Achieving A Happy Ending With The Tragic Female Lead [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 2

Suddenly catching sight of the familiar figure, Wanqi Yue suppressed her thrumming heartbeat and placed her hand into the other’s. Her eyes brightened as she curved her lips into a smile and called out, “Eldest Senior Sister! Has your secluded meditation ended?”

Originally, this group of disciples’ journey down the mountain for trial was meant to be led by Su Mi in her capacity as the Eldest Senior Sister. However, it happened that Su Mi had entered seclusion for an indefinite period, so the task was handed to the Second Senior Sister, Fang Yun, to lead the group instead.

Su Mi lowered her gaze to look at the hand in her palm, then raised her eyes to meet the girl’s, giving a faint, affirmative hum in response.

So, this was the female lead.

Su Mi’s gaze landed just above the female lead’s head, where a numerical value flickered. This was a real time monitor of the female lead’s “Pleasure Level,” allowing Su Mi to intuitively track her mission progress. Once the value hit 100, the mission would be considered complete.

She finally understood why the system had called this world “Easy Mode.” The index was currently sitting at 60, which was essentially equivalent to starting the game with a 60 point head start.

Was this considered a “newbie’s perk”?

“Your spiritual power is sealed?” Because Su Mi was holding her hand, she could feel that the spiritual veins within the girl’s body seemed to be blocked, preventing her spiritual energy from circulating normally.

Wanqi Yue looked like a student caught red-handed by a teacher for neglecting her studies. She lowered her head in embarrassment and defended herself in a small voice, “There was… just a bit of an accident…”

If possible, she certainly didn’t want to appear so powerless in front of her Eldest Senior Sister; she even felt a bit ashamed.

While they spoke, the mass of black mist that Su Mi had scattered earlier gathered once more in mid-air. The swirling cloud of mist expanded and contracted abruptly, as if expressing fury toward Su Mi, the intruder.

Su Mi withdrew her gaze, closed her palm around the girl’s hand, and pulled her close to her side for protection.

She raised her fingers, which held a golden talisman. With a flick of her wrist, she sent it flying toward the restless black mist. The moment the golden talisman left her hand, it expanded into a brilliant reddish-gold formation, heading straight for the mist.

The golden threads formed by the array were like an unbreakable net, intercepting the black mist entirely.

The mass of mist first lunged forward violently, crashing into the barrier several times. Seeing no success, it attempted to retreat.

Su Mi opened her palm and shifted it upward for a moment. The reddish gold array instantly blazed with light as countless golden threads imbued with incantations extended from the center of the formation, firmly binding the black mist that was attempting to escape.

The black mist, obstructed by the golden lines, tried to scatter in all directions to no avail. Eventually, it was layered over and over by the golden threads until it looked like a round, golden ball from a distance.

Su Mi held her palm upward in a closing gesture. The golden threads surrounding the mist began to tighten, intending to crush it.

At that moment, sensing the oppressive danger, the black mist’s demonic power suddenly surged, causing the golden threads to begin snapping inch by inch.

Seeing this, Su Mi retracted her hand just in time. Watching her spirit talisman about to be shattered, she realized it was too late to move away at such a close distance. She immediately took a step back and turned her body, intending to shield the female lead behind her.

After all, this was her mission target.

“Eldest Senior Sister, be careful!” Beside her, Wanqi Yue instinctively reached out to pull her senior sister, but she accidentally nearly crashed into the other’s embrace. She barely managed to halt her steps, but was nonetheless met with a faint, lingering fragrance like the very first blossom of spring.

The exploding demonic power and the formation crashed outward in all directions. The deck beneath their feet could not withstand the force and let out a splintering crack, shattering completely as the destruction reached the ship’s railing.

Su Mi used her spiritual energy to freeze the section of the deck beneath them. Then, with a slight lift of her slender hand toward the lake, transparent splashes of water leaped from the surface to her side. They formed a transparent water curtain barrier, blocking the flying wooden debris propelled by the airwaves.

In an instant, the ship was utterly destroyed. A fierce wind swept past, and countless fragments of the broken vessel fell from the sky, sending up towering splashes of water that momentarily swallowed Su Mi and the girl’s figures.

Su Mi formed a barrier with her spiritual power. The water from the waves flowed down the barrier in torrents, gradually revealing the surrounding scene.

Su Mi swept her sleeve to clear the area. The only sound remaining was the heavy thud of debris continuously hitting the water; in the distance, birds had been startled into flight and were scattering.

She did a quick scan of the surrounding aura and found that the black mist had long since vanished. Not a single trace was left behind, as if it had been completely obliterated in the earlier self-explosion.

