Run through with a single sword strike

Trying to understand this man with human thinking would short-circuit your brain, but once you approached him with an animal's thinking, he seemed easy enough to understand.

Of course, Chi Yu wasn't going to get cocky. As he ran, he pulled up his panel-yes, that was right. As someone who had transmigrated into a novel, he had a system too!!

But his system was useless. It only offered assistance and guidance. Mission guidance was one thing, but its assistance features were a camera, a map, a compass, a photo album, and QQ Music.

Seriously, anyone in the know would think he was here on a mission, but anyone who saw those useless features without knowing better would think he was here on vacation. The camera even had a beauty filter!

Fuck!

When Chi Yu first arrived in this world and discovered how useless his system was, he had furiously pounded the panel. He actually beat it into displaying static, as though it had short-circuited, and it subsequently spat out a feature called [Rejuvenation].

Hilarious. He got a system after transmigrating, but he had to beat the features out of it by hand.

Talk. Who sent you to spy on me.jpg

Without another word, Chi Yu gave the system another savage pounding.

Think of something, system!!

It was your fault for abducting a delicate guy like me into this cultivation world full of danger in the first place!

Ling Hezhou stared, dumbfounded, as he attacked an invisible enemy. "What are you doing?"

"None of your business. Stay out of it," Chi Yu said, panting.

Ling Hezhou: "..."

He didn't dare say anything else. After all, Chi Yu was taking him along as he fled.

Chi Yu was clearly weak, and all he was doing was fleeing in a helpless, desperate scramble like an ant, yet Ling Hezhou kept feeling that he possessed a strength that inspired trust and reassurance.

Even as Chi Yu's casual words gave him an odd sense of reassurance, he felt ashamed of being reassured.

After Chi Yu's furious pounding short-circuited the panel again, it displayed static for several seconds before updating his map as though with great reluctance. It updated the location of his target, Xie Xiyi, a month ahead of schedule, and even thoughtfully marked the distance: just over five hundred meters.

Chi Yu: "..."

He briefly slowed and looked back. Over five hundred meters away, only that black-clad man stood in place with his arms folded across his chest. He was simply too tall and imposing, his presence intensely oppressive. Even from hundreds of meters away, Chi Yu still felt as though a thick, bloody sweetness filled his nose.

Chi Yu's brain short-circuited-

Huh, that's the villain?

That's Xie Xiyi?

Huh??

Chi Yu found it unbelievable, because Xie Xiyi wasn't like this.

The novel he had transmigrated into was called Divine Path. In the book, Xie Xiyi was a prodigy of the immortal sects, his beauty as precious as a luminous pearl, his radiance like the splendid moon. The moment he appeared, he eclipsed the dazzling beauty and pure radiance of every immortal lady and lord in the courtyard.

Not only did he possess extraordinary looks that stood out even in the cultivation world, his cultivation also lived up to his reputation as a prodigy. He reached Golden Core at eighteen. When he was shining brightly among the immortal sects,

the overpowered

protagonist was still a menial disciple, only able to stand among the mass of disciples and look up at Xie Xiyi.

For a long time, Xie Xiyi appeared as a dependable senior brother. Even Long Aotian admired him and became his closest friend.

But unexpectedly, Xie Xiyi was the main villain. Not only did he scheme throughout the story to destroy the Nine Continents, he also murdered numerous prodigies. In the end, the protagonist exposed his plot and put righteousness before personal ties, sacrificing Xie Xiyi to a divine artifact.

Unlike other systems, his genuinely had no intelligence whatsoever. There was a complaints channel in its backend, but although he wrote a dozen or so complaints every day, he never received any response. Neither heaven nor earth answered his pleas; he was better off giving the system a beating.

With no intelligence, the system couldn't tell Chi Yu what was going on now. He knew nothing about the current Xie Xiyi.

A major reason he had readily agreed to take Ling Hezhou back to the Tianyan Sect was that Xie Xiyi's immortal sect was also on Wangxian Continent. According to the original novel's timeline, Long Aotian hadn't even entered an immortal sect yet. Once Chi Yu got in, he had a very good chance of completing his mission.

His mission upon transmigrating into the novel was to kill Xie Xiyi, the main villain who ran through the entire book. There was a shortcut to killing him: Chi Yu could become the person Xie Xiyi trusted most, establishing a connection that would let him seize Xie Xiyi's fortune. Once Xie Xiyi's fortune dropped below his own, he would be able to kill him.

The system's walkthrough offered routes with extremely high chances of success: closest friend, follower, or beloved. After analyzing them, Chi Yu actually agreed-after all, the image Xie Xiyi presented to the outside world was that of a dependable, trustworthy senior brother.

The beloved route was out, though. He was straight, and workplace romances were a bad idea.

He also had an advantage: Xie Xiyi didn't know that Chi Yu already knew he was the villain.

I have the advantage.jpg

That advantage should have made whichever route he chose relatively smooth... at least, there shouldn't have been any major obstacles.

And now he was being told that the villain had stopped pretending and started killing outright. Was that reasonable?

It was like having his walkthrough ready for a no-damage clear, only to be told, "Sorry, dear, this version doesn't support that."

Then at least update the version!

Where the hell have you dumped me?!!

Chi Yu's thoughts churned, but he quickly calmed down, dismissed the panel, and kept running.

