When a Yandere Cannon Fodder Meets a Dark, Twisted Villain - Chapter 39

Gazing at Ruo Ying’s mocking expression, Shi Yining’s heart sank. Could Mo’er have already fallen into her hands?

No, it’s impossible… She subconsciously denied the thought, though her hands hidden within her sleeves tightened reflexively.

In that very instant, a sudden change occurred.

The surrounding space distorted without warning. Hu Ying’s startled and furious cries reached her ears, fading from near to far…

The world spun violently.

The lotus pond courtyard vanished from sight, and the familiar cage reappeared.

Ruo Ying stood to the side with her hands behind her back, smiling pleasantly. “No matter how much Ah Ying guarded you, I succeeded in the end. Kidnapping you right under her nose… she must be throwing a fit by now.”

Despite being in a perilous situation, Shi Yining felt no fear. At this moment, she had only one thing she desperately needed to verify.

“Senior, you said just now that you know Mo’er’s whereabouts?”

“You should know my purpose for capturing you. I am not Hu Ying. Now that you can barely save yourself, you still care this much for Shu Mo?”

Seeing her respond with silence, Ruo Ying suddenly leaned in close and dropped a bombshell: “In your past life, she treated you like that—what? Have you forgotten it all?”

Hearing these words, Shi Yining’s mind reeled in shock.

“Surprised?” Ruo Ying chuckled softly. “Since you could return through rebirth, naturally, so can I. Do you want to know what happened after you died in your previous life?”

Shi Yining suppressed her swirling thoughts and said calmly, “Even if I want to know, would you tell me the truth, Senior?”

“If you don’t ask, you’ll never know the answer. If you do, and I’m in a good mood, perhaps I’ll tell you.”

“Even if you speak, I have no way of knowing if it is true or false. How can I believe you?”

“You are already unable to escape my palm. I have no reason to lie to you.”

Shi Yining raised her eyes. “Then please tell me first, where is Mo’er? Is she injured?”

Ruo Ying snorted coldly. “You truly do care for her. After Hu Ying took you away, she was bent on saving you. I trapped her using a secret method. Whether in the past life or this one, she hasn’t changed at all—she is possessed to the bone. She didn’t hesitate to use the forbidden arts of the Daoist sects. If I had left half a step later, I’m afraid I would have left my life there.”

Upon hearing this, the color drained from Shi Yining’s face. She knew all too well the devastating consequences of using forbidden arts.

It felt as though her heart was being gripped tightly, making every breath an excruciating sting.

“Mo’er… she…”

Ruo Ying interrupted her irritably, “Rest assured. In the entire cultivation world, anyone might die, but she won’t.”

Seeing that her expression did not seem fake, Shi Yining’s heart settled slightly. “Your words seem to carry a deeper meaning, Senior?”

Ruo Ying glanced at her and said meaningfully, “Do you know that the entire cultivation world and the Demon Realm are both enveloped in an immortal spell that reverses time?”

Shi Yining froze completely. “What?”

Ruo Ying curled her lip. “Otherwise, why do you think you were able to live another life?”

“Could this immortal spell be…”

“Besides Shu Mo, who else could it be?”

Shi Yining murmured blankly, “Reversing time… Did Mo’er become an Immortal in her previous life?”

Ruo Ying gritted her teeth. “An Immortal? She became a Demon! After you died in the last life, we, her enemies, suffered no small amount of torment at her hands!”

Shi Yining lowered her gaze. “If you did wrong, Senior, receiving punishment is simply the cycle of karma. You cannot blame Mo’er.”

Ruo Ying squinted at her. “I never thought I was in the wrong. From beginning to end, I only wanted to resurrect my sister.”

Shi Yining countered immediately, “There is nothing wrong with wanting to resurrect your sister. The wrong lies in practicing evil arts and harming innocent people.”

Ruo Ying dismissed this. “In this vast cultivation world, who doesn’t have a few lives on their hands? Whether someone is ‘innocent’ is relative… You may think someone is innocent, but they might not truly be… In your past life, didn’t you also do many wrong things under the coercion of that ‘System’?”

The existence of the System was once an indelible nightmare for Shi Yining.

Now that it was mentioned again, the experiences of her past life uncontrollably surfaced in her mind.

When she first arrived in this world and learned that this land was inhabited by cultivators, Shi Yining had been overjoyed. In her first life, she was plagued by congenital chronic illness, living every day in pain as a total “medicine jar.” She desperately longed for a healthy body—to go where she wanted and to truly see the world she lived in.

At that time, she knew clearly that this wish would never be fulfilled. Whenever she was tortured by pain, she would pick up that specific book and read it carefully.

The book had appeared strangely. She had watched with her own eyes as it dropped out of thin air onto her hospital bed. The cover was blank, but when opened, the first page was filled with dense text.

For someone who was usually unable to focus on reading due to chronic pain, she miraculously managed to keep reading.

The book told the story of a female protagonist’s path to immortality. The story was long, mostly consisting of fighting monsters and leveling up. The protagonist had no romantic plotlines, except for a female supporting character who appeared midway. This character had a one-sided infatuation with the protagonist, pursuing her by any means necessary, eventually turning love into hatred, suffering the consequences of her own evil, and falling off a cliff to her death.

