The Failed Female Supporting Character [Transmigration] - Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Green Mountain was not close to the city where Feng Qi and the others were staying; it was closer to the Lingyun Sect. Beneath its ten-thousand-foot cliffs lay the now-declined Ling Sea.

Three days later, Liu Cheng arrived as promised, accompanied by two other Lingyun Sect disciples.

“These two are my junior sisters. They just went to Green Mountain yesterday and happened to see where Qingniao rests. They can lead the way for us.”

“Then let’s go.” Yu Qi crossed her arms, glanced at Ji Manqiu—who had stood up to join them—and pursed her lips without saying a word.

The group traveled by sword and reached the entrance of Green Mountain in moments. The two Lingyun disciples took the lead, guiding them deeper and deeper into the valley. Liu Cheng slowly dropped back from the front to walk beside Feng Qi and Ruan Lan. She gave Feng Qi a smile and said softly, “Once we reach the Qingniao’s nest, Martial Niece Feng can wait outside with my two junior sisters to avoid being accidentally injured.”

Feng Qi glanced at Ruan Lan first before nodding. “Alright.”

The Qingniao’s nest was in the deepest part of the valley, where the trees were dense and the space narrow. If too many people entered together, they would only get in each other’s way. Ruan Lan stopped in front of the woods. She drew her light sword and traced a circle on the ground, then took Feng Qi’s hand, placed a small bell in her palm, and whispered an instruction: “If anything happens, shake this. Wait for me here.”

Feng Qi obediently stepped into the sword circle and nodded, clutching the small bell.

Liu Cheng glanced at the sword circle inconspicuously. Her brow furrowed for a split second before smoothing out again. She said with a smile, “Senior Sister, don’t worry. My two junior sisters will protect your little disciple well.”

Ruan Lan gave a non-committal hum and was the first to enter the woods.

“It’s just one Qingniao; I won’t bother joining the commotion.” Ji Manqiu looked at the woods with a hint of boredom. She walked over to a nearby bluestone, sat down, and began stroking the little fox in her arms.

Seeing her stay behind, Liu Cheng’s eyes darkened, but she said nothing in the end, following behind Ruan Lan and Yu Qi.

“The aura of demonic beasts is very strong here.” While kneading the little fox’s paws, Ji Manqiu said nonchalantly, “There should be other demonic beasts nearby.”

Feng Qi wrinkled her nose and sniffed, asking in confusion, “How come I don’t smell anything?”

Ji Manqiu let out a low laugh and teased, “What exactly could that nose of yours smell?”

Feng Qi curled her lip. She’s really looking down on me. Though she didn’t smell any demonic beasts, she could certainly smell the scent of several demonkin.

Subconsciously licking her lips, Feng Qi looked up at the two somewhat distracted Lingyun Sect disciples and asked, “Are there any other demonic beasts in this mountain besides the Qingniao?”

“Yes,” one of them replied, pausing before continuing, “There’s one whose inner core is also a Water-Earth dual-attribute, though it’s not as good as the Qingniao.”

Just as she finished speaking, a sharp cry rang out from the depths of the forest. A Qingniao, whose wings could blot out the sun, soared into the sky only to be caught in a net woven from sword-qi. It eventually plummeted back down, helpless.

“It seems it has begun.” Feng Qi was staring at the spot where the Qingniao fell when the person beside her suddenly shrieked. The Lingyun disciples turned pale as they looked around, their voices stiff. “There… there are demonic beasts!”

Demonic beasts with heavy breathing and bloodshot eyes surrounded them from all directions. The largest was three to four meters tall. One brown bear stepped on and crushed a beast-attracting incense stick hidden beneath a tree. Its ferocious gaze scanned the area before finally fixing on Feng Qi and the others.

“You… you must not leave that sword circle!” the two Lingyun disciples said to Feng Qi. They drew their swords, took deep breaths, and engaged one beast each, trying to lure them away from the spot.

