A Sword Match

[Ding dong-System No. 008 online!]

"System No. 008?"

Su Ruanruan had been lying comfortably on a cushioned couch in her cave abode.

Suddenly, a mechanical voice rang out in her sea of consciousness, startling her into sitting bolt upright.

When she realized what was speaking, a flash of menace crossed her eyes. "Where's that useless System No. 007?!"

She thought of the perilous scene at the Law Enforcement Hall yesterday.

Su Ruanruan trembled with anger. "It dropped the ball at the critical moment and nearly got me banished to the Nine Nether Blood Domain!"

She thought of the scene Chixiao had described-

Fighting Devil Creatures every day, while disciples who had broken sect rules also had to endure the pain of blood Sha eating away at their bones.

She, Su Ruanruan, had transmigrated to the cultivation world to enjoy herself, not to be some hero who vanquished devils and defended the Dao!

If Chixiao hadn't agreed to refine sixth-tier pills for the sect without compensation for a hundred years, she would probably have had to spend ten years in the Nine Nether Blood Domain, living a life worse than prison!

[Host, System No. 007 was destroyed by the Main System for abandoning its post without authorization.]

Su Ruanruan's red lips curled up slightly, and her anger eased. She was clearly quite satisfied with the outcome.

She leaned lazily back against a soft pillow, twirling a lock of dark hair around her fingertip. "008, what makes you better than the last few pieces of trash? You're my fourth system already, and not one of you has been any use."

System No. 008's electronic voice remained calm and unruffled.

[Under the terms of the contract, the system only provides plot guidance and advice. The host's previous three systems had exactly the same functions as 008.]

Though Su Ruanruan had known the answer, she was still annoyed.

"Tsk, just as useless as ever."

Su Ruanruan got up and examined herself carefully in the bronze mirror, then nodded in satisfaction.

"Never mind."

Her red lips curled in a slight sneer, and a trace of disdain flashed in her eyes. "I never counted on you useless systems anyway."

She casually tucked her hair behind her ear. "Next comes the part where the Devil Venerable Li Tianxing escapes into the Supreme One Divine Sect with grave injuries, right?"

Su Ruanruan chuckled confidently. "Just watch how I win him over!"

She was very confident.

The original novel had plenty to say about Li Tianxing.

He was the son of the previous Devil Venerable, but he had lost both parents shortly after birth.

The devil realm valued strength, so naturally, its people couldn't be expected to obediently choose Li Tianxing as the new Devil Venerable.

Thus, he struggled to survive in the devil realm, surrounded on all sides by devils.

Only after more than a thousand years of arduous cultivation did he reach Void Refinement Peak.

With the inheritance he had obtained from the previous Devil Venerable and an immortal artifact of the devil path, he had successfully claimed the throne of the devil realm's supreme ruler a hundred years ago.

Then he was betrayed by his most loyal subordinate and forced to flee to the Supreme One Divine Sect...

"Men starved of love like that are the easiest to get a handle on."

Su Ruanruan toyed with the jade pendant at her waist, a smile of absolute confidence curling her lips.

She was a transmigrator who had read all kinds of strategy novels, and she couldn't have been more familiar with the tastes of a beautiful, powerful, and tragic character like Li Tianxing.

Besides, the original novel had explicitly described the type of woman Li Tianxing preferred.

Gentle as water, yet resilient as bamboo.

A perfect match for the persona she had carefully crafted.

"Just wait and see."

Su Ruanruan smoothed the hair at her temples before the bronze mirror, her eyes full of calculation. "Once I win over the Devil Venerable, Feng Zhuo, Yunxiaozi, and the rest..."

"Every last one of them will have to get on their knees and beg me to spare their lives!"

Carefree Peak.

Morning light filtered through the bamboo leaves onto the bluestone paving.

Feng Zhuo's Awakening of Insects traced a beautiful flourish.

As its blade swept past, it stirred up the red petals that had fallen on the steps the night before.

Cang Wuya stood with his back against a green bamboo stalk, casually parrying the incoming sword moves with a longsword formed from ice.

Frozen petals pattered onto the bluestone table.

"Junior Brother, your 'Returning Wind Touches Green' always has a touch of recklessness to it."

Cang Wuya flicked a finger and shattered the ice sword, its fragments turning into white mist that enveloped the courtyard.

Feng Zhuo's sword momentum was immediately checked, and a thin layer of frost formed on the cuffs of his red robes.

"The first form of 'Returning Wind Touches Green,' 'New Buds First Bloom,' should be like a seed breaking through the earth-"

Before he had finished speaking, a green streak of light suddenly burst from the white mist.

Feng Zhuo spun through the icy mist, and the spiritual power blooming at his sword tip dyed the mist filling the courtyard an emerald green.

A ripple passed through Cang Wuya's eyes. He joined two fingers into a sword and traced a semicircle in the air.

The Sword Qi, spreading like tendrils, froze midway, and ice crystals crept along the vines to Feng Zhuo's sword hand.

