After the Villainess Awakens

Xiao Mian was driven away. To be precise, his meridians were injured, and he was helped away by a fellow disciple who happened to pass by.

Leng Mushi only knew that he had been driven away. She didn't know that Hua Yanyue had always been straightforward. Since her good disciple said she didn't want this thing, then naturally, this one time, she aimed to make him never dare to knock on the barrier of the Cangsheng Courtyard again.

Leng Mushi's heart was in a mess for only an hour or two before she quickly returned to normal. After tempering her spiritual roots, she could clearly feel that her body had become lighter, and the spiritual power that could flow from her fingertips had also increased.

However, this was still a long way from being able to start alchemy. So she still focused on memorizing and identifying herbs and prescriptions, supplemented by collecting beast blood and understanding and identifying various demonic beasts. Every day, she and Hua Yanyue buried themselves in the cellar's alchemy furnace. After not seeing Xiao Mian again, she simply treated the pills as food and didn't even leave the Cangsheng Courtyard.

"You haven't been out for more than a month. Don't just play with snakes and ride eagles all day long. The Immortal Sect's preliminary trial is about to begin. You should at least go and see how the formation battle uses divine sense."

"You don't need to get a good ranking in the Immortal Sect's preliminary trial, as long as you don't come last," Hua Yanyue said. "If you come last, I'll throw you into the alchemy furnace."

Leng Mushi hurriedly said, "Then, Master, you should at least fulfill your duty as a master. Even if you teach me one move, I won't be at the bottom."

Hua Yanyue sneered, "Haven't I taught you enough? The rest depends on your own comprehension."

Leng Mushi was speechless. She stared at Hua Yanyue for a moment and said, "So, is the Cangsheng Courtyard's method of teaching disciples to force them to comprehend?"

Hua Yanyue was a little taller than Leng Mushi, but not by much. However, she couldn't stand her imposing manner, so she looked down at Leng Mushi every day.

Hua Yanyue crossed her arms. If there wasn't a hint of righteousness between her eyebrows, she would really look like a mean and vicious slave owner.

"The Dao of Alchemy is even more difficult than ascending. You don't even have this little bit of comprehension. You can't even compare to a toe of your Senior Brother Xuanzhu. I even gave you the Rejuvenation Pill, and you still want me to personally teach you?"

Leng Mushi chuckled. "Alright, I understand. When I get to the competition arena, I will definitely recite the pills and prescriptions until the opponent kneels down and begs for mercy, bleeding from their seven orifices, crying and begging me to stop."

Leng Mushi had been following Hua Yanyue for so long. She hadn't learned alchemy yet, but she had learned to imitate Hua Yanyue's sarcastic and contemptuous expression perfectly. She curled her lips into a smile, her fox-like eyes narrowed, smiling like a demon descending to the world.

"Senior Brother Xuanzhu, Senior Brother Xuanzhu," Leng Mushi muttered, "Senior Brother Xuanzhu has been gone for so long. Master mentions him every day. Maybe one day, when he hears how much you miss him, he will come back to you from the grave."

Hua Yanyue looked at Leng Mushi with a strange expression. Leng Mushi felt a chill down her spine and asked her what she was doing. Only then did Hua Yanyue smile and say, "Who told you that your Senior Brother Xuanzhu is dead?"

Leng Mushi: "You said it yourself that he's gone. And isn't it you who usually transforms into him to cheat people?"

Hua Yanyue burst into laughter, laughing as if she was about to have a seizure. Finally, she stopped laughing and patted Leng Mushi's head. "Your Senior Brother Xuanzhu is not dead. You've even met him more than once."

Leng Mushi: … Excuse me, what are you talking about?

Hua Yanyue's appearance slowly changed, quickly transforming from Hua Yanyue's cold and arrogant face into Xuanzhu's appearance.

Leng Mushi: "Master, you're so funny."

"Little Junior Sister, it's me, your Senior Brother. You usually talk to me so warmly, how come you don't recognize me now?" After the transformation, Xuanzhu was even taller than Hua Yanyue, about the same height as Xiao Mian. His handsome face was full of wickedness. He leaned close to Leng Mushi and put his hand on her head.

