Chapter 3

To be frank, Jiang Yu knew herself, when she first started university she was the sort who couldn't lie low and couldn't really stand up for herself either.
"Junior sister, rest well and wait for our return from demon hunting."
"No need, Senior Sister, I can go." She gritted her teeth, voice trembling as she forced it out, then raised her eyes and smiled at Gu Shuyu. "I've heard wolf demons are especially cunning and vicious. I have a plan. We can hire a large number of fellow cultivators to accompany us up the mountain to help deal with the demon. Besides, strength is in numbers, and it prevents the demon from attracting other evils."
"This...is against regulations." Gu Shuyu frowned slightly, preparing to refuse.
Jiang Yu lightly tugged her sleeve, shaking it gently with a bright, smiling face. "Senior Sister, the sect only said we must complete the task; it didn't specify how. I've had a long and exhausting journey, hiring help is to ensure I don't break sect rules. You surely wouldn't want to see me suffer."
Shen Anzhi lounged against the edge of the table, frowning slightly. His fingertips rubbed the copper coin; the cinnabar mole at the corner of his eye seemed to radiate chill.
Why is she so squeamish?
"…" Gu Shuyu fell silent for a moment, she actually found some merit in what Jiang Yu said.
Jiang Yu had been dressed in finery and pampered since childhood, why would she ever put herself through hardship?
"Junior brother, what do you think?"
"If we handle it according to Senior Sister Jiang's way, where are we supposed to find so many helpers?"
"I already have a very suitable candidate...one of them." Jiang Yu glanced at him silently, giving him a look. "I want to hire you, junior brother."
A laugh squeezed up from his throat as if against his will; a coldness spread through Shen Anzhi's eyes.
Gu Shuyu was inwardly startled, her gaze flicking between Jiang Yu and Shen Anzhi.
The mood had turned sour; she couldn't say exactly why.
Shen Anzhi followed her lead and asked again, "Senior Sister, are you planning to hire your junior?"
Jiang Yu hunched her shoulders and said, "Yes. It's only natural that I hire my junior to protect me. Besides, it's not just you, I plan to hire others too."
As the old adage goes, don't put all your eggs in one basket; it's wise to hedge your bets.
Since her last death, the messy, flea-bitten fragments of the plot in her head had stitched themselves into a neat, coherent storyline.
From what she knew, Shen Anzhi's reasons for coming down the mountain were twofold: he had no spirit stones to spend, so he was accompanying Gu Shuyu to train and earn points to exchange for spirit stones; and he hoped to find a few spirit herbs to treat his chronic ailment.
Spirit stones were essential to cultivators. As the novel's second male lead, Shen Anzhi had no backing, no noble clan to fall back on. With no spirit stones, he certainly couldn't afford the expensive herbs needed for refining medicine.
"I'll give my junior brother a thousand high-grade spirit stones," she said, thinking that if she offered too little he might snub her.
"Done."
Jiang Yu had overthought it, Shen Anzhi agreed almost before she finished speaking.
His narrow, phoenix-like eyes slitted in a beguiling way, a smile touching his brows; even her dazed, gawky expression suddenly looked a little endearing to him.
Jiang Yu thought: ‘We had no fate between us, it's all because I paid for it.’
Jiang Yu suppressed the upward tug of her lips and said, "I'll pay you half the deposit now, and add two vials of elixir afterward."
"Fine."
Seeing them interact and the mood ease, Gu Shuyu smiled for the first time in a while and suddenly looked at Jiang Yu with concern. "I thought I was mistaken, A’yue, do you like Junior Brother?"
Jiang Yu's face went pale; she wasn't some conniving little heroine, entertaining needless fantasies.
Not that Shen Anzhi wasn't easy on the eyes...
Shen Anzhi's long, thick lashes fluttered; he pursed his lips barely noticeably and stepped back one pace, adopting an expression of careful, innocent trepidation.
It was all for show, performed entirely for Gu Shuyu's benefit.
"He... he..." The whole act was exactly the message she meant to send.
Seeing Jiang Yu's cheeks flush with excitement, Gu Shuyu inwardly concluded that Jiang Yu had been trying on their journey to get Junior Brother's attention, saying whatever she could and finding a suitable excuse. She glanced at Jiang Yu again, worry creeping in...
