Transmigrated as the Villainess of a Cultivation Novel, I Just Gave Up

I looked gorgeous cutting my own throat.

I picked the angle on purpose, and I made sure I got it all over Eldest Brother's face.

Honored Master came running in right as it happened and nearly fainted.

"What are you all standing there for! A healer! Somebody get a healing cultivator!"

That was the last thing I heard before everything went out.

I woke up to the Youngest Sister sobbing, very aggrieved:

"Does Senior Sister hate me? Maybe... maybe I should just leave the Master and go!"

She was packing her bundle between sniffles, and she had already turned to go down the mountain.

Eldest Brother nearly lost his mind. He ran over, snatched the bundle out of her hands, and raised his voice at Honored Master:

"Honored Master, this whole dying business of Shen Qingqing's is a new stunt, nothing more. She's trying to drive Xiaolian out!"

"If she really wanted to die, would she pick jumping off a cliff, drinking poison, or cutting her own throat? Those are the cheapest ways out in the whole cultivation world."

"She's counting on us patching her up every time."

Something wavered in Honored Master's eyes, and he looked about ready to believe it. Youngest Brother piled on right away:

"That's right, Honored Master. If she really wanted to stop living, why not just dig out her own Spirit Root? That one's certain. Nobody can save you from that!"

I had just opened my eyes, still working out how I had gotten saved again, and that landed like a spark in dry grass.

Of course. A Spirit Root is the root of life for anyone who cultivates. Destroy that, and even the highest immortals can't do a thing.

Youngest Brother was still going. I was already feeling along the floor for the sword they had left lying there, trying to remember roughly where the Spirit Root sat, and testing the blade against my own belly.

They stopped mid-sentence and turned, for no reason at all.

And there I was, holding the sword at a deeply strange angle, blood welling out of my stomach, looking up at them.

Air stopped moving for a second.

Then somebody screamed, and the room boiled over.

Pulling, grabbing, fighting over my hands. Total chaos.

I struggled. I thrashed. I wriggled with my whole body and held on to that sword for dear life, and shoved it in deeper while I was at it.

They all piled on me, coaxing and scolding, and it took no end of effort before they got the sword out of my hands.

The healing cultivator finally arrived, late. Honored Master had just let out a breath when two voices came at him, one after the other.

Eldest Brother pointed at me and addressed him with enormous solemnity:

"Honored Master! Even now, Shen Qingqing is still playing to the gallery to get our attention!"

Junior Brother chimed in, equally solemn:

"He's right, Honored Master. Senior Sister needs a proper punishment to make her remember it. Youngest Sister was frightened half to death."

I bounced off the bed the second I heard that and made a grab for the sword. Honored Master's temple started jumping.

He kicked the sword across the room with a crack. "Enough! Both of you, shut up!"

He had every blade in the room cleared out, and the corners of the table sawed round.

He looked at me on the bed, barely breathing in, and his eyes went red.

He had just started toward me when Su Xiaolian collapsed behind him, a hand pressed to her chest.

"Xiaolian!" Three voices, all at once.

Honored Master's step stopped dead. Junior Brother and Eldest Brother didn't even look back, they just ran for her.

"What are you waiting for! Go see to Xiaolian!" Eldest Brother shouted at the healing cultivator.

The healer gave me an apologetic look, packed up in a hurry, and ran out after them.

Chapter Two

Inside a minute the room was empty, and I was the only one left in it.

Once, a scene like that would have put a dent in me.

Unfortunately, I had been through this same pick-one-of-two bit for over a hundred years now.

Nothing moved inside me anymore. Thinking back on it, I almost wanted to laugh.

I was broke, dirt poor. That was the whole reason. When the System told me I could walk away with a hundred million for finishing a redemption mission, I could not resist the temptation and said yes on the spot, without turning it over once.

I could not resist the temptation. It was a hundred million. I said yes on the spot, without turning it over once.

What I had not known was that one redemption mission came with three separate targets.

So in the daytime I got up early to wash Honored Master's clothes, and to patch up the childhood of a man who had never once worn a clean shirt because he had no parents.

At noon I went to spar with a Dragon-Proud-Sky protagonist of an Eldest Brother, to keep this training obsessive of ours from tipping into Qi Deviation by accident.

