Still as a delicate flower reflected in water, yet moving like a tiger descending the mountain.
To be fair, ever since Shu Fu transmigrated into this world, Qi Yuxuan—the bona fide male lead—had lost count of how many times “Jiang Ruoshui” had verbally shredded him. In her presence, being roasted seemed to have become an instinctive bodily response.
But never before had any of it left him this furious, humiliated, and dejected—so much so that he nearly burst into tears on the spot.
It was as though he could see the happy life that should have belonged to him spreading its wings, just like Shu Fu, and flying off into some unreachable distance.
Why?
Why had he ended up like this?
Ever since reuniting with Jiang Ruoshui, he hadn’t encountered a single good thing… Jiang Ruoshui—it was all because of Jiang Ruoshui!
His pent-up grief and indignation filled his chest. Somehow, a surge of strength welled up inside Qi Yuxuan. He sprang to his feet, forcing himself to endure the tearing pain throughout his body, then staggered after Shu Fu’s retreating figure.
“Wait, Jiang Ruoshui! You can’t leave! You owe me an explanation about Wanqing!”
“What?”
Shu Fu let out an inward “Oh, snap.” No wonder Qi Yuxuan looked so hopelessly clueless—it turned out his village still hadn’t gotten internet.
Apparently, Fang Wanqing knew perfectly well that her petty schemes and underhanded maneuvers wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny, much less let Qi Yuxuan find out about them and ruin the pure, untouchable image of his beloved.
Even a Qi Yuxuan blinded by love would probably feel as though he’d tilted his head up to admire the moon, only for a crow flying overhead to dump a load of bird droppings on him once he learned how malicious Fang Wanqing really was.
Of course, Shu Fu didn’t mind adding a little more fertilizer to the pile.
“Fang Wanqing’s business? What, neither she nor any of your friends told you?”
“No. Not a single word.”
Qi Yuxuan spoke urgently. “Jiang Ruoshui, what exactly did you do to Wanqing?! How did she get hurt so badly? Her face is practically ruined! Ever since she failed to make the cut, she’s been crying herself sick every day. Fang Han and the others have been sighing and looking miserable nonstop, but none of them will tell me anything…”
Before he could finish, a series of muffled snorts of laughter rose from all around them. The other candidates, who had long since learned the truth, were casting sidelong glances at Qi Yuxuan, covering their mouths with their sleeves as they struggled not to laugh.
“…”
Qi Yuxuan stared in shock—and growing horror—as he realized that, alongside the contempt and disdain already present in everyone’s eyes, there was now another profound emotion: pity.
The kind of look people gave a complete idiot.
“What… What exactly is going on? Why are they laughing?”
Qi Yuxuan stood there in a daze. At the same time, a dreadful premonition welled up inside him, warning him not to dig any deeper.
But he had already called out to Shu Fu. Now that he had mounted the tiger, he could hardly climb back down. He could only grit his teeth and force himself to pick another fight.
“Fine. I won’t bring up Wanqing for now. Then answer me this: what makes you think you deserve to be the first person to reach the Azure Cloud Path? There are plenty of fellow cultivators here whose cultivation is higher than yours. With your constant need to show off and get ahead of everyone else, have you ever considered how that makes the other cultivators feel?”
“…”
Shu Fu was utterly dumbfounded. She could only marvel at the male lead’s bizarre talent for picking arguments. He could turn any disagreement into a full-blown quarrel—someone ought to send him to a construction site and make him carry beams for three years.
No wonder the original heroine had always been rendered speechless by his constant needling. Every time, she could only anxiously reflect on her own behavior before tearfully apologizing to him.
Qi Yuxuan had said, “Let those with higher cultivation go first.” Among everyone present, he was the most highly cultivated—which essentially meant, “Let me go first.” Just like the male lead: even when reduced to a fallen state, he still instinctively assumed that he was the center of the universe.
To deal with him, Shu Fu needed only one sentence:
“I came first in all three of the Jiuhua Sect’s entrance trials. Who do you think you are?”
“I…”
Qi Yuxuan had just begun to speak when she continued in one smooth breath, “If I’m not mistaken, you were the last one to wake up just now, and you only barely made it before time ran out.” She pinched her thumb and forefinger together, leaving only a gap the size of a grain of rice. “You practically squeezed in through the crack of the door, didn’t you? And you have the nerve to lecture me about rules. Look at you—your face is far more impressive than your abilities.”
