After Rebirth, the Love-Struck Cannon Fodder Woke Up - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Magical Artifact

◎Past Life’s Enemy, Master’s Gift◎

Thousand Talisman Hall.

After passing the Talisman Assessment, Du Lianxin walked out of the hall. As far as her eyes could see, there were fellow disciples with varying expressions.

Some showed praise; some scrutinized her up and down; some were expressionless; and a few others nodded to her with a smile.

The crowd gathered outside the hall was not solely from Talisman Peak. Assessments were uncommon, and most people took the opportunity to watch the excitement.

Du Lianxin politely returned the greeting to the friendly fellow disciples and ignored the rest.

Among these people, there were two who left a deep impression on her.

One, with smiling eyes, was looking up at her. Her name was Gu Huanning.

The other, with a completely judgmental look, was named Wang Qing.

In her past life, Gu Huanning had helped Du Lianxin.

As for Wang Qing, he was an enemy.

Outer sect cultivators of the Qinghe Sect held a grand competition every five years. If one could enter the top three, they could be accepted into the inner sect.

In her past life, due to the disparity in status, Du Lianxin could only call Shen Anlan “Immortal Shen” every time they met. At that time, whenever she heard inner sect or direct disciples call Shen Anlan “Senior Sister,” she felt immense envy.

For this reason, despite knowing her strength was insufficient, she still took the risk and signed up.

The sect rules stipulated that during the competition, any method could be used, as long as it did not result in death.

Looking back, more than one fellow disciple was injured during the competition, having their Dantian damaged and cultivation crippled.

A cultivator once raised an objection to the Sect Master, proposing to change the rules of the grand competition and add more restrictions to the combat, but the proposal was rejected.

In the Sect Master’s words, competition in the cultivation world was inherently cruel. If sect cultivators were overly protected and did not adapt early, they would only suffer more harm when they went out to train.

In her past life, Du Lianxin often clung to Shen Anlan. Many outer sect cultivators disliked her. Seeing her register for the grand competition, they constantly mocked her in private.

In the first round of the draw, her opponent was named Wang Lan, the elder brother of the inner sect disciple Wang Qing.

Wang Lan had five spirit roots and was limited by his aptitude, remaining in the outer sect. Wang Qing had three spirit roots, was in the inner sect, and had already taken a Master. He often received more cultivation resources and would frequently share some with his elder brother.

With Wang Qing’s help, Wang Lan had already broken through to Qi Condensation level seven when he participated in the grand competition.

At that time, Du Lianxin was only at Qi Condensation level six.

Wang Lan had heard of her deeds in the sect and looked down on her, committing the biggest mistake in combat: underestimating the enemy.

Du Lianxin defeated him in just ten moves.

Knocked off the arena, Wang Lan’s face was filled with disbelief. Amidst the strange gazes of his fellow disciples, he returned to his residence in shame.

This person had a terrible character. Struck by this blow, he suffered Qi deviation during his subsequent cultivation and directly perished.

Wang Qing hated Du Lianxin because of this.

An inner sect disciple, if determined to deal with an outer sect cultivator, could be said to be impossible to guard against.

The Qinghe Sect rules prohibited internal fighting among fellow disciples. Wang Qing did not openly show hostility but secretly bribed the outer sect deacon. Whenever Du Lianxin accepted a mission, the deacon would remove all missions that matched her strength and had low difficulty, leaving her only with high-difficulty, high-risk missions that should have been taken by Qi Condensation level nine or ten cultivators.

Du Lianxin questioned the outer sect deacon, but as expected, she got no answer. The other party repeatedly claimed that missions were scarce and all the low-difficulty ones had already been taken.

Even arriving early at the beginning of the month resulted in the same answer.

In the Qinghe Sect, the deacon had absolute power over mission assignment. Du Lianxin had no choice but to accept them.

Because the monthly missions were extremely dangerous, she almost perished outside several times.

