After Transmigrating into a Book as Cannon Fodder, I Pampered the Villain - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Resolution

“Little Wood?”

Yu Yingxia’s voice trembled with uncontrollable fear. Lacking the spiritual sense or perception of a cultivator, she had no idea what was happening outside. After the massive explosion and the horse’s scream, the world had fallen into a terrifying silence.

But she knew something was out there. That killing intent… she had felt it from Yan Huaixi before, but mixed with this was a wave of nausea that made her dizzy.

Should she run? Little Wood wasn’t an ordinary person; Yingxia feared that moving blindly might only hinder the girl.

The silence seemed to stretch time indefinitely. Finally unable to bear the unknown darkness, Yu Yingxia reached for the carriage curtain.

“Miss Yu, don’t come out!” Little Wood’s sharp warning was instantly followed by the entire carriage being flipped over.

Yu Yingxia took a hard fall inside. Her elbow stung with a fiery pain, but she didn’t check her injuries. She had heard Little Wood let out a muffled groan of pain when the carriage overturned. Now that the carriage lay on its side, Yingxia pushed the curtain aside and saw Little Wood lying nearby, her arm bent at an unnatural angle likely a fracture.

“Heh…”

A sound of breathing came from right behind her. It sounded like a large beast, with a low, threatening growl vibrating in its throat, accompanied by a stench of blood and rot so thick it was suffocating.

Her body’s survival instincts kicked in. Yingxia lunged forward, scrambling out of the wreckage. A second later, the carriage was crushed flat, as if something incredibly heavy had stepped on it.

She didn’t forget to scoop up Little Wood. The girl was startlingly light, her weight completely mismatched with her appearance, but Yingxia had no time to ponder that. Her only thought was: Escape!

Behind her stood a towering, bloated humanoid figure. It stumbled out of the carriage debris. Just moments ago, its head had reached through the window; if Yingxia had been a second slower, she would have lost her life.

She felt a brief flash of gratitude for the original owner’s physical conditioning. Even without cultivation, this body was far more athletic than her previous one. Otherwise, she wouldn’t even be able to run herself, let alone carry Little Wood.

But her relief was premature. The monster didn’t follow the rules of common sense. It crouched, then leaped into the air with such force that the ground beneath it cracked. A shadow loomed over Yingxia’s head. She couldn’t stop in time, so she rolled to the side with Little Wood, narrowly dodging a set of sharp claws.

In the periphery of her vision, Yingxia caught a glimpse of the creature’s face. Her legs nearly went weak.

Who let a Resident Evil zombie loose in this world?!

“ROAR!” The monster let out a thunderous bellow, spraying a cloud of purple-black gas from its mouth. In the dark, Yingxia couldn’t see the gas, but the smell alone was enough to make her gag. The roar left her ears ringing, momentarily deafening her.

She knew danger was inches away. The monster seemed intelligent; it anticipated her path and sprouted a third, long arm from its back to strike. Yingxia couldn’t dodge completely, and the claws sliced through her arm.

Driven into a corner, Yingxia clutched Little Wood tighter, using the girl’s presence to anchor her own courage. Don’t panic… there’s a way.

The bookstore wasn’t far. If she could make enough noise, the Tianqiu Sect—who were investigating the bloodbaths—might hear her. The protagonist might even be nearby!

Yu Yingxia’s fingers brushed against a survival artifact she had kept from the original owner. It didn’t require spiritual power to activate—the original owner had prepared it for emergencies where her Qi was exhausted. Yingxia’s heart bled at the thought of using such a precious one-time item so soon, but she had no choice.

Luckily, fate smiled upon her. Just as she was about to throw the artifact, a sharp voice rang out.

“You beast! That’s the illustrator I worked so hard to find, and the Little Wood I just finished repairing!” Yang Xunzhou’s voice was pure fury, her noble, dignified persona completely shattered.

The monster, possessing only a shred of intelligence, didn’t flee. Instead, it accelerated its attack on Yu Yingxia. Yingxia could feel its rotting eyes staring at her with pure hatred. Was it… targeting her specifically?

The creature’s skin suddenly burst open, sending a rain of poisonous blood-needles toward her. It was a wide-range attack with no blind spots. Yingxia was trapped.

“Truly an animal that doesn’t understand human speech!” Yang Xunzhou flicked her calligraphy brush into the air. Ink droplets scattered, and she leaped upward, her brush tapping each droplet. With a turn of her wrist, she drew powerful strokes in the air that materialized into sharp blades of ink. They intercepted every poison needle and shredded the monster’s body.

But something went unnoticed. One special needle, fired at an angle difficult for the human eye to track, bypassed the ink blades and sped toward Yingxia’s heart.

Just as it was about to pierce her, the shadow behind Yu Yingxia flickered. A surge of even deeper darkness rose like a tiny wave, swallowing the poison needle whole.

No one saw it happen.

Yang Xunzhou landed and kicked the twitching monster away, then helped Yingxia up. “Are you alright? It was my oversight. I didn’t expect this thing to target you.”

“I’m fine. Look at Little Wood, she’s badly hurt!” Yingxia thrust the motionless girl into Yang Xunzhou’s arms.

Yang Xunzhou checked her and sighed. “It’s fine. She just suffered a malfunction from the impact. I’ll fix her when we get back.”

