Moon-Gazing Peak towered into the clouds. The summit was bone-cold all year round, yet a small pavilion stood there, its interior as warm as eternal spring, sealing the wind and snow firmly outside.
As dawn began to lighten the sky, the glow of the Luminous Pearl dimmed. Bai Xiaoxiao drifted hazily awake and instinctively tightened her arms around the warm, soft body in her embrace.
The woman in her arms had skin as supple as silk, so fair it was almost dazzling. Even in such dim light, her ethereal beauty could not be concealed.
Awake, she was so cold and distant, so far above the world. But while asleep, she was unexpectedly… endearing.
No matter how many times she woke up, Bai Xiaoxiao still found it hard to believe that someone like this could be tied to her in any way.
After all, a month ago, she had been just an ordinary recent college graduate in modern society, facing the grim prospect of graduating into unemployment.
To avoid being starved out after graduation, Bai Xiaoxiao had frantically sent out resumes. Unfortunately, her major was an awkward one, and her odds of landing a decent job were extremely low.
Thankfully, even fishing for a needle in a haystack sometimes paid off. One company replied, inviting her to a trial shift.
Bai Xiaoxiao was thrilled. At least the first step of her life plan was a good start. Even though nothing was confirmed yet, for her, it was already a fine situation—at least she could stay in the city a little longer.
However, all those beautiful expectations came to an end on the way home from the interview.
When a person is down on their luck, even drinking water can get stuck in their teeth. That was exactly her.
Who could have imagined that on a road she knew so well, a brick would suddenly fall from the sky, hitting her squarely on the head?
Until the moment she fell, Bai Xiaoxiao hadn’t even registered what was happening. Just before her consciousness dissolved, she saw a figure lean halfway out, staring straight at her—actually smiling.
Bai Xiaoxiao felt that heaven truly knew how to play jokes. No one could accept dying because of someone else’s deliberate actions right at the start of their life.
She was no exception.
From a small town to a big city, Bai Xiaoxiao knew she had worked hard enough.
Perhaps because she had been a premature baby, she had been slow and dull as a child, learning everything late. Because of her defects, she had been abandoned at an orphanage. Getting into university had required several times more effort than ordinary people put in.
But it was all over now.
The moment she closed her eyes, Bai Xiaoxiao thought her life had ended. She never expected to have the chance to wake up again.
Even though she had grown up in the modern era, exposed to vast amounts of information, it still took her a considerable amount of time to accept that she had transmigrated—and that she was now a bright green little snake.
The world she had crossed into was completely different from the one she knew. This was the Cultivation World, albeit a world inside a book.
Bai Xiaoxiao assumed her transmigration was an accident. In reality, an existence calling itself the “Villain Counterattack System” had bound itself to her, bringing her soul into the world of the book. It demanded that she cooperate on missions and earn points to survive.
And the mission was—
To seduce the protagonist’s Shizun, Sword Venerable Mingyue, Shen Zhiyue, and destroy the opportunities of the book’s protagonist, Rong Qingqing.
According to the System’s analysis, the reason the protagonist Rong Qingqing had sailed through life so smoothly was the huge advantage of having found a wonderful Shizun.
After all, her Shizun was Shen Zhiyue—the one who, at a hundred years old, had formed a Nascent Soul, and who now held the title of Number One Void Refinement of the Nine Provinces as the youngest Void Refinement cultivator in existence.
Not only was her cultivation high, her combat power was also frighteningly formidable, because Shen Zhiyue was a Sword Cultivator.
As everyone knew, aside from being poor, Sword Cultivators were universally acknowledged as terrifyingly strong.
Yet the Shangqing Sword Sect, where Shen Zhiyue belonged, was precisely such a peculiar existence—a sect where over ninety percent were Sword Cultivators, and it wasn’t poor in the slightest.
Because of this, Shen Zhiyue’s path of cultivation had been exceptionally smooth, aided by abundant resources, all the way to today, when the person who had once relied on the sect’s support was now able to give back—and had become famous far and wide.
Cultivators across the world yearned to join the Shangqing Sword Sect, and even more, to become Shen Zhiyue’s disciple.
After the System pointed it out, Bai Xiaoxiao realized she had actually read this novel before—albeit in a hurried, half-understood way. But she knew the general direction and had a clear understanding of how powerful and revered Shen Zhiyue was in the book.
