After I Failed to Reform the Female Lead of a Tragic Novel - Chapter 5

The matter of the Xuanji Grass was truly a headache. The next day, Gong Dongling headed straight for Buzhou Mountain’s Library Pavilion, determined to find another way to solve the problem.

In the original novel, whenever the main character reached a dead end, the author would occasionally arrange for them to discover some mysterious ancient prescription in an old book. That formula for reshaping the spiritual root had “just so happened” to fall into Xie Yu’s hands in exactly that way.

So Gong Dongling also wanted to try her luck. Maybe she really would gain something.

The Library Pavilion was located on a nameless independent peak near Buzhou Mountain. If the pavilion master had not been so easygoing and allowed disciples to fly there on swords, making a trip to the Library Pavilion would probably have taken quite a bit of effort.

Sword flight was different from circulating spiritual power through the body during cultivation. What mattered was the state of becoming one with the sword, connecting one’s mind to the sword spirit. With a hand seal, one could take off.

But the problem appeared right there.

Gong Dongling had not expected that this sword would refuse to acknowledge her!

No matter how hard she racked her brain, she could not reach the legendary state of connecting her mind with the sword. The sword did not respond to her hand seals at all.

The original owner’s Xuanling Sword was well known for its spirituality. Back when the original owner had gone missing in the Far North, Buzhou Mountain had sent batch after batch of disciples to search for her, yet all they found was the Xuanling Sword crying in grief.

Ever since the disciples brought it back, it seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep, never stirring in the slightest.

Until Xie Yu came up the mountain.

The Xuanling Sword, which had been silent for so long, actually took the initiative to acknowledge Xie Yu as its master.

A sword choosing a new master meant that the original owner had passed away and that the sword had found its next fated person. This result had been within many people’s expectations. After all, the possibility of Gong Dongling surviving had basically been zero.

Since that was the case, Zhenren went along with the situation and gave Xuanling to Xie Yu as her personal sword. Who would have thought that several years later, Gong Dongling would return?

Naturally, Xuanling returned to its original owner’s hands. But the strange spectacle of one sword recognizing two masters became a huge source of conflict between the original owner and Xie Yu.

“Did this sword recognize that I’m a transmigrator?” Gong Dongling knocked on the system, her face indescribably complicated.

【The connection was probably broken when you transmigrated over. Put some blood on the blade. It recognizes your blood, so it should reluctantly let you use it. But whether any accidents will happen afterward, I’m not sure…】

Gong Dongling was half-convinced and half-skeptical. She placed her finger against the blade, and with a sharp slice, a cut opened.

As her blood trickled out, Gong Dongling’s face quickly became much paler. Afraid that losing too much blood would exceed what this frail body could endure, she took out the medicinal powder left over from treating Xie Yu’s wounds last time and sprinkled some onto the cut.

When she had applied this medicine to Xie Yu before, the girl had not seemed to feel much at all. But now that Gong Dongling was using it on herself, she finally tasted what it was like. It felt as if a dull knife were cutting into the tender flesh beneath the wound. It hurt so much she nearly died on the spot!

“Is Xie Yu even human? How could she not feel this?” she gritted out as she wrapped her hand in gauze.

As for Xuanling, after seeing blood, the sword began to glow red. Clearly, she had awakened it.

Following the same method as before, Gong Dongling finally caught a red thread in her sea of consciousness. She immediately grabbed it.

But the thread seemed deeply unwilling. It kept twisting in Gong Dongling’s palm. Gong Dongling, however, was also determined not to let go. Woman and thread remained locked in a stalemate until the thread finally lost and merged into her palm. In that instant, her sea of consciousness trembled violently, and at last, her mind connected with the sword.

She reached out. With the slightest movement of her intent, the sword flew into her hand.

After all that trouble, Gong Dongling finally arrived at the Library Pavilion.

From the outside, the Library Pavilion looked like nothing more than a small courtyard. Only after stepping through the gate did one realize there was an entire hidden world inside. It truly lived up to its reputation as a place that gathered all the books under heaven. Towering bookshelves rose into the clouds, stretching on in row after row. Countless ancient books and bamboo slips were arranged neatly upon them. The vast sight crashed into her vision, truly magnificent.

Just as she stood there like an ignorant student, not even knowing how to look for a book, an old man descended from the sky.

The old man was sloppy and unkempt, with white hair and a beard that trailed all the way to the ground. He was wrapped in a tattered gray robe and carried a gourd wine flask. His face was full of drunkenness, but the moment his murky, unfocused eyes saw Gong Dongling, a glint flashed through them.

“Oh! A young friend I’ve never seen before! A rare guest, a rare guest indeed!”

“These days, fewer and fewer young people are willing to focus on reading. Back when we were young, this Library Pavilion couldn’t even fit all the people who came…”

He seemed to want to stroke his beard, but then discovered it was knotted everywhere, so he awkwardly withdrew his hand.

“Senior, this is my first time at the Library Pavilion. I don’t know how to find the book I want. Could Senior please give me some guidance?”

“Easy, easy. But this old man has already calculated the book you want. It’s probably this one.” With a flick of his finger, the bookshelves inside the Library Pavilion actually began moving with the two of them as the center. As the mechanisms creaked and groaned, a new shelf landed in front of them in the blink of an eye.

The old man did not even look. He casually pulled a book from it and tossed it into Gong Dongling’s hands.

No way. Every book here looks exactly the same…

Holding on to her doubts, she opened the cover, only to see the words Records of Xuanji Grass written inside.

?!

Was it really that magical?

At that moment, Gong Dongling’s face was filled with shock and the words “Coach, I want to learn this too.”

