Nine Heavens Sect, Outer Sect Square.
Lin Yue leaned on his chipped wooden sword, panting heavily, feeling as if his chest were a pair of bellows.
“Nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine times…” he gritted his teeth, sweat streaming from his forehead into his eyes, stinging painfully.
“One last time, break for me, damn it!”
He swung the sword down.
Not even a ripple stirred in the air.
Lin Yue plopped down on the ground, looking up at the fiercely blazing red sun overhead.
In his heart, he cursed the ancestors of his past self for eighteen generations—if that guy even had ancestors, that is.
Yes, Lin Yue was not a transmigrator.
He was just someone who, during a serious illness three years ago, awakened a set of memories that made him want to end his life on the spot.
In his previous life, his name shook the Nine Realms: the Peerless Demon Emperor.
He was a truly ruthless man, dominating through the ages, trampling the myriad heavens.
But this Demon Emperor had a flaw: he couldn’t control his lower half and had a special talent for provoking female demon lords and sword fairies who were absolutely not to be messed with.
To escape the ninety-nine lovers who wanted to perish together with him, the Demon Emperor chose the most cowardly path: forcibly reincarnating, attempting to wipe his slate clean and start over.
As a result, halfway through the wipe, the Heavenly Dao put its foot down.
“Lin Yue, stop spacing out, wipe your sweat.”
A plump figure swayed over, handing him a gourd of cool water.
This was Wang Pangzi, the only genuinely kind person in the Outer Sect.
He looked at Lin Yue, his eyes full of sympathy.
“Listen to your buddy’s advice. Our spiritual meridians are clogged like old phlegm. Practicing more will just make you a physically strong mortal. After the assessment tomorrow, let’s go down the mountain and sell sweet potatoes. With your looks, you could be the ‘Sweet Potato Beauty’ and make a fortune for sure.”
Lin Yue took the water and gulped a mouthful, letting out a bitter laugh.
Did he want to go down the mountain?
He dreamed of it!
But that damned ledger of karmic debts in his head wouldn’t allow it.
Whenever he had the thought to run away, that tattered, yellowed account book in his sea of consciousness would automatically open, emanating a kind, benevolent red glow that promised to make him explode on the spot if he didn’t repay his debts.
Right now, that ledger was speaking in his mind again.
Its voice didn’t sound like a system; it was more like a debt-collecting accountant, with a shrewd, drama-loving vibe.
“Well, well, out of breath already? Back when your past self borrowed Heavenly Dao’s fortune to flirt with the Nine Heavens Mystic Maiden, your back strength was top-notch, wasn’t it?”
“Shut up,” Lin Yue said coldly in his heart.
“He did that. What does it have to do with me, Lin Yue?”
“Past life’s debts, present life to repay. Heavenly justice, earthly fairness.”
The ledger flipped to the first page, where the name Chu Wanning shone brightly.
“Hurry up, don’t dawdle. That girl Chu Wanning is here. In her past life, she was your chief sword attendant. You promised to marry her, then you turned around and hooked up with her master before running away. This debt has been accruing interest with the Heavenly Dao for five hundred years. You need to make the first installment payment today.”
A vein throbbed at Lin Yue’s temple.
“How do I repay it? Let’s be clear first: I’m just a trash at the first layer of Qi Refining right now. She could split me in half with one sword.”
“Simple.”
A line of messy, flamboyant handwriting appeared on the ledger.
“This girl cultivates the Emotionless Sword. Her temperament is chillingly cold. You need to break her cultivation. Snatch her sword, flirt with her face, make her Dao-heart waver a little. Succeed, and the Heavenly Dao will unblock one spiritual meridian for you. Fail, and I’ll help you pick a nice feng shui spot in a mass grave.”
Before Lin Yue could retort, a cold, sharp whirlwind suddenly swept across the square.
The previously noisy disciples instantly fell silent, uniformly lowering their heads as if welcoming the descent of a deity.
A stream of ice-blue light shot over from the Inner Sect Main Peak.
The chill it brought instantly turned the puddles on the ground into fine, shattered ice crystals.
The sword radiance faded, revealing a woman standing on the high platform, dressed in white purer than snow.
She was too cold.
It wasn’t an act; it was a bone-deep, annihilating chill.
Chu Wanning stood there, and for ten yards around her, no one dared approach.
Even the sunlight seemed to shrink back when it touched her.
The frosty longsword in her hand emitted a faint hum.
“Inner Sect’s Chu Wanning, ordered to inspect the Outer Sect.”
Her voice held no fluctuation, as clear and cold as a mountain spring in deep winter.
“The assessment is tomorrow. I hope some among you will make me draw my sword. Otherwise, the Nine Heavens Sect does not raise trash.”
The Outer Sect disciples below the platform shivered from the cold, but their eyes were filled with fanaticism.
“As expected of Senior Sister Chu! This aura… I’d die for it!”
“Shut up. You don’t even have the qualifications to be killed by her.”
Lin Yue stood at the back of the crowd, looking at the familiar yet distant figure on the high platform.
Five hundred years ago, she was the little sword attendant with pigtails following behind the Demon Emperor.
Five hundred years later, she was the lofty, icy genius.
And he?
He was the unlucky bastard who owed a debt and had no money to repay.
“This job is impossible,” Lin Yue said to the ledger in his heart.
“She could kill me with just one finger.”
“Don’t chicken out. Your past self may have been a scumbag, but the foundation of the Peerless Demon Body is still there. As long as you dare to get close, I’ll temporarily suppress her spiritual sense. You’ll have only one instant. Snatch the sword, recite the lines, run. Move fast, pose handsomely.”
Lin Yue fell silent for three seconds.
He looked at the broken wooden sword in his hand, then at the sect’s list from which he would be expelled tomorrow.