At that time, her love for Shen Anlan and a strong sense of unwillingness supported her, enabling her to constantly seek survival in desperate situations and stubbornly stay alive.

On one accidental occasion, while performing a mission outside, she met Gu Huanning. She heard from the other party the truth about her frequent assignment of dangerous missions.

Although Gu Huanning was also an inner sect cultivator, she had not taken a Master and had no reliance in the sect. Previously, to protect herself, she had avoided getting involved.

Many people in the sect looked down on Du Lianxin, but she never had that thought.

On the contrary, she admired Du Lianxin for daring to pursue her love.

Before Gu Huanning joined the Qinghe Sect, she and her sister depended on each other in the mortal world.

Her sister was infatuated with a single female tutor and often sent her food.

Just when the two’s relationship was getting better and better, her sister never dared to confess.

Gu Huanning advised her sister more than once to be brave because, with her sharp mind, she could see that the female tutor also had some fondness for her sister.

However, her sister did not have the courage to confess directly. She was afraid of rejection and afraid that their relationship would become strained.

Later, their hometown suffered a natural disaster. A sudden, massive earthquake buried countless lives.

Gu Huanning narrowly escaped, but her sister and the female tutor were found embracing each other, buried forever underground.

In the last moments of their lives, they expressed their feelings for each other, but it was already too late.

Affected by her sister’s incident, Gu Huanning secretly decided that if she ever met someone who moved her heart, she would definitely summon the courage to confess early.

Even if she were rejected and estranged later, she would never regret it.

Due to these reasons, in her past life, Gu Huanning greatly admired Du Lianxin. Taking advantage of the opportunity to meet her outside, she told Du Lianxin the truth about the missions and offered her advice on how to deal with Wang Qing.

The Qinghe Sect explicitly forbade collusion between the inner and outer sects. Wang Qing and the outer sect deacon’s actions had, in fact, violated the sect rules and, more importantly, incurred the Sect Master’s displeasure. Thus, the punishment was extremely severe.

After Du Lianxin reported the two to the Law Enforcement Hall, Wang Qing was directly stripped of his inner sect disciple status, demoted to an odd-job laborer in the sect’s mine, with no more cultivation resources. His Master also disowned him.

As for the deacon who colluded with him, he was stripped of his related authority, demoted to a regular outer sect cultivator, and had his stipend docked for ten years.

After this incident, Wang Qing intensely hated Du Lianxin.

Later, he set up an ambush while Du Lianxin was on another mission outside the sect, attempting to kill her for revenge.

At that time, Du Lianxin, unaware, walked into the ambush circle.

However, things in the world are often very coincidental. Just as Wang Qing revealed himself, preparing to strike the killing blow, two Foundation Establishment cultivators were battling and slaying nearby, and their fight happened to lead them to this spot.

Although Wang Qing had a cultivation of Qi Condensation level nine, compared to Foundation Establishment cultivators, the difference was vast.

Just like that, he was affected by the residual power of the fight and fell to the ground, heavily injured and vomiting bl00d.

Yet, the trap he set up, at the crucial moment, blocked the residual aftermath of the Foundation Establishment fight for Du Lianxin.

Ultimately, Wang Qing was counter-killed by Du Lianxin, dying with deep hatred and an unfinished revenge.

These were the events of the past life.

In this life, Du Lianxin had not yet participated in the outer sect grand competition. Wang Lan was still alive. Logically, Wang Qing should not harbor hostility toward her at present.

However, his fully scrutinizing gaze made her extremely uncomfortable.

Should she find an opportunity to eliminate him?

This thought flashed through Du Lianxin’s mind, and the idea of putting it into practice became increasingly stronger.

Reborn in this life, she seemed to have become much more ruthless.

She didn’t think she was wrong. Everything in her past life was real. If not for the timely coincidence, it would have been very difficult for her to escape after stepping into the trap.

