A Consequence of Opposing the Heroine’s Halo (GL) - Chapter 14

In the dead of night, the silence was suddenly broken by Liu Sanye recalling her series of “boneheaded” and suffocating actions from the day. Cringe-induced embarrassment hit her so hard that she began rolling around frantically in her bedding. Unfortunately, she moved too much and woke Bai Tong in the bed next to her.

Bai Tong asked, “What’s wrong?”

Liu Sanye hurriedly replied, “Nothing, nothing!”

After a while, once she was sure Bai Tong was asleep, Liu Sanye started rolling again—though this time, she did it slowly… As she rolled, she pondered: Why am I, a villain, getting closer and closer to the heroine? This is not a good omen.

However, no matter how close she got to the heroine, it couldn’t shake her resolve to go home! Liu Sanye began planning her next “cheat code” heist.

In the original novel, after the heroine arrived at the Hegui Sect’s outer sect, her rapid progress in cultivation drew the jealousy of an overbearing girl from a prestigious family. That girl had an admirer who, in an attempt to win her favor, recruited several lackeys to ambush Bai Tong, eventually causing her to fall off a cliff.

The legendary “falling off a cliff” plot was approaching! After falling, Bai Tong wouldn’t die; instead, she would find a sword manual that would aid her cultivation: the Dust-Spirit Sword Manual!

Liu Sanye’s plan this time was to climb down the cliff and find that manual before Bai Tong ever fell!

A sleepless night passed. Early the next morning, Liu Sanye was woken up by Xun Qiu.

Xun Qiu, with her youthful face, put on an air of seniority. “Young people these days are getting more and more scandalous—staying up all night and then failing to wake up during the day!”

Liu Sanye promised, “It won’t happen again.”

Xun Qiu nodded begrudgingly. “Fine. Considering this is your first offense, and the fact that you were likely too excited to sleep because it’s your first time sharing a room with your best friend… I won’t punish you.”

Liu Sanye was about to say thank you, but when she heard the second half, the dark circles under her eyes practically flew off in shock. “I was definitely NOT too excited to sleep because I’m in the same room as Bai Tong!”

Bai Tong hadn’t thought anything of it initially, but upon hearing Liu Sanye’s defensive denial, she turned her entire head toward her.

Xun Qiu began to laugh, waving her small hands. “I know, I know. You don’t have to repeat yourself~”

Liu Sanye nearly spit out a mouthful of blood. “I’m not! I didn’t! Don’t talk nonsense!”

Xun Qiu just kept nodding with her eyes closed. “Mm-hmm, whatever you say is right.”

Eventually, Liu Sanye gave up resisting and turned her face away. Fine, think whatever you want. It doesn’t matter.

In the original plot, this initiation ceremony would feature the wicked female supporting character second only to Liu Sanye: Gu Panlian. This girl was a textbook “White Lotus”—despite her mediocre talent and looks, she had used her calculating mind to climb to the position of Teaching Elder. She even had the Master of Sword-Coming Peak, Wan Guizong, wrapped around her finger, willing to search for heavenly treasures to boost her cultivation.

The initiation ceremony took place on the Celestial Crane Platform of the Southern Dividing Ridge. By the time Xun Qiu arrived with Liu Sanye and Bai Tong, the outer sect disciples were already gathered, waiting.

As the crowd scanned the two newcomers, Liu Sanye observed them in return. She noticed about a thousand people of all ages—from five-year-olds to eighty-year-old men!

Xun Qiu led them onto the platform to wait for the arrival of the Teaching Elder and the Inner Sect Head Elder.

When Gu Panlian arrived, thousands of disciples turned their gaze toward her. She had a gentle, ethereal aura; with every step she took through the air, a lotus seemed to bloom beneath her feet. It was truly an eye-catching entrance.

Shortly after, the Inner Sect Head Elder, Chixiao, rushed in just in the nick of time. When he saw there were only two new disciples, his face fell. “Xun Qiu, what’s the meaning of this? You called me here for just two people?! Do you have any idea how busy I am?”

Sharp-tongued Xun Qiu didn’t earn her reputation for nothing. She put her hands behind her back and shot back, “With that mug of yours, it’s not like any girls are confessing to you. What could you possibly be busy with?”

That jab hit home. Chixiao was so angry he nearly flipped out on the spot. It was Gu Panlian who stepped in to soothe him, laughing softly. “You know what Xun Qiu is like. Why bother getting upset with her?”

Chixiao always listened to Gu Panlian, so he ignored Xun Qiu. Naturally, Xun Qiu added another remark: “Not only is he ugly, his brain doesn’t work right either.”

Chixiao couldn’t take the disrespect and wanted to duel her to the death, but Xun Qiu ignored him. “Can you be more mature? This is an initiation ceremony. If you keep acting up, I’ll have to report you to the Sect Leader.”

She even made a “come at me, bro” little face.

Chixiao’s lungs were nearly bursting with rage. Seeing both were acting like children, Gu Panlian separated them and took charge of the ceremony. She instructed Liu Sanye and Bai Tong to kneel toward Heaven-Reaching Peak, recite the initiation oath, and serve tea to the three elders.

