The Villainous Demon Lord’s Handbook for Success: Rebirth - Chapter 3

The current Chu Qingqiu seemed somewhat different from her usual self. Her eyes held something Ning Fuyi couldn’t quite decipher, as if the purest deity had been possessed by a demonic aura, appearing both frenzied and despairing.

“You do not know,” she said softly.

Ning Fuyi was stunned by her words. By the time she regained her senses, the person before her had vanished. Qiu Yi had also been taken away, leaving only a pile of light, thin garments on the ground.

She was gone. Ning Fuyi breathed a sigh of relief, then suddenly realizing her situation, she began to struggle in a fit of rage.

“At least untie me!” she shouted angrily. “Chu Qingqiu!”

After shouting for a while with no response, Ning Fuyi could only spit in frustration. She attempted to use the meager immortal energy remaining in her body to undo the rope, but despite breaking into a heavy sweat, the binding remained as immovable as iron.

Once I recover my demonic power, I will definitely pay her back in kind, Ning Fuyi thought viciously.

Just as she was frowning in distress, she heard footsteps outside. Ning Fuyi immediately went on guard, but before she could shout “Who is it,” her heart skipped a beat, and she was momentarily struck speechless.

A beauty came trotting in from the doorway, possessing a face like a hibiscus and a waist like a willow. A green handkerchief covered her lips, and her gentle eyes were like clear lakes overflowing with water. The moment she saw Ning Fuyi, she broke into tears.

Ning Fuyi was completely stunned.

The beauty before her was no different from how she had looked hundreds of years ago. Even her clothes were that same water-green silk skirt she loved most. The lotus wood carving hanging at her waist was a birthday gift from Ning Fuyi; it was now perfectly intact, not yet reduced to ashes.

The beauty herself had never been reduced to ashes.

“Wenzhu,” Ning Fuyi murmured. It was as if she were witnessing that great fire all over again, her eyes stinging from the phantom smoke.

Wenzhu, Liu Wenzhu. She was the pearl of the Liu family, the greatest cultivation clan, and the childhood friend Ning Fuyi had grown up with. She had been pampered and delicate since birth, yet because of a villain’s frame-up, she had left behind only a few words before leaping into the boundless, hellish flames in Ning Fuyi’s stead.

“Yiyi, live well,” she had said.

“Yiyi!” The images in her memory were suddenly replaced by the living person before her. Ning Fuyi’s body jolted, pulling herself out of her recollections to look down at the woman currently untying the rope.

Though she had guessed she would see her friend again, seeing her in the flesh still sent a massive shock through her heart.

“Thank goodness you’re awake. You were covered in blood earlier, I thought you were,” Liu Wenzhu’s movements were gentle yet efficient. She quickly used her immortal energy to undo the rope, her eyes red with concern. “Look at you, still wet and wearing so little. Exalted Goddess Chu Ling promised to treat you, so why would she tie you to this stone pillar?”

“You must have made the Exalted Goddess angry again, didn’t you? Although she is strict, her heart is good. I don’t know why you’re always so at odds with her.” Liu Wenzhu reached out to pull Ning Fuyi up, handing her the clothes Chu Qingqiu had left on the ground.

“Her?” Ning Fuyi let out a cold laugh.

“Yes. No one in the sect could save you today. I nearly took you to the Liu family to ask my father for help, but luckily I ran into Exalted Goddess Chu Ling at the foot of the mountain. That’s how your life was saved. You really shouldn’t be so headstrong,” Liu Wenzhu chided softly.

Although Ning Fuyi disagreed in her heart, she didn’t argue further. She ducked into a corner to change. The clothes Chu Qingqiu left behind were just like the woman herself: conservative and upright. Once dressed, not even a patch of her neck was exposed.

Ning Fuyi pulled at the collar in annoyance.

When she emerged, she was dressed in goose-yellow robes, her messy hair tied loosely behind her. Aside from the weary look from her recent injuries, she looked every bit the clean and pretty sixteen-year-old girl.

Although she didn’t know why Chu Qingqiu chose to save her in this life, she had more important matters to attend to and couldn’t spare the energy to study Chu Qingqiu.

“Wenzhu, what time is it? Is everyone at the Yunshen Hall?” she asked.

Liu Wenzhu didn’t expect her to be so calm. After a moment’s hesitation, she nodded. “Yes. Uncle Mei Chengsi somehow found out that the Sect Leader met with an accident and immediately locked down the mountain gate, summoning all elders and disciples to Yunshen Hall. I was worried about you, so I didn’t go. They’ve been behind closed doors for a while now. The sect feels empty, and not a word of news has leaked out.”

