I'm yours now

When Yin Tingxue woke from her sleep, familiar sounds of mourning reached her ears in the side hall.

She had had a nightmare.

A groggy sensation rose within her. In her dream, an Embroidered Uniform Guard in black had cruelly broken her Longevity Bridge.

At the thought, Yin Tingxue could not help trembling.

Under Great Yu Law, the children of convicted households whose property was confiscated, male or female, all had to have their Longevity Bridges broken, cutting off their path to cultivating immortality and extending their lives through Qi Refining.

Waking from the dream, Yin Tingxue took a few breaths to recover.

Gazing at the deathly silent buildings of the Xiang Prince's Residence, Yin Tingxue happened to recall the thick, feathery snow at Silver Terrace Temple, where she had sat blankly before the stone Bodhisattva, keeping watch over the frozen offerings as she watched the snow fall for a whole day and night.

Her mother had been Prince Xiang's principal consort, but she had died of illness three years ago. Before her death, the place she had spent the most time was Silver Terrace Temple, which Prince Xiang had built for her within the residence.

After her mother's death, Yin Tingxue had often gone there to worship too, sitting in the main hall, looking at the stone Bodhisattva and listening to the falling snow.

It was truly hard to imagine that the snow at Silver Terrace Temple was now so far beyond her reach.

By the time the people confiscating their property arrived, the entire household had fallen into chaos. Prince Xiang had tried to force his way out of the capital with his heir, only to be caught at the city gates by the Embroidered Uniform Guards. With their pillar gone, no one remained in the Xiang Prince's Residence who could take charge.

Many of the women in the family had cried, but Yin Tingxue had not.

She knew one thing.

The Bright-Dark Divine Sect had already secretly chosen her as its Holy Maiden, and they would rescue her even at the cost of their lives.

Even though she did not like this, even though she knew they were a demonic cult, she had no choice.

In the end, almost all the women would be sentenced to the Laundry Bureau or the Jiaofang Bureau and reduced to lowborn status. Only she would be rescued by the Bright-Dark Divine Sect, revered as its Holy Maiden, and emerge into the world.

Everything had long since been ordained.

In the residence's side hall, women and children sobbed from time to time. Despair spread beneath the rafters. Yin Tingxue said nothing, only occasionally touching the banknotes in her pocket.

Facing the fate of being reduced to lowborn status, the women had divided up the residence's banknotes, each hiding some on herself. As an unmarried daughter of the principal wife, Yin Tingxue had received an especially large share.

More than three thousand taels in all.

This gave Yin Tingxue some peace of mind.

Even if the Bright-Dark Divine Sect never came, three thousand taels of silver would be enough to last her a lifetime.

With luck, when the emperor came of age and granted a general amnesty, she could even use those three thousand taels to buy her freedom.

It would be all right...

Yin Tingxue forced a bitter smile as she looked at the residence's gates. The snow at Silver Terrace Temple echoed through her mind.

The quiet snow calmed her too, and she looked bravely at this deathly silent scene.

Until...

A figure in a black official uniform appeared on the blue-stone path.

Yin Tingxue's eyes first froze, then slowly widened. Finally... her entire body began trembling, shaking without end.

The girl who had never cried now found her eyes swimming with tears, which spilled down her cheeks.

The cold wind of late autumn swept inside.

Those were tears of fear.

Chen Yi walked toward her under her gaze, carefully studying her appearance.

Her face was so small. Her almond-shaped eyes were pitiful and endearing, and tears kept streaming from them. At her age, the tip of her nose had not turned up, but it was still finely shaped. Her skin was fair and soft, a little more tender even than the Empress Dowager of Great Yu's, and she was lively and delicate. She had not yet married, so she was not a commandery princess, but a prince's daughter.

Some women only became dignified and classically elegant near thirty, while others possessed beauty that could topple kingdoms at fifteen or sixteen.

Tsk, tsk... at last, I've met you.

The Demonic Cult's Holy Maiden.

Chen Yi glanced at the number on the panel.

[Negative emotions: 30]

Chen Yi remembered that one of the loading-screen tips in Beyond the Heavens had described Yin Tingxue as a little fox, tough outside but soft inside, who would fight back.

