"Fellow Daoist Ye, what's the situation down below?"
The world beneath the lotus pond was another realm entirely, far deeper than Shu Fu had imagined. She slid down the red rope for several dozen feet in one breath. The starlight above her head grew fainter, yet beneath her feet there was still only empty space, with no sign of the ground at all.
Ye Shusheng, who was ahead of her, was equally in the dark. "I... I can't see anything! Just how deep is this cave?"
"Wait, hold still."
A sense of foreboding stirred in Shu Fu. She took a spirit stone from her storage pouch and flung it into the depths of the cave.
"......"
Everyone held their breath for several seconds before a faint plop echoed up from the unfathomable darkness far below.
Shu Fu: "Damn."
This is utterly ridiculous. A fall from this height would be disastrous.
"Fellow Daoist Ye, hold on tight. You can't fly on swords in this cave, and using spells isn't easy either."
Shu Fu had already sensed the presence of spirit-sealing stones. Cursing inwardly, "That old man really set this up for me," she called out a warning to her teammate. "Even for a body cultivator like you, a fall from this height would be no joke."
"I'm fine, I'm used to taking hits during body tempering," Ye Shusheng replied readily. "It's you and Miss Lin who need to be extra careful. Whatever you do, don't let go."
However, it seemed Ye Shusheng's mouth had been blessed—or rather, cursed—by the god of misfortune, where good predictions never come true but bad ones always do.
No sooner had his words fallen than a startled cry of "Aiya!" from Lin Xiaomei rang out. Like a ripe fruit dropping from a branch, she plummeted straight down toward Shu Fu's face.
Shu Fu: "!!!"
It all happened too suddenly. In that critical moment, her body reacted before her mind could. One hand gripping the red rope, she pushed off hard against the stone wall with her legs, swinging backward to avoid the falling Lin Xiaomei. At the same time, her other hand shot out and firmly grasped the young girl's slender wrist.
"Fellow Daoist Lin, be care—"
The final word, "ful," froze solid in her throat.
In moments of crisis, every sense is heightened to the extreme. Each frame of vision stretches out like a slow-motion scene.
Thus, Shu Fu saw with absolute, undeniable clarity as a green vine shot out from Lin Xiaomei's sleeve. Its tip twisted into a sharp needle, aimed directly at the veins on Shu Fu's wrist, and stabbed down viciously.
"I'm sorry."
A whisper, thin as a mosquito's hum, fell by her ear, like a wisp of smoke instantly scattered by the howling wind.
After piercing Shu Fu, the vine did not stop. It sprouted and grew madly, casting out countless tendrils like a celestial maiden scattering flowers. One vine, as if sensing something, pointed straight upwards. It climbed swiftly along the smooth, steep stone wall. Looking up from below, it resembled a silken thread dangling from hell itself.
Lin Xiaomei, one hand clutching that vine, had somehow produced a dagger in her other hand. Its cold, gleaming edge pressed against the red rope.
"You—"
Shu Fu called out to her. The skin around the wound was already numb; clearly, this was a vine coated with poison. "Fellow Daoist Lin, do you know what you're doing?"
"I..."
For a fleeting moment, confusion clouded Lin Xiaomei's eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a look of resolute ruthlessness. "I do. Miss Fang promised that if I found a way to make you fail, she would recommend me to Master Huaigu and Master Jinghai, so I could enter Tianji Peak."
"I'm sorry, Sister Shu Fu. You've been very kind to me, and I am truly grateful from the bottom of my heart."
"But I need this opportunity too much. I have no choice..."
I have no choice.
I really have no choice.
Lin Xiaomei repeated this phrase silently over and over, as if chewing it to pulp before swallowing it, letting it dissolve into her bones and blood, so she could finally believe it.
That's right. I have no other option.
My background is poor. I've been trapped in a tiny, palm-sized grass nest since childhood. I know a golden phoenix can't be raised in a grass nest.
Other families' daughters have pearls, jade, silks, and satins; they have dowries that stretch for miles. Even corals from the seafloor are fetched for them. I can only pick wild grass by the roadside and weave a shabby bracelet for my own wrist.
I refuse to accept this fate. I refuse to be worthless grass my whole life. So I ran away. I sought the Dao. I want to go to the greatest sect in the land, to learn the most powerful sword arts and spells.
I know, only by standing high enough can I avoid being trampled at will by those already above.
But...
Everyone, everyone, says my "aptitude is mediocre."
They say my cultivation prospects are hopeless. Even if I join a sect, I'll only ever be an outer disciple, mediocre and waiting for death. My future would still involve cold shoulders, scornful looks, bowing and scraping before those heaven-favored geniuses. In a cultivation world where the strong are revered, my life would still be as cheap as grass.
Why?
Haven't I worked hard enough?
But I've struggled desperately. I truly have.
I reached Foundation Establishment at this age precisely because I practiced forgetting to eat and sleep. I used the meager savings I scraped together to buy expensive pills. I endured heart-rending, gut-wrenching agony, repeatedly cleansing my marrow and widening my frail meridians. Every time I forced a breakthrough, I could see fragments of my organs in the blood I coughed up.
