When Shi Luoyi opened her eyes, it had been snowing all night on Mingyou Immortal Mountain.
[míng yōu - bright and secluded]
She vaguely remembered her own death in a dilapidated temple in the mortal world, in the twenty-third year of Zhaohua. She had died all alone, with no one to prepare her body for burial. It was summer when she passed away, a season of abundance in the mortal world, so a large patch of lotus flowers were blooming in the pond of the dilapidated temple.
The sky displayed its dazzling azure color sprinkled with the lotus leaves reaching the heavens.
Perhaps the season was too beautiful, before she closed her eyes on her death, she could still smell the fresh fragrance of lotus flowers.
Shi Luoyi felt that her death was not painful. In fact, she felt a sense of liberation and ease. She was no longer burdened by resentment and grievances in her heart, and could finally stop and rest.
But now, what was the situation?
Her entire body stung with cold, and she couldn't discern which evening this was. Her hands and feet felt frozen, and the snowflakes on her eyelashes obstructed her vision.
But Shi Luoyi knew that if one was truly dead, they would not feel cold, only the dissipation of the soul into dust of nothingness. Moreover, it was utterly absurd - it was now July, how could it be snowing in July?
There was a crowd of blurry figures in front of her eyes.
The people around her whispered, a young girl wiped the snowflakes off her eyelashes with her warm little hands. She then threw herself into Shi Luoyi's arms, crying like raindrops on a pear blossom.
"Senior sister, it's all my fault, if I hadn't made you angry yesterday, you wouldn't have left Mingyou Mountain and met such a ferocious beast like Chi Li, almost losing your life..."
[chī - young hornless dragon]
Shi Luoyi felt that the scene in front of her was inexplicably familiar, she blinked in confusion, and was finally able to see the group of people in front of her. Her gaze swept across their azure-cloud-patterned robes and past the faces of young faces she recognized, and finally recalled what was going on with this sense of déjà vu.
This scene in front of her was exactly something that happened sixty years ago!
At that time, junior sister Bian Qingxuan had plucked a hundred year old peony from Shi Luoyi's backyard, and in a fit of rage, Shi Luoyi struck out at her.
Bian Qingxuan didn't fight back and only cried and apologized.
At the critical moment, before Shi Luoyi's spell could take effect on Bian Qingxuan, a man arrived and intercepted her, sending her flying with a single palm strike.
The man who came was her senior brother, Wei Changyuan.
Wei Changyuan in his panic did not hold back his strength, and she was sent flying into the rockery of the fake mountain, cracking her head open to bleed.
In fact, such an injury was not serious, but the man she cherished protected another woman by injuring her, shattering the proud heart in her chest that was already in so much pain it could barely beat.
She held back her tears and anger, ignoring Wei Changyuan's frowning gesture of wanting to say something, and rushed down Mingyou Mountain in one breath, leaving the sect and wandering dazedly, and eventually encountered the ferocious beast, Chi Li.
Fortunately with the techniques she had cultivated with fear and trepidation for several years, after a fierce battle with Chi Li, she barely managed to obtain its inner core, saving her life. However, she was so severely injured and tired that she couldn't even move a single finger, and helplessly collapsed in the heavy snow to be buried.
She was buried in the snow all night, feeling painful and wronged. The next day, her fellow sect disciples came searching for her and found her from the snow. Her mouth was so numb that she couldn't speak and Bian Qingxuan threw herself over and sobbed full of tears.
Following this, her fellow disciples all scolded her for her recklessness, for running around during such a chaotic time with ferocious beasts on the loose, causing all the disciples of the sect to have to go looking for her.
If her memory served her correctly, even her beloved senior brother had spoken at that time.
Shi Luoyi still had an impression of his reprimands at that time, and sure enough, as she recalled this, the next moment she heard the man's deep, cold voice:
"Luoyi, you are too willful. For the sake of a flower, you made a move against your junior sister, and you went down the mountain privately, disobeying orders. Over the years, you have become more and more unruly. If Master Uncle comes out of seclusion and sees you in your current state, he would surely be extremely disappointed."
Yes, all the tolerance they had for her nowadays, and their willingness to exert all their efforts to find her, was all because she had a father, the founder of the sect in the Mahayana Stage who was about to ascend.
Otherwise, given her fellow sect disciples' disgust for her, they would probably rather she died outside.
