Chapter Three: The Taste of Being Ground to Dust

Xuanyuan Tunhan didn’t disturb them, quietly eavesdropping and actually catching some useful information.

The soul swap between him and this woman seemed to be the handiwork of that so-called system.

How intriguing!

Xuanyuan Tunhan’s burning gaze fixed on Ning Xianyu, pondering where exactly she was hiding this system within her body. He was itching to extract it and study it.

Ning Xianyu felt herself shudder under his intense stare.

Big brother, please stop staring! Even if you keep looking at me, I can’t swap us back!

System: [Don’t be a coward, Host. If he threatens you, threaten him right back! If he ruins this body, just wait a month, make a new wish, and I’ll find you another one!]

Ning Xianyu: [Get lost! You’re not the one being tormented here, so of course you can talk big. What if he locks me in a dark room for a month, skins me alive, tortures me day and night? Even if you give me ten thousand new bodies, you’ll never mend my traumatized soul!]

The system wilted, for its data did, in fact, indicate that Xuanyuan Tunhan was quite capable of locking her away and tormenting her endlessly.

Hearing this, Xuanyuan Tunhan raised an eyebrow.

Did he really look like some sadist who enjoyed tormenting others?

Ning Xianyu felt so pressured by his stare that she considered pushing the system forward to take the blame.

But no sooner had she thought it than the system sensed her intention.

System: [You mustn’t reveal my existence!]

Ning Xianyu: [Why shouldn’t I? After all you’ve put me through!]

System: [There’s a binding convention for systems. If you expose me, this world will collapse!]

Ning Xianyu: [Collapse? What does that mean?]

The system realized it had slipped up and fell silent, playing dead.

But Ning Xianyu’s curiosity had been piqued: [If you don’t tell me, I’m going to tell him right now!]

At last, the system grudgingly explained: [The worlds you can travel to depend on your system’s rank.]

[Senior systems can take their hosts back and forth between real worlds. Lesser systems can only bring their hosts to virtual worlds, like novels, TV dramas, fantasy realms, and so forth.]

[Real worlds are protected by the Heavenly Dao. Even if a system is revealed, the world won’t collapse. But virtual worlds, once they detect the presence of an outsider, will break apart.]

Ning Xianyu only half understood, but she sneered: [I knew you were just a low-level hack! Making me wait a month for a wish, always causing trouble—so you’re just a second-rate system!]

The system, affronted, shrilled: [You’re the low-level one! Your whole family is low-level! I’m an intern system—it’s normal to make mistakes. Once I pass my assessment, I’ll definitely be promoted to a senior system!]

Ning Xianyu scoffed: [As if! I’ve only made two wishes with you, and neither turned out right. With that track record, you want a promotion? Your name sounds fancy, but that’s all you’ve got!]

The system’s voice cracked with rage: [You can insult my skills, but not my name! We are the “Wish Fulfillment System”—as long as you wish it, we will make it happen! When you make your third wish, I promise nothing will go wrong!]

Host and system squabbled furiously.

Xuanyuan Tunhan, meanwhile, listened with a deepening frown. Real worlds? Virtual worlds?

Could it be that the world he inhabited wasn’t real at all?

Was it just a novel?

And what did “TV drama” mean?

More and more questions crowded Xuanyuan Tunhan’s mind, shaking the Dao heart he’d cultivated unwaveringly for millennia.

It was as if something deep within him had begun to crack.

The bickering between those two gave him a splitting headache.

Xuanyuan Tunhan, wearing Ning Xianyu’s sweet-faced features, asked in a cold, dark tone, “It was that thing in your soul that swapped our bodies, wasn’t it?”

At that, both Ning Xianyu and her system jolted as if shocked by electricity.

[Ahhh! He’s found me! What do I do? What do I do?] the system screeched.

[Don’t ask me! Don’t ask me!] Ning Xianyu screamed internally.

Xuanyuan Tunhan’s headache worsened. He’d only meant to scare the pair into silence, but now the two of them acted like startled groundhogs.

Infuriating!

“Get out!” Xuanyuan Tunhan barely restrained the urge to strike Ning Xianyu dead on the spot.

He needed time to digest what the system had revealed.

Ning Xianyu scrambled away in a panic, tripping over the hem of Xuanyuan Tunhan’s oversized robe and falling flat on her face.

Her clumsy display reignited Xuanyuan Tunhan’s murderous intent.

Fortunately, he disliked attendants in his quarters, so no one was around to witness his body acting so foolishly. Otherwise, if anyone had seen this, he’d make sure this idiot knew what it felt like to have her soul ground to dust!

Ning Xianyu fled the sleeping quarters, intending to hurry back to her own room.

But before she could take more than a step, Xuanyuan Tunhan’s icy voice rang out, “Stay right there. Move another step, and I’ll break your legs.”

Ning Xianyu instantly snapped her half-raised leg back.

Xuanyuan Tunhan’s Celestial Peak was the tallest and most perilous mountain of the Jade Immortal Sect. The palace stood at its summit, and outside the door was a viewing platform.

Ning Xianyu stood at the edge, the biting wind stinging her cheeks.

She huddled in the thin sleeping robe, pitifully clutching herself for warmth, wanting nothing more than to squat down and curl up for comfort.

But as soon as she bent her knees, Xuanyuan Tunhan’s ghostly voice sounded behind her, “Stand up straight.”

One command, one response—Ning Xianyu straightened her back, standing ramrod straight, stiffer than a steel bar.

The wind whipped the ink-black hair of her borrowed male form, the cold, chiseled features so striking as to be almost unapproachable. Occasionally, a Jade Immortal disciple flying past on sword patrol would catch a glimpse from afar—a sight so unforgettable they’d carry it in their hearts.

“It’s the Patriarch!”

“Look, the Patriarch has come out of his quarters!”

Excited disciples halted their flying swords to bow respectfully from afar.

Ning Xianyu stood motionless, eyes half-lowered, drawing reverent murmurs from the disciples: “The Patriarch must be pondering great matters of the sect.”

Those few lucky enough to behold the Patriarch’s true face hurried back to share this small blessing with their peers.

“Achoo!” Shivering from the cold, Ning Xianyu sneezed, rubbing her nose and eyeing the departing disciples enviously.

Weren’t they cold?

Her eyes were stinging from the wind.

System: [Actually… I was going to ask, why don’t you circulate your spiritual energy to stay warm?]

No one answered her question.

Ning Xianyu kept her face stoic, unwilling to admit to the system that she’d been too scared to remember.

She quietly activated the vast spiritual energy in her dantian, as boundless as a miniature universe.

A soothing warmth enveloped her instantly, and Ning Xianyu couldn’t help but sigh in contentment, “Mmm… ah…”

The low, husky voice, like bubbles bursting in a wine glass, rasped softly, tugging at a girl’s heartstrings.

System: [Ooh, you sound pretty sexy when you talk quietly.]

Inside the main hall, a vein throbbed on Xuanyuan Tunhan’s forehead.