After Transmigrating into a Book, I Became Partners with My Mortal Enemy - Chapter 1

“Kuankuan, are you confident about winning first place in next week’s competition?”

Ding Xiandi was preparing to go to the old family residence for dinner after class when her mother, Ding Huo, asked in their three-person group call.

Before Ding Xiandi could answer, her father, who was in the car with Ding Huo, said, “It’s not about confidence, it’s a must.”

“Isn’t your only competition that sickly kid from the You family? How did she manage to take first place in the last competition?”

Ding Huo snapped back.

The two, bound by a marriage of convenience, only ever argued about things like this.

As her parents’ bickering dragged on endlessly, Ding Xiandi kept the call connected and lowered her head to read a novel on her phone.

That sickly kid from the You family.

You Fuling such a strange name.

She thought: Isn’t it normal to lose to her?

Both Ding Xiandi and You Fuling were heirs to their family businesses and had been compared to each other since childhood.

Their fathers had been rivals since their student days, and after marriage, they shifted their competition to their children. Currently, the Ding family had the upper hand.

Putting aside other aspects, at least Ding Xiandi was healthy, beautiful, and athletic far surpassing the frail and sickly You Fuling since childhood.

Even though they attended the same school, the two rarely appeared together.

Out of respect for their parents, the school administration had to maintain a balance in sponsorships.

If You Fuling gave the school opening speech this year, Ding Xiandi would do it next year.

With both parents in the same car, the call felt like a live broadcast.

Ding Xiandi, alone in her own car, had grown accustomed to tuning them out. She glanced at the progress bar of the novel and realized that out of over a thousand chapters, she had only read a little over a hundred.

Ding Xiandi multitasked, dividing her attention between the novel and the messages in her class group chat.

[It seems something happened to the You family.]

[Isn’t the Ding family’s old residence very close to the You family’s? Is there a fire?]

Someone even tagged Ding Xiandi privately to ask how far she had gotten in the novel.

Coincidentally, the protagonist had just reached the part where a supporting female character with the same name as hers appeared.

The novel, titled I Want to Compete with the Heavens, had a serious-sounding name, but its content was more like a fusion of futuristic technology and non-traditional cheat-powered cultivation stories.

It followed the female protagonist, who came from a collateral branch of a cultivation family, as she advanced step by step from a cultivation academy, cleared several dungeons, and eventually defeated the great demon boss to become a new-generation revered master, a classic progression fantasy.

The genre held little appeal for Ding Xiandi.

She hadn’t even finished the first volume, “Celestial Pole Academy,” and was skimming through the parts where her namesake appeared.

In the book, the original character was the second senior sister of a declining sect. The sect had few resources to offer and even had a burdensome junior sister.

Their master was perpetually absent, not even named, leaving them to fend for themselves.

The original character, who came from a beggar background, had hoped to rise above her station but was still mocked by everyone even after entering the Celestial Pole Academy.

With low cultivation and plain looks, only the female protagonist, Ming Jing, extended a helping hand to her.

Even though they were the same gender, she fell desperately in love.

At this point, Ding Xiandi exited the novel to check its genre romance.

Well, that settled it, no possibility at all.

A villainess’s transition from ordinary to malicious only required unrequited love. After her confession failed, the original character developed an inner demon.

The Celestial Pole Academy even started a service for sending love letters to admired disciples. Ming Jing’s cultivation mailbox was overflowing, further fueling the original character’s jealousy.

She decided to plant a love gu on Ming Jing.

If she couldn’t have Ming Jing’s heart, she would at least have her person.

The inner monologues of the characters in the book were filled with straightforward desires. Reading this, Ding Xiandi thought, It really doesn’t have to be this extreme.

Shouldn’t forced possession at least require some mutual attraction?

As expected, after her plan failed, the original character was expelled from the academy and removed from one of the three major sects, vanishing without a trace from then on.

The book is written from the female lead’s perspective. The first volume has already ended, and the original owner never reappeared.

In the voice message, her parents were still arguing without a clear winner. Ding Xiandi took off her headphones and looked out the window at the gradually darkening sky.

In the distance stood upscale residences in the city’s suburbs, all designed in the new Chinese courtyard style. Ding Xiandi didn’t notice the distant fire, nor did she hear the wailing ambulance speeding by.

The group chat was still discussing You Fuling, who had been compared to Ding Xiandi since childhood.

[I heard You Fuling’s father has a son older than her outside. What kind of mess is that?]

[Weren’t her parents supposed to be campus sweethearts with an unbreakable bond? This is just too ironic.]

[If I were You Fuling, I’d probably lose my mind. She’s already in poor health, and now this?]

[I found out her family is having a gathering today, and that brother who’s a year older than her is going to be there.]

[Isn’t someone in the group living next door?]

[With her condition, would she even dare to make a scene? She’d probably hyperventilate and end up in the hospital after just a minor outburst!]

Ding Xiandi was too engrossed in the novel to pay attention to the gossip in the group chat. She was more interested in the spoilers about how this character eventually went astray and joined the demonic faction.

Over a thousand chapters were simply too long.

With her heavy academic workload, Ding Xiandi could only read during breaks, making it impossible to finish the entire story.

She used the search function to find the fate of the villainous female side character.

[Ming Jing’s sword pierced Ding Xiandi’s chest. The former fellow disciple from the Daoist Academy, now a demonic cultivator, paid no mind to her wound and spoke in a broken voice: “Then why did you save me back then?”]

