The Abused-Novel Female Lead Holds a Mad Brush - Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep
Countless perils, a single thread of life.
Such a divination result, however, pointed toward supreme good fortune.
Even though Shen Xuezhu had once manifested as “Jiuyou” and guarded the borders of the Ghost Realm for many years, becoming accustomed to life and death, he still found it difficult to make sense of a divination like this.
It was precisely for this reason—despite the sheer hassle, and despite knowing he should not become further entangled with the mortal realm—that Shen Xuezhu created a avatar to come and investigate.
Inside the main hall of the Wushang Sect, every gaze converged upon the woman standing in the center.
She wore the ordinary robes of an outer disciple. Absent of any extra accessories or magical artifacts, what should have been an utterly unremarkable outfit seemed strikingly distinct at this moment.
Not merely because of her immortal, jade-like beauty that stood out even within the sect, but because of the imposing aura surrounding her.
So righteous, so unyielding and upright.
“Why do I…”
Why do I feel like we look like the villains in a storybook right now?
A junior disciple could not hold back the urge to speak, but choked his words back under his senior brother’s glare.
It’s true, though! Why won’t you let people talk?
the junior disciple grumbled in his heart.
There were about ten or so disciples in the surrounding area, each harboring their own thoughts.
Yet under the subtle hints of their respective masters, none dared to make a sound.
Yu Jiaxue had long anticipated this.
All that “Master considers your young age” and “so long as you apologize” talk was pure nonsense.
Seeing the situation, Yu Lin’an sighed.
“Junior Sister Yu, just admit your mistake.”
“As long as you apologize and obtain Junior Sister Wan’er’s forgiveness, this matter will pass.”
Yu Jiaxue raised an eyebrow.
“Where is my mistake?”
Yu Lin’an said, “You shouldn’t have resorted to violence.”
“Ah yes. I should have stood there and let people hurl insults without replying, let them beat me without fighting back, until I was hounded to death—only to then hear the hypocritical tears of a cat crying over a mouse. Only like that could I be the perfect ‘Yu Xue’ in your eyes.”
Ignoring the frenzied screaming of the electronic voice in her head, Yu Jiaxue stared at Yu Lin’an’s embarrassed expression for a few seconds before suddenly letting out a cold sneer.
She said lazily, “Since Senior Brother is so skilled at finding fault, why don’t I make the decision: let Senior Brother take the blame for today’s mistake.”
“Yu Xue! How dare you! What does this have to do with Senior Brother Yu?!”
A female cultivator in a pink dress standing in the crowd could no longer restrain herself. She stepped forward, pointing a finger at Yu Jiaxue with a sharp, harsh tone.
“Senior Brother Yu was kindly trying to help you, yet you dare to slander him—are you trying to splash dirty water on Senior Brother Yu?”
Aha, looks like a loyal fan of Yu Lin’an.
Yu Jiaxue raised an eyebrow, turned her head, and glanced at the female cultivator in pink.
Her features could be considered pretty and cute, but at this moment, her furrowed eyebrows distorted her facial structure, making her face look as broad as a pancake.
And her words were no better.
“I don’t harbor such malicious intentions,” Yu Jiaxue retracted her gaze and lazily let out a yawn.
“From beginning to end, haven’t you all been the ones splashing dirty water on me?”
“You didn’t believe what I said, nor did you believe that I had no intention of pushing Yu Wan’er into the water from the start. Even after I demonstrated it for you later and put the truth right before your eyes, you still refused to believe it.”
Yu Jiaxue sighed, shook her head with an air of seasoned wisdom, and swept her gaze across the surrounding disciples.
With the effect of those words combined with the imposing spectacle they had just witnessed of Yu Jiaxue tackling someone into the water, almost all those disciples instinctively lowered their heads, not daring to meet her eyes.
Only a few persisted.
Either glaring at her or clenching their teeth tightly—they clearly hated her to the bone.
[That one is the third male lead, Wen Jingdeng! You saved his life when you were young! He always wanted to repay the favor, but he identified the wrong person and thought Yu Wan’er saved him!]
[Win him over, clear up the misunderstanding, and he will become your greatest asset!]
Ah, the classic mistake-identity trope of angst novels.
Only after a round of physical and mental torment driven by “you love me, I love you not” could the truth finally surface.
Then, the blind fools would regain their sight one after another, agonize in anguish, and sorrowfully let go.
Here, “physical torment” specifically referred to the female lead, while “mental torment” referred to male leads one through five.
Yu Jiaxue lifted her eyelids, swept a brief glance over, and didn’t linger on Wen Jingdeng for even a second.
“Back then, I performed the live demonstration only at your strong request.”
“That wasn’t a demonstration!”
The female cultivator in pink declared with righteous indignation.
“You simply used it as an opportunity to vent your anger!”
[She is the third female lead, Wan Qingtong! The daughter of the Wan family from the Western Province’s Xinghe Clan. You can’t afford to mess with her yet!]
Yu Jiaxue immediately filtered and extracted the key points in her mind.
Wan Qingtong… Bronze (Qingtong), huh.
Understood. She’s a good person who came right to my door to get her face slapped!
