Volume Four: Those Years When I Was a Master
Maintaining the Persona
[Refresher: Foundation Establishment → Enlightenment → Integration → Temptation → Golden Core → Nascent Soul → Soul Division → Body Integration → Void Glimpse → Mahayana → Void Shattering → Tribulation Transcendence → Supreme Immortal]
In this life, Wen Nuan’s identity was Elder Yu, the Peak Master of Qinggu Peak at Qian Yuan Upper Palace, renowned as the most stunningly talented and exceptional in terms of aptitude and cultivation.
The female lead, on the other hand, had the most tragic childhood bestowed by the Heavenly Dao1. Parents unknown, origins unknown, she was raised by an old village chief in a remote and secluded mountain village. To find a good future for the female lead, the old village chief brought her to the Imperial Capital City to participate in the “Hundred Sects Recruitment Assembly.”
After all, the female lead was chosen by the Heavenly Dao. Though her background was tragic, she possessed the necessary strength. She became the most sought-after prospect of that year’s assembly, with numerous immortal sects extending olive branches to her.
The plot point Wen Nuan transmigrated into was a few days before the “Hundred Sects Recruitment Assembly,” just in time for her original self’s tribulation2.
In the original plot, the original self failed her tribulation and died amidst the lightning. Wen Nuan arrived at this moment and used points to successfully pass the tribulation, becoming the youngest Late-stage Void Glimpse cultivator on the Jiuzhou Continent3.
In an instant, all of Jiuzhou was shaken.
The prestige of Qian Yuan Upper Palace grew even greater.
Moreover, what astonished the world even more was that Elder Yu, who had always been unwilling to participate in various recruitment trials, actually volunteered to join the “Hundred Sects Recruitment Assembly.” Her original intention was to see if there were any good seedlings and take on a disciple.
Once this news spread, the many immortal sects immediately sent their most outstanding disciples to the “Hundred Sects Recruitment Assembly,” hoping they would be noticed by Elder Yu. If their path to immortality had Elder Yu’s support, they would surely soar upwards, their potential limitless.
Wen Nuan’s thinking at the time was simple: if the female lead chose another sect, she would secretly support her, help her resolve all difficulties, and allow her and the male lead to love each other without any reservations.
If the female lead chose Qian Yuan Upper Palace, she would definitely go all out, holding nothing back in her teachings, to guide the female lead into becoming the first Supreme Immortal Venerable of the Jiuzhou Continent.
In the end, the female lead specifically requested Wen Nuan to be her Master, the reason being that Wen Nuan was beautiful. To this, Wen Nuan commented that the female lead had excellent judgment.
In this mission world, Wen Nuan needed to maintain her original self’s persona: silent and emotionally detached.
Therefore, she could only teach the female lead in an extremely awkward manner while maintaining her original persona. The female lead, however, was diligent and ambitious. Her cultivation progressed daily, and her realm advanced year by year, to the point where she was faintly about to surpass Wen Nuan.
Truly worthy of being the female lead chosen by the Heavenly Dao; as a human-demon hybrid, her cultivation speed was much faster than that of pure humans or demons.
Gradually, the reputation of this genius master-disciple pair spread throughout the Jiuzhou Continent.
Until the female lead’s demon bloodline was exposed. All praise turned into curses.
And this plot point was the most crucial for the emotional shift between the male lead and female lead. The people of the world wanted to grind her bones to dust4, while the Demon Lord, to save the female lead, led the demon army to invade the human realm.
The world’s experts had all gathered in the Imperial Capital City, so it wouldn’t be easy for the Demon Lord to save the female lead. To ensure the female lead was successfully rescued by the Demon Lord, Wen Nuan deliberately pushed aside other cultivators who wanted to kill the female lead.
She herself wielded a sword and stabbed the female lead, intentionally revealing a flaw5 so that the Demon Lord could “ambush” her and rescue the female lead.
Wen Nuan was also worried that the cultivators would hunt down and exterminate the female lead and male lead. This was because the Demon Lord had expended a great deal of demonic power to break the seal, and his strength was greatly diminished. If cultivators pursued them, the female lead and male lead would likely be finished.
Thinking of this, Wen Nuan immediately sealed the rift in the Cang Mountain Blood Sea, obstructing the invasion of the demon army and also halting the pursuit of the human cultivators.
At that moment, two extreme emotions tore at the female lead’s heart. Seeing the world’s murderous intent and hatred towards her made the female lead completely lose faith in humanity.
