come to Wangshu Peak to discuss things.”
These words made Du Shuangxiao and Mu Yihe feel even warmer inside.
Even someone like Du Shuangxiao, who wore a permanent poker face, put away his sharpness at that moment, evidently filled with deep admiration for their Eldest Senior Brother, Shen Xuezhu.
Yu Yinglian, eavesdropping to the side: “.”
Spare me, stop acting. As if anyone doesn’t know you’re just trying to piss people off.
Look over there—old man Yiyao was practically driven half-mad by him.
“Oh! The person opposite the Xuan family young master is actually the number two of the Hongmeng Scroll, that female disciple with the surname Yu!”
“What female disciple with the surname Yu? The girl has a name;it’s Yu Jiaxue!”
Someone had unexpectedly begun standing up for Yu Jiaxue.
Perhaps they hadn’t even realized it themselves, but unlike the cumbersome titles they used when mentioning Xuan Yeyang just moments ago, three characters were all it took to refer to her.
“It’s ‘Your Ancestor’!”
The outer sect disciples could no longer suppress their excitement.
“It’s actually her who got kidnapped—she’s the one playing the role of the hostage!”
Though the statement was jumbled, it didn’t hinder understanding.
In an instant, almost everyone’s gaze focused on the final panel that had emerged.
Yu Jiaxue couldn’t care less.
The world was bustling and noisy, but she—oh wait!
The pixelated sprites were simply too absurd; before the shock had faded, Yu Jiaxue discovered a second wave of absurdity.
She couldn’t hear a single sound right now!
All the dialogue appeared via dialogue boxes floating above their heads.
For instance, right now, she could see dense text floating above the head of the red-and-black pixel sprite opposite her.
“…I love Xue’er, but Miss Zhu has always been frail…”
“…She cannot withstand such a blow, not to mention the Zhu family stands behind her. If anything happens to her, they will surely not let go…”
“…If one must be discarded, it can only be Xue’er.”
Yu Jiaxue narrowed her eyes.
Oh ho, so this is planning to let me die!
Faced with the guilt-ridden gaze of the red-and-black sprite—though she had no idea how she managed to discern “guilt”—it didn’t prevent Yu Jiaxue’s anger meter from skyrocketing!
“Xue’er,” Xuan Yeyang looked at the person dangling precariously on the cliff edge, his eyes turning red in an instant.
His voice was suppressed with pain, yet he stubbornly forced himself not to show the slightest bit of it.
He was the sole male heir of the Xuan family; the Xuan family depended on him to carry on its legacy.
The Xuan family couldn’t do without him.
Xue’er loved him so much; Xue’er would surely understand.
“Xue’er, you must remember that I love you. You will be the woman I love most in this life, but Miss Zhu is my responsibility, I can only…”
Yu Jiaxue was incredulous.
She never expected to see such soul-stirringly hot-headed dialogue in a cold RPG game.
It hardened.
Her fist hardened again.
Yu Jiaxue couldn’t help but speak up.
“Can you perform that again?”
“Choose her—caw?” Xuan Yeyang, who had been pouring out his deep affection, paused, “What did you say?”
“Just the part from a second ago.”
Yu Jiaxue looked toward the top of Xuan Yeyang’s head, urging him, “That line from just now, quick, do it again!”
“Oh right,” Yu Jiaxue frowned in addition, “no duck noises, please. That doesn’t fit your character profile.”
Zhu Xingchui, who was playing the hostage in this stage: “…”
The man in black: “…”
Xuan Yeyang’s attendants: “…”
Though we aren’t human, you are truly a dog.
Can you please respect the professional requirements of a kidnapper?!
The crowd before the Water-Moon Mirror heard this familiar dialogue once more and could no longer suppress their laughter.
“This lass is truly interesting.”
True Monarch Ninggui wiped the tears of laughter from the corners of her eyes.
Xuanyuanzi yawned, cracked one eye open just a slit, and perfunctorily agreed.
“Indeed.”