"Did you think I was dead? Little Junior Sister, I'm so sad. I saved you so many times when you were about to be poisoned to death by Master, but you actually cursed me to die." Xuanzhu flicked Leng Mushi's forehead. "You have no conscience."

Leng Mushi looked at Xuanzhu in front of her with an expressionless face and slapped his hand away.

"Master, this isn't fun at all. I'm going down the mountain now to look at the formation. If you don't teach me any moves before the trial, I'll go to the formation and recite the prescriptions." Leng Mushi said and turned to leave.

Behind her, Xuanzhu slowly transformed back into Hua Yanyue's appearance, but the wickedness on her face did not immediately disappear. She whispered in a voice that was neither male nor female, "Master, look, Junior Sister doesn't even recognize me… She really has no conscience. I saved her so many times, otherwise, she would have been poisoned to death by you."

After waiting for a while, Hua Yanyue closed her eyes, the wickedness on her face faded, and her solemn expression returned. Only then did she speak in a female voice, "This is your own choice. If you regret…"

She couldn't say the rest of her words. Something invisible choked her throat, and she couldn't speak.

Hua Yanyue sighed after a long while and stopped thinking about what had happened. She continued to refine pills.

Her time… no, it should be said that their time was running out. She needed to stock up on a lot of pills to be able to fearlessly find a way to restore everything.

She just didn't know if everything could be restored…

Hua Yanyue stopped thinking about the future and recalled Leng Mushi's words about wanting her to teach her moves. Hua Yanyue shook her head. She was indeed teaching her every day, and Leng Mushi was learning very well. Even if her innate talent was not good, it was enough to deal with the new disciples' test.

She smiled. She liked this disciple, who was so similar to her, more and more. She even decided that after Leng Mushi returned from the preliminary trial, she would personally teach her how to refine pills.

I won't find another disciple who is so compatible with me, Hua Yanyue thought.

After a month of being away, Leng Mushi came out of the Cangsheng Courtyard again, feeling as if she had been reborn. These days, her mind was filled with pill recipes and techniques for raising exotic beasts. She had eaten so many pills that her tongue was bitter, and she couldn't even remember what normal food tasted like.

And… the plot, Leng Mushi thought, and the Law… Oh, where is the Law?

Leng Mushi touched her body and found that the Law was lying quietly in her storage bag, neither reassured nor worried.

She thought that the Law was gone, after all, there had been no communication these days, and there was no plot for her to follow.

The Law was like an ordinary stone that could be thrown anywhere, without any sense of existence.

In fact, when Leng Mushi didn't believe in the plot at the beginning, she had tried to throw it away and even smash it countless times. But the next day, when she woke up, the Law would still appear beside her and help her confirm that the plot that had happened was exactly the same as what was described in the book.

Leng Mushi walked down the mountain, took it out, and knocked it on the stone steps a few times. "Hey, are you dead?"

Law: … Not yet.

Leng Mushi threw it back into the storage bag in disappointment. She thought it was gone, and she would be completely free from the shackles of the plot.

Leng Mushi continued walking down the mountain, using her elbow to block the sunlight from time to time. After all, she had been staying in the cellar for a long time and was a little uncomfortable with the light.

Because she had consumed two Rejuvenation Pills, her entire body was now like a peeled egg, so tender that it seemed like it would break if touched. In fact, it was very tough. The Rejuvenation Pill had tempered even her skin and flesh. Even the rough scales of the red snake could not easily scratch her.

Her features had also undergone subtle changes. They had grown a little, and the two places that were already quite large were now almost on par with Hua Yanyue's. The master and disciple often competed unintentionally, making it difficult to tell who was better.

Leng Mushi's face was now completely free of the scars from the pink lotus blood burn. Her face was porcelain white and delicate.

The pink lotus-shaped scar was originally where the pink lotus resided on her body. Now that it was gone, the pink lotus could not enter Leng Mushi's body. If it wanted to follow her, it could only stay in the dark and gloomy storage bag like the Law.

