After I Failed to Reform the Female Lead of a Tragic Novel - Chapter 18

Xiao Chun nodded desperately and recalled,

“I was originally the waiter at this inn. But one day, our shopkeeper was drained dry by that snake demoness, and the snake demoness became the new shopkeeper. She saw that my birth characters were purely yin and forced me to swallow a mass of black mist. From then on, I could only control my body during the day. At night, that monster would take control. That thing seems to absorb people’s essence and blood and refine vengeful souls. I didn’t want to hurt anyone, but whenever I tried to make the guests leave, the snake demoness would tie me up in the woodshed…”

Hearing this, Xie Yu’s face went pale. She urgently asked Xiao Chun, “You said your body was controlled by a monster. What did it feel like exactly? Did that monster ever speak to you from inside your body?”

Seeing Xie Yu’s somewhat abnormal reaction, Gong Dongling could not help lifting her head and looking deeply at her.

“Yes. During the day, I was in control. That demon was either asleep or mocking and threatening me. At night, I would be pushed down and could only watch helplessly as the demon used my body to do whatever it wanted.”

After relaxing for a moment, the young man’s deathly pale face finally improved a little, but his eyes were still shadowed and exhausted.

Xie Yu nodded and anxiously twisted her hands together. She thought of the voice that often tempted her…

Seeing this, Gong Dongling comforted Xiao Chun. “It’s all right. You don’t need to be afraid now. My junior sister dealt with the demon that stole your body. The snake demoness shopkeeper has also run off somewhere in fright and definitely won’t come back. Go rest properly and recover your strength. Otherwise, with your purely yin constitution, some wandering ghost might set its eyes on you again.”

Xiao Chun bowed and thanked the two of them again and again. Finally, he dragged his heavy body away to rest.

Once he left, Xie Yu hurriedly stepped forward and handed Xuanling to Gong Dongling. “Senior Sister, your sword.”

But just then, Xuanling began vibrating again, sticking to Xie Yu’s hand as if unwilling to leave her.

“Junior Sister, help me hold onto Xuanling for now. It relies more on your strength too. We’ll talk after your new sword arrives.” Gong Dongling did not take the sword.

Xuanling had acknowledged Xie Yu as its master, while Gong Dongling had forcefully made the sword recognize her through blood. After all, a melon forcefully twisted from the vine was not sweet. She might as well bless this pair of bitter-fated lovebirds and let Xie Yu use it for now.

Xie Yu did not quite understand, but she still put Xuanling away.

Gong Dongling turned toward Xie Yu, but her attention was drawn to the sleeve soaked through with blood. Her heart tightened, and she took medicine powder and bandages from her storage ring. “Give me your hand. I’ll bandage it for you.”

“I can do it myself. There’s no need to trouble Senior Sister…” Coming back to her senses, Xie Yu’s first reaction was to hurriedly refuse. Then she looked at the strangulation marks on Gong Dongling’s neck. “Senior Sister isn’t even taking care of your own injury.”

“How many times has it been? You’re still being polite with me. These marks of mine didn’t even break the skin. Wait a little longer and you probably won’t be able to see them at all.”

Gong Dongling only smiled and pulled Xie Yu’s hand in front of her, carefully lifting her sleeve.

Although the wound had been bitten by a vengeful soul, it looked more like several cuts of varying depth made by some sharp object. After all, vengeful souls did not have teeth, so thinking about it that way, it made sense.

It was a bloody mess, so much so that she could not even clearly see how many cuts there were. Fortunately, the wound and fabric had not stuck together yet. Otherwise, it would have been even more troublesome.

“Does it really not hurt?”

After all, Xie Yu had barely shown any expression from beginning to end. Just now, she had even completely ignored the injury.

Xie Yu froze. “My sense of pain…”

“You’ve told me before. I just feel pain looking at it.” As she spoke, Gong Dongling lowered her head slightly and seriously blew on the wound twice. Then she looked up at Xie Yu. “Do you feel anything?”

Xie Yu looked at Gong Dongling’s bright eyes. Her face flushed, and her fingers could not help curling slightly. Her long lashes lowered. “A little itchy. Warm.”

“See? You can feel it.” Gong Dongling smiled brilliantly, sprinkled the medicine powder on, and wrapped the gauze around her wound in circles.

This scene was very much like when Gong Dongling had first met Xie Yu, rescued her from the confinement room, and bandaged the whip marks all over her body. The only difference was that back then, Xie Yu had been covered from head to toe in resistance toward Gong Dongling.

And now, all these changes had been earned little by little through Gong Dongling’s actions after transmigrating here.

After thinking for a long while, Xie Yu finally asked, “Senior Sister, will the people from Buzhou Mountain see what happened when we were exorcising the demon just now?”

Gong Dongling naturally knew what she was worried about. She glanced at the Recording Stone by the window. “No. I put it on the windowsill before sleeping. It can only record the scenery outside.”

“I don’t know what happened with that blood either. How did the vengeful soul and that thing suddenly disappear?”

Gong Dongling had also witnessed the entire process, so naturally, she knew what had happened. She did not appear surprised, only asked calmly, “Have you ever encountered something similar while exorcising demons before?”

With this reminder, Xie Yu did remember something.

During one demon-exorcism mission, they had unintentionally discovered a deliberately refined vengeful ghost inside an old woman’s jar of pickled vegetables. Although the vengeful ghost had not fully formed, it was still extremely ferocious and seriously injured the first two disciples who found it. While Xie Yu was fighting it, the vengeful ghost had suddenly turned into a wisp of green smoke and vanished. At the time, everyone had thought it had fled because it was outnumbered.