Secretly, however, he was frantically messaging his eldest disciple, Liu Rushiu.
—Disciple, find a way to get that person into our Chiyun Peak!
Liu Rushiu: “…” Master, can you not talk like a bandit?
A thousand words welled up in his heart, followed by a sudden chill down his back.
Liu Rushiu looked up to see one of the disciples by the Wangshu Peak acting peak master’s side staring straight at him, a gaze laden with naked threat.
—You—dare—try—to—snatch—people—and—see—what—happens.
—I’ll—fucking—end—you.
Liu Rushiu: “.”
Master, I wronged you.
Bandits don’t vanish; bandits merely transfer.
And now, one far more bandit-like had appeared!
Inside the Floating Life Dream, the man in black finally snapped out of his daze and sneered.
“At a time like this, you still have the leisurely elegance to spout nonsense. You clearly haven’t taken me seriously at all!”
Yu Jiaxue patiently corrected him.
“‘Leisurely elegance’ is a bit redundant in that sentence.”
The man in black paused, then sneered again.
“Just a discardedly person, why so much nonsense?”
Yu Jiaxue frowned slightly at the dialogue box, expressing her displeasure: “The word ‘ly’ was used incorrectly.”
The man in black stuttered over her correction, experiencing a delayed burst of anger a few seconds later: “Too much nonsense indeed! Save it for the King of Hell!”
Yu Jiaxue’s brow furrowed even deeper: “Why save nonsense for the King of Hell? Your context makes zero sense. Send this script back to the planning team—rewrite the lines.”
Yu Jiaxue grew more irritable by the second.
Struggling to read the man in black’s dialogue box required tilting her head and squinting, which was exhausting.
And this was the garbage they served up for her?!
Simply outrageous!
[Why is the host suddenly so irritable today?]
The salted fish who had been just trying to survive and crawl through the previous stage had suddenly jumped up from her deathbed like a husky?
“Hah, why?” Yu Jiaxue sneer-thought inwardly.
“Because this is the very first game I participated in investing in!”
By now, wasn’t everything crystal clear?
This trial in the xianxia novel had plainly plagiarized her game concept!
Still… perhaps because of this, as one of the original founders, she might receive some special treatment?
Yu Jiaxue shifted her gaze, her eyes suddenly lighting up.
She didn’t realize that with this sideways glance, tilted head, and half-curled smile at the corner of her mouth, her entire expression looked wildly mocking.
The Floating Life Pot had accompanied Xihe-jun on his travels through the mortal world, so most of the imagery within the Floating Life Dream was vivid and authentic.
In other words, the characters inside the Floating Life Dream possessed personalities nearly identical to their real-world counterparts.
Case in point: the man in black was provoked into a blind rage by Yu Jiaxue’s expression.
He was naturally insecure to begin with—otherwise, he wouldn’t have harbored a grudge against the Xuan family over some past verbal slight.
Enraged by Yu Jiaxue’s attitude, he simply released Zhu Xingchui with one hand and grabbed Yu Jiaxue with the other, preparing to plunge backward!
There was no time to lose! Before Xuan Yeyang’s affectionate cry could ring out, Yu Jiaxue had already flown into the air, kicking backward with the speed of lightning to deliver a vicious blow straight to the man in black’s backside!
What an exquisite angle! What extraordinary speed! What formidable power! What—
What a terrifying woman!
The attendants behind Xuan Yeyang suffered a massive shock to their pupils, stopping in their tracks as a unanimous reflex.
Overawed by Yu Jiaxue’s velocity, none of them dared immediately rush forward.
Neither did Xuan Yeyang himself.
He wasn’t frightened, strictly speaking.
Yet for some reason, the scene of his first encounter with Xue’er in his mind shifted once again.
Flowers, moonlight, translucent veils.
Such beautiful scenery, lofty and ancient.
A gentle breeze rustling, the beauty, the beauty—
The beauty laughs out loud and starts crawling???
No—!!!
Xuan Yeyang grabbed a fistful of his own hair.
What is this thing?!