So she felt she could never be qualified to be a mission taker, let alone a cannon fodder villain.
But the System threatened that if she slacked off, she would be executed after three forced missions. That would be a true scattering into nothingness, with no possibility of a next life.
Bai Xiaoxiao actually thought being erased was fine too. Perhaps she really couldn’t withstand the blow. When she had poured her entire heart into something only to come up empty, she suddenly saw things clearly.
Needless to say, when the System issued its first mission, she had no intention of completing it.
However, when the countdown ended and the System forcibly took over her body—and she found she couldn’t break free—Bai Xiaoxiao, carrying a faint sense of death, was controlled by the System and transported to the mission location.
Which was precisely the Sword Sect’s Forbidden Ground, the central barrier at the heart of Void Ruins Valley.
Bai Xiaoxiao remembered it very clearly. That day, mist filled the Void Ruins Valley. Newly arrived and unable to adapt, she had been dizzy the entire time.
But the moment she raised her head, Bai Xiaoxiao felt something, and saw a lamp suspended in the air within the barrier.
Bai Xiaoxiao knew—that was the Immortal Artifact, the Yin-Yang Life-Renewing Lamp.
According to her memory of the novel, at this moment, she was supposed to be preparing to steal the Yin-Yang Life-Renewing Lamp.
“But I don’t even know how to channel spiritual power. For that matter, even if I could, with my little cultivation I couldn’t possibly break this barrier. This mission was impossible from the start.”
Bai Xiaoxiao helplessly flopped flat like a snake stick, slowly voicing her doubts.
Even if the System had forcibly carried her to the central barrier, she had only just transmigrated. She struggled just to control this little snake’s body, let alone channel the spiritual power within it.
Hoping she would break the barrier and steal the treasure—wasn’t that a pipe dream?
“Host, I never said you had to break the barrier.”
Bai Xiaoxiao paused for two seconds, uncharacteristically at a loss. “Then why did you bring me here…?”
But the System was all mystery and wouldn’t say directly. It only told her to wait.
She tried to leave, but being a first-time snake with no idea how to crawl, she couldn’t get anywhere. Letting out a long sigh, Bai Xiaoxiao adopted the principle of taking things as they came and lay back down.
But because she was bored, her gaze was naturally drawn to the lamp.
It was hard to imagine that such an ordinary-looking lamp could be an Immortal Artifact, with the power to bring the dead back to life.
Unfortunately, although the Yin-Yang Life-Renewing Lamp was an Immortal Artifact, its true nature was more like a Devil Artifact.
A thousand years ago, the Shangqing Sword Sect’s Fourth-Generation Sect Master at that time, Li Wuyi, had once used the Yin-Yang Life-Renewing Lamp to save her beloved, Fairy Bitong.
Li Wuyi’s cultivation had already reached the Mahayana Stage by then. Activating an Immortal Artifact was taxing, but still within her power.
And indeed, she succeeded. But the resurrected Fairy Bitong fell into the Devil Path within a single night. No longer recognizing anyone, she drove a sword straight into Li Wuyi’s Dantian—where Li Wuyi had already lost half her cultivation.
Freshly fallen into the Devil Path, Fairy Bitong had almost instinctively poured Devil Qi into Li Wuyi’s body. With her cultivation damaged and her Dantian shattered, Li Wuyi had no way to resist the invasion of Devil Qi.
When the Sword Sect sensed that something was wrong and burst in, this was the gut-wrenching scene they witnessed.
Li Wuyi was gravely wounded beyond healing, yet even on the verge of death, she blocked the others from killing Fairy Bitong. The chaos lasted all night. Near dawn, Li Wuyi watched Fairy Bitong escape with her own eyes, then closed hers forever.
The Sect Master’s death could not be hidden. Unsurprisingly, it caused an uproar. The Sword Sect was thrown into chaos by Li Wuyi’s death. If not for the Old Ancestor emerging from seclusion to take control, the sect might have scattered long ago.
After that, the Yin-Yang Life-Renewing Lamp was sealed away.
But in truth, sealing the lamp wasn’t just for that reason. More importantly, it was used to suppress a Devil Beast.
Back then, after endless friction and grudges had accumulated between the races on the Nine Provinces Continent, a race war erupted. The Cultivation World fought with everything it had, but it was a bitter victory.
