The Cannon Fodder Also Has a Will to Survive [Rebirth] - Chapter 2

When An Jiu woke up, his eyes were swollen from crying. Having his entire worldview shattered so violently was difficult to process.

Thinking of the tragic fate in his past life made him tremble. The feeling of predestination in that dream had been too real, too terrifying. He could still remember the suffocating panic of being crushed by the wheels of fate.

I can’t escape this destiny.

An Jiu thought sorrowfully. Perhaps he should flee the protagonist’s group? Escape the plot? At the very least, he hadn’t yet reached the point of no return, Wait.

An Jiu climbed out of bed, his waist aching and his back sore. He felt the numbness in his inner thighs and looked at the bed with a pale face. There was no one else in the room, but the marks left behind were enough to prove that what he had experienced was no dream.

His pain tolerance was quite high, so he hadn’t noticed at first. Now he remembered: last night, he had been turned upside down in bed with someone.

It’s over. I might as well start planning my funeral now.

Though his mind was a mess and he couldn’t fathom how this change had occurred, his survival instinct kicked in. He performed a “carp leap” out of bed and scrambled to get out of there.

Fumbling with his belt, he rushed to the door. As he pulled open the carved wooden door and stepped out, he froze.

The dawn light was dim, but it was enough for An Jiu to see the person in front of him. Si Xuanye, dressed in the silver-trimmed black robes of the Sect Leader, stood five paces away.

“Mas…Master” An Jiu, who had been single-mindedly focused on a quick escape, felt his knees go weak the moment he saw Si Xuanye. He collapsed into a kneel before him.

The tall, cold Sword Deity looked down at his young disciple. In his eyes, usually devoid of emotion a strange glint suddenly flashed.

The boy before him had his long hair unfastened. His robes were disheveled and slightly open, revealing a chest dotted with red marks. Looking further up, that face still held a hint of childishness, yet one could already see the “disastrous beauty” he would become once fully grown. Currently, he looked delicate and exquisite, his lips as red as if they had been stained with rouge. His features were strikingly vivid, and his face was barely larger than a palm. Despite the messy hair, his beautiful widow’s peak was clearly visible.

He was indeed a beauty, and a rare “Heavenly Spiritual Medicine” to boot. Had it not been for that, Si Xuanye would never have taken him as a disciple.

The disciple Si Xuanye truly wanted was someone like An Yunge a refined, jade-like gentleman. However, this situation was acceptable too. Yunge needed a “medicine” to optimize his spiritual roots, and this was something An Jiu owed him.

Si Xuanye took two slow steps forward and stopped in front of An Jiu. “Where are you going?”

“No… nowhere.” The Wanyan Sword Sect was preparing for the Sword Trial Assembly. As the Sect Leader, Si Xuanye shouldn’t have had time to deal with him; he had merely placed An Jiu under house arrest in his own courtyard. Being imprisoned in the dark room was supposed to happen after today.

“I… I’m hungry. I came out to find something to eat.” As one of Si Xuanye’s three disciples, An Jiu naturally lived on the Main Peak. The disciple quarters were close by, so it made sense for him to find his way here.

As soon as An Jiu spoke, his stomach let out a loud growl. What started as a random excuse became a reality; his stomach felt like it was burning, and the hunger was unbearable.

Given his talent as a Heavenly Spiritual Root, he should have been able to achieve Bigu (fasting) in his first year. When had he ever been troubled by hunger? In his past life, his attention was never on such things. Combined with his pride, he would never have humiliated himself like this in front of Si Xuanye even with his cultivation sealed.

But after reading the entire novel, An Jiu no longer cared about “face.” In this man’s eyes, he was either an insect or a piece of spiritual medicine. He abandoned his dignity and raised his voice: “I have no cultivation. I am hungry.”

“…” Si Xuanye had certainly not expected such an answer. Looking at the youth again, his expression seemed more sincere than ever before, as if he were truly aggrieved by his hunger.

An Jiu thought: I’m going to die anyway, but I won’t be starved to death a second time. “Can you let me eat my fill before you punish me?”

His face was pale, but the corners of his eyes and the tip of his nose were tinged with a faint red. He looked utterly pitiful.

Si Xuanye had always viewed him as a “living ingredient.” This was the first time he realized the “ingredient” had its own physiological needs. Had I really been treating An Jiu so harshly?

Si Xuanye lowered his eyelids, his expression indifferent, like a deity who did not understand mortal joys or sorrows. “Go and have Fang Yuhe refine some Bigu pills for you.”

Bigu pills won’t satisfy me! I want a big meat bun!

But facing Si Xuanye, An Jiu didn’t dare say another word. He could only nod like a frightened quail. Seeing his obedience, Si Xuanye felt no emotion. He was about to turn away when he saw An Jiu pout with dissatisfaction.

An Jiu’s worldview had just been shattered. He no longer felt the need to play the role of the “thoughtful, considerate disciple.” After all, maintaining that persona hadn’t helped; the ending was still a tragedy. He hadn’t expected his fake persona to crumble so quickly.