I've worked this hard. Struggled this desperately. Lived in such an ugly, wretched way.
"But why... why am I still not as good as you?"
Lin Xiaomei's delicate features twisted into a bitter smile. She closed her eyes, raised her hand, and brought the dagger down, severing the red rope.
I'm sorry.
Even if it means being shameless, ungrateful, and forgetting kindness, this time I will climb upward by any means necessary, to see the view from the mountaintop.
If I can just catch a glimpse, even if it damns me for eternity, I am willing.
"......"
"Junior Sister!"
"Fellow Daoist!"
Shu Fu was already suspended in mid-air with nothing to rely on, heaven above unreachable, earth below unfound, with a chicken perched on her shoulder to boot. The moment her sole lifeline, the red rope, was cut, she plummeted straight down like a severed plumb bob.
On all sides were smooth stone walls offering no purchase. She couldn't fly on a sword, couldn't use spells, and she wore no impenetrable armor.
Liu Ruyi was still there, but according to the rules, he couldn't intervene to help during the trial. Besides, right now he was just a pheasant, utterly incapable of holding up a living person weighing over a hundred pounds.
No, make that two people.
"Fellow Daoist!"
Ye Shusheng's booming voice came from below. "Don't worry! Aim well and fall on me! I'm a body cultivator, thick-skinned and rough! You won't crush me to death!"
"......"
Shu Fu was speechless.
Is this a joke?
A mere Foundation Establishment junior cultivator, and he really thinks his skin is bronze and his bones iron, that he can withstand a mountain being smashed on his chest?
She coolly complained in her mind, yet her eyes grew inexplicably warm.
This, perhaps, is what it means to be a true gentleman, to "value righteousness over life, a truth known only to the sword."
Ye Shusheng, and she herself, had both originally intended to accept Lin Xiaomei with sincere hearts, to help her along a stretch of this rugged, difficult path of immortality, so she could walk a little farther, and farther still.
"Fellow Daoist Lin, you are truly..."
Shu Fu spread her arms wide against the wind, closing her eyes as if all hope was lost.
"...such a waste."
Then her expression shifted. The corners of her mouth lifted, revealing a hint of almost flippant mockery.
"Tell me, when picking sides, why did you have to choose that drama queen Fang Wanqing? Am I not a better option, sister?"
In the next second, Shu Fu's eyes snapped open. The severed half of the red rope falling alongside her suddenly blazed with brilliant light, exploding in mid-air like fireworks.
At the point where the light blazed most intensely, the red cords suddenly bloomed like a flower bud, or like an unraveled skein of thread, radiating thousands of crimson strands in all directions.
In an instant, countless red threads wove into a resilient, dense net, securely catching Shu Fu within it.
Naturally, she hadn't forgotten to toss out another red cord, firmly hooking onto Ye Shusheng, who was already prepared to sacrifice his life.
Poison?
How could it possibly be effective.
Given Jiang Ruoshui's illustrious history of being poisoned, and having suffered at Fang Wanqing's hands herself, Shu Fu had taken a prepared antidote pill long before setting foot on the island. The toxin from the vine had barely invaded her body before it was swept away by the potent medicinal force, not even slowing her movements for a second.
One moment, heaven and earth turned upside down; the next, the situation was completely reversed. Everyone, human or ghost, was putting on a show, only Ye Shusheng couldn't keep up with the pace.
"What? What's going on? Fellow Daoist, you... ah! My pants! Fellow Daoist, you've hooked my belt! How improper, how utterly improper!"
"......"
Amidst Ye Shusheng's frantic cries, Lin Xiaomei and Shu Fu faced each other, one above, one below—one pale with fright, the other beaming with satisfaction—their gazes tense and filled with mutual wariness.
After a long while, Lin Xiaomei finally managed to squeeze out a thin thread of sound from her throat, "You... why? Since when...?"
"From the very beginning."
Shu Fu answered absentmindedly.
Lin Xiaomei trembled all over. "What?"
"From the very beginning, when I saved you in the snow pine forest."
Shu Fu patiently repeated for her, her expression still gentle, as if she had never experienced betrayal. "Because that segment of vine... did not transform into Jiangzhu."
"Wh-what?"
"Back then, I saved you, cut the vine into several pieces, and stripped it from the tree to use as firewood. However, the vine's main body was always on you, right?"
She gestured as she explained, "The part wrapped around the tree was just a branch separated from the main body. Let me think... yes, like a cutting for propagation."
"J-just because of this?"
Lin Xiaomei's face was deathly pale, her lips trembling like withered leaves. "Just because of this... you never trusted me?"
"No. Although you were suspicious in every way, I very much wanted to believe you. I thought it might be a misunderstanding, that that vine segment was special. I considered that possibility."
Shu Fu's tone was soft, but her gaze remained clear and sharp, containing a hint of icy mockery that pierced towards Lin Xiaomei's brow like a sword.
"But, Fellow Daoist Lin, you shouldn't have gotten greedy and used a sharp blade to cut off that branch of coral, and carelessly let me discover it. When it comes to doing evil, you really lack experience."
