I Failed to Reform the Protagonist [Transmigration] - Chapter 24

Pei Jing froze. “Chu Junyu is in there too?”

He looked down and asked the crocodile crouching at his feet, “How did you let this person in?”

The crocodile opened its eyes dazed and looked at the person in the Mysterious Water Mirror, then up at Pei Jing, its face full of confusion.

Pei Jing shook his head. “Truly useless. Sooner or later, I’ll roast you and eat you.”

Chu Junyu had likely stumbled in by accident. The Inner Demon Chamber wasn’t overly dangerous, so rather than worrying about him, Pei Jing was more concerned about what kind of monster had entered the Pagoda Hall. The eight Mysterious Water Mirrors reflected the corridors, rooms, entrances, and various directions, showing no signs of abnormality yet the chilling aura he had sensed at the cave entrance did not lie.

He examined the mirrors one by one. Finally, in a side room, Pei Jing spotted something wrong. The room was a study, and the desk was a mess, as if someone had ransacked it. In the center lay a very thin piece of paper; red ink had seeped into it, looking bloody and grim.

It was a poem:

I was not born to seek the throne,

Nor build gold towers in the capital.

Top scholars and officials are but dogs,

Always just fodder trembling beneath the blade.

Four lines of verse, written with flamboyant strokes. A poem that should have been full of righteous spirit felt eerie because of the twisted slants and hooks of the characters.

Pei Jing thought to himself, Quite the cultured one.

He left the crocodile in the main hall and walked toward the study alone. The room was quiet, the only sound being the rustle of his robes. The study was simple: one desk, one shelf. The shelf was against the wall, neatly filled with books. Standing before the desk and looking down at the paper, Pei Jing whispered, “Where are you running off to now?”

He suddenly turned around, his finger tracing across the books from left to right, stopping at a specific volume.

A cold smile touched his lips.

As he pulled the book, a pair of blood-red eyes appeared in the gap.

He drew his sword in a split second.

“Aow—!” The ghost in the wall let out a wail and quickly transformed into a wisp of green smoke, fleeing toward the door.

Pei Jing followed close behind.

Following the scent, he passed through the cloisters and stood before the Inner Demon Chamber. Suddenly, his pace halted. A faint, almost imperceptible sword intent hung above, preventing him from entering. Pei Jing frowned. “Is the Ancestor trying to hint at something?”

He had visited the Inner Demon Chamber as a child and suffered no harm, yet now the Ancestor’s intent was to stop him?

Could it be that the monster’s true body was inside the Inner Demon Chamber?

The aura of this ghost was very similar to the Thousand-Faced Woman; if they came from the same place, he truly wouldn’t be able to defeat it.

However.

Pei Jing’s eyes grew colder by the second.

Chu Junyu was inside.

Without much hesitation, Pei Jing spoke to the deep purple sword intent above: “Thank you for the warning, Ancestor, but I still have to go in. There is a little friend inside; if I don’t save him, he will surely die. I suspect you are stopping me because I likely can’t beat that monster either.” Pei Jing smiled and raised his sword. “When the time comes, I’ll trouble you to lend me a hand. After all, I am the sole successor of Yunxiao.”

“…” The Ancestor really didn’t want to deal with him.

Inside the Changtian Secret Realm, Pei Jing wasn’t particularly afraid. Being protected by the Yunxiao Daoist meant he truly had the ultimate backing.

The Inner Demon Chamber wasn’t a single room, but a long, silent corridor. Upon entering, his foot tripped over a thin red line. The first thing he heard was the sound of a bell. Just one chime—crisp and distant.

It was pitch black inside. Pei Jing reached out to feel his way; there were walls on both sides. A thin layer of water covered the floor, the cold seeping in through his soles.

It felt exactly as it did when he was a child.

He muttered in the darkness, “What will it be this time?” He didn’t know what others saw here, but what he saw were his own memories.

When he was a child, he saw memories of his modern life.

