February 15th, market day.
The sky was just beginning to brighten as dawn approached. The county gates were still closed, with a long queue forming outside. Most people in line were pushing carts or carrying goods on shoulder poles - small vendors coming to sell their wares in town.
On the empty spaces flanking the city gates, a few breakfast stalls had been set up, wisps of steam rising from their hot food.
Those entering the city had traveled from nearby villages, walking half the night. They were hungry now, and knew that once inside the gates, food prices would be a copper or two higher than outside. So many waiting in line chose to grab a quick bite from the stalls to tide them over.
Yu Yi was no exception. As soon as she reached the county gates, she went straight to a familiar breakfast stall and spent ten copper coins on ten large meat buns.
She ate two herself and gave the other eight to the red-crowned crane following behind her.
This crane was tall and stately, standing as high as a person. Its white feathers were like fresh snow, its black feathers like an ink stone, and the splash of red on its crown as vivid as cinnabar. It was clearly no ordinary bird.
The young woman beside it wore a flowing white dress, with snow-white skin and jet-black hair. Her bright, lively eyes were dark and gleaming, filled with an otherworldly light. The girl and crane standing together truly looked like an immortal maiden and her celestial companion straight out of an ancient painting.
...If one ignored the large meat bun she was holding, that is.
To ordinary folk, cranes were considered mounts of immortals, typically only seen in celestial realms. Occasionally one might hear a crane's call and catch a fleeting glimpse of its majestic form soaring overhead, but it was rare for a crane to descend to an unremarkable county town like this.
However, this crane was an exception.
No one quite remembered when this crane and the young immortal who kept it first appeared in Rounan County, but it had been several years at least.
People were curious about them at first, but had grown used to their presence by now. After all, every market day on the 1st and 15th of the month, they could be seen at the city gates.
On market days, the young immortal would bring her crane into town to set up a stall. She sold talismans for warding off evil and protecting homes, and helped local people deal with supernatural troubles that ordinary folk couldn't handle.
Her prices were reasonable. If someone didn't have enough silver, she would accept payment in fruits, grains or meat instead. Everything was clearly priced, and she never took anything for free. She was nothing like other cultivators who seemed to look down on mortals from on high.
The people of Rounan County were quite fond of this young immortal. Whenever she came, the market grew livelier. Some came specifically to catch a glimpse of her, while others sought her help with various matters.
After the city gates opened and Yu Yi entered, those going in with her greeted her warmly, calling her "little immortal" and asking where she would set up her stall that day.
"I'll wander around with Senior Crane first and set up wherever we end up. It's up to him," Yu Yi replied with a smile. Her dark eyes were filled with the warm glow of the morning sun, as sweet as melted caramel.
She was naturally beautiful, with a rosy complexion, red lips and white teeth. Cultivators always had an otherworldly air that set them apart from ordinary people. But when she smiled, that distance melted away, filling people's hearts with joy just to look at her.
The red-crowned crane beside her nodded its head solemnly, truly giving off the air of a "senior" disciple.
Everyone knew her routine by now, so they didn't press further. After entering the city, they dispersed to different streets to go about their business.
Yu Yi and Senior Crane meandered through town, buying some household necessities.
Rounan County was just a small county seat, not very large. After five years of wandering its streets, Yu Yi knew the location of every shop by heart. She quickly finished her shopping and tucked everything into her storage pouch.
This lifestyle was certainly leisurely, but it had grown rather dull.
Yu Yi tilted her head back to gaze at the vast sky above, sighing listlessly. Life without smartphones or internet, where even market days held no new excitement, was truly hard to endure!
If she had known that leaving a single comment would cause her to transmigrate, she would have tied her hands up while reading that web novel.
Every time Yu Yi thought about it, she couldn't help but smack her own hands. Serves you right for being so impulsive, she scolded herself. You should have just read quietly. Why did you have to leave that comment saying "The female lead has it so rough! And we even share the same name - I wonder if I'll transmigrate too?"
As if summoning fate, right after posting that comment, she was struck by a jolt of electricity and truly transmigrated into this dog-blood tragic romance novel, becoming its ill-fated female protagonist.
