Chapter 207: So I’m the Protagonist After All (3)
“Senior Sister!”
At noon, at the gate of the Hundred Flower Sect, a bright figure in goose-yellow waved at Su Mingxiu from afar, like a vibrant forsythia joyfully welcoming the spring breeze.
Yan Miaomiao had been identifying the spiritual herbs around the mountain gate, wondering how many she would recognize by the time Su Mingxiu appeared.
But in the blink of an eye, she instantly forgot what she had recognized and how far she had counted.
Because the Senior Sister of the Hundred Flower Sect had such charisma. Even though Yan Miaomiao had seen several spiritual herbs in the Hundred Flower Sect gain sentience and cultivate into human form, she couldn’t resist the stunning feeling every time she saw Su Mingxiu.
In terms of beauty, even the most beautiful peony spirit couldn’t compare to the radiance of Su Mingxiu’s features. But those spirits lacked the upright and righteous aura of a true cultivator that Su Mingxiu possessed.
Moreover, compared to the flamboyant attire of the other disciples and her unruly, wildly growing mortal garden, Su Mingxiu herself didn’t have much habit of dressing up, only wearing a thin shirt the color of willow green as she walked through the world.
Therefore, the spirits were not as elegant as her, and the other cultivators were not as beautiful. The Senior Sister of the Hundred Flower Sect was like a snow lotus tempered on an ice mountain, more radiant than any flower spirit, but because of her coldness, she was like a lake on the verge of melting, giving people a sense of icy beauty.
Even the wind that blew past her seemed to become colder.
Yan Miaomiao thought of the list of female immortals in the Nine Continents’ Records over the past century, where Su Mingxiu had suppressed the pretentious disciples of the Joyful Union Sect, and her mood brightened even more. “I heard from Master that the Sect Leader has entrusted you with the responsibility of organizing this Cultivation Conference. I was worried that you wouldn’t have time to fulfill our appointment.”
Moreover, her master had also told her not to be too playful these days, to be more sensible, and to help Su Mingxiu.
Thinking of this, Yan Miaomiao rubbed her nose a little embarrassedly. She wanted to generously suggest that they not go down the mountain today, but looking at the bustling human world below, she couldn’t bring herself to say it.
“It’s fine. The Cultivation Conference has been held for thousands of years, and the procedures are fixed. If we deliberately try to do something different, it might make the other sects think that the Hundred Flower Sect is trying to show off.”
Su Mingxiu explained casually, so that the child wouldn’t be too nervous to enjoy herself when they went down the mountain.
Yan Miaomiao was indeed relieved of her psychological burden. The two of them headed straight for the sect gate. Because Yan Miaomiao was too young, not yet of the age of a mortal woman’s coming-of-age ceremony, and because Elder Xuehan only had this one disciple, whom she treasured very much, she was usually not allowed to go out freely, lest she encounter danger she couldn’t handle.
—Even though at the foot of the Hundred Flower Sect’s mountain gate, it was unlikely that any demons or monsters would come looking for death.
Su Mingxiu casually took off her waist token and waved it into the air. A gap suddenly appeared in the long corridor formed by wisteria flowers nearby. The disciples guarding on both sides saluted them one by one, took the token, and handed it back to Su Mingxiu.
Major sects all had their own protective formations, mostly left by the founding ancestors or improved by later generations to become more powerful and secure. The Hundred Flower Sect was no exception. This protective formation was currently in a defensive state, preventing mortals from accidentally entering and having no offensive capabilities. To change it, the Sect Leader and elders had to work together.
As Su Mingxiu walked out, she didn’t forget to thrust an invisible sword energy into the formation from the corner. The next second, she saw no reaction from the formation. Even the disciples guarding the formation didn’t detect any alarm. Her eyes darkened.
So…
In the previous life, when the Hundred Flower Sect was freely invaded by the demon race, the formation had already been ineffective from this point on.
“Your meddling nature is still the same as before,” the Heavenly Dao suddenly said in her mind as Su Mingxiu continued to walk down the mountain with Yan Miaomiao, her expression unchanged.
Her footsteps momentarily paused.
As if knowing that Su Mingxiu wouldn’t say anything good, before she could retort, the Heavenly Dao spoke up in time, 【If you don’t want the Hundred Flower Sect to suffer this calamity for nothing, and you want to change the fate of these innocent people, it’s not difficult. I’ll give you your first task now: Tomorrow, when Xiao Xingwei of the Sword Sect arrives with his disciples, find a way to make him notice the anomaly in the Hundred Flower Sect’s formation (0/1)】
Xiao Xingwei?
It had been a long time since she had heard this name. When the Heavenly Dao mentioned the Sword Sect, Su Mingxiu barely managed to find an impression of this person from the corner of her memory.
