How to Be the Perfect Junior Sister to a Reborn Villain - Chapter 21

Chapter 21 

The atmosphere in the main hall was warm and bright.
Everyone was brimming with excitement, their joy barely restrained beneath a veneer of composure.

Only Yan Jiuzhi stood quietly below the dais, his long lashes lowered, expression calm and unreadable.

Venerable Chengyuan’s gaze was deep as he studied the boy with a look both probing and meaningful.

The youth’s frame had yet to fully mature still a touch lean and slight but his back was straight as a blade, sharp yet sheathed, hiding a lethal edge beneath unassuming composure.

At that moment, though his entire being seemed bristling with spikes, his face remained utterly still.

Excellent. This boy was ruthless and proud just the way Chengyuan liked it. That unyielding drive was what made him stand out.

Much better than that Xia Mengxue girl, by a long shot.

Satisfied, Chengyuan beckoned him forward and handed him… a very plain, utterly ordinary pot lid.

Cang Min’s lips twitched.
Yes, that was exactly his master’s style.
That pot lid he recognized had been personally forged by the old man himself.

Yan Jiuzhi stared at the lid in his hands, silent for a long moment.

Everyone in Yunxiao Sect knew what a pot lid was, thank you very much.
Had their grand ancestor just… taken one straight from the Taixian Sect’s kitchen?

After thoroughly enjoying the looks on everyone’s faces, Chengyuan finally said with feigned seriousness,
“This is a defensive-type magical artifact. Its name is Pot Lid.”

Everyone: Truly a name as plain as it gets, huh? Didn’t even bother to rename it.

It can shield multiple people at once and protect those beneath it from the corrosion of demonic and yin energy.

Despite its humble appearance, it sounded extremely useful. Yan Jiuzhi bowed in thanks.

Li Xi, after seeing her third senior brother’s “pot lid,” started to feel nervous about her own gift.

She was a little fairy who loved beautiful things please, heavens above, don’t let it be a spatula or a dustpan or something equally ridiculous!

The image of herself brandishing a spatula and dustpan in battle flashed through her mind, and a wave of secondhand embarrassment flooded her entire body. Horrifying!

Thankfully, her fourth senior brother’s gift was perfectly normal a small crimson flying sword named Scarlet Cloud, its blade gleaming with iridescent light.

Lin Zewu received it with joy and silently swore to train diligently so he could wield it as soon as possible.

Finally, it was Li Xi’s turn.

Venerable Chengyuan took out a violet crystal alchemy furnace and handed it to her.
Good aptitude, good technique. Keep cultivating well, little girl.

Thank you, Ancestor.” Li Xi’s smile bloomed like a flower radiant and sincere flower. She finally had an alchemy furnace of her own!

She accepted it carefully with both hands, heart brimming with delight

Until the next moment, clang!

The furnace hit the ground. If not for her third senior brother reaching past the fourth to steady it, it would’ve landed right on her foot.

Li Xi froze, cheeks flaming red. She hadn’t expected it to be so heavy.

Hahaha! Little girl, you’ve no strength at all. You’d best start body cultivation, or you won’t even be able to lift your own furnace.

Chengyuan laughed heartily. This little transmigrator looked soft and harmless enough.
Aside from her good fortune, there didn’t seem to be any major “golden finger” to her.

At least she didn’t look as troublesome as Xia Mengxue.

Cang Min shot his shameless master a helpless look, then quickly stepped forward to give Li Xi another gift lest the poor girl end up crying from embarrassment.

Elder Lin Shanlai turned to the disciples. Go pack your things. We’ll depart with the Ancestor for Tthe aixian Sect in two days.

Taixian Sect!

One of the Ten Great Sects of the Xuan Cang Realm!

For a minor, barely-recognized sect like Yunxiao, the Taixian Sect was as distant and untouchable as the moon in the sky.

And now they were about to become disciples of the Taixian Sect?!

Li Xi and her senior brothers and sisters gasped collectively. It felt like a giant meat pie from heaven had dropped right on top of them, burying them in disbelief. They stumbled away in a daze, half-dreaming.

Back in her room, Li Xi suddenly remembered she needed to return home and say goodbye to her parents. Who knew how many years it would be before she could visit again? She’d also have to bring some Nourishing Pills back.

She pondered for a bit perhaps she could draw a few protective charms for her home? She should ask her third senior brother.

Meanwhile, Yan Jiuzhi’s mood was far more complicated.

Their master had received a golden core-restoring pill.
Elder Gao had gotten a Condensing Core Pill.

Every gift had been precisely what its recipient needed most. Even the disciples’ meeting gifts had been extraordinary.

Venerables Chengyuan and Cang Min he knew those names well.

Both were tribulation-transcending powerhouses of the Taixian Sect, top-tier cultivators in the entire realm.
And now… they had become his ancestors?

But why would such beings recruit a small, insignificant sect like theirs?

Yes, recruit or perhaps more accurately. Subdue them?

If he said that aloud, people would laugh their heads off.

Their little sect, with only a handful of low-level disciples, what qualifications did they have to be “subdued” by one of the Ten Great Sects?

And by two tribulation experts, no less!

It was absurd.

Yet the feeling of being “brought to heel” wouldn’t leave his mind.

When facing Venerable Chengyuan, he hadn’t sensed malice.
But he could clearly feel the man observing him with a kind of amused curiosity and an unreadable intent.

And his attitude toward Li Xi… was subtly different.

Chengyuan’s smile never reached his eyes. Beneath that genial expression lurked a faint, dangerous undercurrent.

Yan Jiuzhi’s instincts were razor-sharp.
In his previous life, he had survived countless pursuits and ambushes relying on that very intuition the sense that warned him of unseen danger.

This time, it wasn’t killing intent or hostility.
It was… wariness? As if the Venerable regarded Li Xi as something uncertain, unpredictable.

He was still mulling this over when Li Xi appeared.

She wore a light yellow dress, her hair pinned up with a tiny cat-shaped ornament. She looked bright and sweet, lively as spring sunshine.

How could someone like her possibly pose a threat to a tribulation cultivator?

Unless… there was something about her identity that wasn’t as simple as it seemed?

“Third Senior Brother, do you know any household-protection charms? I want to draw some to hang at home,” Li Xi asked in her soft, sweet voice, pulling him out of his thoughts.

“Yes. I’ll teach you.”

He had actually investigated her background before.

After all, it wasn’t every day a mysterious little junior sister suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He’d traced her lineage carefully she really was the biological daughter of the Li family.

“I want to draw under the osmanthus tree. I like it there,” she said, eyes sparkling.

Yan Jiuzhi, as always, indulged her. Soon, he set up a small table and two chairs beneath the fragrant tree and began teaching her how to draw a Peace and Protection Talisman.

The charm itself wasn’t difficult, and Li Xi’s talent for talismanry was decent. Before long, she was drawing smoothly, one after another.

As her brush moved like a dragon across the page, golden light flickered into the paper. When the final stroke landed, the talisman shimmered faintly gold.

She’d entered a quiet, meditative state without realizing it and when she looked down, the finished charm seemed different from both her previous ones and her senior brother’s.

What was going on?

“This one’s quite good,” a calm, melodious voice said suddenly. “It carries your wish within it.”

Startled, Li Xi looked up only to find Venerable Chengyuan standing there.

She quickly rose and bowed respectfully.

Chengyuan glanced at the talisman, then at her clear, earnest eyes, and smiled faintly.
Keep it. Paste it at home. Its power will surpass the usual kind it carries your sincere intent, and that makes it far stronger.