"A bastard child, pretending to be all high and virtuous—hand that over to me!"
Before she was fully awake, Bai Mengjin was shoved down by a heavy force, and the thing in her hand was snatched away.
She rubbed her ears, thinking to herself: *Which reckless fool dares to act so impudently in front of this deity? If I don't wipe out your whole family, I'll have suffered a thousand years of the world's curses in vain as a supreme fiend!*
Raising her gaze, she locked eyes with a boy full of ferocity. She froze, a strange look crossing her face.
"Eldest brother?"
The boy, currently flipping through a stack of spirit talismans, was utterly unpolite: "Who's your eldest brother? Take a look in the mirror and see if you're worthy!"
"Exactly, exactly," chimed in the bootlicker nearby, borrowing his master's authority, "call him First Young Master!"
Then, he tactfully reminded the boy: "Young Master, using 'high and virtuous' here doesn't seem quite right..." This was a cousin, not some innocent maiden snatched by force.
"Is that so?" The boy thought for a moment. "Then how about 'keeping oneself pure'?"
"Not quite..." The bootlicker gave up correcting him. Whatever, let it be crooked; as long as the Young Master was happy.
Bai Mengjin was momentarily speechless. Her gaze swept to the side, and what came into view was scenery both familiar and strange.
A spacious lecture hall, neat rows of desks, and three sweeping, vigorous characters inscribed on the plaque right in the center: *Inquire into the Dao Heart*.
Though a millennium had passed, she still recognized it. This was the Bai Family's study, where she used to study Daoist arts until she left home at the age of fourteen. And the boy in front of her was her cousin Bai Mengxing, who had always loved bullying her.
So what was happening? Had she been dragged into an illusion of her youth by the Samsara Mirror?
That wasn't right. Illusions usually attacked the weaknesses in one's state of mind, but the Bai Family had turned to ashes long ago, and she didn't care about them in the slightest.
While her thoughts drifted, Bai Mengxing finished flipping through the talismans, stuffed them into his pocket, and called out to his lackeys, "Let's go!"
Before stepping out, he didn't forget to warn Bai Mengjin: "If you dare tell the tutor, you're done for!"
Bai Mengjin: "..."
She remembered now. This was something that happened in her final year at the Bai Family.
Because her parents had died early, she inevitably suffered bullying in her youth. For example, her cousin Bai Mengxing—whenever he couldn't do his own homework, he would come and snatch hers.
This stack of spirit talismans was the homework due tomorrow. Everything from the talisman paper to the ink had to be made by hand, which was both time-consuming and laborious. With hers stolen by Bai Mengxing, there was simply no time to remake them by nightfall.
A thousand years had already passed, and Bai Mengjin's memory was somewhat hazy. How had she handled it back then? Oh, right, those talismans had her personal mark on them. When the tutor inspected them, he discovered it, and Bai Mengxing made a huge fool of himself, though it also infuriated his backer—her eldest uncle.
Her eldest uncle, Bai Dingchang, was a hypocrite with a sanctimonious facade. Fair and upright on the surface, he was petty and scheming underneath. While maintaining a calm expression on the surface, he secretly meddled behind the scenes. When the emissaries from Danxia Palace came to inspect and accept disciples, he caused her to lose her composure in public, squandering her chance to be accepted into Danxia Palace and forcing her to risk her life attempting the Heaven-Reaching Road.
Recalling these past events, Bai Mengjin sighed.
Her counterattack had been ingenious enough, but being young after all, she had overlooked the most crucial point: it wasn't that as long as you didn't leave behind evidence, others wouldn't target you. Malice between people required no evidence whatsoever, nor even a reason.
People across the world said that she had suffered a tiny grievance and therefore razed the family that raised her to the ground. Most of that rumor was false, but one thing was true: in the Bai Family, she had indeed suffered more than a few grievances!
However, she had already endured all the real-world grievances; since this was an illusion, she certainly wasn't going to wrong herself. Having served as a supreme fiend for a thousand years, Her Excellency the Jade Demon had long forgotten what grievances tasted like.