As Liu Sanye followed the instructions, she was secretly alarmed. While Gu Panlian was putting on a good front just like in the book, the original Gu Panlian had never broken up a fight like that! Liu Sanye could only guess that her arrival was changing the trajectory of the plot.

After a series of tedious rituals, Gu Panlian asked them to take out the Soul Tools Chu Danxue had given them. From these, two Soul Lamps were produced. She made the lamps float before the girls and used a spell to extract a drop of fresh blood from their brows, dripping it into the lamps.

The Soul Lamps flickered to life and drifted back into their hands.

Gu Panlian smiled. “I have placed a wisp of your souls into these lamps. Now, go place them in the Soul Lamp Pavilion.”

She took out a Soul Tablet, and a massive circular gate appeared above the Celestial Crane Platform. A beam of golden light shone down. Following instructions, Liu Sanye and Bai Tong reached out, and the lamps were sucked into the light.

Gu Panlian withdrew the tablet, her shimmering eyes seemingly carrying a hint of a smile. “The lamps have been recorded. From this moment on, you are disciples of the Hegui Sect.”

The ceremony over, Xun Qiu dismissed the disciples and led the girls away. As they left, Liu Sanye turned back out of curiosity and found Gu Panlian staring back at her with a deep, unreadable gaze. Scared, Liu Sanye quickly looked away. She felt Gu Panlian was becoming increasingly strange.

Xun Qiu’s first stop was the outer sect cafeteria. The building was built on flat ground in the shape of a massive honey peach! Several cultivators were sitting atop the “peach” eating BBQ pork buns. Nearby, people were planting fruit in an open space; seeds were scattered, saplings shot up into trees, and they bore fruit instantly—grown, picked, and eaten on the spot.

Xun Qiu explained, “In the entire Hegui Sect, only the Southern Dividing Ridge of the outer sect has a cafeteria. Even those who have achieved Bigu come back for a taste of fresh food. However, eating food hinders cultivation; before long, they’ll just vomit it back up. Of course, spiritual pills and rare fruits are exceptions.”

Eat and then puke? What kind of weirdos are these? Liu Sanye silently critiqued.

Next, they went to the trading market. In this vast area, anyone could sell their wares—talismans, spirit pills, and rarities collected over centuries.

Xun Qiu asked, “Do you know about the Dust-Purifying Talisman?”

Liu Sanye replied, “Yes, the ones in our room yesterday.”

Xun Qiu laughed. “If you want those in the future, you either learn to draw them yourself or trade for them here.”

Liu Sanye: “…” So they aren’t monthly necessities provided by the sect?

Xun Qiu continued the lesson: “The cultivation world has a currency similar to the mortal world: Spirit Stones. There are two ways to get them. One is to mine them. The second is to circulate spiritual qi through your meridians for sixty-four cycles and then discharge it, manually converting the qi in the air into a stone. This is the dumbest and clumsiest way.”

“Spirit stones help with cultivation and power arrays. They are the one item that will never go out of style. As long as you have enough, you can buy treasures, manuals, pills, spirit beasts—even high-level cultivator slaves.” She paused, then added, “Just listen to this for now. I know you definitely won’t have that many spirit stones in the future anyway.”

Liu Sanye: “…”

Finally, they went to the teaching area. There were four classes: Heaven, Earth, Mystery, and Yellow. According to Xun Qiu, Bai Tong already knew the special script and common knowledge of the cultivation world, so she could go straight to the Earth Class to learn cultivation techniques. Liu Sanye, however, had to start from scratch. Her first task: memorizing characters.

There were 30,000 characters in the cultivation script!

Hearing that deadly number, Liu Sanye felt her hopes of a future—and going home—vanishing. To add to her despair, Xun Qiu then led them to a graveyard.

It was a field of tombstone forests. On the lush, vibrant ridge, it looked incredibly abrupt.

Xun Qiu pointed at the graves. “These were all outer sect disciples. I watched them grow from children your age, only to see them grow old with regret and despair… they are the failures of the path to immortality!”

Her tone was that of a teacher facing students who failed to live up to their potential. “Some lacked talent, but most were here because their Dao Heart was unstable. They lacked perseverance and were trapped in the Qi Refining stage their whole lives, eventually giving up until they died of old age.”

“They do not deserve sympathy.”

Even if they are failures, pointing at their graves and saying that is a bit disrespectful, isn’t it?! Liu Sanye was startled by this sudden outburst. Out of respect for the dead, she pulled Bai Tong to bow repeatedly, whispering, “Sorry, sorry, sorry to disturb you, no offense intended.”

Xun Qiu was annoyed. “What are you doing?!”

Cowering slightly from the unexplained anger, Liu Sanye stammered, “I just feel the deceased deserve respect. Besides, what if they just liked living a simple, ordinary life?”

After all, she just wanted to go home and live a simple life with the family that loved her. She didn’t want to stay in this strange world any longer than necessary.

Xun Qiu suddenly calmed down. She looked at Liu Sanye. “Ordinary? In the cultivation world, being ordinary only makes you a fish on a chopping block, waiting to be slaughtered.”

Beside her, the silent Bai Tong suddenly gripped Liu Sanye’s hand.

Bai Tong had been that fish once.