Having you is such a blessing

In the courtyard of Clear Wind Pavilion, Feng Shu and Feng Yi sat at a stone table, staring at each other.

"Do you think Master's possessed?" Feng Yi asked earnestly, his face scrunched up.

"What nonsense are you talking about? With Master's cultivation so high, what evil spirit could possess him?" Feng Shu said sternly.

"But he was way too strange today! If he's not possessed, someone must have taken over his body!" Feng Yi said.

Feng Shu's face darkened, and for a moment he could not find any words either. They looked at each other, both seeing confusion in the other's eyes.

As they spoke, they saw Lin Qingyang running back in a panic. They quickly rose and went over to bow to him.

Lin Qingyang's mind was filled with I'm the murderer! He had no attention to spare for these two disciples and merely said weakly, "Please move aside. Thank you!"

Looking as though they had seen a ghost, Feng Shu and Feng Yi stepped aside. Lin Qingyang walked into his room on somewhat shaky legs and slammed the door shut. Before long, a howl came from inside. "Heavens, why don't you just finish me off!"

"I get it. Master's probably just gone mad!" Feng Yi had barely finished before Feng Shu covered his mouth and dragged him away.

Inside, Lin Qingyang plopped down on the floor and let out several forceful breaths, trying to calm his panicked mind and sort out the situation.

If everything just now had been the original owner's memories, that meant he was the real culprit who had poisoned the sect leader! He had now tricked Xue Lanyuan into investigating Mo Yan, but if she came to her senses one day and discovered that he was the real culprit, wouldn't he be doomed? He had even advocated reopening the investigation. He was practically digging his own grave! Lin Qingyang pressed a hand to his chest. Then what had happened with his earlier injury? And what about that inexplicable emotion? Since he was the one who had administered the poison, why had seeing the sect leader hurt so much?

And what the hell was this place, anyway? Why was there someone with exactly the same name as him, who even looked exactly like him? Could all of this actually be a hallucination before his death? As his thoughts ran wild, a faint female voice suddenly sounded in the room.

"Bro!"

Lin Qingyang jumped and looked around, but there was no one anywhere. Was he hearing things, or had he encountered a ghost? Right, transmigration these days seemed to always come with a system.

"Bro!" The female voice sounded again, quiet and muffled, as if something were covering it.

"Are you a system? Pretty polite, calling me bro right off the bat!" Lin Qingyang said.

"What system? I'm your sister!" the female voice said.

Lin Qingyang listened carefully. Though the voice was quiet, that familiar intonation and accent...

"Lin Yao?" But why could he only hear her without seeing her? Lin Qingyang looked all around.

"Stop looking. I'm on Elegance!" Lin Yao said.

"What the hell is Elegance..." Halfway through, Lin Qingyang remembered that Elegance seemed to be his sword. The voice seemed to be coming from the sword. Dubiously, he picked it up and drew it.

"Bro!!!" Lin Yao's voice instantly grew several times louder, and the blade trembled excitedly along with it.

"Oh my god, I can finally talk!" Lin Yao said excitedly.

"How did you turn into a sword?" Lin Qingyang asked, speechless.

"You ignorant fool. This is called a sword spirit!" Lin Yao said.

"So you transmigrated into a sword spirit? Wait, how come you're here too?" Lin Qingyang asked.

"I was going to ask you! The police called and said someone had stabbed you. I rushed downstairs, slipped, and fell. When I opened my eyes again, I was here. Who did you offend?" Lin Yao rattled off.

"That domestic abuser from the divorce case," Lin Qingyang said helplessly.

"Forget it. Let's put that aside for now. I've got something even more life-threatening here. Someone poisoned the sect leader..."

"You did it. I know!" Lin Yao cut in.

Lin Qingyang was baffled. "How do you know?"

Lin Yao fell silent for a moment, then said somewhat hesitantly, "Bro, have you heard of transmigrating into a book?"

