Transmigrated as the Little Concubine of a Paper-Thin Man - Chapter 28

The two stayed in the lakeside cabin to recuperate, and the days passed slowly and peacefully.

Shi Yunjii could sense that Yan Ling seemed to have something on her mind. She cautiously probed, but the other party merely brushed it off. Thinking that she couldn’t help Yan Ling much at the moment, Shi Yunjii didn’t press further, choosing instead to pretend not to notice.

Occasionally, she would recall matters from the modern world, especially her mother waiting at a hotel for her to attend the wedding. Yet, every time these memories surfaced, she felt an immense distance from them. Strangely, she wasn’t in a hurry to fulfill the original body’s wish; instead, she embraced a take-it-easy attitude, cherishing the tranquility of this place.

But that night, Shi Yunjii had a dream.

In the dream, she saw a girl who bore an eight or nine-tenths resemblance to herself. At first glance, she recognized the person—it was the original owner of this body, the Yunjii who had everything stolen by her enemies.

The Yunjii in the dream was in great pain; the emotion of hatred tormented her, making even her soul unstable.

She questioned Shi Yunjii why she wasn’t taking immediate action, even warning her that her enemies must have already sensed something, and any further delay would only increase the difficulty of revenge.

Startled by the frightening appearance of the Yunjii in her dream, Shi Yunjii woke up in the middle of the night.

Her sleepiness vanished, so she simply put on a coat, got up, and opened the window to get some fresh air.

But before long, Yan Ling appeared outside the window.

She held a faint candlelight in her hand, and her eyes were obscured by the flickering light: “Did you have a nightmare?”

Shi Yunjii was slightly surprised: [You… didn’t sleep either?]

Yan Ling merely curved her lips into a smile and said nothing.

Shi Yunjii found it a bit strange. She didn’t understand why Yan Ling could appear before her the moment she woke up. Had the other person been watching her all along?

This guess was too odd, so she shook her head, banishing the unwarranted thought.

Yan Ling asked again: “Can’t sleep well?”

Shi Yunjii didn’t answer, countering with a question: [Yan Ling, have your injuries healed?]

A breeze blew through, tugging at the flame on the dying candle. The candlelight flickered precariously, looking like it would be extinguished at any moment.

Yan Ling slowly raised her hand, sheltering the candlelight, shielding it from the night wind, and momentarily extending the life of that barely perceptible flicker. After a pause, she looked up, her face expressionless: “Almost.”

Shi Yunjii bit her lip.

She was silent for a while, though she didn’t know why she needed the silence, as if uttering the next sentence required a long preparation time. But even the longest psychological preparation must eventually end. She took a deep breath: [When are we leaving for the Yun Clan Sect?]

Yan Ling looked up at her.

Shi Yunjii felt the air pressure around them was low, making it hard for her to breathe.

[Is there a problem?]

Yan Ling: “Are you in a hurry?”

Shi Yunjii nodded gently: [Prolonged delay invites trouble… I’m afraid something might change if we drag it out any longer.]

Just then, a gust of wind blew from the lake, carrying a cool, watery mist.

Shi Yunjii raised a hand to shield her face. When she lowered it, she found that the candle in Yan Ling’s hand had been extinguished. She looked up, trying to find the other person, but her eyes, not yet adjusted to the darkness, could only make out a blurry silhouette in front of her.

She opened her mouth, uttering a silent call, but she couldn’t be sure if the other party could see her mouth shape.

[Yan Ling…]

The person outside the window seemed to move.

Shi Yunjii subconsciously leaned back, and the movement outside the window disappeared. After a moment, just as her eyes were about to adjust to the darkness, she heard Yan Ling’s voice.

Yan Ling said: “We leave tomorrow.”

Shi Yunjii didn’t react, reaching out to confirm something, but Yan Ling’s turning back appeared in her view. The figure was thin and was quickly swallowed by the night’s darkness, merging with the vast night sky.

She withdrew her hand, feeling discouraged, closed the window, and returned to bed, forgetting when and how she eventually fell asleep.

The next day, after breakfast, Yan Ling actually took her away from the cabin.

As she was taken into the air, held by the waist, Shi Yunjii couldn’t help but look back—the small wooden cabin grew smaller and smaller in her vision, until it completely vanished into the mountains, leaving no trace. Shi Yunjii retracted her gaze, looking at the boundless sea of clouds before her, feeling that the recent cozy time in the cabin, too, seemed like a dream, incredibly illusory.

The days that followed became genuinely busy.

Yan Ling was always a woman of action; whatever she wanted to do, she would go all out to achieve it.

She took Shi Yunjii to find well-informed cultivators to gather information about the Yun Clan Sect. While acquiring the relevant intelligence, they unexpectedly learned about the situation of the Flying Immortal Sect after they left.

“Hua Yan is seriously injured, his life unknown. The Flying Immortal Sect is currently managed by his direct daughter, the weakly capable Hua Shu,” the informant stroked his white beard. “The Flying Immortal Sect is a fat piece of meat. All forces are now eyeing Hua Yan and Hua Shu, figuring out how to swallow them.

“Alas, if I weren’t so old, I’d really want to join the fun too.”

Yan Ling remained unmoved, as if the Flying Immortal Sect had nothing to do with her: “Is this all the information about the Yun Clan Sect?”

She pinched the two thin sheets of paper: “It’s too little.”

“It’s not little,” the informant retorted. “Who still cares about their cultivation matters now? The information doesn’t sell for much, and it’s difficult to collect, so this is all there is, right?”

