“I’m back… again?”
At the summit of Soaring Cloud Peak, a white-robed young man stood gazing out at the endless sea of clouds before him, a trace of helplessness in his eyes.
“Yes, Yun, you’ve returned to this place once again.” A slightly ethereal voice sounded in his ear, and the illusory figure of a woman appeared beside him.
“Yun Xi, how many times has it been now?” the young man asked softly.
“Not more, not less—exactly one hundred.”
“A hundred… I didn’t expect it to be that many times already.” The young man sighed lightly.
Ling Yun was originally just an ordinary office worker. By chance, he transmigrated into a mysterious world called the Azure Profound Continent.
When he first arrived in this world, he had become a child of about four or five years old, abandoned in a land of ice and snow, nearly losing his life. Fortunately, a passing female cultivator found him and took him in as her eldest disciple.
Thus, his arrival in this world brought his first piece of good news—not only did he become a disciple of one of the most powerful righteous sects on the Azure Profound Continent, the Heavenly Dao Sect, but he was also accepted as the chief disciple of Snow Moon Peak, led by the youngest peak master of the Heavenly Dao Sect.
Back then, many people were puzzled. There were plenty of outstanding disciples in the Heavenly Dao Sect, all eager to enter Snow Moon Peak. Why would a mysterious child of unknown origin be chosen as Snow Moon Peak’s founding disciple?
To this, Master Xueyue responded with only one sentence: “I see that this child and I are fated.”
Unfortunately, Master Xueyue was not someone good at raising children.
After bringing Ling Yun to Snow Moon Peak, she practically let him fend for himself. If not for the fact that Ling Yun possessed the soul of an adult, he likely wouldn’t have survived.
Despite such a harsh beginning, Ling Yun never forgot Master Xueyue’s life-saving grace. He dedicated himself wholeheartedly to developing Snow Moon Peak and treated the other disciples she later accepted with great care.
Thanks to Ling Yun’s efforts, Snow Moon Peak became one of the most prestigious spiritual peaks within the Heavenly Dao Sect. His junior brothers and sisters also frequently shone in the spotlight, earning the admiration of many who envied Master Xueyue for accepting such fine disciples.
Then, at the age of sixteen, another surprise appeared in Ling Yun’s life—one of the essential accessories of a transmigrator: a system.
The good news was that the cheat he had waited over ten years for had finally arrived. The bad news? It was a Villain System.
That’s right. As the chief disciple of Snow Moon Peak in the Heavenly Dao Sect, his identity in this world was that of a major villain—the greatest enemy of the Child of Destiny and their most ideal stepping stone. However, the Child of Destiny selected by this world was clearly flawed, leading the world toward only one inevitable outcome—destruction.
In order to change his fate, and to save his fellow disciples, his master, and this entire world, Ling Yun decisively chose to oppose the Child of Destiny. Through a hundred lifetimes of reincarnation, he had made countless attempts. But the end was always the same—betrayed and abandoned by all, declared the public enemy of the world, and ultimately becoming the final stepping stone for the Child of Destiny, dying a miserable death.
And during this journey, those whom he had painstakingly cared for—his junior brothers, sisters, and master—became the deadliest blades that pierced through his body, the very reason he failed over and over again.
Cough cough cough—
As Ling Yun’s eyes became slightly unfocused, a dull pain in his chest made him cough, and a trickle of blood spilled from the corner of his lips.
A burning sensation spread from his hand. He looked down and saw a white jade bottle held in his palm.
On the surface of the jade bottle were inscribed lines of runes, each one emitting a faint glow. Beneath the light, red markings silently spread across the bottle’s surface. It was clear that if not for the suppression of these runes, the red marks would have already engulfed the entire bottle, causing it to explode.
“This is… Fire Spirit Pulp? So it’s this point in time.” The moment he saw the jade bottle, Ling Yun immediately knew the current moment in the timeline.
“Ling Yun, you’re badly injured. You should regulate your breath and recover first,” Yun Xi said to him.
Yun Xi was, in fact, the Villain System within him. In the beginning, the system behaved like a rigid program. But as Ling Yun progressed through villain missions again and again, the system gradually gained human-like emotions. She became the only one who had stayed by his side through these hundred lifetimes.
Ling Yun smiled at Yun Xi, then lightly weighed the bottle in his hand. Radiant light flowed from his palm, drawing fresh runes in the air, which gently fell onto the jade bottle.
In just a brief moment, the rampaging Fire Spirit Pulp that had nearly burst through the original array was completely subdued by the new formation and calmed down.
In the original timeline, in order to obtain this bottle of Fire Spirit Pulp, Ling Yun had fought a fierce life-and-death battle with a powerful Flame Python, obtaining the item only after suffering severe injuries.
The reason he risked his life for it was because Fire Spirit Pulp was the key ingredient for refining the Scarlet Flame Pill. And the Scarlet Flame Pill held extraordinary significance for Master Xueyue at that time.
Unfortunately, the Scarlet Flame Pill he finally refined never made it into Master Xueyue’s hands—it was casually tossed aside into some forgotten corner by her.
Ling Yun casually tossed the jade bottle into the system’s storage space. His face no longer carried the cautious expression he had earlier when handling the Fire Spirit Pulp.
After setting up a formation around himself, Ling Yun sat cross-legged and began to heal the injuries in his body.
Within him, several streams of crimson energy were rampaging. They were the remains left behind by the Flame Python’s dying strike. Originally aimed at the Fire Spirit Pulp, the beast clearly intended, “If I can’t have it, neither can you.”
Ling Yun had taken the blow head-on to prevent the Fire Spirit Pulp from being destroyed.
For the original Ling Yun, these streams of crimson Qi would have been a major problem and would later trigger a series of unfortunate events. But to the current Ling Yun, they were nothing.
With a light circulation of his cultivation, Ling Yun forced the crimson streams out of his body. They twisted and writhed in the air for a moment before completely dissipating.
“I think… it won’t be long before that person shows up.”
Having purged the foreign energy from his body, Ling Yun looked down the mountain. In the distance, a streak of radiant light was swiftly approaching.