“Damn it! Past life’s sins, present life’s punishment!”
He suddenly moved.
Amidst the awed silence, Lin Yue, holding that chipped wooden sword, strode purposefully through the crowd toward the high platform.
Wang Pangzi behind him was about to pop his eyes out, hissing in a low voice, “Yue-ge! Even if you’re bursting to pee, hold it! That’s the high platform, you can’t go up there to relieve yourself!”
Lin Yue ignored him.
His steps grew faster and faster.
Chu Wanning’s gaze finally fell upon him.
What kind of look was it?
Profound, icy, carrying an indifference that looked upon an ant.
“Halt.”
Chu Wanning’s vermilion lips parted slightly.
Lin Yue felt a terrifying pressure rush toward him; every inch of his skin felt as if pricked by needles.
But the ledger in his sea of consciousness suddenly trembled violently.
A strange red light instantly enveloped his entire body.
That heavy pressure vanished.
Lin Yue pushed off with his feet, and his body actually left behind a series of afterimages.
This was the explosive power he had accumulated from countless insane sword practice sessions over the past three years, amplified tenfold in this moment by some power of the ledger!
“What?”
A flicker of astonishment passed through Chu Wanning’s eyes.
She had never imagined that a first-layer Qi Refining Outer Sect disciple could ignore her Ice Domain.
The next instant, Lin Yue had already charged right in front of her.
The distance between them was less than half a foot.
Chu Wanning could even smell the salty, damp sweat on Lin Yue from practicing swords.
This unfamiliar, masculine scent caused the breath of this young woman who had cultivated the Emotionless Sword for twenty years to falter ever so slightly.
In that moment of faltering, Lin Yue’s hand moved.
He didn’t use the wooden sword. Instead, his right hand formed a claw, directly grabbing for the Frost Chill sword at Chu Wanning’s waist.
“Let go!”
Lin Yue roared in a low voice.
The residual pressure of the Peerless Demon Emperor was forcibly extracted by the ledger in this moment.
Chu Wanning felt her head spin, as if she saw a towering demonic figure coldly looking down upon her.
Her hand holding the sword subconsciously loosened a fraction.
Clang!
The famous Frost Chill sword, renowned throughout the sect, was thus forcibly pulled out by an Outer Sect trash!
Jaws dropped all over the square.
Wang Pangzi had already started composing Lin Yue’s epitaph in his mind.
On the high platform, Lin Yue held the heavy spirit sword.
His palm ached from the cold, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it would break his ribs.
But he knew the hardest part was just beginning.
He had to complete that extremely embarrassing task as required by the ledger.
He forcibly suppressed the awkwardness in his heart, raised his left hand, and… gently hooked Chu Wanning’s chin—the face beautiful enough to make any man in the world lose his soul.
That’s right.
He hooked Senior Sister Chu’s chin.
Chu Wanning completely froze.
Her Dao-heart, like a perfect mirror, was directly cracked with countless fissures by this one hook.
Lin Yue took a deep breath.
Using an extremely greasy, deep, and utterly incongruous voice, he enunciated word by word: “Woman, you have successfully caught my attention.”
The air froze.
Even the sparrows in the distant trees were so startled they fell to the ground.
After reciting that line, Lin Yue felt his soul had already died from social embarrassment.
He watched as Chu Wanning’s expression shifted from astonishment to bashfulness, then rapidly transformed from bashfulness into a world-destroying fury.
“I… will kill you!!!”
Chu Wanning let out the loudest roar of her life.
Even without her sword, her spiritual power erupted like a tsunami.
Blushing with rage, she slapped out with her palm, directly striking Lin Yue’s chest.
Lin Yue felt as if he had been hit by a rampaging wild bull.
His sternum emitted a crisp cracking sound.
His entire body flew off the high platform like a ragged sack, drawing a long arc through the air before crashing heavily into the Sword Washing Pool in the corner of the square.
Splash!
Water sprayed everywhere.
Chu Wanning stood on the high platform, her chest heaving violently.
Her icy face was now as red as a ripe apple.
She clenched her fists, wanting to rush over and deliver another sword strike, but under the gaze of several hundred pairs of stunned eyes below, she felt the urge to flee in panic for the first time in her life.
A flash of blue light, and this icy sword fairy vanished on the spot, not even leaving a parting remark.
A long moment passed.
“Quick… quick, go fish him out!”
Wang Pangzi finally snapped out of it, shrieking as he rushed toward the Sword Washing Pool.
Meanwhile, at the cold bottom of the pool, Lin Yue was spitting bloody foam, furiously ranting in his heart.
“This is repaying a debt? This is sending me to my death! Ledger, get the hell out here!”
In his sea of consciousness, the ledger made an extremely pleased page-turning sound.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, didn’t it work out? See, her heart is in turmoil. The interest on this debt of betrayal has been credited.”
As soon as the words fell, a surge of energy, scorching hot like magma, erupted from Lin Yue’s heart and instantly flowed throughout his entire body.
Those originally dead, clogged meridians were torn open like thin paper before this energy.
Crack!
Lin Yue heard a crisp sound from within his body.
Qi Refining, second layer…
Qi Refining, third layer!
His aura was soaring madly.
His broken sternum rapidly realigned, wrapped in a golden light.
But it wasn’t over yet.
That energy finally gathered at Lin Yue’s dantian, condensing into an extremely fine, yet sharp and terrifying strand that made all things tremble…
Sword Intent.
“This is… the reward?”
Lin Yue opened his eyes at the bottom of the pool.
A flash of sword radiance passed through his gaze.
He had originally thought he could only be a mortal in this life, but he never imagined that this so-called debt repayment was actually helping him reclaim the power of his past life.
Although, the process of repaying this debt was truly… rather face-consuming.
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