VAP - Chapter 78
Chapter 78: Flawless Cold Bone, The Peerless Sword Venerable (2)
Correct. This mission world was a world of cultivation and seeking immortality, named Qianhong Divine Province. The host was, once again, the strongest of her era, named Yun Yijiu.
Yun Yijiu, the Wushuang Sword Venerable, a mighty expert at the Tribulation Transcendence Stage, was also the great elder of the Lingtian Sword Sect, the foremost of the Divine Province's ten great sects.
In Qianhong Divine Province, her name was known to all.
Yun Yijiu cultivated the way of the sword, and her talent had been astonishing since childhood.
Qi Refining at three, Foundation Building at nine, Golden Core at fourteen, Nascent Soul at twenty, and finally, she stepped into the Tribulation Transcendence Stage at the age of sixty-six—
Such divine cultivation speed made her a living legend in the eyes of Qianhong Divine Province's cultivators.
People started betting pools, wagering that she would pass the heavenly tribulation and become a true immortal before she turned one hundred. The number of bettors was immense.
Well, every single one of them lost miserably.
Because in the year Yun Yijiu turned ninety, her cultivation stagnated at the peak of the Tribulation Transcendence Stage, making no further progress. Though she had long met the conditions to face the heavenly tribulation, the lightning stubbornly refused to strike.
A hundred years, a thousand years... nine thousand years.
From being the world-renowned closed-door disciple of the Lingtian Sword Sect’s Master to becoming the still world-renowned great elder of the sect, Yun Yijiu never managed to greet her heavenly tribulation.
At first, people were surprised, some were regretful, and others gloated, lamenting that such a promising young disciple of the Sword Sect was unable to ascend—a true tragedy of wasted potential.
But as the years passed, the regret and schadenfreude vanished, leaving only sheer astonishment.
Why hasn't her heavenly tribulation arrived yet?!
Yun Yijiu was already at the peak of the Tribulation Transcendence Stage, her strength unparalleled. To any observer, it seemed as though the tribulation lightning would descend at any second, either to grant her true immortality or cast her into the netherworld.
But the heavenly lightning simply never came...
The lifespan of a Tribulation Transcendence expert is nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine years. Yun Yijiu stubbornly remained at the peak of this stage for over nine thousand years, the strongest under the heavens.
Whether cultivator or commoner, they spoke of her with respect or fear, all calling her the number one person beneath ascension.
She was Yun Yijiu.
And she was the final villain of this script.
Yue Du opened her eyes.
Frequently crossing world barriers was indeed not good—not for the body, but for the mind. At this level, it wouldn't cause any major issues, just a slight headache. But if she kept it up, it would be more than just a headache.
The customer service agent's previous warning had undoubtedly been correct. It seemed she would have to rest for a few more days the next time she returned...
With this thought, Yue Du rubbed her temples and surveyed her current surroundings.
Her gaze fell upon a light-colored gauze bed canopy. Through it, she could vaguely make out a bronze mirror stand, a jade desk, intricately carved doors and windows, and the green plants outside. If one ignored the sword rack on the desk and the ink-black meditation cushion beside the couch, it looked just like the room of a noble lady from an ancient, prestigious family.
She was sitting up against the headboard of the couch, a brocade quilt draped casually over her, as if she had been taking a midday nap.
Yue Du: “...”
It was happening again.
Last time she was a maid-in-training. What was she this time?
Just as she was wondering to herself, a knock came from the door.
It was accompanied by a woman's soft inquiry. “Venerable Lord, are you awake? Do you have any instructions?”
Venerable Lord.
Yue Du frowned slightly. Minding her tone, she said lightly, “It’s nothing. You may leave.”
The woman replied, “Yes.”
Yue Du listened as the footsteps faded into the distance, then immediately pushed aside the gauze canopy, stood up, and walked over to the desk.
On it were a few booklets, several sheets of clean white paper, and a writing brush.
The booklets were cultivation manuals. The paper was stationery, deeply creased, and the salutation read, “To the Venerable Duyue.”
After a quick look, Yue Du closed her eyes and searched her consciousness for relevant information from the small world's data files.
She quickly found the answer.
The script for this small world was unusually complete—no, it could no longer be called a script. It was practically a novel, tens of millions of words long.
And the Venerable Duyue was a minor supporting character within it.
In Qianhong Divine Province, anyone with a spiritual root could cultivate the Dao.
The path of cultivation was divided into immortal and demonic paths. The immortal path had numerous sects, led by the Lingtian Sword Sect; the demonic path also had many sects, led by the Minghe Sect.
The Duyue Demon Venerable was the fiancée... of the Minghe Sect's Master.
Her name was Yue Zhuo, courtesy name Duqing, and she was a rogue demonic cultivator unaffiliated with any sect. Despite this, she had carved a bloody path for herself through sheer talent, becoming a mighty expert at the Tribulation Transcendence Stage.
Cultivators at the Tribulation Transcendence Stage could all be called 'Venerable.' Those who primarily cultivated Daoist arts were Dao Venerables, those of the sword path were Sword Venerables, those of the medicinal path were Medicine Venerables, and demonic cultivators were collectively known as Demon Venerables.