With two beasts lured away by the disciples, several still remained. Ji Manqiu glanced around casually, originally intending to ignore them, but she suddenly saw something that made her let out a sound of surprise. She vanished from the spot along with the little fox.

One by one, everyone left until only Feng Qi remained. Feng Qi sat calmly inside the sword circle. The beasts paced irritably around her but didn’t dare approach. After a while, as the effects of the beast-attracting incense wore off, the beasts regained their clarity and left on their own.

Demonic beasts usually don’t proactively attack humans without outside influence. It seemed this was another of Liu Cheng’s masterpieces, similar to the Cangyun Sect secret realm. Feng Qi wondered what she was up to… halfway through her thought, the demonic energy spreading through the air made her eyes light up. She looked toward her right and whispered to herself, “Is my luck really this good?”

The earlier commotion from the beasts had driven several demonkin hiding in Green Mountain toward Feng Qi. These were the very demonkin Liu Cheng had been trying to deal with. Since other Lingyun disciples were also hunting them, their flight had left them looking quite bedraggled.

“…A cultivator?” After the demonkin appeared and saw no beasts, they prepared to rest. But as their eyes scanned the area and landed on Feng Qi, their brows arched, and a strange light flashed in their eyes. “A mortal with such pure aura…”

Feng Qi carefully placed the bell on the ground and stepped out of the sword circle, looking gentle and harmless. “My Master and the others are inside dealing with a Qingniao. I suggest you flee before they come out.”

The demonkin surrounded Feng Qi with ill intent. “You’ve got quite the nerve,” one sneered. The leader wiped his lips and said in a sinister tone, “It’s been a long time since I’ve devoured such a pure soul. Catch her, don’t let her escape.”

Feng Qi sniffed the surrounding demonic energy and licked her lips. Speaking of which, it had been a long time since she had devoured demonic energy. She had to finish this quickly before her Master came out.

To Feng Qi, demonic energy couldn’t cause her any harm. However, because Ruan Lan and the others were nearby, she didn’t fully demonize. Instead, she shifted into her original form. The black cat suddenly pounced from beneath her clothes, its sharp claws slashing through the neck of the nearest demonkin. Blood instantly sprayed from the deep, bone-exposing wound.

The black cat dodged the splattering blood and began dealing with the next one while the others were still panicking. Within a few breaths, the previously arrogant demonkin were lying on the ground, their faces ashen.

The black cat walked to a nearby stream to wash the blood from its claws. Avoiding the puddles of blood, it walked to one of the demonkin, raised a front paw, and pressed it against his forehead. Strands of black energy surrounded the cat’s paw before being absorbed by her.

Just as the black cat finished devouring the energy of several demonkin and moved toward the last one, she suddenly sensed something. She looked up toward the bushes on her left.

Zhao Xiu was hidden behind the bushes, his expression grave as he peered out to check the situation. Because of the demonic energy, he hadn’t dared to approach at first. But at the thought that if Feng Qi were killed by the demonkin, her treasures might not be left behind, he felt unwilling to let it go and had eventually crept closer.

He didn’t expect to see a ground full of demonkin corpses.

“Where is she…?” Zhao Xiu frowned, scanning the area carefully. He didn’t see Feng Qi; he only saw a pile of her clothes on the ground.

The black cat leaped nimbly onto a tree trunk and looked down at the suspicious Zhao Xiu. Sensing the gaze, Zhao Xiu looked up. Seeing it was just a cat, he relaxed again. He rubbed his brow and gritted his teeth. “Dammit.”

Feng Qi sat on the branch watching Zhao Xiu’s every move. She didn’t know who this man was, but he didn’t look like a good person. He kept looking at the spot where she had just been—was he looking for her?

“…What happened here?” Ji Manqiu returned with the little fox and found the ground littered with demonkin corpses. Her eyebrows arched slightly. She looked up and fixed her gaze accurately on Feng Qi.

