Painting Illusions for You
Complaining was Yingshi's truest first reaction.
Although Shuangjian clearly couldn't help her get revenge or anything, there was no denying that he possessed a reliable, guardian-like aura. It made one unable to resist pouring out all their grievances the moment they saw him!
However, her genuine display of emotion might also put pressure on him... Yingshi sniffled and blinked hard to force back the layer of tears in her eyes.
"Let's not mention that unlucky bastard for now." She held tightly onto Shuangjian's arm, only now having the spare energy to ask the question in her heart. "Shuangjian, how did you find your way here?"
It couldn't be that the plot was still progressing normally, could it? Even without her around, did Xu Xiaoran still bring people to beat up Shuangjian, causing him to loosen his seal at a critical moment and voluntarily jump off the cliff just like in the original text?
That shouldn't be the case. Shuangjian looked very calm right now, without the slightest sign of his power losing control.
"...I waited until noon and still didn't see you appear, so I came out to look for you. Unexpectedly, I found paper dolls scattered all over the ground halfway there. Following their direction, I arrived at the edge of the Repentance Cliff, stepped on empty air, and fell down." Shuangjian organized his words with half-truths and said calmly, "After I fell, I heard some noise behind that stone wall. It sounded exactly like your voice, so I used my strength to destroy the stone door."
"You fell down?! Are you hurt anywhere..." Yingshi's heart tightened, and only then did she realize she had been clinging to him without moving!
She hurriedly struggled to jump out of Shuangjian's arms. Unfortunately, after the huge emotional ups and downs, her legs were still weak. If Shuangjian hadn't reached out to catch her, she would have almost face-planted on the ground.
"No, just a few minor scratches." Shuangjian helped her stand steady.
He originally thought Yingshi would ask him how he managed to break the stone wall from the outside with the insignificant strength of his unbroken seal. He had even fabricated the excuse that "the internal and external structures of the prison are different; breaking it from the inside is as hard as ascending to heaven, but breaking it from the outside is effortless." Unexpectedly, it wasn't needed. Yingshi's focus was entirely on him "falling down the Repentance Cliff."
He felt vaguely relieved.
Fortunately, before rushing over, he intentionally made himself look more disheveled, creating ragged clothes, messy hair, and bleeding wounds on his palms. This allowed him to successfully fool Yingshi now.
The fact that he had succumbed to his demonic nature could not be known by Yingshi. At least, not yet.
This did not fit the development path of a transmigrator who had never read the original book.
Fortunately, with the accumulation of two lifetimes in his mind, spells to conceal demonic aura came to him effortlessly. He could even hide it better than Mi Ruotian.
Even standing in front of the great masters of the current age, he wasn't worried about anything being detected.
But Yingshi was different.
She was the one who had looked down upon the world within the book.
Shuangjian always had to be extra careful in front of her.
But when Yingshi, with red eyes, held his hand, carefully blew on it, and asked "Does it hurt?", he still doubted that this clumsy disguise was actually a good idea.
Shuangjian pulled his hand away, avoiding Yingshi's gaze, and said seriously, "I am fine, there is no need to worry. The most important thing right now is to leave this place."
It had to be as soon as possible.
The demon core inside his body was about to act up.
If they couldn't leave here before it acted up, something beyond his control would probably happen.
"You're right, we have to get out as soon as possible..."
Although she had ten thousand questions she still wanted to ask in her heart, especially since Shuangjian falling off the cliff was too suspicious, Yingshi couldn't help but wonder if this was the plot's autonomous corrective power.
But she also knew how to prioritize, understanding that escaping right now was the most important thing. She finally pulled herself together and looked around.
After coming out of the sealed prison, they found themselves standing in a clearing. Surrounding them were countless identical prisons, densely staggered like a honeycomb, connected by a circle of slender, pitch-black chains.
The clearing in the center was like some sort of transit hall. Unlike the inside of the prisons, there was light here, filtering in from the high dome above—that was the cave entrance.
So it was still daytime.
In the plot, Shuangjian's demon core acted up after sunset on the third day. Xu Xiaoran and the others also only went to torment him after it got dark. By the time his seal loosened and he jumped into the Repentance Cliff, it was already late at night. This also meant that Mi Ruotian would most likely return late at night.
