The Abused-Novel Female Lead Holds a Mad Brush - Chapter 9
Chapter 9: Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep
“Fellow Daoist Yu?”
After quickly tending to the injured spirit beasts, Yu Yinglian walked up to Yu Jiaxue.
“Things were chaotic just now, so I forgot to share my identity. I am Yu Yinglian, a disciple of Wangshu Peak in the Xihe Sect. This is my sect token.”
He hesitated for a second before asking in a stiff, guarded tone, “May I ask if you would be willing to leave with me?”
Yu Jiaxue didn’t answer right away. She took the token, pretending to inspect it carefully.
Even though she couldn’t read a single character on it, she asked with utter composure, “How are we handling this place?”
A cold chill washed over the young boy’s exquisitely carved face.
Without missing a beat, he said, “Leveling it to the ground, of course.”
The moment the words left his mouth, he felt a wave of regret. He worried she might mistake him for a bloodthirsty monster, but because he was useless at explaining himself, he simply pursed his lips, clutched a self-drawn talisman, and maintained a stern, silent front.
When Yu Jiaxue saw the talisman—and after listening to the system scream frantically in her mind—her respect for him skyrocketed.
Who would’ve guessed that someone so young was a master of demolition?
In the original novel, his mission had failed, and he was forced to watch helplessly as countless spirit beasts were blown to bits. That tragedy pushed him over the edge, turning him into a full-blown villain who went on a total bombing spree across the realm: the Yu family, the Sword Sect, ancient secret realms… if it existed, Yu Yinglian was ready to blow it sky-high!
“Awesome!” Yu Jiaxue breathed a sigh of relief, flashing him a big thumbs-up.
“With skills like yours, this is going to be a breeze.”
Yu Yinglian: “…”
Isn’t that a strange way to put it?
Still, he knew his ruthless methods weren’t easy for most people to swallow.
Seeing Yu Jiaxue accept and praise him so readily filled him with secret delight.
Keeping a cool, aloof expression, he lifted his chin with noble grace and suddenly transformed into a massive Honghu Jade Crane.
Sweeping his wings, he bowed slightly to invite her onto his back.
Yu Jiaxue stared in absolute shock.
White feathers fluttered as the giant bird spread its wings with regal pride. With every strike of its beak, it seemed capable of tearing through the night sky itself.
Simply put: she, a living human being, was smaller than a bird.
System: [No crude jokes allowed!]
Yu Jiaxue: “I was being completely serious this time.”
Damn it. If the territorial campus geese back in my college days had been this size, with my habit of teasing stray animals and messing with geese, I wouldn’t have survived freshman year!
System: […] So you do realize how bad you were!
Yu Yinglian had expected her to hesitate or struggle over the idea.
To his surprise, she clutched her “little cat” and scrambled onto his back without a moment’s delay.
She even leaned down close to his ear and whispered, “I left a little something behind down there. Once you set off the explosion, fly as fast as you can!”
She was quick-witted, clever, and impossibly endearing.
Yu Yinglian felt immensely pleased with himself, totally missing the subtle note of guilty conscience in her voice.
As a creature carrying the ancient demon bloodline, the Honghu Jade Crane eclipsed the sky when it unfolded its wings.
Almost at the exact moment they took flight, the dungeon below detonated with a deafening crash, erupting into a roaring inferno!
The disciples who rushed over to put out the fire only caught a fleeting glimpse of a massive shadow soaring out of the flames.
It was as huge as the divine beasts recorded in ancient scriptures, and sitting atop its back appeared to be a young girl dressed in green.
It vanished in a flash, vanishing like a faint ember.
Just like this place—a setting that was supposed to host fifty or sixty chapters of agonizing torture in the original novel—it was wiped out of existence in an instant.
“Stop dazing off!” A disciple tugged hard on his spellbound companion, shouting, “Douse the fire, quickly!”
“I—I’m not dazing off!”
The disciple stumbled back several steps from the tug, pulling himself right out of the Disciplinary Hall’s entrance and gasping for fresh air.
“I… I just got choked up by the smoke!”
