Chapter 3
His heart was no longer merely dripping blood. It was bleeding rivers.
He reluctantly took off the string of pearls and shoved it into Ye Zhenzhen's hands. He could only watch as the Little Glutinous Rice Ball clutched his treasure tight, gnawed at it with her gums, and drooled all over the floor.
This trip had cost him his wife and his troops. He had failed to swindle the Seven-Colored Heaven-Mending Stone out of them and had lost a Superior Beast-Binding Rope, 100,000 Superior Spirit Stones, and a string of Heaven-and-Earth Pearls worth another 180,000 Superior Spirit Stones.
Why had he chosen this of all times to come to Cloudsky Sect?
He shot Ye Rufeng a vicious glare. It's all your fault. You told me Ye Ruheng was done for and urged me to come snatch the Seven-Colored Heaven-Mending Stone.
Ye Rufeng turned his head away, avoiding his gaze. "Do I know you?"
Ye Zhenzhen: You're exactly the one I'm robbing! Hahahahaha! Nothing beats plucking feathers from a skinflint like Immortal Venerable Shen.
Chapter 3
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After the banquet, Immortal Venerable Shen wanted to leave this place of heartbreak as quickly as possible, but his son Shen Xingyan stopped him.
Shen Xingyan glanced at Ye Qingyao's retreating figure as she carried Ye Zhenzhen away, then said respectfully, "Father, I still have an important matter to attend to. Could you wait a moment before we leave?"
"Very well." Immortal Venerable Shen nodded, signaling him to hurry. Today's losses had been enormous, but if his son won over Ye Qingyao, the trip would not have been in vain.
Ye Qingyao was Ye Ruheng's second Personal Disciple and the Mary Sue heroine of the original novel Peerless Furnace Cauldron. She was breathtakingly beautiful, as fresh and ethereal as a lotus rising from the water, with a pair of clear, captivating almond eyes.
She had originally been a Spirit Herb growing beside the Seven-Colored Heaven-Mending Stone. After absorbing its spiritual energy for a long time, she took human form, and Ye Ruheng accepted her as his Personal Disciple.
Ye Ruheng had never told anyone her true identity. But as an Innate Spirit Herb with a Supreme Wood Spiritual Root, a miraculous Healing Art, and a purely yin constitution, Ye Qingyao made an ideal Furnace. Over the past few years, she had treated several inner disciples gravely wounded by demons. People in the sect gradually discovered her special constitution, and word even reached Immortal Venerable Shen and his son.
As the male lead of the original novel, Shen Xingyan had heard of her long ago. He fell for her at first sight and was determined to have her.
After winning Ye Qingyao's heart, Shen Xingyan coaxed her into becoming his Furnace and tormented her in body and soul. He even staged a tragedy worthy of "Do you love me? Then I'll wipe out your entire sect." He infiltrated Cloudsky Sect, stole the method for breaking the Mountain-Guarding Formation, and caused Cloudsky Mountain to be ground to dust and the entire sect to be destroyed.
If Immortal Venerable Shen was the mastermind behind the sect's destruction, Shen Xingyan was his strongest accomplice.
Spotting the white-clad figure glittering with gold following behind them, Ye Zhenzhen recalled the original novel's plot. Oh no. Today was the day the male and female leads first met—the beginning of their ill-fated romance.
If it was an ill-fated romance, it should be strangled in the cradle!
In the original novel, the leads' first encounter was a stale set piece straight out of an old-fashioned Mary Sue story. The heroine was fourteen, an age when love first stirred, and the hero was seventeen.
A Xingxing suddenly appeared from the mountain wilderness and stole a shoe from the baby girl in the heroine's arms. Then it climbed the tallest tree on Cloudsky Mountain and mischievously hung the shoe in its crown, a hundred meters above the ground.
The heroine set the baby down and rode her sword up the tree. After retrieving the shoe, she was shoved by the Xingxing hiding behind her. She lost her balance and fell.
The hero flew forward to save the beauty, cradling Ye Qingyao in his arms like a princess and spinning romantically before landing safely on the ground.
Cradling her like a princess while spinning?
When Ye Zhenzhen first read that passage, she had complained about it for ages. Was the male lead a peacock spreading his tail? Why was he spinning?
Ah.
Someone dressed in white wasn't necessarily Prince Charming. He might be... a White Peacock...
That encounter was what made the heroine develop feelings for the hero. She accepted his Communication Jade Talisman, planting the seed of their
tormented romance.
To prevent the tragedy that followed, Ye Zhenzhen had to derail the original plot.
[Senior Sister, watch out for the White Peacock following us. Oh, no—I mean Shen Xingyan.]
"Who's speaking?" Startled, Ye Qingyao looked around warily.
[It's me, Zhenzhen! Your Junior Sister, Ye Zhenzhen.] The Little Glutinous Rice Ball in her arms waved her tiny fists vigorously and blew bubbles with her mouth, trying to catch her senior sister's attention.
"Heavens, Junior Sister! I can actually hear you speak!" Still a girl who knew little of the world, Ye Qingyao looked at Ye Zhenzhen with curiosity. She was more delighted than frightened.
[Senior Sister, you're hearing my thoughts. I have a superpower, hee-hee.] The Little Glutinous Rice Ball winked at her senior sister.
[Listen to me. The one following us is Immortal Venerable Shen's son, Shen Xingyan. He's a scumbag—a really, really bad one. In a moment, he'll come over and chat you up, trick you into falling in love with him, and make you his Furnace. He'll torment you in body and soul, then use you to destroy our entire sect.]
A Furnace? Torment her in body and soul? Destroy the sect?
Hearing such horrifying words for the first time, the girl froze in fright, her watery almond eyes full of fear. But when she remembered the auspicious omen that had descended from heaven at her Junior Sister's birth, and that the baby could communicate her thoughts to others, she knew the child was no ordinary baby. "Then let's hurry and run. If I never meet him, none of that will happen."
[Don't be afraid, Senior Sister. Some people will cling to you like flies and bedbugs no matter how you try to avoid them. Just do as I say in a moment, and you won't board his pirate ship.]
Ye Qingyao looked at the determined little eyes of the baby in her arms and agreed without hesitation.
Ye Zhenzhen was racking her brains for what to do next when an elusive Xingxing snatched the adorable bunny shoe off her right foot. It scampered through the mountain forest at top speed, chattering smugly all the way.
[Ah! My bunny shoe!]
The plot was moving way too fast. She barely had time to react.
Watching the Xingxing race along like it had wings on its feet, she suddenly sensed something was wrong. Wasn't that thing native to Mount Zhaoyao? Since when had it come to visit Cloudsky Mountain?