“Fix her?”

“Yes, Little Wood is a puppet given to me by a friend.” Yang Xunzhou felt along the girl’s deformed arm and—CRACK—snapped it back into place.

The monster struggled to rise again. Yang Xunzhou snorted, preparing to finish it off, when a terrifying Sword Intent descended from the heavens, instantly pinning the creature to the ground.

It was Fang Yuetong!

This was the first time Yu Yingxia had seen the protagonist and felt a total sense of security rather than dread.

“Are you all alright? Sorry, we were lured away by another Poison Corpse… Second Miss Yu?” Fang Yuetong sheathed her sword as the monster finally fell silent. She looked genuinely surprised to see Yingxia.

“These things are cunning, even using decoys. If I hadn’t rushed back, my sister would have been in danger,” Yang Xunzhou said resentfully. “They say Yan Huaixi’s Poison Corpses only attack those with a grudge against the Changsheng Sect. Why would they attack her?”

“Yan… Huaixi?” Yu Yingxia acted out a look of bewildered confusion.

“You aren’t in the cultivation world, so you wouldn’t know,” Yang Xunzhou explained. “There’s a demonic sect called the Changsheng Sect, led by a devil named Yan Huaixi. Recently, Daoist Fang here defeated her, but the devil escaped with heavy injuries. These Poison Corpses are creations of the Changsheng Sect leaders. Almost all previous victims were Tianqiu Sect disciples, so we assume Yan Huaixi is hiding in the shadows, using them for revenge.”

Yan Huaixi… wants to kill me?

For a moment, Yingxia’s mind was a mess. She looked toward her small home with newfound fear.

In the small Yu courtyard, Yan Huaixi stood by the window, propping herself up. She played with a black poison needle in her hand; everything happening in the distance had not escaped her eyes.

“Heh,” she sneered. “Yang Xunzhou… the Literary Saint who vanished years ago actually changed her name to hide here.”

Yan Huaixi didn’t look at Yang or Fang for long. Her gaze settled on Yu Yingxia, watching the girl’s eyes shift from confusion to suspicion and eventually to fear as she listened to their theories.

These emotions proved that Yu Yingxia didn’t trust her. As expected, her usual behavior was just an act.

She looked down at the poison needle, her expression unreadable. Suddenly, a large amount of blood erupted from her mouth, coating the needle in red. Using her spiritual power now was still far too taxing.

After her wound was bandaged, Yu Yingxia felt a sudden, inexplicable sense of panic. She looked toward the house.

“Luckily, our sect developed an antidote for this poison,” Fang Yuetong said, giving Yingxia a pill and applying ointment to her arm.

“Thank you.” Yingxia looked at her arm, thinking about how unlucky she was. But then she regained her senses. If Yan Huaixi wanted her dead, would she bother with such an elaborate scheme? One thought and Yingxia would be gone.

She recalled the original owner’s memories. These corpses were originally just puppets, refined into Poison Corpses by the second Sect Master. Yan Huaixi actually hated them because they were “disgusting.” The original owner had locked them in the deepest dungeon to please her—the keys were still in Yingxia’s bag!

Yan Huaixi was unconscious and dying when Yingxia took her; she had no chance to bring those things with her. It was more likely someone from the Tianqiu Sect was “calling thief to catch a thief” to eliminate rivals.

“What time is it?” Yingxia asked suddenly.

“It is quite late…” Yang Xunzhou gave her the time. Yingxia realized she was over an hour late to brew the evening medicine.

“I’ll take you back, it’s faster and safer,” Yang Xunzhou offered. “Daoist Fang, can you handle the rest here?”

“Of course,” Fang Yuetong nodded. “Get home quickly, and remember not to let the wound touch water for a few days.”

On the way back, once she was sure Fang Yuetong couldn’t hear, Yang Xunzhou asked quietly, “A-Sheng, tell me the truth. Do you really not know… Yan Huaixi?”

Yu Yingxia controlled her voice perfectly. “I don’t.”

Yang Xunzhou narrowed her eyes, then smiled. “Better that way. She’s a ruthless one; those she targets end up miserably. Tonight was probably just an accident. Maybe the corpses were hungry?”

She continued, “People say Yan Huaixi and her Left Guardian vanished together. Some say the Guardian opened the array to trap the Tianqiu Sect, then used a reversed array to escape with her. Tsk, tsk… I think I have a new story idea about a Demonic Sect Master and her Guardian. It could be much more exciting than these righteous path stories!”

No! You don’t!!!

Yingxia, terrified, spent the rest of the trip convincing Yang to finish the Daoist Master’s story first. “If that devil is nearby and sees your book, she’ll come kill us!”

Yang Xunzhou hesitated but succumbed to the threat. “You’re right. I’ll wait until she’s caught or gone.”

Yingxia breathed a sigh of relief. After bidding Yang goodbye, she sprinted toward Yan Huaixi’s room.

“Sorry My Lord, I ran into an accident on the way—” Her voice cut off. The thick scent of blood made her heart skip a beat. She lit a candle and saw Yan Huaixi collapsed in a pool of blood, seemingly lifeless.

Yingxia’s body moved faster than her brain. She lunged to Yan Huaixi’s side and pulled her into her arms.

It’s over. I was only late for a little while… is she really going to die?

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