Moreover… she had a vague intuition that Wang Qing in this life still held hostility toward her, but he was simply hiding it extremely well, making it hard to detect.

Du Lianxin was now at Qi Condensation level seven, and Wang Qing was at Qi Condensation level eight. With enough talismans for assistance, she was confident she could kill this villain.

However, due to the sect rules, if she were to act, she needed a flawless plan. This matter could not be rushed and could only wait for the right moment.

Du Lianxin suppressed the thoughts in her heart and, facing the complex gazes of her fellow disciples, returned to her cave dwelling on Talisman Peak.

After adjusting her state, she was about to continue her talisman creation and cultivation. Just then, a knocking sound reached her ears. Someone was knocking on the cave dwelling door.

Sensing with her spiritual sense that her Master had arrived, Du Lianxin immediately got up and went out to greet her.

Liu Shuangdai was still wearing her light gray Daoist robe. The difference from before was that she was holding a golden bell in her right hand.

Seeing her disciple, a smile appeared on her face. She presented the item she was holding to the girl.

“This is the Thousand Illusions Bell, a top-grade magical artifact. It integrates offense and defense. With your current cultivation, Lianxin, it is perfectly suitable. Refine it to acknowledge you as its owner and keep it with you. When encountering enemies, it will be an extra layer of protection.”

“Thank you, Master!”

Du Lianxin accepted the magical artifact, her eyes full of joy.

Liu Shuangdai continued: “Before you, I accepted two disciples. One is named Ye Zhiyao, and the other is Chu Ruyue. Both have already formed their Golden Cores and are training outside. If you see them in the future, just call them Senior Sister with their surnames, and do not distinguish who is older.”

Du Lianxin responded respectfully: “This disciple remembers.”

Whether in her past life or this life, she had heard about her two Senior Sisters.

Senior Sister Ye and Senior Sister Chu joined the sect in the same year and were accepted as disciples on the same day. Both wanted to compete for the position of Head Disciple, and even estranged their relationship because of it for a time.

Liu Shuangdai did not want to favor one disciple and cause the other to be psychologically unbalanced. To this end, she made a promise: whoever reached Foundation Establishment first would be the Head Senior Sister.

However, the unexpected happened.

Ye Zhiyao and Chu Ruyue both reached Foundation Establishment on the same day, and twenty years later, they also formed their Golden Cores on the same day.

Thus, the position of Head Disciple remained unsettled.

Liu Shuangdai worried that if this continued, the two would go astray in their efforts to advance earlier. She finally decided to make them both Head Disciples concurrently, asking them not to compete over it anymore.

To this day, the relationship between Ye Zhiyao and Chu Ruyue was still not good.

However, while they constantly bickered, they were united against enemies.

A Demonic Cultivator once tried to sow discord between them, aiming to kill them and seize their treasures, but in the next moment, he was jointly slain by the two.

In terms of protecting their own, they were extremely similar to their Master, Liu Shuangdai.

They could treat their own fellow sect members however they liked, but it was absolutely unacceptable for outsiders to attempt to divide or harm them.

Du Lianxin knew these things, so she had no doubts about her Master’s request.

After Liu Shuangdai left, she held the Thousand Illusions Bell and closed the cave dwelling door again.

A top-grade magical artifact contained four magic restrictions (a kind of spiritual formation), which needed to be refined with spiritual sense to acknowledge an owner before it could be used.

Du Lianxin sat cross-legged on the rush cushion, constantly forming hand seals. The golden bell, under the control of her spiritual sense, flew up in the air and circled around her.

The clear ringing of the bell occasionally reached her ears.

The refinement of the magical artifact lasted for two full days. As it was completed, a dazzling golden light flashed and disappeared.

Du Lianxin successfully made the Thousand Illusions Bell acknowledge her as its owner.

After putting away the treasure, she intended to continue her cultivation. However, an unexpected transmission (spiritual message) disrupted her original plan…