Shu Tiantian was once again shaken so badly by Yuan Jingzhi that her dantian trembled, and she was struck by sword qi as well. She fainted in utter injustice, yet she had no mind to worry about her own situation, and sank straight into a deep, heavy dream.

In the dream, she returned to the very beginning of this life, when she had first been brought back to Tianji Sect.

When Shu Tiantian was little, she had been raised single-handedly by Chixiao Immortal Lord. Before she even knew how to call someone A-niang (Mother), she could already call Shizun. When she lost her little bell and cried until she could barely breathe, it was Shizun who coaxed her; when her writing was crooked and messy, it was Shizun who taught her hand-in-hand… Later on, the little orphan tested as having a Heavenly Wood spiritual root in Tianji Sect. Although Chixiao Immortal Lord was a sword cultivator, because his little disciple pouted and cried, he still agreed to let her become a medical cultivator. It could be said that in this life, she really had not suffered much hardship.

Because he was a sword cultivator, Chixiao Immortal Lord could only give her the basics. For formal medical study, he entrusted her to a martial uncle in the Medicine Hall. But for the sake of his disciple, he gathered many pill formulas and secret manuals, piling them up to fill an entire cave dwelling for Shu Tiantian. Even knowing the later plot, Shu Tiantian had to admit that in the beginning, Shizun had truly been a very good elder.

The Shu Tiantian of this life was somewhat simple-minded. Whoever asked for help, she never refused; as long as someone said they were in difficulty and lacked spirit stones, the little orphan would simply not charge money; when other children had their little faults—being greedy for play and skipping lessons—the little orphan was immersed in alchemy every day, unable to pull herself away…

Others secretly whispered behind her back about whether the little junior sister was a bit foolish. Whenever Chixiao heard it, he would punish them to kneel in the Punishment Hall. Later, when the little orphan became a medical cultivator of exceptional talent, people stopped discussing whether she was foolish and instead all called her an alchemy-obsessive healer.

It was just that, at some point, Chixiao gradually began to distance himself from his little disciple. At first it was going into seclusion from time to time; later he entrusted the little disciple entirely to the Medicine Hall; and later still, he simply went wandering across the four seas.

The Shu Tiantian of this life was indeed a bit foolish. She did have feelings for Shizun, and they were deep—but the way those feelings manifested was simply that every time she received a reply letter from him, she would whimper and remind the old man to come back early.

…

In this life, Shu Tiantian really did treat Chixiao as her own male mother.

Even Shu Tiantian’s original self, still drifting as an A-piao¹A-piao: a drifting ghost or wandering spirit., who had long known what a dog Chixiao would become in the future, had to admit that at least in the past, Chixiao had been a very qualified master.

Across two lifetimes, Shu Tiantian had poor affinity with parents. To say she had no feelings for Chixiao would be a lie.

But looking back on the past again, Shu Tiantian realized something was not quite right.

According to the novel, Chixiao Immortal Lord gradually distanced himself from his little disciple and even chose to wander the world because he discovered he harbored improper feelings toward her. But… Chixiao Immortal Lord had actually begun distancing himself after Shu Tiantian turned ten.

If it were because of feelings… Shu Tiantian thought that although Shizun’s failure to send her fire and his finding a substitute last time had been extremely dog-like behavior, he still wasn’t the kind of dead pervert who would fall for a ten-year-old little girl.

If Chixiao truly began to be moved, it was at least after Shu Tiantian turned fifteen. That obvious distancing could not possibly have been for that reason.

Moreover… whether in the novel or in reality, the strongest emotion Shu Tiantian could feel was not love, but guilt—dense, overwhelming guilt.

She thought about many things in her dream, yet found no clues at all. She even fabricated a melodramatic story in her mind where he had killed her parents and then adopted

her—otherwise she could hardly understand Chixiao’s behavior that seemed explainable only as compensation.

When she finally woke, Shu Tiantian opened her eyes. In her daze, she had not seen the King of Hell, but instead saw that familiar expanse of scarlet flame-flower fields.

