I Quit Being This Female Lead (GL) - Chapter 60

The instant Mang Ke plunged into the deep pool, she suddenly realized a philosophical truth: that falling off a cliff definitely wouldn’t kill a main character!

However, the deep pool water in winter was bitingly cold. The moment she fell in, Mang Ke’s mind went blank, and she immediately passed out. Just before losing consciousness, she seemed to catch a glimpse of the scenery outside the deep pool. That wouldn’t be the last blue sky she ever saw, would it…

The Senior Disciple-Sister led her companion into the bamboo forest, and the moment they entered, they sensed the presence of demonic creatures.

She drew her longsword, channeled her internal energy, and remained vigilant of her surroundings.

They were just a group of small sparrow spirits?

By counting them, there were about fourteen or fifteen. They perched individually on the branches, cocking their tiny heads and watching the two newcomers with eyes the size of mung beans.

“Senior Sister Xuan Ji,” the man beside her said, “There is something strange about this forest.”

“Mhm.”

Xuan Ji, the woman in green, frowned. She was certain that Mang Ke’s disappearance was related to these little spirits.

[Two more people came, two more people came!]

[Their spiritual roots are so powerful! We can’t afford to provoke them.]

[Did they come looking for that little girl just now?]

[Shhh! Don’t talk. Pretend to be small sparrows. We absolutely must not let them discover our presence!]

The man: “…Senior Sister, these little spirits seem to know something.”

Xuan Ji raised her head with a cold face and said, “We just need to catch one and ask.”

Instantly, a whirlwind swept through the bamboo forest. As the bamboo leaves shook, Xuan Ji swiftly brought down her sword, cutting off a bamboo stalk. Then, with a finger pointing a talisman along the wind’s direction, a small sparrow that was about to fly away was instantly immobilized. She reached out and clenched it in her palm.

The small sparrow: “Chirp, chirp, chirp—”

Xuan Ji said with a cold face, “Stop playing dumb. Where is my Junior Sister?”

The small sparrow trembled, its mung-bean-sized eyes starting to well up: “Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp—”

“You don’t want to speak?” The woman in green’s gaze was sharp. Her sword-holding hand pointed at the sparrow: “Believe it or not, I will make your soul scatter right now?”

The small sparrow instantly lost its color from fright and cried tearfully: [No, no, no! We didn’t do anything! Your Junior Sister didn’t know the way and rushed out of the bamboo forest herself and fell off the cliff! We don’t know anything!]

A few other small sparrows hiding nearby also started chirping and weeping in protest—

[Sister, please spare us! We truly don’t know anything.]

[That girl came in looking for someone and simply fell off! We didn’t do anything.]

[It’s all her own fault. Please put away your sword.]

[Yes, yes! Please spare our cousin! It’s still a child!]

The small sparrow clutched in Xuan Ji’s hand began to tremble violently. It was just a little sparrow that had only cultivated for less than a hundred years. How could it possibly withstand Xuan Ji, who possessed Innate Spiritual Roots? Clutched in her hand and held at bay by her sword, it soon let out a faint “Chirp—” and fainted from terror.

[Cousin! Cousin!!!]

[Sister, let my cousin go quickly! It really doesn’t know anything! It’s only sixty years old! It’s still a child!]

[Waaah, waaah, waaah! If my cousin dies, I’ll never forgive you!]

Xuan Ji: “…”

The sparrow was scared because it was timid and fainted. What did that have to do with her?

Why were these birds so noisy?

Loosening her grip, the unconscious small sparrow fell to the ground. Its plump body bounced twice and lay there. One or two bolder sparrows flew over to check on it, pecking it with their tiny beaks.

[Cousin, wake up!]

[Cousin!!!!!!!!!!]

[Waaah, waaah, waaah, my cousin!!!!!!!!]

The man beside Xuan Ji spoke helplessly: “It just fainted. Don’t cry so tragically; we haven’t even done anything yet.”

A sparrow with a tuft of white feathers on its head was angered to tears and chirped: [If anything happens to my cousin, I…!!!]

Xuan Ji channeled energy into her sword. The blade’s edge, trailing white cold light, stopped at the sparrow spirit’s throat. She said coldly, “If anything happens to my Junior Sister, all you little spirits will be buried with her.”

The small sparrows:

This person’s aura is stronger than ours. We’d better concede.

Just like that, a line of sparrows perched side-by-side on the tips of the bamboo in front of Xuan Ji. Their mung-bean eyes looked at one another.

[We only wanted to trap her and use her for nourishment…]

One small sparrow said: [But she had a sword with her and rushed out very quickly. However, that side was a cliff, so she hopped and jumped right down. We couldn’t do anything about it either.]

They were sparrows, not large birds. Even if they rushed to save her, they couldn’t lift Mang Ke. Furthermore, who would save someone they had just planned to trap?

The small sparrows huddled together. Although they were numerous, their spiritual power was relatively weak, and they dared not openly confront the two people before them.

Senior Sister Xuan Ji listened to the sparrows’ words, and her face filled with anxiety. Even if Mang Ke knew martial arts, anyone who fell off that cliff would likely suffer a dire fate, let alone Mang Ke, who was completely unskilled.

“Senior Sister,” the man turned to Xuan Ji and said, “Let’s go back and tell Grandmaster to return to the sect first. The two of us will go down the cliff to search for Little Junior Sister.”

“That’s a good idea,” Xuan Ji said. “Let Grandmaster go back first. It’s only half a month’s journey left, and there shouldn’t be any further accidents on the way. You can go back now.”