The old man chuckled and also stretched his neck to look at the book in Gong Dongling’s hands. “Hmm—Records of Xuanji Grass? I feel like I’ve heard of that somewhere?”

Just then, a voice interrupted them.

“You drunk old man! Isn’t that the book I wanted? Why did you give it to someone else?”

Gong Dongling looked up and saw Xie Yu standing not far away, glaring resentfully at her and the old man. She was so angry she even stomped her foot.

She rushed forward in a few quick steps, not even looking at Gong Dongling. She only accused the old man, looking wronged and aggrieved like a little punching bag. “Didn’t we agree to leave it here first and let me take it back to read after I finished warming the wine?”

The old man smiled, not showing the slightest trace of guilt. “This old man forgot. My memory’s getting bad.”

Xie Yu was furious. She snatched the old man’s gourd wine flask in one hand. “All you remember is drinking! One of these days, you’ll lose your life, and then you’ll finally be satisfied!”

In Gong Dongling’s impression, Xie Yu had always been numb, timid, and suppressed. She had never seen her this lively and vivid before.

The fifteen-year-old girl had not yet reached the age when her body would fully grow. On top of that, she had been malnourished since childhood, so she seemed thinner and smaller than her peers. But beneath her casually tied, messy hair, her pretty little bare face already showed the first hints of the breathtaking beauty she would one day become.

At this moment, she lifted her brows, her cheeks puffed with anger, revealing a childishness that had yet to fade.

Gong Dongling laughed softly.

Sure enough, she was still a child. So cute.

It made Gong Dongling want to tease her even more.

“Xie Yu, do you want the book?” Gong Dongling waved the thin Records of Xuanji Grass in her hand, her smile deepening. “Call me Senior Sister, and I’ll give it to you.”

Holding the wine flask, Xie Yu finally looked at Gong Dongling. The desire for the book was obvious in her eyes, but she still said stiffly, “First come, first served. Since Senior gave it to you first, then you should read it first.”

Hearing this, Gong Dongling did not try to persuade her further. Instead, right in front of Xie Yu, she opened the book, cleared her throat, and began reading aloud.

“Xuanji Grass, within no more than a hundred li to the southeast, in a place called the Ruoxu Illusion Realm, often grows…”

She had barely read a few lines before she saw Xie Yu awkwardly twist her hands together, lower her head, and quietly call, “Senior Sister.”

“Hmm?” Gong Dongling lifted the book in front of her face, just enough to cover the lower half where she was secretly smiling. She blinked and pretended not to hear.

Xie Yu looked up. Her little face was flushed bright red, and her voice grew louder. “Se… Senior Sister!”

“So obedient.” Gong Dongling closed the book and readily handed it over.

Just as Xie Yu happily reached out to take it, Gong Dongling paused and did not let go. She stared at Xie Yu. “You know about the Xuanji Grass?”

“I just wanted to look at it casually…” When asked so directly, Xie Yu felt terribly guilty. She wanted to pull her hand back, but Gong Dongling released the book.

Her eyes followed Gong Dongling’s hand, only for her to suddenly notice that Gong Dongling’s hand was wrapped in the same white gauze as hers.

The words she had wanted to ask about the Xuanji Grass somehow turned into, “What happened to your hand?”

Gong Dongling was startled. Only then did she understand that Xie Yu was asking about her wound. Her peach-blossom eyes immediately curved into crescent moons again. “It’s nothing. I accidentally got cut, that’s all. Thank you for your concern, Junior Sister.”

Xie Yu became even more annoyed. She opened her mouth to question her about the Xuanji Grass, but before she could speak, the old man interrupted.

“She already gave it to you, so just read it properly. Why so many questions? Hurry up and go warm my wine and cook! Do you still want this month’s wages or not?”

As he spoke, he pushed Xie Yu toward the door.

Unwilling and reluctant, Xie Yu left with the wine flask and the book. Only the old man and Gong Dongling were left staring at each other.

Gong Dongling also wanted to take her leave, but the old man stopped her.

“Why are you leaving? Stay and eat together later. That little girl can’t cultivate properly, and her temper isn’t any good either, but when it comes to lighting the stove and warming wine, there’s nothing to criticize. It’s full of mortal warmth. Every time, it reminds this old man of those years when I fell on hard times in the mortal world. If not for that, I would have chased her away long ago.”

But Gong Dongling shook her head. “Senior is saying the opposite of what he means again. You clearly take better care of her than anyone.”

After inedia, cultivators basically stopped eating. For the Library Pavilion master to keep Xie Yu by his side to cook and do odd jobs—wasn’t that just an excuse to help her?

“How is this old man taking care of her? She was the one who clung to me. Back then, after that little girl finished cultivating, she kept running to the Library Pavilion every few days. The books she borrowed were all things for recognizing characters and learning to read. She became so absorbed that she practically wanted to live here. Great, then she fainted from hunger, and this old man had to take responsibility! So I simply kept her around as a little errand girl.

“After she learned to read, she still didn’t leave. Instead, she kept causing trouble for me, reading cultivation manuals over there. Ridiculous. She couldn’t understand them at all, and she even burned my top-quality golden silkwood bookshelf. Who knows what she was wasting all that effort for!…”

The old man chattered on and on, but there was no disgust in his tone.

Gong Dongling listened quietly, feeling somewhat moved. None of this had ever been mentioned in the original novel.

The Xie Yu here was different from the Xie Yu in the book. She was a resilient girl of flesh and blood, someone with value of her own.

Behind the deliberately woven tragedy of an angst novel was the life that truly belonged to Xie Yu.

“Senior, thank you,” Gong Dongling suddenly said.

The pavilion master seemed to understand what Gong Dongling wanted to say. He snorted. “If you lot give this old man a little less trouble, I’ll already be thanking the heavens!”