"It... it's you..."

Yin Tingxue could not help saying in a trembling voice,

"You're the one who'll break my Longevity Bridge!"

She stood up with a hand against a pillar, terrified and uneasy. She had seen this man in her dream!

Chen Yi stepped forward, crouched down, took her small hand, and smiled.

"That's right."

With such a handsome man smiling, anyone would have believed him a fine fellow.

But Yin Tingxue only found his smile sinister.

In her dream, he was the one who had broken her Longevity Bridge!

Holding her small hand, Chen Yi calculated something inwardly, then rose and led her out of the hall.

The Embroidered Uniform Guards outside pretended not to see.

This was a Hundred Household!

What was wrong with indulging himself a little?

Chen Yi led her into the sprawling pavilions and halls of the Xiang Prince's Residence.

Yin Tingxue's thoughts were sluggish. She simply let Chen Yi pull her along like a motionless puppet, with only the banknotes inside her robes bobbing up and down.

That money was enough to last her a lifetime, enough even to buy her freedom.

With no one around, Chen Yi looked at the somewhat dazed prince's daughter. Tears slid down her face, and only after a long while did she raise her head to look at him.

Yin Tingxue finally came to her senses and could not help asking,

"You... you know me?"

Chen Yi replied instinctively,

"Of course."

Hearing Chen Yi's words, Yin Tingxue asked as though she had heard something terrifying,

"Who... are you? Who are you really?"

The man whose entire family you slaughtered, and whose meridians you broke.

Chen Yi gave a vicious grin and tightened his grip on her hand.

She could not help wincing in pain.

[Negative emotions: 35]

Chen Yi looked at the girl, selfish desires surging within him.

"Chen Yi, courtesy name Zunming, Hundred Household of the Western Depot."

"And you, Yin Tingxue, are the Holy Maiden of the Bright-Dark Divine Sect."

The Bright-Dark Divine Sect boasted three thousand followers, worshipped the Great Brightness Venerable, and taught that the world was divided into realms of light and darkness.

Two years earlier, Prince Xiang had outwardly worshipped the Buddha while secretly converting to the Bright-Dark Divine Sect, and the Demonic Cult had secretly recruited experts from across the land for him.

Winning over an imperial prince was extremely risky; one wrong move could ruin everything. But the Xiang Prince's Residence happened to have a daughter whom the previous sect leader's final instructions had designated the Pure Saintess, who would journey to the Demonic Cult only after marrying.

"How... how do you know?"

At these words, Yin Tingxue's little face grew paler still. Her eyes widened as she stared at him in disbelief.

"You don't just want to break my Longevity Bridge... you want to kill me too?"

Of course, Chen Yi could not tell her that he had learned this from the later plot.

The Xiang Prince's Residence had been confiscated, Prince Xiang and the males of his household sentenced to exile three thousand li away, and the women reduced to lowborn status because the Embroidered Uniform Guards had discovered Prince Xiang's collusion with the Demonic Cult-and because that was all they had discovered.

Neither the Bright-Dark Divine Sect nor the Xiang Prince's Residence had ever leaked the fact that Yin Tingxue was the Demonic Cult's Holy Maiden.

And once it leaked,

the entire household would probably be executed.

Thinking of this hopeless situation, Yin Tingxue trembled violently.

She gritted her teeth and said shakily, "Then kill me. I'm not afraid..."

Looking at her show of resolve, Chen Yi teased,

"Do you have any last wishes, then?"

The autumn wind swept past as the two stood on a stone bridge. The rushing river flowed into the distance, its silence frightening, like India's river of reincarnation, which accommodated both the living and the dead, where people often knelt on its banks to pray for blessings in the afterlife.

The wind was cold, almost piercing to the bone.

She raised her face toward the man she had seen in her dream and barely managed a smile.

"Could you... let me go back to Silver Terrace Temple?

"Mother passed away there. When she died, I was beside her praying for her. Now it's my turn to go, and I want to pray for Mother one more time."

After a moment's consideration, Chen Yi nodded slightly.

