After My Faked Death Failed, Can I Still Find a Happy Ending? - Chapter 2

The first dungeon seemed to be located at the border of the Demonic Cult, and the information Lin Qingye possessed had also been obtained from this side of the sect.

Ji Mian rested her chin on her hand, lost in thought. Should she save Lin Qingye some time?

The Demonic Cult’s main city was no different from an ordinary marketplace. Although she had always heard that Ji Mian lacked administrative ability, the prosperity of this city suggested otherwise.

Could it be that Ji Mian had already been relegated to a mere figurehead, no longer needing to manage the city-state?

Ji Mian naturally did not know the answer to this. To this day, she had yet to meet the three Palace Masters who managed the three inner palaces of the Demonic Cult. These three held significant weight in the plot, and Ji Mian had not yet figured out how to deal with them.

Ji Mian bought a mask and donned a cloak, covering herself completely, before heading to the tallest teahouse in the city.

This teahouse operated as a legitimate business on the surface, but in the basement, it housed an orderly intelligence exchange. As long as one had enough money, or could trade items the seller deemed equivalent, one could acquire desired information without either party revealing their identity.

The managers of such gray-market zones were usually neutral parties who answered to no one.

Ji Mian smiled, wove through the crowd, and sat at a corner table. The table was fully stocked with tea sets, and a small jade jar held some loose tea leaves. She sat down leisurely, ignoring the surprised gazes cast her way, and poured herself some tea.

The exchange had an unwritten rule: the corner tables were not to be occupied. Those who chose to sit there were invariably looking for trouble.

The freshly boiled water steeped the leaves, releasing a rich, fragrant aroma. Even though Ji Mian did not have a particular affinity for tea, she found the scent refreshing. She brought the cup to her lips and took a sip, but her brow furrowed.

Why was this tea sweet?

It smelled like green tea, did it not?

“Miss, my boss would like to invite you upstairs for a chat.”

The attendant who approached her bowed respectfully, but the moment they locked eyes, they were stunned.

There were many people with red eyes in the Demonic Cult, but this was the first time they had seen such an intense shade of red. It was as if a bottomless vortex were swirling within them. Making eye contact felt like falling into it, stirring up a primal fear from deep within.

The attendant trembled all over; their instinctive fear caused them to look away. Silently, they broke into a cold sweat for their boss.

Ji Mian followed the attendant into a private room. After three light knocks, the door opened. Inside sat a woman dressed in cyan robes with flowing sleeves. Seeing Ji Mian, a faint smile appeared on her face as she stood up to welcome her.

“Master.”

Qiangzhu and Yu Huai were part of the same group. Both were orphans whom Ji Mian had taken in and raised as her loyal confidants.

Ji Mian, holding the script, had already foreseen that this smiling young woman would eventually switch sides and betray her to help Lin Qingye.

One could call it “abandoning darkness for light,” but this person also contributed significantly to Lin Qingye’s future killing of the original owner to seize the Lisheng Order.

The timeline was still early, and the two had likely not yet made contact. She wondered if currying favor with Lin Qingye beforehand could avoid her inevitable death.

However, Ji Mian did not know if she would return to her original world after being killed.

Until everything was clear, it was safer to follow the script.

“Has a person in white been here in the past few days? Someone asking for information regarding the Lisheng Order?”

Many people asked about the Lisheng Order, but after Ji Mian demanded that no such information be sold to outsiders, no one had come to buy it. As it happened, exactly such a person had come yesterday.

Lin Qingye had changed into a more low-profile outfit and found this teahouse, only to be invited inside shortly after sitting down.

“The person providing the information says they want to meet you.”

Lin Qingye felt something was wrong. Upon opening the door, she was met with a familiar face.

Lin Qingye: …

“Do you not want the information anymore?”

Lin Qingye sat down across from her, glanced indifferently at the tea on the table, picked up a cup, and took a sip.

“The condition.”

“Take me with you.”

“Why do you want the Lisheng Order?”

“Since this item is a renowned divine artifact, why can I not seek it out? The three major sects have been preparing to wage war against the Demonic Cult for quite some time, so I naturally have to secure a retreat for myself.”

“Fine. What is the clue?”

“It is in a small village on the border of the Demonic Cult. I heard that someone reported to the authorities that the village was haunted, but when people went there, they only found ruins.”

A small village that could not be observed by normal chronological time sounded very much like the capabilities of the Lisheng Order.

Lin Qingye eyed her, but Ji Mian’s expression was so composed that she did not suspect her.

“Then we will meet at the entrance of the village the day after tomorrow at the hour of the Dragon.”

She did not want to say more to Ji Mian and rose to leave, but she found her limbs weak. As she stood, she stumbled and nearly collapsed onto the table.

She forced herself to stand, but her hands could not steady her as cold sweat broke out on her forehead. She felt her internal energy being drained in an instant.

In her peripheral vision, Ji Mian stood up from her seat, allowing Lin Qingye to lean on her for support.

