Blame the Villain – Chapter 83

Villainous Master (5)

Song Xuyi slept very deeply that night and woke up the next day without feeling the usual hangover after drinking, but instead felt refreshed.

The alcohol in the cultivation world was indeed extraordinary.

Song Xuyi had long been accustomed to the wonders of the cultivation world, so she didn’t express too much surprise. After stretching lazily and washing up as usual, she planned to go down the mountain for class.

As she left, Song Xuyi habitually glanced at the adjacent room, noticing that Ning Jingyu’s door was still closed. Song Xuyi paused, furrowing her brow as if feeling that she had forgotten something, but couldn’t quite remember what.

Seeing that it was almost time for history class, Song Xuyi didn’t linger any longer and prepared to go down the mountain for class.

Through Song Xuyi’s continuous practice day and night, although she was already able to descend the mountain with her sword, her skills were not yet proficient enough. Every time she wielded her sword, she needed to concentrate fully.

Just as Song Xuyi awkwardly stepped onto her flying sword, preparing to descend the mountain, she suddenly heard the sound of a door opening behind her. Surprised, she turned back and saw Ning Jingyu, dressed in white like snow, standing at the door with a smile that seemed both meaningful and mysterious—

“Are you planning to descend the mountain?”

“Master! You’ve come out of seclusion?”

Song Xuyi exclaimed happily, looking at Ning Jingyu, who radiated brilliance at the door.

“Didn’t you see me last night?” Ning Jingyu smiled habitually, but suddenly remembered Song Xuyi’s description of her fake smile from last night. The curvature of her lips disappeared abruptly as she began to look at Song Xuyi with an expressionless face.

Song Xuyi paused for a moment.

Looking at Ning Jingyu’s beautiful face like a flower, certain shameful memories suddenly flooded into her mind like a tide—

How could she… have done such a despicable thing while drunk?!

“Can I still change to another small world for the mission now?”

The smile on Song Xuyi’s face visibly faded away, and her cheeks instantly flushed.

She called out to the disconnected system in her mind, but received no reply.

For the first time, Song Xuyi felt an overwhelming nostalgia for the system. She felt ashamed, panicked, and confused. With a stumble, she fell off the flying sword—

Song Xuyi landed firmly on her bottom, feeling as if her whole body had fallen apart. Meanwhile, Ning Jingyu remained elegant and pristine in her white attire, as if she were about to ascend to the heavens at any moment…

Unable to face Ning Jingyu’s face any longer, Song Xuyi just wanted to bury her face in the ground.

Ning Jingyu watched Song Xuyi’s embarrassed and frustrated expression, and the curvature of her lips grew larger and larger. She truly enjoyed seeing her little disciple in such embarrassed situations. She couldn’t quite describe it; every time she saw her little disciple’s shy expression, it felt like a feather suddenly tickling her heart, an inexplicable sensation that easily stirred certain unnamed impulses.

Ning Jingyu always followed her heart, smoothly acting on her own desires. She reached out and touched Song Xuyi’s head.

“I don’t blame you,” she said, feeling the soft and shiny black hair of her disciple. Ning Jingyu squinted her eyes and unconsciously softened her voice, “Just don’t drink alcohol again in the future!”

Song Xuyi responded with a disheartened ‘Hmm,’ nodding as if peeling garlic. Amidst her regret and self-reproach, she felt a greater closeness to Ning Jingyu: Despite her own rashness, disregarding her master’s feelings, her master remained so forgiving and kind. She vowed to treat her master better in the future.

Song Xuyi took several deep breaths, finally suppressing the feeling of humiliation in her heart.

Now that Ning Jingyu has come out of seclusion, Song Xuyi has postponed her history class training and started practicing with Ning Jingyu wholeheartedly.