In the evening I carried dinner to the black lotus Youngest Brother, and worked very hard at making him feel loved and warmed by the world.

A hundred years of diligence. The progress bars on all three mission targets climbed to ninety-nine.

Then the Youngest Sister came up the mountain.

"Host, look. The first day she is on the mountain, your redemption progress drops to zero. Are you really going to give up the quest? Can you live with giving it up?"

"A hundred years! A hundred years of you up before dawn and asleep after dark!"

"Of course, if you insist on quitting, the rules are the same. You just have to die in this world."

"But this is the cultivation world. Dying might take some effort."

"So why not think it over some more? Beat the Youngest Sister! Take the prize money and walk to the top of the world!"

The System kept talking in my head. It did not stop.

I rolled over with some difficulty and dug out my ledger:

"Thirty years ago, her first day on the mountain, the Youngest Sister stole my sword. She did not hold it steady, it dropped on her foot, and it made her cry. Honored Master went black at once, and the Redemption Value wiped to zero."

"Twenty years ago, she stole my clothes and sparred with Eldest Brother in them. Too thin for them, everything showed. He decided I had set her up, and went black at once, and the Redemption Value wiped to zero."

"Ten years ago, she ate the dinner I had made for Junior Brother, and it gave her a stomachache. He decided I had done it to her on purpose, and went black at once, and the Redemption Value wiped to zero."

For a moment the System went quiet in a way that felt wrong. Then, entirely lost: "Are all three of them actually idiots..."

It did not finish. The door banged open, kicked in, and Eldest Brother came at me with his face shut down:

"Shen Qingqing! Look at what you've done!"

Chapter Three

He said the Youngest Sister had been frightened into a relapse of her old illness, so tomorrow, when she faced Tribulation Transcendence, the eighty-one strokes of Heavenly Lightning would be mine to take, and I would be taking them for her.

I laughed. I could not help it.

Still laughing, I swung my legs off the bed and threw myself headfirst at the pillar, no thought involved.

The cracked skull did not happen. Eldest Brother caught my arm.

"Shen Qingqing! Are you done yet?" His eyes were full of fire and his voice shook.

"Is this you throwing a tantrum at us? How many more times are you going to pull this dying act, just to get at Xiaolian?"

He did not let go. He pulled me up behind him onto his sword, carried me there on it in sword flight, and planted me in front of the Flame Pool:

"Tomorrow you take that Heavenly Lightning for Xiaolian!"

"Otherwise, don't blame me for turning on you. I'll throw every last thing your parents left you in there and burn it!"

Great. Here we go again. Threatening me with my parents' belongings.

Once, I had treated the things my adoptive parents left me as almost the only thing in this world worth keeping. I even thought I might carry them back to the real world with me someday.

So every single time he threatened me with them, I gave in.

This time I did not even look up. "Oh. Go ahead and burn them."

He did not process it. "What did you say?"

I pulled out the megaphone I had just traded my points with the System for, and took the things out of his hands:

"You want to burn my parents' belongings? No need, I'll do it myself. I've been meaning to mail them a care package anyway."

I started throwing the things into the Flame Pool at random, and running with the megaphone up to my mouth:

"Good afternoon, brothers and sisters of the sect, this is Shen Qingqing, and I honestly cannot work out why my Senior Brother keeps threatening me with my dead parents' belongings, day in and day out."

"And here's the thing I can't figure out. Does he not have parents? Otherwise why is he always so fixated on other people's parents' belongings?"

"Oh, and just now he told me to take the Youngest Sister's Heavenly Lightning for her. That was struck-by-lightning stupid, even for him. Why doesn't he take it himself? He's more of a lightning bolt than the lightning. Maybe I should carry him instead,"

I was going strong when my foot slipped and I nearly went into the Flame Pool. Eldest Brother grabbed me and hauled me back.

He snatched the megaphone away and threw it, veins standing out at his temple, talking through his teeth:

"Shen Qingqing! Have you lost your mind? Saying that, are you asking to die?"

He looked awful.

The disciples around us, who had been enjoying the show until they saw my brother's face, scattered like birds.

Looking at that face of his, blacker than the bottom of a pot, I gave him a smile. "That's right. I am asking to die."

I shook his hand off.

No time for him to react. I stepped off the edge into the Flame Pool, neat as anything.

Chapter Four

"Shen Qingqing!"

