Chapter 7
Lu Ke’s eyes narrowed slightly when she saw the figure beside Su Jiu. This was one of the top students at Zhiyuan High, a mountain that had always loomed over her.
But this was her dormitory. Lu Ke still held her head high and sneered, “Bai Qianyu, this is an internal matter in our dorm. Why are you sticking your nose into it?”
“Let’s go.”
At that, Bai Qianyu looked up at Lu Ke. Her expression was as cool as ever, and she didn’t bother responding. She simply took Su Jiu’s hand and started toward the door.
“Uh… Oh.” Caught by surprise when Bai Qianyu took her hand, Su Jiu felt its warmth and was momentarily at a loss. Still, she nodded obediently and let the frost at her fingertips fade.
Neither of them noticed Lu Ke’s expression growing darker and darker. Then she spoke, her voice edged with anger: “Bai Qianyu, you can help her for a while, but can you help her forever? The school’s combat assessment is next month. Let’s see if she’s the first one eliminated.”
“Heh…”
As soon as Lu Ke finished speaking, Bai Qianyu paused. Then she turned her head and smiled—a cool, captivating smile that made the other girls in the dorm feel their hearts flutter. But Lu Ke sensed a hint of disdain in it…
Or rather, the contempt of the strong for the weak.
Then Bai Qianyu turned and led Su Jiu, who was half a head shorter than her, out of the dormitory, leaving the onlookers clicking their tongues behind them.
…
Watching the two of them walk away, one tall and one short, Lu Ke found it inexplicably amusing. She couldn’t understand why they were so confident, but at least it was nice that they’d left.
At least now she could have some peace and quiet.
After leaving Su Jiu’s dorm, the two walked in silence, just as they had that evening. Su Jiu lowered her head to watch her feet in her flip-flops, rubbing her big toe against the one beside it.
What were high school girls supposed to talk about with each other? Who the hell knew! And this was the male lead’s younger sister, to boot…
Su Jiu had never imagined she’d be walking side by side with Bai Qianyu, arm in arm. The warmth between them made her feel oddly unsettled.
She was afraid that once Bai Qianyu learned who she really was, she’d kill her.
“Don’t dwell on it. We’re just ordinary people; we shouldn’t expect to get even.”
Bai Qianyu seemed to have misunderstood something. She stopped and gently patted Su Jiu’s back, then continued after a pause, “That’s just how the world works. If we were Battle Kings, or even Battle Gods, they’d be bowing and scraping before us.”
“Mm.”
Su Jiu came back to herself and answered. Without meaning to, she pictured Bai Qianyu as she’d appeared in the middle of the novel: wings growing from her back, a spear in hand, defending a city as she fought hundreds of Battle General-level members of the Ancient God Cult without losing.
Thinking of the Ancient God Cult, the evil sect from the novel, Su Jiu’s thoughts began to race again.
The Ancient God Cult was a sect that preached a way for mortals to rapidly increase their strength. Its members would do anything to gain power. It seemed that before long, they would leave Huayang City in ruins.
As for when or how it happened, Su Jiu had no idea. She’d only gleaned from a few passing mentions in the novel that the Ancient God Cult had once used Huayang City as a bargaining chip to get a certain captured big shot released by the Supreme Law Enforcement Hall.
“We’re here.”
Bai Qianyu’s voice interrupted Su Jiu’s thoughts. She looked up and realized they were already at her dormitory building. No wonder Bai Qianyu had come down so quickly.
She glanced inside from the doorway. Under the pale yellow light, only one or two girls were there, apparently sitting on their beds and cultivating on their own.
Sure enough, a dorm without cliques was much more comfortable.
“Do you need to go back for your toiletries?” Bai Qianyu looked at the girl who often spaced out in front of her, still unable to reconcile her with a genius whose blood-condensation level was above ninety.
“No need. I’ve already washed up.”
Su Jiu shook her head gently. But as soon as she stepped into the dorm, the girls inside looked over. There was no hostility in their eyes. One of them simply exclaimed, “What a cute junior!” Then she turned back to what she’d been doing.
Seeing Su Jiu frozen in place, Bai Qianyu thought she was embarrassed. She took her by the arm, pointed to one of the beds, and smiled. “This is my bed. Go ahead and lie down. I just got back from class, so I haven’t showered yet.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Su Jiu was very well-behaved. She followed Bai Qianyu’s directions to the bed, then felt a little surprised when she saw the cute Doraemon bedding. She carefully lay down.