Her father, Shi Huan, was renowned as the Daojun Yuanxin. He had only one daughter, whom he loved as if she were some precious gem. Ten years ago, her father went to eradicate demons to defend the Dao, but he suffered severe injuries and fell into a deep slumber. Since then, her life has turned upside down.
Perhaps it wasn't from then that she began to have bad luck, but rather a little later, starting when her junior sister came to the sect.
Her gaze fell upon the young girl in her arms.
The young girl was about sixteen years old. She was now looking at Shi Luoyi sincerely and caringly with tears in her big charming eyes.
Shi Luoyi didn't feel touched, instead, a wave of nausea washed over her.
The junior sister's name was Bian Qingxuan, and she had joined the sect just three years ago.
She had a special destiny. On the day when the immortal doors opened, countless mortals sought to become disciples, seeking the path to immortality. But when Bian Qingxuan appeared, the seven stars in the sky shone with unusual colors and the hidden dragon qi was faintly revealed. The elder of Tianji Pavilion stared at her with wide eyes and personally examined her destiny. They said that this girl possessed an extraordinary fortune, and was too precious to be described.
[tiān jī - mystery known only to heaven]
Extraordinary fortune—just how lucky could one be? Most of the mortal disciples entering the immortal sect, even those with better aptitude, needed three to five years to establish their foundations, and decades to reach the Golden Core stage. In contrast, Bian Qingxuan had established her Foundation in only one year, and in the second year, she had perfected the Great Circle of Foundation, forming her Golden Core in the third.
In comparison, Shi Luoyi was born an innate immortal fetus, had cultivated diligently since birth, and it still took her a full thirty-nine years to form her Golden Core!
In those three years, the sect missions that her junior sister had participated in brought in a bountiful harvest for everyone. Their luck was so good that they might come across elixirs just walking on the road.
But the moment Shi Luoyi joined others on their missions, all the luck seemed to be tainted with misfortune, clinging to her like a shadow. Not only would they return empty-handed, but would often encounter ferocious beasts.
Initially, the fellow disciples only dared to complain behind her back. When going out on missions, in order to avoid embarrassment, they would secretly leave at night without taking Shi Luoyi with them. Later it evolved into making subtle whispers and insults.
Shi Luoyi was such a proud person. As the daughter of a great immortal sect, the precious pearl of her parents since birth, felt both humiliated and reluctant to burden her fellow disciples. Since then, she began going on missions alone. Although they were fraught with danger, at least this way, she didn't have to endure cold glances and speculation anymore.
At first, she didn't hate Bian Qingxuan. Although her junior sister's talent once made her quite envious, growing up pampered and lacking nothing since childhood, she had a balanced mindset, and jealousy had no place in her heart.
However, gradually, those who originally doted on her like her senior sister, and her fiancé Changyuan who was originally supposed to marry her, and the sect leader who was like a brother to her father, time and again blamed her for Bian Qingxuan. This left her feeling wronged and confused. Then she began to notice that her senior brother Changyuan was becoming increasingly gentle towards Bian Qingxuan. With her fellow disciples secretly ostracizing and scheming against her behind her back due to Bian Qingxuan, Shi Luoyi's intuition told her that all these troubles were connected to Bian Qingxuan. She then finally began to thoroughly hate this junior sister who took everything away from her!
She worked hard and tried her best to cultivate, wanting to surpass her. But over the decades that followed, her junior sister just seemed to be cheating. She had such incredible luck that she could cultivate even while sleeping.
Bian Qingxuan had formed her Nascent Infant within two short decades and continued to break through constantly. Meanwhile, Shi Luoyi toiled tirelessly, obsessively practiced cultivation to the point of going crazy and giving birth to demons but couldn't form her nascent soul until death. However, by then Bian Qingxuan had already entered the initial stage of Infant Transformation (Nascent Divinity stage) by division of mind, all the while looking innocent and wearing a wronged appearance. It was in stark contrast with Shi Luoyi's struggles.
Shi Luoyi was running around in all the major secret realms, trying hard to prove that she could also find opportunities and wasn't the jinx everyone believed her to be. But fighting alone was already difficult, returning injured again and again, exhausted and embarrassed, her gains were far less than the ease with which Bian Qingxuan might stumble and discover a precious Blood Lingzhi.
How could she accept this? Shi Luoyi's mental state shattered!
She kept chasing and trying desperately to prove that in some aspect, she could surpass Bian Qingxuan. However, it was as if the heavens were determined to work against her. Gradually, Shi Luoyi's reputation became more and more unsavory.