The last thing I saw before everything went out was his face, eyes stretched wide.

Sadly, I did not die again.

When I opened my eyes and saw the antique room around me, I nearly choked on a laugh.

"What a shame, Host. You didn't die again."

"And who would have thought your Senior Brother would throw away the Magic Treasure in his hand at the last second and haul you out."

I pretended I could not hear the gloating in its voice, and I was grateful it kept the pain switched off for me.

"Hmph," said the System. "You'd better be."

I stopped answering it. The moment I turned my head, I jumped. Eldest Brother looked wrecked, two dark circles hanging under his eyes.

When he saw me awake, his whole body went tight, his throat moved, and his voice came out hoarse. "Qingqing, how... how are you feeling?"

That one word, Qingqing, stopped me cold.

He had not called me that since before Xiaolian came up the mountain.

Back then, of everyone in the sect, he had been the best to me.

I have a weak constitution. When I first joined, I could not keep up with sword practice. He used to get up before dawn and go through every form with me, one move at a time.

I had a sweet tooth for the candied haws sold down the mountain. So every time he came back from training out in the world, he brought me one, wrapped up in oil paper so it would not get dirty.

Once I ran a high fever and was out of my head for days. He sat by my bed for three days and three nights, and the lack of sleep puffed his eyes up.

I never in a thousand years thought a brother like that, the moment he laid eyes on the Youngest Sister, would turn braindead.

I was thinking all this while I tried to sit up. He pushed me back down by the shoulder.

His eyes moved. He was quiet a long time before he got a sentence out. "You don't have to do this."

I frowned, not following. "Do what?"

He looked down. His voice dropped. "Because I told you to take the lightning tribulation for Xiaolian, you've decided I don't care about you. You're jealous, aren't you?"

Before he finished, I was already groping around on the bed.

He froze. "What are you looking for?"

I did not look up. "Something that'll finish the job. Listening to you talk makes me feel sick that I'm still alive."

A vein jumped at his temple. "Shen Qingqing! I am trying to talk to you properly!"

"Let me tell you something. You think this dying act is going to make people care about you?"

"Do you have any idea? Honored Master burned through half his Cultivation Base to pull you back this time. Nobody knows how long he'll be in closed-door cultivation now!"

"Is other people's trouble the only reason you're alive?"

The more worked up he got, the more I nodded along. I answered him very sincerely:

"That's right, other people's trouble is the only reason I'm alive, so do me a favor and kill me already!"

His face shut completely. "Shen Qingqing!"

We parted badly.

I stared at the door he had smashed for a while, and had just started considering a new way to die...

Bang. Junior Brother kicked the door in.

"Shen Qingqing! Look at what you've done!"

I blinked. So did the System. For a second I thought I was stuck in a haunted loop.

Chapter Five

Junior Brother said that because I had not taken the Heavenly Lightning for the Youngest Sister, she had been badly hurt yesterday when her tribulation came and her Inner Core had cracked.

"Then let her die of it."

"I'm planning to die anyway. If she's interested, she can come along when I do."

That did not make him angry. He laughed.

"Senior Sister, I'm not Eldest Brother. Getting me mad to change the subject doesn't work on me."

"Stop struggling. With me here, that Inner Core is going to the Youngest Sister today, one way or another. Running won't help."

"Don't make me do it the hard way, Senior Sister. Be sensible and let me cut it out..."

He did not finish. I tossed the blanket aside, lay back flat, and spread my arms wide. "Go on, cut it out!"

He stared at me, thrown.

"I said you wanted my Inner Core. So cut it out already!"

"Oh, while you're in there, dig out my Spirit Root too. Up to you how you do it. I don't want to live anyway!"

"I trust your hands. Please see to it that I do not walk out of this room alive!"

At that, his face finally went dark.

"What are you talking about! All I asked was for you to swap an Inner Core to the Youngest Sister. Do you have to put on this whole act just to disgust me?"

His personality was flipping back and forth so fast my brain was throbbing in time with it.

I had had enough. I shot to my feet and took the knife out of his hand:

"Let's skip the small talk and get to the paperwork. Is the Inner Core enough? Maybe I should give her my life too!"

I grabbed the knife and drove it into the big artery at my throat.

The three feet of blood did not happen. He caught the blade faster than I could follow, and blood ran out from under his fingers.