Crossing the stone bridge, they entered Silver Terrace Temple, where the late princess consort had practised quiet devotion and prayed. The Medicine King Bodhisattva was enshrined inside, maple leaves lay in the courtyard behind, and the treasure basin before the statue was filled with incense ash.

Who knew how many times she had prayed for her deceased mother.

Chen Yi could not help wondering whether this girl, who had cruelly killed him in his previous life, was truly that sort of person by nature.

One took on the color of one's surroundings. Had the Demonic Cult's environment changed her?

After entering Silver Terrace Temple, Yin Tingxue gradually stopped trembling and reined in her fear, leaving only sorrow on her face.

Every minute and second at the end of a life was very long.

The cold wind passed through Silver Terrace Temple's gates, just as it had back then.

In Yin Tingxue's memories, her mother had always been gentle, her face always pale. When the weather was cold, she would hold Yin Tingxue in her arms, never willing to let go, never able to hold her enough.

But that winter, the emaciated woman could no longer hold on. She lay listlessly in bed, her hands devoid of strength, unable even to embrace her daughter once.

Her lips moved, but only muffled sounds emerged.

She had few expectations for her child, so as she lay dying, she left only one sentence on the bed.

"Be good. Be a good person."

Afraid the girl would not understand, she wrote it over and over, until she had no strength left, until the bedding was rubbed into wrinkles, until she laid her head down and fell asleep, never to wake again.

Yin Tingxue looked at the familiar Silver Terrace Temple, her eyes glistening with tears, yet forced another smile.

"Bodhisattva, please tell her:"

She choked out,

"Mother, Tingxue is coming to find you."

The temple was utterly silent, and the Bodhisattva silently lowered its gaze.

After a long while, her lips quivered slightly, and a groaning sound like splintering wood emerged.

"Thus have I heard. At one time, the Buddha was in Shravasti, in Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's monastery..."

Suddenly, Yin Tingxue broke free of him and rushed toward the Bodhisattva as though she meant to smash herself against the wall. She stopped before the incense burner and seized the fire steel on the altar table.

Watching the girl in blue, Chen Yi fell into a daze. An indescribable stubbornness and resolve emanated from her.

She looked as though she wanted to kill someone.

Yin Tingxue recited Buddhist Sutras and struck the fire steel. Flames rose in the treasure basin before the altar table, and her face flickered between light and shadow in the firelight, as though she were bursting into flames.

Yes, blazing flames...

She was perhaps the Temple of the Golden Pavilion among women, possessing a beauty seemingly destined to burn to ashes in a great fire.

Yin Tingxue pulled open her robes with both hands, and banknotes fluttered out like thick, feathery snow. The distant mourning in the residence gradually blurred. Those three thousand taels, enough to last her a lifetime and buy her freedom from disgrace, all tumbled into the licking flames. Red-black fire leaped, and billows of black smoke rose.

This money was useless now. Better to burn it, to burn it as an offering for blessings.

Yin Tingxue's lips trembled slightly, tear tracks still marking her face. The girl knelt before the Bodhisattva, pressed her palms together, and bowed her head in prayer, over and over.

Ever since that winter, the girl had often prayed, asking that her mother fare a little better on the other side, just as she had in the past, just as she did now.

The stone Bodhisattva lowered its eyes in silence, as though gazing compassionately at the Xiang Prince's Daughter. Yet it remained silent, wordless no matter how she prayed.

Legend held that the Medicine King Bodhisattva could heal all living beings' suffering, yet in the end, it seemed unable to hear a single girl's prayers.

After an unknown length of time, a vast shadow suddenly fell from behind her. Yin Tingxue hung her head blankly, her eyes already closed.

"Mother, I'm coming to find you."

An unknown length of time passed, but the blade never fell.

Chen Yi looked at her, having already made his decision.

Better not kill her after all.

Whether for my cultivation method, or because of the nature she has shown just now...

Better not kill her. I'll take her into my household as a concubine, never let her come into contact with the Demonic Cult again, and then, however I torment and torture her, she'll have to endure it silently.

Besides, I know myself very clearly. I've always been a lecher.

His blade remained suspended, and Yin Tingxue turned her face somewhat stiffly.

"It would be such a waste to kill you."

