Chapter 4

Jiang Yiguang, having bolted out the door, felt a pang of regret.

Her palms were sweaty. The mere thought of Fu Juan’s gaze made her heart race abnormally. She silently cursed herself for being so useless. She tried to recall her past attitude towards Fu Juan, but it was always like looking at flowers through mist—hazy and indistinct.

The early March sky, the wind blowing in her face carried a slight chill. Her thin knit sweater couldn’t resist the biting cold.

After standing in the sunlight for a while, she finally slunk back into the house. She didn’t see Fu Juan in the living room, but faint sounds came from the kitchen. Some fantastical thoughts arose in her mind, but she quickly suppressed those absurd delusions and secretly retreated to her bedroom.

The values on her character panel had changed. Compatibility Value dropped to “67.” Jiang Yiguang didn’t quite understand the pattern of this change. She focused her attention on “Daoist Skill Points.” The “born goose egg” had become “cramming at the last minute won’t help, but maybe clinging to a toe will.” And the “0” had changed to “1” due to completing the task.

Jiang Yiguang asked, “System, how do I use this?”

【Exchange for access rights to Eternal Space. 1 point equals 10 minutes in the outside world, but 100 minutes within the space. Does the host wish to use it?】

【Also, the spiritual energy in Eternal Space is far more abundant than in this Dharma-ending age. Staying there long enough, even a pig could attain enlightenment. Host, do your best.】

Jiang Yiguang: “…” She would sooner or later throttle this sarcastic system.

She didn’t think she could learn much in just over an hour, but out of curiosity for the system and Eternal Space, Jiang Yiguang chose to exchange her points. A golden light flashed before her eyes. Before she could blink, her consciousness had entered a space similar to a classroom, except there was no teacher. In front of her was just a large screen scrolling through a video. Before her was a desk, laid out with talisman paper, a brush, cinnabar, and other items.

Although Jiang Yiguang’s spiritual apertures were closed and she had never cultivated Daoist arts, being born into a Mystic Arts Family, she still had some basic knowledge. The video playing was about how to draw the “True Form Chart of the Five Peaks.” Legend had it that when Emperor Wu of the Western Han met the Queen Mother of the West, she bestowed upon him the True Form Chart of the Five Peaks. Anyone wearing this chart while entering the mountains could not be approached by mountain spirits, tigers, insects, or any demonic poisons. Jiang Yiguang had no great aversion to drawing talismans. It wasn’t that she was unwilling to learn the family’s secret arts; rather, she always felt a layer of fog before her eyes, impossible to dispel. Clan uncles and Dao Court leaders all judged her as “Chaotic”—her heart was clouded and unenlightened, destined only for a mundane, ordinary life.

Over an hour in Eternal Space was mere ten minutes in reality. When Jiang Yiguang’s consciousness returned, her body was soaked in sweat, as if fished out of water. She glanced at her panel. The “1” after Daoist Skill Points had disappeared, replaced by the five seal script characters for “True Form Chart of the Five Peaks.” The aftertaste of the talisman brush’s flow still lingered in Jiang Yiguang’s mind. Without thinking, she dashed towards the study. She remembered where her mother kept the talisman paper!

Her mind was completely focused on “drawing talismans,” so she didn’t notice Fu Juan coming out of her room. Once in the study, she rummaged around frantically until she found the necessary supplies. Concentrating completely, she lifted the brush to draw the talisman. It was only when a flash of golden light passed over the tip of the brush that she collapsed, drained, into the chair, gasping for air like a fish out of water. She had successfully drawn the True Form Chart of the Five Peaks! If Mother knew—Jiang Yiguang mused, reaching for the brush again. But this time, before she could set the brush down, a pale, slender hand reached out from the side and snatched it away.

Jiang Yiguang turned her head, looking blankly at Fu Juan, who had somehow come in. Her eyes were innocent and bewildered, like a small deer threading through the woods.

A thought flashed extremely fast through Fu Juan’s mind, but she failed to grasp it and had no leisure to ponder those distracting matters. Expressionlessly, she looked at the somewhat unfamiliar Jiang Yiguang and said coldly, “Drawing talismans requires the harmony of Yin and Yang. With my essence, I merge with the essence of heaven and earth; with my spirit, I merge with the spirit of heaven and earth. Your spiritual energy is excessively depleted right now. You cannot continue.”

Jiang Yiguang knew nothing of metaphysics and Daoist arts. In the past, even under Aunt Jiang’s personal guidance, she had never managed to draw a single talisman. Yet now, she could actually lift a brush and draw the True Form Chart of the Five Peaks? Had she taken some wicked, crooked path? Fu Juan wondered silently, a hint of curiosity and inquiry flickering in her gaze as she looked at Jiang Yiguang.

Jiang Yiguang didn’t notice Fu Juan’s look. She just stared fixedly at that cool, pale, well-defined hand. Her gaze traced from the fingers upwards, inch by inch, until the jade-white skin was covered by the shirt cuff. An irrational urge to tear that shirt sleeve suddenly arose within her, but her current weak and powerless body couldn’t put the impulse into action.

“Jiang Yiguang.” The clear, cold voice was like pearls and jade dropping onto a plate.

Hearing her name spoken by Fu Juan, Jiang Yiguang’s heart trembled. The remnants of her love-struck brain began acting up again. But before she could open her mouth, a bucket of cold water was dumped on her head.

“Aunt Jiang’s reputation cannot be ruined by your hands. Do you understand?”