At some point, the beautiful, kind, and loving senior sister Shi Luoyi turned in her fellow disciples' eyes into a spoiled, malicious, selfish, and narrow-minded person...
Even the children of the sect's lowest-ranked members looked down upon her with disdain.
And then, one day, her inner demons took control. She lost consciousness and woke up to find several corpses of her fellow disciples at her feet.
Shi Luoyi fled down the mountain, panicked and disoriented, never daring to return to the sect. The orthodox sect publicly announced a bounty on her. Hiding and dodging, she came to the mortal world, and died alone in a dilapidated temple.
Till death, she still didn't understand where exactly she went wrong in this life?
Why in the first half of her life was she so doted on by her fellow disciples and seniors? Her senior sister would pinch her nose tip with a smile, drinking and singing merrily with her. Her senior brothers would blush while giving her gifts, competing to take her along to practice. Wei Changyuan had quietly sent people to find the most exquisite cloud-cotton immortal yarn to refine a robe for her as soon as possible, to add it to her dowry…
Why, in the blink of an eye, in just a few short decades, in the time that passes as quickly as a finger snap in the eyes of cultivators, had she gone from blooming to withering away and still infamous and cursed even after death?
She was painfully unwilling, aggrieved and resentful, consumed by jealousy. In her final moments, she coughed up blood while gazing at the resplendent sky, and knew that her end was approaching. In her hazy thoughts, she thought of her injured father who had not yet returned to sect from the seclusion.
Could her father still wake up? Would he be heartbroken upon learning that his only daughter's lifeless body was exposed in the wilderness?
Why, after toiling through half a lifetime of cultivation, obeying her father's wishes, loving her fellow disciples, and showing compassion for the common people, did she end up being condemned to death by all?
She thought of her gentle and delicate mother in her memories, surrounded by the scent of lotus flowers, cradling her and singing ancient Nanyue folk songs.
[Nán Yuè - South Vietnam]
Shi Luoyi's thoughts grew fainter, and gradually, she closed her eyes……
To her surprise, when she opened her eyes again, she found herself back in time. She returned to sixty years ago when her little junior sister Bian Qingxuan was only in her third year of joining the sect!
Looking at the tearful Bian Qingxuan and her senior brother Changyuan coldly admonishing her, she should have felt overwhelming disgust and anger. However, to her own astonishment, Shi Luoyi's mood was surprisingly calm.
One she couldn't surpass until death, one she couldn't obtain until death.
Having died once, her current state of mind had gone from extreme imbalance to extreme stoic and calm.
In short, numb.
Bian Qingxuan, whether intentionally or not, sobbed and buried her little face in her bosom, taking advantage of her inability to move and push her away, she truly disgusted her!
Shi Luoyi did indeed find her a bit revolting, but having been reborn, her spirit and thoughts were crystal clear to be able to understand her situation from the absurdity of the current situation.
Bian Qingxuan seemed to be deliberately provoking her to elicit anger and highlight her own timidity and innocence. Every time Shi Luoyi lashed out, she not only appeared hideous and ugly but also made Bian Qingxuan look as wronged as a little white flower.
In her previous life, she was like a puppet in Bian Qingxuan's hands, easily manipulated by her. Shi Luoyi watched her closely, acknowledging she was indeed no match for Bian Qingxuan's acting skills, but from now on, she wouldn't let Bian Qingxuan have her way so easily.
She thought about it and simply lay still, quietly closing her eyes.
With her eyes closed, she wouldn't have to see Wei Changyuan anymore.
Wei Changyuan was the youngest direct disciple of the sect leader, hailing from a distinguished background, beloved by all, and publicly acknowledged as the future successor to the position of Sect Master.
Shi Luoyi was engaged to him at a young age and they grew up together as childhood sweethearts. For immortals, one hundred years was considered to reach adulthood. If Shi Luoyi's father Shi Huan had not been seriously injured, falling into a deep slumber, and if Bian Qingxuan hadn't joined the sect, this year would have marked Shi Luoyi's coming of age, and she should have been married to him.
Shi Luoyi really loved, and also really hated this man with all her heart. She was afraid that once she saw his face, the bitterness, resentment and unwillingness that she had finally managed to suppress with great difficulty would gush out like a flood.
Shi Luoyi remembered the most embarrassing year when she had been relentlessly hunted down and she thought she was going to die.
Wei Changyuan appeared, brandishing his sword to block everyone in her path,, "As her senior brother, I will personally take her life!"