"What do you mean? You're saying this is a novel?" Lin Qingyang asked.

"The novel I was writing a while ago. There were too many characters, and I had trouble coming up with names, so I used yours." Lin Yao paused before continuing, "The one called After Being Cheated On, I Became the Jerk's Shiniang."

The title made Lin Qingyang's vision darken. He heard Lin Yao continue, "Actually, mine is a sweet romance. It's about the female sword cultivator Su Ruohuan. After her fiancé, her senior brother, and her scheming junior sister betray her, she decisively breaks off the engagement, then turns around and marries the jerk's aloof Shizun. It's a sweet, satisfying romance where they marry first and fall in love later, while thoroughly putting that scumbag and bitch in their place."

Lin Qingyang frowned. "But what does any of that have to do with what's happening now?"

"Nothing. Yours is the villain's storyline," Lin Yao said.

"You actually wrote me as a villain?" Lin Qingyang said, speechless.

"What are you thinking? You're cannon fodder at most. The real villain is Qi Mo."

Lin Qingyang frowned, recalling the poor wretch who had nearly been electrocuted to death in the hall earlier. He asked in confusion, "Him? A villain? How does he look like one?"

"See, you don't understand. Villains with depth always have miserable lives before turning evil. He might look pitiful now, but soon he'll become an outrageously cool, domineering, dark, and deranged Demon King. When that happens, he'll be the nightmare of the entire cultivation world," Lin Yao said excitedly.

Speechless for a moment, Lin Qingyang continued asking, "Then what exactly is going on in this part?"

Lin Yao cleared her throat. "This part is the villain's backstory. Basically, to get the sect leader's position, you colluded with the Demon Clan to kill the current sect leader, Shi Ruobai. Then that poor sucker Qi Mo became the scapegoat and stopped breathing under Mo Yan's brutal interrogation. The people of the Nine Skies Sect thought he was dead and dumped him at the Mass Burial Mound. But he had the demon king bloodline, which let him return from the dead. Then, filled with hatred for the Human Clan, he united the Demon Clan, became the Demon King, and came back for revenge."

"...Revenge?" Lin Qingyang had a bad feeling.

"Yeah. After Qi Mo became the Demon King, he slaughtered the Nine Skies Sect. But that's a long way off, probably about five years."

"I suppose I don't meet a good end either?" Lin Qingyang asked.

"It's not too bad. He just... threw you to the wolves," Lin Yao said haltingly.

"Beautiful!" Lin Qingyang's vision darkened again. "Having you really is such a blessing!"

"How could I have known you'd transmigrate here?" Lin Yao muttered, then continued, "But all that was the original storyline. Now that you insist on reopening the investigation, if they find out you poisoned the sect leader... you probably won't have to wait five years. You'll be done for right now."

"Why don't you wait until the grand finale to warn me?" Lin Qingyang said, closing his eyes briefly.

"What do you mean I didn't warn you? Back in the hall, I was practically vibrating hard enough to fly away, and I still couldn't stop you from showing off!" As Lin Yao spoke, something suddenly occurred to her, and she let out a sudden shriek.

Lin Qingyang jumped, then heard her muttering, "The villain hasn't been thrown into the Mass Burial Mound now, so can he still become the Demon King? If he doesn't become the Demon King, won't this story have no villain? Then how will the male lead save the female lead? How will the romance progress? Oh no, it's a mess, it's all a mess!"

"If you have time to worry about the leads falling in love, why don't you worry about your brother's life first!" Lin Qingyang said, speechless.

As they spoke, the incense burner on the table suddenly glowed red, then began emitting red smoke. Lin Qingyang walked over in puzzlement and saw the red smoke drifting through the air, slowly forming several words: three quarters past the start of the hour of the rat, Bamboo Grove on the Back Mountain.

Then the smoke slowly took the shape of a snake and vanished.

Lin Qingyang stared in astonishment. "What's this now? Voldemort?"