Beneath a sky veiled in black clouds, eternal gloom hung heavy. A flock of crows circled and wheeled through the air, emitting piercing, shrill, and desolate cries.
A cold wind swept past, whipping up withered leaves to dance wildly in the air. Accompanied by a murderous chill, the desolate and eerie environment felt even more pronounced.
Trees stood upright haphazardly within the gloom; some had rotted away right from their roots, yet they still stood crookedly upon the earth.
In the distance were scattered coffins, most of which had already decayed, exposing the bleaching bones within them.
More numerous still were the countless corpses devoid of coffins, carelessly discarded here.
Some had already turned into white bones, others perhaps having arrived not long ago still retained human shapes, while the rest had been rotted away by the malignant energy of this place, turning into filth that sank deep into the earth.
If viewed from afar, one could truly call it “corpses strewn across the wilderness, with malignant energy permeating the air.”
This was the pauper’s grave, the dirtiest place in all six realms, where even demons and monsters were unwilling to easily set foot.
“Hiss…” The woman lying upon the pile of corpses let out a low sound, using every ounce of her strength to slowly open her eyes.
Greeting her sight was that flock of crows deemed ominous by the world, and ringing in her ears were their desolate screams.
Jiang Xu cast her gaze all around: crows, rotting wood, coffins, and piles of corpses!
There was nothing left to misunderstand. Jiang Xu let out a low chuckle.
Whenever she thought she had seen through all of Gong Hantian’s cold-bloodedness, that man could always give her new surprises, elevating his ruthlessness to even greater heights.
He had actually thrown her into the pauper’s grave!
Heh! The woman chuckled softly, already driven to madness.
Hidden within her laughter was an uncontainable malice and hatred—a hatred so fierce she wanted to bite his flesh and devour his heart!
Not knowing how long she had laughed for, Jiang Xu finally stopped. The moment she stopped, she immediately felt a numbing pain radiating from her heart.
It felt as if bugs were gnawing at her flesh and blood; piercing, heart-wrenching agony could be no worse than this.
She lowered her head to look at her chest. It seemed to have a missing hole, bloody and mangled, slowly oozing black blood little by little, looking utterly terrifying.
Jiang Xu knew this was because her heart had been taken away.
Then, she felt her entire body lose all its strength. By now, she barely had the energy to even twitch a finger, and even the act of keeping her eyes open was quickly becoming a distant hope.
“Am I going to die?” Jiang Xu thought. Probably so.
She had been bled for more than a dozen days, then had her body pierced through by Song Qinglin’s long sword, and afterward attempted to escape only to be caught once more.
Having been locked in the water dungeon for so long, and then having her heart dug out—being able to wake up right now was already a miracle.
There was simply no way she could survive; that would require yet another miracle.
Pity that miracles only ever favored those blessed with deep karmic fortune, and she, Jiang Xu, had never been one of them.
Yet she remained unreconciled. She truly longed to slaughter every last one of those people, or make them live in eternal, inescapable agony.
Gong Hantian, Song Qingling, Song Qinglin, and the Jiang family—she didn’t want to let a single one of them go.
Her eyelids gradually lost the strength to stay open, on the verge of sinking into permanent darkness.
Jiang Xu knew clearly that this time, she wouldn’t be able to wake up. She was going to die!
Therefore, with spasms wracking her body, she forced herself not to close her eyes, repeating the hatred in her heart over and over again, desperately holding on to force herself to look into the distance.
And so, she caught sight of a wisp of a soul drifting toward her.
Wherever that soul floated past, the crows scattered out of the way, not daring to make a sound, while the malignant qi voluntarily parted to clear a righteous path.
A soul? Jiang Xu suspected she was hallucinating because she was close to death; otherwise, how could she possibly see a soul drifting through the air?
Subsequently, a flicker of pity arose in her gaze. This soul seemed even more miserable than her, lacking even a physical body, though she herself was about to lose hers as well.
Would she also turn into a soul like this after she died? Jiang Xu felt some doubt, and then her expression turned ferocious.
If that was the case, then after death she would surely transform into the most malicious vengeful ghost in this world, haunting that despicable couple day and night so they would never know peace. Heh heh heh!
Jiang Xu watched as that soul drifted closer and closer to her. As the soul drew near, she clearly saw its true appearance.
The woman wore deep cyan profound robes, and her three thousand strands of ink-black hair were neatly tied behind her head.
Though the soul’s form was hazy, Jiang Xu could see its exquisite facial features. It was a very good-looking person, except that her expression was exceedingly cold, resembling precisely the descriptions in Daoist scriptures of one without joy or sorrow, without desires or cravings.
Hm? Why did it still feel like she herself was the more miserable one the closer the soul got? Probably because the other person was too pretty and her expression far too calm!
Could the stories in strange tales actually be true? Was there really a netherworld in this world? Then was this soul the soul-guiding envoy written about in books, come to take her away to the underworld?
Jiang Xu’s thoughts drifted far away. After all, though people spoke of the six realms, in reality there were only the mortal realm, the demon realm, and the ghostly realm; as for the other three realms, no one had ever known them.
Ming Yuan looked at the tragic state of the woman before her, which had reached its absolute limit. She was momentarily at a loss for words, and asked the system that had transformed into a jade pendant hanging at her waist.
“Is the female protagonist really this miserable? Isn’t she the person of destiny for this small world?”
Although she hadn’t read many small worlds, she knew that every small world had a child of destiny, or, to use the words of the system that claimed to come from the Heavenly Dao Administration, the protagonist.
Such people generally possessed supreme fortune and were favored by the Heavenly Dao; why was this person so miserable? Could she be walking the path of breaking first to stand anew?
