After the Villainess Awakens

Leng Mushi fell rapidly from the sky, her screams tearing through the entire Cangsheng Courtyard. As she was about to crash face-first into the ground, the door of the dilapidated hut suddenly burst open. Hua Yanyue waved her hand, and a whip shot out, wrapping around Leng Mushi's waist and flinging her onto the roof.

The whip retracted, leaving Leng Mushi clinging precariously to the edge of the roof. She kicked away a spider larger than a human head and then climbed down its sticky web. Finally, her feet touched solid ground, and she landed, shaken, in front of Hua Yanyue.

Leng Mushi was terrified. Hua Yanyue tilted her head and looked at her. "Most of them are untamed beasts. Are you scared? Do you regret it?"

Before Leng Mushi could nod, Hua Yanyue quickly added, "It's too late to regret. Those who betray the sect must die."

The words "I want to think about it again" died in Leng Mushi's throat. She finally understood that a vicious supporting female character was a vicious supporting female character. There was no such thing as learning good things from her…

"You have to learn how to run quickly," Hua Yanyue said. "I'm going down the mountain in a few days and won't have time to watch you. You can choose a beast to tame and let it protect you. Anyway, the creatures in this courtyard will only increase, not decrease. You have to adapt quickly."

Leng Mushi nodded dumbly. Hua Yanyue looked into the distance. "Find a way to get your disciple uniform back. Otherwise, if the Chi Mang spits venom on it, even a first-class rune-embroidered uniform will be burned through. You'll have to wear damaged clothes in front of the entire sect."

Leng Mushi glanced back, and sure enough, the Chi Mang was studying her clothes. A strange expression appeared on her face, but even she didn't know if it was laughter or tears.

Hua Yanyue studied her for a moment. "Since you're so obedient, I won't make you eat the new pills for dinner. But you'll have to start eating them tomorrow, so get your clothes back and go have dinner with the other disciples."

Leng Mushi twitched the corners of her lips as Hua Yanyue turned and entered the house. She hesitated for a moment before following her inside, only to trip at the doorway, coming face to face with the giant spider she had kicked down earlier.

"Ah!" Leng Mushi scrambled up and ran towards the Chi snake.

Before nightfall, she managed to retrieve her disciple uniform. She had accomplished this by swiftly climbing a tree to pluck the golden fruits, which she then used to lure the Bone Crusher Lizard into carrying her to her uniform while the Chi snake was napping. She didn't dare provoke the other creatures, as the Bone Crusher Lizard's bite was too powerful. Even beasts knew which enemies they could defeat and which they couldn't.

The Chi snake, however, was obviously not on the list of those it wouldn't dare to provoke, so Leng Mushi could only seize the opportunity while it was dozing.

Through retrieving her uniform, jade pendant, and scattered storage bags, Leng Mushi discovered that as long as she stayed close to the small house, none of the demonic beasts, except for the spiders, would follow her.

Leng Mushi guessed that Hua Yanyue had set up some kind of restriction. So, amidst all her misfortunes, she had a small blessing. At least in this small house, she didn't have to worry about being swallowed by the Chi snake while she slept.

As night fell, she changed into her disciple uniform and tidied herself up. Using the last few golden fruits, she lured the Bone Crusher Lizard into carrying her to the entrance of the courtyard at high speed. The Chi snake's bloody maw hung in the air above her head. Leng Mushi narrowly avoided being snatched up.

Of course, she had considered staying inside the small house and surviving on the golden fruits. However, just as she was about to eat one, Hua Yanyue casually remarked, "Those are Infant Transformation Fruits. If you eat them, you'll become…"

Hua Yanyue gestured with her hands, about an arm's length. "You'll become this big. Then, the spiders on the eaves will tie you up and suck you dry in less than an hour. You might be left with a layer of skin thinner than your Big Yao."

Leng Mushi froze, her mouth still open. Hua Yanyue continued, "That's an adult Bone Crusher Lizard. It's easy for me to bring back. It's for alchemy. I only gave it that fruit because it's difficult to control. Otherwise, why do you think it's so small?"