“If you think of it that way, there’s nothing I can do.”
Yu Jiaxue turned her head toward Wan Qingtong, hooked up one corner of her mouth, and flashed a wickedly arrogant, domineering smile.
“After all, to a dirty mind, everything looks dirty.”
Wan Qingtong froze for a moment.
She didn’t even have time to be angry at Yu Jiaxue’s words; just that smile she had displayed was enough to paralyze her thoughts.
What kind of cursed, demonic smile was that?!
Everyone present, including the elders and the Sect Leader—anyone who witnessed that smile—felt their facial expressions freeze instantly.
Would you call her ugly? Of course not! But that smile, that smile…
It was truly difficult to describe.
Smugness mixed with a trace of disdain, disdain wrapped in boundless mockery, and within that mockery lurked something terrifying.
It was too bizarre.
It felt as though looking at that smile for one more second would cause one’s own cave abode and mountain peak to be torn down.
The more one recalled it, the more it induced a splitting headache.
Elder Zhang couldn’t help but raise a hand to rub his temples.
He had wanted to say it since earlier: she clearly possessed such extraordinary, icy, snow-like beauty, so why… why must she ruin it like this?!
And those few sentences…
Why could a few casual words of mortals cause one’s blood to surge so intensely? Yet leave one entirely unable to figure out how to counter them?
“Y-You… how can you speak such vulgar words! This is slander!”
Wan Qingtong was clearly beyond furious. She pointed a finger at Yu Jiaxue, her voice turning piercingly sharp.
Not just her; all the elders and disciples present bore subtle, complex expressions.
Yu Jiaxue stood calmly in the middle of the hall. Clearly, standing in the center put her at a disadvantage, yet her posture was so composed that it instead made Wan Qingtong look flustered and furious, like a jumping clown.
Having watched the entire exchange, Wen Jingdeng stared at Yu Jiaxue for three seconds before averting his eyes and sneering, “A grandstanding clout-chaser.”
“You don’t deserve the surname Yu at all.”
Yu Wan’er, who had remained silent all this while, heard these words and let a smile slip onto her lips before quickly restraining it.
She merely shook her head, leaning weakly against Wen Jingdeng, and said frail, “Please don’t say that, Senior Brother Wen. No matter what, she is still my younger sister.”
Her face was deathly pale, accompanied by occasional coughs, making her appear all the more pitiable.
To be so frail and pitiful, yet still not forget to speak up for her ignorant younger sister—she was truly the best possible “older sister.”
Especially the phrase “no matter what”—it was used so magnificently well.
Yu Jiaxue couldn’t help but applaud her.
“Yes, I am always surnamed ‘Yu’. Whether you acknowledge it or not, I am the sole daughter of the direct line of the Yu Family.”
Seeing Yu Wan’er’s face change slightly, barely able to maintain the smile on her lips, Yu Jiaxue couldn’t resist rolling her eyes.
That’s it?
Although she felt that this kind of “legitimate vs. illegitimate hierarchy religion” appearing in a xianxia novel was utterly ridiculous, and she personally detested such behavior, it didn’t stop Yu Jiaxue from using it to infuriate them to death.
To tell the truth, transmigrating here so suddenly made Yu Jiaxue feel very annoyed.
But seeing them feel annoyed because of her made her feel great.
After recognizing Yu Wan’er, Wen Jingdeng had once sworn to protect this ray of light in his life. He hated seeing anyone bully Yu Wan’er most of all, so he sneered again.
“Utterly laughable.”
“A mere surname. How are you worthy of being compared to Wan’er?”
Ho…
Yu Jiaxue turned toward Wen Jingdeng standing beside Yu Wan’er, looked at him for a few seconds, nodded, and said with certainty.
“This fellow Daoist has mentioned the word ‘surname’ multiple times. It seems you care about it deeply.”
Wen Jingdeng’s breathing hitched; his hands hanging at his sides clenched into fists.
A single word piercing straight to the heart.
Wen Jingdeng indeed cared.
As an illegitimate child unacknowledged by the Ye Family, Wen Jingdeng’s greatest wish was to be acknowledged by others, to have someone recognize his existence.
The system rambled through a long introduction of Wen Jingdeng in her mind, finally concluding: [Host, keep it up, heal him!]
Yu Jiaxue guaranteed inwardly with supreme confidence: [Task will definitely be completed!]
“If fellow Daoist really wants one so badly, it’s not entirely impossible.”
Having brushed off the system, Yu Jiaxue immediately proposed: “The surname ‘Yu’ isn’t particularly common, but it’s not rare either. If you’re truly that envious, consider marrying into a family as a matrilocal husband.”
“Oh right, let’s establish this upfront,” Yu Jiaxue raised an eyebrow with a half-smile, “I don’t want you. Go look around more yourself—for instance, the one beside you has always liked collecting the trash I don’t want. You can ask her if she’s willing to take you in.”
Isn’t it just about inflicting emotional damage? Poke wherever it hurts most—that’s her ultimate specialty!
System: …???
As Yu Jiaxue’s words fell, a dead silence descended upon the hall.
