The Abused Heroine Stops Pretending [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 69

“Master.”

That day, Wu Xingyue returned from buying medicine in town again, her expression somewhat grave. But upon seeing her master basking in the sunlight in front of the house, she quickly composed herself and called out from afar.

Seeing her disciple return, Tang Jing’s anxious heart relaxed. Yet her face remained cold and indifferent as she responded with a faint “Mm” to acknowledge her.

Wu Xingyue stopped before her, slightly bending down to block the sunlight falling on her, and softly called again, “Master.”

Tang Jing opened her eyes to look at her, silently questioning.

The breeze rustled the leaves, creating a soothing sound. This secluded paradise, this little cottage, and the fact that only she and her master lived here even after ten years or a hundred, Wu Xingyue would never grow tired of it.

But today, while buying medicine in town, she had heard rumors circulating among the people, and her heart could no longer remain calm. Unease had taken root.

“What’s wrong?” Tang Jing frowned, noticing her disciple’s unusual expression.

“Nothing.” Wu Xingyue wiped all emotion from her face and smiled. “I bought two roasted ducks from that shop in the east. They smell amazing. I’ll go prepare the meal so we can eat them while they’re still hot.”

“Mm.”

Watching her retreating figure, Tang Jing pressed her lips together.

According to the original plot, by this time, the female protagonist Wen Mingyu her youngest disciple had already gathered a group of like-minded individuals dedicated to vanquishing demons and upholding justice. She had been eliminating evil spirits and resolving calamities across the mortal realm, her reputation spreading through multiple cities.

Judging by Wu Xingyue’s expression upon returning today, Tang Jing knew her disciple must have heard something in town.

She glanced at the system progress bar, it had now reached 48%. The point where the plot could be altered wasn’t far off.

That night, Wu Xingyue was unusually affectionate, tearfully begging her master to hold her.

“Master, you’re mine. Even if we die, I want to die with you.” Wu Xingyue’s face twisted with a fierce expression, her eyes brimming with unrestrained obsession. In the end, she bit down hard on her master’s shoulder, leaving behind a bloody mark.

Tang Jing gasped in pain, her face pale from exhaustion.

After biting her, Wu Xingyue immediately regretted it and began soothing the wound with gentle licks, acting as docile as could be.

For the next month, Wu Xingyue refused to let her master out of her sight for even a moment. If she lost sight of her for even a second, she would grow agitated, only calming down once she had Tang Jing in her arms again.

One day, while the two were watering and picking vegetables in the small garden behind the house, the distant sound of demonic beasts echoed from the dark forest.

Wu Xingyue’s first reaction was to shield her master, her gaze sharp and alert as she stared toward the forest.

“Master, let’s go.” Her immediate thought was that the Nine Palaces Sect had come again over the past few decades, they had occasionally appeared here.

But before they could get far, a group of people emerged from the forest. Their attire didn’t resemble that of the Nine Palaces Sect but rather matched the descriptions of the demon-slaying justice seekers recently spoken of in town.

At the forefront was a woman in a pink dress, wielding a longsword none other than Wen Mingyu, the young disciple who had been expelled from the Lingyu Palace of the Xianyu Sect years ago.

The moment Tang Jing saw Wen Mingyu, she noticed the world’s progress bar had reached 49%. And the final plot point.

At this thought, her hand clenched tightly inside her sleeve.

“Master!” Wen Mingyu spotted her master’s figure from afar and flew over joyfully. However, as she drew closer, she noticed someone standing beside her master.

Since her identity had been exposed by her master, Wu Xingyue had long stopped wearing her veil. Thus, when Wen Mingyu saw her face, she was momentarily dazed.

Was it just her imagination, or did this person before her bear a striking resemblance to her?

“Master, who is she?” Could it be that in these past hundred years, her master had found someone similar to her as a substitute? Wen Mingyu’s steps faltered slightly.

“I recall you were expelled from Lingyu Palace a century ago. You are no longer a disciple of Lingyu Palace, and naturally, the master of Lingyu Palace is no longer your master,” Wu Xingyue interjected, stepping in front of her master.

Every time she heard someone call her “master,” it grated on her ears especially when it came from this person, who had once been her master’s most beloved disciple. The mere thought of it made her wish she could make this woman vanish from her master’s sight forever.

But she knew that if she acted on such impulses, her master would surely hate her. So, she suppressed the urge.

“Once a master, always a master. Even if I am no longer part of Lingyu Palace, I will always be my master’s disciple,” Wen Mingyu declared solemnly.

“Sister Xiaoyu, don’t waste words on her. This woman is from the Nine Palaces Sect. I can sense the demonic aura on her even from this distance.”

“All scum from the Nine Palaces Sect deserve death.”

Wu Xingyue sneered arrogantly. “Just you lot?”

Tang Jing felt tense, wanting to stop her, but due to the system’s restrictions, this confrontation was unavoidable.

Wu Xingyue grabbed her hand and whispered, low enough for only the two of them to hear, “Master, when the chaos starts, run. Hide in that cave.” After giving the instruction, she unsheathed the soft sword at her waist and charged forward.

Strike first leave them no time to react.

“Attack!”

Seeing the Nine Palaces Sect witch take action, the others wasted no time.

Wu Xingyue left Wen Mingyu to the others while she herself stepped toward Tang Jing. As she drew near, she gazed at her with infatuation. “Master.”

Tang Jing kept her attention fixed on Wu Xingyue. When she saw the other woman get slashed on the arm, she instinctively took a step forward before stopping herself.

“Master, who is she? Why is she here? Did she threaten you?” Wen Mingyu grew anxious at her master’s reaction.

