Transmigrated as the Little Concubine of a Paper-Thin Man - Chapter 10

Shi Yunjii hesitated for a moment.

Previously, when Huan zhu handled Zhao Feng’s interrogation, she claimed that the two of them hid in a secluded palace within the Yu Ling Palace and miraculously escaped. Shi Yunjii, preoccupied, cooperated by nodding and glossing over the matter.

If she wanted to, she could easily use that lie again.

But looking at Yan Ling, she didn’t want to hide the truth, nor could she.

So she raised her arm, pointing towards the top of Yu Ling Palace, which was the summit of Ling Ling Peak.

Despite her injured eyes, Yan Ling was aware of every silent move she made.

The noble Immortal Lord untied the silk scarf over her eyes, lightly twisting it between her fingers. Her tone was already nine parts certainty: “This is yours.”

Shi Yunjii felt a slight tightness in her chest. She nodded, simultaneously letting out a very low “Mhm” from her nose.

The next second, Yan Ling’s hand dropped, and the silk scarf fell, lightly piling up on the corridor. Just then, a gust of wind blew, lifting the scarf into the air. Shi Yunjii instinctively reached out to grab it, but her movements weren’t quick enough, and she missed.

Fortunately, the white jade railing by the corridor seemed reluctant to let it go. The snow-white scarf wrapped around it twice, just managing to resist the wind.

“How did you break through the mountain’s restrictions?” Yan Ling questioned, “And what is your purpose in getting close to me…?”

Without the silk scarf concealing them, Shi Yunjii saw her tightly closed eyes and the slightly unnatural redness and swelling at the corners of her eyes. She pointed to her own eyes, knowing well that Yan Ling would understand that she was asking about her injuries, but Yan Ling chose to ignore it, continuing to glare at her with a furrowed brow.

Shi Yunjii wanted to express that she had no malicious intent, but after a long search, she only managed to retrieve a maid’s token from her body.

As soon as the token appeared, it automatically flew into Yan Ling’s hand. Yan Ling used her spiritual sense to scan and read its contents.

Soon, a hint of confusion appeared in her expression: “Yunjii? You are from the Yun family. The Yun family… Merit Cultivation… Legend says that Merit Cultivators rely on accumulating merit to improve their cultivation. They are highly favored by the Dao of Heaven, and their advancement and ascension are different from ordinary cultivators.” As she spoke, she seemed lost in thought, murmuring and repeating a phrase: “Highly favored by the Dao of Heaven…”

Shi Yunjii took advantage of her distraction to quickly recall the game settings she knew.

In this world, cultivators are divided into many types, common ones include Sword Cultivators, Spell Cultivators, Pill Cultivators, Artifact Cultivators… less common ones also include Buddhist Cultivators and Merit Cultivators. Unlike other cultivators who must desperately practice and accumulate power, Merit Cultivators, as the name suggests, rely on merit for advancement. Merit comes from faith in the mortal world, so for a Merit Cultivator to improve their cultivation, they must enter the world, protect the common people, and ideally have the people willingly build statues and temples for them, worshiping day and night.

Once enough merit is accumulated, a Merit Cultivator can immediately ascend to immortality, not even needing to endure the tribulation of lightning that other cultivators inevitably encounter during advancement.

Before the disaster occurred, Merit Cultivators were very popular in the cultivation world. Because their cultivation method was different, the more merit they accumulated, the more the Dao of Heaven favored them. Other cultivators, who depended on the Dao of Heaven’s mood, naturally treated them with courtesy everywhere, and at least would not actively antagonize them—

After all, angering a Merit Cultivator was, to some extent, equivalent to angering the Dao of Heaven. If the Dao of Heaven was displeased, their lightning tribulations would be difficult to pass, and centuries of cultivation would be ruined.

However, the once-flourishing Merit Cultivation lineage is now close to extinction.

Shi Yunjii remembered a past event mentioned in the game’s background story.

About five hundred years ago, the human world faced a period of chaos. This was a great opportunity for all the Merit Cultivators at the time—the murkier the water, the higher the chance of catching a fish. The common people were all suffering terribly, and they only needed to enter the world and operate slightly to gain a large amount of merit.

Unfortunately, all Merit Cultivators thought this way.

So at that time, a large number of Merit Cultivators flooded into the mortal realm. They acted independently, each believing they could become the savior of the people, end the chaos, and ascend to immortality based on the accumulated opportunity.

The result of this was that the Merit Cultivators constantly clashed with each other, forcing the chaos that should have ended much earlier to be prolonged.

War spread, and the people struggled to survive. The land was filled with the starved, and the population sharply declined.

The hellish conditions caused damage to the Dao of Heaven, and signs of spiritual energy depletion appeared in the world.

Other cultivators who relied on the Dao of Heaven and spiritual energy for cultivation could no longer sit still.

Ordinary cultivators feared creating karma with the mortal world, which could impede their ascension if not cleanly resolved during their final ascent, so they rarely entered the world. But at that time, they put everything aside, and even united, entering the world together and collectively killing the Merit Cultivators who had gone mad for merit.

Finally, to prevent the tragedy from happening again, several Great Ability cultivators in the Tribulation Crossing stage joined forces to seal the path from the cultivation world to the mortal realm.

After that incident, the remaining Merit Cultivators were few to begin with, and those who were still willing to persevere could not enter the world to accumulate merit, so their cultivation remained stagnant for a long time.