The distinctive scent of gardenias wafted into her nose. Of course, Su Jiu didn’t think it was Bai Qianyu’s natural scent. Her family used lavender-scented detergent, so she herself smelled faintly of lavender.
She poked her head out and glanced at Bai Qianyu, who was still in the washroom. Then she turned back, pulled the thin blanket up to her chest, and gently closed her heavy eyelids.
The next morning, sunlight streamed through the windows, illuminating wisps of dust and falling across the faces of everyone who no longer had to get up early.
When Su Jiu opened her eyes again, all she could see was white—not snow, but…
She stared with dead-fish eyes, tilting her head helplessly. Somehow, the male lead’s younger sister was hugging her like an oversized doll, their skin pressed close through their clothes. Thanks to the air conditioning in the top-student dorm, it wasn’t even hot.
Su Jiu swallowed and tried to pull her arm out of Bai Qianyu’s embrace, but couldn’t. And whenever she tried, she kept brushing against that much fuller part of Bai Qianyu… Compared to her own flat chest, it was so soft, so tempting…
Though it felt pretty nice… No! What was she thinking? Su Jiu was a respectable person!
“Mmm… Got you.” Bai Qianyu suddenly spoke, startling Su Jiu. But when she realized the other girl was talking in her sleep, she breathed a sigh of relief, as if she’d been caught doing something wrong.
She must have stayed up late again. In the novel, she was even more hardworking than the male lead.
Then Su Jiu got a good look at Bai Qianyu’s sleeping face. She couldn’t bring herself to wake her, so all she could do was blush and secretly enjoy—no, endure—something she was too young to experience.
…
That afternoon, Su Jiu told Lu Nan what had happened the previous night, then followed his instructions and moved all her belongings into Bai Qianyu’s dorm. There happened to be an empty bed. As he put it, he was giving someone else a chance to reform her.
“What the hell does ‘reform her’ mean? Old Lu’s just scared of offending Lu Ke’s dad.”
After getting everything ready, Su Jiu looked around the empty dorm and couldn’t help complaining. She flopped onto her bed, bit her finger, and smeared blood on the ring.
As usual, her soul entered that pitch-black space. But this time was different: she wasn’t immediately transported to some battlefield or forest. She simply remained there.
Su Jiu looked at the countdown. It had turned into a positive infinity symbol. Just as she began to wonder if there was a bug, a green feather slowly drifted down from across from her.
Su Jiu could feel the immense energy contained in the feather. It was something she couldn’t possibly touch.
Several patches of crimson mist appeared above the feather and slowly formed a few red characters: “Fight Heaven, fight others, fight yourself.”
As the feather fell, the red characters flashed repeatedly. In the end, only “Fight yourself” remained. Then something strange happened: the feather shot toward Su Jiu at a bizarre speed, without warning.
Su Jiu had no time to dodge. She could only watch as the feather entered the space between her brows. Her whole body froze in place. Who knew how long she remained that way…
There was none of the pain she’d expected. Her consciousness seemed to become a tiny blue insect, sinking into a warm, emerald-green ocean. She grew more and more dazed, as if she were about to melt…
A green fish with a sly look on its face emerged from the green ocean. Slowly, it transformed into a huge green bird and pecked at Su Jiu, who had become a tiny blue insect.
Su Jiu gazed hazily at the greed on the bird’s face. Was it going to eat her? She was so sleepy…
“Caw-caw!”
Suddenly, an enormous shadow swept over Su Jiu’s head. The green bird was seized by some being and carried away in its beak.
Then a hair-raising chill spread through Su Jiu’s body, and her consciousness slowly began to return…
It was all like a dream. When she opened her eyes again, she was still in the pose she’d taken while dodging the feather. Just as she was wondering what had happened, an immensely grand voice rang in her ears: “Death Trial—Bloodline cleared. Wood Attribute Conversion acquired! Next activation: Warrior level.”
“What does ‘Death Trial’ mean? And what is ‘Wood Attribute Conversion’?”
Su Jiu asked with a grim expression. This was the first time she’d heard a voice speak in this space. Did this so-called Death Trial mean she could have died?
The voice didn’t answer. The next moment, she was forcibly sent out of the space. It was already late at night. She stared blankly at the ring in her hand, lost in thought.
Had that just been some kind of illusion? Had she turned into an Ice Chi?
But what exactly was that enormous shadow in the sky? Even the Ice Chi feared that blue-green giant bird, yet the bird had looked so small beneath the shadow’s gaze.