From then on, the female lead no longer cherished the human realm, staying in the Demon Realm to love and cultivate together with the male lead, the Demon Lord.
The demonic energy in the Demon Realm was richer and more potent than the spiritual energy of the human realm, making cultivation faster.
If the plot had developed normally, the female lead’s cultivation in the Demon Realm would have progressed by leaps and bounds. In less than a hundred years, she and the male lead would have joined hands to become Supreme Demon Emperors.
Afterward, the female lead would destroy the seal on the Cang Mountain Blood Sea and rule over both the human and demon realms.
So, this was supposed to be Wen Nuan’s most guaranteed successful mission world, but in the end, the female lead still blackened.
The current world’s plot is that the female lead did not end up falling in love with the male lead. Right now, the female lead has no love, only hatred. She cultivates madly day and night, alone, with only one goal in her heart: to break the seal, return to the human realm, and slaughter that unscrupulous Master of hers.
Meaning her, Yu Wen Nuan.
After returning to this world, the two of them understood the current plot and sighed in unison.
System: 【The female lead’s blackening value is currently 9.5!】
Wen Nuan sighed, “Do you think she might have already fallen for me in this world? Just like in the previous few worlds?”
【Whether the female lead in this world likes you or not, I’m not sure. But there’s one thing I’m very sure about.】
“What is it?”
The System smiled faintly: 【The female lead in this world wants to kill you.】
Wen Nuan: “…”
That ungrateful little brat!
【Also, I forgot to tell you in the last world, the WU value has changed. It’s now 32%.】
“Does this change in value affect you?” Wen Nuan, at any rate, didn’t feel any impact.
The System shook its head: 【No, all machine operations are still running perfectly.】
“Then don’t worry about it. The blackening value is the most important thing right now.”
【Okay.】The System thought so too. 【How do you plan to resolve the current situation?】
Wen Nuan remained silent.
The System offered a suggestion: 【Why don’t you tell her everything you did for her back then? Maybe her blackening value will decrease?】
Wen Nuan shook her head, “No, even if I were to tell her, I can’t say it now.”
【Why?】The System was puzzled. 【If you don’t tell her now, the female lead will kill you directly, won’t she?】
“Telling her now will only make the female lead think I’m fabricating lies because I’m afraid of death. Besides, not many people know the truth of what happened back then, mostly just the sect masters of the righteous human sects. Even if they testified for me, the female lead would think we colluded and were deceiving her together. At that point, forget about lowering the blackening value; the female lead might just slaughter the entire human realm.”
The System felt Wen Nuan’s reasoning made sense. 【Then what do you plan to do?】
Wen Nuan sighed, “Let’s take it one step at a time.”
【So…】The System looked at Wen Nuan’s bound limbs. “This is the result of you taking it one step at a time? Being tied up in the Fire-Cold Cave Abode?”
Wen Nuan: “…”
Back then, Zhong Baixuan had desperately tried to keep her, to prevent Yu Wan Zhao from taking her away. But he was no match for the female lead, who was already at the Mahayana Stage cultivation base. He was beaten back repeatedly, spitting blood, his spiritual power raging, before he fainted.
Wen Nuan, afraid the female lead would lose control and annihilate the human realm, volunteered to go with her. The female lead, still wary of her, demanded she seal her own spiritual meridians6 and imprisoned her in the Fire-Cold Cave Abode, stationing demon soldiers to guard it.
If any cultivators came to rescue her, Yu Wan Zhao had issued a ruthless warning: kill on sight.
Fire-Cold Cave Abode.
As the name suggested, anyone imprisoned in this cave abode would endure the dual torment of ice and fire. Their spiritual power and physical body would gradually be eroded and destroyed within the cave. The longer the time, the heavier the torment, eventually grinding a cultivator into a cripple.
Fortunately, the System provided her with pain shielding, so the damage from the Fire-Cold Cave Abode was relatively tolerable.
Ten days.
Wen Nuan had stayed in the Fire-Cold Cave Abode for a full ten days. No one came to save her, and no one came to see her.
After Yu Wan Zhao captured her, she threw her into the Fire-Cold Cave Abode to suffer, stationed heavy guards, and then disappeared.
Luckily, cultivators had long ago achieved bigu7, so ten days without food or drink was manageable. It was just that her cravings couldn’t be satisfied, which made Wen Nuan very unhappy. Especially since the System, in an attempt to comfort her, showed her various food documentaries every day, letting her console herself by looking at plums to quench her thirst8.