When Zhao Xiu saw Ji Manqiu’s face, his pupils shrank. Just as he was about to turn and run, the black cat sitting on the branch jumped down and knocked him unconscious with a single paw. She then scurried back to her clothes and shifted into her human form.

“I was attacked,” Feng Qi said while tidying her clothes. “Hurry and clean all this up.”

Ji Manqiu glanced at her and waved a hand. The corpses instantly vanished, along with the blood soaking the ground and the demonic energy that could be detected upon close inspection.

After straightening her clothes, Feng Qi obediently returned to the sword circle. Sitting on the bluestone, she pointed toward the bushes. “There’s a suspicious cultivator over there.”

Ji Manqiu went over to check and said with some surprise, “It’s Zhao Xiu.”

Feng Qi looked startled. “The same Zhao Xiu that Junior Aunt has been looking for?”

Ji Manqiu nodded.

“Then it seems he really was trying to target me?” Feng Qi said, somewhat baffled. “What is there to steal from me when my cultivation is so low?”

Ji Manqiu glanced at Feng Qi, who was covered in treasures but seemed completely unaware of it, and shrugged without a word.

The Lingyun disciples who had lured away the beasts hadn’t returned yet. Instead, Ruan Lan was the first to return, though she was alone; Yu Qi and Liu Cheng were not behind her.

“Master!” Feng Qi’s eyes lit up when she saw Ruan Lan. She asked curiously, “Did you get the inner core?”

Ruan Lan nodded slightly. She looked Feng Qi up and down carefully and asked in a low voice, “What happened?”

Feng Qi froze and instinctively denied it: “Nothing happened.”

Ruan Lan’s eyes narrowed, and the aura around her instantly turned cold. She raised a hand to hook Feng Qi’s chin, forcing her to meet her gaze, and said calmly, “Is that so?”

“…Something… something did happen.” Feng Qi guiltily avoided Ruan Lan’s gaze and pointed carefully toward the bushes. “There’s a suspicious cultivator there. Ji Manqiu caught him; she said it’s Zhao Xiu.”

“And… after you left, a lot of demonic beasts suddenly surrounded us. The two Lingyun disciples lured them away and haven’t come back yet. I’ve been sitting obediently in the sword circle and haven’t stepped out once.”

Under Ruan Lan’s gaze, Feng Qi confessed everything except the part about the demonkin.

Only after Feng Qi finished speaking did Ruan Lan release her and turn toward the bushes.

Ji Manqiu looked at Feng Qi with amusement. Seeing her looking relieved, she curled her lips and said, “She would have known if you left her sword circle.”

Feng Qi stared at her blankly. “Huh?”

“You didn’t know?” Ji Manqiu smiled. “It’s common sense.”

But it’s not common sense I ever established, Feng Qi sighed inwardly. To be honest, she had never given the female lead the “drawing sword circles” skill in her original settings.

Instead, Ruan Lan had always been very fond of drawing a circle and telling her to stay inside it.

Behind the bushes, Zhao Xiu lay on the ground, his life status unclear. Ruan Lan stared at him for a moment. Her light sword brushed aside the hair covering his neck, revealing several very obvious scratch marks on his throat.

The kitten scratched these. Ruan Lan’s brow furrowed. The thought of handing him over to Yu Qi instantly vanished. A sharp blade of sword-qi pierced through Zhao Xiu’s chest. The intense pain snapped Zhao Xiu awake. He looked at Ruan Lan with blurred vision, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. He whispered weakly, “Let me go… I… I have accomplices…”

“Is that so?”

Zhao Xiu’s eyes widened for an instant as the sword-qi destroyed the Nascent Soul within his body, cutting off his life immediately.

Ruan Lan used a sword wound to cover the scratch marks on the side of Zhao Xiu’s neck. She checked a few other obvious spots and, finding no other marks left by the kitten, she sheathed her sword and turned back.