The version of himself who, instead of hiding during supernatural weather, excitedly brought a cup of coffee to the window to watch.

The version of himself who fixed his hair in the mirror and then got struck by lightning and transmigrated.

Recalling the final second, how he was toasting the mirror and acting cool gave Pei Jing a headache.

How could he have been such a moron? Being handsome wasn’t exactly a new development; why did he have to use the window as a mirror that day! He deserved to be struck by lightning.

The water at his feet flowed slowly, like a silent abyss.

This single life, passing like a fleeting lantern show.

The sound of the bell finally stopped.

In the darkness, tiny points of faint blue light appeared. On the walls on either side, they condensed and gathered, eventually forming a scene of pristine white snow.

The Snow of the Past

In the dead of winter, with the mountains and rivers blanketed in white, a genius rarely seen in a hundred years was born to the Pei family. At the banquet, the Sect Leader of Yunxiao—the head of all immortal sects—personally arrived to take him as a disciple, granting him the name “Yuzhi.” The entire assembly was stunned.

From birth, he was surrounded by glory, his name famous far and wide.

The years that followed were spent in enlightenment, sword practice, and slaying demons. It was tedious and long. In truth, he only truly began to leave legends in the cultivation world after he left the Jingtian Academy.

While inside Jingtian Academy, the impression he left on the world’s powerhouses was likely one of shadows and trouble.

It was early January, a season where the weather was just beginning to warm but remained chilly. He had been forced by his Master to go to Jingtian Mountain to study at the Academy. The stone steps were covered in snow, slippery and difficult to climb, and flying on swords was prohibited. He walked side-by-side with Chen Xu, bored out of his mind, idly using his sword to pick at the leaves and flowers.

Chen Xu, however, was in high spirits. His eyes were practically glowing, and he channeled his excitement into words: “I just took a casual look on the road, and everyone I saw was a big name. Great Master Wu Sheng of the Empty Sect, the Phoenix Emperor of the Demon Race, the Young Master of the Ghost Realm… I’ve heard their names forever, and finally, I get to see them in the flesh!” Chen Xu looked back, then turned back with a sigh of admiration. “And those female cultivators from Yingzhou, they are truly beautiful.”

Pei Jing rolled his eyes. “Are you out here just to embarrass us?”

Chen Xu didn’t understand. “What’s wrong with me?”

Pei Jing snorted. “You look like a country bumpkin who’s never seen the world. Don’t tell people we’re from the same sect.”

Chen Xu looked back once more. “You don’t think they’re pretty?”

Pei Jing turned his head. Not far behind them, a group of female cultivators in smoke-blue robes, with refined and beautiful features, were walking through the snow, chatting and laughing. Their grace was unparalleled. However, what caught Pei Jing’s attention was the person in the middle of them who wasn’t saying a word and looked difficult to get along with—a fat girl. It’s not great to call someone fat, but she had no other defining features.

Pei Jing turned back. “They’re pretty, but useless. Believe it or not, while you’re back here praising them, they’re back there praising me.”

Chen Xu rolled his eyes. “Praising you for what?”

Pei Jing: “My unparalleled handsomeness and noble aura.”

Chen Xu: “Can you rein in your habit of talking absolute nonsense? Once we’re out of Yunxiao, even if you don’t want your dignity, I still want mine.”

Pei Jing: “I don’t even find your country-bumpkin behavior embarrassing, yet you complain about me telling the truth. I truly am the man of dreams for millions of female cultivators in the world. Just watch.”

He looked around and saw a small red bird flying across the sky. An idea struck him. He plucked a leaf from a nearby branch and flicked it from his fingers. The edge of the leaf was as sharp as a knife; it sliced off a small patch of the bird’s red feathers. The bird was a coward; it immediately “exploded” its feathers in mid-air from the fright, stopped flapping, and fell with a splat.

Pei Jing bent down to pick up the little red bird. Looking closely, he realized its feathers were quite beautiful—crimson with a faint layer of gold at the edges. He waited a moment for the group of Yingzhou cultivators to draw near.