He did not seem to feel it. His black eyes pinned themselves on my face.

My thoughts slipped away from me, back and back.

Of everyone in the sect, he used to be the one who could not leave me alone.

Once the two of us went down the mountain together to train, and the Demon Clan ambushed us en route.

At the moment of Nine Deaths, One Life, he put himself in front of me. A demonic blade went through his chest and blood spilled from the corner of his mouth:

"Senior Sister, go... I've got them..."

Later a healing cultivator said that if the blade had gone half an inch off, he would have died.

I cried my eyes out, and after that I cooked with more care than ever.

I was going to raise him round and plump, I told myself. I was not going to let him turn into some yandere black lotus.

I never in a thousand years thought a perfectly good Junior Brother, the moment he laid eyes on the Youngest Sister, would go braindead too.

"Senior Sister! What happened to you? Is this the only move you know now?"

His voice shook as he accused me, and it pulled me back.

"Just because I asked you to swap Inner Cores for the Youngest Sister?"

"Don't worry, we have the best healing cultivators here. Even if you give her your Inner Core, it won't do anything to you..."

I fought him and sank my teeth into his hand. "Screw you. If it won't do anything, why don't you cut out your own?"

I did not get him to let go until my mouth was full of blood and my teeth ached.

Finally I got tired. I stopped struggling, looked up at him, and smiled gently:

"All right, Junior Brother. Senior Sister got carried away just now."

"I've thought it over, and you're right. An Inner Core is nothing much. If my Junior Sister needs it, then as the one who plays Senior Sister here, of course I have to give it to her."

"Good boy, let go. I won't try to kill myself anymore. I'll cut the Inner Core out for her right now."

He studied me, uncertain, and only when he saw my face was honest did he slowly let go.

Then he let out a long breath. "Senior Sister, don't ever play this kind of thing in front of me again..."

He did not get any further. I took the knife and put it into my throat.

Blood sprayed at once. It was a very ugly scene.

For one second, the world went quiet.

The System yanked my soul out of my body just as the door was kicked in.

"Qingqing!!!"

Two more familiar shapes came at a dead run toward where I lay.

Chapter Six

Honored Master's face, which was always so composed, went white as paper in a second.

"Qingqing!" His voice shook. It was almost a shout.

Eldest Brother and Junior Brother moved faster. They rushed in to give me Spiritual Energy.

They did not so much as touch me before he shoved them away.

"Get away, all of you!"

His eyes were red. "You two beasts! Don't touch her! I was in closed-door cultivation for one day, and you've hounded Qingqing into this!"

He gathered me up in his arms in a panic, toward the miracle doctor

"Don't be afraid, Qingqing. Honored Master's here. Qingqing, don't be afraid."

Seeing him that afraid reminded me of who he used to be.

When the System first dropped me into this world, I used to count myself lucky. Many times over.

The brother who sheltered me, the brother who would not leave me alone: those were secondary.

What mattered was that I had the best master in the world.

He was a cold, remote sort, the kind who looked like a flower on a high peak, untouched by dust.

Any disciple on the whole mountain lowered their voice around him, afraid of disturbing an exiled immortal.

With me, he was never that way.

When I first joined the sect, I could never get cultivation right. I could not fit into this world at all, and I was climbing the walls over it.

I do not know how he found out. He broke every form down into something I could follow, worked three nights straight, and wrote me a secret manual that belonged to nobody but me.

The brothers and sisters of the sect were sick with envy. He just shook out his sleeve and swept his eyes over them, and every mouth in the room shut.

My constitution was weak, so he went back and forth between the surrounding peaks day and night and came back with rare herbs by the armload, and stuffed all of them into my hands.

The other sects grumbled loudly about it. But they looked at that blank face of his, decided they could not win a fight with him, and kept the anger behind their teeth.

I was a menace in those days. One day I would pull up the grass on the next peak, the next I would set the mountain opposite on fire.

When they came to complain, he put me behind him in his white robes. "I will discipline my disciple. I don't need anyone else's help."

There was even a year, on my birthday, when he gave me a jade pendant.

That pendant cost him thirty years of Cultivation Base. He spent three months in closed-door cultivation recovering from it.

I cried over it for days.

He laughed at me, and the ice melted out of his eyes. "Enough of that. Go cultivate."

