HITA Chapter 22

“The person who instructed me to do it is the sect leader of Jade Palace Sect—Ran Feng.”

“So it’s him.” Shi Shuiyue couldn’t help but be stunned by his words. Something in her mind seemed to gradually become clearer. 

Xie HAO sighed and helplessly said, “Now, I’m afraid that he will attack my family. You must know that Ran Feng may seem like a gentleman on the surface, but he has, in secret, done things far worse than me!”

Shi Shuiyue felt her head faintly aching. With her brows slightly creased, she wondered what actually went wrong. It was all messed up—this plotline was completely wrong!

“All plans have failed now, so I’m guessing that his next goal will most likely be the Token of Connected Hearts.” Xie HAO continued. 

“Token of Connected Hearts—what is that?” Shi Shuiyue was somewhat confused when she heard this new term. This was never mentioned in the story. Could it be that her appearance triggered a butterfly effect? But she had clearly followed the storyline of the original host ah…

Xie HAO looked at Shi Shuiyue in disbelief, “You actually don’t know about the Token of Connected Hearts?”

Shi Shuiyue shook her head honestly, “I don’t know.”

The maidservant beside her couldn’t bear to continue letting her sect leader embarrass herself, so she came over and explained, “The Token of Connected Hearts is a long-lost secret order in the Jianghu. It’s the only thing left by the great leader who unified the Jianghu at that time. The token badge contains a blood pact signed by everyone, and everyone also swore to obey the orders of the person who possesses the Token of Connected Hearts…”

“Wait.” Shi Shuiyue suddenly interrupted the maidservant’s words. She looked at her in slight confusion and asked, ‘What’s a blood pact?”

The maidservant readily answered, “A blood pact is a contract made by dripping blood. If one breaks the contract, then one’s entire family will die.”

Shi Shuiyue: “…” That was kind of scary ah.

“How do you know that the whole family will really die? Maybe it’s just a lie.” Shi Shuiyue thought of the modern world and couldn’t help but rub her nose. In fact, she didn’t really believe in these superstitions from ancient times. 

As soon as the maidservant heard her words, she became a little excited. She leaned over and whispered to Shi Shuiyue, “Sect Master, you must believe it. There were people who didn’t believe it, and they even broke the blood pact. Well, their entire family was wiped out the next day!”

Shi Shuiyue: ‘The way you’re saying it makes it seem like I was the one who did it.’

“And all those who broke the blood pact later all ended up in the same way!” The maidservant tsked a few times, and then said, “That scene was really terrifying!”

Shi Shuiyue: “…” But the way she said it didn’t seem terrifying at all. It kind of sounded like she was taking pleasure in other people’s misfortune. 

Seeing that they had finished talking, Xie HAO finally interjected, “I have told you everything that I can. You must keep your promise, or else I’ll haunt you even when I’m a ghost!”

As a cannon fodder, he should just shut up. Shi Shuiyue took a look at him, and then turned around to leave. 

“Aiya.”

Clink–clink–clink

Crack!

Shi Shuiyue ran into the room because she wanted to drink some tea. However, as soon as she picked up the teapot, she suddenly felt a headache. She loosen the grip on her hand and the teapot shattered into pieces on the ground. 

“Ahhh—” As if she was enduring immense pain, Shi Shuiyue lay on the table with her eyebrows tightly creased together.

Tang Xing, Ran Shu, murder, Jade Palace Sect, Wulin League… A bunch of random things flashed through her mind, and finally froze on a blood-stained dagger. 

“AHHH!” As if her head got hit hard by something, Shi Shuiyue screamed unbearably and fainted. 

In the dark night, as if the sky was smeared with boundless ink, there wasn’t even a faint glimmer of the stars, and only the faint light of the moon shone alone in the sky. The shadows of the trees were reflected by the moonlight onto the tightly-shut windows. A dim orange glow gradually emitted from inside the windows, and a misty fog also rose from the other side of the gorge. The tranquil lilac bush—with flowers yet to bloom—stood still basking in the beautiful moonlight. All the flowers were moist with dew, and they were all distinctly separated. The fusion of the light and shadow looked like a devil’s face, which appeared extremely eerie.

The window was opened, and fresh air rushed inside. Shi Shuiyue softly sighed, and then sat down. She stared at the mind map that she drew up on the table and couldn’t help but fall deep into her thoughts.

The headache that she had earlier did seem like the ones that protagonists of transmigration novels get when they receive information on the plot. However, based on the information that she just obtained, Shi Shuiyue found out about something. 

This novel wasn’t complete yet.

That was right! Shi Shuiyue had only read a portion of the novel, and the author hadn’t even written the latter parts of the novel.  

At the moment, she only knew the small portion that she had read before she transmigrated to this world. 

But something still didn’t make sense ah… Shi Shuiyue stared at the word ‘antagonist’ that was written beside her name. If she was the biggest antagonist of this novel, then how could she die so early? Could it be that she wasn’t the biggest antagonist, and was just a mere cannon fodder?

“Ay…” Shi Shuiyue couldn’t help but sigh. She sat down on the chair and turned her head to look up at the sky outside the window. For a moment, she didn’t know what she should do. 

