After I Failed to Reform the Female Lead of a Tragic Novel - Chapter 9

“You’ve seen everything. How do you feel?” Qiu Yan’s tone was light and careless, without the slightest hint of panic or guilt.

Xie Yu’s grip on the booklet tightened, instantly creasing the thin rice paper several times over. For some reason, the angrier she became, the calmer she seemed, as if she were discussing someone else’s affairs. “Why? There has never been any grudge between us.”

“It has nothing to do with grudges. Even if I simply saw an interesting passerby like you on the road, I’d still want to play a game with her.”

He pulled out two chairs and made an inviting gesture, then sat down first. His hands were crossed, his arms resting on the armrests as he looked at Xie Yu leisurely.

“I won’t speak in riddles. Since Junior Sister looks so troubled, let me tell you a story.”

The first time Qiu Yan met Xie Yu, his unusual abilities allowed him to discover the secret she had deliberately hidden. The girl had been small, thin, and full of inferiority, lowering her head and not daring to say a word. Yet her body carried the sharp stench of blood—the scent only someone who had killed before would have.

There was nothing more exciting than discovering the evil nature within a person.

At the time, Xie Yu had only been twelve or thirteen. Qiu Yan had some doubts, so he went to ask Xu Ruozhen and received his answer.

How interesting.

Ever since he began paying attention to her, Qiu Yan realized this person was completely different from what he had imagined.

Whenever Xie Yu was bullied, Qiu Yan looked forward to seeing her lose control again. But to his great disappointment, she was only as weak and numb as an ant, without the slightest fighting spirit.

Moreover, Xie Yu seemed especially easy to trust anyone who showed her kindness. As long as someone gave her even the smallest bit of help, she would be endlessly grateful. That kind of foolish goodness irritated Qiu Yan more than anything.

As if wanting to teach her a lesson, Qiu Yan planned the first “betrayal.” He arranged for an outer sect female cultivator who admired him to pretend to befriend Xie Yu. She gave Xie Yu her storage ring, then a few days later falsely claimed that Xie Yu had stolen it.

Everyone looked at Xie Yu as if she were a thief. Unable to defend herself, she could only turn again and again to look at the “friend” who had framed her.

Qiu Yan remembered the look in Xie Yu’s eyes back then. It had been full of despair. She had long since grown numb to others’ malicious slander, but when faced with betrayal from someone close to her, it had struck her like a bolt from the blue.

It was also at that time that Qiu Yan discovered something even more shocking. There seemed to be demonic blood sealed inside Xie Yu’s body!

This was the most forbidden technique in the Demon Realm. Even Qiu Yan himself had only been placed under a similar seal so he could infiltrate the righteous sects as a spy.

He knocked Xie Yu unconscious and brought her back to his residence, intending to forcefully break the seal. Unexpectedly, that seal was far more profound than he had imagined. Not only did he fail to break it, even Qiu Yan himself suffered a backlash and lost decades of cultivation.

Forcefully breaking it open was useless. The only way was for Xie Yu herself to suffer qi deviation and fall into demonic cultivation, breaking through the seal from within.

And so Qiu Yan began a series of plans, all for the purpose of making the light in Xie Yu’s heart collapse bit by bit, until she finally fell into despair and walked the path of demonic cultivation.

In order to avoid suspicion, he never participated in the execution of those plans himself. He only acted as the greatest hand behind the scenes, manipulating everything. His long years of travel served as the best alibi.

Although progress was slow, the effects gradually showed themselves. Xie Yu went from a blank sheet of paper to the battered, scarred person she was now.

But Qiu Yan had not expected that she would actually want to reshape her spiritual root. Even after three years without breaking through to Foundation Establishment, she still stubbornly gritted her teeth and buried herself in cultivation.

Qiu Yan knew very well that for someone like her, if given even a little nourishment, she would work hard to break through the earth and grow. Only by personally giving her hope and then crushing it viciously could he make her truly despair. So he changed his strategy and began helping her prepare the materials needed to reshape her spiritual root, casting a long line to catch a big fish.

The Xuanji Grass was an indispensable part of reshaping the spiritual root.

But that grass was destined to belong to Gong Dongling.

He had simply never expected that Xie Yu would come to suspect him, even breaking into his room and discovering all his plans.

Since that was the case, he could only use the second method…

Qiu Yan exposed the process of how he had become interested and started this game, but he deliberately omitted the part about the seal on her demonic bloodline. He did not want Xie Yu to learn about that too early. Only an unconscious fall into demonic cultivation could better break through the seal.

“Staining a white sheet of paper black little by little is truly the most wonderful game in the world, isn’t it? Beautiful things only become meaningful at the moment they are destroyed.” He stood and spread out the thick stack of ruined paintings on the table. Pressing a hand over them, he closed his eyes and drew in a fascinated breath.

“And the people whose lives you destroyed?” Xie Yu felt cold all over, her teeth beginning to chatter. “What happens to them?”

Qiu Yan laughed softly, crumpled the painting on top into a ball, and casually tossed it onto the ground. “Once they’ve become trash, is there any need for them to exist?”