Ming Yuan fell into deep contemplation, but that didn’t make sense either. If she hadn’t come, this person would definitely have died today.
Taking the ghostly path? But when she arrived, she took a look and found that this small world’s order was incomplete, with no ghostly realm in existence.
“Uh…” The system, which wanted to reside in Ming Yuan’s mind but had been ruthlessly rejected and could only manifest as a jade pendant, choked slightly.
Even without knowing what Ming Yuan was thinking, it could roughly guess. This host’s perspective was far too grandiose and vast, making the system somewhat embarrassed to blurt out the information it knew.
“Host, this small world is actually derived from an old-fashioned xianxia novel about abused love and deep affection, blending numerous melodramatic elements such as body doubles, white moonlight substitutes, draining blood and digging out hearts, and chasing the wife through a crematorium.”
The jade pendant transformed by the system wobbled and continued:
“In the original trajectory of fate, Jiang Xu would have died right here today, her corpse rotted away by the malignant qi, and she would later be reincarnated as a favored little princess in a great aristocratic clan.
As for Gong Hantian, after Jiang Xu died, he would understand his feelings, feel remorse and intense agony, see through Song Qingling’s true colors, and subject Song Qingling to a ruthless bout of torment.
Although Song Qingling would later be taken back into the clan by her younger brother Song Qinglin and remain a pampered eldest miss, she would lose Gong Hantian’s love and live in great misery.
And then, Gong Hantian would learn of Jiang Xu’s reincarnation, initiating the process of chasing the wife through a crematorium. The process would be extremely arduous, but the ending would be a happy ending.”
“Oh,” Ming Yuan responded softly upon hearing this to signal she understood, and then continued to ask: “Since the ending is considered fulfilling, why is there still a mission?”
Her voice was calm, merely a question born of incomprehension, yet the system felt as though it caught a hint of mockery.
It must have heard wrong. This host was cold to the absolute extreme; nothing could evoke superfluous emotions in her.
“Because of Jiang Xu. Her internal resentment has not been resolved; she has always hated Gong Hantian, and naturally is unwilling to reconcile with him.
However, the small heavenly dao of this world, for the sake of its own stability, forcibly compelled Jiang Xu and Gong Hantian to achieve a successful outcome together.
Jiang Xu’s consciousness was imprisoned within her physical body, watching her own body perform actions she detested, little by little accepting Gong Hantian once again.
The agony of having her heart dug out, the hatred of having her mother killed, the resentment of being controlled, and the fury of being manipulated all converged together.
The strength of her grievance even broke through this small world, and thus made the Heavenly Dao Administration aware of everything.
The Heavenly Dao Administration severely punished the small heavenly dao and reset time.
However, the karma within the small world is something the Heavenly Dao Administration cannot manage, which is why I exist, and why this mission exists.”
The system explained rigidly.
“So that’s how it is!” Ming Yuan glanced at Jiang Xu, feeling that she truly was miserable to the absolute limit.
“Since time can be reset, why not let everything return to the beginning?”
“Um… Resetting time requires a heavy price. The further back you go, the greater the price, and the Heavenly Dao Administration cannot afford a cost that large.
We can only have the host descend to make ample compensation to Jiang Xu.”
“Hah!” Ming Yuan let out a low chuckle and ignored the system further.
The jade pendant wobbled again, feeling strongly that the host held deep disdain for it in her heart.
The system recalled the day it first laid eyes on Ming Yuan. At that time, it had just been born and ventured out on its own to search for a master. It had seen many human cultivators who could be considered outstanding, but none of them could satisfy it.
It instinctively felt those humans were not the ones it was looking for, nor did it know what kind of master it ought to find, but it just knew they weren’t it.
Until it saw Ming Yuan: the woman wore a cold expression, watching the myriad states of the world without a single ripple of disturbance, her gaze bright yet detached as she looked out.
At that moment, the system suddenly felt that she was the master it had been searching for.
Ming Yuan let the jade pendant dangle and swing at her waist as she looked toward Jiang Xu. The expressions on the woman’s face were actually quite rich, blending confusion with bewilderment, and concealing hatred within her pain.
“Do you want to live?” Ming Yuan spoke.
Her voice was calm, serene, and distant. Yet, heard by Jiang Xu, it felt like a thunderclap on flat ground.
To live? Naturally she wanted to. She wanted revenge, wanted to inflict the pain she had suffered a thousandfold back upon those people, without sparing a single one.
With a hatred towering to the heavens, how could she not seek vengeance? And the absolute precondition for everything was that she had to live. Only by staying alive would there be any possibility.
Jiang Xu didn’t know what background this soul possessed, but she had already lost everything; presumably, she had nothing left that was worth scheming against anyway.
Since the other party asked thusly, she would answer truthfully. What if there really was a turning point!
Thinking along these lines, Jiang Xu uttered, “Yes!”
A single word, concealing all her hope and longing.
“Very well, I will let you live.” Ming Yuan replied to her, her tone flat, unaware that what she said sounded to Jiang Xu like celestial music.
To live? Hope burst forth in Jiang Xu’s eyes, followed by despair as a thought struck her.
But I don’t even have a heart anymore. Can a person without a heart still be considered human? Can they still live?
Jiang Xu did not know, for she had never seen such a thing.
Ming Yuan read her thoughts quite easily from the expression on her face, so she slowly squatted down and looked at Jiang Xu.
Jiang Xu raised her eyes and plunged straight into a pair of pupils. Those eyes crystal-clear mirrored her figure, their depths written with seriousness and a promise.
Then, she heard that soul speak slowly, her voice cool yet gentle:
“From this day forward, I will be your heart!”