I've Killed Someone

Lin Qi had always been the sort of person who still had a few principles.

That was true both in her previous life as a Purple Mansion cultivator and in this life as lower livestock.

Her grandfather had lived through the end of the ancient cultivator era, so he had taught her many bad habits when she was little.

She had never managed to break them.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have been driven by an economic crisis to be executed, forcing her to reincarnate and start over-

It wasn't that she had no other options, but in her eyes, those options were worse than starting over.

So, when she heard the request Lü Yuan made that morning instead of asking for money,

Her first reaction was to refuse.

Half her startup funds were certainly important, but what had accompanied her for over a hundred years was even more important to her!

Reason told her that she needed only to spend one night with him to get through this Waterloo of a defeat.

She could regroup with her finances intact and resume her assault on junior college from the same starting point.

But... in the end, she couldn't accept it-

Though Lü Yuan wasn't that unlikeable.

At least, in all these years, she had never seen him use his strength to bully anyone.

Even in the two months since she provoked him, he hadn't retaliated against her at all.

He also had great potential. As a top-tier Pseudo Spirit Root, he had a far better chance of getting into junior college than she did.

In fact, barring any surprises, he might even be said to have guaranteed admission, in a sense.

So, from every angle, she wasn't actually losing out. In other people's eyes, she might even be getting a bargain.

But both he and she were only this old, after all-at least in this life.

They were too young. How could she and he do something worse than what beasts would do?

In her previous life in the Upper City, she had been executed before she even started working for a company, without ever having had the chance to date someone of her own standing.

Her second life's path to immortality had barely begun, and things were already this intense. She really couldn't accept it.

After agonizing over it in every possible way, Lin Qi still chose the option least favorable to herself.

Before coming, she had already made up her mind: she would leave the money and then righteously reject his unreasonable demand!

Though that would leave her with only half her startup funds, on this matter she would rather die than yield!

And so, with that thought in mind, she came to Lü Yuan's home.

There was no need to recount what happened next. Lü Yuan never played his cards the way she imagined he would.

"So, you really weren't thinking of doing that..."

"You wanted to talk to me about something else?"

In the living room, at the dining table, after they had spent a meal making it clear that this had absolutely nothing to do with that sort of thing,

Lin Qi simply understood. She wasn't embarrassed at all. Ultimately, no matter how badly she had done in her previous life, she had still been a Purple Mansion cultivator.

She would have had to live all those years for nothing to get flustered over this.

"What else?"

Lü Yuan sneered. "Although the Corporate Alliance's laws don't restrict that sort of thing, I'm not interested in someone I've beaten like you."

Why was this hundred-year-old crone putting on the airs of a maiden?

What was she dreaming of? As if it would ever be her turn?!

Lin Qi's expression didn't change. "Then speak plainly. There's no need to keep me in suspense."

"Though I don't know what I have that's worth you trading that wager for-"

Lü Yuan's sharpness had already made Lin Qi realize something.

From what she had seen of him so far, he probably hadn't believed her story.

And with the results of her test on top of that,

He should have grown suspicious of where her money and aptitude came from, but he would never guess that she had reincarnated.

So, following ordinary logic, he should think she had obtained an ancient cultivator's inheritance-

That was right. That should be what he thought.

But although Lin Qi had guessed that Lü Yuan had noticed something amiss with her, she still didn't admit it of her own accord.

Those were two different things. After all, if he still didn't play by the usual rules, the joke would really be on her.

This time, however, Lü Yuan followed the usual script and asked, "Do you really not know what I'm after?"

"Are you looking down on me? Even now, you're still—you still dare to look down on me?"

Lü Yuan then raised his fingers and quietly listed his points one by one.

"Your story would certainly pass without anyone caring among that bunch at our orphanage who didn't get their full prenatal education, whose bodies haven't fully developed and whose intelligence hasn't developed at all."

"But for me, all it takes is a little thought to see the problems with it-"

"For example, you said the money you used for the wager came from your biological driftwood."

"But I used my current privileges to ask someone to look into it."

"And it turned out your biological driftwood never sent you any money at all."

Lü Yuan didn't stop. He pressed on with another question. "And another thing: did you really dare to bet against me because of your courage?"

"At first, I actually believed that too, but once your results came out, I realized something was wrong."

"It was as if you'd known from the start that your results would improve, reaching a level an ordinary person couldn't attain..."

"How do you explain that?"

Lin Qi didn't answer from beginning to end. She simply listened to Lü Yuan list his points.

Seeing that she remained silent, Lü Yuan didn't stop talking. Instead, he spoke with even greater certainty.

"You had a fortuitous encounter, didn't you?"

Seeing that Lü Yuan had finally followed normal logic for once,

Lin Qi breathed a sigh of relief, even though he had "guessed right."

If this guy had defied the usual script and guessed that she had reincarnated to cultivate again, she figured she would have passed out on the spot.