Xie Xiyi didn't chase him.

But Chi Yu knew that sooner or later, Xie Xiyi would come for him.

Perhaps Xie Xiyi imagined him trembling in terror, panicked and uneasy, but sorry, Chi Yu's motto in life was-

Optimists warped the world; pessimists were warped by it.

Chi Yu wouldn't be beaten by something like this.

He found a peaceful, scenic valley with a narrow crack for an entrance, a steep slit between the cliffs that made it convenient for hiding.

"Hiding here is useless," Ling Hezhou said dejectedly.

"How is it useless? It's very useful," Chi Yu said.

Ling Hezhou thought Chi Yu was naive. "Do you know how powerful a Golden Core cultivator is? A Golden Core cultivator could flatten this valley. You'll die without a place to be buried."

Chi Yu laughed. "What are you talking about? How would I have nowhere to be buried? One look tells you this place has excellent feng shui. If I die here, I'll definitely bless generations of my descendants."

Ling Hezhou: "...How old are you?"

"Eighteen... uh, seventeen?" Chi Yu said.

Chi Yu had used [Rejuvenation], the feature he had shaken out of the system. He had initially thought it was a healing skill, but using it came at a price.

He had caught a wild rabbit with a bad leg to test it once. The rabbit became lively and energetic, while his age on the panel jumped from eighteen to seventeen.

"..." This damned feature actually deducted years from his age!!!

Losing years was one thing, but he had also shrunk by about four or five centimeters.

As an easygoing optimist who took very little to heart, Chi Yu cared about only one thing: his height!!!

He had finally managed to reach 180 centimeters, and that one experiment knocked him straight back to around 175.

Fortunately, he hadn't forgotten his eleventh-grade coursework, or he would have had to start learning it all over again.

Ling Hezhou had no idea what Chi Yu was thinking. His answer didn't surprise him, either. Chi Yu looked about that age, very fresh-faced, but he was far too old to start cultivating. His qi apertures were almost closed.

Children in the cultivation world who possessed spiritual roots generally began cultivating at six, when the qi apertures throughout their bodies had just finished forming, making cultivation much faster. But Chi Yu was sixteen this year, and his body's qi apertures had already begun to close. Naturally, his cultivation would be slow; this was also a limitation of his physical condition.

This was also one reason independent cultivators had such a hard time. Once they missed the window between their qi apertures forming and closing, it was difficult to gain admission to a sect, however good their spiritual roots were.

But Chi Yu had already rejected his suggestion, and Ling Hezhou didn't dare repeat it and make a nuisance of himself. Just as he was about to respond to what Chi Yu had said, he saw Chi Yu clench his fists and start pounding the air again, muttering, "Give me past exam papers, now. I need to revise. Do you understand that I'm in my final year of high school? My final year!"

Ling Hezhou: "..."

Author's note:

Xie Xiyi: I'll give you a few days' head start before I come kill you.

Chi Yu: Beating up the system.jpg

P.S. The plot requires the top to kill the bottom. There's no avoiding that. Aside from that, I don't think there's any angst (twiddles fingers). It's still a sweet romance! Chi Yu only takes dick, not hardship!

Oh, right, there may also be a tiny bit of coercion, but not much, and no locking him away. (Advance warning.jpg)

Chapter 3: Run through with a single sword strike

Again, Ling Hezhou didn't understand Chi Yu.

He thought Chi Yu was far too strange. Even at a time like this, he was leisurely and unhurried, without the slightest sense of urgency. At his cultivation level, Chi Yu was no different from a mortal. Why wasn't he afraid at all?

Of course Chi Yu was afraid, but the problem was that being afraid wouldn't help. Since it wouldn't help, he wasn't going to spend his energy on it.

So he took cooking utensils out of his Sumeru Ring. They were all pots, bowls, and ladles he had bought at the Jinxiu Pavilion that ran on spirit stones. They had all sorts of functions, and he didn't even need to light a fire. Put a spirit stone in, and flames sprang up automatically.

He also took out spirit beast meat, spirit rice, fruit, and vegetables he had bought at the Jinxiu Pavilion.

Under Ling Hezhou's shocked gaze, he deftly prepared the spirit beast meat. Once he had marinated it, he went to the stream to wash the vegetables.

A while later, he chopped the vegetables, put them in the wok, and stir-fried them over high heat. Before long, three dishes and a soup were ready.

Ling Hezhou watched as Chi Yu set up a little table and began eating.

Ling Hezhou: "..."

"Aren't you scared?" Ling Hezhou asked.

"Sure I am. But shouldn't I at least die with a full stomach?" Chi Yu shoveled rice into his mouth as he spoke. "Wow, this rice smells amazing. I've never had rice this good."

Ling Hezhou: "..."

"The meat's delicious too. Not the slightest gamey taste," Chi Yu commented. "The cooking wine's a little lacking, so the fact that it still came out this well has everything to do with my phenomenal cooking skills."

As he spoke, a grain of rice fell onto the ground. Chi Yu looked down, picked it up, and put it in his mouth.

Chi Yu's family was wealthy, but his parents were both abroad managing their businesses and had no time for him. He had grown up with his grandparents. The elderly couple disliked having outsiders in the house, so they hadn't hired a housekeeper and did everything themselves. Through their words and example, Chi Yu had also developed a simple, thrifty outlook.