Oh, the new generation genius of the Sword Sect, and one of the few people in the previous life who believed that she had not colluded with demons to destroy her own sect, nor had she killed her own master.
He had even, because Su Mingxiu was able to pass the Sword Sect’s trial path, pleaded with the sect to protect her.
—If he hadn’t once entered an ancient secret realm with Su Mingxiu and accidentally been poisoned by a strange evil, wanting Su Mingxiu to dual cultivate with him to detoxify, Su Mingxiu might have felt more warmth towards this name when recalling those favors.
As if reading her cold emotions, the Heavenly Dao said with some annoyance, “Xiao Xingwei is a hero of this world, born with a Daoist constitution, destined for a smooth cultivation journey. He would be a male protagonist and a child of destiny anywhere. He is not unworthy of you. If you hadn’t insisted on rejecting his pursuit, he wouldn’t have ended up in that state!”
…What state was that again?
Su Mingxiu had a hard time recalling things when she hadn’t seen the person. She could only remember a scene of blood mist and someone seriously injured. She simply threw this rotten person and his mess to the back of her mind.
She only sneered in her sea of consciousness, “Born with a Daoist constitution? So amazing?”
As if she didn’t have one too.
Provoked by her contempt and disdain, the Heavenly Dao felt the faint sensation of internal injuries, reminiscent of being angered to the point of vomiting blood in those small worlds. Thinking that this person, who should have been holding hands with the male protagonist to overcome various hardships and eventually stand at the peak of the world together, possessing so many unique and wonderful qualities bestowed by it, yet lacking the self-awareness of a female protagonist, repeatedly showing compassion to the sworn enemy who should not be loved, the Heavenly Dao felt that urge to vomit again.
As for Su Mingxiu, it was unclear whether she had accepted the Heavenly Dao’s task, as she looked nonchalant. While her little junior sister was enumerating the new dishes and pastries at the Hundred Flavors Restaurant in the city, she casually picked up a rustic hairpin from a roadside stall and gestured with it in her hair.
“Miaomiao, this suits you very well.”
The hairpin Su Mingxiu held was made by some unknown rogue cultivator and had a small illusion spell attached to it. The hairpin would change into different flowers depending on the temperature of the four seasons: peach blossoms in spring, jasmine in summer, osmanthus in autumn, and plum blossoms in winter. When worn on the head, it would also scatter a small shower of flower petals.
It might be too flamboyant for an older girl, but it was a nice design to amuse a child.
Yan Miaomiao happily accepted it, not minding at all that this accessory, which was technically a magical artifact due to the illusion spell, had no offensive power. After examining it carefully, for some reason, she suddenly put it away in her interspatial bag.
Su Mingxiu: “?”
The stall owner, who had been waiting for payment: “?”
Both were stunned. Su Mingxiu, under the gaze of the stall owner who looked ready to call the city guards, belatedly took out some spirit stones, but didn’t forget to ask her little junior sister, “Miaomiao, do you like this hairpin?”
“I like it!” Yan Miaomiao nodded without hesitation.
“Then why aren’t you wearing it?” This thing cost less than a hundred low-grade spirit stones, which was extremely cheap.
Moreover, compared to Yan Miaomiao’s defensive and offensive robes and accessories, it was not worth mentioning at all. Su Mingxiu had no idea where her reaction, as if fearing theft, came from.
When asked, Yan Miaomiao was also stunned for a moment. After reacting, her gaze couldn’t help but look around, but she saw nothing. In the end, she could only furrow her little brows in confusion.
“Strange…”
“I always feel like the things Senior Sister gives me are going to be stolen, and it seems like I’ve lost many things before. That’s why I was so cautious just now. But I just counted the things in my interspatial bag, and nothing is missing.”
Originally, Su Mingxiu had just asked casually, curious about her actions. But with her explanation, her expression suddenly became a little strange.
—She suddenly remembered that in the first life, that jealous Yu Yinglan really liked to steal the things she gave to others.
Immediately, her mind moved, and her divine sense quietly spread out, wanting to find that figure that haunted her dreams nearby.
On another street.
Seeing the red-clad figure suddenly change direction, several servants who had been following her asked in confusion, “Miss, why did we change streets? Didn’t you say you wanted to find some good things earlier? The street with the rogue cultivators was the one we just left.”
Sui Yihuan casually closed her silver fan, the Lake Light Fan. Thinking of the person she had been inadvertently attracted to earlier and the act of giving the hairpin, her expression darkened. “I saw someone from the Joyful Union Sect again.”
She said, “Bad luck, let’s change direction.”
The servants remembered that their young miss had once gone to a small secret realm with her fellow disciples and encountered disciples from the Joyful Union Sect. They were harassed all the way and almost lost their lives due to the other party’s schemes. So they all agreed, “Then we should indeed change direction.”