Shu Tiantian had no idea that she had been struck by sword qi and nearly lost her life, nor that she had walked through the gates of death. She only felt her entire body brimming with spiritual energy—so abundant that she realized a tremendous change had occurred within her.

—Her cultivation, which had originally stagnated at early Foundation Establishment, had surged upward while she slept, rising all the way to late Foundation Establishment, only stopping when it brushed against the barrier of the Golden Core stage.

With her small face still marked from sleep, Shu Tiantian stared blankly at her medicine box, which flew straight out with just a slight exertion of force. When she realized her cultivation had directly soared to late Foundation Establishment, Shu Tiantian was stunned.

What happened?

Although she did not know that yesterday Ji Wushu had protected her heart meridians and, failing to control the degree properly, had conveniently helped her establish her foundation, she vaguely guessed it was him.

But there is no free lunch under heaven. The great demon did not kill her and even raised her cultivation—what else could it be for?

Of course, that half-year agreement.

Shu Tiantian was still somewhat puzzled. It wasn’t that she was being narcissistic. After all, her Heavenly Yin physique and that so-called medicine cauldron body were no different from Tang Monk’s flesh to someone severely injured—irresistibly desirable. Why, then, had the great demon chosen a half-year agreement with her?

She could not guess the reason, but she knew this was a very, very good thing. Shaking her head and temporarily setting the question aside, she excitedly tested the changes of the Foundation Establishment stage.

The circulation speed of spiritual energy within her dantian had doubled, and its capacity had expanded greatly—from a small wooden bucket of the Qi Refining stage to a large bathtub. When Shu Tiantian refined pills before, she often had to prepare many spirit-replenishing pills because her spiritual energy was insufficient. Now that her dantian had expanded, she no longer needed to swallow pills every day.

Not to mention that with the light-body technique, a single leap now covered twenty or thirty meters! Much faster than before.

As the light-body technique moved, the little bell rang ding ding dang dang. When Yuan Jingzhi had grabbed her yesterday, Shu Tiantian had conveniently taken back her bell.

Having regained what she had lost, Shu Tiantian was naturally happy. She subconsciously reached out to touch the little bell—yet suddenly noticed something was wrong. A flowing radiance shimmered across its surface. Shu Tiantian tried injecting a thread of spiritual energy into it—however, just as the energy barely poured in, she heard a single dong—

The moment Shu Tiantian opened her eyes, she found herself in a place she had never seen before.

Towering bookshelves climbed into the clouds, books arranged in orderly rows. In the center sat a small couch that looked soft and comfortable at a glance. Beside it, an alchemy furnace burned quietly. An indescribable stillness filled the air. At the very top hung a modest plaque, bearing three characters: Medicine God Bell.

The moment Shu Tiantian saw the three characters “Medicine God Bell,” she froze where she stood.

—Nothing else. As someone thoroughly familiar with the original novel, Shu Tiantian knew exactly what the Medicine God Bell was.

Because in the novel Shizun Treats Me as a Substitute, the greatest cheat item of the female lead Ling Ruoshui was called the Medicine God Bell.

Ling Ruoshui had obtained this Medicine God Bell at an auction, pleading with her master to bid for it on her behalf. Only later did it become known that Yuan Jingzhi had specially sought it out for her in order to curry her favor.

When Shu Tiantian read the novel, she had felt it was a pity—the author had written the Medicine God Bell as extremely powerful, yet in the female lead’s hands, it had completely degenerated into a tool for conquering one man after another. Even the supposedly upgradable Medicine God Bell—Ling Ruoshui, busy entangled in passionate abusive romance, had only unlocked one layer.

Shu Tiantian had always thought the Medicine God Bell was simply the female lead’s destined opportunity. She had never connected it to the little bell she wore.

In her previous life, her parents divorced when she was very young. Each went abroad to begin new lives, leaving her—the burden—to be raised by her grandfather. After forming new families, they never cared about Shu Tiantian even once.

So Shu Tiantian had never experienced parental love. She had thought this life would be the same—opening her eyes to yet another fate unloved by father or mother.

But in her previous life she at least had her grandfather; in this life she barely had a master—yet Shu Tiantian knew the plot. That familial affection had an expiration date.