The first disciple grew even more disdainful, scolding him as he marched forward, “What’s there to get choked up about? We are cultivators, not fragile mortals—”
Suddenly, a thick, suffocating stench blasted right into their faces.
The bizarre odor was so violently putrid that it nearly knocked the wind out of them.
The fire burned far too fiercely to be quenched by ordinary means—it required spiritual energy.
Yet, strange enough, it remained strictly confined within the boundaries of the Disciplinary Hall.
Some elders refused to step in to save face, while others were simply too lazy to bother, leaving the mess entirely to the disciples.
Among those sent to help were not only members of the Wushang Sect, but also a few guests who happened to be visiting.
After all, when your friend’s house is on fire, it’s bad manners to just walk away, right?
Gagging noises echoed constantly throughout the crowd fighting the blaze.
“S-Senior Brother Ye, are you alright?”
Ye Jingtian’s face was equally hideous.
He had never encountered such a foul stench in his entire life, and it was giving him a splitting headache.
However, noticing that several disciples around him were slowly adjusting and regaining their composure, Ye Jingtian refused to show any sign of weakness.
Could he—a noble scion of the prestigious Ye family—be outdone by a few nameless nobodies?
Even though he was at his absolute limit, Ye Jingtian forced out a cold, arrogant sneer, trying his best to look utterly unbothered.
“It’s nothing special.”
With that, he turned sharply to leave, intending to leave behind a cool, proud silhouette.
But he forgot that in such a chaotic, noisy fireground, voices were easily distorted.
Obsessed with maintaining his image as the “Number One of the Ye Family,” Ye Jingtian failed to notice the look of sheer horror on the disciples’ faces behind him.
“Hey! Why did you stop moving? What did Senior Brother Ye say to you?”
“S-Senior Brother Ye said…”
The young disciple swallowed hard, his hand trembling as he pointed into the ruined Disciplinary Hall.
“…He said he wants to eat shit.”
—
[Dad! Father! Ancestor!]
Hearing that familiar opening line, Yu Jiaxue—who was currently blending into the crowd preparing for the Xihe Sect’s entrance exam—blinked in surprise.
Back when they parted ways, the system had mentioned taking on a new task in another world to recharge its energy, promising it wouldn’t return unless something major happened.
From that point until she was brought to the Xihe Sect, the system hadn’t shown up once.
Hearing that electronic voice again actually gave her a tiny splash of nostalgia.
The system took a deep breath, trying its best to stay calm: [May I ask what exactly you left behind in the Disciplinary Hall?]
“Hmm, let me think…” Yu Jiaxue hesitated.
“Well, here’s what happened. Initially, I wanted to draw a mirror. That way, when Yu Yinglian’s talisman detonated, the mirror would shatter into pieces so they could look at themselves and see if they were even worthy.”
System: [And then?]
“Then… the mirror got bigger and bigger as I drew it, getting more lopsided and jagged…”
System: [So the final product was?]
“A durian.”
System: […]
System: [A single durian?]
How could a single durian cause such a massive fluctuation in the world’s fabric?
“Yeah, just one,” Yu Jiaxue said with zero guilt. “It was just… a little big.”
Unsurprised, the system maintained its eerie composure: [Just a little?]
“A billion little.”
Yu Jiaxue scratched her head.
“Look, you know my hands were shaking from picking all those locks earlier. The lines kept veering off, so I ended up drawing way too many durian spikes. To keep the shape intact, I had to keep drawing it bigger and bigger… In the end, I think I drew a durian roughly the size of a hallway.”
By the time she finished, even Yu Jiaxue felt a rare pang of guilt.
“Err… more spikes mean a sweeter durian, right? Spread the love, share the sweetness…”
The system scoffed coldly: [Keep singing! Why did you stop?]
Oh, because I forgot the lyrics.
Realizing she couldn’t pull it off, Yu Jiaxue cleared her throat and forcibly pulled the conversation back on track.
“What’s wrong? Why bring this up all of a sudden?”
