Dongxi Village. This was where the male and female leads first met.
Yao Ranran gazed at the lush green scenery around her, listening to the gurgling of the creek. Unexpectedly, she felt a faint reluctance to leave.
This world was false, yet a disaster that truly happened back then was about to replay itself.
Tomorrow, the woman who was her mother would be gone.
And this beautiful mortal village would be wiped out by the coming calamity.
Yao Ranran could not sleep through the night.
"Who am I, really?"
When the eastern sky turned pale and the rising sun painted the horizon with gold, the curtain of disaster was drawn open. From the west came a deep, rumbling noise, like a volcano about to erupt from beneath the earth. Beasts and birds fled in terror, pouring out of the forests, all racing eastward.
The villagers of Dongxi Village, startled awake, rushed from their homes. The penned cattle, sheep, and pigs smashed through their enclosures and joined the tide of stampeding creatures.
In an instant, the sky above Dongxi Village darkened.
Inside a villager's woodshed, a five-year-old child rubbed her eyes and sat up.
She looked at the sky and murmured, "Huh? Isn't it morning yet?"
Clutching a tiny bundle in her arms, she wandered alone through the eerily quiet village.
"Is everyone still sleeping? Xiao You hasn't woken up yet. If the clan notices I'm gone, I'll be in trouble!" The girl puffed up her cheeks in frustration, pouting as she walked. Without realizing it, she found herself before the gates of a dilapidated temple.
The sight of a blood-soaked robe inside startled her.
"What… what's that?" The girl froze in fear.
She hid behind the temple gate for a moment, then cautiously poked her head out and tiptoed inside.
"Big brother, big brother, what happened to you?" she whispered. She gave the man lying on the ground a little push, then poked at his cheek with her tiny fingers and giggled. "This big brother is so handsome!"
"But he looks sick. Good thing Xian Qiao sneaked out with the clan's treasure. I'll lend it to you, but you mustn't tell anyone, alright? If Grandpa Clan Leader or Father and Mother find out, they'll be furious!"
Pei Xianqiao opened her little bundle, revealing a dull, ancient square seal. She carefully placed it on the man's chest.
Warm golden runes flared to life, encasing the man's body. The intricate sigils burrowed into his flesh, easing his pain as his tightly furrowed brows slowly relaxed.
His eyes fluttered open. Through a haze, he saw a pale, childish face. "You… who are you?" he asked with great effort.
Startled, Pei Xianqiao clutched her chest, her eyes darting about in panic.
"I can't tell him! No one can know about the clan's treasure!"
"I…"
Before she could finish, the seal burst into a glow of yellow light. The anxious face of a white-bearded elder appeared.
"Little one, where are you? Run! Run quickly! Leave that place at once! Take the clan's treasure and hide it well!"
The projection dissipated as the old man spat his last mouthful of blood and passed away.
Pei Xianqiao fell to the ground in fright. "Grandpa Clan Leader?"
The light vanished. Though bewildered, she understood that something terrible had happened to her clan. With tears brimming in her eyes, she snatched up the seal and dashed away clutching it tightly.
The man, without the treasure's aid, sank back into unconsciousness.
From beneath a broken temple table, Yao Ranran watched through the cracks. She caught a glimpse of the man's flawless profile and felt her heart jolt.
It was here, at this moment, that the fates of the male and female leads, and even the body's original owner, became intertwined.
At only five years old, the female lead had mischievously stolen her clan's treasure to show off in Dongxi Village. By sheer coincidence, the clan was annihilated by mysterious figures right after she slipped away with the treasure.
Unaware of any of this, she still wandered the village with the seal in hand. Those same mysterious figures arrived from the west, bringing with them a plague that slaughtered every single villager.
Only she survived, stumbling into the temple, where she saved Shen Yuefu and heard her grandfather's warning. She fled, later fell off a cliff, and was rescued by an old man. She grew up safe under his care, eventually joining Wuxiang Sect as Yue Qingsu's disciple.
Knowing all this, Yao Ranran could not help but sigh. So many deaths, and yet in the book, all of it was brushed aside in a single line, simply to pave the way for the destined bond between the leads.
Falling in love in a xianxia world was no simple matter. Even a nameless passerby could easily end up as a wandering ghost, sacrificed to the leads' story.
The original body, shielded by her mother, survived by chance. Witnessing this scene, she became greedy. After joining Wuxiang Sect as an adult, she impersonated the mysterious benefactor who saved Shen Yuefu. Gaining his favor and resources, she even secretly fell for him, considering him hers and opposing the female lead at every turn. In the end, her death was both pitiful and tragic.
Reflecting on this, Yao Ranran had to admit that the female lead's fortune was overwhelming.
Even hunted by those mysterious figures, she survived. She even escaped assassination attempts from killers sent by Yao Ranran's father's main wife. Just as danger closed in, Wuxiang Sect disciples happened to notice the disturbance and intervened. From then on, the mysterious figures could only search in secret, their movements restricted, allowing her to live peacefully to adulthood.
Time flowed on.
Yao Ranran no longer resisted the body's actions. She retraced every step the original owner had taken, both as an observer and as one trapped within the story.
When the truth of her false benefactor's identity was finally revealed, Shen Yuefu struck her down with a palm. In that instant, Yao Ranran shattered the illusionary world.
The next moment, she appeared in the grand plaza of Shu Xi Palace.
Now only half the cultivators who had entered remained.
On the high platform, An Xiaolin shifted his gaze, his expression complicated as he looked at the young woman who had entered first, yet emerged last. He had cultivated the art of Reincarnation Phantasm for tens of thousands of years, yet this was the first time it had failed him—and at the hands of a little girl, no less.
"Fairy Ranran, you've finally come out?" Tang Xiangyin spotted Yao Ranran and hurried over with joy.
Yao Ranran rubbed her nose awkwardly. "That cycle of reincarnation was tricky. I couldn't break it easily."
An Xiaolin fell silent.
In her eyes, what counted as difficult?
"I barely placed you inside the illusion for a few breaths, and you barged into another's world, opening a strange realm within my domain. Did I complain?
Forget it…
As Senior Sister once said, there are countless geniuses in this world. I am only an ordinary one among them. But she… she is a true monster of talent."
"You all have passed my trial, and I am pleased. But I recall that when you first entered, some of your companions were injured by the palace's spirit web and imprisoned in the dungeon below. Since you are comrades, I will open the way for you to release them."
Without waiting for anyone's reply, An Xiaolin flicked his sleeve. A strange black gate appeared beside the radiant pearl.
Everyone was stunned, then hastily distanced themselves. "We don't know them. We're not familiar with those people!"
Those cultivators had clearly dissolved into blood. Who would believe they were locked away in a dungeon?
An Xiaolin smiled faintly. "I will wait here. If you are afraid, you may stay with me."