Is this the depth of my affection?!
Impossible… a person cannot, at the very least they shouldn’t…
This is absolute nonsense!
Xuan Yeyang’s behavior drew sideways glances from the disciples of Yuge Peak before the water mirror.
“I think,” a junior disciple clad in ink patterns hesitated, “Young Master Xuan’s lines just now would actually fit quite well into a storybook.”
How hate-inducing!
Their Yuge Peak used the brush to write of ten thousand realms, specializing in illusion formations and area-of-effect attacks. Once opponents fell into the scrolls they wrote during battle, they would immerse themselves heart and soul, co-experiencing the characters’ emotions.
Wasn’t Young Master Xuan’s speech just now the absolute epitome of a heartless scumbag?!
“You know,” another disciple beside her whispered in exclamation, “the way this Young Master Xuan is grabbing his hair right now looks exactly like you and me when we can’t write our assignments but have to hand them in an hour later!”
Du Shuangxiao’s scolding words hung frozen in his mouth.
Mu Yihe’s impending “unrefined” remarks stayed trapped on his lips.
The disciples of Yuge Peak fell collectively silent, unable to resist reaching up to stroke their own hair.
How should they put it? It felt a bit too real.
Even Daoist Yuanru spared Xuan Yeyang another glance in the Water-Moon Mirror, nodding involuntarily.
This child… perhaps he shares some affinity with my Yuge Peak?
Sitting off to the side, Shen Xuezhu blinked, then slowly pulled another short piece of the soul-locking iron chain from his wrist.
The count of heavenly fate had shifted right at this moment, and the predetermined ending began an endless deviation.
As Yu Jiaxue kicked the man in black forward, momentum took over, causing her whole body to tumble backward!
An unfamiliar yet intense emotion surged into his heart.
Xuan Yeyang felt his liver and gallbladder split; all the previous anomalies were instantly thrown to the winds.
Ignoring his fiancée Zhu Xingchui lunging toward him, his entire focus was locked onto that precarious figure dangling at the cliff’s edge!
“Xue’er—!”
Zhu Xingchui was shoved by Xuan Yeyang’s arm, tumbling to the side with an expressionless face.
As the fourth disciple of Wangshu Peak’s Qingyunzi, she had been entrusted by the sect to act as a vital guide in the new disciples’ trial.
Indeed, the new disciples’ trial wasn’t just this stage of the Floating Life Dream.
On the preceding Hongmeng Scroll, Yu Jiaxue’s performance had been unexpected, prompting Sect Master Xihe-jun to instruct Zhu Xingchui to go test her out.
That female disciple who tumbled at the end of the Hongmeng Scroll and was caught by Yu Jiaxue had also been Zhu Xingchui.
Though acting on orders, Zhu Xingchui always felt she was the reason Yu Jiaxue missed out on first place in the opening stage.
Carrying the guilt of an upright, open-minded female blade-wielder, she had intended to offer a little protection if she happened to run into Yu Jiaxue in the Floating Life Dream.
Who would have thought their affinity wasn’t just fated—it was deep enough to run into each other right at the very beginning.
Zhu Xingchui instinctively wanted to grab Yu Jiaxue, but she also had to maintain her role as “Fiancée Miss Zhu.”
Her hesitation lasted a single second, but that one second alone was enough to turn the tide.
Watching the one she loved fall, Xuan Yeyang cried out in a hoarse voice, “No—!”
He remembered that from the moment he started speaking, Xue’er had maintained a calm expression, her empty gaze fixed right above his head.
She hadn’t even been willing to look at his face.
The agonizing pain in Xuan Yeyang’s heart was indescribable, his viscera feeling as though they were being scorched by roaring flames, torn and kneaded until his entire person was stunned dumb.
He felt regret.
“What a pity.”
Xihe-jun sighed, closing his eyes, unable to bear watching further.
As everyone knew, there were only two ways to crack the Floating Life Dream.
First, stay put until all other disciples exited, then break out of the dream.
Second, realize one’s own weakness.
