After Desperation Comes Rebirth
“Master, you’re back!”
The group returned to the inn, where a young man in a blue brocade robe smiled as he came out to greet them, a pair of swords strapped to his back.
As the young man pursed his lips, a dimple appeared on one side of his cheek.
His name was Ye Wanxing, her third junior brother.
Ye Wanxing’s fate was to be disemboweled and die a gruesome death while defending the sect from the Demon Realm.
Mu Lingyan swayed, nearly losing her balance.
“Senior Sister, what’s wrong?” Ye Wanxing asked with concern.
Mu Lingyan waved her hand weakly, her voice feeble. “It’s nothing. I’m just a bit tired.”
He Xuan looked down at Mu Lingyan, his tone carrying an ambiguous meaning. “Since my disciple is tired, you should go back and rest. It must be because you were asked to impersonate someone from the Demon Realm yesterday and haven’t adjusted yet.”
“Exerting myself for the sect is what a disciple should do. If Master has no further instructions, I will take my leave.”
He Xuan said nothing more and turned to leave.
Only Ruan Jiujiu and Ye Wanxing remained in the corner of the inn, exchanging bewildered glances.
Ye Wanxing rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
Gazing at his senior sister’s graceful and elegant red-clad figure, he let out an inappropriate sigh.
“Senior Sister looks absolutely stunning in that bright red dress!”
“Junior Sister, don’t you think so?”
Ruan Jiujiu struck the same pose as her senior brother, rubbing her slender, pale fingers against her chin. “Third Senior Brother, your eyes are finally not blind anymore!”
“Senior Sister has always been radiant and enchanting. Our sect robes are so plain and bland—how could they ever match Senior Sister’s unparalleled beauty, like a lotus flower!”
Ye Wanxing: “Hey, you little brat, how was I blind?”
Ruan Jiujiu curled her lip disdainfully. “Every time you call someone a beauty, they turn out to be as ugly as a pig’s head.”
Ye Wanxing: “…”
“By the way, what’s going on with Master and Senior Sister? Something feels off.”
Ruan Jiujiu hissed softly.
Even Third Senior Brother, who had no brains, could sense it—her intuition was indeed right!
The girl had been waiting for this question, her gossip radar buzzing.
She huddled close to Ye Wanxing and recounted every detail after finding their master and senior sister.
The two of them hid in the corner of the inn, chattering away.
When it came to gossip, their eyes sparkled, their expressions and gestures exaggerated to the extreme.
Hmm…
If Mu Lingyan were here, she wouldn’t find it strange at all.
After all, the novel she wrote was titled Seeking the Dao, and it was originally intended to be a serious cultivation novel.
Who knew that as she wrote, it veered off course!
It turned into a comedic cultivation story.
First published on a male-oriented platform…
So everyone in Worry-Free Peak had a goofy personality.
Mu Lingyan lay on the bed, reminiscing about the days before she transmigrated into the book.
She wanted to give this novel a perfect ending.
But her parents had abandoned her and fled after incurring massive debts, leaving her behind. Debt collectors would bang on her door daily, threatening her to repay the money.
Among the novels she wrote, only this one performed decently.
Mu Lingyan gritted her teeth and kept writing, persisting for three years.
What was once a good book became dragged out and tedious.
The comment section was flooded with criticism, and many readers were utterly disappointed in her.
But she didn’t blame the readers—she felt the same way.
She had ruined her own work with her own hands.
Later, a publishing house contacted her, offering to publish her novel. Mu Lingyan was overjoyed.
She thought her life was finally taking a turn for the better, that her hardships were over. Little did she know, it was a descent into the eighteenth layer of hell.
The publishing house backed out, and readers gradually drifted away.
No one subscribed to the book anymore, and the debt collectors nearly smashed her house.
And she couldn’t come up with a single cent.
Finally, she collapsed at home, slept for a full day, then dragged herself to the hospital for a checkup.
The diagnosis read four words: late-stage liver cancer.
In that moment, her world collapsed.
Overwhelmed both mentally and physically, she ultimately decided to end it all.
So, on her twentieth birthday, she personally wrote the ending.
She killed off the male lead she had created.
Listening to the creditors outside the door cursing and swearing, she had initially intended to end her own life but couldn’t swallow her anger.
She went out to confront them and was chased all the way to a park.
In the end, she jumped into the lake.
As the water flooded her eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, Mu Lingyan instead felt a sense of relief.
It was good to die.
But she never expected that when she opened her eyes again, she would find herself transmigrated into the very novel she had written and ruined.
“Sigh…”
Recalling this, she let out a sigh.
