At first, she wondered on what basis the pointer deduced that the world would collapse.
First, the collision of spiritual and demonic powers. Then, after her little junior brother died on Cangshan, Penglai was slaughtered, giving rise to deep resentment.
Looking at the original novel as a whole, wasn't the primary source of trouble precisely the five sacrificial lambs of their Penglai Immortal Sect?
Xiao Xuantong, pass.
He was a straight-arrow senior brother from the previous life who had shaved his Buddha bones, possessed the light of Buddha, and lacked wits. Ruan Wei found it hard to convince herself that the turning point for saving the world was him.
She only needed to prevent him from meeting that little sparrow.
The eldest senior brother deserved a good ending.
Chang Huaijin, undecided.
The hatred in his heart was far too deep. Ruan Wei had known the moment she first saw him at the foot of the mountain that he already had an inner demon.
A cultivator's inner demon was truly hard to eradicate.
Yet Ruan Wei did not think it was wrong.
If Chang Huaijin forgot, then who would avenge the heroic souls of the entire Chang Family?
It was just that she truly had no idea how the Chang siblings had exacted their revenge in the original novel, managing to drag the populace of an entire town down with them.
She had to keep a close eye on him.
This boy had to be tethered to her waistband and watched constantly.
Chang Woyu, unconscious, so put her aside for now.
Given that in the original novel she chose to follow her brother to seek revenge, this little girl would also need to be watched.
And as for herself, the second senior sister—her soul had been replaced, so how could she possibly still be foolish enough to deliver her head to the protagonist of luck? Sending Spiritual Artifacts, sending Spirit Stones, and finally even sending a holy medicine of life preservation—truly, even love-brained people have their limits, hey!
You can cheat me of my feelings.
Don't cheat me of my money!
This was Ruan Wei's perspective on relationships.
Frugality, eternal.
Count as she might, that left only the little junior brother.
Chí Jīn.
The little junior brother was supposed to be picked up by their master from the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons next year, but today, on the very day of the Chang Family massacre, the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons had unexpectedly ruptured early. This already deviated from the plot of the original novel.
What was to be done about the little junior brother in the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons?
Now that the seal was broken, Feng Wuya would not go there on patrol. Without a patrol, how was he going to pick the child back up?
Not to mention right now.
The collapse pointer was pointing at him with high probability.
"Chí Jīn is not of pure Spirit Race lineage."
The System said.
"This time, there is a high probability he won't be able to apprentice under your Master either. Ruan Wei, you must find him yourself. If it is confirmed that he is the greatest possibility for causing the world's collapse."
"Kill him."
The more Ruan Wei listened, the tighter her brows furrowed. "Can you live up to your own name? Saving the world, saving the world—is there any such way of saving it?"
"So eager to kill, why don't you go play the King of Hell taking roll call, pointing at whoever you want?" Ruan Wei stared fixedly at the direction of the System's voice in her sea of consciousness, her tone turning completely cold. "Let me tell you, regardless of whether Chí Jīn is the one who caused the annihilation of the Cultivation World, and regardless of whether he is my little junior brother or not, even if he were a complete stranger, a blade of grass or a flower by the roadside, a member of the Demon Race or the Ghost Race—it wouldn't matter."
"I will never slaughter any life without reason."
On the first day Ruan Wei followed Cháojiàn to study the scriptures.
Cháojiàn had spoken to her about all living beings.
Everything in this world has its fixed laws.
Cultivators have the power to save the world, and the power to destroy it.
Even more so, they should have the heart to restrain it.
They are neither born knowing things, nor are they born incomparably powerful.
The growth of every person, and indeed every life, is sustained bit by bit by all things in this world.
Aside from the nurturing of family, a newborn infant's first sight of the radiant sun, the first breath exhaled between breaths, the first object touched by fingertips, the first scent smelled, the very first breeze sweeping past one's side.
What is seen is the realm, what is heard is the realm, the sea of consciousness is the realm, and even the grass and trees are the realm.
The System remained silent for a long time.
"...Hmph, suit yourself."
It departed swiftly, directly shutting down and entering hibernation. As Ruan Wei's cultivation gradually grew stronger, she could increasingly sense whether it was hibernating or awake.
