“Dig a pit, heap some dirt, count one two three four five…”
In the eerie forest drowned in fog, a girl in white, soaked head to toe in blood, was humming that cheery little tune while driving a blue-glowing dagger into the ground again and again, gouging up clods of wet earth.
She was digging with real spirit.
At her feet lay another young woman, collapsed flat on the ground. The tendons in her hands and feet had already been cut. Her face was white with terror as she stared at the scene before her.
“Nina Ashford, what are you doing? I’m your sister!”
That off-key song, that grin on Nina’s face that flickered up now and then like she was in a fine mood—it all wrapped around Yvette Ashford like a bad omen.
Whether it was pain, fear, or sheer rage, her whole body shook without stopping.
She refused to believe it. Refused.
A useless waste like Nina actually daring to kill her?
“Nina Ashford! If you dare lay a hand on me, Father will never let you off!”
Seeing Nina ignore her, Yvette finally snapped and shrieked.
Never let her off?
Hearing that, Nina’s digging paused for a beat.
Then she whipped her head around and glared at her, fierce and impatient. “Why are you yelling? I can already see your stomach! Isn’t that why I’m digging the pit?”
Once the hole was done, she could just toss the body in and cover it up.
Heh. Who would know she was the one who did it?
She bent down, grabbed a fistful of weeds, and stuffed them straight into Yvette’s mouth.
At last, the world went quiet.
Nina turned back around and kept digging.
“My own soil, my own ground, plant anything and silver grows…”
…
Just one hour earlier, Nina had died from staying up too late.
Yes.
That’s right.
A fine, full-blooded college student in the prime of youth, not even grown into the nation’s pillar yet, and she just dropped dead from staying up too many nights?
Hell. Just hearing it was enough to make her chest tighten.
She could already picture what those bastard friends of hers would carve on her tombstone—
Here lies Nina the Absurd, a legend of her age,
fated for everything but the glory of standing above the rest.
And beneath it—
Damn, what a show.
The body she ended up in belonged to the vicious supporting girl from the cultivation novel she had been reading right before she died.
That girl was also called Nina Ashford.
Second daughter of the Ashford family, the foremost cultivation clan of Chili Kingdom on Qingyuan Continent.
But truth be told, she was a genuine menace.
She could not cultivate, and because of that, the Ashford family spoiled her without limit.
No line. No restraint.
Raised in that kind of indulgence, she had been taught from childhood to be arrogant, unruly, blind to everyone but herself, as if the whole world ought to bend around her.
Day in, day out, she was either offending someone or on her way to offend the next.
As time passed, Nina Ashford only grew more lawless. In the imperial capital, her name had long since turned into a curse. A beauty with a viper’s heart. A girl people feared more than they admired.
Whenever she stepped out, the common folk scattered like they had seen a flood beast coming down the street, fleeing in all directions.
And she had an elder sister.
Yvette Ashford.
Unlike Nina, who was hated wherever she went, Yvette had been the shining example since childhood—gifted, beautiful, kind, gentle.
The holy-hearted heroine of the book.
With Nina there to set her off, Yvette looked even better in everyone else’s eyes: high talent, good temper, easy to approach, loved by all.
She never seemed to favor her own younger sister.
Whenever Nina caused trouble, Yvette would always be the first to bring people to the door and apologize.
She never cared whether it had actually been Nina’s fault or not.
As time dragged on, the common folk praised Yvette Ashford more and more, while their contempt for Nina Ashford only grew heavier.
From childhood to now, the thing Nina had heard most was Yvette wearing that soft, saintly smile, then lowering her eyes and telling others with fake remorse, “This was my sister’s fault. I’ll apologize to you in her place…”
Nina never knew how to speak her feelings the right way. Bit by bit, all that grievance and bitterness packed itself tighter in her chest. She had nowhere to let it out. So she only twisted further, and walked crooked down the wrong road without ever turning back.
