After Redeeming The Beautiful and Tragic Heroine [Transmigration] - Chapter 11

Yu Yuan shuddered, her mind racing with thoughts of the things hidden within the City Lord’s Manor according to the original novel. She immediately felt dread.

Clutching the Scripture of Clarity and Stillness, she glanced back at Xue Qingshu’s room door, took a deep breath, and quickly retreated to her own room. Between her villainous master and that thing, Yu Yuan figured the latter was slightly more amicable.

Back in her room, the demon servant had already lit the candles for her. Yu Yuan sat at the writing desk, placed the Scripture of Clarity and Stillness nearby, and pulled out a stack of yellow talismans and two purple talismans from her storage pouch.

She had been hoarding these talismans for years. After all, as a tone-deaf sound cultivator, she couldn’t take external commissions like Wei Haoran and others. She had to live off her monthly stipend, so having enough spare money to buy talismans was already a small feat.

With the talismans ready, next was the brush. She couldn’t afford a high-quality talisman brush, so she picked up the brush on the desk, infused it with her spiritual energy, and transformed it into a barely adequate talisman brush. She then began drawing talismans.

The tip of the brush touched the talisman paper. Yu Yuan focused her mind and completed the drawing in a single stroke. One completed, she moved to the second, and then the third. Yu Yuan patiently continued drawing until the entire stack of yellow talismans was finished and her hand had developed muscle memory. Only then did she take out the purple talismans. These purple talismans were her treasures, as each one cost her five hundred spirit stones.

She carefully positioned a purple talisman, then bit her lip, tearing open the small wound on her left hand that had just begun to scab. She dipped the talisman brush in her own blood. Drawing talismans with blood had the best effect. A little pain now meant less pain later. Yu Yuan steadied her mind and used the brush to draw the runes onto the purple talisman.

By the time the two purple talismans were finished, Yu Yuan’s left hand was bloody. She put away the talismans, took out the medicine the medicine boy had previously mixed for her, and reapplied it to the wound.

After treating the injury, Yu Yuan tidied up the messy writing desk. Finally, her eyes landed on Xue Qingshu’s annotated Scripture of Clarity and Stillness. After a brief thought, she tucked it into the small space in her storage pouch, intending to look over it again when she had free time later.

By the time everything was done, it was almost midnight. Yu Yuan yawned, stood up, went to the bed, kicked off her shoes, and snuggled into her blanket to sleep.

Early the next morning, as the sky was just beginning to lighten, the sound of gongs and drums drifted into the room from the front of the manor. Yu Yuan sleepily rolled over, accidentally pressing down on her injured hand. The sudden pain made her gasp and shoot up from the bed.

She looked around her, feeling momentarily lost, before remembering that she was in Sleepless City.

“Knock, knock, knock….”

A shadow appeared outside the door. “A’Yuan, are you awake?”

Xue Qingshu’s voice reached her. Yu Yuan shook her head to wake up, used a spell to fix her hair, changed into a goose-yellow dress, and went to open the door for Xue Qingshu.

“I’m up,” Yu Yuan replied to Xue Qingshu.

Xue Qingshu glanced at Yu Yuan and reminded her, “You haven’t put on your shoes yet.”

Hearing this, Yu Yuan hurried back to the bedside to put on her shoes. Xue Qingshu waited for her outside the door.

While waiting, the demon servant sent by the City Lord arrived. “Venerable One, the City Lord requests that the Venerable One and the Young Sect Master proceed to the front hall to observe the ceremony,” the demon servant told Xue Qingshu from the foot of the stone steps.

Xue Qingshu simply acknowledged him. Once Yu Yuan came out, the two followed the servant to the front hall together.

In the front hall, the City Lord and his wife were hosting the guests. After the demon servant led Yu Yuan and Xue Qingshu to their seats of honor, he retreated to the side and remained silent.

About fifteen minutes later, Yu Yuan’s mind was fully awake, but she felt like she was sitting on pins and needles. The reason was simple: every time the City Lord welcomed a guest, he would pull them over to her and introduce her: “This, everyone, is the Young Sect Master of the Miaoyin Sect.”

