After My Thoughts Were Read, My Master Led Me to Change My Fate - Chapter 2

With a loud “Dong,” Ning Songwu held her head and squatted down.

“Is this some kind of one-way-only path of no return? Why won’t they let me leave? Is the area ahead a bandit’s lair or something, that they are so afraid of people escaping?”

Liu Ruoying suppressed the corners of her mouth, walked over, and helped the crouching maiden stand up. “Ning Daoist friend, during morning lessons yesterday, Senior Brother mentioned that this road is one-way until the end of the entry ceremony, just like cultivation—it is a path one steps onto and can never leave unless one dies. Have you forgotten?”

Forgotten? What a joke!

She didn’t know at all.

It wasn’t written in the book!

“Ah, well, the original heroine was single-mindedly devoted to the Dao at this time and wouldn’t think of turning around and running, so naturally this setting didn’t need to be described in detail.”

And as a result, she had gratuitously knocked out such a big lump on her head.

“Wuwuwuwu, I am so pathetic.”

“Ning Daoist friend, since you’ve already come all this way…” Liu Ruoying whispered, and then received an incredulous look from Ning Songwu.

“How can I still hear that phrase, ‘since you’ve already come all this way,’ even here?”

“Do people in your cultivation world also believe in going with the flow and just making do?”

She calmed down for a while. A few more people walked past her, panting and sweating profusely as they climbed the steps, murmuring, “We’ve come all this way; we must at least go and have our spiritual root tested.”

A flash of lightning sparked, and sudden enlightenment struck her.

There was one more way to confirm whether she had transmigrated into the book, and that was to have her spiritual root tested! She remembered very clearly that in order to highlight the power of the original heroine, the author had arranged a formidable opponent for her—a rival with a Heavenly Grade Ice Spiritual Root. This Heavenly Grade Ice Spiritual Root was none other than Ning Songwu.

When the real Ning Songwu was reading the book, she was quite moved to see a character with the same name as herself being so powerful, thinking she would accomplish great things later. Unexpectedly, after turning one more chapter, she read about her counterpart being pushed off the Zhaoyun Hall by the heroine—who also possessed a Heavenly Grade Spiritual Root, but of the Fire Element—and falling straight to her death.

And Liu Ruoying, who was beside her, failed to save her and was instead dragged down with her, ultimately becoming twin tragic victims under the heroine Lin Yuxue’s palm. Their deaths were absurd, making them the most expendable cannon fodder characters in the book.

Lin Yuxue’s reasoning was that her beautiful master should only take her as a single disciple, and one more person meant a significant portion of the master’s favor was being diverted, which was improper.

What was even more infuriating was that her cheap master, upon learning of the incident, simply nodded and did not pursue the matter. Fortunately, the master did keep it in her heart, eventually bringing it up many years later when she went to the Demon Realm to execute Lin Yuxue.

Alas, the dead cannot be brought back to life.

What was even more infuriating was that her cheap master in the book had just saved her! The massive bird swooped down, grasped her waist, and brought her up steadily without much turbulence. This indicated that the master certainly had the ability to save her! So why didn’t the master save her back then?

“Oh, perhaps the author simply wouldn’t allow it.”

Ning Songwu fell silent.

Her silence was deafening!

The writing style and logic of that book were truly the worst she had encountered in recent days. It simply highlighted that if the author wanted you to die, no matter how powerful you were, you would instantly die on the spot.

The author’s biggest logic was no logic, and the best writing style was no writing style.

But now was not the time to scrutinize these details. After all, there was still a one in ten thousand chance that she hadn’t transmigrated into that book, and an one in a billion chance that she was dreaming—even though her face still felt a slight sting, and even though there were still scars on her body from being cut by the swift wind earlier.

Despite all this, she still had to struggle!

She pulled Liu Ruoying’s hand, nodded, and said calmly, “Miss Liu, shall we go up together?”

