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Back then, she had even felt guilty toward her master. Only later had she understood: if her master truly cared about her, why couldn't she stand by her, see things from her perspective, and listen to her explanation?

Oh, right. She had never had a chance to explain—or rather, she had never had the strength. Not long into her "trial" in the main hall, she had fainted. By the time she woke up, she had already been sent to Reflection Cliff.

She was unlucky, considering the sort of people she had encountered. Yet she was lucky, too. The first time disaster struck, she had transmigrated into a book and started over. The second time, she had died an aggrieved death, only to return to the past and try again—all her misfortunes had really come from her own stupidity, from believing that if she treated the world kindly, the world would surely return that kindness.

The world had indeed been kind, granting her two chances. The people in it, however, were another matter.

Qiao Ranran laughed again, silencing the main hall. The clamor died away, and everyone's eyes turned to her, including Sheng Ruoyu's and those of her so-called master, Su Nianqiu.

"Ranran..." Su Nianqiu, her master, had a timid disposition and spoke in a soft, measured voice. Even when arguing, she sounded as though she were whispering to a lover, forever seeming to have words hovering unspoken on her lips. Even when she was in the right, she managed to weaken her own case.

Qiao Ranran had no desire to hear Su Nianqiu speak. She opened her eyes, swept her gaze past Su Nianqiu's delicate, flowerlike features, and looked at the Sect Leader. "Since all of you believe I'm useless and a menace to the sect, I'll leave of my own accord and stop being a potential threat to you." Before she had finished speaking, she took out her Disciple Jade Token and tossed it down before them with a casual motion but absolute resolve.

The Clear Feather Sect really was small, with fewer than a hundred members in total. Even its Sect Leader was only at the middle golden core stage, while her master was merely at the late foundation establishment stage. Most of its disciples were at the qi refining stage. The few who had reached the foundation establishment stage were already considered elite disciples. As for Qiao Ranran, a nobody still at the pre-heaven stage, she naturally ranked even lower.

Small sects had their advantages: people could come and go freely. Anyone with even a little talent who could sense spiritual qi would be accepted if they wanted to join. Even those without talent were welcome. After all, small as the sect was, it still had plenty of chores that needed doing.

If someone wanted to leave, everyone was happy to have one fewer person competing for resources, and the sect would make no effort to keep them.

In her previous life, Qiao Ranran had not dared to leave. In this life, she only wanted to get away from these people—as far away as possible. Even if the Clear Feather Sect later encountered a tremendous stroke of fortune, and both Su Nianqiu and Sheng Ruoyu found better places for themselves, that had nothing to do with her, did it?

"Ranran, you mustn't!" Looking distressed, Su Nianqiu immediately approached Qiao Ranran and tried to take her hand as she always did, only for Qiao Ranran to turn aside and evade her. "Ranran, how can you be so impulsive? Stop this nonsense. Don't talk about leaving the sect. It hurts me to hear you say that. Have I done something wrong, or do you blame me for not taking good enough care of you? Is that why you've developed such improper thoughts? The world outside is harsh, and demonic cultivators run rampant. With your meager cultivation, how would you survive alone? Being an independent cultivator isn't easy. Your sect is your support..."

The sect? Her support?

Qiao Ranran's eyes curved in a smile, and her little bloodstained face lit up with startling radiance. When she had first arrived in this world, lost and bewildered, she really had believed the sect would become her support, keeping her from being utterly alone and helpless.

Who could have known she would be unlucky enough to end up in a sect like this?

"Master, do you really think a sect that constantly picks on me, steals my resources, frames me, and puts me in danger can be my support?"

"Ranran, how can you say that? Don't you know how much you're hurting me? Your senior brothers and sisters keep watch over you because they're afraid you'll stray down the wrong path. The sect only has so many resources, and you have little talent for cultivation. Why insist on keeping those resources for yourself? Only when they become stronger can they take good care of you and make the sect more prosperous. You're all fellow disciples. Why would they frame you? This time, didn't they brave tremendous danger to bring you back? How could you forget that?..."

"What if I told you I can't even get my allotted share of resources? And this time, the danger came about precisely because those fellow disciples you claim will take good care of me were so eager for quick gains that they ignored my warnings and provoked a Demon Beast. Then, when faced with its threat, they left me alone in front of it..."

"Ranran!" In her urgency, Su Nianqiu's soft voice suddenly turned shrill. "How can you think that way about your senior brothers and sisters?"

"Oh." Qiao Ranran shrugged indifferently. "You don't believe me, Master, but you believe them."

"What are you saying?" Su Nianqiu wore a smile Qiao Ranran knew all too well. Once, she had found it warm and gentle. Today, seen through a different lens, it looked wrong no matter how she viewed it, as though she could see the twisted thoughts beneath it. "Of course I believe you. I simply don't want a tiny disagreement to drive a wedge between you and your fellow disciples. Harmony should always come first. Just look at that temper of yours. You get worked up, and then you start acting willfully!"

Qiao Ranran rubbed her shoulder, coating her hand in sticky blood. How ironic: she was covered in blood, yet no one cared how badly she was hurt. "Master, do you think all this blood on me is fake? Have you ever cared how serious my injuries are? Have you given me even half a medicinal pill?"

She had not.

What Su Nianqiu talked about most was her own difficulties, her own lack of choice. None of Qiao Ranran's grievances or needs mattered in the slightest.

"It doesn't matter anymore, really." Before Su Nianqiu could speak again, Qiao Ranran waved a hand and stepped back twice, looking her squarely in the face. "I'm certainly grateful that you brought me out of that little mountain village and changed my fate. You gave me a new life. But there's something I'd dearly like to know: who was it that urged my parents to sell me so they would have the money to treat my older brother's illness and find him a wife?"

Who had it been, really?

Qiao Ranran looked at Su Nianqiu with a smile of utter innocence, just as she always did in front of her, looking sweet and docile.

Rankings

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Transmigration into a book

Sweet romance

Transmigration and rebirth romance

Big Black Loves Eating Fish

Dual rebirth

Xianxia fiction