East Sea red coral, its texture hard, comparable to metal and stone, each branch is a rare treasure hard to come by.
Even if they were replicas within the secret realm, given Master Huaigu's personality, he would surely have easily replicated this characteristic to show off his collection to all the disciples.
In other words, the red coral in his room could definitely not be severed by ordinary swords.
If Lin Xiaomei possessed such a sharp weapon, how could she possibly be trapped by a mere vine?
The only possibility was that she staged it herself, deliberately setting a trap to lure someone to rescue her. And her target was naturally "to scheme against whoever came to save her."
"Ah, someone like me, a perfect sucker."
Shu Fu grinned self-deprecatingly, standing upright on the net woven from red cords, using both hands to drag Ye Shusheng up. "By the way, also Fellow Daoist Ye. If he hadn't kept urging me, and I wasn't afraid of his nagging, I might have just left you there."
Ye Shusheng flushed red with embarrassment, struggling as he said, "It's my fault, I misjudged people! But... first let go of my pants! Let me put my pants on!"
Shu Fu curled her lip half in amusement. "With what little you have, I'm not even interested in looking. Let's go."
Holding the red cord in one hand, without any fancy movements, she simply jumped three feet straight up from where she stood, one foot landing in the center of the large net. Then, like an extremely elastic trampoline, the net suddenly generated a powerful recoil, lifting Shu Fu high into the air like a skyrocketing firecracker.
As she swept past Lin Xiaomei, Shu Fu saw her paper-white face and felt only a deep calm within, neither the resentment of having one's goodwill fed to a dog, nor the pity and sympathy of "all beings suffer, repay evil with virtue."
She only felt sorrow.
She had given Lin Xiaomei chances, more than once. When they landed on the island, before descending into the cave, even in the moment she grasped her wrist.
She had told Lin Xiaomei time and again: You stay back.
At any of those moments, if Lin Xiaomei had listened to her conscience and refrained from acting, Shu Fu could have pretended nothing happened and helped her through the ordeal as usual.
But in the end, she still struck.
Yes... just like in the original story.
"......"
Shu Fu soared into the sky like a bird, then landed lightly on the shoulder of Master Huaigu's statue, looking down at the distraught young woman from above.
Lin Xiaomei's eyes were unfocused, her whole body trembling uncontrollably like a sieve, still clutching that dagger in her hand. Its blade gleamed coldly, definitely no ordinary item, most likely the "murder weapon" lent to her by Fang Wanqing.
Yet, she had been so bewitched that she used this sharp sword to cut off a branch of coral.
A similar scene had occurred in the original story.
The original female lead, Jiang Ruoshui, though her life had been twisted and she had tasted the world's coldness and warmth, had once had a truly sincere friend.
That dear friend's name was Lin Shan.
Born into humble circumstances, with average talent, a low-level junior disciple who, like the female lead, was looked down upon and who huddled together with her for warmth.
Jiang Ruoshui regarded her as a lifelong confidante, treasured and valued her, almost giving her heart and soul to treat her well.
And it was this very dear friend who, driven by a moment of greed, stole a piece of coral from a certain elder of the Jiuhua Sect—now it seemed the victim was Master Huaigu—and was caught red-handed by Fang Wanqing, who happened to discover it.
Under Fang Wanqing's coercion and inducements, Lin Shan ultimately chose to betray her trust, following Fang Wanqing's instructions to frame the female lead, in exchange for her theft not being exposed and an opportunity to enter the inner sect of Tianji Peak.
This betrayal was the direct cause of the female lead being falsely accused of "colluding with demonic cultivators," leading to the loss of all her cultivation, her exile to the demon realm, and the subsequent series of tragedies.
Lin Shan. Lin Xiaomei.
From the very beginning, they were the same person.
A "friend" who could never be warmed.
No matter how many times things started over, she would, for her own sake, heartlessly push Jiang Ruoshui into the abyss.
"Fellow Daoist Lin, I won't condemn you. After all, I am not you. I cannot understand your hardships, nor can I help you with them."
Shu Fu looked down at her, the last trace of gentle warmth in her eyes slowly fading, gradually freezing into ice. "For you, for Fang Wanqing, I have only one sentence."
Accompanying these words was a sword aura, clearer, colder, more piercing and unstoppable than thousand-year-old black ice.
"Ah— Ah—!!!"
Lin Xiaomei turned to flee, but the sword wind swept past her knees. Instantly, blood gushed like a spring. Under the dual assault of terror and pain, her face drained of color, her legs gave way, and she collapsed to the ground.
It was then that Shu Fu's voice fell, like the whisper of the King of Hell urging fate:
"If you want to mess with me, face me head-on. Don't play these cheap, underhanded tricks. Lowlife."
"You think you're digging a pit for me, but you're actually digging your own graves, complete with a coffin lid—just nail it shut and you're ready for burial. A grave so poorly dug, if your ancestors knew of it from beyond, they'd be so furious their burial mounds would spontaneously combust." Remember to bookmark the site or keep the address in mind. The site is free, no paywalls, no anti-theft, and if you find errors in chapters, you can request corrections, look for books, or chat with fellow readers about the stories.