Su Mi couldn’t be certain where the black mist had gone. The data provided by the system was a refined summary of the major plot points between the male and female leads, other details were glossed over. Furthermore, in the original story, this segment focused on the first meeting of the leads, so there wasn’t much information regarding this demonic mist.

The ruined hull and wooden planks disturbed the lake’s calm as they fell, bobbing up and down on the water’s surface. Consequently, the piece of deck they were standing on also began to tilt and sway.

Wanqi Yue had not recovered her spiritual power, and she had overexerted herself physically while trying to evade the mist earlier. At this moment, even standing was a struggle, let alone maintaining her balance on a wooden plank rocking on the soft surface of the water.

The shifting water beneath her made the world feel as if it were spinning, and it felt as though her feet were sinking into something soft.

Noticing the abnormality beside her, Su Mi didn’t have time to think and directly reached out to pull the girl back into her arms.

“Stand firm.”

Once Su Mi was sure the girl was steady, she prepared to let go, but unexpectedly, Wanqi Yue reached out and tightly hugged her waist.

Wanqi Yue’s voice contained a hint of a nervous tremor: “Eldest Senior Sister, I… I seem to be a bit dizzy…”

Only then did Su Mi look at her pale complexion. She could feel that the arms holding her were slightly tense, as if the girl were clinging to her like a lifeline.

She was not used to such close proximity, but because the other person was the female lead, she hesitated for a moment on whether to push her away.

Receiving no reply, Wanqi Yue thought Su Mi didn’t believe her. she tilted her cute face upward and called out softly, “Eldest Senior Sister.”

Su Mi’s brow twitched involuntarily. The hand she had raised to push the girl away lowered again. “Seasick?”

Wanqi Yue frowned and nodded. “Perhaps a little.”

She had grown up in the Qingyang Sect and this journey down the mountain was her very first time on a boat, so she hadn’t known that she was someone who suffered from motion sickness.

Su Mi glanced at the distant shore. She reached out to pull the other girl close and leaped into the air, her toes lightly tapping against the shattered, drifting remnants of the ship to gain momentum. With a series of agile maneuvers, she carried them away from the wreckage.

The sound of the wind whistled past Wanqi Yue’s ears, subsiding into silence after a few moments.

Upon landing, Su Mi lowered her eyelashes and raised a hand to give Wanqi Yue’s back a light, reassuring pat. “We’ve arrived,” she said.

Wanqi Yue seemed to snap out of a trance, finally releasing her tight grip on Su Mi. Her face was still somewhat pale. She watched as her Eldest Senior Sister stepped in front of her and, amidst her confused gaze, lightly pressed a fingertip against her forehead.

A cool, refreshing sensation instantly spread from the point of contact, washing away the dizziness in her mind.

It was Su Mi’s ice element spiritual power, which possessed the effect of cleansing one’s spiritual platform.

“The issue with the spiritual power in your body probably needs to be examined by the accompanying medical cultivator,” Su Mi said, withdrawing her hand once she saw Wanqi Yue’s complexion improve. “First, tell me what happened. Where are the others?”

Wanqi Yue pursed her lips. Setting aside the question of why Su Mi had suddenly appeared here, she recounted everything she knew to Su Mi. As she spoke, she peeked at Su Mi’s expression, seemingly afraid of losing too much face in front of her Eldest Senior Sister.

Su Mi, appearing not to notice her glances, listened quietly, using the story to fill in the gaps in the sparse information provided by the system.

Wanqi Yue detailed the events meticulously.

A few days ago, while traveling with their fellow disciples past a township, they unexpectedly encountered a dying woman. The woman seemed to be fleeing an arranged marriage, as she kept crying out, “I won’t marry, I don’t want to die.” When they tried to question her further, she turned into a simpleton who only knew how to hide and remain silent.

Her mental state fluctuated, and they had managed to piece together her story with great difficulty.

According to the woman, her surname was Xu. Her family had accepted a large sum of silver to marry her off, but she was unwilling and had fled for her life.

This was a mundane affair of the mortal world that they shouldn’t have interfered with too much, but the woman’s pleading was so pitiful that they settled her in a nearby town.

After leaving her, they arrived at Baizhi City. By chance, they learned that a farmer named Xu in the city had lost a daughter who was due to be married, leading many government officials to search the entire city for her.

For an ordinary family to lose a daughter, the scale of the search by city officials was unnaturally large. Driven by curiosity, Wanqi Yue and the others paid closer attention, eventually discovering something suspicious.

It turned out that for years, the city had maintained a custom of offering “brides” to a so-called “Immortal” in exchange for the city’s peace and safety. As cultivators, they naturally did not believe such a “deity” existed. They intended to root out the person behind the scheme and slay the hidden demon.

This was precisely the purpose of their journey to eliminate evil and uphold the righteous path.