So later, when the System kept telling me to treat it as a job and not put so much of myself into it, I did not listen.

I thought a kindness ought to come back around.

Never in a thousand years did I imagine that all of it, everything I had taken for kindness, would go this fast once the Youngest Sister came up the mountain.

Chapter Seven

It started with small things.

The Youngest Sister minded the cold, so Honored Master gave her the sunny courtyard I had lived in for over a hundred years, without discussing it with me.

Her Spirit Root was poor and she cultivated too slowly, so day after day he arranged for healing cultivators to come and take my blood, all to build her up.

I did not think much of it. Disciples of one sect ought to help each other.

Besides, I was her Senior Sister. I ought to look after my Junior Sister.

Then came the time she caused real trouble out in the world and killed a disciple from another peak by mistake, and that sect's Elder came to demand satisfaction.

At the Hundred Schools Assembly, cultivators from every school gathered in one hall.

I was called up in front of the platform. Before I understood what was happening, Your Master shoved me forward.

"Wretched girl, apologize at once! You have taken a life, and even I can no longer protect you!"

"Everyone, this is my disciple. She killed Elder Qingyun's eldest disciple by mistake. Her temperament is foul, and today I must ask you all to teach her a lesson in my place. I only beg you to leave her her life!"

I stood there frozen, and my head went blank.

The noise around me rose. Cultivators from every house turned and whispered, and their eyes cut at me like knives.

"Honored Master... it wasn't me. It was the Youngest Sister, she..." My voice was shaking.

"Silence!" His face went hard, and he slapped me.

"Say one more word in your defense, and you leave the Master and get out!"

The slap set my ears ringing and half my face went numb.

The one hundred and ten years I had spent on that mountain counted for nothing that day. They nailed me to the post of shame.

Some cursed my cruelty. Some named me a demoness. Some wanted me dead for it.

They broke the tendons in my arms and legs, and the spit of the crowd landed all over me.

I turned my head with difficulty to look past the crowd.

Honored Master stood at the edge of it, his face tight, his fingers clenched white.

Eldest Brother and Junior Brother stood behind him, one gripping his sword hilt, the other chewing at his own back teeth.

And the Youngest Sister stood with a smile on her mouth, threw me one look of pure challenge, then pressed a hand to her chest and gave a soft "hnn."

"Xiaolian? What is it?" Honored Master's voice went tight at once.

They took her home on the spot. Three of them around her, walking past me.

How I got carried back, I don't remember.

I remember waking up, and Honored Master sitting by the bed with his eyes red.

"Qingqing..." he said.

"What happened today, I had my reasons."

"Xiaolian's health is poor. If I had not done that, there truly was no way to keep her alive."

I said nothing. He sighed and lifted the bowl of medicine gently. "Come. Drink your medicine."

I knocked it out of his hand and it shattered on the floor.

He paused, then picked up the bowl of congee beside it. "Then eat something first?"

I took the bowl and threw it at him, bowl and all.

The congee ran down his white robes, and his eyes went cold, bit by bit.

He stood up and looked down at me. "Do that again, and you leave the Master for good, and never come back!"

I gave a short laugh, packed my things, and went down the mountain.

Maybe I'm simply unlucky. Halfway down, I walked straight into a Demon Clan raid.

Demonic Qi came pouring over everything, and someone grabbed me.

When I saw it was Honored Master, I actually thought he had come to save me.

A second later he pushed me in front of the Youngest Sister, and took the blade on me.

I went down on the ground, blood spreading under me.

Almost in the same instant, Honored Master, Eldest Brother and Junior Brother all ran for the untouched Youngest Sister again.

That was the moment I stopped hesitating. I decided, then and there, to give up the mission.

Chapter Eight

When I opened my eyes again and worked out that I was still alive, neither the System nor I had anything left.

The System, which had been against my dying, sounded tired this time:

"Host, that death of yours jumped your Honored Master's Redemption Value and your Senior Brother's straight to a hundred."

"The main System sent you another life as a reward."

I said: "......"

The System paused, then tried again. "Host, could you maybe die a bit later? I feel like a hundred million is right there!"

Before I could answer, I heard voices outside the door:

"Honored Master, Senior Brother! Yes, I favor the Youngest Sister. So what?"

