Chapter 60: Recording Part 3

The unfamiliar address made Ye Zhiyao shiver. She shrank her shoulders and escaped from Ji Caiyan’s grasp: “Cai… Caiyan, didn’t you not marry him?”

Ye Zhiyao spoke the truth.

In this story, the most tragic were Xu Hongyong’s dead wife and daughter.

If someone else had said it, Ji Caiyan might have nodded in agreement. Coming from Ye Zhiyao’s mouth, she just wanted to lose her temper: “Master really doesn’t care about me at all. If that man were Senior Sister’s fiancé, Elder Shen would definitely go kill him.”

“?” Suddenly named, Shen Yanting was bewildered for an instant. She quickly reacted and reached out to block Ji Caiyan, who was about to grab Ye Zhiyao again: “Caiyan.”

She hoped Ji Caiyan would calm down a bit, and Ji Caiyan did cool off somewhat.

Ji Caiyan seemed perfectly normal as long as she didn’t talk to Ye Zhiyao. She thought seriously before telling Shen Yanting: “Senior Shishu, I don’t think that’s possible. Even if he were willing, my eldest sister wouldn’t agree to him recognizing Huan’er as his goddaughter.”

Ye Zhiyao quietly dragged her chair, wanting to get farther from Ji Caiyan.

Ji Caiyan caught her little movement with a sidelong glance and stepped on the chair beneath her, ignoring Ye Zhiyao’s paling face as she continued to Shen Yanting: “Senior Shishu, I know my eldest sister very well. She absolutely couldn’t tolerate a wife-killing, daughter-killing scum. And Yunhuan… Yunhuan isn’t such a foolish child.”

Shen Yanting didn’t respond immediately but softly called: “Xuenong.”

“Master.”

Bo Xuenong answered and immediately pulled up the System Panel that only she could see. She felt the name Ji Yunhuan was familiar.

Sure enough.

Ji Yunhuan’s name appeared in the Love Firmer Than Gold Strategy Targets Panel, silver-colored just like hers. Not only Ji Yunhuan’s name—Bo Xuenong also spotted another black name in the panel, another Ji surname—Ji Caixi.

This name similar to Ji Caiyan finally caught Bo Xuenong’s attention.

She asked: “Caiyan, what’s your eldest sister’s name?”

Ji Caiyan: “Ji Caixi.”

Bo Xuenong looked down at the Absolute Beauty Ranking. Sure enough, she saw Ji Caixi and Ji Yunhuan’s names there too.

Ji Caixi ranked seventeenth, Ji Yunhuan twenty-first.

Bo Xuenong had been focused on herself and Shen Yanting and only now noticed them. Ji Caiyan really had self-restraint; seeing her family on the ranking hadn’t prompted her to mention them. Wait… had Ji Caiyan just sneaked votes for her eldest sister and niece?

Bo Xuenong worried Ji Caiyan was stealing her votes, while Ji Caiyan thought she was waiting for her to talk about Ji Yunhuan.

Ji Caiyan kept her foot on the chair under Ye Zhiyao and pointed to Ji Yunhuan’s name on the ranking: “Yunhuan is my eldest sister’s child, but she’s three years older than me. Her talent is extremely good. She…”

“Three years?” Shen Yanting caught the key point: “Caiyan, your family’s rule is that if two or more children are born within ten years, they draw lots to decide who can become a demon cultivator. Doesn’t that mean…”

Ji Caiyan’s gaze dimmed for an instant, then softened again: “Yunhuan was the one who drew the red lot in our round.”

Bo Xuenong instinctively asked: “Do you two get along well?”

Ji Caiyan: “Very well.”

Ji Caiyan wasn’t unreasonable. At most, she had the pride of a great clan’s young miss. She wouldn’t resent Ji Yunhuan for drawing the red lot or blame her for being unable to become a demon cultivator. Instead, Ji Yunhuan and Ji Caixi had always felt guilty toward her. When she was still in the Ji Clan, those mother and daughter hated not being able to give her everything good.

Hearing “very well,” Bo Xuenong’s eyes brightened.

Looking at Ji Caiyan again, she only saw two big characters on her face: Points!

The usually uninvolved Bo Xuenong immediately exchanged for Ji Caixi and Ji Yunhuan’s Original Book Plot and Extended Plotline. Upon reading, she was stunned. Unexpectedly, both Ji Yunhuan and Ji Caixi were the male lead’s romantic confidantes in the Original Book Plot. Ji Yunhuan had more scenes as a secondary strategy target. As Divine Moon City’s young lady, she fell in love with the male lead during the Scale Eel County Trial, saw Shen Yanting as a romantic rival, and finally died blocking a blade for the male lead in a secret realm.