But the Cultivation Conference should start three days later. Are the people from the Eastern Joyful Union Sect here so early?
However… it is said that the Joyful Union Sect has always had a feud with the Hundred Flower Sect. Perhaps this is a new scheme by the Joyful Union Sect?
…Joyful Union Sect?
A street away, Su Mingxiu thought about the conversation she had heard and couldn’t help but change her expression. She looked up and down at her clothes, wondering how she resembled those flamboyant peacocks.
Then, she belatedly remembered that in this continent of nine, because of the power of the Joyful Union Sect, both male and female styles were particularly prevalent. Connecting this to the hairpin she had just given to her little junior sister—
Oh dear.
The Heavenly Dao suddenly laughed loudly in her mind.
In the previous life, Su Mingxiu had also organized this Cultivation Conference. But because she wasn’t late to the Spring Hall, she didn’t have this noon appointment with her little junior sister. Her encounter with that person… was in the first class of the conference.
This time, with the intention of compensating her little junior sister, she didn’t expect to accidentally give the other person such an impression.
Su Mingxiu chuckled for a moment, still at the hairpin stall. Yan Miaomiao, being broad-minded, had already put that strange thought behind her and was pulling Su Mingxiu towards the Hundred Flavors Restaurant.
“Senior Sister, hurry, the Hundred Flavors Restaurant only has two hundred servings of their daily specials. If we’re any later, we might not get any.”
Su Mingxiu subconsciously advised her, “The sect’s daily meals aren’t bad either…”
The words slipped out.
She realized she had spoken wrongly.
The meals that weren’t bad were from the Sword Sect, not the Hundred Flower Sect. As expected, Yan Miaomiao’s expression changed when she heard her words. She looked at her with a “Are you serious?” expression and then said to her in shock, “With Elder Yanling’s focus on medicinal properties over taste, the same person in charge of both the dining hall and the herb garden, the disciples don’t even go to the herb garden when they are injured or sick outside. Senior Sister, you actually think the meals are not bad?”
Then her expression suddenly changed, “Wait, I suddenly remember that the disciples always say there’s a mysterious person who never misses a meal, three times a day, and never complains about the taste of the food. Senior Sister, that person wouldn’t be you, right?”
Su Mingxiu: “…”
“It’s not me.” She denied this terrible guess with a straight face.
Then Su Mingxiu remembered why her cooking skills had improved by leaps and bounds in the previous worlds. It turned out to be instinctive experiences imprinted on her soul.
Hundred Flavors Restaurant.
Because the two of them didn’t come often, and the private rooms were all full at this time, Su Mingxiu and her little junior sister could only get a partitioned seat in the main hall.
Even so, because of the Hundred Flower Sect emblems on their clothes, their seat was still in the quietest and best part of the hall.
Su Mingxiu let her little junior sister order, not caring what to eat. Her gaze was instead fixed on the outside of the Hundred Flavors Restaurant.
Not long after, a stall was suddenly overturned. The stall owner’s wail was accompanied by an unrestrained voice, “You dare to sell fake medicine at the gate of the Hundred Flower Sect? You rogue cultivator, you’ve got some nerve!”
At the same time, the sunlight shining on the entrance was split by a flying silver light. The silver light spun in an arc and flew back into the distance.
Su Mingxiu propped her chin on one hand. When she narrowed her eyes slightly, the mole at the corner of her eye became even more prominent. She openly looked at the scenery outside the building, while the diners in the building were so stunned by her appearance that they stopped eating.
When she saw the red-clothed figure, as proud as the sun and as fierce as fire, landing with the silver fan, standing right in front of the Hundred Flavors Restaurant, Su Mingxiu couldn’t help but sigh in her heart:
What a spirited, proud, and righteous heroine.
—How did she get forced to become a demon by the damn Heavenly Dao?
She withdrew her astonished gaze, casually thinking of a red phoenix falling from the sky, folding its wings, stopping on a gold-inlaid ebony branch, with a gold chain on its claws, only able to show its beautiful wings to its master, raising its chin with haughty reserve.
As if recalling some texture, Su Mingxiu’s fingertips rubbed together, and she subconsciously reached for her neck, but touched nothing.
Oh dear.
I want to raise one.
She casually picked up the cup on the table and took a sip of the cooling chrysanthemum tea to suppress the inexplicable evil fire rising in her heart.
Probably because she had been abstinent for too long in the last world.
Su Mingxiu thought casually, not noticing that when she restrained herself from withdrawing her divine sense and gaze, Sui Yihuan, after hearing the stall owner fearlessly say that he had a backer, telling her to weigh her own strength, her gaze followed the other person’s towards the building.
And once again, she saw that overly bright face.
She retracted her gaze as if she had been electrocuted, feeling inexplicably more flustered. The killing intent in her silver fan grew stronger, “Oh, where is your backer?”
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