The crowd looked at each other and finally dispersed.
But Wei Changyuan didn't kill her. He tended to her wounds and said, "Go away, don't show up again… don't come back." He had raised his hand one last time, perhaps wanting to pat her head as he did when they were children. However, he closed his eyes and put down his hand without saying a word.
The snow fell and old friends met as strangers. He was still a high-ranking immortal, while she had long fallen to become a demon.
That day, Wei Changyuan left silently, leaving Shi Luoyi with a Qiankun (spatial) bag containing a lot of healing elixirs and lifesaving talismans.
She sat under a tree in the woods, looking at the Qiankun bag with tears streaming down her face.
She was thinking, did Wei Changyuan remember that he once cared for her too? Did he remember the times when he carried her on his back, step by step, walking down the hillside full of wildflowers? Did he remember making the most beautiful cloud robes for her, shouldering the blame for her mischievous actions, and even kneeling down to get beaten for her……
Shi Luoyi thought of many things, and finally found solace in her last moments of life.
She was blinded by jealousy and resentment, lost her sanity, and chased after things her whole life like a madwoman, only to end up with nothing. Such a person was now strange and unrecognizable even to herself - how could Wei Changyuan possibly like her?
Moreover, in one's life, their destiny, character, family, or even cultivation – which is not worth chasing more than a man?
Perhaps because Shi Luoyi closed her eyes and did not want to be bothered, there was no point in Bian Qingxuan crying any more, so under the comforting words of her fellow disciples, she finally wiped away her teary red eyes.
The male disciples scrambled to coax Bian Qingxuan, blaming Shi Luoyi for being ignorant, causing the kind-hearted junior sister to blame herself and worry for her.
Shi Luoyi felt a wave of annoyance and found it all quite boring.
She was finally carried back by her fellow disciples with a spiritual weapon.
She knew that her current appearance must not look very good - having been frozen throughout the night, her hands, feet, and face bore bruises, displaying shades of purple. Not to mention her stiff and disheveled posture and the blood-soaked robe, all that would make her lose face.
If it was in the past, she would certainly be ashamed and embarrassed. She would have felt seething envy and jealousy when comparing herself to her little junior sister, who was surrounded by seven or eight people fawning over her. However, now, she could look at and examine herself objectively.
No matter what, it was good that she didn't hurt her core.
The disciples escorted Shi Luoyi back to Mingyou Mountain. Wei Changyuan, occupied with sect duties, cast a vexed glance at her before deciding he would no longer indulge her recklessness of putting herself in danger at the slightest disagreement. He turned away and left.
Bian Qingxuan instead came over and held her hand caringly, "Senior Sister, please take good care of your injuries. I'll come visit you again in a few days."
Don't touch me, Roll!
Mingyou Immortal Mountain was where all the disciples of the Hengwu Sect lived. A few years ago, Shi Luoyi moved out of her father's cave dwelling Buye Mountain, and started living together with the other disciples.
[bùyè - No night / Eternal Bliss]
The disciples who carried her back didn't like her at all. Seeing that she didn't look like she would die, they unceremoniously tossed her back into her room and left without looking back.
Shi Luoyi stared at the beams of the room in daze. Snow fell on the mountains, the room was not warm, her throat felt so parched that it hurt. She took a moment to rest on the bed before noticing the cold tea left on the table from the previous day. With great effort, she turned to the edge of the bed and, and stumbled clumsily towards the table.
However, sixty years ago, she was still merely a Foundation stage cultivator, her cultivation was not as good as later. The young girl fought a fierce battle against Chi Li the previous day and suffered heavy injuries. With bones seeming to be frozen, she was in excruciating pain. Before she even reached the table, she fell heavily to the ground.
If she was still the old Shi Luoyi, by now tears would have welled up in her eyes out of grievance. But now, after experiencing much, she had grown accustomed to licking her wounds. She gasped for breath and decided to take her time to get up again.
A figure was originally tiptoeing, stealthily watching from outside. Seeing the situation, it hurried over: "Miss, are you alright?"
Shi Luoyi looked at the pretty young woman in front of her, and the tears she had been holding back couldn't be contained any more and they gushed out of her eyes.
The woman in front of her was Huixiang, and her hair was decorated with green leaves. A single glance could make it clear that she was not a cultivator but rather a transformed spirit being.
"Miss, let Huixiang help you up. Does it hurt from the fall? Do you want some water?"