Take Yu Jiaxue’s current position, for example: her weakness was clearly being overly “weak” and needing to resist in time.
Yet she hadn’t.
She hadn’t uttered a single word of resistance or counter-argument throughout the entire ordeal.
Sect Master Xihejun voiced what most of the elders and disciples were thinking.
Seeing the moment Yu Jiaxue fell, Master Yiyao also shook his head, putting on airs once more with a rather disdainful tone, “Falling like that, she’s bound to die—”
Before Master Yiyao could finish his sentence, the falling Yu Jiaxue in the Water-Moon Mirror suddenly moved!
She unfolded her arms, tucked her head downward, and hugged her legs in a bizarre posture, actually folding her entire body in mid-air into a shape never seen before!
Xihe-jun: “?”
Master Yiyao: “??”
The remaining elders and disciples: “???”
Even the normally calm and collected Shen Xuezhu couldn’t help collecting his focus, staring unblinkingly at the Water-Moon Mirror.
Even with his mastery of heavenly calculations, he had no inkling of what Yu Jiaxue was trying to do at this moment.
Shen Xuezhu, who had been out of touch with the mortal world for a long time, felt a trace of curiosity bubble up in his heart—twisting and turning, unseen and untouchable, yet more clinging than the soul-refining chains.
Under the watchful eyes of all, Yu Jiaxue first performed a back tuck with two and a half somersaults followed by three and a half twists in the air, then transitioned into a back tuck with three knee-tucks using arm strength, spread her arms wide, raised one leg ninety degrees to her torso, and began executing a blind-spot-free 360-degree Thomas flair right in the middle of the sky.
Finally, she landed in the water in a flawless seiza-bow posture!
Upon hitting the water, she barely brushed the surface before diving straight in… without splashing a single droplet?!
Elegance! Pure elegance!
So elegant that Mu Yihe’s pupils experienced an earthquake; he clenched his hands into fists, parted his lips, but failed to utter a single word, his face twisting from holding it in.
“…Bound to die… bound to die…”
Master Yiyao caught his own chin, swallowing a mouthful of saliva with difficulty.
“—Bound to be buttery smooth, you mean.”
What the hell kind of cursed nonsense was this?!
The disciples watched with dropped jaws, unable to recover their wits for a long time.
A tempestuous sea raged within the hearts of the elders as well.
For some reason, they all felt a twinge of pain in their lower backs, and their cranial nerves were throbbing wildly.
The pain came from nowhere, yet struck deep.
They were clearly separated by the Water-Moon Mirror.
She was on the other side of the mirror, and they were on this side, except…
“Calling the mirror a graveyard would be more fitting.”
Xuanyuanzi opened his eyes at some unknown point, smiling good-naturedly as he corrected his disciple Liu Rushiu’s words, looking completely peaceful and detached.
Liu Rushiu: “…”
In less than two trials, the frequency of his silence was increasing.
The Xihe Sect had shone brilliantly for ten thousand years; when had they ever produced a disciple with such… exquisitely marvelous… talent?
At this exact moment, the self-discipline of the Xihe Sect disciples completely unraveled.
They no longer cared about elegance; they no longer cared about dignity.
Every single face was twisted, every jaw dropped, every heart roared in mad frenzy, and every person wanted to twist and crawl 360 degrees into takeoff with a flair!
Ah, no—the last one was successfully and stubbornly suppressed by a few individuals.
In short—
“This, this…”
Watching Yu Jiaxue swiftly swim to the shore of the sea in the Water-Moon Mirror, completely unharmed and still full of bouncing vitality, Yu Yinglian swallowed hard, feeling an incomparable sense of awe.
“…Is this the power of ‘Your Ancestor’?”
Before this batch of entrance trials, the Water-Moon Mirror was just a mirror.
They were on this side, and the new disciples were on that side.
After this batch of entrance trials, the Water-Moon Mirror was a graveyard.
Their souls had already been slammed right into their own graves by those wild operations.
And their ancestor was still dancing passionately outside the tomb.