Song Xuyi had originally prepared herself mentally for the rigorous training ahead, but after Ning Jingyu’s emergence from seclusion, it seemed that she had modified the training method. Although Song Xuyi still found the training somewhat challenging, she didn’t feel as overwhelmed as before. Ning Jingyu’s training method began to align more with Song Xuyi’s actual situation, elevating her skills based on her existing foundation and precisely pushing her to her limits.

Song Xuyi wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but she felt that Ning Jingyu seemed to care more about her now.

Being grateful by nature, and seeing how well Ning Jingyu treated her, Song Xuyi wanted to find a way to repay Ning Jingyu.

She remembered that fateful night she had marked as a dark history. Although Ning Jingyu didn’t say anything, she had eaten the pastries Song Xuyi made. Determined to repay Ning Jingyu through meals, Song Xuyi began to experiment with cooking for her, even expanding her vegetable garden to grow various vegetables and fruits for this purpose.

After spending more time together, Song Xuyi noticed that Ning Jingyu only had white clothes. So, she used the reward she won at the sect’s grand competition to exchange for a rare black fabric from the sect leader. She then tailored it into clothing and gave it as a gift to Ning Jingyu. Although Ning Jingyu had never worn it before, Song Xuyi didn’t give up and also gave her many pieces of jewelry: Even though her master looked beautiful in her plain appearance, Song Xuyi felt that her master should try different styles and experience different colors of the world.

After realizing that Ning Jingyu indeed lacked many common sense knowledge about the cultivation world, Song Xuyi took it upon herself, for reasons unknown, to facilitate communication between Luoyun Peak and the outside world. She began to greet and engage with various factions.

After obtaining Ning Jingyu’s birthday from the sect leader, Song Xuyi remembered the date and carefully prepared a birthday banquet for her. On Ning Jingyu’s birthday, she invited a few people who were relatively familiar with Ning Jingyu to Luoyun Peak to celebrate…

……

Song Xuyi did many things for Ning Jingyu. As the sect leader would say, “even a piece of stone” should feel warmed. However, Ning Jingyu still appeared cold and aloof. Most of the time, she didn’t give any feedback on what Song Xuyi did for her.

But Song Xuyi was not discouraged: Ning Jingyu’s careful guidance was already beyond her expectations. Song Xuyi did these things simply because she wanted to, not expecting anything in return from Ning Jingyu.

However, Song Xuyi didn’t know that while she was trying her best to show filial piety to Ning Jingyu, Ning Jingyu was also secretly observing her.

Ning Jingyu had never seen a human like Song Xuyi:

Song Xuyi naturally possessed an outstanding spiritual root, quickly mastering many cultivation techniques in the cultivation world. Yet, she also displayed a diligence that was difficult for ordinary people to achieve. She already mastered many secrets of cultivation, but still wanted to practice them again, always striving for perfection with strictness.

Even without a singular water spiritual root, Ning Jingyu believed that Song Xuyi would become an excellent spiritual cultivator.

Song Xuyi was also very easygoing. For some reason, even though her features were not extremely beautiful, she looked very attractive when she smiled. Ning Jingyu liked Song Xuyi’s eyes the most: no matter how many hardships she experienced, there seemed to be stars shining in Song Xuyi’s eyes, as if no setback could extinguish the stars in her eyes. Seeing Song Xuyi always made Ning Jingyu feel happy.

Everyone in the Xuanshu Sect seemed to like her. Despite having a high status within the sect, Song Xuyi was extremely humble. Ning Jingyu even saw Song Xuyi sweeping leaves for the elderly disciples of the outer sect…

What made Ning Jingyu feel both strange and delighted was how Song Xuyi tried to please her:

Song Xuyi treated everyone well, but among all her kindness, she treated herself noticeably better than others. She cooked for herself, secretly decorated her room, gave herself gifts, and celebrated her own birthday… She did a lot for herself, and even the head of the sect, who had disciples all over the world, envied having such a disciple.

At first, Ning Jingyu was extremely annoyed with herself for investing her attention on Song Xuyi.