Chen Yi smiled faintly.

No, I don't like killing. I like taking wives and concubines.

Having survived certain death, Yin Tingxue remained dazed for quite a while.

At length, she drew a deep breath and, mistakenly believing he could be reasoned with, asked slowly,

"What do you... want to do?

"Do you want to join the Demonic Cult?... If so, there will certainly be a place for you as a retainer."

[Negative emotions: 35]

A trace of mockery flashed in Chen Yi's eyes.

"Give up a perfectly good post as a Western Depot Hundred Household, give up all that lovely embezzlement, and run off to your mountain backwater to be a retainer?"

At this, Yin Tingxue froze, her breathing growing increasingly rapid.

An indescribable despair spread through her.

"What do you want... to have everyone in the Xiang Prince's Residence executed?"

After a long silence, Yin Tingxue asked in a trembling voice.

"And send you to the underworld too? That would be too tragic. I said I wouldn't kill you."

Chen Yi grinned.

"Let's find you a good home instead."

Panic instantly filled Yin Tingxue's eyes, but soon, the precocious girl who had grown up in a prince's residence realized something.

She slowly calmed down. Then she lowered her eyes and asked tentatively in a quiet voice:

"You want to... take me into your household as a concubine?"

Chen Yi had to admire the girl's intuition.

Facing the woman who had severed his meridians in his previous life, and whose Longevity Bridge he had in turn broken, Chen Yi gently patted her back and said calmly:

"You're perceptive, and smarter than most women."

"If not for me, the Demonic Cult would take you away and revere you as their Holy Maiden. Then you would burst onto the scene..."

As Chen Yi spoke, he glanced at the panel a couple of times.

At those words, her negative emotions shot up, reaching a full sixty.

Yin Tingxue bravely raised her eyes and glared fiercely at Chen Yi:

"No, no!

I'd rather die than let a beast in gentleman's clothing like you have your way!"

Chen Yi gave a cruel grin.

"Now, you have no choice."

What a joke. Even if he had not transmigrated into "Beyond the Heavens," he would still have taken in almost every female character worth mentioning in this perfect save.

Now that his perfect save was in progress, this was the ideal time to bring Yin Tingxue into his household, before the Demonic Cult arrived and before she had matured.

What was more, he had chosen the Grudge Yin-Yang Art as his starting cultivation technique.

Looking at the resolute Yin Tingxue, Chen Yi said slowly:

"Think about it. Do you really want to become the Demonic Cult's Holy Maiden, slaughtering innocents and deceiving believers?"

Despite his gentler words, she did not appreciate the gesture and still reacted fiercely.

"Even that would be better,"

She choked for a moment.

"Even that would be better than submitting to someone and enduring shame and humiliation!"

Chen Yi looked straight at her and said evenly:

"Then how would you have the face to meet the late princess consort?"

Yin Tingxue froze. She remembered standing before her mother's sickbed as her frail mother breathed weakly.

By then, her mother could no longer speak. She could only trace words on the bed with her finger to convey what was in her heart.

Yin Tingxue still remembered that the last words she had written were...

"Be good. Be a good person."

The girl trembled and could not stop herself from asking:

"How did you know..."

The man before her seemed to possess some kind of magic that let him see into her heart. He called her the Demonic Cult's Holy Maiden, yet he seemed more like Demon King Poxun.

"I know you far better than you imagine."

Chen Yi chuckled and said:

"Besides, I already told you. You have no choice."

The girl fell silent. She had nothing left, almost nothing at all. Those three thousand taels of silver had all been thrown into the fire and burned away, leaving nothing behind. She had long since lost any way out.

The flames surged, seemingly about to burst through the doorway and leap into the sky.

"I have no choice..."

Yin Tingxue murmured in a daze, as though she wanted to ask a question, but the bodhisattva remained silent.

"Yes, I... have no choice anymore."

Chen Yi slowly reached out to comfort her, but the moment his hand touched her, she forcefully shook it off.

She trembled and panted for a while, then abruptly raised her head, seized Chen Yi's hand, and pressed it against her heaving chest.

She stared straight at her enemy and said stubbornly:

"I'm your concubine now!"

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