Chapter 12 | How Could the Master of All Villains Be Righteous?

The night was inky black, and the sky above Yongdi City was frightfully silent.

An occasional gust of night wind howled alongside the cawing of crows, carrying bone-chilling air through the mist and clouds, bearing a hidden dread that sent an indescribable chill down one's spine.

On the streets below, mottled shadows swayed like vengeful specters seeking lives.

Space flickered. Four tall figures in black cloaks appeared at the location where Wen Li and Du Mojin had parted ways.

“The aura vanishes here.”

The voice was raspy and old, sounding like the strange scraping of a saw.

The leader in the cloak raised a hand, making a compass appear in his palm. He turned it in all directions, but the needle spun erratically without any clear guidance.

“Someone took him.”

A hand as gnarled and withered as tree bark clenched tightly, tilting the cloak back slightly.

It revealed a pair of terrifying eyes with pitch-black pupils and no whites at all—devoid of life and dripping with murderous intent.

Judging by this, someone knew of their existence and deliberately erased Xie Tinglan's aura before leaving.

Behind him, another figure in a black robe said in a deep voice, “Who would dare snatch someone from us? Could it be...”

The cloaked leader stowed the compass. As he brought his hands together, dark spiritual energy billowed from his fingertips. With a wave of his arms, countless crows burst forth and scattered in all directions.

“Regardless of who it is, issue the kill order.”

“We must capture Xie Tinglan.”

“Understood!”

...

Wen Li knew her own body well. When she said she would be unconscious for at least three days, she meant it.

She woke up early on the fourth day.

The moment she opened her eyes, she felt something heavy resting against her chest. Looking down, she saw young Yao Dai sleeping in her arms, drool running right onto her robes.

Having likely kept watch over her for far too long, dark circles bruised the girl's lower eyelids, looking quite startling.

Wen Li sighed. Raising kids really was no easy task. Six of them, and who knew how many would turn out to be unfilial brats?

Just as she turned her head—

“Whoa, why are you a ball?”

Wen Li was startled by the pitch-black clump. Mostly because a snake head was directly facing her and flicking its tongue. Waking up to that was pretty creepy, okay?

The commotion startled Yao Dai awake. “Master, you're awake!”

Yao Dai hurriedly scrambled up. Spotting a wet patch on Wen Li's clothes, she quickly wiped her own mouth.

Uh-oh.

Pretending she was completely innocent, she silently wiped away her drool. “Master, how do you feel? Are you still in pain anywhere?”

Wen Li propped herself up with one hand and closed her eyes to check her condition. Fortunately, her broken ribs had barely mended, though she still needed a few more days to recover.

“It's fine, I'm mostly back together. Has anything happened outside the cave over the past few days?”

“Nothing. Once I put up the talisman, even birds couldn't fly in from outside, and I didn't step foot outside either.”

Wen Li nodded. It was a good thing she had erased Xie Tinglan's aura, or this talisman truly wouldn't have stood up to a concentrated assault from three Golden Cores and a Nascent Soul.

Speaking of Xie Tinglan, Wen Li turned her head to look. “Why did you tie him up like this?”

It actually had a weird aesthetic appeal. Thank goodness Xie Tinglan wasn't in human form, or else he'd look straight out of an S&M dungeon.

“Oh, I was afraid he wouldn't behave, so I tied him into a ball.”

Yao Dai offered a light, innocent smile, her face completely unperturbed.

[Host, while you were unconscious, your eldest disciple kicked your second disciple like a ball every single day! I feel like Yao Dai is still turning out crooked; the progress bar hasn't moved much at all!] the System snitched eagerly.

Speaking of which, it had been months since Wen Li took Yao Dai as her disciple, yet the "Save the Villain" progress bar had only increased by ten percent.

Wen Li raised her eyes to look at Yao Dai, who just happened to give her an obedient, gentle smile.

What a sweet girl.

“I might not know Xie Tinglan, but don't I know Yao Dai? She's my good disciple. What's wrong with her bonding with her junior brother?”

Wen Li couldn't stand hearing the System talk about Yao Dai turning out wrong.

“You're clearly narrow-minded, judging a noble heart with petty malice, and snitching behind her back. Despicable.”

[?!]

The System was dumbfounded. So it was the outsider now?!

“Master, what's wrong? Is there something on my face?” Yao Dai asked, flustered under her gaze.

“I was just zoning out,” Wen Li said, shaking her head.

She turned and lifted the ball-shaped bundle. Seeing that the black snake's wounds hadn't healed and had instead grown more festered and bloody, the dark green blood smelled foul and pungent.

The black snake's crimson slit pupils glared at her, his dead eyes brimming with intense hatred, as if he wanted to bite her the next second.

“You hate me?”

Wen Li untied the Immortal-Binding Rope from him and pinched him at his seven-inch mark, meeting the black snake's gaze with a calm tone.

“It makes sense to hate me, considering I contributed to those injuries on your body. But Xie Tinglan, rather than hating me, you ought to thank me. Without me, you would've been dragged back by them, skin peeled and tendons pulled out. Once you grew new ones, they'd figure out ways to carve off your flesh and refine it inch by inch into miraculous pills.”