As a result, she felt even worse.
Wen Nuan lost track of day and night, of time itself, in the Fire-Cold Cave Abode. If not for the System keeping time for her, Wen Nuan would have thought only three or five days had passed.
System time announcement: 【The tenth day, 12 o’clock, has arrived. Lunchtime begins. Today, we’re watching a Hunan cuisine9 documentary.】
Wen Nuan: “…”
This was so f#cking ridiculous.
The Fire-Cold Cave Abode tortured her physical body and spiritual power; the System’s documentaries tortured her soul and desires.
At this moment, she felt like she could eat a whole cow raw.
Just as the System was about to play the documentary, Wen Nuan heard light footsteps inside the cave.
“Tongzi, stop. Someone’s here.”
【Hmm? Who’s here?】The System was just about to switch interfaces to check.
Wen Nuan looked up, using the faint light from above, and said softly, “…Wan Zhao?”
Yu Wan Zhao looked at Wen Nuan, whose limbs were bound before her. Truly worthy of someone who had reached Mid-stage Mahayana; after ten full days in the Fire-Cold Cave Abode, she looked completely fine. Unlike herself back then, who had been tormented to the brink of collapse by the Fire-Cold Cave Abode.
“I didn’t expect Master to still remember my name, hmm?” Yu Wan Zhao sneered.
“Why wouldn’t I remember?”
Yu Wan Zhao chuckled dryly. “How could the name of a demon possibly be worthy of Elder Yu of Qian Yuan Upper Palace committing it to memory?”
Wen Nuan lowered her eyes, offering no further explanation.
Seeing her silence, Yu Wan Zhao took it as an admission.
A flash of fury crossed her eyes. She viciously pinched Wen Nuan’s chin, forcing Wen Nuan to meet her peach blossom eyes10, and said coldly, “Master must regret it deeply, right?”
“What?”
“Regret that your sword strike back then failed to kill me? Now, being so freely humiliated by me, this lowly demon seed, Master must be wishing for mutual destruction with me, mustn’t you?” Yu Wan Zhao’s eyes were filled with sarcasm and brutality.
Wen Nuan tried to shake off Yu Wan Zhao’s hand but couldn’t. Her chin was held in a firm grip.
“Is Master now so disdainful as to not even spare me a glance?” Yu Wan Zhao leaned closer, wanting to fill Wen Nuan’s vision with her own face, yet she saw Wen Nuan lower her gaze, deliberately ignoring her. “What? Does looking at me now make Master feel disgusted, utterly repulsed, is that it?”
【Ahhh! The blackening value has risen! It’s 9.7 already!!】the System shrieked. 【Why don’t you just look at her and bring the blackening value down?! Didn’t I tell you that you don’t need to worry about the persona anymore?】
“Even if I don’t have to worry about the persona, the original self’s previous persona was too rigid—usually silent and emotionally detached. If I suddenly change now, do you think Yu Wan Zhao is that easy to fool?”
If she abruptly changed her original persona, Yu Wan Zhao would definitely think she was being deliberately mysterious, enduring humiliation to bide her time. At that point, Yu Wan Zhao might just run her through with a sword.
【Then what do we do? Are you going to rely on the original persona to lower the female lead’s blackening value?】
The System felt that relying on the original persona to resolve this would greatly increase the difficulty.
“Abruptly changing the persona is definitely not an option. For now, I can only subtly change the original persona. This way, Yu Wan Zhao might lower her guard.”
However, right now, she first needed to lower the female lead’s blackening value.
Wen Nuan turned her head and met Yu Wan Zhao’s gaze. They were so close, mere inches apart.
Seeing her look over, Yu Wan Zhao’s pupils trembled slightly. Those eyes were as clear as water; she found she didn’t quite dare to meet that gaze directly.
She swallowed, then deliberately said with sarcasm, “What? Forcing yourself to look at me, enduring the disgust and disdain—is it particularly painful?”
Wen Nuan scanned Yu Wan Zhao up and down.
Noticing this action, Yu Wan Zhao thought Wen Nuan was about to say something sarcastic, but instead, she heard Wen Nuan say gently,
“Wan Zhao, you’ve lost a lot of weight.”
The author has something to say:
Wen Nuan sighed: You’ve lost a lot of weight.
The female lead’s lips curved: Some places haven’t slimmed down, don’t worry.
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