Leng Mushi closed her mouth and rode the Bone Crusher Lizard out to find food, risking her life.

If a person didn't eat, they would die.

When she arrived at the Linggu Hall, risking her life, there were many inner disciples and new outer disciples, all eating and chatting.

Leng Mushi wore Hua Yanyue's elder jade pendant on her waist. As soon as she entered, the disciples' conversations gradually quieted down before slowly rising again. Many were observing her.

Leng Mushi was so scared that her mind went blank. She knew that some were discussing the entrance test and some were discussing her, but she was too hungry. She felt like she could eat an entire juvenile Bone Crusher Lizard.

She filled her bowl with food and sat down, gobbling it down without any regard for her image, like a starving ghost reborn. She pondered how she would navigate her way back tonight so that she wouldn't be swallowed by the Chi snake and could avoid the pus-covered beasts. Without the Infant Transformation Fruits, the Bone Crusher Lizard definitely wouldn't let her ride it…

She was so focused on eating and thinking that she didn't notice when people sat down opposite her, several of them.

Leng Mushi looked up, choked, and hurriedly grabbed the bowl of soup on the table, gulping it down.

"Sister, are you alright? I heard that Second Elder's courtyard is very dangerous. She's had disciples die before…" Leng Tianyin said, her eyes welling up with tears. "Brother Xiao and I were about to persuade Fifth Elder. Why didn't you wait a little longer? Maybe Fifth Elder would have taken you as his disciple."

Leng Mushi glanced at her and surprisingly felt no irritation. Her mind was too preoccupied, and she seemed detached from the world.

Yi Tu and Xing Zhou also looked worried. "You were too impulsive. Don't you see? Who would willingly go to Second Elder's courtyard? You weren't really scared yesterday, were you? You're too brave. That courtyard is really dangerous! Why aren't you saying anything? Are you scared?"

Xiao Mian got up and refilled her bowl with soup, handing it to her after he sat back down. He said in a low voice, "I will continue to persuade Master. Tianyin has also become my master's disciple. We will persuade him together. Master is already wavering. He will go to Second Elder and ask for you. Don't…don't be afraid."

Leng Mushi looked at the people opposite her and slowed down her eating. They were all doing this for her own good, and she knew it.

She had also witnessed Hua Yanyue's ruthlessness and the danger of the poisonous creatures in her courtyard. But listening to them speak and seeing their concerned expressions, Leng Mushi suddenly felt a sense of distance.

It was as if a barrier separated them, a barrier she couldn't break through.

"But…my spiritual roots are inferior. Even if I leave Second Elder's courtyard, where else can I go?"

Leng Mushi slowly looked up at everyone and swallowed the food in her mouth. "Even if I become Fifth Elder's disciple, I won't be able to cultivate any profound techniques. In the future…"

"When we go down the mountain to train, will you all have to protect me forever?" Leng Mushi looked at them and smiled wryly. She thought of her predetermined path and said with some self-deprecation, "None of you can watch over me forever, and none of you…can live my life for me."

After she finished speaking, she drank the last of the soup and stood up.

Everyone watched her and tried to persuade her further, but Leng Mushi didn't listen.

She walked alone up the stone steps leading to Cangsheng Courtyard, ahead of everyone else, towards the path she had chosen. Whether it was right or wrong, dangerous or safe, she had to walk it.

Because she understood too well that in this life, no one could truly accompany you forever.

Hadn't her mother wholeheartedly trusted her father's promise of a lifetime of love and devotion? But in the end, he had still chosen the path of heartlessness, leaving her to face death alone.

Her mother had also held her and promised to love her forever, to accompany her until old age, but she too had been unable to control her own fate, leaving Leng Mushi to suffer and struggle alone in this world as a mere supporting character.

Leng Mushi took one step after another towards the stone steps leading to Cangsheng Courtyard. Behind her, Leng Tianyin cried her eyes red, vowing to cultivate diligently and protect her sister.