Ruan Wei let out a hmph of her own.
As for Chí Jīn, she had long since made her plans.
She would simply wait another year. If Feng Wuya failed to pick him up from the outside world after a year, then Ruan Wei would descend the mountain.
She lowered her gaze in thought, like heavy dusk gathering, her beauty blooming across the branches.
In any case.
She was going to bring him home.
When she first arrived in this realm, Ruan Wei's sense of belonging to the Penglai Immortal Sect had not been deep, right up until she read to the very end.
Seeing the ending where Chí Jīn ultimately proved no match and buried his bones on Cangshan, Ruan Wei had merely sighed.
Feeling that his life had been far too consistent from start to finish, blaming only his troublesome bloodline. If the original owner, the second senior sister, had not perished, if the eldest senior brother had not indulged that bout of benevolence, if the Chang siblings had been able to return after avenging themselves.
This massive Penglai would never have weighed down upon the little junior brother alone.
A dignified generation of Demon Lord, stubbornly guarding Penglai as though waiting for them to come home.
After living on the mountain for several years, this place truly seemed to have become Ruan Wei's home.
No doubt, back then, Chí Jīn had likewise been unwilling to rest in Cangshan.
In the courtyard.
"Is this the third one?"
Cháojiàn closely inspected Chang Huaijin, who was sitting cross-legged with his divine sense closed, regulating his breath.
Ruan Wei stepped forward and pointed toward the inner room. "There's also the fourth junior sister."
Cháojiàn closed his eyes, his divine sense sweeping across the entire courtyard before pointing at the Demon-Cleansing Array Ruan Wei had drawn. "The array eye is far too fragile. Even Xuantong could crush it with a single kick."
Ruan Wei grew anxious. "No, I just drew it as an emergency measure, not for defense or combat; I just altered the array eye and tapped it down casually."
Cháojiàn whipped her across the face with his whisk. "Ten times."
"Second Uncle-Master!"
"Twenty."
"...Understood."
Thus, while waiting for the two of them to regain consciousness, Ruan Wei pulled out paper and brush and began her punishment writing.
Chang Huaijin finished regulating his breath and opened his eyes.
Ruan Wei, who had been amiable and transcendent like an immortal in the forest down the mountain, was at this moment slumped over the stone table writing and sketching with a body full of grievance. The resentment radiating from her was so dense, and the force she exerted so great, that every single stroke pierced right through the paper.
Turning his head, he met Cháojiàn's gaze.
Chang Huaijin looked dazed and hurriedly stood up. "Greetings..."
"He's Second Uncle-Master."
Ruan Wei still had the spare capacity to pay attention to this side and chimed in.
For a moment, Chang Huaijin didn't dare follow her form of address. After all, he had yet to perform the apprenticeship ceremony; even though Ruan Wei had already taken the liberty of calling him junior brother, he was only truly familiar with Ruan Wei at the moment.
Sensing his awkwardness, Cháojiàn said gently, "My name is Cháojiàn."
Chang Huaijin hastily bowed. "Greetings, Immortal Cháojiàn; this junior is Chang Huaijin."
He took a couple of steps forward, wanting to draw closer to appear more sincere.
"Crack—"
With a single step down, the Demon-Cleansing Array shattered.
Chang Huaijin: ? What is this?
Ruan Wei stared with vacant eyes at the array eye she had casually tapped together, which Chang Huaijin had just stepped right on.
It's over.
Sure enough, Cháojiàn's expression shifted slightly as he said with a sinister undertone, "Weiwei, I overestimated you. This array doesn't even need Xuantong."
"Forty times."
"If you haven't finished drawing them by tomorrow, come to the back mountain, and I'll watch you draw."
Ruan Wei nearly rolled her eyes backward.
She hated this!
Immediately, Ruan Wei couldn't help shooting a glance charged with daggers at Chang Huaijin. Third Junior Brother, you're my natural nemesis! Forty times in one night—even if Cháojiàn sliced her alive, she wouldn't be able to draw forty times.
"Yes..."
No matter how irritated Ruan Wei felt, she could only reply with a feeble voice.