"She faked a cracked Inner Core to get Shen Qingqing's Inner Core cut out of her, and that was wrong of her. But she did it because she has no sense of safety. She's an orphan. All she has is us!"

His voice stopped, then dropped:

"Honored Master, when you hounded Shen Qingqing's parents to death to let off steam for the Youngest Sister, weren't you thinking the same thing?"

"And you, Senior Brother. Don't think I don't know. You brought the Demon Clan up the mountain on purpose, so Shen Qingqing would see how things really are and stop making trouble for the Youngest Sister. Are you going to tell me you don't favor her too?"

"Enough!" Honored Master cut him off, hard.

Then a long silence.

I leaned against the head of the bed, my ears ringing.

At the same time, the System was jumping up and down in my head:

"Animals! The lot of them, they're sick! Host! We're leaving, I'm electrocuting you right now! We use our own death to make them sorry for the rest of their lives!!!"

Something twitched between my brows and I cut it off.

"Don't bother. Their regret isn't worth anything."

"Besides, I've just realized, dying on my own is a bit boring."

I smiled. "So. Nobody lives."

Chapter Nine

Over the next few days, Honored Master and Eldest Brother changed toward me completely.

It was as though they were terrified of what I might do next.

They took every sharp thing out of the room. They did not leave me so much as a chopstick.

They even went as far as wrapping the inside and outside of my room in cotton.

Miracle doctors were brought in from every peak, one after another.

Very quickly my wounds closed completely, without a mark left.

Honored Master and Eldest Brother stayed with me day and night and almost never left my side.

To cheer me up, they even lined up all the little wooden carvings I had made them over the years and put them together.

"Qingqing, look. Put together like this, don't we look like a family..." His eyes went red as he said it.

"Tsk."

Youngest Brother happened to be passing the door. He had been on his way to the kitchens for the Youngest Sister's medicinal meals. He looked in and sneered:

"Senior Sister, you're quite the performer."

"You won. You used the sympathy angle and took everyone's attention off her. Happy now?"

Then he turned and walked off.

His back and the boy in my memory who had once stood in front of me overlapped. I drifted.

After that I made no sound and drew no one's attention for days.

Until, not long afterwards, the Hundred Schools Assembly came around again.

I traded in all my points with the System for one thing.

Elder Qingyun's eldest disciple, back from the dead for one shichen.

On the platform at the Hundred Schools Assembly, cultivators from every school were gathered.

Just as the crowd was waiting for the fight for this year's crown, a thin figure slowly formed in the center of the platform.

Elder Qingyun's whole body jolted, and his eyes went wide. "Disciple... my disciple!"

The figure faced him, knelt, and touched his head to the ground. Then straight to business. "Master, your disciple has failed you."

"Back then I found out that Su Xiaolian was a princess of the Demon Clan and was going to put her to death for it. I was no match for her. She killed me instead. I have disgraced you."

"Rubbish!" As the crowd's mood began to turn, Youngest Brother was the first one out.

"He's been dead for years. Who's to say Shen Qingqing hasn't cooked this up! She's trying to frame the Youngest Sister!"

Eldest Brother frowned too. "Raising the dead is an Evil Art, plain and simple. Someone is trying to hurt Xiaolian!"

Honored Master's face went the color of iron. He stepped forward. "Elder Qingyun, there must be some misunderstanding here, allow me..."

The figure did not answer. It raised a hand and pointed into the air.

The scene of Su Xiaolian killing him played out clearly in front of everyone.

And what she used to do it was a pure Demon Clan cultivation technique.

The scene ended. The figure faded, slowly.

The crowd came apart into noise.

Elder Qingyun and every one of his disciples turned as one toward Honored Master and the other two.

Through his teeth, his eyes red: "Hand over Su Xiaolian!"

And Su Xiaolian, at that same moment, knew nothing about any of it.

She was busy dragging me to the cliff behind the mountain and telling me exactly what she thought of me.

"Senior Sister, you guessed right after all. I am one of the Demon Clan. So what?"

"Go ahead and tell them. See whether they believe you or me."

I looked at her and laughed. "You're that sure they'll believe you?"

She was full of confidence. "Of course. You don't know, do you? I put a Demon Clan Gu Insect on all three of them from the start. It can only help along, it can't control them outright. But I never expected that with a bit of acting, this pack of idiots would fall into my hands so easily."