Yue Zhuo was known as the Duyue Demon Venerable. She had been cultivating for seven hundred years and had only recently broken through to the Tribulation Transcendence Stage. She was still single. To win her over, the Master of the Minghe Sect proposed that they become Dao Companions. As it happened, Yue Zhuo was also looking for someone to dual cultivate with to increase her strength, so she agreed.
If nothing had gone wrong, they would have become a pair of polite Dao Companions who treated each other with a respect as cold as ice—more like business partners than husband and wife. Half the couples in the cultivation world were like this.
But there was a problem—the Master of the Minghe Sect had a lover, and that lover had borne him a son, who was one of the male leads in the story.
That's right, one of them. This was a reverse-harem story.
This particular male lead was named Ming Yezheng. Though he had yet to reach the Tribulation Transcendence Stage, he was a demonic cultivator at the Mahayana Stage.
Not wanting an official mother who was younger than him, Ming Yezheng took advantage of Yue Zhuo's visit to the Minghe Sect Master to administer a slow-acting poison.
Normally, while vicious, such a poison wouldn't be enough to take the life of a Tribulation Transcendence cultivator.
Unfortunately, Yue Zhuo had been poisoned in her youth, and the residual toxins had never been fully purged. When combined with the slow-acting poison, it became a fatal concoction, one that could make its victim die in their sleep without ever knowing.
Yue Zhuo, deceased.
Since she was only a supporting character, she wasn't mentioned often in the plot, but the date of her death by poisoning was recorded.
With a complicated feeling, Yue Du opened her eyes again and stared silently at the calendar on the wall.
Today was the fifth day of the third month, in the thirteenth year of the Immortal Era.
And Yue Zhuo died on the fifth day of the third month, in the thirteenth year of the Immortal Era.
In other words, the original Yue Zhuo had already passed on.
Yue Du used the system's self-diagnostic function to confirm that her current body was her own, not that of the Duyue Demon Venerable.
Just like in the last world, her body had replaced someone who existed in this small world.
Previously, Yue Du hadn't known the whereabouts of the real Yue, the maid-in-training of Eastern descent. Based on the current situation, she must have already been dead at the time, right?
Yue Du didn't know how to feel about this and could only sigh.
Just then, the Main System issued a mission:
“Ding! System 0996 is requested to find the Wushuang Sword Venerable, Yun Yijiu, within one month and remain by her side, but you are not permitted to reveal your identity as a System. Completion will be rewarded with one thousand points.”
“...”
If asked to describe her current mood, Yue Du could only summarize it with a single punctuation mark: ?
What was the Main System plotting?
If she couldn't reveal her identity as a System, how was she supposed to bind the host and complete the mission???
This was just messing with her!
Yue Du gritted her teeth, connected to customer service, and briefly explained the situation.
This agent didn't have the cheerful online-shopping-rep tone of the last one. She listened quietly to the system's query before asking, “Is there a problem with that?”
She sounded so perfunctory and utterly devoid of life, like a rank-and-file employee who had been working overtime for three months straight.
Yue Du said, “Binding a host requires their consent. If I can’t tell her I’m a System, how am I supposed to get her to agree?”
Customer Service: “This mission does not require the host’s consent. The binding was completed the moment you arrived in this small world. You just weren’t aware of it.”
“There’s no precedent for this in the system training manual—”
“Unexpected situations like this are bound to happen. It’s not a big deal. In any case, as long as you don’t reveal anything about being a System and fulfill the mission requirements, you’ll be fine.”
After she finished, the agent paused for two seconds before adding, completely devoid of sincerity, “Is that all? If so, I’m hanging up.”
“Beep, beep...”
Yue Du expressionlessly exited the communication channel.
This customer service agent was probably related to the Main System—they were both system-scammers!
The Main God's Office.
The Main God, our “rank-and-file employee who had been working overtime for three months,” slowly exhaled. “Are you satisfied now?”
The Boss didn't speak.
The Main God wasn't in a hurry, busying himself with making tea.
After a long moment, the Boss finally spoke. “The mission requirements alone aren’t enough. Place a gag order on her. What if she lets something slip?”
The Main God said, “Yes, no problem.”
A gag order targeting the system was issued.
While the gag order was in effect, Yue Du would be unable to speak, write, or even gesture about anything related to matters outside the small world.
After carrying this out, the Main God secretly pursed his lips. “You’re being a bit too cautious.”
The Boss: “What did you say?”
Fine.
The Main God tactfully corrected himself. “I was saying, you’ve been incredibly thorough.”
The Boss: “Hmph. If She can still realize something is wrong on Her own even after all this, then I’ll have nothing more to say.”
Suppressing Her fragments simply required a two-pronged approach.
First, eliminate any sense of dissonance and the original self’s memory fragments. Second, limit the fragment’s power to a scope permitted by the small world.
“I refuse to believe She won’t stumble this time,” the Boss said with conviction.
The Main God: “Please don’t jinx it.”
“What was that you said?”
“...This one said nothing at all.”
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