The entire book, including extras, was only 800,000 characters long. Yet for 700,000 of those characters, she was tormented physically and emotionally by the male lead and various other characters! In the remaining 100,000 characters, the female lead reconciled with her past, found true love, and got a happy ending with the male lead.
A happy ending...
The male lead was named Pei Jingchao, and the book was titled "Jingchao" (Tidal Wave). From the title alone, she should have guessed the author didn't truly care for her character!
Yu Yi still vividly remembered the ending described in black and white: "She turned back with a smile, but her eyes no longer held that clear, dazzling light that had captivated him when they first met."
That scoundrel had hurt the female lead the deepest, yet in the end he still complained that the light had gone from her eyes.
When Yu Yi transmigrated into the book, it was right at the moment the naive female lead encountered the gravely injured, unconscious male lead. She had woven a small raft from vines to lay him on and was exhaustively dragging him back home.
She had nearly reached her doorstep!
Yu Yi shuddered violently at the thought of the 700,000 characters worth of physical and emotional torment that would follow if she rescued the male lead.
Even though Pei Jingchao, as the author's favorite character, was described as handsome and refined - with sharp brows and starry eyes that retained a certain allure even when he was disheveled, blood-stained and unconscious - Yu Yi couldn't muster an ounce of goodwill towards him.
After pondering for a moment, she found a hatchet in the yard and spent quite some time wavering over whether to use it on his neck. In the end, she couldn't bring herself to do it. Instead, she dragged the small raft into the nearby woods, dug a hole, and buried him.
Afterwards, she even stomped on the freshly packed dirt mound a couple times for good measure.
Yu Yi rushed back to the original owner's home, hastily packed some essentials, then set the small wooden cabin ablaze that very day before fleeing.
Before entering the world of cultivation, the female lead had lived alone with her grandfather, a hunter who had taught her some martial arts for self-defense before he passed away. When Yu Yi took over this body, she inherited those skills, which gave her some confidence in avoiding bandits on the road.
Determined to leave the territory of the male lead's sect and avoid any interaction with him, she traveled as quickly as she could for over a month before reaching the Rounan County area. There, by chance, she stumbled into the cave dwelling of a rogue cultivator.
This cultivator was nearing the end of his lifespan and regretted never taking on a disciple to inherit his legacy. Even his pet crane would be left without a caretaker. When the disoriented Yu Yi stumbled in, he was overjoyed and immediately pressured her into becoming his disciple.
Having transmigrated into a world of immortal cultivation, Yu Yi was quite eager to learn supernatural arts. She hadn't seen any mention of this rogue cultivator in the original novel, so she assumed he was an insignificant background character unrelated to the main plot. Thus, she readily agreed to become his disciple.
After accepting her, the cultivator performed a ritual to cleanse her body and establish her spiritual foundation, infusing her with his lifetime of cultivation. He then entrusted her with all the cultivation manuals, talismans, magical artifacts, and even his pet crane that he had accumulated in his cave dwelling.
Before Yu Yi had a chance to truly get to know her new master, the rogue cultivator, having fulfilled his final wish, exhausted the last of his lifespan and passed away peacefully the very next day.
Afterwards, Yu Yi settled down in the cave dwelling. She spent her days caring for the crane and studying the cultivation techniques left behind by her master.
To avoid accidentally getting involved in the original plot, Yu Yi rarely ventured out during those five years of seclusion. She only left twice a month, using the swordsmanship and mystical arts she had taught herself to earn money for food and necessities. She also took those opportunities to gather news about the outside world, especially regarding Pei Jingchao's whereabouts.
Of course, she didn't actually believe that burying Pei Jingchao alive back then would have killed him. He was the male protagonist after all - his plot armor was too thick.
Sure enough, Pei Jingchao had indeed survived. As the head disciple of the Mount Li Sword Sect's leader - one of the Twelve Great Immortal Sects - he was renowned not only among cultivators but even among ordinary people.
Even in a small county town like Rounan, Yu Yi frequently heard news about him.
Even without the female lead by his side, it didn't affect Pei Jingchao's progression through the plot at all. He still followed the original story as written, first making a name for himself in the sect's grand competition, and then obtaining a divine weapon in a secret realm.