Merit Cultivation rapidly declined. Now, the entire cultivation world cannot even name a single well-known Merit Cultivator. The Yun family sect, to which the original Yun Jii belonged, is likely the last remnant of the Merit Cultivation lineage.

“Can you communicate with the Dao of Heaven?”

Yan Ling’s voice woke Shi Yunjii from her recollection.

Shi Yunjii looked over, her expression showing an appropriate amount of confusion.

Communicate with the Dao of Heaven? What does that mean?

Yan Ling remained silent for a moment, then reached out: “Let me see your core cultivation method.”

Shi Yunjii looked bewildered, shaking her head to indicate she didn’t have one.

Just as Yan Ling frowned, the boiling medicine pot at Shi Yunjii’s feet let out a gentle “pop.” Shi Yunjii quickly bent down to check, narrowly missing Yan Ling’s sudden burst of anger.

In the time they had been confronting each other, the medicinal soup was finished brewing.

Shi Yunjii carefully lifted the medicine pot off the stove and placed it on a side table. She then raised her reddened fingers and pinched her earlobe.

She was focused on her task and completely failed to notice that the person next to her, Yan Ling, was momentarily lost in thought because of her unconscious small action. A long time ago, her divine being also taught her the same thing—when your hand is burned, pinch your earlobe to cool it down.

Was this teaching not unique to her alone?

Shi Yunjii was unaware of Yan Ling’s thoughts. After the pain in her finger lessened, she entered the kitchen and brought out a clean bowl. Since Yan Ling was right beside her, she didn’t have to go to much trouble. She poured the medicinal soup out and presented it to Yan Ling.

Yan Ling did not take it. Shi Yunjii thought for a moment, leaned over, and gently blew on the surface of the soup in the bowl.

“Follow me.” Yan Ling turned and walked straight ahead, not looking at her.

The two returned to Yan Ling’s sleeping quarters. Shi Yunjii placed the medicinal soup on the table. Yan Ling finally turned to face her. Shi Yunjii motioned, reminding Yan Ling to drink the medicine while it was hot.

“I don’t understand Merit Cultivation, I only know that Merit Cultivators can use the accumulated merit to leverage the power of the Dao of Heaven, achieving many things that ordinary cultivators cannot,” Yan Ling began.

Shi Yunjii nodded upon hearing this.

There was indeed such a setting in the game. Merit could be simply understood as a currency recognized by the Dao of Heaven. As long as you had enough currency, you could trade with the Dao of Heaven and exchange it for what you desired.

Mentioning this, Shi Yunjii suddenly remembered the reason she came here—

Could it be that the original Yun Jii made a deal with the Dao of Heaven, which is why her soul was summoned to this world?

But what puzzled her was: how did the original Yun Jii trade with the Dao of Heaven? What kind of transaction would summon a soul as powerless as hers to take over this body? Couldn’t she have just summoned a powerful person to kill her enemy?

Was it possible that Yun Jii didn’t have enough merit, and could only summon a small fry like her?

Yan Ling’s voice sounded again: “So, can you communicate with the Dao of Heaven?”

Shi Yunjii shook her hand.

The next moment, Yan Ling gripped her wrist: “Don’t try to deceive me.” She pressed close, her entire face just about two fingers’ distance above Shi Yunjii’s eyes: “If you can’t, then how did you break into the restriction that only I and the divine being can enter?”

“Ah…” Shi Yunjii tried to speak, but only managed to make two meaningless syllables in vain.

Her vocal system was intact, but her psychological aphonia prevented her from communicating verbally. Shi Yunjii struggled for a moment, then, like countless times before, calmed down and quietly accepted reality.

Yan Ling’s breathing gradually quickened, clearly indicating extreme emotional fluctuation.

After a long while, she asked in an extremely suppressed voice: “You… have also seen Him, haven’t you?”

Shi Yunjii was a little confused.

Who is “He”?

“You… have also received His favor, His grace.” At some point, Yan Ling opened her injured eyes.

Her gaze burned as she stared at Shi Yunjii: “Did He leave me and start favoring you because He prefers you more?”

Shi Yunjii was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized.

Yan Ling thought that she, like her, had been lucky enough to receive the “divine being’s” favor?!

“Heh…” Shi Yunjii gave a bitter smile.

Yes, who would have thought that the “divine being” who used to be omnipotent by her side was actually the fragile woman standing in front of her right now, a woman she could crush with a single finger?

She and an existence like the “divine being” shared absolutely no similarities.

However, the identity of someone who has also been favored by the “divine being” certainly made a lot more sense.

Shi Yunjii nodded, then shook her head again.

“Sure enough, you also know of His existence.” A soundless, cryptic groan came from Yan Ling’s throat. Her eyes, hidden in the shadows, let out a bloodthirsty, dangerous glow.

Her hand suddenly reached for the back of Shi Yunjii’s neck, and she asked with a playful tone, “What does shaking your head mean?”

Shi Yunjii didn’t care if she could understand or not, and used sign language: [He did not leave you because He favored someone else.] After thinking, she raised her hand again: [I also haven’t seen Him for a long time.]

Her efforts were completely in vain. Yan Ling’s gaze was solely focused on her vulnerable neck.

She slowly tightened the five fingers placed on the back of Shi Yunjii’s neck. A single, insane thought was in her mind—You favor her, don’t you? If I try to kill her now, will you appear?

Will you appear and save her, just like every time you saved me before?

Will you, or won’t you?

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