Jiang Yiguang: “…” In Fu Juan’s eyes, her image couldn’t be any worse. This person didn’t even bother to hide the mockery and contempt in her words. She looked up and met Fu Juan’s gaze, cold like ice shards, like a vengeful ghost crawling up from the netherworld. The pent-up frustration instantly dissipated. As the female lead, even with her Qi Luck at its lowest, that aura of looking down upon all living beings probably accompanied her from birth to death.

Fu Juan left those words and wheeled herself away.

Jiang Yiguang shook off the chaotic thoughts in her mind, unable to resist thinking silently to the System, “How could Fu Juan’s aura ever be suppressed? I can’t even remember our past interaction pattern.”

System: 【Congratulations, host. This is a good thing. Once you can sense danger, you won’t court death by running headfirst into a wall.】

Jiang Yiguang asked, “How are tasks triggered?”

【Main storyline tasks are mandatory, and the time to start them hasn’t come yet. Side quests—that is, the previous small choices—are triggered based on plot points in the original novel. Each choice is an opportunity to update the female lead’s favorability.】

Jiang Yiguang directly ignored the words “favorability.” Every optimal choice the System gave was an offense against someone. For favorability to increase, Fu Juan would have to be sick in the head. She thought for a moment, then asked, “If this is a book—do plot points refer to events explicitly described in black and white? But if I make choices different from the original plot, won’t that cause the plot to deviate? When it’s no longer relevant to the plot, what kind of tasks will there be?”

【The plot, or rather the world’s will within the book, will spontaneously correct deviations until you completely break free from its constraints. Once that happens, the System will just be a mascot.】

Jiang Yiguang added, “But I haven’t felt any tug-of-war between the world’s will and my own instincts.”

【Novice protection period. Ah, no, it’s just that the key plot points haven’t been entered yet. The world’s will can’t be bothered with you.】

Jiang Yiguang: “…”

It took Jiang Yiguang the better part of an hour to recover from the depletion of drawing the talisman. So when she met Lu Yaotiao at the café, she still appeared rather listless.

“Your nightlife must be excessively fulfilling? What happened to your forehead? Didn’t get too intense, did you?” Lu Yaotiao sized up Jiang Yiguang, her smile mischievous, her tone full of teasing.

“Don’t talk nonsense. I accidentally bumped it.” Jiang Yiguang glared at Lu Yaotiao, annoyed.

“Tsk, could it be you took Fu Juan home to enshrine her?” Lu Yaotiao asked with a laugh.

Her initial motive was indeed impure, and now, Jiang Yiguang truly wished she could enshrine Fu Juan in the ancestral hall—no, she wanted a state of non-interference, like well water not mixing with river water. Pushing Fu Juan out of her mind, Jiang Yiguang asked curiously, “How come you want to go to the Fox Immortal Temple? Aren’t you afraid there might be something dirty inside?”

Lu Yaotiao stared intently at Jiang Yiguang, then suddenly lowered her voice, “Afraid. So, isn’t that why I called you along?”

Jiang Yiguang: “…You know what I’m like.”

Hearing this, Lu Yaotiao laughed even more freely. She leaned back in her chair, crossed her arms, and sighed, “Besides you, no one else would fool around with me.”

Jiang Yiguang: “Should I thank you for thinking so highly of me first, or just start cursing you outright?”

“Dear friend, don’t be like that.” Lu Yaotiao got up and circled behind Jiang Yiguang, wrapping her arms around her neck and wheedling softly. Unfortunately, the heartless Jiang Yiguang wholly rejected Lu Yaotiao’s advances. With lightning speed, she brushed off Lu Yaotiao’s warm hands, looking warily at the peach-blossom-cheeked Lu Yaotiao.

Seeing Jiang Yiguang’s alertness as if guarding against a thief, Lu Yaotiao burst into laughter.

Jiang Yiguang looked at Lu Yaotiao numbly, “My dear sister, this is a public place. Mind your manners.”

Lu Yaotiao immediately covered her mouth upon hearing this. She coughed pretentiously, her gaze passing through the glass wall to the street outside the café. After a moment of distraction, she nudged Jiang Yiguang, who was looking down at her phone, and whispered, “Jiang Jiang, look outside. Isn’t that Fu Juan, the one you’re always yearning for? What is she doing out here?”

If she was free to move around, what was she still doing at the Jiang house? Where Fu Juan went had nothing to do with her. Jiang Yiguang thought, yet her gaze still very honestly turned towards the street. The person sitting in the wheelchair was indeed Fu Juan. She was surrounded by a group of people in the middle; Jiang Yiguang didn’t know what was happening. She wasn’t planning to interfere and was about to look away when she suddenly caught sight of a mean, sharp-featured face. She recognized that person—a temporary worker at the Xuanzhen Dao Court. But how dare he bully Fu Juan?! Jiang Yiguang instinctively stood up, but a malicious thought crossed her mind, and she slowly sat back down.

Simultaneously, a “ding” sounded, and the mechanical voice echoed in her head.

【Detecting a crisis for the female lead. The host has the following three options:

A. Wait for those people to humiliate Fu Juan thoroughly, then appear as the hero to save the beauty. (Reward: A “sudden, irresistible, descending” romance)

B. Step forward directly to resolve the situation for Fu Juan. (Reward: Chivalry Points +1)

C. Watch coldly from the sidelines. (Reward: Physical Strength Points +1)】

This was Jiang Yiguang’s third time making a choice.

She had vaguely grasped a pattern: the option with the worst “reward” was what the “plot” most wanted her to do.

As for the remaining two options, Jiang Yiguang chose “C” without a second thought. Physical strength, at least, improved her fitness. What could Chivalry Points get her besides reputation?