When Shi Yining read the supporting character’s ending, she felt a sense of melancholy. She knew the character had committed evil first, but for some reason, her heart felt a deep sense of pity; she even hoped the character had faked her death. At the time, she thought it was perhaps because the character shared her name that she could empathize with her more.

Immersed in the story and slowly drawn to the protagonist, the torment of her illness no longer felt so intense. To her, the book was like a painkilling medicine she couldn’t live without.

Due to a previous accident, the hospital ward was strictly monitored. The nurses saw her holding the book all day and were worried, advising her many times to rest.

Shi Yining knew the nurses meant well. She would always agree with a smile, yet she would still secretly flip through the pages when no one was around.

To her, that book appearing out of thin air was her only salvation against the torture of illness. In that world, she had no relatives. If it weren’t for the highly advanced technology and the free universal healthcare provided due to the dwindling population, she wouldn’t have lasted until she was sixteen.

At the moment her life reached its end, she felt a rare absence of pain, passing away peacefully while holding that book.

Before her consciousness completely dissipated, Shi Yining had a foolish wish—thinking that after death, she might go to that book’s world to see it… to see that protagonist who possessed peerless talent and a cold, transcendent beauty.

Perhaps the heavens heard her prayer, for her wish became reality—only, the way it was realized was a bit different. She became that female supporting character in the book who pursued the protagonist by any means necessary.

Because of the book, she was already attracted to the protagonist, but she secretly resolved to guard her heart and never commit a single evil act.

She had never expected that an entity calling itself a System would appear and force her to walk the path of the book’s female supporting character.

When she first heard the System’s demands, she scoffed and flatly refused. In response, the System harshly meted out punishment… the agonizing pain of her first life returned, doubled in intensity yet never fatal. Neither her Master nor her fellow disciples could detect anything wrong with her body.

This was because whenever anyone else appeared, the System’s punishment would vanish.

The moment she was alone, the agony would descend once more.

Knowing that the concept of “soul-possession” existed in the cultivation world, Shi Yining feared being discovered as an anomaly and exorcised as a ghost or monster. Thus, she endured in silence, never once reaching out for help.

The System’s punishments grew more severe by the day until, finally, she could bear it no longer and collapsed unconscious in her room.

When she woke up, she had lost all memories of her first life.

Under the System’s influence, she slowly began to tread the path of the book’s ill-fated (supporting character)…

Two lines of clear tears rolled down her cheeks. A sharp scoff suddenly sounded in her ear, breaking Shi Yining’s reverie.

Ruo Ying raised an eyebrow as she looked at her. “Why are you crying? Was I wrong?”

Shi Yining slowly returned to her senses, wiped away her tears, and asked the doubt buried deep within her heart: “How did you know about the existence of the System, Senior?”

Ruo Ying gave a mysterious smile. “That so-called System actually originated from the Demon Lord. I was the one who cast the spell to control it, so naturally, I know.”

After a moment of stunned silence, Shi Yining followed up quickly: “Who exactly is this Demon Lord you speak of? What was her purpose in creating a System to control me?”

Having the memories of a high-tech world from her first life, her subconscious had treated the System as some kind of unknown program. She never imagined the truth would be so far-fetched.

Ruo Ying replied as if it were a matter of course: “The Demon Lord is, naturally, the Master of the Demon Realm. If you ask for her name, I cannot answer, for even I do not know. As for her purpose, the same applies.”

Shi Yining was skeptical. “Didn’t you just say, Senior, that you were the one who controlled the System via a spell?”

Ruo Ying admitted it bluntly. “Correct. But that was a mission assigned to me by the Demon Lord. I was only responsible for execution; as for the ‘why,’ I was not permitted to ask.”

At this point, her voice turned slightly cold. “The method to resurrect my sister was also taught to me by the Demon Lord. At the time, I thought of you and boldly proposed it to her. I expected to be rejected, but instead, the Demon Lord said she would not interfere. I was curious then—it seemed as though she was certain I would fail… Later, facts proved her right. In the past life, whenever I tried to move against you, various accidents would always occur to hinder me. It wasn’t until this life that those ‘accidents’ finally diminished…”

After a brief silence, Shi Yining continued, “If you controlled the System… does that mean your consciousness was attached to me in the past life?”

“Of course not!” Ruo Ying denied without hesitation. “The ‘control’ I spoke of was merely performing a secret rite to bind the System to you. As long as the rite wasn’t undone, the System would follow you forever. The one truly in control of everything was the Demon Lord. I also find it strange—having lived a second life, that secret rite can no longer be activated.”

Shi Yining understood the reason for this better than anyone.

In her previous life, after she died by falling off the cliff, her soul went to the Underworld. When she plunged into the Nine Serene Springs of the Yellow River, the System had completely dissipated. Since the main entity no longer existed, the secret rite naturally could not be used again.

At this stage, although some doubts were resolved, new questions were surfacing one after another.

Who could the Demon Lord be? Was the book that appeared out of thin air in her first life also her doing?

And Mo’er… did she know anything regarding the Demon Lord?

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