Ning Fuyi nodded, her usual playful expression replaced by a dark, somber gaze.

Her mother’s death was already a settled matter, but there was still time for other things. The Yunjia Mountain Sect hadn’t been taken away yet, and her relatives and friends hadn’t met their tragic ends.

In her previous life, she had survived but fell gravely ill. By the time she woke up, the entire Yunjia Mountain Sect had changed hands. The new Sect Leader was that Mei Chengsi, her mother’s former junior brother. His cultivation wasn’t high, and he was truly a treacherous, lazy, and gluttonous man.

Ever since he took office, she and the other disciples no longer had protection. The Yunjia Mountain Sect, once one of the strongest cultivation sects, declined from then on, leading to the disasters that followed.

Liu Wenzhu looked at Ning Fuyi in surprise. She knew her friend’s temperament well; though she appeared carefree and lived loosely, her mind was actually very delicate. Now that Sect Leader Ningtian had met with disaster, Ning Fuyi was unexpectedly composed.

However, despite her doubts, she didn’t ask more. She assumed Ning Fuyi was putting on a brave face and felt even more heartbroken for her, reaching out to hold her hand.

“Yiyi, if you want to cry, just cry. I’ll stay with you,” she said softly.

Ning Fuyi knew she was worried, so she curled her lips into a smile and squeezed her hand back.

Her mother had been dead for hundreds of years. Even though she still felt sorrow when she remembered her, that sorrow had been blurred by the passing of time. It was hard to even feign deep grief.

“I don’t want to cry.” Ning Fuyi shook her head. She looked toward a sliver of brilliant sunlight peeking into the cave. “I just want to live my life well this time.”

Since heaven had given her a chance at rebirth, she didn’t want to repeat the same mistakes. If she could protect even one more person and prevent herself from watching them die in agony, it would be enough.

Ning Fuyi looked around and saw the white rope on the ground. With a thought, she went forward, picked it up, and tucked it into her sleeve.

“Wenzhu, take me to Yunshen Hall,” she said.

Yunshen Hall, true to its name, was situated at the highest point of the mountain where the clouds were deepest. Looking down, one could see thick clouds rolling and breaking against the cliffs dozens of feet high. Outside the hall stood forty-nine stone lions, winding out a path leading inside.

It had been hundreds of years since she’d been here. As Ning Fuyi walked past the stone lions with Liu Wenzhu, she felt a dazed sense of how much time had passed.

“Who goes there!” a sharp shout rang out. Liu Wenzhu instinctively stood in front of Ning Fuyi, her brow furrowed as she stared at the two unfamiliar men guarding the hall.

“I am a disciple of the sect. All disciples are inside, why can’t we enter?” Liu Wenzhu held up the glass tablet representing the Yunjia Mountain Sect and spoke gently.

The two men looked down at them disdainfully, their gaze landing on Ning Fuyi’s face with a hint of surprise.

“The Immortal Lord has ordered that once the meeting begins, no one else may enter. You two should go back and wait until it’s over,” one of the men said with a wave of his hand, sounding impatient.

Liu Wenzhu grew angry at this and stepped forward to speak, but Ning Fuyi pulled her sleeve.

“What if we insist on going in?” Ning Fuyi spoke softly. She smiled again, tilting her head slightly. That look made even Liu Wenzhu shudder.

It was as if she were filled with the most lethal poison, completely at odds with her youthful face.

The two men were also stunned for a moment, then looked at each other and laughed. One of them walked down the steps while laughing, looking the girl up and down before reaching out a hand to grab her shoulder.

“This little girl is quite bold. You haven’t bothered to ask who we—”

Before he could finish, something suddenly shot out from the girl’s sleeve. Like a snake, it climbed up his hand. The man let out a cry of surprise, his expression changing instantly as he retreated repeatedly. However, the thing was much faster than him. In the blink of an eye, the two men were tightly bound together, falling to the ground back-to-back with a loud thud.

“Audacious! What kind of monster is this! Undo it at once!” the man roared at Ning Fuyi in a rage. But as soon as he spoke, Ning Fuyi pulled a piece of cloth from her robe, tore it in half with a loud rip, and stuffed the pieces into their mouths.

“Too noisy,” she said, clapping her hands.

“This is Exalted Goddess Chu Ling’s spiritual tool. Even if you had heaven-reaching cultivation, you wouldn’t be able to undo it yourselves.” Ning Fuyi squatted down with a smile, extended a finger, blew on it, and gave the man a hard flick on the forehead. She looked with satisfaction at his bloodshot, angry eyes.