In her original plan, she shouldn’t have any ties with anyone, as it would become an obstacle for her in the future.

She even saw a vision during her seclusion, where she saw Song Xuyi treating her with kindness, while she herself crushed Song Xuyi’s throat with her palm.

Moreover, there was a peculiar presence in Song Xuyi’s soul that she could sense but couldn’t expel, only seal away.

No matter how she thought about it, Song Xuyi was not someone worth getting close to.

Therefore, Ning Jingyu told herself that keeping Song Xuyi around was only because of the mysteries surrounding her and her spiritual root. She deliberately ignored Song Xuyi’s attempts to please her, originally expecting Song Xuyi to give up when faced with difficulties. However, Song Xuyi seemed unaware of her deliberate distance and continued to please her as usual.

Under Song Xuyi’s constant attempts to please her over the years, Ning Jingyu lost her restraint for the first time.

As for the thing in her soul, although it seemed like a living being, its intelligence was extremely weak and posed no threat whatsoever…

As Ning Jingyu’s mentality changed, she gradually found herself genuinely smiling at Song Xuyi. She even started to care more about Song Xuyi’s cultivation than her own, and the duration of her seclusions began to shorten.

However, Ning Jingyu’s behavior placed a great deal of pressure on Song Xuyi.

The more Song Xuyi interacted with Ning Jingyu, the more she felt that Ning Jingyu was an unparalleled genius. Even if she had ten more of herself and twenty years of preparation, she still wouldn’t be able to reach half of Ning Jingyu’s level. Ning Jingyu was the backbone force in the future battle against the new Demon Lord. What merit did she possess to make Ning Jingyu go to such lengths to plan for her?

If Ning Jingyu’s strength were just a bit higher, she wouldn’t end up in a dismal fate of destruction in twenty years.

Therefore, Song Xuyi began to earnestly persuade Ning Jingyu to focus on seclusion and cultivation.

Ning Jingyu originally thought that Song Xuyi would be pleased with her planning cultivation methods for her. However, she didn’t expect Song Xuyi to start urging her to seclude herself—

Was her disciple doubting her own strength? She always feared being lonely, but wasn’t she no longer lonely when she meditated alone on the mountain?

Ning Jingyu was about to explode with frustration.

She was frustrated that Song Xuyi was too clingy when drunk, and frustrated that Song Xuyi was too considerate when sober.

Ning Jingyu saw a little girl from a farming family, huddled alone in a corner, mistaking the shadow of clothes under the eaves for a ghost. She was so scared that tears streamed down her face as she cried out for her parents…

Watching this scene, Ning Jingyu pursed her lips thoughtfully.

After successfully persuading Ning Jingyu to seclude herself, Song Xuyi also breathed a sigh of relief.

She continued to practice meditation and rest daily at her own pace, leading an extremely regular life.

On the third night after Ning Jingyu entered seclusion, the clear sky suddenly turned into a heavy rainstorm with thunder and lightning.

Song Xuyi was puzzled by the sudden rainstorm. After all, it came too abruptly. However, to conjure rain using magic required at least the level of cultivation of the sect leader, and Song Xuyi didn’t think anyone powerful would be so bored as to conjure rain.

Because of the rain, Song Xuyi abandoned the idea of going down the mountain and went to bed early.

However, in the middle of the night, with the tree shadows swaying outside the window and the howling wind, accompanied by the sound of raindrops on the window, a white-clothed woman wearing a mask appeared at the foot of Song Xuyi’s bed…

Song Xuyi, sensing something, groggily opened her eyes and met the expectant gaze of the masked woman at the head of her bed…

However, Song Xuyi didn’t scream as the woman expected.

“Is it a dream?” Song Xuyi murmured softly, closing her eyes again, and turned over tiredly. “How could Master do such childish ghostly things…”

Ning…dressed as a ghost…childish…Jingyu stood stiffly at the head of the bed: …

LP: Re-translated on May 16, 2024