But she didn’t notice…
A mass of black mist appeared by the bedside, coalescing into a human form.
Mu Lingyan shifted her position and noticed this dark, shadowy thing.
Startled, she sat up in bed, staring warily.
She glanced at her sword lying far away on the table and thought, “Isn’t this just perfect?”
Just as she was about to call for her Master to save her…
Unexpectedly, the figure formed by the black mist suddenly knelt with a thump, kowtowing to her.
“Uh…” The gesture startled Mu Lingyan.
“Your subordinate greets the Demon Venerable! Does Your Excellency require any Demon Creatures to be arranged tonight?”
Mu Lingyan was taken aback.
Oh, right!
She was the Demon Venerable…
She parted her dry lips, feigning indifference. “No need. Let them return safely.”
The kneeling figure was stunned. “Demon Venerable, this is a perfect opportunity!”
Then, with a sly laugh, he said:
“Why don’t we seize the moment and kidnap He Xuan to your Demon Palace? With Dual Cultivation, your power will soar! The Kunshan Sword Sect will lose a Nascent Soul expert! And with you growing stronger, wouldn’t it be easier for us to unify the Boundless Continent in the future?”
!!
Mu Lingyan was genuinely impressed—this guy’s mind worked way too fast.
She fell silent for a moment, then a plan formed in her mind.
Deliberately lowering her voice, she rebuked the subordinate. “This Venerable has my own plans. How dare you presume to instruct me?”
“Your subordinate deserves death.” The black-clad figure trembled as he admitted his fault.
Mu Lingyan said coldly, “Leave. Without my orders, do not appear before the people of the Kunshan Sword Sect.”
“Your subordinate obeys.”
Only after this Demon Cultivator subordinate left did Mu Lingyan’s furrowed brow slowly relax.
She raised a hand to wipe the cold sweat from her forehead and patted her chest, still shaken.
That person just now must have been one of the three Demon Lords under her command, though she wasn’t sure which one.
The current plot was exactly when “Mu Lingyan” had just turned to darkness.
In her rush to finish the story, she had given “Mu Lingyan” the background of a Demon Venerable without caring whether it made sense.
And because the ending was rushed, many plot points were glossed over.
So, even she, the author, didn’t know what would happen in those glossed-over parts.
But it seemed the world of the book would automatically fill in the gaps.
Now that she had transmigrated into this book, she naturally wouldn’t let “Mu Lingyan” turn dark.
But even as the author who had entered the book, could she change the fate of everyone in it?
Mu Lingyan found it hard to sleep.
She pushed open her door and walked to He Xuan’s room.
Her hand, poised to knock, paused as she stared blankly at the door.
He Xuan was the male lead she had written. Like the protagonists of other cultivation novels, he had endured a childhood of hardship—betrothal broken, parents abandoning him, and countless struggles.
Yet, with exceptional talent and unwavering determination, he had forged his own path to greatness.
Yet her heart softened in the end, and she created a warm, comforting place for the protagonist in her writing.
That place was Worry-Free Peak, where He Xuan now resided.
In her story, He Xuan had four disciples.
The eldest disciple was Mu Lingyan, who shared the same name as her. Her character was set as someone with exceptional talent and stunning beauty, yet rigid and uninteresting.
The second disciple, Liu Wenfei, practiced the Way of Non-Action—a down-and-out wandering swordsman who wielded dual blades.
The third disciple, Ye Wanxing, came from the wealthiest mortal kingdom in the north, born into nobility and immensely rich. He carried dual swords year-round, using the long sword to save lives and the short sword to take them.
The youngest disciple, Ruan Jiujiu, was an abandoned infant picked up by the second disciple. Though her talent and Spiritual Root were average, she was charmingly naive, lively, and cheerful—the joy of the sect.
All four disciples deeply respected and cherished their Master, He Xuan.
This sect, which should have been filled with harmony and joy, met a tragic end due to the few despairing strokes of her pen, each member dying a miserable death.
She still remembered the final line of the story:
【He Xuan collapsed into a pool of blood, lifting his head in despair to gaze upon the ravaged Kunshan Sword Sect, his fate unknown…】
Mu Lingyan took a deep breath, ultimately lacking the courage to knock on the door.
Her brows furrowed tightly.
As she turned to leave, she thought to herself: No matter what, she would never let the sect walk down that path again.
Inside the room, He Xuan, who had been sitting cross-legged and regulating his breath, opened his eyes.
His cold gaze pierced through the door and window, fixed on Mu Lingyan’s retreating figure.
He had been pondering how to exact his revenge.
Now, he had made up his mind.
Why not repay them in their own coin?