And now that he had called it out, there was no need to deny his guess.

Doing so would only make things harder to explain. She might as well let him keep misunderstanding.

"So what if I did? What do you want from me?"

Lü Yuan held up a finger and wagged it slightly. "A correction: I don't want it from you. I want to trade the wager for it."

"I don't know how many Spirit Stone Vouchers your fortuitous encounter brought you, but I don't suppose it was very many. Otherwise, you wouldn't have come to bet against me."

"So that money must be relatively important to you, at least more important than some of the things you gained from your encounter."

Lü Yuan lowered his hand and lightly rubbed his chin. "Frankly, I can't be entirely sure what you got from that encounter."

"But based on the clues so far, I can say for certain-"

"It may have been an ancient cultivator's relic or part of an inheritance, but in any case, it included a method to improve Spiritual Qi Aptitude to a certain extent!"

"And since there's such a method, there must also be a matching way to cover it up so nobody spots anything amiss."

Lü Yuan met Lin Qi's eyes without concealing his aim in the slightest. "Give me those two things, and I'll trade the wager for them. How about it?"

Lin Qi didn't agree immediately.

But neither did she deny having those two methods.

With everything he had said, lying now would be treating Lü Yuan like a fool.

So she simply asked him, "With your current Spiritual Qi Aptitude, is there any need to improve it?"

"I can tell you plainly that the method won't work on you."

Lü Yuan scoffed. "When did I ever say I wanted it for myself?"

"I know better than anyone that my Spiritual Qi Aptitude can hardly rise any further without a Spirit Root-"

Lin Qi was puzzled. "So you're getting it for someone else."

She thought for a moment, then said the name of the most likely person. "Wang Yan?"

Lin Qi's expression changed. "You like men?"

Lü Yuan covered his head. "Can't you get your mind out of the gutter?"

"We're friends. It's that simple."

Friends...

Lin Qi looked at Lü Yuan with a complicated expression that said, "What on earth are you talking about?"

Were there still people this loyal to their friends these days?

Wait...

Thinking about it that way, if she got on good terms with him too, it seemed like a deal with guaranteed profits and no losses.

Besides, given his status, he probably didn't know the value he himself represented.

It was just...

I can't agree to it outright, because once I do, I'll be of no further use to him.

And I need to probe him some more, to see just how far he's willing to go for a so-called friend-

With that thought, Lin Qi refused. "No. This isn't actually fair to me, because you have something on me."

"Once you get what I have, you could turn around and report me for obtaining an ancient cultivator's relic without handing it over of my own accord. I'd have no way to fight back."

"And though I know there must be something unusual about you too, perhaps a fortuitous encounter of your own..."

"Given your current value, without something specific on you, my accusation would never hold up, much less pose a threat to you."

"So..." Lü Yuan prompted.

"So give me something specific on you. From then on, we'll each keep the other's secret in this matter, and we'll each have something to hold over the other."

Lin Qi continued, "Of course, if you think that condition is too harsh, I can take a step back and stay by your side, advancing and retreating with you."

"That way, you won't have to worry about me doing anything against you, right?"

She was certain that what Lü Yuan didn't know was that even if she had something on him, it would actually be meaningless.

Because to the Purple Mansion cultivator stationed at the Lower City subsidiary...

A Pseudo Spirit Root of his caliber was incredibly, incredibly important. He would never be abandoned over a few insignificant pieces of "leverage"!

But precisely because of that, she could see just how much he was willing to do for a friend.

Lü Yuan had no idea what Lin Qi was thinking.

Instead, he hadn't expected her demand to be so simple.

Something on him-

After all that, I thought you were going to ask for the moon, but you're just saying you want to be my friend in a roundabout way...

Of course, Lü Yuan also understood that Lin Qi had proposed this condition because of the attitude he had shown toward Wang Yan.

With a talent as great as his, he was willing to go this far for Wang Yan.

So Lin Qi had absolutely nothing to lose from this choice. It might even be the greatest all-in bet of her life.

There was no reason to refuse. After all, he had wanted to keep this reincarnated Purple Mansion cultivator at his side and squeeze out every bit of her value.

But Lü Yuan didn't act too eager. Instead, a teasing smile curled his lips.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." Having made her decision, Lin Qi saw no reason to regret it halfway through.

And just as Lü Yuan thought, she was considering whether this was her one and only chance in life to return to the Upper City.

If Lü Yuan really was willing to go this far for Wang Yan, then as long as she got on good terms with him over the coming years-

If he got into junior college in the future, he would very likely help her return to the Upper City with him!

"All right, then."

To Lin Qi's surprise, Lü Yuan agreed at once, with scarcely any hesitation.

Then, without any qualms, he gave her something on him that he himself couldn't deny.

Lü Yuan said to Lin Qi, "I've killed someone."