“But Junior Brother is alone…”

“I don’t trust him to go alone,” Xuan Ji placed a hand on her Junior Brother’s shoulder and said, “You go with him. The two of you can look out for each other on the road. I will go down to find Mang Ke now, and I’ll bring her back once I find her.”

The man was silent for a moment before saying, “Little Junior Sister doesn’t know how to wield a sword to fly. What if…”

“There are no ‘what ifs’ until I see proof,” Xuan Ji patted her Junior Brother’s shoulder. “Hurry back. I’m afraid that if we delay any longer, Xiao Ke will be in danger.”

As she finished speaking, a gust of wind swept through the bamboo forest, and a longsword instantly appeared before her.

A breeze passed, leaving only the man and the group of trembling small sparrows in the bamboo forest.

“Alright, I won’t pursue this matter this time,” the man said to the small sparrows. “As animals with spiritual roots, you cannot take lives. Otherwise, your future cultivation will increasingly stray from the righteous path.”

[But we didn’t take any lives.]

“Trapping people in the bamboo forest is also forbidden.”

[Chirp… Although they are trapped in the bamboo forest, no one has died. The bamboo forest is only so big. As long as one isn’t directionally challenged, one can walk out quickly.]

[Yes, yes. Only those who are too muddled would fall off the cliff.]

[Shhh, don’t mention that Little Spiritual Root.]

“Little Spiritual Root?”

[No, no, no! We weren’t talking about your Junior Sister!]

“…”

This group of small sparrows truly lacked any guile.

“Alright,” the man said to the dozen or so sparrows. “It was not easy for you to develop spiritual roots. You must do more good deeds in the future. Haven’t you heard that ‘saving one life is better than building a seven-story pagoda’?”

[Chirp?]

[What does that mean?]

[I’m not sure, but it sounds impressive.]

[If it has seven levels, can I take four levels and give them to my cousin?]

[Ah, I want to take one level too.]

[Me too, me too.]

The man: “…”

Fine. It seemed impossible to explain it clearly to them. He’d better return to check on Grandmaster first. Without the Senior Disciple-Sister, the two Junior Brothers would have to handle the journey’s remaining matters together.

He just didn’t know how Little Junior Sister was doing right now.

Meanwhile.

Mang Ke didn’t know how long she had drifted along the river. When she slowly opened her eyes, she was lying on a bank.

The surrounding fluorescent blue lights looked like ethereal stars, twinkling and illuminating the entire cavern clearly.

Mang Ke sat up. She tried to recall what had happened, and it took her a while to realize that she had fallen off a cliff…

Thank goodness. The protagonist’s halo meant great fortune and longevity; as long as she was focused on dating, it wouldn’t be easy to die!

She checked her body, and she didn’t even have a single scratch. It truly was the power of the halo.

“Phew—”

Just as Mang Ke was examining her body, she heard a sound of wind coming from the depths of the cavern. The sound of the draft was unusually loud, suggesting there was another cave system inside.

Looking around, Mang Ke saw the wide underground river in front of her. She must have fallen into the deep pool and been swept in by the undercurrent.

The group of faint lights looked like will-o’-the-wisps upon closer inspection. Mang Ke shivered all over, thinking that if she didn’t leave quickly, she would probably be scared half to death.

Since she had nowhere else to go, Mang Ke followed the sound of the wind deeper into the cavern. After only a couple of steps, she saw a wide-open space.

In the open space, countless fluorescent blue lights floated, and in the center, there seemed to be an ice sculpture?

Mang Ke cautiously approached. Only when she got closer did she see clearly that it wasn’t an ice sculpture at all; it was an ice mountain.

The fluorescent blue flames circled Mang Ke’s feet, then floated with the wind toward the ice mountain, circling there, flickering between bright and dim.

Mang Ke curiously took another look. Illuminated by the flames, she discovered a dark figure inside the ice.

Sure enough. The law of the protagonist not dying after falling off a cliff must be supplemented by a miraculous encounter. This looked like Mang Ke’s great fortune.

As soon as she got close, the previously dim fluorescent lights instantly brightened, illuminating the entire cavern brilliantly.

Mang Ke now saw the person inside the ice completely. She was wearing a torn black robe, with deep, bone-visible gashes on her body and face. Most crucially, a red and black longsword was plunged right into the center of her chest.

The woman’s eyes were tightly closed, but her expression was indifferent, as if she were merely taking a quiet nap rather than being impaled by a sword inside a block of ice.

The moment she saw this person, Mang Ke felt her heart pound intensely. That person’s appearance, her features, and the head of jet-black hair falling down, all struck Mang Ke with immense impact.

It was… Xun Fangyun!

She rushed over and tried to punch the ice, finding it to be extremely solid.

In a panic, Mang Ke turned to the side, saw the sparkling flames, grabbed one, and slammed it onto the ice block!

“Hiss—”

As the fluorescent light extinguished, a large section of the ice instantly melted. Seeing that it worked, Mang Ke hurriedly grabbed a few more and threw them onto the ice. Before long, Xun Fangyun’s entire upper body was exposed.

The red and black longsword in Xun Fangyun’s chest appeared to be quite old. The moment it made contact with the air, large patches of rust began to form, making it seem so fragile that it might break with a mere flex.

“Yuny-yun,” Mang Ke grasped the longsword, her hands trembling slightly: “Wait a moment. I’ll save you right now!”

She pulled with both hands, and the red and black longsword was instantly yanked out. The previously calm blue flames immediately became agitated the moment the sword was removed. They roared and rushed toward Mang Ke—

Where did this little girl come from, daring to pull out the Demon-Subduing Pestle!