The seventh day of the third month. Cloudy.
The setting sun dyed the entire sky red. A young woman stood in the center of a bridge as lustrous and white as jade. The evening wind swept up a few thin flower petals, which landed on the hem of her pure white dress, making her look like an ethereal figure from a painting.
“Young Mistress?” Someone on the shore spotted the figure on the bridge and hurriedly flew over on his sword to her side, asking cautiously, “Miss Sui Sui, why have you come out alone today?”
Yu Sui Sui silently sized him up.
The newcomer was a good-looking young man, the type who would be called handsome in the modern world.
But this world was clearly not modern. The other person wore antique-looking long robes, his black hair was tied back, and he had defied the laws of Newton by flying through the air on a sword.
And so, she understood: this was an ancient Xianxia world.
Yu Sui Sui was a rookie from the Transmigration Bureau. She had just transmigrated two minutes ago, and the system hadn’t had time to transmit the plot to her yet. She didn’t know the original “Young Mistress’s” persona, so she just gave a reserved nod.
Yu Sui Sui was a rather laid-back person. Fortunately, the tasks assigned to rookies were all relatively simple, mostly playing roles like Passerby A, Cannon Fodder B, or Extra C. Even if she slacked off, she could do so with righteous conviction.
“It will be night soon. Young Mistress, please go back early,” the handsome young man said, his face full of alarm. “Your body is weak; I’m afraid you won’t be able to withstand the cold air on the Moon Coagulation Bridge. If the Sect Master blames us, none of us will be able to answer for it.”
Yu Sui Sui was at a loss. She wasn’t the type of person who liked to make things difficult for others, but seeing how nervous he was, she wondered if the “Young Mistress” was prone to throwing the occasional tantrum.
“The Sect Master was already in a bad mood today.” The chatty handsome man didn’t notice that the Young Mistress before him had a new soul inside and continued to ramble, “That Xie Rong Jing truly doesn’t know what’s good for him. He’s a Devil Seed by birth, after all. If you ask me, we should just take people like him—”
Noticing her lack of reaction for a long time, the chatterbox realized his slip of the tongue. “I’m sorry, Young Mistress. I shouldn’t have brought up these vexing matters…”
Yu Sui Sui didn’t actually mind. During this information blackout period before she knew the plot, she hoped he would talk as much as possible.
Wait a minute.
Who did he just say?
Xie Rong Jing?
She seemed to have heard that name before.
Xie Rong Jing was the name of the great villain in a certain Xianxia novel. Because he was so insanely vicious, he was often mentioned by the seniors at the Transmigration Bureau. Even a rookie like Yu Sui Sui, who hadn’t read the novel, had heard of him.
He was the son of the previous Devil Lord, Xie Mian. After Xie Mian was besieged and killed by the Hundred Immortal Sects, the young Xie Rong Jing was adopted by a kind-hearted righteous sect, which attempted to educate this little devil into a fine, upstanding young man.
But as it turned out, Xie Rong Jing’s evil was carved into his very bones. He was incapable of gratitude and refused to be reformed.
The first thing he did after gaining power was to slaughter the sect he had once stayed in.
It was said that in every cycle, the late-stage Xie Rong Jing would become moody and murderous. He single-handedly made countless seniors shrink back at the mere mention of his name, preferring to take a pay cut rather than accept a mission from this world.
A search for the keyword “Xie Rong Jing” on the Transmigration Bureau’s forum would yield not a hundred, but at least ninety-something threads.
【Fam, I’m telling you, it was my first time transmigrating as the female lead. I hadn’t even met the male lead I was supposed to win over before he got offed by Xie Rong Jing… The mission was immediately judged a failure. Is there anyone more unlucky than me??】
【Speechless. Transmigrated as a minor villain and just wanted to slack off, but all the people I was supposed to bully were killed off by Xie Rong Jing beforehand!!】
【My last mission was to be one of Xie Rong Jing’s subordinates. I’m a 1.9-meter-tall tough guy, but he scared me so much I hid under my covers and cried every night QAQ.】
【Which system issued this mission? Show yourself, I promise I won’t hit you. You want me to transmigrate as the sworn enemy’s younger brother?? You might as well just kill me directly.】
…
Yu Sui Sui began to pray: I hope my first mission isn’t just distantly related to Xie Rong Jing, but completely and utterly unrelated.
Right at that moment, the system’s mechanical voice timely rang in her mind.
【Host, hello. The plot of Sword Immortal has begun transmitting.】
The plot of the book and the original body’s memories flooded into her mind in an instant. Yu Sui Sui steadied herself with a hand on her forehead, swaying for a moment.