"Sect loyalty is more important than anything."
Jiang Yu was stumped, unable to speak; her stammering didn't help and only made her look foolish.
"Senior Sister, I didn't, "
"I understand," Gu Shuyu said with an elegant smile, lightly patting the tousled top of her head like an older sibling.
Jiang Yu did not want to find herself on this same demon-hunting path again. Before they set out, she had prayed to everyone from the Heavenly Emperor down to Mazu.
Even though the book had shown Shen Anzhi as powerful, how come he died twice when he was with her? She also feared that if he kept dying on her watch he'd squander all her opportunities to reset.
Jiang Yu swore to herself: ‘No, absolutely not.’
She was prepared: she slid open her storage pouch to reveal life-saving talismans, each emitting a spectrum of colored light.
The sun beat down from above; around them the forest's tangled roots cast dappled light across waist-high weeds. At the sound of footsteps, insects and birds scattered.
With a crisp snap a twig broke beneath her, footsteps sounding uneven in the quiet thicket.
A dense crowd surrounded them, tall and short, all competent, fellow cultivators she'd hired at the inn with spirit stones.
The pack of wolf demons hesitated, then, according to plan, appeared and froze in astonishment, exchanging bewildered looks, never before had they seen embarrassment cross a wolf-demon's face.
"They look ugly, aim for their eyes," Jiang Yu announced after revealing the weak point, then minimized her presence and, telling herself it was all just acting, slipped to the side.
Realizing she was the focal point of the crowd's protection, the wolf demons sniffed the air, their green eyes flashing fiercely, and lunged toward Jiang Yu.
Amid the howls and wails, Jiang Yu forced herself calm, but an unseen force pinned her feet fast, she couldn't move.
The commotion drove her to grab her sword and swing blindly; she saw the sword's qi pause, almost strategically.
Just as she breathed a sigh of relief, her pupils constricted and then widened as the wolf that pounced for her arm became a mere shadow.
From the opposite direction Shen Anzhi delivered a kick; the wolf he sent flying bounced like a launched ball and slammed heavily into the ground.
Shen Anzhi moved with crisp, decisive grace. His copper-coin longsword caught the wind; its blade sliced the air through the coin's hole with a sharp hiss. The flash of light fell into his handsome eyes, and Jiang Yu instinctively shut hers.
Shen Anzhi's sword swept by as he brushed past; he kicked the wolf in its soft belly and his blade flashed along his grim, sinister gaze. One thrust struck its eye and heart; the spraying ichor splattered at his feet.
He seemed like the Death incarnated.
Delight colored Shen Anzhi's brow; excitement and anticipation couldn't be hidden between his brows. The sword in his hand trembled slightly, vibrating with its owner's exhilaration.
He slaughtered demons with increasing ferocity and ruthlessness; most wolf demons were cleaved in two, and even the battle-hardened elder Daoists nearby staggered back, avoiding this young man.
When Gu Shuyu turned to draw her sword, she frowned sharply at Shen Anzhi; he had clearly faltered for a moment.
It wasn't until there wasn't a demon in sight that Shen Anzhi turned his back and finally let a small smile curl; he popped a brown hard candy into his mouth and savored it. He then turned his head, gaze hardening into a cold sharpness.
His eyes seemed to regard Jiang Yu as a small, contemptible prey, an invisible hand tightened at her throat as if to drink her blood and tear her apart.
Jiang Yu shivered.
Before long, the brutal fight was over, decisively resolved within a quarter of an hour.
Jiang Yu put on an act, covering her nose as she sauntered away. "Wolf blood reeks," she said. "Everyone keep your distance, don't come near and stain my skirt."
The Daoists were professionals for hire; though they disliked the girl's pretensions, she was paying hundreds of high-grade spirit stones, enough for an ordinary cultivator's six months' expenses. Respecting the wealthy, they dispersed in small clusters.
"Shen Anzhi, remember to protect me," Jiang Yu said, turning to him, her voice lacked conviction.
The youth bit into the chestnut candy in one bite, as if he might just as eagerly bite her neck. Savoring the sweet chestnut flavor between his teeth, he drew his sword; its flash crossed her suddenly contracting pupils, dark blood splattering neatly onto a tree trunk a pace from her.
Questions began to form in Shen Anzhi's mind.
