Achieving a Happy Ending with the Best Friend I Saved [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 9

During this period, Sang Ruo had tried to teach Rong Ji how to cultivate.

Power is the most reliable support, but perhaps due to the unique constitution of the High Priests, none of Sang Ruo’s techniques suited her; she could not even condense a single trace of spiritual sense. Consequently, Sang Ruo settled for the next best thing and taught Rong Ji some basic martial arts.

This was why Sang Ruo recognized those familiar moves the moment they exchanged blows. The strikes were sharp and fluid, suggesting Rong Ji had been practicing hard in secret.

As darkness spread, secret emotions began to stir.

Sang Ruo’s eyelashes fluttered slightly, and her heart pounded. They were so close that the body heat radiating from behind her felt like a spreading fire. Sang Ruo rarely had intimate contact with others, and she had certainly never been held captive like this. A sense of dazed strangeness washed over her, making her forget to break free.

But her stillness did not mean her opponent followed suit.

The hand pinning her wrist suddenly released, and a gust of wind followed as if the other intended to knock her unconscious. Sang Ruo snapped back to reality, dodging to the side.

“It is me.”

The moment she spoke, Rong Ji recognized her and stopped abruptly.

“Why are you here?”

Rong Ji’s tense body relaxed as she backed away, leaning against a pillar. Fine beads of sweat had already formed on her forehead. When the door had opened silently just now, she had assumed the Young City Lord had arrived and she was about to be discovered, or perhaps that this place was a trap set specifically for her. She had not expected an uninvited guest.

“What are you doing here?” Sang Ruo asked, her reaction a beat slow. She seemed unusually dazed, perhaps still reeling from their contact.

The two made eye contact.

Rong Ji was the first to look away, sighing softly. “I came to find something.”

“Find something?”

“Yes.”

Sang Ruo asked, “Do you want me to help?”

Midway through her sentence, the sound of disorganized footsteps drifted in from the distance, accompanied by a woman’s bashful voice and a man’s loud laughter.

Sang Ruo stopped speaking immediately. Rong Ji looked toward the door warily. “They seem to be coming this way.”

Sang Ruo identified the voices. “That man sounds like the Young City Lord.”

“He returned early?”

Clatter, bang.

Rong Ji hurriedly restored the room’s furnishings. As the footsteps drew near, she scanned the room. Without hesitation, she opened a wardrobe door and pulled Sang Ruo inside.

Just as the wardrobe door shut, the room door creaked open. The two entered, exchanging flirtatious words.

“Let me light a lamp for you.”

“Forget the lamp,” the Young City Lord laughed. “Such a beautiful night is perfect for this. Do you understand, hmm?”

The System listened intently: 【Host, he used that idiom incorrectly.】

However, its host was in no position to care. Sang Ruo opened her mouth to speak, but before she could make a sound, Rong Ji’s hand was over her mouth.

It was pitch black inside the wardrobe. Rong Ji leaned in close to Sang Ruo’s ear, whispering in a barely audible voice, “I know you act as you please, but you cannot cause trouble now. Promise me you will stay quiet, and I will let you go.”

The girl’s warm breath brushed against Sang Ruo’s ear, sending shivers through her. In the cramped space, their legs were uncomfortably curled together. The air was stagnant, and Sang Ruo felt as though she were entirely enveloped in the scent of camellias.

She briefly lost her ability to think, only nodding hesitantly after a long moment. Rong Ji released her.

Sang Ruo then took Rong Ji’s hand and traced characters into her palm, one by one.

【I can make us invisible; we do not need to hide.】

Rong Ji: “…”

Sang Ruo: “…”

In the darkness, Rong Ji’s face flushed. However, leaving the wardrobe now was out of the question. Sang Ruo could make them invisible, but she could not make them walk through walls. In the dark room, if the wardrobe door suddenly swung open to reveal no one, the two people outside would think the place was haunted and flee, risking further complications.

Thus, the two were forced to maintain their position. In the tiny space, their limbs were cramped and their bodies occasionally brushed against one another, causing both to stiffen. Sang Ruo was stiff because of her “guilty heart,” while Rong Ji was simply lost in thought.

The itchy sensation in her palm lingered. Outside, the sounds of flirtation continued to disturb her peace. A foreign emotion filled her heart, leaving her bewildered.

When she was young, she loved hiding in wardrobes to play hide-and-seek with her playmate, Lan Jiu. The wardrobe was dark and stuffy, but it felt safe, like a small nest. But now, she suddenly felt the wardrobe was not so great. It was hot and made her restless.

“Ah!”

Before she could think further, a man’s terrified scream erupted outside, followed by the crashing of furniture. A porcelain teapot hit the floor and shattered.