Shu Fu unleashed a torrent of cutting remarks, one sharper than the next. The muffled snickering around them grew louder, while Qi Yuxuan’s face burned with humiliation. With blood rushing to his head, he blurted out without thinking, “That’s impossible! You’re only a Qi Refinement cultivator. How could you possess such ability? If you really are stronger than everyone here, then explain this: why haven’t you established your foundation even now?”
He delivered the words with such force that they seemed to strike the ground with a resounding clang, convinced that he had hit her where it hurt. He unconsciously advanced several steps, looming over Shu Fu.
“Well? What do you have to say for yourself?”
Qi Yuxuan was tall and long-legged, with handsome, distinguished features. When angry, he looked righteous and imposing. An ordinary young woman, faced with such an intimidating glare, would inevitably feel a wordless pressure—perhaps even a touch of shyness.
That was what he thought, too.
But he had unconsciously forgotten that he was no longer a graceful young man as elegant as jade. He was now nothing more than a charred chunk of firewood shedding flakes of ash. As for Shu Fu, although she wore the skin of a young girl, her heart belonged to that of a gnarled old cabbage stalk.
Just as everyone was holding their breath for Shu Fu, assuming that she would be enraged and humiliated into silence, she merely lifted one eyebrow and smiled faintly.
“Oh, right. You’ve reminded me.”
Before Qi Yuxuan could react, Shu Fu immediately circulated all the spiritual energy in her body and poured it into her dantian, breaking through in one go the barrier that had long since grown as thin as a cicada’s wing.
In an instant, rolling thunder boomed in the distant sky. Dark clouds gathered above Shu Fu’s head, and purple bolts of lightning flashed intermittently. It was unmistakably the sign of a cultivator undergoing tribulation!
“You—”
Qi Yuxuan’s expression changed dramatically, his jaw nearly dropping off. “You’re… about to establish your foundation?!”
But how could the advancement of a mere Qi Refinement cultivator summon a heavenly tribulation?
Even when he had established his own foundation, he had never seen anything like this!
No, wait… Come to think of it…
How had Jiang Ruoshui suddenly reached Foundation Establishment?!
Yet Shu Fu seemed to have expected this all along. Completely unruffled, she flashed him a grin, revealing two rows of dazzling white teeth.
“Oh, actually, after cultivating for so long, I was ready to break through ages ago. But my master said that everyone should keep one trump card hidden, lest someone with ill intentions secretly trip them up. The more they underestimate me and assume I’m no threat, the easier it’ll be for me to strike back.”
“—He was absolutely right, wasn’t he?”
“You… I…”
Qi Yuxuan felt as though a mouthful of blood had gotten stuck in his throat. His entire face flushed a purplish red, like liver.
“But you… you’re only at Foundation Establishment. How could you possibly have a tribulation lightning?”
“Sorry. Even this daddy doesn’t know.”
Shu Fu spread her hands with a carefree air, looking so relaxed and pleased that one might think she wasn’t the person about to face a lightning tribulation.
And naturally, there was a reason for that.
After all, she had known for the past three months that her cultivation was already sufficient for Foundation Establishment—and that this breakthrough would summon a lightning tribulation.
As for why? Who knew? Perhaps it was because she was simply too heaven-defying.
As Shu Fu’s mentor, Jiang Xuesheng hadn’t slacked off this time. He had given her guidance and warnings well in advance.
—Unless absolutely necessary, you can delay establishing your foundation. It will be more beneficial for honing yourself in the secret realm, and it will also make the people plotting against you lower their guard.
—Once the trial is over, don’t hesitate. Do it right in front of everyone, and let the thunder above your head resound throughout the Jiuhua Sect.
Jiang Xuesheng had also long since taught her how to circulate her spiritual power to withstand heavenly lightning during a breakthrough and tribulation, having her practice repeatedly on Yao Guang Peak.
Her bargain-bin master might have been shameless and flirtatious, but his thoughtfulness was beyond question, and so was the thoroughness of his preparations.
Now, Shu Fu had everything ready. All she lacked was a Qi Yuxuan willing to deliver his own head into her hands. Since he was being so cooperative, she had no reason to refuse—and was only too happy to accept.
Thus, at the very instant the heavenly lightning came crashing down, she seized Qi Yuxuan by the wrist and pulled him close with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
“Come to think of it, Young Master Qi, I believe I told you not to pick a fight with me above your station, didn’t I? Honestly, why are you such a poor listener?”