"Anyway, I'm off the point. I came here to tell you, I am taking first place at this assembly, and you are the biggest stone in my road."

She paused and said it one word at a time. "So. Die."

Before she finished, something hit me hard from behind.

My body went over the edge of the cliff.

"Ding! Target one, Honored Master. Redemption Value 100. Target secured!"

"Ding! Target two, Eldest Brother. Redemption Value 100. Target secured!"

"Ding! Target three, Youngest Brother. Redemption Value 100. Target secured!"

The System's announcements came one after another in my head.

"Qingqing!!!" Three voices tore apart at once, and the valley threw them back and forth.

Su Xiaolian turned at the sound, and her face went white in a second.

The corner of my mouth lifted. I watched those figures come charging at the edge of the cliff, and I let myself fall.

The next second, my body scattered into a sky full of starlight.

A hundred years.

I could finally go home.

Chapter Ten

That day, the platform of the Hundred Schools Assembly turned into a battlefield for hunting down a Demon Clan witch.

Su Xiaolian was surrounded on all sides, and she could not hide the Demon Qi on her any longer.

She turned her head in a panic. "Honored Master! Save me!"

Honored Master stood where he was, raised his hand, and a blade of sword light came down at her.

Her eyes went wide. She dodged, badly.

She turned the other way. "Senior Brother! You said you would protect me!"

The veins stood out on the hand that held Eldest Brother's sword, and the whites of his eyes were full of red.

He stared at her, word by word:

"What did you do with Shen Qingqing? What demon arts did you use?!"

Sword light flashed, and a red line opened on her shoulder.

"Junior Brother!"

In despair she turned to the last of them. "Didn't you like me best? You said so yourself!"

Junior Brother smiled. His eyes stayed cold. "A Demon Clan Gu Insect. Imagine that."

"We all heard what you said just now. Tell me, whose hands would you like to die at?"

He walked toward her, step by step. In her panic she made for the cliff, and a strand of Sword Qi pulled her back.

She died badly. Badly enough that some of the young ones from the other houses with weak stomachs threw up on the spot.

At the last, Elder Qingyun took his revenge with his own hands, and turned and walked away without a word.

After that, the sect was never the same.

Honored Master shut himself in his room for three days and three nights.

When he came out, there was grey at his temples, and a madness in his eyes that nothing would clear.

He began scouring the world for old texts and reading scrolls listed as forbidden arts. Then he went into Qi Deviation, and his body burst apart.

Eldest Brother stopped practicing the sword.

He talked to the empty air day and night, as though explaining himself to someone, and every time he did it his eyes went red.

One day he simply vanished.

They found him in the Demon Clan Forbidden Ground, nothing left of him but dry bones. Nobody ever knew what had happened to him.

Youngest Brother went completely mad.

He knelt at the edge of the cliff every day, saying it over and over:

"Senior Sister, I was wrong. Senior Sister, I was wrong..."

And then he ran at the cliff. "Senior Sister!!!"

The image stopped there.

I was quiet a long time.

Outside the window the city lights were bright, and traffic ran past underneath.

I looked down at the bag of chips in my hand. It had stopped tasting of anything.

The System, for once, made a decent effort at caring. "Host, are you all right?"

I laughed out loud. "Fine. A hundred million just landed. Why wouldn't I be fine?"

A hundred million!

I bounced up off the couch, ran two circles on the bare floor, and dived headfirst into the pile of soft cushions.

Rolling around in them, I suddenly remembered something, pulled out my phone, and started ordering.

Milk tea. The most expensive one, with double toppings!

Delivery. The most luxurious set on the page, and tick the express courier!

The clothes and makeup that had been sitting in my cart because I couldn't afford them, pay for all of it!

I threw the phone onto the couch and laughed up at the ceiling three times.

Somewhere in the laughing, the tears came, without my telling them to.

"Ah, man..."

I wiped my face and found I was actually crying. "What is wrong with me..."

The neon outside blinked on and off. Kids were shouting somewhere downstairs. Next door seemed to have a variety show on, and the laughter came in waves.

"Anyway. Car first thing tomorrow."

"One with a convertible top, the kind where the wind just pours through."

"And then... then where?"

"Never mind. I'll work that out when I get there."

My days are long ahead of me anyway.

I'm going to have a whole, new, entirely my own rest of my life.