Cheng Yun surrounded the residence with a Five Elements Formation of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. She had bought it at great cost from the auction house, and its defenses rivaled the protective formation of a small sect.
Only then did she breathe more easily.
Even a Core Formation expert would be held back for a time. With that small delay and the magic artifacts in her possession, Cheng Yun could respond to an attack.
She sat cross-legged at the formation’s center and watched the heavenly lightning strike the residence again and again.
“The lightning is too conspicuous. We can no longer hide this,” she murmured thoughtfully. “If someone comes… then we fight. My companion, will you stand with me and protect her?”
The ancient, unadorned wooden sword rested in her palm. Pure white light shone from it, like both an answer and a promise.
“I don’t know whether what I did was right or wrong,” Cheng Yun continued. “But the girl I erased possessed a Spirit-Congealing Pill, a sacred core-forming medicine that even the four great sects struggle to obtain. I knew her identity could not be ordinary. She was probably some sect’s prized genius.
“But what does that matter? All that matters is Xiaoqing forming her core.”
The dull roar of thunder continued from daylight into night, drawing the attention of mortals and cultivators alike.
Cheng Yun had swept every member of the Feng household beyond the main gate with her magic as soon as the first bolt fell. After she offered Feng Nan a brief explanation, he forgave them with frightened eagerness.
“For an immortal maiden to form her core in the Feng estate is a blessing our ancestors must have earned through extraordinary virtue. Please use this residence as you wish. If lightning reduces it to ash, never mind. The Feng family has money!”
Now let anyone accuse his family of deceiving people. The heavenly lightning appearing over the Feng estate was undeniable proof that they truly had ties to cultivators!
Cultivators hidden throughout the Northern Kingdom emerged to investigate. Those with weaker cultivation—at Condensed Liquid and Foundation Establishment—stopped at a distance. Envy filled their eyes as they stared toward Xiaoqing.
When would they form their own cores?
Ancestor Jinhua, however, had already reached Nascent Soul. She calculated with her fingers for a moment before her face twisted hideously.
“That is the Spirit-Congealing Pill I prepared for Dong’er! Damn it! I owed favors to several old monsters to obtain that pill, and now—now, damn them! They erased Dong’er, stole the medicine, and still dream of forming a golden core?
“Su Zui, go. Kill that wretch! Skin her, pull out her tendons, tear out her soul, and refine her spirit. Nothing less will satisfy my hatred!”
A translucent figure slowly became visible.
The woman’s face was beautiful enough to make anyone’s heart race and thoughts grow hazy. Her flawless features seemed shaped with impossible care. Every lovely thing beneath heaven would appear dull beside her; wherever she stood, all eyes naturally gathered upon her.
“Yes, Ancestor.”
After leaving the dark underground palace, the beautiful woman showed open contempt. She bared her teeth and muttered where only she could hear.
“You expect me to become cannon fodder for an old hag like you? Dream on. No—wait. I can use this chance to escape. I’ll leave this cursed place and find a way into Shuangji Sect. Then the sky will be wide enough for any bird to fly, and that old woman will never find me.
“And this novel’s world will be mine to conquer. I transmigrated here after reading the original story. I will defeat the heroine Li Li and become this world’s one true heroine. With a face like mine, I can win over every devoted follower, subordinate, woman, and supporting character who was loyal to Li Li. Then I’ll steal her miraculous bottle, opportunities, and inheritances.
“I will become the new heroine!”
Xiaoqing did not know that Cheng Yun had murdered someone and stolen a treasure to help her form her core, offending a person they could not afford to provoke.
She did not know that this Nascent Soul expert had sent a subordinate to kill her.
Still less did she know that the subordinate was another transmigrator who had read the same original novel.
And she certainly did not know that this ambitious woman intended to cast Li Li out of the heroine’s place and seize her advantages and fortune.
Xiaoqing was far too busy surviving this disastrous core-forming tribulation.
She had already beaten a tiny Cheng Yun countless times in her imagination, but it had done nothing to improve matters.
Another bolt descended.
Would this ever end?