They seemed to have enough time to escape, but... what should they do if they had plenty of time but lacked the ability?
The faint light shining from the cave entrance was simply too far away, so far that it seemed like the sun in the sky. Jumping down was just a free fall, but climbing up was like an astronaut walking into space! It was a complete daydream...
Even with the help of spiritual power, it would probably be difficult to climb up.
Yingshi had a rough estimate in her heart. With her current strength at the early stage of the plot, she could at most fly to one-third of the height. If she wanted to go higher, she would have to pause midway, clinging to the rock wall like Spider-Man, and wait until her spiritual power was replenished again before dashing up. This way, it would be impossible to escape before dark.
Moreover, looking up now, one could also notice some visible dark undercurrents in the air above, like some kind of restrictive barrier.
How could the Repentance Cliff be an open place where one could come and go freely? Especially a Repentance Cliff occupied by demonic cultivators.
Leaving would definitely not be an easy task.
In the plot, when Shuangjian left this place, he was already a novice expert who had loosened his seal, absorbed spiritual power, and even fought with Mi Ruotian...
The current conditions obviously did not match!
"How can we leave?"
Yingshi absolutely couldn't think of a viable solution and was so worried she wanted to pull her own hair out.
Shuangjian, however, did not answer her question. Instead, he stared straight at her and suddenly asked, "How did Mi Ruotian catch you and bring you in here? Did he do anything to you?"
"I was followed by him on my way back from the thatched cottage. This stinking demonic cultivator was completely unreasonable. He chopped me on the neck with his palm and knocked me out!" Yingshi raised her hand to gently rub the back of her neck, grinding her teeth in anger. "When I woke up, I was trapped in that square prison."
Mi Ruotian definitely wanted to use her for human experiments, he just hadn't had the time yet.
Just like what he did to Xu Xiaoran, who was drowning in gambling debts in the original text. He packaged everything as a transaction, saying things like "just give me one percent of your spiritual power," but in reality, he would slowly corrode their spiritual veins, turning everyone who traded with him into his nourishment.
Mi Ruotian could not cultivate on his own.
Because he was actually a clone of the Demon King Wuxiang, one of the Eight Great Demon Kings, though he himself was unaware of it.
Therefore, his only way to become stronger was to rely on nourishment, like some kind of evil parasite.
Logically speaking, from the perspective of writing a progression fantasy novel, one shouldn't set up such a somewhat cheating villain right at the beginning.
A skill like parasitism should at least belong to a mid-to-late stage boss. Early-stage minor villains should be like Sun Xuanyi, possessing only simple and crude stupidity and wickedness.
The problem was, Mi Ruotian from the original novel couldn't really be called a villain, because the judgment of heroes and villains usually comes from the protagonist's perspective.
He wasn't bad to the male lead at all, nowhere near as detestable as Xu Xiaoran or Sun Xuanyi.
He could even be considered a fortuitous encounter for the male lead.
Because in the book, after meeting the male lead at the bottom of the Repentance Cliff, he felt the young man before him was extraordinary. He tried to make a deal with him, but when he attempted to parasitize the male lead, he found that the devouring process was actually reversed. It was his, Mi Ruotian's, cultivation base that was pouring backward into the male lead!
Instead of getting angry, Mi Ruotian laughed. Even though his cultivation was damaged, he found it "deeply interesting" and even developed a desire to nurture the male lead. So, at the bottom of the Repentance Cliff, he taught him dozens of forbidden techniques, and even helped the male lead defeat Xu Xiaoran in the inner sect competition, winning the spot to participate in the Tiangang Martial Tournament under everyone's watchful eyes.
It could be said that Mi Ruotian was an important driving force who helped the male lead clear the Yunshui Sect instance and unlock new maps later on.
But now, Mi Ruotian had set his sights on her, Xu Yingshi!
She didn't have a heaven-defying physique, nor did she have a demon core to protect her. If she were parasitized, she would truly be ruined. She couldn't reverse the devouring or erupt with heaven-shaking potential; she would only turn into an evil sunflower that "would never produce sunlight again"!
Now that Shuangjian had jumped down the Repentance Cliff to save her before the seal loosened, the nature of this plotline had already changed.