“This is the Duanyuan powder.”

“Many people poison me regularly, so my body has built up an immunity. You do not. After being poisoned a few more times, it will not feel so uncomfortable.”

“How can you say that as if it were a matter of course…”

“…”

Ji Mian was truly thinking of her, Heaven is her witness. In the later stages of the story, because Lin Qingye obtained so many volumes of the Lisheng Order, word leaked out, leading various factions to relentlessly besiege her. She inevitably fell into traps, was poisoned and imprisoned, and suffered greatly.

If she were immune, perhaps she would not fear them.

Ji Mian smiled with her poker face, though it looked no different from not smiling at all.

She had intended to express a friendly attitude, but the effect was clearly poor; the original owner’s condition was simply too subpar.

“Can you admit that what I said makes sense?”

Lin Qingye kept a straight face.

True enough, who would be in a good mood after being calculated against for no reason?

“Besides, I will not let you die. You should know this.”

The two parted ways in the small room and walked out of the teahouse one after the other.

Since returning, Ji Mian had felt physically unwell, though she could not pinpoint the cause. She wanted to see a doctor but, recalling the original owner’s precarious situation, she could only grit her teeth and endure it.

She held the script, yet she was helping Lin Qingye, not herself.

After finally making it to the next day, Ji Mian bid Yu Huai farewell and left in a hurry.

As far as she knew, the Demonic Cult’s sphere of influence was vast; walking to the border would likely require reaching the central region. She held a blurry map in her hand, exploring as she walked.

Stepping on the Black Iron, she did not need to exert much physical effort. The Demonic Cult’s territory was located in the southeast, and the climate was quite different from her original world. Looking out, one saw only basins and rugged mountains.

The Demonic Cult’s palace was built in a massive basin, surrounded by a few small hills. It saw no sunlight throughout the year, and a mere gust of wind could nearly cost one their life. Yet, it had its benefits: unless the great sects outside combined the strength of the entire world to launch a frontal assault, they had almost no chance of victory.

This was the reason why the Demonic Cult had been able to occupy this territory and stand tall for so many years.

The Demonic Cult had been founded years ago by survivors of the Canglu state, which had been annihilated by three kingdoms. The sect still held many elders from Canglu, though most of them had hidden their identities and no longer showed their true faces.

She wondered when Lin Qingye would discover she was of Canglu descent. If the Canglu people cherished this connection, they would at least offer help when Lin Qingye was in a position of weakness.

What Ji Mian had to do now was lead Lin Qingye to the answer without being suspected, which meant playing the fool.

She was well-versed in that.

When Ji Mian landed, she immediately spotted Lin Qingye in white in the distance. Lin Qingye was holding her sword; she frowned upon seeing Ji Mian, as if she had been waiting for a long time.

“It is already well past the hour of the Dragon.”

Ji Mian looked up at the sky; the sun hung high, having already reached its zenith without her noticing.

“Apologies, this place was difficult to find.”

Lin Qingye shook her head, unwilling to argue with her, and turned to look for a way to enter the village.

The place was just as the informant had described. The surroundings were barren, and as far as the eye could see, there was only waist-high grass growing densely, almost obscuring the view. Not far away stood a dilapidated wooden hut; two of the four walls had already collapsed, and the roof was nothing more than a skeleton of rafters.

Ji Mian frowned. Sensing intuitively that something was there, she walked straight in.

The door was as good as non-existent. Ji Mian stepped over the wall and entered, observing the furnishings in the room by the daylight.

The pale yellow mud walls were carved with strange runes, and with much of the wall fallen away, the runes were incomplete. Ji Mian reached out to touch them, slowly feeling the uneven protrusions with her fingertips.

Beside the wall sat a wooden table. Compared to everything else, this table was relatively well-preserved. On it sat a candlestick, and the dripping wax had formed a grotesque pattern.

Ji Mian’s expression shifted. Without drawing attention, she shifted the candlestick’s position. The runes on the wall faintly glowed for a moment, then faded before Lin Qingye walked in.

Lin Qingye had not noticed it; she merely approached, touched the wax with her hand, and sniffed it.

“This must be an array, using beeswax.”

Beeswax had the longest burning time, implying that this array might still be active. If nothing went wrong, as long as they activated it, they would be able to enter the hidden small world.

Ji Mian understood. She summoned the Black Iron and immediately stepped back a few paces. She stared fixedly at Lin Qingye’s movements, watching as she took a fire starter from her sleeve and lit the candlestick.

Sure enough, the runes on the wall ignited the moment the candle was lit, emitting a dim green fluorescence. Immediately after, a small circular array appeared on the ground in the center of the room, the pattern at its heart flickering as if waiting for someone to step inside.

Judging by the color of the cinnabar, the array had to be at least a decade old.

“Go.”

Lin Qingye moved swiftly, stepping into the circular array alone. In an instant, she vanished from Ji Mian’s sight.