Chen Xu watched to see what kind of trick he was playing.

Pei Jing held the red bird by its talons and swung it toward the group behind him. The bird’s feathers were standing on end, and it squeezed out a tear, chirping frantically in the air.

A kind-hearted Yingzhou cultivator saw this and was startled. She reached out her soft, white hand and caught the little red bird. After a moment’s hesitation, she called out to Pei Jing, “Daoist friend ahead.”

Chen Xu pressed his palm to his forehead.

Pei Jing stopped in the wind and snow, sword in hand, then turned his head. Seeing the woman in blue holding the red bird, his expression paused. “Is something the matter?”

A flash of admiration crossed the woman’s face, and she lowered her head shyly. “Is this bird… your pet?”

Pei Jing looked at her fingertips holding the bird, a smile playing on his lips. “Hardly a pet, just a little thing I caught. If you like it, I’ll give it to you. If you don’t, I’ll just have it as my meal today.”

The woman in blue frowned. “If you don’t like it, you should just release it. Why eat it? It’s so small it wouldn’t even fill your stomach, and besides, we have already reached the stage of Inedia.”

Pei Jing laughed. “Alright. If you don’t like it, release it. After all, I only intended to eat it to celebrate today’s luck. If doing so makes the person who makes me feel lucky unhappy, then there’s no point.”

The woman was stunned. Once she realized what he meant, the bird in her palm felt a bit hot. She lowered her head in embarrassment.

Yingzhou women were mostly open and bold. A cultivator beside her teased, “With talk like that, are you harboring designs on our A-Yuan?”

Pei Jing smiled and shook his head. “No.”

The Yingzhou women laughed. Suddenly, someone said coldly, “In doing this, have you asked the opinion of the bird’s owner?”

The speaker was the “little fat girl” who had first caught Pei Jing’s eye. Up close, her features were actually quite delicate. She was surrounded by the others like a moon circled by stars. With a bit of thought, Pei Jing knew her identity: Yu Qinglian, the daughter of the Island Master of Yingzhou.

He took the shivering, chubby bird back from the cultivator and asked, “Then what do you suggest I do?”

Pei Jing actually just wanted to show off his flirting skills to Chen Xu, act cool, and then stop once he’d made his point. If he kept flirting and she actually fell for him, his Master would skin him alive.

Yu Qinglian pointed behind him. “Its owner is here. Go explain it to him.”

The little red bird in Pei Jing’s hand suddenly let out a sound of grievance and accusation. It struggled out of his hand with all its might and flew backward. Pei Jing turned around to see three people standing behind him.

The youth in the center wore long red robes, his black hair reaching his ankles. His eyes were dark gold, currently looking as if they could spit fire. His face was contorted with rage, looking as if he wanted to eat Pei Jing alive.

Beside him were two other youths. One was dressed like a scholar with a gloomy expression, currently wearing a smirk of schadenfreude. The other had a white silk cloth over his eyes, his expression one of compassion.

The little red bird returned to its owner’s shoulder, weeping, and pointed a wing at Pei Jing, chirping a long, angry string of complaints.

Pei Jing thought to himself that Chen Xu was truly magical; he had just mentioned these three, and here they were.

Ji Wuduan always spoke with a sinister, sickly tone: “To roast and eat a divine beast of the Phoenix Clan… Daoist friend has quite an appetite.”

That fat, useless red bird was a divine beast of the Phoenix Clan? The Phoenixes are doomed.

Pei Jing very obediently admitted his fault and cupped his hands. “My apologies, I hope you can forgive me. I am Chen Xu, a disciple of Yunxiao—’Chen’ as in old, ‘Xu’ as in weak.”

Chen Xu nearly vomited blood in rage. “Pei Yuzhi!”

This was the first meeting of the Five Elites of the world. He was using the Phoenix Clan’s divine beast to awkwardly flirt with girls. It was truly a stroke of bad luck.