Xiao Mian, Yi Tu, and Xing Zhou all followed her, but once they reached the barrier of Cangsheng Courtyard, they could no longer follow. They couldn't even see her figure.

Leng Mushi entered the courtyard at night and only stumbled back to the hut after midnight. All the overwhelming emotions had been consumed by the threat of death, leaving her numb to even sadness.

She stood by Hua Yanyue's bedside in the dead of night, like a vengeful ghost, shaking Hua Yanyue awake from her sleep. She smiled, revealing a mouthful of pearly white teeth. All respect and decorum were thrown to the wind. The only reason she didn't pull Hua Yanyue's hair was that she knew she couldn't beat her.

Leng Mushi asked eerily, "Master, I'm back from dinner. Where should I sleep tonight?"

Hua Yanyue was startled awake. She sat up and used her spiritual energy to light the ever-burning lamp. Looking at Leng Mushi's messy and dirty clothes and her eyes that were as bright as a sky full of shattered stars, she felt a chill run down her spine.

"How did you come back…?" Hua Yanyue thought Leng Mushi would have run away overnight, betraying the sect. She didn't expect her to actually come back.

Hua Yanyue was stunned for a moment, thinking that the person standing in front of her was Xuan Zhu from all those years ago.

She pursed her lips and gestured for Leng Mushi to pour her a cup of water before saying in a daze, "There are no other rooms. There's only one bed in this entire Cangsheng Courtyard. The disciple's courtyard is full of firewood and spider nests. If you sleep there, you'll be sucked dry by morning…"

Leng Mushi listened to her tell the story as if it were a horror tale, but she didn't feel scared anymore. After all, when any emotion was overused, it would eventually become peaceful and empty. Fear was no exception.

Leng Mushi felt like she could shave her head and become a nun right now. She actually found this harsh environment a little amusing.

"Actually, I killed a spider just now," Leng Mushi said. "The biggest one."

Hua Yanyue's jaw dropped. She clutched her chest and said, "Do you know that the silk those spiders spit out can reconnect a cultivator's meridians? Just one strand…one strand of their silk is enough to make cultivators with torn meridians fight to the death for it."

Leng Mushi remained expressionless. Hua Yanyue sighed. "That biggest one could spit out a ball the size of a fist every day."

The master and disciple were silent for a moment. Then Leng Mushi asked again, "So where do I sleep?"

Hua Yanyue laughed. She was becoming more and more satisfied with Leng Mushi. If one were to live in her courtyard with fear and trepidation, they wouldn't survive a few years.

One had to make these creatures fear them in order to live in peace. As for the spider silk? The bedding was filled with that stuff. Sometimes she even used it to fuel the alchemy furnace.

So Hua Yanyue patted her bed. "If you don't mind, go clean yourself up and sleep with me."

Thus, on the first day of Leng Mushi's discipleship, she killed a demonic spider whose silk was worth thousands of spirit stones, and at night, she slept in the arms of her master.

The eventful day came to an end. Leng Mushi hugged her master's slender waist and fell asleep like a log.

The next morning, she was strangled awake. It seemed that the demonic spider she had killed yesterday was the leader of these spiders. They couldn't enter the house, but they could spit silk from the window, attempting to strangle her.

When Leng Mushi sat up, two demonic spiders were busy spitting silk at her neck.

She reached out and touched it, gathering the silk into a ball. The two spiders saw that she was awake and immediately ran away on their long legs.

Leng Mushi was holding the fist-sized ball of spider silk and was about to get up to look for Hua Yanyue when she suddenly heard a loud "BOOM!"

It was an earth-shattering sound that shook the small, dilapidated house to its core.

Her ears instantly buzzed, and she watched as Hua Yanyue climbed up from a pit in the middle of the room with a handful of steaming pills, which she stuffed into Leng Mushi's hands.

"Here! I just refined these new pills. Try them and tell me how they work!"