The guest would then first show a shocked expression, then look at the City Lord with admiration, and finally raise their wine cup and begin passionately introducing themselves, their family, and even their unborn, musically talented children to Yu Yuan.

Yu Yuan: … It’s one thing to introduce people, but introducing an embryo? What’s up with that! No need to start competing before you’re even born!

But the critical point was this: she had no real power! Seeking back doors from her was pointless; they should approach her villainous master instead. While her villainous master had never successfully usurped the throne in this life, she still held some authority, like taking disciples. A few more disciples wouldn’t matter. But she could only open one or two back doors, not hundreds!

Yu Yuan realized they must all understand this principle, so why was Xue Qingshu’s area completely empty? Why, why, why! She silently questioned herself three times, internally frantic, yet she had to maintain a stiff smile on her face.

Fortunately, the crowd queuing up to ask her about joining the Miaoyin Sect quickly dispersed after the Young City Master returned to the manor in tears.

The Young City Master was crying because he had been dumped by the bride he was supposed to marry today.

The original novel mentioned that the bride-to-be didn’t like the Young City Master, but her parents were greedy and had locked her up, forcing her to marry him. So, after clearly seeing her parents’ true colors, the bride intentionally ran away on her wedding day, taking the betrothal gifts with her.

When Yu Yuan read that part, she inwardly cheered: Well done! Now, she was even more grateful to the runaway bride for saving her from utter misery.

After the crowd scattered to see the commotion, the front hall quieted considerably. Yu Yuan also noticed that Wei Haoran and his group were seated not far from her. Every one of them wore a bronze mask, with only their eyes visible, making it impossible to distinguish who was who. They had all stopped playing their instruments and were looking in unison at the crowd outside the front hall, curious about what had happened.

Outside the front hall, the City Lord had just finished hearing the Young City Master’s account of the incident. A vein throbbed on his forehead, and he roared, “This is preposterous!” He was about to take his servants to the bride’s home to demand an explanation.

However, before he could step out of the main entrance, an eerie roar halted him mid-stride. Immediately, a few clouds obscured the sun overhead, plunging the entire City Lord’s Manor into darkness.

Yu Yuan’s brow furrowed at the sight. The next moment, she flashed onto the roof beam. Xue Qingshu also flew up to the roof beam simultaneously. Yu Yuan looked at her, thinking, Why did she follow me up here too?

Before she could figure it out, she saw figures emerging from the stone walls outside the front hall. Then, those figures staggered and squeezed out of the walls, pushing one another. They were covered in thick, black-red, viscous liquid. That liquid was blood. Yu Yuan realized this after smelling the heavy stench of gore.

She took a stack of yellow talismans from her storage pouch, pulled out a few, and handed them to Xue Qingshu, saying, “Master, these are Corpse Dissolving Talismans. Take them—you might need them.”

The creatures below were called Shadow Corpses, made from the bodies of the living. The foul blood on them was highly poisonous and would assimilate anyone who came into contact with it. The Corpse Dissolving Talisman was specifically designed to counteract them. However, Yu Yuan didn’t have many talismans, so she still needed to conserve them.

Shadow Corpses were things from banned scriptures; most people beneath the roof beams hadn’t seen them before. Thus, amidst their fear, many foolishly approached to take a closer look. Among them were several disciples of the Miaoyin Sect.

But as soon as they stepped forward, Yu Yuan used voice transmission to scare them back. After startling them away, Yu Yuan stopped worrying about them. Most of the Miaoyin Sect disciples were sound cultivators, skilled only in long-range attacks, not close combat. Therefore, upon encountering creatures that were immune to long-range attacks and dangerous up close, they quickly flashed away, disappearing from the front hall and scattering to hide.

This left Yu Yuan and Xue Qingshu on the roof beam, continuing to hide.

Time passed slowly. Yu Yuan stayed high up, observing Wei Haoran to see if Qin Niang would appear to shield him from the Shadow Corpses. At the same time, she kept a close eye on the City Lord’s Manor’s high walls, intending to use Shrinking-Step-Into-An-Inch the moment the manor’s self-contained barrier broke.

However, unexpectedly, just as the barrier developed a crack, a flash of silver light suddenly appeared, and the entire City Lord’s Manor twisted and collapsed inward.

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