Bai Li.
Fu Yan could not be more familiar with that name—but not because Bai Li ranked first among the Shuiling Sect’s inner disciples.
It was because she was one of the male lead’s harem in the novel.
If Fu Yan remembered correctly, in the book Bai Li possessed a once-in-a-millennium Pure Yin Physique.
Her cultivation progressed with half the effort for twice the result, and she was also one of the top beauties in the entire Minbei Region.
Dressed in white, bright and cold as the moon, her clear eyes unruffled like still water, she would stand in the distance with sword in hand, like a goddess who had descended to the mortal world—noble, untouchable, beyond all defilement.
She was the goddess in the hearts of countless genius youths.
That was how the original book described Bai Li’s first appearance.
Even now, when Fu Yan thought back on it, she broke out in goosebumps, feeling the thick stench of Mary Sue from start to finish.
A Pure Yin Physique—one of the most overused settings in cultivation novels.
Rare, sure, but the moment it appears, it has only one function: to be used as the best possible furnace.
Cliché or not, this book had the same setup.
Bai Li might be a renowned genius girl of the Minbei Region, but at the same time, she was also a furnace carefully raised by the Shuiling Sect.
The sect master of Shuiling had groomed her specifically for his son, Yu Heng.
Once the time was ripe, Yu Heng would strip Bai Li of her Yin Origin and break through to the Huaxu stage in one go.
Of course, once she met the male lead, everything naturally went off-script.
Fu Yan remembered: during an expedition into a grand secret realm, the male lead and Bai Li accidentally got poisoned together, and Bai Li’s Yin Origin was mistakenly taken by the male lead.
When she woke up, Bai Li was furious and tried to kill him.
But of course it was all just some harmless fighting.
And like that, their relationship rapidly heated up.
When Bai Li, now without her Yin Origin, returned to the sect, she did her best to cover it up.
But in the end, the sect master of Shuiling still found out and imprisoned her.
By that time, under the nurturing care of his massive golden finger, the male lead was no longer some weak, nameless nobody.
Once he heard the news, he went alone to Shuiling Sect and, with his own strength, wiped out the entire sect.
Naturally, the ending was that the male lead took Bai Li under his wing.
Fu Yan thought back over the plot and felt it was absurdly melodramatic, like every possible bargain had been reserved for the male lead alone.
Her thoughts returned to the present.
On the plaza, Fu Yan watched as all the inner disciples rushed toward the arena, because she had just heard someone say that Yu Heng was going to challenge Bai Li.
She paused for a moment.
She had originally planned to go to the Martial Arts Pavilion to pick out a sword technique, but now she turned and headed toward the arena as well.
She had no intention of getting involved with anyone related to the male lead, but a match between Yu Heng and Bai Li was still a clash between geniuses.
Watching that kind of battle would definitely be enlightening for them.
Very soon, Fu Yan arrived at the arena.
The place was already packed.
There were five to six hundred inner disciples, both male and female.
Considering the inner sect only had around eight hundred disciples in total, more than half were already here.
Fu Yan found a relatively quiet corner, sat down, and prepared to properly observe the match.
The duel time hadn’t arrived yet, so the two main participants were nowhere to be seen.
Fu Yan was in no hurry; instead she pricked up her ears and listened to the gossip around her.
“Is Senior Brother Yu Heng really going to challenge Senior Sister Bai?” someone asked doubtfully.
“I didn’t hear anything about this before.”
“You were out training down the mountain and just got back, of course you don’t know,” someone replied.
“This match was set two months ago. Senior Brother Yu Heng has wanted to challenge Senior Sister Bai Li for a long time, but Senior Sister went into seclusion to cultivate two months ago, so it kept getting postponed until today.”
“Yeah, yeah. Senior Sister Bai Li only came out of seclusion a few days ago, and Senior Brother Yu Heng happened to still be out training. Later, Senior Sister Bai Li went to the Red-Black Mountain Range for a trip. Both of them just returned to the sect yesterday,” another person added.
When she heard “Red-Black Mountain Range,” Fu Yan paused for a moment.
After all, she had spent the last two days there too.
Of course, the difference was that Bai Li had gone down the mountain to casually get some practice in, while Fu Yan had been in a desperate fight for her life, almost leaving her corpse behind in those mountains.
“…”
Someone suddenly spoke again.
“Who do you guys think is going to win this match?”
“Do you even need to ask? Of course it’s my goddess, Senior Sister Bai Li. I heard she’s about to break through to the great perfection of the Kaiguang stage. Senior Brother Yu Heng is strong, but he’s still a bit weaker.”
“I think so too. Ever since Senior Sister entered the inner sect, she’s never stepped down from first place. These past years, hasn’t Senior Brother Yu Heng challenged her several times? When has he ever won?”
“That’s not necessarily true,” someone quickly argued back.
“You didn’t see it, but a month ago, when third-ranked Lin Zihao challenged Senior Brother Yu Heng, he couldn’t even take three of Senior Brother Yu Heng’s palms.”
Aside from the brainless fans, there were still some more rational disciples analyzing seriously.
“It’s really hard to say. Senior Sister has always been improving, but Senior Brother Yu Heng hasn’t fallen behind at all either. It’s already been a year since their last match. In a whole year, anything could happen.”
“What’s the point of guessing? We’ll know as soon as the match is over!”
While they were tangled up over who would win, Fu Yan didn’t have much to say.
She was certain without even thinking about it that Bai Li would win.
After all, Bai Li was one of the female leads.
At best, Yu Heng was just a stepping stone.
“Look, Senior Brother Yu Heng is here!”
As that thought crossed her mind, Fu Yan heard an exclamation rise from the crowd.
She paused and looked up at the arena.
A figure slowly walked onto the platform.
He wore a jade brocade long robe cinched at the waist, with a qi-rich jade pendant hanging at his belt.
His hair was tied up into a high topknot, the white hair ribbon floating elegantly behind him.
This was Yu Heng, the only son of the Shuiling Sect’s master.
And Bai Li was precisely the furnace that the sect master had cultivated specifically for him.
Fu Yan studied him from head to toe with some curiosity.
At first glance, he did look like a handsome, refined young lord.
But Fu Yan knew full well that he was a thoroughbred, petty and vicious villain.
“Ahhh!! Look, look, Senior Sister Bai is really here!!”
Someone suddenly shouted, and in an instant, all eyes in the arena turned to the newly arrived Bai Li.
Fu Yan was naturally curious whether Bai Li was really as beautiful as she’d been described in the book.
She immediately widened her eyes and looked over.
Sure enough, the newcomer was dressed all in white.
Her long hair fell down her back like a waterfall.
The moment Fu Yan saw her profile, only one thought appeared in her mind.
The original book did not lie to me.
For an instant, Fu Yan felt like she was actually looking at a fairy.
She was really ethereal—her entire body seemed to be wrapped in immortal aura.