Ji Caixi was a black-colored tertiary strategy target with fewer scenes.

In the setting, she was a widow raising her daughter alone after losing her husband. Due to her beauty, the male lead teased her during the Scale Eel County period, but she didn’t enter the trial and had little entanglement with him, never falling for him. However, when the male lead retrieved Ji Yunhuan’s corpse from the secret realm and returned it to Ji Caixi, he promised to protect her for life and fulfill filial duties in Ji Yunhuan’s stead.

…

Ji Caixi’s Extended Plotline had much more story.

As the eldest daughter, Ji Caixi had two younger sisters and a brother below her, but her siblings all died young for various reasons. She became her parents’ only hope. Inheriting an extremely pure Ghost Moon Vine Bloodline, she was made Young Family Head early on, shouldering the clan’s glory. Unfortunately, with the top bloodline, true peak powerhouses were scarce, covetous enemies abounded, and the Clan Head was old and mediocre. All the pressure for clan development fell on her, plus guarding against those in the clan eyeing her position.

Her husband died in clan strife, and her daughter inherited an even stronger Ghost Moon Vine Bloodline. She saw her daughter as the hope to change the clan’s destiny and took her to the Scale Eel County Trial seeking opportunities. For her daughter’s safety, she even condensed a life-saving lock from half her bloodline for Ji Yunhuan to take into the secret realm. Unexpectedly, Ji Yunhuan was romance-brained and sacrificed herself to save the male lead’s life, leaving only the damaged life-saving lock for the male lead to bring back.

Who would have thought the male lead, unaware the life-saving lock was made from half of Ji Caixi’s bloodline, kept it to commemorate Ji Yunhuan, who died because of him. This prevented Ji Caixi from timely recovering her bloodline power, turning her into a cripple. She died in Divine Moon City just half a year later.

The Ji Clan then lost its Elder Clan Leader to the end of his lifespan and its Young Family Head simultaneously, leaving it without a backbone. Internal chaos and mutual scheming followed, and it was soon carved up by major powers, completely exiting the Cultivation World stage.

The male lead felt his ties were with the Ji Clan mother and daughter, not the clan itself.

Even when Ji Caixi entrusted him to protect the Ji Clan on her deathbed, he ignored its downfall.

Ji Caiyan’s Extended Plotline was simpler, summed up in one sentence: “Divine Moon City’s naive young lady had loved beautiful things since childhood. Happening upon the Absolute Beauty Ranking’s second-ranked Cheng Huaizhou, she easily fell for him, ultimately harming herself, her mother, and her clan.”

According to the Original Book Plot, Ji Caiyan never returned to Divine Moon City until death.

Now the story was different.

With Ji Caiyan on good terms with the Ji Clan mother and daughter, if she returned to the Ji Clan, she could stop Ji Yunhuan and Ji Caixi from going to the Scale Eel County Trial. She could plant a parasitic gu like Si Xianling’s on Ji Caiyan, letting her provide points for her and Feng Jin daily.

Conveniently, Shen Yanting had said her bloodline could break the remaining four restrictions on Ji Caiyan.

But for Ji Caiyan to smoothly return to the Ji Clan, Xu Hongyong needed dealing with first, then convincing the Ji Clan’s Elder Clan Leader.

Bo Xuenong found it somewhat troublesome.

“Master.” Bo Xuenong subconsciously wanted to ask Shen Yanting what she thought of Xu Hongyong, but Shen Yanting suddenly stood up from her chair. She walked silently to the window and floated out through it.

“Master!” When Bo Xuenong chased after her, she only saw Shen Yanting grabbing the neighboring window and leaping inside.

She hurried to follow.

Ji Caiyan grabbed Ye Zhiyao and forcibly dragged her along to catch up with Bo Xuenong.

Only when they arrived in the next room did they discover that no one was there. The voices in the room came from a golden fruit placed on the table. The fruit had a mouth that opened and closed, and several different voices emerged from it.

“This Xu Hongyong is real scum. Of course, the Ji Clan is also pretty scum for randomly picking a husband for their young lady without investigating him properly.”

“Yeah! Without the Ji Clan, Xu Hongyong might not have killed his daughter and wife!”

“…”

Shen Yanting pressed down on the fruit, and its mouth closed. Soon, it melted into a puddle of water under her fingertip.

She glanced at Bo Xuenong. “Xuenong, it’s a sound retaining fruit.”

The sound retaining fruit could record what others had said and then replay it through the fruit’s spiritual power. Those words just now had been spoken by someone, but not from next door. Someone had deliberately come to play them for them to hear.

Who?

Who was deliberately telling them this?

And what was the purpose?