"Junior Brother, you still haven't mastered the sword moves."

"You're right to correct me, Senior Brother."

Feng Zhuo suddenly released his sword, his whole figure turning as elusive as a willow leaf.

The instant Awakening of Insects fell to the ground, green light surged from it, shaking spiderweb cracks into the frozen paving stones.

When Feng Zhuo reappeared, he was half an inch in front of Cang Wuya.

By the time Cang Wuya raised his sword to meet the attack, Sword Qi had already sliced three inches through his sleeve.

"What do you think of that 'Willow Leaf Elusive Trail'?"

Feng Zhuo clutched the front of Cang Wuya's robes to steady himself before him, frost dusting his hair.

"A clever trick."

Cang Wuya raised a hand and wiped the light sweat from his forehead.

With his other hand, he hooked up Awakening of Insects. "The second form of 'Returning Wind Touches Green,' 'Willow Leaf Elusive Trail,' should be-"

The blade suddenly thrust toward Feng Zhuo's left shoulder. He cried out and tried to dodge, only to find that the Sword Qi passed through him and vanished into the green bamboo behind him.

A wind chime at the corner of the eaves tinkled. Cang Wuya chuckled softly. "It should be like that."

Sword Qi swept fallen blossoms past Feng Zhuo's ear. His mind went blank for an instant, and he stared at the youthful, spirited Senior Brother before him, unable to come to his senses for a long while.

The young sword cultivator, whose face was covered in frost and snow all day long, with a chill between his brows that never thawed throughout the year, was so striking when he smiled.

For the first time, Feng Zhuo noticed that Senior Brother had a beauty mark at the outer corner of his left eye, a startlingly red teardrop mole.

"Junior Brother, someone's come looking for you at the foot of the peak."

"Coming!"

Realizing he had been staring at Senior Brother in a daze, Feng Zhuo widened his eyes slightly, the tips of his ears flushing crimson. He fled to find Eldest Senior Brother.

Little did Feng Zhuo know that he too was astonishingly beautiful in Cang Wuya's eyes.

"He's only thirteen!"

Feng Zhuo rode his sword down the mountain, shaking his head from side to side. "Only thirteen..."

"What's thirteen?"

The voice that suddenly appeared startled Feng Zhuo into stumbling, and he nearly fell off Awakening of Insects.

When he realized who was speaking, he cried, "Yanba-!"

"What is it? What is it? Don't tell me that Golden Core cultivator found someone else to disturb my sleep again?!"

The words were accompanied by the faint sounds of chewing.

He couldn't bear to look.

Feng Zhuo pressed a hand to his forehead. "Just eat and stop talking."

The interruption calmed his feelings considerably.

If he wanted to look at a beauty, he could simply look in a mirror every day. Was there any need to be so surprised by Senior Brother's smile?

Feng Zhuo descended on his sword and spotted Eldest Senior Brother Ye Wuhen standing beside a one-armed woman at the foot of Carefree Peak.

The woman stood tall and straight. Though she was missing her right arm, her brows held a few more traces of heroic spirit than usual. It was Yun Li, whom he hadn't seen for several days.

Once Awakening of Insects had come to a steady stop, Feng Zhuo sheathed it and walked toward them. "Junior Sister Yun Li, did you come to Carefree Peak today because of your right arm?"

As he spoke, he had already sensed the fluctuations of spiritual power around Yun Li.

She had actually succeeded in Foundation Establishment.

Feng Zhuo thought for a moment and understood why.

Presumably, she had given up on Perfect Foundation Establishment and chosen to use a Foundation Establishment Pill to break through at the Qi Refining Tenth Layer.

The choice had its advantages and disadvantages in equal measure.

The disadvantage, naturally, was that her reserves of spiritual power would fall short of a cultivator at the same stage who had achieved Perfect Foundation Establishment.

But the advantage was also obvious.

Yun Li could restore her right arm sooner and resume her cultivation of the Sword Dao.

One had to understand that advancing from the tenth to the twelfth layer of Qi Refining sounded simple, but for Yun Li, with her severed arm, it would take at least two years.

Moreover, she could no longer use a Foundation Establishment Pill for Perfect Foundation Establishment, and advancing from the twelfth layer to Foundation Establishment would take quite a while longer.

Feng Zhuo had also begun studying swordsmanship over the past six months, and he knew well that cultivating the Sword Dao was like rowing against the current: if one did not advance, one fell back.

That was true even for a half-baked sword cultivator like him.

For a pure sword cultivator like Yun Li, the price of being unable to wield a sword for more than two years was probably far greater than giving up Perfect Foundation Establishment.

Still, the path of cultivation was ultimately a personal choice.

Feng Zhuo understood the gains and losses involved, and he respected others' decisions.

The author is bad at writing romance, babes. Zhuozhuo and Senior Brother are both still young. They're only admiring each other here; they haven't fallen in love.