[That late night in the Sword Mound of the Heavenly Extremity Daoist Academy, under the cold moonlight in the mountains, with the cries of beasts echoing, Ding Xiandi had been punished and sent inside due to a fellow disciple’s mistake. Ming Jing’s helping hand almost wiped away all her bitterness.]

Ding Xiandi thought: It’s not that serious! From a god’s-eye view, Ming Jing was just casually doing a good deed!

Falling in love so quickly?!

[Ming Jing shook her head: “I don’t remember.”]

Ding Xiandi lost her impartial judgment again: How cruel! Who ended up with this straight girl? I’m going to.

Just as she was about to search for the book’s final ending, her car reached a fork in the road. Another vehicle crashed straight into hers.

Ding Xiandi was supposed to meet her parents’ car at this intersection. Her parents watched in horror as the black sedan deliberately rammed into her car.

Ding Xiandi’s last conscious thought lingered on the novel’s interface and Ming Jing’s line, “I don’t remember.”

She thought: The female lead is great, but there’s no need to fall so deeply in love that you lose your mind. They’re completely incompatible.

If it were me…

“Second Senior Sister, the mentor called on you.”

One moment, Ding Xiandi was in the car, using her parents’ arguing as white noise while reading her novel. The next, she was shaken awake.

The person who pushed her was incredibly strong, shoving the sword cultivator, who had been sound asleep at the desk, right off the table.

The sound wasn’t loud, but the commotion was undeniable.

Snickers erupted around her. The mentor lecturing on the platform glared furiously, slamming the table and exclaiming, “What disgraceful behavior! You’re a disciple of one of the three great sects, how can you be so unambitious?!”

Ding Xiandi, dazed from the fall, stood up unsteadily and looked around in confusion.

She was in a pure white hall, with no way to tell if it was day or night outside. A massive rotating Bagua diagram loomed overhead, looking almost like a computer-generated effect at first glance.

“How pitiful. Having her love letter rejected and being turned down in front of everyone, if it were me, I’d definitely take leave. I wouldn’t have the face to come to class.”

“With looks like that, how dare she aspire to Ming Jing? If I were her, I’d rather just run into a wall and die.”

“The Starpoint Sect is nothing but a rundown sect, the glory of the Three Great Sects belongs to the ancient past. I say we should remove Starpoint Sect from the Three Great Sects altogether. Our Fanjing Sect would be a better fit as one of the Three.”

“The leader of Starpoint Sect is an immortal crane, and the youngest is a freakishly strong glutton. If I didn’t know she’s not the brightest, shoving her senior sister to the ground like that would make anyone think there’s some deep-seated grudge!”

Amid the surrounding clamor, Ding Xiandi’s mind buzzed as she rapidly absorbed the conversations around her.

The cut on her face from the previous swordsmanship class spar was still visible, making her look utterly disheveled.

The white-bearded instructor, aware of the romantic letter incident among the disciples, didn’t give her a hard time. “Very well,” he sighed.

The Spirit Veins of the Glimmering Continent had long dried up, and for ten thousand years, no one had achieved ascension.

As a cultivation academy founded millennia ago, the Celestial Pole Academy drew young cultivators from across the land by harnessing the continent’s last remaining boundless spirit vein. It was the most coveted institution for aspiring cultivators.

With the hope of ascension gone, the focus of cultivation had shifted over the millennia from mastering the Path of Emotionlessness to the belief that “pursuing love is better than chasing immortality.”

Outside the academy, this trend was even more pronounced.

Inside, the age gap among disciples was minimal, making it all the easier for romantic entanglements to blossom.

Even the academy’s law-enforcement cranes had taken on a side hustle, flying back and forth delivering love letters daily. The earnings were enough to buy an extra piece of spirit ore for energy replenishment.

In the eyes of many, Ding Xiandi, a mediocre-looking sword cultivator with freckled cheeks, ranked at the bottom of her department seemed even more pitiable.

Some felt sympathy, others mocked, while a few glanced toward the other person involved in the incident: Ming Jing, the head disciple of the Falling Moon Sect, who happened to be in the same class.

Ming Jing had a dual identity: not only was she renowned as the sword cultivation genius of her generation in the Falling Moon Sect, but she was also one of the heirs to the prestigious Ming Clan, a prominent cultivation family.

Her face was as full as the moon, her lips as red as a lotus, yet there was no trace of vulgarity about her. Instead, she carried the dignified aura of a noble clan, attracting a multitude of followers.

The only criticism against her was that she wasn’t a direct descendant of the Ming Clan.

But aside from that, Ming Jing was nearly flawless. Ding Xiandi had seen countless comments in the novel’s discussion section hailing her as “Ming Jing, the one and only queen of the cultivation world.”

No wonder some were so obsessed with her they’d lost their minds.

Just as Ding Xiandi settled back into her seat, the white-bearded old man called another name: “You Fuling, which page was I just explaining?”

Still dazed, Ding Xiandi whipped her head around. The person who stood up was seated just across the aisle from her.

The Celestial Pole Academy had five departments: Sword, Spell, Music, Divination, and Alchemy. Their robes came in all colors except red and orange, making the lecture hall look like a gathering of M&M’s.

The girl who rose wore a veil over her face, her attire clearly marking her as a spell cultivator. Her voice was one Ding Xiandi would recognize even if she were turned to ashes, it belonged to her family’s rival.

Ding Xiandi thought, Am I not the only one who transmigrated into this novel?

Who would actually use such an unlucky name in a book? She seems even more like a cannon fodder character than I am.

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