But now that she thought about it, it seemed to have happened because her blood had fallen on the vengeful ghost.

After hearing this, Gong Dongling looked thoughtful. “Could it be a constitution issue? For example, Xiao Chun’s purely yin constitution attracts demons and ghosts, while your constitution counters these things, so your blood can also become a weapon that kills them.”

“But aside from this, there have never been any other signs.”

After this unknown side of her was discovered by Senior Sister, Xie Yu felt somewhat uneasy. Rather than saying she was worried about this power of unknown origin, it was more that she was afraid Senior Sister would see her as a monster.

“Since we don’t know the reason, there’s no need to force an answer. We only need to know that this isn’t a bad thing. In the future, if you encounter evil spirits like this, when life and death are on the line, you can even use this method to save yourself.”

As Gong Dongling spoke, she finished the last step—tying a little bow.

“Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone. A killing move like this has to catch the enemy off guard.” She blinked slyly.

A belated smile finally bloomed on Xie Yu’s clean, simple face. “Thank you, Senior Sister.”

After the turmoil of the first half of the night, neither of them slept during the second half. They each cultivated and recovered their strength. Xie Yu in particular had used up a large amount of spiritual power this time, and she had to slowly accumulate it all back.

The next day, news came from Buzhou Mountain that the group had already set off. Gong Dongling and Xie Yu also flew on their sword toward the Ruoxu Illusion Realm.

…

At the entrance of the Ruoxu Illusion Realm, a group of disciples had already gathered.

“Why aren’t Senior Sister Gong and Xie Yu here yet? They left two days earlier than us. Don’t tell me they secretly entered the illusion realm?” someone said impatiently.

“Didn’t they say there was a Recording Stone? They probably wouldn’t dare, right? If they were discovered, they’d lose even the right to fight for the Xuanji Grass.”

Before that person could finish, another disciple cut in fiercely. “You believe her? The two of them even hid the news about the Xuanji Grass at first. If Eldest Senior Brother hadn’t made it public, we’d still be in the dark!”

Eldest Senior Brother Qiu Yan, whom they spoke of, stood on the high platform, quietly listening to the disciples’ discussion without saying a word. His expression was especially gloomy. Clearly, he was still angry over being suppressed by Mu Chenlin that day.

Just then, someone pointed at a sword in the sky and said, “That’s Xuanling! The two of them… seem to be riding the same sword?!”

All the disciples knew about the dispute over Xuanling recognizing two masters. For such a scene to appear now was truly something they had lived long enough to witness.

Before long, the two of them landed steadily on the ground.

When Xuanling flew to Xie Yu’s back, the disciples were even more stunned. Their jaws nearly dropped as they looked toward Gong Dongling’s expression, only to find her exceptionally calm and composed.

Xie Yu looked at those disciples. Among them were many familiar faces who had targeted her before. This was their first training mission together, but the atmosphere between the two sides had frozen from this very moment. Not to mention, they would still have to compete for the Xuanji Grass later. This journey was destined to be anything but peaceful.

She thought of Senior Sister’s encouragement and knew she should not run away. So she lifted her head and faced those people directly.

Gong Dongling also noticed the change in Xie Yu and smiled. “Apologies. These disciples arrived late only because the notification from the Training Hall came rather slowly. Also, we only have one sword, so we kept everyone waiting.”

Qiu Yan slowly stepped out and asked Xie Yu the question in everyone’s heart. “One sword? Why is Xie Yu holding Xuanling?”

Everyone’s eyes stabbed toward Xie Yu like knives, carrying a hint of ill intent.

Gong Dongling answered one step ahead of her. “I lent Xuanling to Xie Yu. Her sword was destroyed. Is there a problem?”

“Since Junior Sister is willing, we outsiders naturally have nothing to say. I merely wanted to ask what Junior Sister experienced last night. Your sword was destroyed, and your neck was injured too.” Qiu Yan clearly had no intention of letting this point go.

Only then did everyone see several bluish-purple strangulation marks on Gong Dongling’s neck, half-hidden beneath her collar.

Sure enough, someone immediately seized on this. “Senior Sister didn’t really go to the illusion realm early last night, did she?”

Junior Sister Ping, who was in charge of the other Recording Stone, rolled her eyes speechlessly at these disciples and shrugged. “I saw them at the inn before I slept last night. No matter what, they couldn’t have teleported to the illusion realm. Go on, keep making things up.”

“Senior Sister did not go to the illusion realm.”

A voice broke through the clamor.

Unexpectedly, it was Xie Yu, who had never once defended herself in front of so many people.

“To the southwest of Buzhou Mountain is Zhang County. Since last month, rumors of haunting have been spreading there, but in truth, demons were causing trouble. Last night, we exorcised demons at the only inn in Zhang County. My sword was only made of ordinary iron, so it was destroyed by demonic energy. The injury on Senior Sister’s neck was also caused by a demon.”

“If you don’t believe me, you may come examine the remnants of the sword. As far as I know, there are no such demons in the Ruoxu Illusion Realm.”

Xie Yu’s voice was not loud, and her expression was as calm as ever. She did not look like someone arguing fiercely, yet she was exceptionally eye-catching.

Not only the outsiders, even Gong Dongling had not expected Xie Yu, who had always swallowed her anger, to stand up and confront everyone.