Bai Mengxing strutted along with a pocket full of spirit talismans, whistling merrily.
He just knew Bai Mengjin had finished spirit talismans on hand; his homework for tomorrow was secure.
This damned girl—her whole person was an eyesore. With no father and no mother, who knew if she was just some bastard from outside pretending to be a member of the Bai Family, yet she always put on such an arrogant air. What was there to be arrogant about? Wasn't it just knowing how to suck up to the tutor? Just wait until they started practicing actual techniques and had to memorize too many things; once they began practical cultivation, she'd see who the true cultivation talent was—him!
Just as Bai Mengxing was feeling quite pleased with himself, his foot suddenly stumbled, and with an "ouch," he fell flat on his face, biting the dust.
"Young Master!" The lackey following behind hurriedly helped him up.
Bai Mengxing took quite a heavy tumble. Both knees hit the ground hard, turning a large patch bruised and purple, and his nose slammed into the floor, causing blood to spurt out instantly.
He reached out to touch it and immediately panicked: "Blood, blood..."
The lackey hurriedly helped him pinch his nose: "Young Master, don't move, it'll stop right away."
Trash though he was, Bai Mengxing had already achieved Qi Condensation; what harm could a nosebleed do? It stopped very quickly.
He gave a wild wipe, turned his head, and cursed at Bai Mengjin: "Damn girl, was that your doing? Good grief, ambushing your elder brother, truly devoid of respect—I'm going to tell the tutor right now!"
Bai Mengxing always behaved this way, shifting the blame onto others whenever he felt humiliated. In the past, Bai Mengjin would always deny it and then get into a huge row, refusing to let it rest until he had vented his anger.
But this time, Bai Mengjin admitted it quite casually: "Yeah! I did it, what about it?"
She then added earnestly, "What do you mean 'devoid of respect'? You should say 'lacking reverence for elders.' If you can't even tell these two terms apart, what are you going to do when you misread your cultivation manuals in the future? Eldest Brother, you'd better go back and read more books and stir up less trouble, lest you practice the wrong technique and suffer a reversal of qi in your meridians."
Bai Mengxing hadn't expected her to be so brazen. He was stunned at first, then flew into a rage: "Have you lost your mind? A mere bastard, if the family hadn't kindly raised you, you'd have died out on the street long ago! Today you dare mess with me—if I don't teach you a lesson, you won't know why flowers are so red! Grab her for me!"
Several lackey responded, brimming with unspeakable excitement as they lunged murderously toward Bai Mengjin.
Bai Mengjin stood casually. By the time they reached her, before anyone knew what had happened, they suddenly tripped and tumbled all over the place, crashing heavily into the surrounding tables and chairs.
The lackeys thought they had simply tripped over each other. After exchanging mutual accusations, they climbed back up to grab her again, only to tumble into a heap once more.
Even the biggest fools knew something was wrong by now.
Bai Mengxing demanded angrily, "Damn girl, what did you do?"
Bai Mengjin spread her hands in an innocent gesture: "Weren't I standing right here safe and sound? Why is Eldest Brother slandering people out of nowhere?"
How could Bai Mengxing believe that? His own fall just now for no apparent reason was clear proof!
"You..." He had barely taken two steps forward when his legs went soft and he flopped to the ground once again, nearly knocking out his teeth.
Seeing that the lackey were completely useless, Bai Mengjin walked up step by step with a beaming smile. Bai Mengxing finally felt fear, issuing a blustering warning: "If you dare lay a hand on me, I'll tell my dad! Someone come, someone!"
Yet, in his haste to snatch the things earlier, he had chased everyone away, so absolutely no one would come to help now.
"Ah! Stop it! Damn girl! Motherless bastard! Sob... Don't hit me, it hurts so much... Stop, I was wrong..."
A quarter of an hour later, Bai Mengjin walked out of the study feeling refreshed and clear-minded.
She suddenly found that this Samsara Mirror was quite empathetic—dropping her into an illusion like this was purely to let her vent her anger to her heart's content, wasn't it?