Recalling the information it had just received, the system spoke in a deadpan, utterly defeated voice: [I just got back to this world, only to find a certain rumor widely circulating everywhere—]
By total coincidence, before the system could even finish, a hushed voice drifted over from right beside her: “Is that why you chose not to join the Wushang Sect either?”
Yu Jiaxue instantly pricked up her ears.
The system immediately muted itself, waiting in huffy silence for Yu Jiaxue to hear the fruits of her own labor with her own two ears!
“Sigh, though the path of cultivation is full of hardship and only those with terrifying willpower can reach the heavens… the Wushang Sect is just way too terrifying.”
“Besides, word has it that any disciple who enters the Wushang Sect and wants to achieve great things must… must do that.”
The moment Yu Jiaxue heard the words “Wushang Sect,” she leaned back, smoothly side-stepping into the conversation like a pro.
“The Wushang Sect really is terrifying.”
“Right?!”
The richly dressed young master at the head of the group startled at the head that suddenly popped up.
Remembering the rumor, he shuddered with lingering fear. “It’s… well, a rumor started circulating recently.”
To be safe, the young master chose the word “rumor.”
“It’s spreading like wildfire everywhere, and people are swearing it’s the absolute truth…”
He paused to build suspense, gesturing mysteriously for everyone to lean in.
Once every ear was glued to his lips, he lowered his voice to a whisper.
“They say… any disciple who wants to master the Wushang Sect’s sword techniques must… eat shit.”
Holy shit!
The moment those words were uttered, absolute silence fell over the crowd. Not only were the uninitiated recruits horrified, but even the inner disciples sent by the Xihe Sect to maintain order suffered total facial twitches as they fought to control their expressions.
The Xihe Sect was world-renowned for its elegance and refinement.
Everything they did was graceful; even their soul marks featured falling blossoms, fluttering butterflies, and immortal moons—
When had they ever heard such vulgar nonsense?
Just hearing it made the Xihe Sect disciples gag on the spot.
Yet, amid the crowd, Yu Jiaxue was the sole person whose expression didn’t change a bit.
While the other recruits were thoroughly disgusted, a few who were hearing it for the first time remained skeptical and chimed in, “Words are cheap. Does Young Master Pei have any proof?”
Young Master Pei nodded gravely.
“Supposedly, that fellow cultivator from the Ye family became the top disciple precisely because of his passionate love for eating shit…”
As he spoke, he found it so vile that he could barely stomach finishing his own sentence.
Noticing Yu Jiaxue’s serene expression, Young Master Pei asked in amazement, “Fellow Daoist, you seem so calm. Have you heard this rumor many times before?”
You’d have to hear a rumor at least a hundred times to keep a face that calm!
Yu Jiaxue gave a mysterious shake of her head.
Under everyone’s disappointed gazes, she put on an enigmatic air and said, “I’ve simply been to the Wushang Sect, that’s all.”
Whoa! She’s been there!
Technically, that makes her an eyewitness!
The recruits instantly perked up, straining their ears. Even Peak Master Xuan Yuanzi of Chirun Peak, who had casually drifted down the mountain to check on the recruits, paused in his tracks.
Young Master Pei couldn’t wait another second.
“Fellow Daoist, may I ask… regarding the rumor about Fellow Daoist Ye’s, er, preference… how credible is it?”
Under the intense gaze of the crowd, Yu Jiaxue carefully recalled her experience back at the sect.
She let out a heavy sigh, her tone dripping with profound grief.
“Based on what I witnessed with my own eyes… perhaps it isn’t a rumor after all.”
“…”
“…”
The Xihe Sect disciples scattered throughout the crowd suffered a collective mental breakdown.
Completely unable to maintain their usual dignified composure, several of them lost control and started dry-heaving on the spot.
At the exact same time, the system’s calm facade in her mind shattered into pieces.
It never imagined that after bringing this up to make its host reflect on her actions, she would feel no shame whatsoever—and instead jump right into the mud to fan the flames herself?!
System 999, who had just finished patching up the world rift, shrieked at the top of its virtual lungs: [HOST—!]
SHUT YOUR MOUTH—!
It really, REALLY didn’t want to work overtime ever again!!!