Dark clouds churned. Arcs of lightning began dropping from the sky one by one, then multiplied until they poured like a violent rainstorm. Whenever a violet arc touched the roof, it flashed through as though the structure were not there and struck directly at Xiaoqing.
The number had doubled again.
Please, not this.
Xiaoqing pulled one magic artifact after another from her storage pouch to resist the lightning. She also swallowed pill after pill, struggling to keep her spiritual sense from drying up.
Her demand was modest. She needed only enough spiritual sense to open the storage pouch and control her artifacts.
Expecting it to remain full under these conditions would be a fantasy.
At last, Xiaoqing brought out the only supreme-grade cauldron her Lin family had bestowed on her. It absorbed nearly half the power of a bolt as thick as an adult’s arm.
She drew a deep breath and faced the remaining half with a bitter expression.
If lightning never struck her, the core-forming tribulation would never end. The bolts had grown from the thickness of a thumb to the thickness of an arm. Avoiding them was no longer useful.
She might as well die early and be reborn early—no, she meant get struck early and finish this!
The instant lightning entered her body, Xiaoqing fell from the air before she could even understand what it felt like.
She lost consciousness completely.
* * *
A small county town stood near the sea. Most of its people lived by drying salt in coastal flats or trading it elsewhere.
Jiang Yun’s family made its wealth from the salt trade. Her father bought coarse and fine salt cheaply from the surrounding region, then sold it at higher prices in other cities. The profit lifted the Jiang household from simple comfort into riches.
Jiang Yun no longer performed household chores. Countless maids, servants, and cooks did everything for her.
They called her Eldest Young Miss.
It sounded glorious.
Jiang Yun did not like it.
She leaned against a window and stared sadly into the distance.
“Trading private salt is against the law. Father should not do it.”
She had said the same thing to her mother, older brother, and sister-in-law. Their answer was always a mocking laugh.
“If your father didn’t sell salt, would you enjoy fine food and drink? What an ungrateful little wolf!”
Jiang Yun hated her relatives’ mocking tone. She hated the open anger in her father’s eyes whenever he looked at her. Nor could she speak honestly to the household servants.
She could only talk to her bird.
It was a myna that Jiang Yun had bought in the marketplace for ten silver taels.
When she was happy, the bird was there. When she was sad, it remained. When she was lost and confused, it still stayed beside her.
Jiang Yun fed the myna a piece of banana.
“You’ll stay with me, won’t you? You’ll remain beside me forever?”
“I will, I will. Jiang Yun, Jiang Yun. I’ll stay, I’ll stay!”
Those were the only three phrases the myna knew. They were also the only three Jiang Yun needed to hear.
As long as it never left, everything would be fine.
Her fears came true. Her father’s powerful protector fell, and trading private salt carried a brutal sentence under the dynasty’s law. Girls under sixteen were sent to the Imperial Music Office, men were exiled to the frontier, and everyone else was executed immediately.
At sixteen, Jiang Yun carried the myna that had promised to accompany her into old age and entered the Imperial Music Office as a registered courtesan.
She learned to smile no matter how much she suffered. If she hated someone, she arranged that person’s death. If someone dug a pit for her, she laid a trap in return. Friendship was merely betrayal waiting to happen.
The Jiang Yun who had once understood nothing of social schemes learned deception, cruelty, and how to hide a blade behind a smile.
She believed she had become strong enough to defeat anyone.
Then the lamp outside her room was lit, announcing a patron, and a man entered.
Jiang Yun still could not stop herself from using the dagger she had polished until it shone.
She killed him.
The smell of blood shocked her mind. She screamed and screamed until people from the Music Office came running. The madam slapped her face again and again, shouting that everything was ruined. Then came orders to drag her away.
With her cheeks swollen from the blows, one thought echoed through Jiang Yun’s mind.
She had become a murderer.
“I killed someone. I’m a murderer. I became… No. No, that’s wrong. I’m not Jiang Yun. Then who am I?
“Who am I? I am… My name is Lin Xiaoqing.”
The instant she remembered, the entire space collapsed. Figures and voices vanished without a trace.
The myna that had promised to spend a lifetime beside her spoke in a cold voice.
“Don’t celebrate too soon. The game… has only begun.”