Therefore, it didn't like to follow Leng Mushi very much. At first, it even scolded Leng Mushi for being a bastard. It had promised to take her to find an immortal, but it hadn't seen a single immortal until now. It was crazy to refine pills with Hua Yanyue all day long. It had gone crazy.

Leng Mushi ignored it. Anyway, the pink lotus couldn't do anything to her now.

However, these days, the pink lotus said that it had found a lover and didn't need Leng Mushi anymore. It was said that the other party was a low-level cultivator guarding the forbidden area of Mount Taichu. The pink lotus tried hard to tell her how cute that kid was, how he could be used as a lover, and how he could be teased like a son.

Leng Mushi was actually a little curious. A disciple of Mount Taichu who didn't report a great demon and was still on good terms with it, what kind of person was he? She planned to go and see today. With the pink lotus's taste, she hoped it hadn't found another jerk.

Thinking about it this way, her schedule today was quite tight. When Leng Mushi arrived at the entrance of the Spirit Valley Hall, she went in and started eating, holding one bowl after another in her hand, recalling the order in which Hua Yanyue had put the herbs into the pill furnace and injected spiritual power this morning.

She deliberately found a corner and planned to leave after eating. She sat with her back to the wall, and there was a rice basin on the table beside her.

It was not the usual time for meals, neither morning nor noon. It was a time specially chosen by Leng Mushi because she didn't want to bump into any acquaintances.

But what you are afraid of will come, this is an eternal truth.

She didn't want to meet Xiao Mian and Leng Tianyin, nor did she want to meet any acquaintances. As a result, while she was getting her food, she bumped into a group of people who had just entered the door.

Oh my god.

They were all acquaintances, not a single one missing. They were chatting and laughing about today's formation battle practice. They should have been practicing diligently together, which led to them missing their mealtime. Now they came together again.

Leng Mushi hadn't figured out what expression to use to cope. She had only glanced at them, but was caught by a pair of burning eyes.

She tilted her head slightly, even wanting to pretend that she didn't see them and go back to finish her meal quickly.

But then she suddenly heard a familiar and excited voice, "Sister!"

Leng Mushi stood rooted to the spot, holding the food tray, and slowly forced an unwilling and impatient smile.

"Nianci, long time no see, haha." Yi Tu walked over quickly and circled around Leng Mushi. "I almost didn't recognize you!"

Leng Mushi rubbed her head with the tip of her chopsticks, not surprised at all that Yi Tu, Xingzhou, and even Xiao Mian, who were not new disciples, were mixed up with the new disciples. After all, their cute little junior sister was using formations, how could they not accompany her?

Leng Mushi had no ill feelings towards Yi Tu and Xingzhou. In fact, she felt that they were somewhat special, after all, these two were the ones she had saved by disobeying the plot and enduring the pain of soul-burning.

Since there was no way to avoid it, Leng Mushi smiled and greeted, "Long time no see, Senior Brother."

She didn't push Leng Tianyin's hand away and let her hug her arm like a butterfly, circling around her and calling her "Sister, sister".

Naturally, the group sat together in one area. Leng Mushi's rice bowl and food basin were moved over, and she sat at the same table with Leng Tianyin and the others.

On one side of Leng Mushi was Leng Tianyin, and on the other side, Yi Tu was about to sit down when someone else took his place.

"Little Junior Sister Nianci's appetite is famously good among the disciples. We were worried that the Second Elder's courtyard would be tough on you, but seeing you like this now, the Second Elder doesn't seem to mistreat her disciples as the rumors say." Xingzhou had always been a man of few words, but after not seeing her for so long, he couldn't help but tease Leng Mushi.

Leng Mushi gave a dry laugh. Amidst the laughter and chatter, her hand holding the chopsticks trembled slightly.

Because under the table, Xiao Mian, who was sitting on her left with a cold face, grabbed her hand that was hanging by her side. His grip was strong, hot, and sweaty.

Leng Mushi tried a few times, but couldn't break free.

Oh my god.

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