Xie Yu suddenly remembered the outer sect female cultivator who had once framed her with the storage ring. After that incident, she had never seen that girl again. Her fellow disciples had not seemed to care either. They only said perhaps she had been unable to endure the hardship of cultivation and had left Buzhou Mountain on her own.

The hand hanging by Xie Yu’s side clenched into a fist. Her nails dug deep into her palm before she managed to make a sound. “What about Si Rong?”

“Who is Si Rong?”

He had even forgotten who Si Rong was.

No. He had never remembered that young girl’s name in the first place.

“She was the outer sect disciple you ordered to give me the storage ring. It’s on the first page of the booklet.”

“Maybe she died. But she deserved it. Her methods were too dirty and too stupid.” Perhaps noticing that something was wrong with Xie Yu’s eyes and expression, Qiu Yan smiled. “Are you afraid I’ll do the same to you? Don’t worry. You are my favorite work. I won’t throw you away so soon. I even painted so many portraits of you. Aren’t you touched?”

Like a venomous snake flicking its tongue, Qiu Yan stabbed each word into Xie Yu’s heart. “Do you think I’m cruel and ruthless? I have never personally taken a life. The murderer has always been you.”

Step by step, he lured Xie Yu into his trap. Xie Yu had clearly already forgotten that the reason Qiu Yan had planned all of this was precisely to make her lose control.

Xie Yu lowered her head and stayed silent, lifeless and still. She showed no reaction to the word murderer.

But Qiu Yan sensed an unusual aura. His heart began to throb with excitement.

The demon… seemed to be waking up?

He activated his sword. The sword floated up and stood between them. He whispered, “Do you hate me? Then kill me. Use this sword. Pierce my heart. Accept your true self.”

Xie Yu suddenly lifted her head. Her entire aura had changed completely. Her eyes were pitch-black, without the slightest glimmer of light. She raised her chin, arrogant and proud just like the person in the painting, coldly looking down at the man before her. At last, she reached out and gripped the sword hilt.

In an instant, bloody light spread from her palm across the entire blade.

Qiu Yan discovered that his connection with the sword had been severed, but he stared at the young girl before him with ecstatic yearning.

And just then, a clear voice interrupted them.

“Stop!”

Xie Yu’s movement paused. She coldly glanced toward the person who had burst in through the door. That woman was panting and in a wretched state, but the burning intensity in her eyes scalded Xie Yu’s heart. For a moment, confusion appeared in Xie Yu’s gaze.

“Xie Yu! It’s all fake. Don’t believe him!” Gong Dongling ran several steps to Xie Yu’s side, only for the sword to point straight at her chest.

Holding the sword, Xie Yu returned to that unrecognizing, murderous state, killing intent surging around her.

Gong Dongling directly grabbed the blade with her bare hand, forcing Xie Yu to look properly into her eyes. Ignoring the sharp edge cutting into her palm, she spoke with exceptional firmness. “Listen to me. No matter what Qiu Yan said just now, it was all fake. He only wanted to anger you and make you lose control. If you fall into his trap and really stab him, then that will be his true goal!”

Xie Yu stared blankly at Gong Dongling’s bleeding hand. The ice in her eyes seemed to melt slightly.

Seeing Xie Yu’s expression waver, Gong Dongling knew her words were working. She exerted strength through her wrist and continued guiding her. “Come on. Let go. Give me the sword.”

Xie Yu’s hand slowly loosened around the hilt. But at the same time, her expression twisted with pain. She curled in on herself, and although her sense of pain was dull, the agony still made her draw in hissing breaths.

Gong Dongling threw the sword onto the ground, where it landed with a crisp clang. She rushed forward, caught Xie Yu before she nearly collapsed, and gently patted her back.

“Don’t be afraid. I’m here.”

Like a drowning person finding a lifesaving straw, Xie Yu tightly grabbed Gong Dongling’s sleeve. In the end, she sank into a deep sleep.

Carefully supporting her head, Gong Dongling settled her onto a chair. Then she turned around and looked coldly at the other person in the room—Qiu Yan.

At some point, Qiu Yan had already picked up the sword. He stood alone beside the table, silently observing Gong Dongling for a long while. Now that their eyes met, his expression was extremely ugly. The deliberately bright and hearty appearance he had worn before was long gone.

He had never imagined that Gong Dongling would suddenly appear here and ruin his plan in one stroke.

Facing this junior sister, Qiu Yan had never had much interest before. Her malice and methods were far too low-level. He had not even bothered to put on an act with her. Perhaps they were the same kind of person, and Gong Dongling had also been unwilling to provoke him. The two of them had always stayed out of each other’s way.

After Xie Yu appeared, Qiu Yan used Gong Dongling to ignite many conflicts, gradually treating her as a convenient tool that suited his purposes.

But now, the tool had begun to go out of control, and he had somehow failed to notice all this time…

Qiu Yan looked at Gong Dongling, whose body was stained with blood and whose face was sickly. His eyes grew even darker.

Gong Dongling was also still shaken by this snake-like man. Her original intention in revealing the information to Xie Yu had been to make Xie Yu shift her suspicion onto Qiu Yan. She had not expected Qiu Yan to be so utterly deranged that he would try to provoke Xie Yu into falling into demonic cultivation right now. Fortunately, she had arrived in time.

