The rain had lessened slightly.
Clutching the money pouch against her chest, Lin Zhixue ran far through the bluestone alley, only coming to a halt against the base of a wall when the air in her lungs felt completely drained.
Rainwater dripped from her hair into her eyes, but she didn’t even bother to wipe it away.
Her very first priority was to look down, open the pouch in her arms, and count the spirit stones inside.
One, two, three.
Not a single one was missing.
Clutching the pouch tightly again, she leaned her entire body against the damp, cold wall, her racing heart finally dropping from her throat back into her chest.
Once she calmed down, bewilderment welled up from deep within her.
What was wrong with that man today?
She had lived in Canglan City for seventeen years. Better than anyone, she knew what kind of person Gu Yanqing was.
The Eldest Young Master of the Gu clan, relying on the two Nascent Soul ancestors backing his family, had run rampant through the city for years.
She had seen him “buy” things on the street with her own eyes.
He never paid a single copper; he took what he wanted and walked off, while the stall vendors didn’t dare make a peep.
Once, she had run into him on East Street. With only three spirit stones to her name, she had hidden them inside her sleeve, clutching them for dear life.
Yet he had still spotted them at a glance, snatching away the bag along with the stones, before tossing out a sneer: “Does trash like you even deserve to use spirit stones?”
A man who wouldn’t even spare three stones.
And today, after snatching an entire pouch, he had tossed it back untouched.
Lowering her head, Lin Zhixue held the pouch in her arms a little tighter.
His parting words still echoed in her ears.
“Not even enough to cover this young master’s wine bill.”
His expression hadn’t differed from usual.
Disdainful, impatient, aloof—as if sparing her a second glance was a waste of his time.
Kindness?
The moment the thought surfaced, she squashed it.
Impossible.
Anyone in Canglan City might show a shred of kindness, but not Gu Yanqing.
The people he had bullied over the years could form a line stretching from the west of the city to the east. If he were capable of benevolence, sows could climb trees.
Then why had he spared her alone?
Lin Zhixue pondered for a long time, yet found no answer.
Shaking her head vigorously, she cast those tangled thoughts aside.
Never mind. Whether he had taken the wrong medicine or lost his mind, the fact that her spirit stones hadn’t been stolen was a stroke of tremendous fortune.
Taking a deep breath, she tucked her wet, stray hairs behind her ears and set off toward the west of the city.
...
The Lin family courtyard was located in the most secluded alley in the west of the city, comprised of a row of low grey-brick houses whose front stone steps were soaked black by the rain.
She pushed open the courtyard gate lightly, intending to slip quietly back to her small room.
Yet the moment the gate opened a crack, a frail figure rushed out.
“Miss!”
Xiaohe ran over from beneath the eaves without even holding an umbrella, her cloth shoes splashing water from the puddles.
Sprinting up to Lin Zhixue, she immediately noticed the mud on her young mistress’s face and the scrapes on her wrists.
“How... Did they bully you again?”
Before Lin Zhixue could speak, Xiaohe’s eyes had already reddened.
Biting her lower lip, she fought hard to keep her tears from falling, grabbing Lin Zhixue’s hand and pulling her into the room.
The room was not large, but Xiaohe kept it spotless.
A wooden bed, a low table, and a small charcoal brazier resting in the corner.
Xiaohe pressed Lin Zhixue down to sit by the edge of the bed before hurrying out to fetch a basin of warm water. Wringing out a cloth, she crouched before her, gently wiping away the mud on her face bit by bit.
Lin Zhixue lowered her gaze, watching Xiaohe crouched on the floor.
Xiaohe was a maid left behind by her mother. Three years younger than her, she was only fourteen this year.
Thin and petite, her hair was always tied in a casual ponytail. Her features had yet to fully mature, but her eyes were large and bright.
She was a mortal without a spirit root, unable to cultivate in this lifetime, yet in this entire courtyard, she was the only one who waited for her return.
After her mother passed away, her father had remarried.
The children brought by her stepmother were of her own blood, leaving the daughter of the late wife as the most superfluous person in the household.
Spirit stones never reached her hands, cultivation methods were kept out of her reach, and if she took even an extra bite of food at mealtime, her stepmother would glare daggers at her.
When her cousins saw someone bullying her outside, pretending not to know her was commonplace, occasionally even chiming in with a few jeering laughs.
Only Xiaohe remained.
Despite being bullied herself, whenever Xiaohe saw her injured, she would still apply medicine with reddened eyes, wiping away tears in secret the entire time.
Lin Zhixue sometimes felt that without Xiaohe, she might have given up long ago.
“Miss, put on dry clothes.”
Xiaohe retrieved a white dress from the wardrobe and handed it to her.
The garment was worn, but immaculately clean.
Lin Zhixue took it and changed out of her soaked outer robe.
Xiaohe circled behind her, deftly tying her hair anew. With nimble fingers, she gathered the loose strands behind her head and bound them with an old ribbon.
The rain stopped.
Outside the window, the sky remained overcast, but a sliver of light leaked through a crack in the clouds, illuminating the low table.
Lin Zhixue reached inside her lapel and drew out the jade pendant.