At the Nine Provinces Dharma Assembly, he outshone all others, claiming the top spot and becoming the leader among the younger generation of cultivators in the immortal sects.
Pei Jingchao's reputation grew higher and higher, and naturally, as in the original story, waves of female cultivators admired him one after another.
In the original plot, the female lead was the only woman who would receive special treatment from Pei Jingchao. She was like a living target, tormented openly and secretly by his admirers.
The female supporting characters adored Pei Jingchao and envied the female lead, while the male supporting characters pursued Pei Jingchao and felt that the ordinary, pure female lead wasn't worthy of their big brother.
Even the female lead herself, constantly targeted and belittled, began to doubt herself, becoming insecure and timid, humbled to the dust.
Now, with Yu Yi gone, the position of the female lead by Pei Jingchao's side was vacant. The female supporting characters used every trick in the book to become his companion. Every time Yu Yi emerged, she would hear rumors about him with different female confidantes.
However, these were all ambiguous rumors, with none being confirmed.
This also led to Yu Yi continuing to hide in this small place, not daring to venture far, fearing that the female lead's halo was still hanging over her head. She worried that if she went out, she might encounter some character from the plot and start "the life of a despised pure female lead."
"Gaga." The crane senior brother's call brought Yu Yi back from her thoughts. She looked in the direction the red-crowned crane was pointing with its stretched neck and saw the familiar small tavern.
The crane senior brother loved eating the steamed fish from this tavern, so Yu Yi followed its wish and led it into the tavern.
They were regulars at this tavern. Yu Yi didn't even need to order; the waiter already called out skillfully to the kitchen: "Crane senior brother is here, five plates of steamed fish, half-cooked with less salt."
The red-crowned crane happily called out "gaga" twice, and Yu Yi burst into laughter, "Thank you, brother."
The human and the crane sat by the window under the gaze of other diners, but the attention on them quickly shifted away.
Yu Yi slowly sipped her tea, overhearing a group of traveling merchants at another table discussing: "With your spirit horses' speed, how many days will it take to reach the foot of Mount Li from here?"
"Just two or three days, no more than three at most. You can rest assured. These two horses of mine are no ordinary steeds. I guarantee they can get you to Mount Li before the Dao Lord's wedding."
Hearing the words "Mount Li," Yu Yi's ears perked up.
She looked out the window and indeed saw two black horses tied up in the empty space behind the tavern. The two black horses were large and sturdy, with robust muscles and bones, spiritual energy flowing around them. One look was enough to tell they were raised on spirit grass and pills, completely different from ordinary horses.
Along with the black horses, there were also two large carts of goods parked in the empty space, packed in sealed, red-lacquered wooden boxes.
"The sooner the better. We small businessmen just want to take advantage of the crowds and bustle to make a few more deals. If we're any later, we'll miss the best opportunity."
"Of course, of course, I understand." The speaker was the owner of the spirit horses, making a living by transporting goods for people with his horses. He opened one large palm and said, "There are still five days until Dao Lord Pei and Yuxiu Fairy's wedding. By the time we reach Mount Li City, the people coming to join the festivities should have mostly arrived. Your two carts of goods are sure to sell out, sir."
"If you ask me, for such a grand event with cultivators from all over the four seas and nine provinces gathering in Mount Li City, bringing only two carts of goods is too little."
The merchant replied, "You don't know how many traders are rushing there, all wanting a piece of the pie. We small businessmen are just picking up crumbs from the Xue Family Trading Company's fingers. If we're too greedy and can't sell all our goods, we'll end up losing more than we gain."
Yu Yi's hand holding the cup trembled, and her breathing became heavy with excitement.
What did she just hear? Dao Lord Pei and Yuxiu Fairy's wedding?
Wasn't Yuxiu Fairy that vicious female supporting character in the original story who, out of love for Pei Jingchao, crazily envied and hated the female lead? Congratulations to her for finally getting what she wanted.
Pei Jingchao marrying someone else, doesn't that mean their ill-fated relationship has come to an end? Yu Yi felt as if she could almost hear the sound of the female lead's halo shattering above her head, and it was particularly pleasing to the ear.
Only five days! After Pei Jingchao's wedding, when everything is settled, she can go wherever she wants!