Had she just called out his full name?
On the other side, Jiang Yu's eyes measured like a ruler; she gauged the spot and avoided where she had just fallen. Coming to her senses she thought this was bad and, slow on the uptake, changed her words: "Junior Brother, come over here a bit."
Interesting, what was she trying to do now?
In an instant, the earth shook; stones rolled and the ground convulsed.
The ground beneath where everyone stood collapsed swiftly, forming in the blink of an eye a pit so deep its bottom couldn't be seen.
Jiang Yu couldn't hide her delight and secretly watched Shen Anzhi, once again he had saved her from peril.
Where no one noticed, a fissure ran underfoot; Jiang Yu only heard someone shout "move!" and before she could cry out she fell through again.
"Shen Anzhi, "
Shen Anzhi steadied Gu Shuyu, then flashed away; his expression suddenly darkened as he clutched the crimson corner of fabric left in his palm.
Jiang Yu had died twice now; this time she had the experience, though it wasn't the kind of experience she wanted.
She forced her eyes open and grabbed a thick tree root in midair, half of her body dangling as she trembled, too dizzy to look into the pitch-black depths below.
"Senior Sister! Fellow cultivators! Help me!"
Before her shout finished, the last sliver of light above was swallowed by darkness.
The ground smoothed as if nothing had happened; the remnants of the formation turned to ash.
Jiang Yu clutched the lone root that anchored her, muscles aching and sweating. She inched herself toward the last clearly visible stout root, scrambling slowly until she could roll over and sit up.
She rifled through her storage pouch and her hand landed on a bright, fist-sized little pearl glowing faintly in the corner; she snatched it out as an emergency measure.
In this book's world there were not only demons and immortals, but also eerie, terrifying ghosts and specters...
Unease prickled through her; she felt a cold patch on her neck, as if someone were constantly blowing icy air across her skin.
"Whoo, "
"!!!"
Jiang Yu swallowed hard, trembling, curling into a ball as she did her utmost to avoid that chill gust.
The cold wind came in gusts, boring straight into her bones.
Occasionally loosened stones fell from above, "plop plop" hitting the ground and making a dull sound.
In the gloom, a reflected glint flashed by, tracing a sharp whisper of wind.
The chill wind vanished.
Her eyes reflexively turned toward the spot that had blurred her vision; the silver earring and its crimson tassel swung.
From the darkness a monstrous face slowly emerged, wearing a cold smile that didn't reach the eyes.
The youth stood with his arms folded across his chest, the slightly curled red tips of his hair tracing a warm arc through the air as he balanced on the Copper Coin Sword. His handsome, upright figure leaned in slightly; he tugged at the corner of his mouth and leapt to another root. Lazy in posture, his indifferent gaze fixed on her, his quiet authority pressed down on her as if an invisible hand were coiling around her neck and tightening.
"You, are you junior brother?"
"Senior Sister, weren't you the one yelling for me to save you?" he drawled, his eyes slanting; his tone part mockery, mostly indifference.
Saving people was nothing for him, just a casual favor.
"Say something, call my name," Jiang Yu urged; the pearl in her hand trembled and nearly slipped. She forced herself to lift her eyes.
Shen Anzhi's phoenix-eyes narrowed mischievously, a mesmerizing, aloof smile on his lips. "Watching Senior Sister Jiang's theatrics is just... amusing," he said.
Jiang Yu clenched her fists, she was about to die and he found it entertaining.
If he had provoked her, he'd be in for it.
"Senior Sister, look down."
When Jiang Yu peered down, the patterns in the gnarled branches formed deep grooves, faces contorted in screams: men and women, old and young.
The horror of being inside this book really didn't spare her.
Jiang Yu froze for a moment, then turned her head toward the only path to survival.
“Junior brother, can you give me a hand?”
Shen Anzhi remained unmoved.
Tears welled at the corner of Jiang Yu’s eyes; her doe-like gaze implored him. Her pretty face filled his vision, a scarlet dress setting off skin like warm jade, her dark eyes glittering faintly.
She really did look the part.
Before you peel back the shell, who would know a body bristling with thorns hides the sweetest chestnut?
Too bad it’s a deadly one.
Shen Anzhi simply leapt onto his sword, about to look away, but with a cold curl of his lips he grabbed the trembling hand reaching for him.