The Devil and Demon Races were driven back to their own territories, and the Three Realms Passage was naturally closed as well. Unfortunately, the passage had been shut too hastily—both races had Devils and Demons that hadn’t managed to retreat. The Cultivation World scoured and swept, yet some powerful Devils and Demons could not be killed immediately.
So after discussion, the major sects of that time unanimously decided to seal away several powerful Devil Beasts and Demonic Beasts they couldn’t yet kill.
One of them was suppressed in Void Ruins Valley, with the Yin-Yang Life-Renewing Lamp as the Formation Eye.
It was an Immortal Artifact after all; since it couldn’t be used, it might as well serve its greatest purpose.
And so it stood, suppressing for a thousand years.
Until the middle of the novel, when the protagonist Rong Qingqing, while training abroad, accidentally encountered a cultivator who had fallen into the Devil Path.
That cultivator recognized the cultivation method Rong Qingqing used, realized she was a disciple of the Shangqing Sword Sect, and kidnapped her. Thus, an old secret was unveiled to the readers, leading into the latter half of the plot—the schemes of Devil Cultivators.
And that fallen cultivator was precisely the Fourth-Generation Sect Master Li Wuyi’s Dao companion—Fairy Bitong.
When she had read that part, Bai Xiaoxiao had sighed at the fickleness of fate. Li Wuyi was undoubtedly a favored daughter of heaven, yet she had come to such an end. Fairy Bitong had also been a towering figure of her era, but she had fallen into the Devil Path because of this artifact.
She just never thought she would one day experience that same fickleness of fate firsthand.
Bai Xiaoxiao stared absent-mindedly at the lamp within the barrier, but suddenly noticed a dark glint flash across the ancient lamp base.
Thinking she had seen things, Bai Xiaoxiao instinctively leaned closer to the barrier for a better look.
The next second, the System’s stern voice rang in her mind. “Host, dodge!”
Bai Xiaoxiao froze, but she couldn’t react at all. She only had time to turn her head before a biting Sword Qi struck her.
Even though her body had instinctively summoned a bit of spiritual power to defend itself at the moment of crisis, her attacker’s cultivation was far beyond hers. Bai Xiaoxiao had no power to resist and was sent flying into the barrier.
Tragically, the barrier’s defensive mechanism triggered, reflecting the attack that landed on it.
Bai Xiaoxiao was struck twice like that. When she hit the ground, her consciousness was already fading.
Excruciating pain pierced her bones. Her internal organs must have been shattered. As she collapsed helplessly, she saw that the blood she spat out seemed to contain bits of flesh.
Book transmigration really wasn’t suited to an ordinary person like her. Living in modern society had been her greatest protection. The moment she transmigrated into the Cultivation World—even with a System—she wasn’t the protagonist, and the threat of death loomed at every turn.
It was even worse than her lot in modern society. Perhaps her life would truly end here.
Muddled thoughts swirled through her mind, yet Bai Xiaoxiao found she hadn’t passed out. Instead, at one moment, her consciousness suddenly cleared for a flash.
The temperature around her was dropping rapidly. She felt a bone-piercing chill.
Bai Xiaoxiao struggled to lift her head. The first things to fall into her view were a pair of plain-colored long boots embroidered with auspicious clouds, and above them, a sky-blue hem.
Such plain, simple colors, yet the overwhelming presence radiating from them made her understand the newcomer’s extraordinary nature.
Realizing something, Bai Xiaoxiao moved her gaze up with difficulty, wanting to confirm her guess.
And as her gaze climbed slowly, she finally made out the newcomer’s face.
Just one look, and Bai Xiaoxiao froze.
The Void Ruins Valley, due to the sealed Devil Beast and the thick fog that shrouded it year-round, was so isolated that even the wind couldn’t blow in.
But the moment she raised her eyes, it was as if a gentle breeze had swept through, stirring the strands of hair that hung loose at the sides of the immortal-like woman before her.
The immortal’s brows were slightly lowered, and her gaze at her carried the cold of a snow-capped summit—neither sorrowful nor joyful, so imposing that one dared not look directly.
Bai Xiaoxiao hastily withdrew her somewhat presumptuous gaze, afraid of disturbing the immortal before her. Yet the words that drifted to her ears made her heart seize.
“Those who trespass into the Forbidden Ground are guilty of death.”
