“Junior Sister, this is where we part.”
In a hazy consciousness, Shi Yu felt a pair of hands caress her head, then withdraw immediately.
Hearing his retreating footsteps, Shi Yu forced her eyes open, vaguely watching his back. Uncontrollably, she called out in a weak, kitten-like voice, “Second Senior Brother…”
Her voice was tearful and filled with grievance.
Second Senior Brother paused slightly, looking back at her.
Against the light, Shi Yu couldn't clearly see his face, nor did she understand why 'Second Senior Brother' had slipped out of her mouth. She only felt dazed and muddled, as if something had been stripped from her body, causing intense pain that spread from her body to her heart.
“Second Senior Brother, believe Ah Yu, Ah Yu didn’t…”
Shi Yu heard her own voice. Fragmented scenes intertwined in her mind; she opened her mouth, wanting to explain, but could only helplessly repeat the words, “I didn’t,” over and over.
“Didn’t…”
“Ah Yu didn’t…”
Second Senior Brother had left at some unknown point, and Shi Yu gasped as she regained consciousness.
Her eyelashes fluttered, and the scene before her finally cleared. What met her eyes were lush greenery, tall trees, and a tied cloth pouch.
“Where is this…?” Shi Yu gazed blankly at the unfamiliar surroundings.
She remembered she was refining a Grade Nine pill in the game’s main city. The lightning tribulation triggered by its completion seemed terrifying; it not only broke the main city’s restrictions but also shattered the barrier she had set up with Nine Underworlds Dark Silver, then fiercely struck her.
Logically, she should have revived with full health at a game resurrection point, but why did her entire body ache so much?
Shi Yu had never experienced such pain before—it felt like something had been forcibly stripped from her body, or like being crushed and then reassembled.
She managed to sit up and pulled over the cloth pouch.
Inside was a bulging money bag filled with silver and gold ingots, along with several bottles of pills and an ancient, crescent-moon-shaped saber.
She took one of the pill bottles, uncorked it, and a faint medicinal fragrance wafted out. Shi Yu immediately recognized it as a Rejuvenation Pill, a low-grade healing pill that alchemists must refine as beginners.
She poured out a single pill and casually examined it. The pill was round and pleasing, exuding a faint fragrance, and its quality was between mid and high-grade. For ordinary players, it would be considered a decent pill, but Shi Yu hadn't used Rejuvenation Pills of this quality in ages.
Shi Yu recorked the bottle and turned, intending to open her game inventory to retrieve her own healing pills.
The game inventory, which she could usually open with a thought, remained completely unresponsive.
Shi Yu’s heart skipped a beat. She then mentally called out, “Character panel.”
The character panel didn’t appear either.
...
An ominous premonition enveloped her. It was then that unfamiliar memories flowed into her mind like a river.
Her eyelids twitched repeatedly. After absorbing the memories, Shi Yu had to accept one fact: she had transmigrated!
This world shared a similar worldview with the game 《Xian Yuan》, featuring cultivators and mortals.
The realm where cultivators resided was the Origin Realm, while mortals inhabited the Mortal Realm.
The two realms, immortal and mortal, were distinct and clearly separated. Under normal circumstances, they did not interfere with each other, and cultivators rarely set foot in the Mortal Realm.
The original owner was the Ninth Princess of the Zhao Kingdom in the Mortal Realm, raised with doting care. When she was fifteen, the renowned Xuanqing Immortal Venerable from the Origin Realm descended to the Mortal Realm. He chanced upon the original owner, sensed she possessed a Supreme-grade Fire-attribute Spiritual Meridian, and conceived the idea of taking her as a disciple.
To mortals, cultivators were lofty immortals. Xuanqing Immortal Venerable’s appearance, soaring on his sword, caused palace maids and eunuchs to kneel and kowtow in unison. The original owner’s imperial father and mother, seeing that the immortal master favored their daughter, believed their child had formed an immortal destiny and were overjoyed, agreeing at once.
After arriving in the Origin Realm, the original owner cultivated under Xuanqing Immortal Venerable.
Xuanqing had always been aloof and steady, yet he was remarkably gentle and patient with this young disciple. The original owner was young, and daily exposure to Xuanqing, a figure of such extraordinary demeanor and power, vaguely stirred in her some youthful feelings she didn't quite understand.
Three months passed like this. The original owner went with her Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters to clear out demon beasts. Having cultivated for only a short time, her strength was meager, so this task wouldn’t normally involve her. However, Senior Sister Yan Xiao said it would be good to let Junior Sister gain some experience, telling her to just watch from afar.
Unexpectedly, during the demon beast clearing, one of the demon beasts went berserk and charged directly at the original owner, who was off to the side.
In a panic, just as the original owner was about to dodge, Yan Xiao gripped her hand tightly and stepped in front of her.