After that, the heroine relied on her heaven-blessed talent and the spotless name she had built over the years. Her cultivation soared all the way up, and she smoothly entered the number one sect on the continent, the Blackwell Sect, to train.
With that gentle, understanding, endlessly “reasonable” holy-mother nature of hers, she drew in a whole crowd of admirers. Men and women alike doted on her, raved over her, would gladly smash themselves bloody against a wall for her.
Practically every male disciple in the Blackwell Sect fell under her protagonist halo and turned into a shameless lapdog.
When Nina saw Yvette enter the sect to cultivate, she still refused to give up. Since she had been unable to cultivate since childhood, she wanted to know what exactly was wrong with her body. So she begged Yvette to take her along.
But she had no cultivation at all. She could only stay by the heroine’s side and work as a menial servant.
The heroine had a master who cherished her and senior brothers who spoiled her. Nina could not accept it. Time and again, she fought against the heroine and did plenty of foolish, ugly things. In the end, those overprotective senior brothers each gave her one sword strike and stabbed her through until she was nothing but a bloody sieve.
At the end of the novel, under the tearful farewell of the Blackwell Sect’s swarm of loyal dogs, the heroine ascended smoothly and went off to live a sweet, shamelessly blissful life with the male lead.
What a perfect plot.
Perfect as long as the sieve wasn’t her.
Maybe the author thought a vicious supporting girl only needed to be bad, and that was enough. A lot of Nina’s background was never mentioned at all. And she herself had never noticed there was even such an episode hidden in the book.
Really, if anyone opened their eyes and saw a woman right in front of them grinning in a filthy, creepy way, with her hand pressed against their chest, who wouldn’t be scared?
“Pervert!”
The word shot out of Nina’s mouth on instinct. She snatched up a stone from the ground and slashed it hard across that person’s wrist.
Unexpectedly, this body’s reactions were sharp—fast, clean, almost frighteningly nimble.
Then she rolled across the ground in one motion and put two full meters between herself and that creep.
At that same moment, memories crashed into her mind like a flood.
Once she finished taking them all in, she lowered her head and looked at her chest.
There, a gaping, bloody wound tore into her flesh. It was a brutal sight. Blood poured out without stopping.
And by Yvette Ashford’s feet lay a blue-glowing dagger.
The dagger was covered in Nina’s blood.
One look was enough. Nina understood.
She remembered it from the novel. Yvette Ashford had a divine artifact, and if she recalled right, it was blue.
At the final step before ascension, that very artifact had turned into a long sword, hung in the air, split the heavenly thunder in one stroke, ripped open the sky, and even cowed the Heavenly Dao. That was how it helped Yvette ascend.
Damn flashy.
So that meant...
“You’ve been feeding it with my heart’s blood this whole time?!”
Nina was honestly stunned by this so-called saintly heroine.
So this was the “kind-hearted” saintess? Loving all living things, yet cruel to her alone?
Using her as a stepping stone?
Why? Because she deserved it?
Yvette saw that Nina had woken, but she did not panic in the least. She calmly swallowed a pill. The cut on her wrist stopped bleeding, then closed bit by bit in the space of a few breaths.
She still wore that soft, gentle smile. The way she looked at Nina was the way one might look at a younger sister throwing a childish fit.
“Be good, Nina. Just one last time. Once the spirit weapon gains life, I’ll buy you whatever you want.”
Nina gave her a fake smile that never reached her eyes. “Yeah, sure. Wonderful.”
Yvette did not catch the sarcasm. She frowned lightly. Seeing the blood still running from Nina’s chest, she even looked... distressed. As if she truly felt sorry for her.
“Nina... come here.”
“And if I don’t?”
Nina slowly pushed herself to her feet. She rolled her shoulders, moved her arms, loosened her stiff limbs.
Then she paused.
To her surprise, her soul fit this body perfectly well—far better than she had expected.