The disciples’ eyes widened in terror.
Although Wen Jingdeng’s talent couldn’t match Ye Jingtian’s, and his cultivation was far less profound than Senior Brother Xie’s, who didn’t know that his temperament was unpredictable? He usually only listened to Yu Wan’er, and at times, even the Sect Leader couldn’t order him around.
And now Junior Sister Yu Xue…
[…Host, what on earth are you doing???!]
On the other side, Wen Jingdeng came back to his senses, flying into a rage.
“Insolent fool!”
“Junior Sister Yu! What exactly do you want?!”
Yu Lin’an had an anxious and helpless look.
He stopped Wen Jingdeng, who was about to charge forward, and turned around with a face full of worry, looking as if he were entirely considering Yu Jiaxue’s well-being.
“Didn’t you promise to apologize to Junior Sister Wan’er?”
“Senior Brother Yu, can’t you see it yet? We were all deceived by her feigned weakness in the past.”
Ye Jingtian held his sword with both hands and finally deigned to speak.
“Silent and reserved on the surface, yet she dares to strike Wan’er in public. Looking back now, who knows how long her two-faced hypocrisy has been going on.”
Receiving a signal from Ye Jingtian’s eyes, another disciple stepped forward at the right moment and requested.
“This disciple believes that rules must be set to make an example out of her. Otherwise, as time goes on, there’s no telling what kind of disaster she will cause!”
They clearly had their own selfish motives, yet on the surface, they acted as though they were doing everything for her own good.
They stood so high above, casually discussing her punishment, yet no one was willing to step down and ask about the underlying cause.
Yu Jiaxue took all their expressions into her eyes and asked in her mind.
“Little Zero, do you really want me to get along with these people for another hundred or eighty years?”
She personally had no problem with it.
She just didn’t know if this group of people could endure it.
[As long as the host is willing to reform them with love, they will change… Also, why do you call me Little Zero? I am 999!]
“999 is a brand of cold medication where I come from, so of course I call you Little Zero,” Yu Jiaxue tilted her head slightly, taking in the bickering crowd, and said nonchalantly in her mind, “Of course, there’s also 999 for dermatitis cream; should I call you Little Skin instead?”
[I refuse!]
Hearing the system emit bursts of static noises from sheer anger yet remaining unable to do anything to her, the corners of Yu Jiaxue’s mouth curled up even higher, her mood exceptionally cheerful.
Same old saying: this group of people just lacks a good beating.
Seeing them unhappy made her happy.
Yu Jiaxue looked around, meeting the dodging eyes of those disciples, let out a cold laugh, and proudly straightened her spine.
Not a single one capable of putting up a decent fight.
“In that case…” An ancient voice resonated from the high seat above.
“You have violated the sect rules and harmed your fellow disciple. Today, this Sect Leader shall cripple your cultivation. Are you willing to accept this?”
Finally, it’s here!
Yu Jiaxue remembered this segment!
This book was excessively long, with countless filler and brain-rotting plots, but it also had a few deeply memorable scenes.
Take this segment for instance: under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the female lead was almost stripped of the cultivation she had worked so hard to attain. She, who never liked to show her emotions, shed “melancholy and sorrowful tears” in the hall, finally causing the male lead Ye Jingtian’s “heart to stir.”
He spoke up to protect her and, under the pretext of “supervision,” kept her by his side every day, kicking off the journey of physical and mental abuse.
[That’s right! It’s this exact plot point!]
[For this segment, Host, you don’t need to do any extra maneuvering! Just go along with the Sect Leader’s words!]
Yu Jiaxue: “I get it. And the tone must be firm, the spine must be straight, the gaze must be clear, and the expression must be unyielding unto death.”
[Yes, yes, yes!]
The system felt immensely relieved, [That’s the exact flavor!]
[You don’t need to waste energy, just wait for the male lead to save the damsel in distress!]
Yu Jiaxue nodded, looked around, settled her mind, and under the gaze of everyone, showed not the slightest hint of flinching.
With a solemn, deep voice, she declared forcefully.
“There is no need for the Sect Leader to act.”
System: …?
This opening… why does it seem, perhaps, a little bit different from what it imagined?
Uncertain. Let’s keep watching.jpg
Yu Jiaxue spoke suddenly, her sonorous words striking everyone’s ears like an ice-cold stream from a snow-capped mountain peak, startling the Chief Elder, who had been resting with his eyes closed.
He finally opened his eyes, looking at the junior disciple surrounded by the crowd.
Her posture was posture straight, upright as a sword.
Though clearly at a disadvantage, she showed no fear whatsoever.
Under numerous burning glances, Yu Jiaxue straightened her back, without a single trace of retreat or cowardice, and announced loudly, “Because before this, I had already crippled my own cultivation!”
System: ???
What on earth? Were all those words you just said just to trick the system?
The system felt as though it were a fragile little flower betrayed by a scumbag at this moment.
What happened to the promised “tone must be firm, spine must be straight, gaze must be clear, and expression must be unyielding unto death”…
Um, wait, looking at it like this, it seems the Host actually fulfilled every single one of them?
But this is completely different from the agreed routine!!!