Leng Mushi smiled wryly and refused. "Master, I haven't eaten breakfast yet. I'm afraid I won't be able to test their effects properly. How about I eat first?"

"It's better on an empty stomach! It'll fill you right up!" Hua Yanyue took out another handful of pills from her storage bag and stuffed them into Leng Mushi's hands.

For three whole days, Leng Mushi didn't go down the mountain for food. Mainly because she couldn't get out of bed. Hua Yanyue wasn't joking. Being her disciple really did require being a test subject for her pills.

As for what the process of testing pills was like, one just had to look at the elders, who were all old enough to know better but still couldn't escape the nightmares of their childhood experiences with Hua Yanyue. It was very simple, four words summed it up: worse than death.

When Leng Mushi felt like she was about to explode from the inside out, she finally seized the opportunity to grab a strand of Hua Yanyue's soft hair, attempting to silence her abusive master once and for all.

But she failed. In the end, she was fed another handful of pills. Burp, she was full.

Seven days later, when the effects of the pills had completely worn off and she went down the mountain to eat, she looked perfectly normal on the surface.

However, the way she ate was a little scary. In the middle of the day, she ate three whole basins of food and two plates of spirit beast meat by herself, shocking the senior brother who served the food in the Linggu Hall.

She wasn't supposed to be able to come down today. This morning, her dear master had refined another furnace of new pills, preparing for their master-disciple duo to skip regular meals today.

Yes, Hua Yanyue not only forced her to eat the pills but also ate the concoctions she refined as meals. Leng Mushi couldn't help but suspect that one day, someone would find them dead in Cangsheng Courtyard, not from being poisoned, but from being stuffed to death by pills.

She couldn't tell what level of alchemy master Hua Yanyue was. She could refine many furnaces a day. Every time she started a new batch, it was earth-shattering, sometimes leaving her covered in soot, but she never tired of it.

Leng Mushi concluded that Hua Yanyue was an alchemy fanatic. Leng Mushi didn't know how talented she was, but she was definitely a fanatic.

The reason she was able to come down today was thanks to Leng Tianyin, who hadn't been cultivating properly these past few days and instead went to the entrance of Cangsheng Courtyard every morning and evening to "weep and wail."

Hua Yanyue was afraid that if she didn't let Leng Mushi out, Leng Tianyin would gather a group of senior brothers and sisters who couldn't stand to see her cry and drown Cangsheng Courtyard in tears.

So Leng Mushi was released and finally got to eat normal food.

She buried her head in her bowl, not knowing when her next meal would be. She didn't notice the changes in herself at all. She looked normal, but a delicate little junior sister like her normally wouldn't be able to eat three bowls of food, let alone three basins.

After finishing her meal, her stomach wasn't even bloated. Then Leng Tianyin, who had rushed over after hearing the news, threw herself at Leng Mushi and started crying.

Leng Mushi sat there casually, one hand holding her mourning sister and the other hand holding a bowl of soup, slowly sipping it.

Finally, after she finished eating, Yi Tu, Xing Zhou, Xiao Mian, and even senior brothers and sisters she didn't know but had heard of all rushed over to see if she was dead or alive. Out of curiosity, they couldn't help but ask about Cangsheng Courtyard.

Leng Mushi naturally said, "My master is very good to me. She makes me delicious food every day."

Then she took the opportunity to slip away.

Leng Tianyin could no longer catch her. Leng Mushi was now so slippery that she could easily avoid even the Chi Mang. However, she was stopped by Xiao Mian halfway down the mountain.

"Wait!" At the entrance of Cangsheng Courtyard, Xiao Mian stopped Leng Mushi.

"Something's not right with you… Are you sure you're alright?" Xiao Mian glanced at her stomach. How could anyone eat so much and not show it at all?

He looked at Leng Mushi's face again and took out all the beauty-preserving pills he had obtained recently. "These are beauty-preserving pills. They can heal the scars on your face…"

"Ugh…" Leng Mushi couldn't help but dry heave at the sight of the pills. She was about to throw up from all the pills she had eaten.