They also noticed that there were few gods enshrined in the city, save for a highly popular “Temple of the Medical Immortal,” who was considered the local guardian. In the following days, they used this lead to gather information about the “Immortal.”

It turned out that a hundred years ago, the city went by a different name. At that time, the area suffered a severe flood, followed by a devastating plague. When everyone was helpless, a female physician named Baizhi tested formulas on her own body, saving tens of thousands of lives at the cost of her own.

Because she sacrificed herself for the people, her body returned to the earth and her soul ascended as a golden deity.

To commemorate her sacrifice, the city lord at the time renamed the place Baizhi City and erected a temple in her honor, where the people have offered incense to her ever since.

“We were planning to check the Medical Immortal Temple tonight for any abnormalities, and we each returned to our rooms after the discussion. I felt thirsty and drank a cup of tea in my room; the next thing I knew, I woke up here. I don’t know where the other brothers and sisters are. Eldest Senior Sister, we must hurry back to the inn. If they are like me and have lost their spiritual power, won’t they be in danger?”

Wanqi Yue’s eyes showed her urgency. Since she was currently powerless, she couldn’t exactly run back, so she looked at Su Mi with pleading eyes.

“Do you know the way back?” Su Mi asked.

Wanqi Yue looked around and nodded. They had been here during their earlier investigations, though they hadn’t realized at the time that this was the place used for “sending the bride,” and they had left after finding nothing unusual.

Su Mi disliked searching for directions, so finding the way easily put her in a relatively good mood. “Then you lead the way.”

At that moment, Wanqi Yue suddenly remembered the question she hadn’t asked. “Eldest Senior Sister, how did you know I was here?”

Su Mi used her spiritual power to condense a tracking talisman and presented it to Wanqi Yue along with a small pouch. “By using these.”

Before leaving the Qingyang Sect, she had specifically gone to the female lead’s residence to retrieve one of her belongings, using the talisman to track her scent.

Wanqi Yue recognized her pouch and the talisman. She then remembered that her Eldest Senior Sister was a gifted Talisman Cultivator, naturally skilled in tracking.

She had entered the sect later than Su Mi and had heard from their master that the Sect Leader originally wanted Su Mi to follow the Way of the Sword. However, Su Mi felt that practicing the sword made one too sweaty, so she chose talismans instead an act that left the wine loving Sect Leader too upset to drink for three days.

Though everyone chooses their own path, the current cultivation world values the strong, with Sword Cultivators being the most prominent. Few would give up a path of great potential in the sword to become a Talisman Cultivator.

But the Eldest Senior Sister had merely laughed off such comments, ignoring all persuasion to insist on her choice.

The Sect Leader could neither sway her nor bear to lose such a genius, so he eventually let her be, thinking she might change her mind once she hit a wall. To everyone’s surprise, her talent for talismans and arrays was no less than her talent for the sword. Since then, the Sect Leader no longer restrained her.

Thus, Su Mi was the first Eldest Senior Sister in the history of the Qingyang Sect to be a Talisman Cultivator. In fact, in the entire cultivation world, she was unique for abandoning the sword for the brush.

Wanqi Yue had looked up to her since entering the sect. As a child, she loved following her around, but later, as Su Mi spent years in secluded meditation at Qingshuang Courtyard, their time together gradually decreased.

“Let’s go.” Su Mi oriented herself briefly and prepared to lead Wanqi Yue toward the open ground ahead before departing.

Wanqi Yue snapped out of her thoughts, tucked her things away, and followed.

At that moment, the “Coal Ball” perched on Su Mi’s shoulder began reporting the mission progress.

[Congratulations, Host, for successfully diverting the major plot point of the Male and Female Leads’ first meeting.]

As they passed through a dense forest, Su Mi suddenly slowed her pace. Her brow furrowed slightly as she looked toward a dark, hidden spot in the woods.

Seeing her gaze, Wanqi Yue followed her line of sight but saw only shadows. She asked in confusion, “Eldest Senior Sister?”

“It’s nothing,” Su Mi replied casually, withdrawing her gaze and leading Wanqi Yue away.

A moment later, a tall, slender figure emerged from the shadows of the forest Su Mi had glanced at.

The man hiding in the darkness only dared to release his suppressed aura after the two figures disappeared from sight. When the woman in blue had looked over earlier, her cold, indifferent eyes had made him think for a moment that he had been exposed.

He turned his head, looking with displeasure at the now calm lake. His plans had been disrupted by that sudden appearance of the woman in blue now, he would have to find another opportunity.

Thinking of this, the man’s hand tightened on the tree trunk, causing the rough bark to sink and crack abruptly.

He let out a cold sneer. After all, these sect disciples who considered themselves so noble and just were incredibly easy to fool.

It didn’t matter how many more came.