Once Si Xuanye left, An Jiu suddenly realized something. Master hadn’t let Fang Yuhe drag him out for public humiliation; he had told him to refine pills for him instead?

Was it because I slept with him last night? Did the seduction actually work?

An Jiu scratched his cheek and giggled for a while. At least, for now, he wasn’t being locked up! And he could make Fang Yuhe refine pills for him! That was a command from the Master; Fang Yuhe had no right to refuse. He would make him refine ten or twenty bottles and stockpile them for his future escape!

His cultivation was sealed, and he couldn’t leave the Main Peak due to the restrictions, so Si Xuanye didn’t bother pursuing him for leaving his courtyard.

Given this limited freedom, An Jiu didn’t rush to find Fang Yuhe. Instead, he headed straight for the back of the mountain, toward the flock of birds raised by Xue Nian.

Xue Nian was a cold, indifferent person who only cared about his plants and his birds. In the past, when An Jiu became his junior brother as his “savior,” Xue Nian had always treated him with a polite distance, like a stranger. An Jiu had often suspected that Xue Nian had seen through his lies long ago and was simply waiting for proof.

Indeed, once An Yunge appeared on the peak, this “constant-temperature air conditioner” began to warm up specifically for him. It was then that An Jiu realized he had always been a clown in Xue Nian’s eyes.

I’m going to eat the wild chickens he raised!

Aside from deliberate revenge, he truly craved meat. However, An Jiu forgot that with his current physical state, his combat effectiveness was lower than a chicken’s.

He found Xue Nian’s spiritual plant garden and flipped over the wall, trampling the rare plants into a mess. After wrecking half the garden, he found his target. A flock of birds with brilliant plumage was perched on a massive ancient tree. They weren’t afraid as An Jiu approached; some continued preening their feathers, while others tilted their heads to study him.

“Why do they look different from the bald chickens I saw before? I wonder if these colorful ones taste good…” An Jiu muttered, climbing the tree on all fours. To be honest, he hadn’t climbed a tree since his days at the An estate; after beginning his cultivation, he had relied entirely on spiritual energy. Luckily, his basic skills were still there.

Fantasizing about roast chicken, he ignored the pain in his body and scrambled up to the first branch. But before he could reach a chicken, he was ambushed every bird on the branches fixed their beady eyes on him. The moment he reached for them, they all took flight and dived at him, their sharp beaks pecking him until he fled in terror.

“Ouch, it hurts…” His mortal body couldn’t withstand the attacks of spiritual birds. An Jiu fell backward out of the tree. Before he could even groan, the birds dived toward him again.

He forgot about eating and scrambled up to run. The birds were hot on his heels. Tired, hungry, and in pain, his mind was a blur. When he saw the man walking through the garden gates, he completely forgot how much that man loathed him not to mention he had just destroyed half the garden.

“Senior Brother Xue Nian! Senior Brother, save me!”

After all, they had lived as brothers for four years. An Jiu had once truly viewed him as a brother he could rely on.

The white-robed swordsman stepped forward, cast a spell to disperse the birds, and opened his arms to let the dirty youth leap into his embrace.

“Xiao Jiu? It’s alright, Xiao Jiu” The young man in white held the person in his arms, his expression remarkably gentle.

Once the threat was gone, An Jiu remembered: he was the culprit who had destroyed Xue Nian’s garden. He rubbed against Xue Nian’s chest, staining the white robes with filth, before pulling away.

He looked back with lingering fear. Seeing that the chickens had dispersed, he sighed in relief. Then he turned around and saw the mess he had made of Xue Nian’s clothes. He felt a bit embarrassed.

He lowered his head and muttered, not daring to look at the swordsman, “Senior Brother, I let me explain”

A warm, slender hand with distinct knuckles gripped his jaw and lifted his face. An Jiu’s eyes were wide, filled with a wet shimmer like a startled animal’s. Xue Nian used his sleeve to wipe the grime from the boy’s face. “It’s alright.”

Confusion appeared in the boy’s eyes. “Senior Brother, aren’t you angry? These this garden, I made it this way. Shouldn’t you push me away coldly and forbid me from ever stepping foot in here again?”

Xue Nian had banned him several times before, though An Jiu had never taken his words seriously. But Xue Nian’s reaction today was very strange. After such a disaster, he was actually wiping his face? Something was wrong.

Xue Nian’s movements paused as he sighed in his heart.

An Jiu is not a truly vile person.

A truly vile person would not feel guilt or remorse after doing something wrong. They wouldn’t try to explain themselves, nor would they care about how others felt. An Jiu was just a “little brat” who used malice to disguise himself like a small insect that inflates its body to scare off predators. If he scared them, he lived; if he didn’t, he was easily killed.

The outside world had forced him to become “vile.” But how could a natural herbivore understand what a true demon looks like?

Regrettably, the Xue Nian of the past life realized this too late, allowing that simple, clawing little beast to lose his life in vain.