“Young Mistress, are you alright?” The chatty handsome man looked like he was about to cry from worry.
Yu Sui Sui shook her head.
In fact, she really wanted to say that she was not alright.
She, too, was about to cry from worry.
The good news: it was more or less as she had thought. She only needed to play a minor supporting character who shared her name, with a role that probably amounted to only three hundred words in the entire book.
The bad news: the character she was playing was Xie Rong Jing’s closest person, his white moonlight who died an early death.
…This was going to be tricky.
“Plot transmission complete. Wishing the Host a successful mission w!” The system’s voice sounded again. “Go for it, Host! If there’s nothing else, I’ll be taking my leave~”
The Transmigration Bureau was severely understaffed. The systems would never guide the transmigrators from the beginning to the end of their missions. They would just send the plot and leave, letting them improvise.
“There is something else,” Yu Sui Sui asked sincerely. “Can I switch to a different mission?”
The answer was, of course, no. Sui Sui lowered her eyes and sighed softly.
The Moon Coagulation Bridge was very high, and the lake water below couldn’t reflect her face clearly, only a hazy white shadow.
It was, after all, a girl’s first time transmigrating. It was completely normal to dislike interacting with such a notorious villain. The system understood this and tried to encourage her.
“Host, this mission actually isn’t that difficult.”
“Although Xie Rong Jing is a villain, according to our investigation, he is currently just a harmless, ordinary disciple. You don’t need to win him over, either; we wouldn’t issue a mission that is so obviously impossible. You just need to be nice to him and then die for him, so that he remembers you. That’s enough.”
Sword Immortal‘s main plotline followed the adventures of the official male lead. Xie Rong Jing was just a villain who was already at his peak when he appeared, with very little written about his past.
Fortunately, Yu Sui Sui’s goal wasn’t to reform Xie Rong Jing, just to be nice to him. That was still doable.
Since she was already here, she might as well make the best of it. She would do her best!
The system left, reassured. After some thought, Yu Sui Sui decided to go see Xie Rong Jing before the sky turned completely dark.
Interdimensional Traveler’s Guide, Rule #33: The sooner you get to know the mission target, the more beneficial it is for future progress.
“Young Mistress, are you going to cross the Moon Coagulation Bridge?” The little chatterbox who had been following her shook his head like a rattle drum. “Absolutely not!”
Yu Sui Sui had no time to deal with him; she was still busy sorting through the memories that had suddenly appeared in her mind.
The place she was in now was a sect called the Tian Zhao Sect, the very one that would be annihilated by Xie Rong Jing in the future.
At this time, the Tian Zhao Sect had not yet fallen into decline and still held a position as one of the four major sects.
The Tian Zhao Sect was composed of two mountain peaks that soared into the clouds, and the Moon Coagulation Bridge was the only link connecting the two. If one looked up from below, it resembled a silvery-white chasm in the sky.
Yu Sui Sui’s identity in this world was the Sect Master’s daughter, a frail and sickly young mistress who rarely went out to see people. She usually lived on the main peak south of the Moon Coagulation Bridge, while the northern side peak was the residence for outer disciples and miscellaneous-duty disciples.
The original owner was bedridden year-round and had a social circle of virtually zero. Yu Sui Sui could improvise freely without fear of acting out of character.
Seeing that she did not stop walking, the little follower by her side grew anxious. “Your status is noble. How can you go to a place like the North Peak?”
…Why was she being stopped again?
Strange. It’s not like she’d lose a piece of flesh just by going there.
Yu Sui Sui had to rummage through her memories for this follower’s name.
He seemed to be called Pei Lin, one of the Tian Zhao Sect’s disciples, mainly responsible for patrol duty on the Moon Coagulation Bridge.
In Yu Sui Sui’s words, he was a resident security guard.
Great, he appeared at just the right time!
The status gap between the original owner and Xie Rong Jing was enormous; they had absolutely no interaction in their daily lives. The book had very few descriptions of the young Xie Rong Jing, so she didn’t know where he lived or what he looked like.
She was in need of a guide, so Yu Sui Sui answered naturally, “I’m going to find Xie Rong Jing. You take me there.”
She had clearly forgotten what Pei Lin had just said.
“See that little bastard?” Pei Lin’s face was full of astonishment. Seeing that she didn’t seem to be joking, he answered hesitantly, “There’s no need to trouble the Young Mistress to make a trip for such a matter… This subordinate will send someone to bring him here.”
Have Xie Rong Jing come see her?