“Yes, yes! Ning, Miss Ning?” Liu Ruoying tentatively called out, her pretty face immediately flushing crimson. She followed behind the girl, tugging at her sleeve.

Ning Songwu did not notice this unusual behavior. She was struggling to climb the steps. Only today did she deeply understand a local saying from her parents’ hometown: “The mountain looks close, but running there kills the horse.” That palace already looked so close, yet after she painstakingly climbed what she estimated to be about fifty steps, she looked up again.

“Heh, guess what?”

That magnificent hall was still just as small; it hadn’t gotten any bigger.

Ning Songwu pressed her hands against her knees, desperately trying to steady her breathing and fight against her own body.

Liu Ruoying, by her side, blinked, somewhat confused. “Miss Ning, you just climbed three thousand two hundred steps in one breath. Why are you so exhausted after only fifty steps now?”

“Exhausted? Who’s exhausted? I’m not exhausted.” Ning Songwu gritted her teeth, straightened her legs, and tried not to let the person beside her notice anything amiss. She straightened her back and asked calmly, “How many steps are there in total?”

“Six thousand six hundred and sixty-six.”

“Is this author sick? 6666? She’s really being ‘six’ to the max.”

“Ah, she’d better not let me find out who she is, or she can expect me to mail her razor blades!”

“A ‘Dàměngyī’ (dominant top) can’t say she can’t do it, but I’m a ‘líng’ (bottom), so I can say it.”

Ning (last name) looked at Liu Ruoying with soft, glimmering eyes, then instantly and frankly lay down on the wide steps. “Miss Liu, you go up first. I, Ning, will… rest here for a bit.” With that, she moved slightly to the side, lying on the edge of the staircase to clear a wide path.

“Miss Ning, what’s wrong? You were always the one charging ahead in the past.”

“That was in the past! That was the real Ning Songwu! I am merely a salted fish university student who has been loafing for three years, and a Chinese Language and Literature student at that. I specialize in reciting poetry; I really have no strength left.”

“It’s better to lie flat than to climb to death. I don’t believe this barrier won’t open once everyone has gone up.”

Besides, wasn’t it said that transmigration only happens after the original host has died? It seemed that climbing three thousand two hundred steps in one breath just now had caused a massive strain on the real Ning Songwu, which allowed her (the transmigrator) to seize the opportunity.

“How truly pitiful. Why did the poor girl’s time of death have to be brought forward?”

Ning Songwu silently lit a candle for the original host in her heart.

She sighed and said, “I was mobilizing spiritual energy constantly when I fell earlier; I’m a bit depleted.”

Inside Zhaoyun Hall, Ran Fanyin, who had been observing the area, couldn’t help but chuckle. This little girl not only said things in her mind that Ran Fanyin couldn’t understand, but she also spoke complete nonsense out loud. She was truly… quite endearing.

Qin Siyue glanced at her coolly and said in a cold voice, “Why are you laughing for no reason?”

“This Venerable One simply thought of something amusing,” she responded calmly, straightening her lips.

“…Oh.”

Ran Fanyin flickered a finger. On the Heaven-Ascending Steps, Ning Songwu suddenly felt a heat on her back and bounced straight up.

Liu Ruoying was startled by the action. “What’s wrong?”

“Could you check for me? Has my back been burned?”

Liu Ruoying looked at her in confusion. She walked behind her and glanced at her tattered clothing that had been cut by the wind. She was silent for a moment, the flush receding slightly from her face, and said calmly, “It’s hard to tell, Ning Daoist friend.”

“Damn it, has the heroine already noticed me? Why is she making a move now? What did I do to provoke her?”

“…Never mind. Let’s go, we’ll continue to climb. Why aren’t you tired at all?”

Liu Ruoying tilted her head. “Ning Daoist friend, did you not mobilize your spiritual energy for protection?”

Oh…

“How do I mobilize it?”

As soon as the thought emerged, a passage of text appeared in her mind.

“Is this my golden finger? Providing fragments of the original text anytime, anywhere?”