“I just remembered there was something I didn’t get to say in the secret realm. Why don’t I make up for it now? This time, be sure to remember it well.”
“—When you show off, you get struck by lightning.”
The next second, blinding lightning thundered down. In the blink of an eye, it engulfed Shu Fu and Qi Yuxuan alike.
What followed was a horrific howl—inhuman and beyond description—that swept across the entire Xianyun Platform like an echo of the thunder. It shook the mountains and valleys and pierced the heavens, ringing without end for three whole days.
And Jiang Ruoshui—the name Shu Fu went by—became famous throughout the Jiuhua Sect overnight, accompanied by the sight of her standing ramrod straight amid the heavenly lightning and the screams of that bastard, Qi Yuxuan.
Everyone began spreading the tale that Master Tanhua of Yao Guang Peak had taken in a new female disciple: a young woman blessed with both beauty and talent, outwardly graceful and refined, as serene as a delicate flower reflected on water—and as fierce as a tiger descending the mountain when she sprang into action.
It was common knowledge that the disciples of Yao Guang Peak were not to be trifled with, and that no one should make an enemy of them unless absolutely necessary. Yet this lovely young girl had not merely failed to hold back her seniors—she had surpassed them, and by no small margin.
—Want to cross her?
—The last person who tried is already in the grave, with grass growing thick over his tomb and orioles singing above it, while someone plays a suona all the way to see him off.
Even the head of the Jiuhua Sect had once privately asked Jiang Xuesheng:
“Tan Hua, tell me honestly. Is Shu Fu’s control over spiritual power truly so exceptional that she can manipulate it at will—so much so that she can achieve Foundation Establishment anytime, anywhere, without even entering secluded meditation?”
Jiang Xuesheng replied blandly, “Sect Master, you are well versed in illusion arts. That scene of Fuer breaking through before everyone’s eyes could hardly have been some sleight of hand of my making. Since she did it, then it was real.”
Seeing the Sect Master’s utterly bewildered expression, he added with a lazy smile, “Fuer is remarkably perceptive. She grasps things the moment they are explained to her—truly unlike an ordinary teenage girl. Sometimes, even I wonder whether some great cultivator might have seized her body and been reborn within it.”
The Sect Master took it for a joke and shook his head repeatedly. “Impossible. In all my hundreds of years, I have seen only one great cultivator with a temperament like hers—and that would be you. How could such rare creatures simply appear whenever one pleased?”
The remark was rather cutting. Jiang Xuesheng laughed at it, then gave a soft, self-satisfied snort. “Yes, Fuer and I truly are kindred spirits. Even the illusions she sees…”
“Illusions?”
The Sect Master immediately became alert. “Tan Hua, don’t tell me you peeked into her illusion realm? The contents of such realms concern a disciple’s privacy. I have never looked into them myself, so don’t you go doing anything improper.”
“No. You misheard.”
“...Really? Why don’t you swear an oath upon your inner demon?”
“Even if I did see it, I wouldn’t let her find out.”
“Tan Hua!!!”
“Enough. I know what I’m doing. That was an illusion realm you fabricated yourself; I know every mechanism within it perfectly well. I won’t mistake it for reality, nor will I use it to tease her.”
Jiang Xuesheng brushed the matter aside as if it were nothing, though the smile at his lips refused to fade. “What I mean is, at Fuer’s rate of cultivation, perhaps she won’t need hundreds of years. Before long, she may become ‘the next me.’”
“...”
The Sect Master’s eyelids twitched wildly. He felt as though he were suddenly going bald, and forced his faintly aching mouth into a smile. “Is that so? Then I must begin teaching her properly from now on. I must make sure she behaves with greater steadiness and doesn’t become as willful and reckless as you, always leaving me to clean up your… deal with the aftermath.”
Jiang Xuesheng acted as though he had heard nothing. Calmly nodding, he patted the Sect Master on the shoulder with one hand.
“Look at you—so civilized that you can’t even bring yourself to curse properly. Who else am I supposed to bully, if not you? Civilized people are always the ones who lose out.”
The Sect Master: “...”
As the saying goes:
Slaughter pigs in one life, become a teacher in the next.
Kill people in one life, become a sect master in the next.
—Truly, the old saying does not lie.
