Chapter 1: A Family of Rebels, A House of Villains
"I refuse to accept this!"
The sudden shout bursting from her own lips startled Ye Linglong. Blinking in confusion, she glanced around, only to realize she was standing in the center of a vast training ground, the focus of every pair of eyes in the crowd. Everyone stared at her in shock, waiting for an explanation.
Ye Linglong herself was just as bewildered—until a flood of memories crashed into her mind the next second. With a sinking heart, she realized she had transmigrated into a book.
Not just any book, but a xianxia novel she had just finished reading days ago. Worse, she had become the cannon-fodder supporting character who shared her name—Ye Linglong.
In the original story, the female lead, Ye Rongyue, was the adopted daughter of the Ye family. Blessed with extraordinary talent and the luck of a golden koi, she was doted on by the entire household. Meanwhile, the biological daughter, Ye Linglong, was mediocre in cultivation yet arrogant and domineering, serving as the perfect foil to Ye Rongyue’s brilliance.
During the Immortal Sect’s disciple selection ceremony, Ye Rongyue dazzled the crowd, becoming the most sought-after recruit among all the sects. Ye Linglong, barely scraping past the qualifying line, was relegated to the worst sect.
Consumed by resentment, Ye Linglong threw a public tantrum, leveraging the Ye family’s years of upbringing to force Ye Rongyue to take her along into the prestigious Seven Stars Sect.
Once admitted, Ye Linglong was dumped into the outer sect as a lowly disciple, toiling away at menial tasks without learning a single useful technique. Meanwhile, as a direct disciple, Ye Rongyue’s cultivation soared, earning her fame as the genius prodigy of the cultivation world.
Jealousy festered in Ye Linglong’s heart, driving her to scheme against Ye Rongyue at every turn. In the end, her cultivation was crippled by Ye Rongyue, and she was expelled from the sect by Ye Rongyue’s master. Her final fate? Pierced by countless arrows from Ye Rongyue’s admirers, dying a gruesome death.
And now, she had transmigrated right into the middle of the disciple selection ceremony. Ye Rongyue was fifteen, while she was merely eleven. Here she stood, having just shouted her defiance in front of the entire assembly, poised to throw a fit and strong-arm Ye Rongyue into taking her to the Seven Stars Sect.
"What exactly do you refuse to accept?"
After a long silence from Ye Linglong, Zhao Yanghua—the elder of the Seven Stars Sect, host of the ceremony, and Ye Rongyue’s future master—frowned at the troublemaker disrupting the proceedings.
In her past life, Ye Linglong had been the youngest and most brilliant research professor in the nation, pouring every waking hour into her studies and experiments. She had been on the verge of a breakthrough—only to transmigrate at the worst possible moment, rendering all her hard work meaningless.
Ye Linglong suddenly lost all motivation to strive. Why bother when all her efforts would only lead to a miserable end? What difference did it make if she joined the worst sect? Wouldn't it be better to just enjoy life—eat well, drink well, and have fun?
"I can't accept how my parents favor one child over another!" Ye Linglong declared loudly. "My sister is exceptionally talented and destined for greatness. Yet when we both attended the disciple recruitment to enter the cultivation world, my parents prepared only for me—a spirit pouch, ten spirit fruits, and a hundred spirit stones—while my sister got nothing! It's utterly unfair! Even though she's adopted, years of affection should count for something. She doesn't deserve this treatment!"
Her words sent a wave of murmurs through the crowd, with many pointing fingers at the Ye family.
No one had expected a mere mortal family like the Ye household to possess such wealth—able to afford cultivation-world treasures like spirit pouches, spirit fruits, and spirit stones, and in such quantities! For ordinary folk, this was an extravagant expenditure.
But even more shocking was the blatant favoritism. The adopted daughter, despite her outstanding talent and being highly sought after by sects, received nothing, while the biological daughter was lavished with gifts. How cruel!
Fortunately, though the biological daughter lacked talent, she had a kind heart and exposed this injustice. Otherwise, Ye Rongyue might have had to suffer in silence.