Yan Ling quickly scanned the two pages: “Yun Yang passed away, his eldest disciple Jiang Shu succeeded him and manages all the disciples.” She looked up at the informant: “Did Yun Yang not have any children? Why would he let an outsider inherit the family sect?”

“Oh, you’re quite nosy?” The informant leaned back against the chair, thought for a moment, and replied, “Yun Yang is said to have had a daughter. He married his daughter to Jiang Shu, and then also gave him the position of Sect Master. But it also seems that Yun Yang gave the Sect Master position to his daughter, but his daughter mysteriously disappeared, and Jiang Shu was forced to temporarily take over the sect affairs and become the Sect Master.”

He said, fanning himself: “I couldn’t confirm this piece of information, so I didn’t include it. Just listen to it, and judge its authenticity yourself.”

Yan Ling chatted with him for a while longer, knowing she couldn’t get any more information from him, so she took Shi Yunjii and left.

With the information gathering mostly complete, the two didn’t delay any further and headed directly to Yunshuang City, the closest city to the Yun family sect, where they found a secluded inn to stay.

“I have a rough understanding of the situation at the Yun Clan Sect. Tonight, after dark, I will find an opportunity to sneak in and check the situation. If possible, I will directly capture Jiang Shu, force him to admit his crime of betraying his master and annihilating his ancestors, and then return the entire Yun Clan Sect to… return it to Yunjii’s hands.” As Yan Ling said these words, she wasn’t looking at Shi Yunjii; instead, her gaze was fixed on the void, not even focused. “Since I can’t predict what might happen tonight, I don’t want to rashly bring you with me.

“I will set up a restriction here. You wait for me here tonight.”

Shi Yunjii had no objection and nodded: [You must be careful.]

Yan Ling curled her lips, looking at Shi Yunjii, and her words were meaningful: “There are few things in this world that require me to be careful anymore.”

Shi Yunjii paused.

Yan Ling sighed: “If you protect yourself well, I’ll have no worries.”

Shi Yunjii regained her composure and nodded gently.

That night, before leaving, Yan Ling took off the third bell from the string of silver bells and handed it to Shi Yunjii, then closed the door and left.

In the empty room, Shi Yunjii sat on the edge of the bed. For some unknown reason, she felt her heart beating irregularly. She covered her chest, her whole body restless and unable to sit still.

[This shouldn’t be the case…] She communicated with herself internally, [Am I not aware of Yan Ling’s current strength? Let alone one Jiang Shu, the entire Yun Clan Sect combined couldn’t withstand a single blow from her. What do I have to worry about?]

But after taking a few deep breaths, she rubbed her forehead in frustration, murmuring to herself: [But why… do I always feel that things won’t end this simply? Which part will go wrong?]

With such worry, she stared blankly at the candlelight in front of her, intending to stay awake all night, concentrating on waiting for Yan Ling’s return.

On the other side, Yan Ling had successfully infiltrated the Yun Clan Sect.

In truth, with her power, it wouldn’t be difficult to simply charge into this sect, but the original Yunjii’s wish was not to destroy this sect that her family had maintained for generations, but to reclaim it from the traitor. This required them to minimize damage to the Yun Clan Sect’s living strength while taking action. It was precisely for this reason that Yan Ling had gone to great lengths to gather information and clarify the current attitude of the Yun Clan Sect toward the new Sect Master, Jiang Shu.

Otherwise, killing Jiang Shu might be a small matter, but calming the anger of all the sect disciples afterwards would be a huge trouble.

Because it was late at night, the sect was very quiet. Apart from the night-shift disciples dozing against the walls, most people were asleep in their rooms.

Yan Ling circled around and found that this sect was more peaceful than she had imagined—if she didn’t know the fact that Jiang Shu had betrayed his master and seized the Sect Master position, she would have thought this was just an ordinary small sect, not prominent in power, but harmonious and warm internally.

Jiang Shu’s location was not difficult to find.

Unlike large sects like the Flying Immortal Sect, the entire Yun Clan Sect only occupied one small hill, and its area was not even half the size of Yan Ling’s own Jade Bell Palace.

In just a moment, Yan Ling found a courtyard located in the center of the sect.

The courtyard of a small sect’s Sect Master was not grand, merely a two-story rough stone house, with mottled traces on the courtyard walls, accompanied by some deep and shallow scratches.

Although it was deep night, candlelight was still burning in the house, and the main door of the house was even wide open, as if waiting for something.

Yan Ling entered invisibly and saw a young man sitting at a table, manipulating several wooden puppets in his hands.

She observed him, finding his face handsome, but with several deep furrows between his brows—a sign of someone who is heavily burdened and prone to overthinking. Yan Ling moved closer and heard the other party muttering to himself.

“Kun South-North, Xun Three-Seven, the path of life is in the East, East produces Metal-Water… No, no, how can the path of life be here…” The man’s emotions seemed to be on the verge of collapse, and he threw all the puppets in his hands away.

But immediately, he realized something and gathered all the puppets back up.

His gaze was fixed, staring at one of the braided female puppets, his eyes gradually becoming sinister: “Where did I treat you badly? Why do you want to run away and find someone to harm me? The Sect Master position, isn’t the Sect Master position what your father owed me?”

Hearing this, Yan Ling was already certain that the person was Jiang Shu.

She stared blankly at the other person, raised her hand, but her arm remained frozen in the air for a long time, so long that she herself forgot what she had raised her hand for.

So, everything was this simple. Fulfilling Yunjii’s wish was within her control.

So, everything was this simple. Destroying her long-standing delusion and beautiful thought was also within her control.

Support Transmigrated as the Little Concubine of a Paper-Thin Man