She had a premonition that if that sword had truly stabbed down, something even more terrifying would have happened.

Perhaps because she had been too anxious earlier and ignored her body’s discomfort, now that she had rescued Xie Yu, her whole body felt as if all strength had been drained from it, and she swayed.

Qiu Yan reached out and gave her a light, distant support, preventing Gong Dongling from collapsing completely. She thanked him and tried to rise, only to feel a sharp pain in her wrist.

Following the motion, Qiu Yan clamped down on Gong Dongling’s slender wrist, gritting his teeth. “Good Junior Sister? What exactly is going on here?”

Knowing that Qiu Yan was far more dangerous than she had thought, Gong Dongling forced herself to calm down and quickly came up with a reason. In particular, the fact that she knew he was an undercover agent from the Demon Realm absolutely could not be exposed. Otherwise, he would definitely silence her.

“Weren’t you the one who told both of us about the Xuanji Grass? Xie Yu said someone often sent her information, so I wanted to see what relationship that person had with you. Looking at it now, you’re that person, aren’t you?”

Gong Dongling stopped struggling and simply let him hold her. She frowned at Qiu Yan and asked in return.

“You think I had some other purpose?” Qiu Yan was clearly not so easily fooled. He pressed her step by step.

“I didn’t even hear what you said just now, so how would I know what other purpose you had? I only wanted to make her regain her senses. Even if you keep questioning me, I really don’t know. If you’re worried I’ll tell others about this, then there’s no need. After all, you’re holding plenty of leverage over me too, aren’t you?”

She spread both hands, putting on an utterly unyielding appearance.

Qiu Yan narrowed his long eyes, a hint of danger in his expression. “It is naturally good that Junior Sister has such awareness. But when did Junior Sister become so close to Xie Yu? How come I didn’t know?”

“Ah, that’s because I’ve been possessed.” Gong Dongling admired Qiu Yan’s stunned expression and smiled until her eyes curved. “Do you believe me?”

If he had not had that piece of information, Qiu Yan might indeed have thought she had been possessed, because someone had already suspected and investigated her before. In the end, nothing abnormal had been found.

Seizing the instant when Qiu Yan froze and loosened his restriction, Gong Dongling quickly pulled back her reddened wrist and took half a step back. Only then did she say seriously, “I know you definitely won’t stop suspecting me. In any case, I’m right here on Buzhou Mountain and won’t run off anywhere. You can continue investigating me later.”

Qiu Yan silently watched as Gong Dongling helped Xie Yu up and led her out the door. For the coming period, he would shift the focus of his informants toward monitoring this junior sister whose personality had suddenly changed, until he discovered her secret.

…

When Xie Yu woke, she found herself in an unfamiliar bamboo forest. She was dazed for a while and looked around, only to see Gong Dongling asleep on a bamboo recliner nearby.

Seeing Gong Dongling, she slowly remembered everything that had happened earlier.

It seemed that when she had been provoked into losing control and had almost stabbed down with that sword, Gong Dongling had suddenly appeared and stopped her.

Although many details were no longer clear, the image of herself pointing the sword at Gong Dongling, only for Gong Dongling to grip the blade with her bare hand, was exceptionally vivid.

She got up and looked at Gong Dongling, discovering that her hair and clothes were messy. There were shocking bloodstains on the front of her plain white robes.

I caused that…

Xie Yu’s heart tightened. Then she suddenly remembered what she had seen in the booklet just now. Many of the conflicts between Gong Dongling and herself had actually been orchestrated by Qiu Yan behind the scenes. Gong Dongling had merely been used. Guilt surged up within her.

She quickly walked to Gong Dongling’s side and looked at the hand hanging limply over the edge of the chair. There was a fresh wound across the palm, still not bandaged.

Just as Xie Yu was about to help her wrap it, Gong Dongling woke up.

“Ah, I was too tired and fell asleep without realizing it. Sorry. Because of my body, I couldn’t send you back, so I could only keep you here in the bamboo forest and wait for you to wake up.”

Hearing her voice, Xie Yu startled like a frightened animal and quickly withdrew her hand. She retreated several steps before shaking her head and saying softly, “Your hand.”

“Oh, it’s fine. I’ll wrap it myself when I get back. This way, both hands will have gauze. It’s actually pretty balanced.” She smiled and raised her other hand, which was still wrapped in gauze from being cut by Xuanling.

Seeing that silence was about to fall between them again, Gong Dongling took the initiative to explain.

“The reason I suddenly appeared in Qiu Yan’s room is because I originally had something to discuss with you today, but I couldn’t find you. Someone said they saw you fly on your sword in this direction. I figured this place was remote, and only Eldest Senior Brother’s residence was here, so I followed over to take a look. I didn’t expect to hear something wrong inside when I arrived. In that situation, I got anxious and broke in.”

“Something… wrong?” Xie Yu seemed to remember something, and her face suddenly turned pale.

Because right before Gong Dongling had burst through the door, Qiu Yan had called her a “murderer.”