Hearing this, Zhao Yanghua, Ye Rongyue's fiercely protective master, shot to his feet and bellowed, "Outrageous! How dare you treat our treasured Rongyue this way?"
The accused Ye parents froze. They had indeed prepared those items—but for Rongyue, not Linglong. They had assumed Linglong, with her mediocre aptitude, would never amount to much and wasn't worth the investment.
Yet before they could hand the gifts over, Linglong had publicly exposed them. Now, with everyone condemning their favoritism and praising Linglong's honesty and kindness, explaining the truth would only make them look worse. They had no choice but to swallow their grievances and take the blame.
"It was an oversight on our part," Ye father hastily said. "We'll make it up to Rongyue—she won't suffer any injustice."
"How shameless can you be?" Zhao Yanghua snapped. "Neglecting her in the first place was injustice enough! No need for the spirit pouch—I'll provide her with a better one. But the spirit fruits and stones must be doubled."
Doubled? The Ye parents paled. These items were astronomically expensive for a mortal family. The original gifts had already drained nearly half their savings. Now, having to provide double the amount would bankrupt them!
They glanced desperately at Ye Rongyue, hoping she might intervene. But seeing her standing beside Zhao Yanghua, eyes red-rimmed with unshed tears, lips pressed tightly together in silence, their hearts ached.
With a grim resolve, they relented: "Very well. We'll compensate Rongyue double!"
Hearing this, Zhao Yanghua nodded in satisfaction, while Ye Rongyue wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and managed a faint smile.
"Since that's settled, let's consider the matter closed. The disciple selection ceremony shall proceed."
With the minor incident resolved, the lively atmosphere quickly returned to the venue.
Ye Linglong withdrew her gaze from them, her expression unreadable as she flicked a speck of dust off her sleeve. The original owner of this body had long grown accustomed to such disparities, and as an outsider, she had no intention of desperately begging for familial affection or care.
From now on, they could each go their own way. With spirit stones and spiritual fruits to sustain her, she could easily coast through life in a new sect, far away from Ye Rongyue—surely, things wouldn’t be too bad.
Wait a minute—what was the name of that bottom-tier sect that had just agreed to take her in? It was called…
Qing! Xuan! Sect?!
Ye Linglong froze, as if a bolt of lightning had struck her out of the clear blue sky.
The Qingxuan Sect was infamous in the original novel, mentioned almost as frequently as the Seven Stars Sect—not because it was powerful, but because every major antagonist in the story hailed from this sect. It was practically a den of rebels, a breeding ground for villains!
In a way, that was still… impressive.
But the truly terrifying part? Every last one of those Qingxuan Sect villains had met their end at Ye Rongyue’s hands. Did this mean she was still doomed to be killed by her in the end?
Just as she was reeling from the realization, her mother’s furious and exasperated voice rang out behind her.
"Linglong, you little spendthrift! What nonsense were you spouting in front of all those people?"
Ye Linglong feigned surprise. "Was I wrong? You *did* prepare all those things."
"Of course you were wrong! Yes, we prepared them—but they were for Rongyue! With her talent, those resources will be put to great use. But you? With your poor aptitude, you’ll probably give up on cultivation in a few days and come crawling back home! Why waste them on you?"
At that moment, her biological father spoke up with a stern, icy expression.
"Though the Ye family fortune is substantial, we can't afford such reckless squandering. You'll have to forfeit your share. I'll double Rongyue's portion instead. Otherwise, if we fail to deliver on our promise, the Seven Stars Sect might think less of her."
Ye Lingbing let out a bitter laugh.
"And what about me? If you break your word, my sect will think less of me too!"
"Have you even considered what kind of sect took you in?"
"Patriarch Ye, what exactly do you think of our Qingxuan Sect?"
A voice as gentle as a breeze came from behind them. The faces of Ye Lingbing's parents darkened as they turned to see the person who had somehow appeared at their back without notice.
Being caught badmouthing a sect in public wasn’t just awkward—it was downright humiliating. Moreover, no matter how one looked at it, the influence of sects in the cultivation world far surpassed that of mortal aristocratic families. Even the weakest sect wasn’t something they could afford to offend.
Now, panic flashed across the faces of Ye Lingbing's parents.