Not a sound could be heard that night. Only the movement of the leaves made gentle rustles before being blown away by the wind again. It was so quiet that it was somewhat scary.

“Token of Connected Hearts?” His slender finger involuntarily tapped on the table, and an unclear emotion flashed through his pair of bottomless eyes. Tang Xing seemed to have thought of something and couldn’t help but sneer, “Just a bunch of clowns.”

Wu and Ling knelt on one knee in front of Tang Xing. With their heads bowed, they didn’t say anything.

“Oh right, what about Ran Shu?”

“Already taken care of.” Wu motioned a gesture of cutting one’s throat.  

Tang Xing nodded his head in satisfaction. He stood up and looked out the window. Shi Shuiyue’s face appeared in front of his eyes again, and he couldn’t help but chuckle. 

‘Don’t worry—it will be taken care of soon.’

At this time—Jade Palace Sect.

BANG!!!

“Sect Leader, please cease your anger!” More than a dozen disciples quickly knelt down. They lowered their heads and didn’t dare to look up at Ran Feng, who had a terrible expression on his face. 

Ran Feng suppressed his anger and slammed his hand on the table. The table instantly shattered into pieces. He angrily roared, “You can’t even keep an eye on one person—what use do I have of you?!” After he said that, he couldn’t help but throw the expensive tea cup that was on another table at them. 

The disciples felt indignant, but didn’t dare speak up. They could only endure Ran Feng’s wrath with their heads lowered. After all, Ran Shu went missing under their watch. Although they had lost track of Ran Shu because she had run around on her own, her father was the sect leader. Thus they had no choice but to be punished!

When Ran Feng looked at the disciples below, he was so angry that he flicked his sleeve and left. 

The disciples finally lifted their heads and breathed a sigh of relief as they watched Ran Feng leave. Then they immediately started to complain. 

“It’s clearly Ran Shu who got lost on her own—how is it our fault ah?!”

“Yeah, that’s right! I seriously can’t stand that young miss’s temper. She asked me to buy things, yet also complained that I was too slow. It’s Delicacies Pavilion—would it be that easy to buy things from there? Seriously…”

“Hey, I heard that the Wulin League got defeated by the Hundred Poison Sect this time, is it true?”

“I also heard about it. The entire Wulin League got wiped out! Even the leader got captured!”

“Hey, wait a moment, isn’t Eldest Young Miss Ran Shu engaged to the son of Wulin League’s leader. Then, in this current situation…”

“Tsk-tsk, it’s likely to fall through!”

“You guys really don’t know the inside story. My older cousin told me that the eldest young miss and the Wulin League leader’s son has already consummated, so she will have to marry him whether she wants to or not!”

“Huh? Something like that happened?” 

“Alright–alright, stop chatting. Hurry up and go find the eldest young miss, otherwise the sect leader will scold us again!”

“Ok, ok, ok…”

Ran Feng returned to his own room. He turned the porcelain vase on the table and a hidden compartment popped out of a shelf nearby. Ran Feng took out the thing inside—it was a scroll painting. He placed the scroll on the table and opened it. It was a portrait of a beautiful young woman dressed in blue clothes. Ran Feng couldn’t help but be dazed by her faint smile.  

“Jin’er…” Ran Feng couldn’t help but caress the portrait with his hand. He seemed to have recalled the time they spent together in the past.

“Don’t worry, Jin’er, I will definitely save you.” Ran Feng murmured.

  ——

Ran Shu opened her eyes and looked at the dark environment around her with a muddled gaze. Where was this place? She rubbed her aching head. There seemed to be something hard beside her feet. Ran Shu looked down and saw that it was the spooky white bone of a human hand. Ran Shu was so scared that she screamed out loud—this place was a mass grave?!

A gust of wind blew in the forest, and Ran Shu couldn’t help but shiver. 

“Where is this place?” Ran Shu hugged herself in fright. 

She was clearly watching TV at home. Just as she was about to take a bathroom break before continuing to watch TV, there was a sudden flash of white light and she ended up here!

Ran Shu hugged herself and suddenly felt that there was something off with her clothes. She looked down and saw that it was actually the ancient attire only found in TV dramas!

OMG! She didn’t get transmigrated, right?! 

There was a sudden burst of pain in her head, and Ran Shu crouched down as she held her head in pain.

After a while, she recovered and looked at her surroundings. She helplessly said, “What did I do to deserve this…”

  ——

“Ranran, let’s go out!” Her friend’s voice sounded from downstairs, so Yu Ranran could only agree and hurriedly saved the novel before going downstairs with her handbag. 

On the monitor that wasn’t shut off was a web-novel site, and the screen was currently fixed on the title page of a novel.

The title of the novel was—Miss Transmigrator’s Adventures in Jianghu. There was a small field of text beside it that said—previously known as The Path of Wulin.

  ——

Ran Shu suddenly paused, and as if nothing had happened earlier, she looked at the dark environment surrounding her. Then she muttered questioningly, “Where is this place?”

No one answered her question, and only the rustling sounds of the leaves seemed particularly loud in this environment. 

“Could it be…I transmigrated?!”