Rong Ji and Sang Ruo snapped back to attention, blindsided by the turn of events.

The System murmured: 【They are playing this rough?】

Clang.

The sound of a weapon hitting the floor signaled the Young City Lord’s victory. He delivered a heavy slap to the woman.

“You wench! You dared to assassinate me? Who sent you?” He panted with lingering fear. “If I were not wearing a protective artifact, you would have actually stabbed me!”

It was a premeditated assassination.

The woman laughed hysterically. “No one sent me! Do you have no self-awareness? You have committed so many atrocities; too many people want you dead!”

Rong Ji understood immediately; this was another victim. Sang Ruo, however, was slightly stunned.

Rong Ji hesitated on whether to intervene, but to her surprise, Sang Ruo grabbed her hand and wrote: 【Can I?】

This was unlike Sang Ruo’s usual style. Rong Ji nodded, then realized Sang Ruo could not see her, so she simply kicked the wardrobe door open.

As if they shared a mind, Sang Ruo drifted behind the Young City Lord like a gust of wind. Demonic energy condensed into a black blade, and she struck the back of his neck with the hilt.

The Young City Lord saw the woman’s eyes fill with shock as she looked behind him. “What are you looking at?”

He threatened, “Do not try to trick me so you can escape. You cannot win.”

As the blow landed, the Young City Lord let out a muffled groan and slid to the floor like a dead weight. Sang Ruo kicked him to the side so he would not fall on the woman, then went to light the lamp.

The room brightened. The woman looked at the “shadow” and gasped, “Why is it you?”

Rong Ji climbed out of the wardrobe and asked, “Do you know each other?”

The woman turned her head sharply: There is another one!

Rong Ji looked at the woman. She was heavily made up, but beneath it, she was quite pretty.

Sang Ruo said softly, “I owe her a debt of karma.”

When the woman had first spoken, Sang Ruo recognized the voice. When Sang Ruo first arrived in Ganmu City, a fisherwoman had guided her. This woman was that fisherwoman.

Originally, Sang Ruo had not intended to interfere in the lives of others, but since there was a hidden motive here, she had to act. As a Heavenly Demon, she was naturally indifferent to the tragedies of strangers, but she always repaid her debts—a principle taught to her by her old friend.

Sang Ruo gave a brief introduction to the confused Rong Ji. She then asked the woman, “What is your name?”

The fisherwoman, still shaken, replied with reddened eyes, “My name is Jilan.”

Jilan was in a wretched state, barely able to stand, with a bruise on her face. Sang Ruo sighed and helped her into a chair. “Why did you try to assassinate him? Do you know how dangerous that was?”

Jilan clutched Sang Ruo’s sleeve, tears streaming down her face. “Ten or so days ago…”

It turned out that a few days prior, the Young City Lord had been riding recklessly and nearly hit Jilan. He was struck by her beauty, but when she refused him, he left with a sneer, saying she would eventually come begging to him.

Jilan returned home to find it engulfed in flames. She watched helplessly as her home burned. No one from her family emerged. When the fire died down, she dug through the ruins and found three charred skeletons: her father, her mother, and her three-year-old sister.

Jilan’s eyes were filled with hatred. “I reported it to the officials, but the City Lord’s Manor handled the case and closed it as an accident. How could it be an accident?”

Sang Ruo reached out to straighten Jilan’s hairpins. “I live in the east of the city. Why did you not come to find me?”

Jilan sobbed into Sang Ruo’s arms. “This was my burden; I could not involve you.”

The Heavenly Demon felt a rare sense of patience as she let Jilan cry. Rong Ji walked to the window to check outside. It seemed the Young City Lord had cleared the area earlier so he would not be disturbed, which now worked in their favor.

When Jilan calmed down, she released Sang Ruo, looking embarrassed. “I lost control. I do not know why, but you feel as reliable as an elder.”

Sang Ruo handed her a handkerchief. “It is fine. So, what do you plan to do? Kill him?”

Jilan gripped the handkerchief. “What were your plans here? I will follow your lead.”

Sang Ruo looked at Rong Ji.

Rong Ji turned from the window and sighed. “Over the years, I heard that the Young City Lord has a habit of keeping trophies. I could not find them elsewhere, so I guessed they were here. I took this chance to search for them.”

She sneered. “Killing a man like him so quietly would be a mercy he does not deserve. I want him ruined and reviled by all, as an offering to the innocent souls he murdered.”

Rong Ji had changed her clothes and was not wearing her mask, so Jilan did not recognize her as the High Priest. Jilan looked at her and asked softly, “Sister, are you like me?”

Rong Ji shook her head, then nodded. “I am seeking revenge for a friend.”

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