Mi Ruotian had also become a bona fide hostile force.
The derailed plot left Yingshi's mind in a mess. Her cold hands tugged at Shuangjian's sleeve. The helplessness in her tone was hard to conceal, yet she still tried to propose a solution: "Let me try using my spiritual energy to take us up the rock wall first. Maybe those restrictions in the air were old mechanisms of the Repentance Cliff that no longer work now?"
Saying that, she took a deep breath, grabbed Shuangjian's hands, and wanted him to hold her waist. She was ready to take off!
At worst, they would just rest a few more times halfway up. They might not be so unlucky as to be blocked by Mi Ruotian right when they popped their heads out...
"..." Shuangjian seemed a bit stunned at first. It wasn't until his hands were grabbed by her, placed at her sides, and almost wrapped around her waist that he snapped back to reality. He pulled away with a rather large reaction, retreating several steps in a row, and hurriedly said, "There's no need for this. I have already thought of a countermeasure."
"What countermeasure?" Yingshi's almond eyes widened, the hope in them practically overflowing.
She leaned in closer again, and the distance Shuangjian had just put between them immediately returned to their initial proximity.
"..."
Shuangjian lowered his eyes to meet those eyes that were close at hand, and two seconds later, he looked away once again.
He tilted his head back slightly to look at the tiny opening above, his expression unreadable, and parted his lips to say, "We will let Mi Ruotian personally see us out."
Not just let them go, but personally escort them out.
"..."
Yingshi froze for a moment, finding it hard to describe her current feelings. It was a bit like having just watched a highlight reel of "the most arrogant, domineering, and cool moments of male leads in TV dramas."
The scene was quiet for a moment, but at such a tense and thrilling time, her stomach suddenly let out a loud rumble.
This sound seemed to flip a switch in her perception. The feeling of hunger increased by the second, and Yingshi's eyes even felt a bit dizzy.
Although she was a cultivator now, she hadn't yet reached the level of inedia; right now, she could at most do light fasting.
Now, she hadn't eaten for almost three days and had been knocked unconscious once. Her stomach was completely empty... Being hungry was indeed human nature, but right now, in such a critical and urgent situation, her stomach growling one after another really ruined the atmosphere!
Yingshi's face burned with embarrassment. She feigned naturalness, pretending not to hear it, furrowed her brows in a serious expression, and hurriedly asked, "Then what should we do?"
She definitely wasn't seeing things; Shuangjian had absolutely glanced faintly at her stomach! His expression wasn't as profound as before, either!
Yingshi felt increasingly awkward, and at the same time, she was a bit puzzled by her own reaction.
In reality, her stomach often growled halfway through class, loud enough for her neighbors to hear clearly, and she never felt embarrassed about it.
It was such a normal physiological reaction, the same as sneezing.
She didn't expect that transmigrating would make her skin so thin.
"There's no rush, fill your stomach a bit first."
While Yingshi was self-analyzing and reflecting, a slender hand suddenly extended in front of her, holding a dry flatbread wrapped in oiled paper!
"...There's actually flatbread? Where did this come from?"
Yingshi was completely astonished, feeling as if Shuangjian had conjured up food like magic.
She wanted to take it but was afraid of wasting time, so she could only lick her lips and say, "How about we eat after we get out? Escaping as soon as possible is the most important thing..."
Shuangjian's hand did not retract, and he said, "I have a habit of keeping some dry rations on me. If you don't mind, take it to fill your stomach. We will still need to rely on you to destroy the mechanisms at the bottom of this cliff before we can escape. Eating is just to build up your strength; it won't delay our time."
He was lying again.
How could he possibly have a habit of keeping dry rations on him?
The dry flatbread in his hand was not actual food, but an illusion he had cast.
In Yingshi's eyes, this was a wrapped flatbread, but it was actually his spiritual energy. Even though he had already fallen to a demon, his spiritual energy wasn't completely useless. For example, right now, it could be fed into Yingshi's mouth, acting as a transfer of spiritual energy, which could bring her far more satiety and recovery of vitality than just "eating a full meal."
It was just a pity that there was so little of it; condensing a palm-sized piece was already all he had.