Seeing her agree, Cháojiàn wore a smile at the corners of his lips. "If you dare find Xuantong to help you, you know what your fate will be."
"..."
"Yes!"
This consent sounded all the more tragic and indignant.
Standing to the side with his neck shrunk in, Chang Huaijin felt panic in his heart. Is—is this how geniuses at Penglai learn?
Recalling this third grand-disciple, Cháojiàn turned to him. "Huaijin, is it? Have you studied any Dao at home?"
"Uh... answering the Immortal, I have generally only practiced the sword."
Feeling that he had learned far too little, Chang Huaijin wore a look of shame and lowered his head.
Hoh, a blank sheet of paper. Easy to teach.
Cháojiàn loved playing the teacher, but for years he had only faced two students, Xiao Xuantong and Ruan Wei, whose foundations he had long since thoroughly figured out; teaching them proved somewhat tedious. Aside from Xiao Xuantong, who remained trapped on the first floor of the Scripture Pavilion repeatedly having his work sent back for redos, Ruan Wei had already begun studying on her own.
Aside from the Array Dao, Ruan Wei never had anything else to consult him about.
And Xiao Xuantong—sigh, it was already a miracle if he could manage to read through the books on the first floor.
As someone who was a Buddhist cultivator in a past life and could memorize so many Buddhist scriptures, there was simply no reason he shouldn't be able to memorize books. Cháojiàn sometimes suspected that when Xiao Xuantong shaved off his Buddha bones, he had sacrificed his root of wisdom right along with them.
Just as Cháojiàn was feeling that times had been rather peaceful lately, his good senior brother had sent him two students without a moment's rest.
Splendid.
Most interesting.
Ruan Wei wrote furiously while keeping an eye on their conversation. Judging by Cháojiàn's increasingly perverted smile, she couldn't help shivering involuntarily.
Unable to hold back a look of sympathy, she glanced at Chang Huaijin.
Chang Huaijin caught Senior Sister's look of pity and raised an eyebrow in confusion.
Only to see Ruan Wei extend a hand toward him, tapping each side of her own shoulders once, then tapping the center of her brow, before suddenly closing her eyes and muttering something that sounded like "Amen."
Having finished praying for the new unlucky soul, Ruan Wei felt her heart grow tranquil.
How did that saying go?
When you're feeling miserable, seeing that others are miserable too—doesn't that just make you feel happy?
She sent a message to the eldest senior brother, who was still suffering a beating from the old ancestor in the back mountain.
Widely broadcasting the joyous news that the new unlucky soul had been targeted by Cháojiàn.
And solemnly inviting Xiao Xuantong to sneak over to the Scripture Pavilion tomorrow afternoon to witness the spectacle.
Xiao Xuantong replied very quickly: Affirmative.
Cháojiàn seemed to sense Ruan Wei's little maneuvers over here, and a headmaster-style glare came flying over.
Ruan Wei knew when to be sensible. "Second Uncle-Master, I'll go back and continue writing."
Before leaving, Ruan Wei fished some items out of her Mustard Seed Bag—entirely consisting of pretty hairpins and jewelry—and then pulled out a set of men's Daoist robes.
She shoved them all into Chang Huaijin's hands in one go and said, "These are for Junior Sister, and this clothing is new. You should change out of those clothes."
"I don't have any extra Mustard Seed Bags; Senior Brother said he has two, and he'll bring them back to the front mountain for you tomorrow."
Their third uncle-master was a female cultivator who had yet to take a Daoist Companion, so there surely wouldn't be any men's clothing in her courtyard.
The one in Ruan Wei's hand was actually something she had intended to give her brother.
Only, she hadn't known Ruan Nanzhi's size and had simply guessed when buying it.
Now it worked out perfectly; seeing how empty-waisted Chang Huaijin was, she knew the incident had been sudden and he hadn't brought anything complete.
Cradling a pile of items in his hands, Chang Huaijin felt his eye sockets grow slightly warm, his voice turning a bit hoarse. "Senior Sister, thank you."
Ruan Wei merely waved a hand.
And miserably went back to continue drawing her array diagrams.