That works too.
Yu Sui Sui didn’t insist. It was just the first day of work, a chance to get acquainted. Who went to see whom sounded about the same.
She walked down the Moon Coagulation Bridge and stepped onto the South Peak. It was already dusk. The strange and exotic flowers and plants lining the path were all coated in a golden halo of light. A certain kind of heart-lifting melody faintly echoed in the air, like a celestial paradise.
The original owner’s residence was not far from the Moon Coagulation Bridge. It was a quiet and spiritually rich little courtyard with a row of lush, verdant bamboo trees planted in front.
The furnishings inside the room were simple yet elegant, a proper boudoir for a young Xianmen maiden. A seven-stringed zither of a verdant green color rested on a table made of purple sandalwood.
Everything seemed novel to Yu Sui Sui. She even had to touch the feathers of the spirit bird that announced the time by the window.
She played with everything from the spirit bird to the glowing spirit flowers and grasses, and even plucked the zither strings a couple of times. Just as she was reverting to her lazy nature and spacing out on a lounge chair, a young immortal attendant outside announced that Senior Brother Pei Lin had arrived.
Ah, this… she hadn’t rested enough yet.
The efficiency in this Xianxia world is truly high, Yu Sui Sui thought.
She cleared her throat. “Come in.”
Pei Lin didn’t enter the room, remaining at the doorway to report. “I have brought that little Devil Seed surnamed Xie. Should I escort him to the Law Enforcement Hall or send him to the Seclusion Chamber for a few days? I ask for the Young Mistress’s decision.”
Yu Sui Sui: ?!
Wait…
What Law Enforcement Hall, what Seclusion Chamber? Why didn’t she understand what was going on?
She pushed open the door, her gaze passing over Pei Lin to land on a dusty gray figure beneath the bamboo grove.
The bamboo shadows swayed. The pale moonlight outlined the person’s somewhat thin figure. A cascade of ink-black hair fell, obscuring his face, with only a pair of well-defined hands visible outside his robes. His hands were clenched into tight fists, and a pair of black shackles were on his wrists. A dark red liquid snaked down his forearms, dripping onto the ground with a soft patter.
Yu Sui Sui froze.
This, this couldn’t be…
“All of his meridians have been destroyed. Young Mistress, please rest assured,” Pei Lin explained hastily, noticing the expression on the Young Mistress’s face.
Yu Sui Sui felt a strong sense of dissonance.
She found it hard to connect the tyrannical and gloomy Xie Rong Jing from the plot with the wretched figure before her.
Fortunately, she still remembered her mission. Whether Xie Rong Jing was a great devil lord or a little pitiable thing, she just had to complete her task seriously.
Speaking of which, how does one become someone’s white moonlight?
They taught this in transmigration class. It was nothing more than healing his wounds, pleading for him, and taking blows for him.
If conditions allowed, she could also moonlight as his golden finger.
And so, ignoring Pei Lin’s astonished gaze, Yu Sui Sui walked straight to Xie Rong Jing and squatted down in front of him.
The hem of her snow-white dress trailed on the ground, and the once-spotless fabric was now visibly stained with blood and mud.
“How did you get hurt so badly…” She wasn’t very good at comforting people.
Xie Rong Jing didn’t react.
He just curled up quietly in a ball. Yu Sui Sui smelled a thick scent of blood, mixed with some unknown sweet fragrance, like a flower in full bloom on the verge of decay, exuding a dangerous yet cloying aroma.
“Didn’t you hear? The Young Mistress is asking you a question,” Pei Lin said loudly.
What was with this guy? He was completely holding her back.
Thus, Yu Sui Sui chose to draw a clear line between herself and Pei Lin.
She stood up, blocking his view of Xie Rong Jing. “I’m speaking with him. Don’t interrupt for now.”
She had to admit, the title “Young Mistress” was quite useful. The security guard brother lowered his head and fell silent.
A low chuckle came from beside her, as light as a whisper.
Yu Sui Sui subconsciously turned her head and met a pair of dark, bottomless pupils.
The great villain, who had been unresponsive all this time, had lifted his head at some point. Black hair, black eyes. A trickle of crimson blood flowed from the corner of his thin lips, making his skin appear unnaturally pale.
Logically, someone with all their meridians destroyed should be enduring a pain akin to being devoured by ten thousand ants, yet the person before her looked calm, and was even in the mood to curl his lips into a smile for Yu Sui Sui.
His voice was slightly cool, tinged with a sweet hoarseness.
He said to Yu Sui Sui,
“It hurts so much, Young Mistress.”