—Senior Sister Yan Xiao took the demon beast’s attack, suffering severe injuries and a shattered spiritual meridian.
Everyone believed the original owner had pushed Senior Sister to take the blow in a moment of desperation, and they scorned such behavior.
Back at the sect, when facing the elders’ inquiries, Yan Xiao, pale-faced, stood by and said that Junior Sister hadn’t done it on purpose, but was simply afraid instinctively when facing the demon beast, as her cultivation period was still short.
One pushed a fellow Senior Sister to take a blow in a crisis, while the other, despite being severely injured by the act, still defended the Junior Sister who had harmed her. The stark contrast in their character further enraged the sect elders.
The original owner, still young, shook her head tearfully but couldn’t utter a single explanation.
No one knew that when Senior Sister stood in front of her, she had used her blood as a medium to place a restriction on the original owner: “This restriction is called ‘Bound to Silence’.”
Bound to Silence meant she could not describe, could not portray, and could not explain.
She couldn’t say anything, which to outsiders looked like an admission of guilt.
Firstly, Yan Xiao came from a noble background; her Yan Clan was a renowned cultivation family.
Secondly, her talent was exceptional. Not only did she possess rare qualifications like a high-grade fire-attribute spiritual meridian, but more importantly, she also had one-in-a-million alchemy talent.
The original owner, however, was merely a princess from the Mortal Realm. Mortals, even those of royal birth, were like ants in their eyes, unworthy of respect.
The elders quickly made a decision: the sect disdained disciples who harmed fellow members in times of crisis. Since Yan Xiao’s spiritual meridian was shattered, they would restore a spiritual meridian to Yan Xiao, then expel the original owner from the sect, sending her back to where she came from.
Xuanqing Immortal Venerable frowned, looking at the tearful Shi Yu, feeling a hint of reluctance. But after all, he had only taken her as a disciple three months ago, and his feelings for her couldn’t compare to those for Yan Xiao, who had been by his side since childhood.
Thus, the original owner had her spiritual meridian forcibly extracted amidst despairing agony.
At that time, Yan Xiao lowered her head and whispered in her ear:
“How could someone like you, a mere ant from the mortal world, harbor feelings of admiration for Master…?”
“A Supreme-grade Fire-attribute Spiritual Meridian on you is truly a waste.”
“Look, you’re just a vessel for me to nurture a spiritual meridian.”
After Shi Yu’s spiritual meridian was extracted, Xuanqing went into seclusion to care for Yan Xiao, nurturing the newly implanted spiritual meridian and setting up a formation to suppress its rejection by Yan Xiao, thus having no time to look after the heartbroken original owner.
The usually taciturn Second Senior Brother stepped forward and petitioned the elders: “Since the elders have decided to expel Junior Sister from the sect and send her back to where she came from, then your disciple shall take Junior Sister back to the Mortal Realm.”
And so, without consulting Xuanqing, who was in seclusion, Second Senior Brother directly brought the original owner back to the Mortal Realm, arriving at this mountainside. He left her a good amount of mortal currency, along with pills and a defensive weapon.
However, when the original owner’s spiritual meridian was forcibly extracted, it wasn't just the meridian that was stripped away, but also more than half of the vitality within her flesh and blood.
With her vitality severed, this was certainly not something a few pills could remedy.
Her body was on the verge of collapse, and she ultimately couldn’t endure it.
After recalling all this, Shi Yu genuinely experienced the original owner’s pain, sorrow, and hatred.
She knew that if Second Senior Brother hadn’t brought her back to the Mortal Realm, Yan Xiao would surely have found an opportunity to silence her permanently—
The ‘Bound to Silence’ restriction couldn’t be guaranteed against mishaps, and a dead person who couldn’t speak was the safest.
Gasping for breath, Shi Yu endured the bone-gnawing pain. She picked up the porcelain bottle again, poured out a Rejuvenation Pill, and swallowed it.
The medicinal effect was weak, doing almost nothing for her broken body.
Shi Yu bit down on a strand of sweat-dampened hair in pain. After a moment to recover, she put down the porcelain bottle.
Following the method of inwardly examining herself from the memories, Shi Yu closed her eyes, immersing her divine sense within her body. Sure enough, the spiritual meridian, which was as bright and fiery as the scorching sun, was gone. Her body was utterly empty.
Her qi and blood were depleted, vitality dispersed, and her soul was like a flickering candle in the wind, threatening to extinguish at any moment.
Shi Yu sighed. Just as her divine sense was about to withdraw, she noticed a faint radiance within the dim Purple Mansion. Upon closer inspection, a bell was floating there, and the radiance was emanating from it.
It flowed with fluorescence, translucent and beautiful.
Isn’t this the bell that saber cultivator player gave her as payment for refining the pill in the game?
Genuine bewilderment colored Shi Yu’s eyes.
Rate on N.U.