She became excited. First, she used the method described in the passage to mobilize the thin spiritual energy within her body, and then she tentatively tried to see how much she could do.

She tried all around, but this golden finger was utterly useless. It didn’t tell her anything unless she thought of something related to the original text, at which point it would toss a passage at her.

‘Where is Lin Yuxue now?’

“The maiden’s face was slightly flushed, and she was muttering under her breath, painstakingly climbing the Heaven-Ascending Steps. She was still over a thousand steps away from the finish line.”

‘What is Liu Ruoying’s ending?’

“…Uncertain.”

What?! How could it change?! Ning Songwu straightened up. While climbing the steps, she tentatively inquired about the endings of the other people.

‘What is Lin Yuxue’s ending?’

“The Demon Venerable paved a thousand miles with a carpet of blood to marry Lin Yuxue, and they lived happily ever after in the Demon Palace.”

‘What is Ran Fanyin’s ending?’

“Death.”

Ning Songwu squeezed her hands, gently wiping the cold sweat from her forehead, and asked the question she cared about most—

‘What is Ning Songwu’s ending?’

“Death.”

Damn it! Why?! Liu Ruoying’s ending had become “Uncertain,” so why was hers still “Death”?

She was so agitated that she inwardly cursed the heavens, but soon realized a problem: it seemed the characters’ destinies could be changed! Since Liu Ruoying’s had changed to “Uncertain,” couldn’t she also struggle a bit and change her tragic and certain “Death” to “Uncertain”?

With the appearance of this golden finger—which was just as useless as she was—and with the spiritual energy in her body starting to move with her thoughts, she completely abandoned the notion that she was still dreaming. After finding out the fates of these people, she also gave up the idea that she might have transmigrated into a different book.

“So be it.”

“I am a useless university student paired with a useless golden finger. Don’t even mention it; it’s quite a match, heh heh.”

“I don’t even have a chance to try and go against fate! I can’t do anything, so how can I change it? What can I do, Heavens? What do you want me to do?!”

Ning Songwu couldn’t help but resent her past self from a few hours ago, or perhaps a few minutes ago, for pretending not to care and typing “yes” when she saw that trending video topic.

Well, there were plenty of such topics. Someone asked, “If you were given two million, on the condition that you never have a partner in your life, would you agree?” Ning Songwu would agree. After all, she always knew she was gay and didn’t want to come out to her family, so she simply decided to be lazy and never date.

Someone else asked, “If you were to transmigrate into the last game you played and live there for an hour, and then you were given one hundred thousand upon leaving, would you agree?” Ning Songwu would agree because the last game she played was quite leisurely. Whether she turned into an NPC or a character, if she encountered a problem, an exclamation mark would appear above her head, and the Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero would immediately cross mountains and seas to help her. How wonderful.

Therefore, when she saw someone ask, “Would you be willing to enter the last book you read?” she still chose “yes” without hesitation. She forgot that the book she read today was a yuri (lesbian) novel with severely broken logic, where the final ending was the entire world being sacrificed for the main character’s love.

As long as she wasn’t the protagonist, she would become a sacrificial lamb for the love of Lin Yuxue and the Demon Venerable.

“Sure enough, even the Heavens couldn’t stand her ‘whatever-you-want’ and ‘go-with-the-flow’ salted-fish personality, or her habit of staying up late and harming her body every day. This time, they made her wish come true, bringing her to the world of the book.”

“She became a piece of cannon fodder that dies in three chapters.”

“You thieving Heavens!! Why didn’t you help me realize those other wishes of three million or five million? Why did you only choose to realize this one, huh?!”

Ning Songwu internally cursed the heavens with fury, her expression becoming colder and colder.

“No more love, dear. I have sealed my heart, dear. When my life is gone, what else is there to play with, dear.”

“Later, I absolutely must stay far away from anyone with a Heavenly Grade Fire Spiritual Root!”

“Including my cheap Master!”