Luckily she remembered to take Chu Qingqiu’s Feather Rope, and luckily Chu Qingqiu hadn’t recalled it yet. Ning Fuyi stood up satisfied, pulled the stunned Liu Wenzhu along, and strode into the hall.

The hall was flooded with sunlight, just like the outside, and its ceiling was too high to see.

The first thing she saw were hundreds of sect disciples standing in the gaps of the hall like a dark cloud. Deep inside was a high platform with two people standing on it. One wore black and gold robes, his brow bone protruding strangely, his eyes almost buried under thick eyebrows. His hair and beard were a mix of black and white. This was Mei Chengsi, who had just entered the Great Mahayana realm this year.

The other person was more familiar to Ning Fuyi. He was the Chief Elder of the Yunjia Mountain Sect, an elderly man with a white beard and a hunched body. He was responsible for the sect’s most important treasures and rarely saw anyone as he was usually in seclusion.

At this moment, he was shakily holding a giant black Mountain-Opening Stone, muttering something as ancient, incomprehensible characters shimmered across the stone like flowing light.

The investiture ceremony!

Seeing Mei Chengsi’s palm about to cover the stone, Ning Fuyi’s heart tightened, and she immediately shouted at the top of her lungs, “Elder, wait!”

Fortunately, although the Chief Elder looked so old he might pass away at any second, his ears were remarkably sharp. He immediately turned and moved the stone away. Mei Chengsi, who was in a hurry to press it, nearly stumbled.

A few muffled laughs broke out among the disciples.

“Who dares to make a disturbance!” Mei Chengsi steadied himself and spoke in a thunderous, angry voice. After seeing Ning Fuyi, his brows twisted into a tight knot.

“Uncle Mei, long time no see.” Ning Fuyi pulled the corners of her mouth into a fake smile, then strode toward the high platform. When the disciples saw her, they fell into a state of confusion, whispering among themselves.

“Isn’t they say she was dying? How is she fine now?”

“The Sect Leader has passed away, yet she doesn’t seem sad at all. How strange.”

Ning Fuyi heard all these whispers but didn’t care. Instead, she met Mei Chengsi’s suffocating gaze, stood firm beneath the high platform, and looked up.

“Ning Fuyi?” Mei Chengsi practically squeezed the name through his teeth before smiling. “Breaking into Yunshen Hall and disrupting the investiture ceremony—is this how your mother taught you?”

“Uncle, you worry too much. My mother never taught me,” Ning Fuyi said with a squinting smile. She lifted her skirt and stepped onto the high platform with blatant disregard. “On the other hand, you, as a dignified Great Mahayana Immortal Lord, always love to engage in underhanded tricks. That’s truly unworthy of my mother’s teachings.”

Mei Chengsi’s sarcasm was thrown back by Ning Fuyi’s thick skin. His face turned pale. “Sect leaders of all generations must be recognized by the Mountain-Opening Stone before they can succeed. Stop talking nonsense. Men—”

“Although the Mountain-Opening Stone has the spirit of the mountains, it isn’t impossible for humans to interfere with it.” Ning Fuyi interrupted him unhurriedly. Her voice wasn’t loud, but the high platform had an amplifying effect, allowing the thousands of disciples below to hear clearly.

As soon as she said this, the crowd below grew even more chaotic, with disciples whispering to one another.

“Fuyi.” A female elder in purple robes frowned and warned from below. “It’s fine to mess around normally, but why are you speaking such nonsense today?”

Mei Chengsi clenched his rough palms, his face turning various shades of pale and blue. He glared at Ning Fuyi and shouted in a deep voice, “Utter nonsense!”

“Whether I am talking nonsense can be proven with a single test.” Ning Fuyi ignored them, walking toward the Mountain-Opening Stone and raising her hand to place it on the surface.

Mei Chengsi didn’t dare let his scheme be exposed. He immediately let out a sharp cry and raised his hand, sending a streak of fire straight toward Ning Fuyi, attempting to interrupt her.

Although his move was meant as a lesson and not to kill, she would still be seriously injured if hit.

Ning Fuyi scrambled to dodge. At the critical moment, a cold wind suddenly swept around her. Before the bright red fire could touch her clothes, it was instantly swallowed by the wind and vanished without a trace.

That wind brushed past her face, as gentle as a woman’s delicate hand.

At the same time, the main doors slammed open. It seemed as if feathers drifted through the hall, bringing a burst of cold fragrance. All the disciples gasped and looked toward the entrance in unison.

“Heavens, it’s Exalted Goddess Chu Ling, Chu Qingqiu!”

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