Xiao Mian frowned. "What's wrong?"

Leng Mushi just wanted to go back quickly. While Hua Yanyue was busy refining pills, she could take the opportunity to lie low. Otherwise, she would be tortured again.

So she didn't bother being polite to Xiao Mian. She didn't say that the beauty-preserving pills were useless. A few days ago, she had eaten an entire furnace of top-grade Appearance Changing Pills and changed her appearance into several different people, but the pink lotus scar on her face remained. Hua Yanyue had clearly told her that the scar would only disappear after she killed Fen Lian.

How could she kill Fen Lian? Fen Lian was her good helper now.

So Leng Mushi vaguely accepted the pills and was about to leave after making a few perfunctory remarks. However, Xiao Mian grabbed her hand and wouldn't let go. "Are you really okay? I…"

He paused and lowered his eyes. "We're all very worried about you."

Leng Mushi was impatient, but suddenly she remembered that she was supposed to follow the plot and look for Xiao Mian a few days ago, but she didn't go. The punishment from the Law, in her current state, was a relief from her pain, so she didn't care.

She didn't go to Xiao Mian, but Xiao Mian insisted on looking for her?

"Don't worry, I'm fine, aren't I?" Leng Mushi was in a hurry. "I'm leaving."

But Xiao Mian still wouldn't let go. "You…"

"What do you want?" Leng Mushi interrupted him coldly.

Xiao Mian felt a tightness in his chest. He didn't know what it was. Ever since Leng Mushi became Second Elder's disciple, he had been trying to persuade his master to help and was always worried about how she was doing.

Now that she was treating him so coldly, Xiao Mian's ears turned red with shame and helplessness.

"No, it's nothing." He couldn't figure out what was wrong with him and was too ashamed to say anything more. He let go of Leng Mushi's hand and turned to leave.

Suddenly, Leng Mushi remembered something. She lowered her voice and asked the Law, "The male lead won't die, right?"

The Law instantly guessed what she was going to do and said with a hint of helplessness, even indulgence, "Yes."

Then Leng Mushi ran a few steps forward and grabbed Xiao Mian's hand. Her expression changed faster than a flipping page, and she smiled at him sweetly. "Brother Xiao, Brother Xiao, I was just kidding. Don't be angry!"

Leng Mushi grabbed his hand and pressed it against her face. "Good brother, I've missed you so much these past few days. Let's find a place where no one can disturb us and chat…"

Xiao Mian's eyes widened in shock, and he quickly pulled his hand back, his ears burning.

However, he couldn't resist Leng Mushi's pleas and followed her to a cliff where disciples rarely went.

As a result, before they could exchange a few words, Leng Mushi coaxed him into eating a few of the pills Hua Yanyue had just refined this morning.

The effects of these pills needed to be tested and reported back to Hua Yanyue.

Leng Mushi had eaten so much food just now that she couldn't eat anymore. She fed them to Xiao Mian and then secretly took out the Law, using it as a recording stone to record Xiao Mian's reaction.

Xiao Mian swallowed the pills and said, "Don't steal pills that increase your cultivation for me in the future. I don't need them. I don't want you to be punished by Second Elder. Her temper…"

Leng Mushi observed him carefully and found that he was pressing his neck, his face gradually turning purple. Not only could he not speak, but it was as if something was swimming and scurrying under his skin, which looked terrifying.

When Xiao Mian looked at Leng Mushi in shock, she murmured, "As I thought, I told her that randomly adding demonic beast organs to pills wouldn't work, but Master didn't believe me…"

"It's okay, it's okay. Brother Xiao, just bear with it. This is the effect of the pill." Anyway, the Law said you wouldn't die. It was much less risky than her eating it.

However, it didn't take long for Xiao Mian to fall straight to the ground. Leng Mushi touched his nose and found that he…wasn't breathing.

Author's Note:

Leng Mushi: …Law! Didn't you say the male lead wouldn't die?!

Law: …Theoretically, he shouldn't…right?

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