When her mother had left it to her, she had said it was passed down from her grandmother, generation after generation.
The jade was warm and lustrous, a pale translucent green throughout. Held against the light, a swirl of mist seemed to drift within.
She had to become stronger.
Gripping the jade pendant tightly in her palm, she etched the thought into her heart once more.
Strong enough that she would never again fear being cornered in an alley, strong enough that she wouldn’t burden Xiaohe with worry and fear, strong enough that everyone who looked down on her would never dare view her with those eyes again.
Tucking the jade pendant close to her chest once more, she stood up and began smoothing out her rumpled sleeves.
Xiaohe tidied up the basin and cloth to the side, stealing a glance at her expression.
She asked in a low voice, “Miss, that man today... did he steal your spirit stones?”
Lin Zhixue’s movements paused.
“No,” she said.
“He threw them back.”
Xiaohe froze, looking even more bewildered than she had been.
“Threw... threw them back?”
“Mm.”
Lin Zhixue offered no further explanation.
Because she couldn’t explain it herself either.
...
Inside a wing room in the Gu manor’s back courtyard, Gu Yanqing sneezed.
Rubbing his nose, he turned a page of the sword manual in his hands, only to set it back down.
He couldn’t remember anything after reading it anyway.
He had just sorted through the original host’s memories from start to finish, and his head felt swollen, as if someone had poured paste into his skull.
The Gu clan’s situation was more complicated than he had imagined.
Of Canglan City’s three major factions, the Gu clan was one. Anchored by two Nascent Soul ancestors, with his father, Gu Yuanshan, serving as the current clan head at the Late Golden Core realm, their words carried immense weight in the city.
Reasonably speaking, with this background, one could strut around Canglan City unopposed. And true to expectations, the original host had lived out the phrase “strutting unopposed” to the absolute fullest.
Bullying men and seizing women, forcing sales and extorting purchases, overturning stalls in the street—he hadn't done a single good deed, while racking up an endless list of misdeeds.
Yet his cultivation talent was thoroughly mediocre.
His Mid Foundation Establishment cultivation was entirely piled up with medicinal pills, leaving a foundation as hollow as a sandcastle that would collapse at the slightest breeze.
Standing in his room, he had given it a try. Channeling spiritual energy presented no obstacles, but attempting to execute a complete technique formula left him stumbling clumsily.
The techniques the original host knew felt like someone else’s arm grafted onto his body—attached, yes, but refusing to obey his commands.
He had fiddled around aiming at a vase for fifteen minutes, nearly shattering it in the process.
Forget it.
He wouldn’t rely on fighting anyway.
He would rely on his brain.
Gu Yanqing sat down, closed his eyes, and summoned that indescribably crude system interface.
A rudimentary map surfaced in his divine sense, where a tiny red blinking dot pulsed softly.
Location marker: West of the city, Lin residence.
Still at home.
He stared at that glowing dot for a good while.
Though this system was useless to an infuriating degree, there was one thing it hadn’t lied about.
The tracking was real. Wherever the female lead was, he knew with absolute clarity.
Leaning back in his chair, he stared blankly at the ceiling for a while, his mind consumed by the plot points regarding Lin Zhixue from the original novel. He knew how she had grown stronger step by step.
That jade pendant.
Her mother had left it to her. In the original plot, it wouldn’t be activated until a dozen or so days later.
After that, she had become a completely different person. Her cultivation speed had advanced by leaps and bounds, breaking through Foundation Establishment and Golden Core with ease, until finally, with a single sword strike that chilled fourteen provinces, she stood at a pinnacle others couldn’t even fathom.
The original host had become her very first stepping stone just as that path began to unfold.
Gu Yanqing had no desire to be a stepping stone.
He had only two choices right now.
First: run away before she grew in power. Second: max out her favorability before she grew in power.
He considered the first option for three seconds before abandoning it.
The Gu clan was right here; where could he even run?
Without his clan’s protection, a Foundation Establishment cultivation wouldn't cause so much as a ripple in the cultivation world; he would only die faster.
Then only the second remained.
How could he raise her favorability?
Sending her spirit stones directly was definitely out of the question.
If Gu Yanqing gifted her things without rhyme or reason, how would that be any different from a weasel wishing a chicken a happy New Year?
Never mind that Lin Zhixue wouldn’t accept them—even if she did, it would only make her more vigilant.
He had to deliver the spirit stones into her hands in a way that fit the original host’s persona.
He narrowed his eyes, recalling the moment in the alley earlier today.
An idea slowly took shape in his mind.
He was a villain.
A villain wouldn’t gift things out of the goodness of his heart. But a villain could find things troublesome.
For instance, he could send people to summon her for odd jobs and pay her exorbitantly high wages.
For instance, he could disguise his actions under the pretense of “causing trouble”—making things difficult for her on the surface, while in truth providing her with cultivation resources.
She needed spirit stones, and he had plenty.
As long as the method was sound, he wouldn’t break character, and he could still deliver the resources to her.
He could give it a try tomorrow.
He rose and walked to the window, pushing it open.
Without him noticing, the rain had stopped, and a few stars peeked out against the night sky.
Rate on N.U.