Still, alone was alone. Shu Tiantian’s temperament was rather solitary. Growing up with divorced parents had fostered independence. She was long past the stage of clutching a teddy bear at the window, watching other children being carried away by their parents, yearning for her mother. She liked medicine, loved research, and could live very well alone.

But she had heard Chixiao Immortal Lord say that when he found her, her outer garments had been soaked in blood, yet not a single hair on her body was harmed. Clearly, she had not been abandoned by her parents.

Or more directly—perhaps they had already died, but fought desperately to protect their daughter.

Back then, when Shu Tiantian looked at the little bell, she had held no expectations toward the word “parents.” Yet because of Chixiao’s words, she had suddenly felt that perhaps this time was different.

Perhaps this time, she was not the unwanted, forgotten burden—but a child cherished at the very tip of someone’s heart.

So Shu Tiantian cared deeply about the little bell. When she was young, she could not sleep without holding it. Yet she had never discovered anything special about it, simply treating it as a keepsake left by her parents, playing with it like a toy.

She never could have imagined that it was actually the Medicine God Bell.

Such an extraordinary opportunity had been hung on a nursing infant, and even Chixiao Immortal Lord had not detected anything unusual. Clearly, Shu Tiantian’s parents in this life were not the mortals described in the novel. This Medicine God Bell was probably their final protection for their daughter.

However, in the novel, Shu Tiantian died. The bell was naturally taken by her killer, Yuan Jingzhi, who went to great lengths to present it to Ling Ruoshui.

Later, relying on this cheat item, Ling Ruoshui soared through heaven and earth—engaging in passionate abusive romance with her master while simultaneously becoming a Mary Sue adored by countless. And Shu Tiantian was tortured to death by the female lead’s admirers, simply because her existence was an eyesore to Ling Ruoshui. Thus, the opportunity left by her parents was stolen by the female lead, and even her status and identity were replaced… It was truly, outrageously tragic.

Even Shu Tiantian herself felt that whatever sins she had committed to end up with such an identity must have been enormous.

If the eighteen years she spent drifting as an A-piao had always left her feeling somewhat detached from this world—as though she were watching someone else’s story—then at this moment, the unwillingness, anger, grievance… belonging to this body surged up all at once, and only then did she feel truly, vividly alive.

Before, she had only thought of Ling Ruoshui as merely the novel’s female lead. But now, looking at the words “Medicine God Bell” on the little bell, thinking of her foolish younger self clutching it and calling out “A-niang,” she suddenly felt real, tangible anger.

Just because she was the female lead—did that mean she could erase others at will? Kill easily, then take what others’ parents had left behind—perhaps their last remaining relic—and treat it as her own opportunity, smoothly riding fortune’s tide?

But when Shu Tiantian thought of the emotionally charged little report she had sent out, which had probably already reached Chixiao Immortal Lord’s hands, she could not help but reveal a sly smile.

That letter had cost science-student Tian a great deal of brainpower, gathering the essence of Granny Qiong Yao and the literature of going insane. If it didn’t deal a critical blow to Chixiao, then Shu Tiantian’s more than twenty years of watching melodramatic TV dramas would have been for nothing.

In the plot, the female lead had never once been exposed for her true nature. In everyone’s eyes, although Ling Ruoshui fell short of Shu Tiantian in every aspect, she was kind, gentle, and resilient—she herself probably thought so too. This kind of person was the most terrifying, because they committed wrongdoing yet believed they were not at fault, racking their brains to find excuses, making it even harder to reveal their true face. So in the novel, Ling Ruoshui truly was the embodiment of truth, goodness, and beauty.

Then what if she exposed her painted skin right now?

Shu Tiantian had nearly died twice at Yuan Jingzhi’s hands. She was not magnanimous enough to forgive Ling Ruoshui.

As for whether the future white moonlight would turn into a grain of white rice, she didn’t know. But for now, since the white moonlight’s VIP status hadn’t expired yet, the grudge of revealing her constitution and causing her to live on the edge of life and death every day in the Void Abyss had to be repaid on the spot.

Footnotes

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  A-piao: a drifting ghost or wandering spirit.