Tang Jing remained silent.

“She’s from the Nine Palaces Sect, Master. You taught us that demons and members of the Nine Palaces Sect must be slain on sight,” Wen Mingyu said sternly.

Tang Jing turned her gaze to her, her voice cold. “When did I ever say that?”

Wen Mingyu opened her mouth to retort but realized that her master had never actually spoken those words. In fact, her master’s original teaching had been: “For demons and followers of the Nine Palaces Sect who have committed evil, subdue them first. If they cannot be subdued, then eliminate them.”

A pang of panic shot through Wen Mingyu, and she couldn’t bring herself to meet her master’s eyes.

Amid the fight, Wu Xingyue noticed Wen Mingyu speaking to her master and feared she might do something harmful. She wanted to end the battle quickly, but her opponents were relentless. Seizing a brief opening, she swiftly retreated to her master’s side.

Breathing heavily, she asked with deep concern, “Master, are you all right?”

“No problem.”

Wu Xingyue let out a sigh of relief, wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand.

Seeing half of her body soaked in blood, Tang Jing’s breathing grew heavy, and the hand hidden in her sleeve clenched tightly, trembling slightly.

“What are you doing to my master, you witch? And she’s my master, not yours!” Seeing the two conversing as if no one else was present, Wen Mingyu panicked and lunged forward with her sword.

Wu Xingyue parried with her own blade and sneered, unable to resist reminding her, “Wen Mingyu, you should know that if we’re being technical, you’d have to call me senior sister.”

Wen Mingyu faltered for a moment, her stance breaking as she nearly got struck by the opposing sword. She staggered back, disbelief written all over her face. “No, that’s impossible.”

“How is it impossible?” Wu Xingyue looked at her coldly and arrogantly. “I spent centuries by our master’s side, respecting and cherishing her all those years. What have you ever done for her?”

“You were expelled from the sect by our master. No matter how long you stayed, it means nothing!”

Wu Xingyue laughed mockingly. “So you’ve forgotten how you caused our master to suffer the torment of the water prison, the lashings, and finally being imprisoned in the Nether Valley? All of that, just wiped from your memory?”

Before she was expelled, Wu Xingyue had tended to their master every day, ensuring she was never hurt or exhausted. She trained diligently so she could protect her master during their expeditions outside the mountain.

Yet the master she had cradled so carefully in her hands had been brought to such suffering by the person before her. For the past century, Wu Xingyue had fed her master medicine day after day, but her body remained frail likely destined to carry the burden of illness for the rest of her life.

Just thinking about it made Wu Xingyue’s eyes redden, her grip on the sword trembling. “Our master protected and cherished you, and this is how you repaid her?”

“I didn’t!” Wen Mingyu refused to shoulder such blame and shouted, “It was the Moonlight Sovereign, it was Sect Leader Bu, they were the ones.”

“Enough!” Wu Xingyue cut her off with a cold laugh. “Are you really so cowardly that you can’t even admit your own weakness? If you hadn’t been so lazy and neglected your training, would our master have suffered like this?”

“I…” Wen Mingyu was left speechless.

“Don’t listen to her, Sister Xiaoyu! It was all Pei Yujun’s fault, we already dealt with her, didn’t we? You’ve avenged your master,” someone behind Wen Mingyu called out.

Wu Xingyue’s eyes sharpened. “Pei Yujun is dead?”

Tang Jing also turned to look.

“Yes.” Wen Mingyu, who had been forced back step by step earlier, now regained her composure and said solemnly, “She colluded with the Nine Palaces Sect to traffic demons. Her crimes warranted execution.”

Tang Jing was stunned.

“Sister Xiaoyu, don’t waste words on her. Kill her, none of the Nine Palaces Sect are good people!”

“Kill her!”

“Kill her!”

The people who had come with Wen Mingyu now raised their arms and chanted.

Wu Xingyue sneered. “Come on, then.” Before charging forward, she cast a deep glance at her master and said, “Go.”

This time, Tang Jing still did not leave.

This time, Wu Xingyue faced not just those dozen people but also Wen Mingyu.

Over the past century, Wen Mingyu’s cultivation had improved. Though she still wasn’t as strong as Wu Xingyue, they had numbers on their side.

Wu Xingyue’s wounds multiplied.

Tang Jing opened her mouth, wanting to intervene, but the killing intent in the air forced her to stay where she was.

“Wu Xingyue, no matter how much you say, it won’t change the fact that our master expelled you from the sect back then,” Wen Mingyu said harshly.

Wu Xingyue was momentarily dazed by those words, and in that split second of distraction, Wen Mingyu seized the opportunity her sword thrust straight toward Wu Xingyue’s chest.

Wu Xingyue knew she couldn’t evade this strike. So, she smiled. A life in exchange for a century by her master’s side she thought it was worth it.

Memories of the past hundred years with her master flashed before her eyes. The tears she had been holding back finally spilled over.

If there was another life, she would still choose to be with her master.

But just then, a white figure rushed forward, shielding Wu Xingyue. The sword, now too close to redirect, pierced straight through that person’s heart.

The scene fell deathly silent.

Wu Xingyue’s pupils constricted. When she saw who stood before her, she thought she would be overjoyed her master had taken the blow for her. Yet, she felt no joy, only agony, sharper than if the sword had struck her own flesh.

“Master.” Her voice trembled as she spoke. Staring at the blood-drenched sword embedded in her master’s chest, she lunged forward without hesitation, embracing her master from behind. The blade that had run through her master’s heart now pierced hers as well.

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