Shi Luoyi couldn't answer a single word, only feeling a lump in her throat.
Huixiang was a mountain spirit that her mother had picked up, at that time she had not yet transformed, and had been seriously injured to the point that she only had one breath left. Shi Luoyi's father Daojun helped her to transform, and after she recovered from her injuries, Huixiang stayed behind to take care of Shi Luoyi, who was still young at the time.
Later on, when Shi Luoyi was wanted by the Immortal Sect, and all the cultivators issued a bounty order to encircle and hunt her down, Huixiang was afraid that she would be found. She resolutely risked going down the mountain to deliver a message, urging Shi Luoyi to escape. But Huixiang herself was captured as a traitor, and later locked up in the prison of a certain sect, where she was used as a furnace by a group of male cultivators, meeting a tragic end.
When Shi Luoyi learned of the news, tears of blood welled up as she sacrificed her own sword that she hadn't moved for decades, slaughtering countless cultivators. The river flowed red as she fought to retrieve Huixiang's ravaged body that had been broken down and reverted to her original form.
From that moment, her pupils completely turned red, she irrevocably embraced it and completely fell into demonhood.
Now, as Shi Luoyi got another chance at life, the thing she was most grateful for was that Huixiang was still alive.
Huixiang fed her water, and carefully changed her clothes. While applying medicine, she noticed that Shi Luoyi's eyes were red and swollen, and she looked quite pitiful. Huixiang thought that the young lady was in pain, so she gently patted the young girl's back, much like how she used to coax Shi Luoyi to sleep when she was a baby.
"Miss, bear with it for a little longer. Daojun will wake up soon, then no one will dare to bully you anymore."
Shi Luoyi only silently shook her head, choking on her sobs.
Just as Huixiang set down the teacup and was about to say more, the sound of a rolling wheelchair could be heard outside, followed by a knock on the door.
Huixiang knew who was coming, and sighed in her heart, feeling pity for the young man outside. But looking at the red-eyed Shi Luoyi, she could only coax her in a low voice, "Bian Lingyu is here, Miss, do you want Huixiang to send him away?"
Huixiang thought very simply, as long as Miss doesn't see him, he won't be humiliated and Miss won't be angry.
Shi Luoyi was puzzled for a moment and almost blurted out, 'Who is Bian Lingyu?'
With hindsight, she remembered that sixty years ago, Bian Qingxuan also had a mortal brother that she regarded as precious as a treasure, called Bian Lingyu.
A mortal teenager with little presence, who had always remained cold and quiet after being slept with by her in retaliation.
Bian Qingxuan, a woman blessed with extraordinary luck, was unbeatable in Shi Luoyi's eyes. However, she was cautious and caring towards this young man, going to great lengths to please and take care of him. She treated the boy with such heart and effort that even some of the senior brothers in the sect were jealous of him.
Shi Luoyi took a deep breath.
She deliberately forgot about this person, but at this point in time plagued by the headache, she remembered: She and Bian Qingxuan had fought for a lifetime, with Shi Luoyi losing in every aspect, including cultivation, reputation, and her fiance. But…
She actually won once, just that once.
In that particular instance, it was almost as if she had crushed Bian Qingxuan's heart to the ground. At that time, Bian Qingquan nearly fainted, her gaze wishing to devour her alive!
That was the most refreshing moment for Shi Luoyi after being oppressed for a long time. She had never thought that one day she would be able to see such an expression on the face of usually unstoppable Bian Qingxuan, who was able to handle everything with ease –
–disbelief, grief, hatred, liver-splitting anger, and despair, feeling as if her world had shattered.
Though Shi Luoyi hadn't been without pain during that moment, it was both pleasant and painful that made her frown.
The pain proved excruciating, inflicting a thousand upon the enemy while damaging herself for eight hundred, but she couldn't care less at this juncture!
She endured the discomfort, deliberately curling her scarlet lips, condescendingly admiring Bian Qingxuan's loss of composure, feeling a refreshing sense of satisfaction. She only had one thought in her mind: Bian Qingxuan, you also have today. Do you also have someone you care about to this extent?
Beneath her, the young man was neither as devastated as Bian Qingxuan, with eyes on the verge of falling out, nor as obsessively possessed in madness as her.
His pupils were pitch black, resembling lifeless dark pools. Using a pair of jade-like slender hands, he only pulled the blanket to cover his body. Closing his eyes, he uttered coldly to both of them –
"Scram."