“You managed to escape with great difficulty this once. You ought to know better than anyone that they have ways to track your aura. Perhaps you were supposed to be captured that very night. But you weren't. If I hadn't had a way to erase your aura, you wouldn't have hidden past day four.”

The black snake's slit pupils shrank slightly, clearly taking in her words.

Wen Li continued, “I am not like them. I saved you on one condition: take me as your master and lend a hand when necessary. As long as you stay by my side, you can hide your aura and lie low. Once you can soar into the ninth heaven and no longer need to hide from those people, I will let you leave without holding you back for a single second.”

Master wants to take him as a disciple...

Listening from the side, Yao Dai's pupils stirred slightly, her long, butterfly-wing eyelashes lowering.

Wen Li released her grip on the black snake's seven-inch mark, letting him drop to the ground.

“I'm giving you a choice: take me as your master, or leave.”

“Once you step out of this cave, I won't care what happens to you.”

The black snake's slit pupils flickered. The searing pain of his wounds kept him sharp as he made a swift choice in his mind.

The next instant, faint ink-colored spiritual energy floated around him.

When it cleared, the black snake was gone, replaced by a tiny child wearing purple clothes.

Wen Li knew he was in his juvenile phase, but she hadn't expected him to be this small in human form.

He barely reached her knees.

The roughly four-year-old child blinked his crimson pupils. His somewhat sickly, thin frame looked malnourished, but his gaze was extremely vigilant and cold.

“I want you to swear a Blood Oath on what you just said. You must guarantee that whenever I want to leave, I can go.”

A Blood Oath was a vow made by a cultivator with the Heavenly Dao as witness, binding their soul to the contract. If violated, there was no need for others to enforce it; the Heavenly Dao would strike down punishment directly.

Though thin and weak, he still had a hint of baby fat and the cute charm of a toddler. Speaking in such a high-pitched, childish voice, he triggered a surge of maternal affection in Wen Li.

So cute! I want to squeeze him!

Wen Li suppressed the urge to squeeze his cheeks and raised her hand, making the oath decisively.

“I, Wen Li, swear that as long as Xie Tinglan stays by my side, I will protect him. If he wishes to leave, I will never stop him. If I violate this vow...”

“I am willing to reincarnate as a capitalist in my next life and suffer the torment of being crushed to death by money!”

“What is a capitalist?”

Not being a transmigrator into this cultivation world like Wen Li, Xie Tinglan blinked his grape-sized eyes in confusion.

“It means having to manage the food and drink for tens of thousands of people under you, painstakingly making flatbread for them every day, working from dawn till dusk through immense hardship.” In short, dangling empty promises.

Xie Tinglan was skeptical. “No, I don't understand that. Swear another one.”

During their fight, this woman had been spouting nonsense the entire time.

Wen Li knit her brows. “Fine. If I break this vow, I will reincarnate into a herder's family who can only afford my education by selling off their pigs and cattle.”

This sounded very miserable and poor, so Xie Tinglan approved.

In an instant, Wen Li felt an indescribable spiritual aura settle onto her divine sense, signaling that the oath had taken effect.

[Host, you really refuse to suffer even a single bit.] Selling pigs and cows for school sounded tragic, but herding families owned hundreds or thousands of livestock! That was filthy rich too!

Wen Li had a clear conscience. This kid is shrewd. He's trying to play mind games with me.

Wen Li also demanded that Xie Tinglan swear an oath. Even with his misgivings, he had no choice but to comply.

“I, Xie Tinglan, take Wen Li as my master today. Before I leave, I will never commit any act that betrays my master or sect. If I violate this...”

Meeting Wen Li's expectant gaze, Xie Tinglan curled his tiny lips, a sly and sinister glint in his eyes completely at odds with his appearance.

“I am willing to reincarnate as a capitalist in my next life and suffer the torment of being crushed to death by money!”

“...” Wen Li froze.

Just as I thought—this kid is shrewd as hell, waiting right here to pull a fast one on me.

Yet she couldn't call him out on it, or her own previous oath would be revealed as a sham too.

Still, with the oath taken, a surface level of peace was established for the time being.

Wen Li didn't bother making him kneel for an apprenticeship ritual either; having been beaten up, the kid was certainly harboring resentment right now.

“Master, are you hungry? Let's go get something to eat.”

Before Wen Li could say anything to Xie Tinglan, Yao Dai stepped forward, affectionately hooking her arm around hers and acting sweet.

Now that she mentioned it, having slept for three days, Wen Li really was hungry.

“Alright then, let's dine out.” Wen Li was feeling uncharacteristically generous for once.

Yao Dai cast a subtle sidelong glance at Xie Tinglan, who looked much younger than her, a hint of hostility lingering in her eyes.

Xie Tinglan scoffed coldly and followed behind them. He was an Ancient Soaring Serpent; upon reaching adulthood and surviving Tribulation Transcendence, he could become as eternal as the heavens. Currently in his juvenile phase, he was one hundred and ninety years old, merely appearing four years old by human standards.