"Huan Huan, come with me for a bit," Yun Jin said as she picked up the Phantom Fox Cat.
Gun Gun immediately grew anxious. "Master! Wait! What about me?"
Yun Jin reached out and stroked his head. "Gun Gun, we'll be back soon. I need you to stay and watch the house. And take this time to get used to your upgraded body."
Watch the house? Right!
Who else could Master count on if not the great Gun Gun?
He thumped his chest proudly. "Master, leave it to me! I'll guard our home well."
Yun Jin smiled faintly, then vanished with Huan Huan in her arms.
She had brought Huan Huan along because of its scouting ability. Its second-level eavesdrop skill could detect activity within a hundred li. Ye Danxia might only be at Qi Refining, but Huan Huan had reached Foundation Establishment. Scouting her would be effortless.
"Huan Huan, eavesdrop."
Obeying her command, Huan Huan's ears twitched. It darted off in a certain direction, and Yun Jin followed.
They left Tianxing Sect, heading straight for Heshan.
Yun Jin raised her eyebrows slightly. Not surprising at all.
After all, in the novel, this was where Ye Danxia first encountered the male lead.
A lot had changed in this lifetime, but the male and female leads still seemed fated to meet.
"Master, the woman stopped," Huan Huan's clear voice rang in Yun Jin's mind.
The scouting skill not only detected auras and sounds, but could also transmit that information directly to Yun Jin.
Moments later, Yun Jin heard Ye Danxia's furious voice inside her head.
"Why! Why are they doing this to me!
What did I say wrong? Yun Jin is a five-spirit root trash, how could she achieve all that? If it's not cheating, then what is it!"
Ye Danxia was shouting hysterically.
"Yun Jin!! Qi Yu!! Cang Li! Zhao Wuji!! All of you can die! Every last one of you!"
There was the faint sound of water splashing.
She was clearly venting her frustration by the river.
Yun Jin raised an eyebrow.
Ye Danxia resenting her was expected. But Qi Yu and Cang Li? Probably because they had ignored her. Zhao Wuji though?
Now that was unexpected.
In the past life, Ye Danxia and Zhao Wuji had been the picture of a close, coordinated master-disciple pair. But in this life, something must have gone wrong.
She was just as resentful toward Zhao Wuji as she was toward Yun Jin.
Did Zhao Wuji even know?
Delicious drama.
Yun Jin followed Huan Huan quietly as they approached.
Soon, they found Ye Danxia's location. Yun Jin crouched behind a tree on a nearby cliff and looked down. By the riverbank of the He River, Ye Danxia was furiously striking the water with her sword, venting her rage.
Yun Jin sat cross-legged and waited patiently.
The male lead was about to appear. He had better not disappoint.
Ye Danxia alone wasn't enough anymore. She needed a new source of emotional value.
And the male lead?
Even better than the female lead. He had nine lives, after all.
She could take her time squeezing value out of him.
The only thing that annoyed her was the timing. By this point in the plot, the Demon Sovereign had already used his Nirvana technique six times. That meant she could only wear down three of his lives at most.
Still, that was enough—as long as he lasted until she established her Holy Land.
Just then, Huan Huan's voice in her mind changed slightly.
Yun Jin looked down again.
There it was.
A small body in black robes floated downstream and drifted ashore right in front of Ye Danxia.
Still new to cultivation, Ye Danxia reacted like a normal person. She screamed.
"A corpse!"
She scrambled back in panic.
But she didn't get far.
The boy's eyes snapped open. His childish hands clamped tightly around Ye Danxia's throat.
His gaze was cold and sharp. "Where do you think you're going, woman?"
Ye Danxia trembled, staring at the small, terrifying child who should not have such a fierce expression.
Yun Jin, watching from above, pulled out a bag of sunflower seeds.
What? It was the perfect snack for a show like this.
Watching the first meeting of the lead couple? Too good to miss.
"I… I…" the delicate, tearful heroine stammered.
Just as the male lead looked ready to do something worse, he suddenly staggered and coughed up blood. His injuries flared up. His grip loosened. He collapsed to one knee.
A normal person would have run.
But this was a female lead.
She looked at the boy, face pale and trembling, and instead of fleeing, her eyes filled with concern.
"Whose child are you? How did you get so badly hurt?"
The boy ignored her, closing his eyes and trying to regulate his breath.
Ye Danxia grew more worried. "Hey, I have some pills. Do you want one?"
She took out a healing pill and held it out.
The boy's cold eyes flicked up.
He was a Demon Sovereign. Humans and demons were fundamentally different. Normally, demonic beings couldn't use human pills.
But he was a half-blood. A mix of human and demon.
He could cultivate both demonic and spiritual power.
This pill would work perfectly.
He took it without a word and swallowed it.
Ye Danxia felt strangely reassured by his rudeness. It meant he had accepted her help.
"Got any more?" the boy asked.
Ye Danxia blinked, then handed over two more.
He consumed them quickly, but the wounds were still severe. He looked up again.
"Any more?"
Ye Danxia's expression soured.
That was all she had.
The child hadn't even said thank you. He acted like he was entitled to everything.
It made her uncomfortable.
Yun Jin watched with amusement.
In the previous life, Ye Danxia had been Tianxing Sect's darling. Anything she wanted, she got.
When she picked up the male lead, she had handed him dozens of treasures and powerful pills. His condition recovered by almost forty percent.
But this time?
No longer the favorite.
Zhao Wuji didn't spoil her like before.
Those few pills she just gave away were everything she had.
So now, where would this relationship go?
Yun Jin was more than a little curious.
"That's it?" the boy sneered. "Useless woman."
Ye Danxia's temper flared. She was about to argue when he cut her off coldly.
"You're from a cultivation sect, right? What's the biggest one nearby?"
His cultivation technique allowed him to conceal his demonic nature.
The fastest way to recover was to hide inside a sect and use their resources to rebuild his strength.