A Sect Leader's Daily Life - Chapter 1

It was my hundred and twelfth year as a supporting character in a novel, and I thought I might have fallen for the male lead.

How could I, a terror of the immortal realm, fall for my own disciple? And compete with my granddisciple for him, at that?

If word got out, how could I, Sikou Dan, ever show my ancient face again?

But looking at the tall, impossibly handsome disciple before me, I couldn’t stop this old heart of mine—which had been beating for centuries—from fluttering.

Oh, right. The novel I’d transmigrated into was called My Wickedly Charming Master Fell for Me. Well, that wasn’t actually its title. It had been so long that I’d forgotten the real one. That was the general idea, anyway.

The wickedly charming master was my disciple Meng Xun. The heroine was his disciple, Qin Wan.

As for me, I was a disposable supporting character. I should have died ages ago to clear the way for the male lead.

In the original novel, Sikou Dan was the junior fellow disciple of the Xuanxiao Sect’s leader. She found the orphaned male lead in the mortal world and took him as her disciple. Being the male lead, he was naturally a once-in-an-age prodigy. Whatever he learned, he picked it up fast.

Later, master and disciple fell into a trap set by demons during a mission. Sikou Dan traded her life for Meng Xun’s chance to survive.

That was what planted his deep hatred of demons.

Afterward, Meng Xun trained even harder, eventually became an eminent immortal, and took the heroine as his disciple.

The Demon Lord, naturally, fulfilled his duty as the second male lead.

When the sect leader passed away, he left the position to Meng Xun, the strongest of them all. Meng Xun swore to wipe out every demon and monster under heaven, bringing the immortal and demon realms to the brink of war. The heroine couldn’t choose between the two great powers pursuing her. How melodramatic would this epic love triangle become? Tune in next time to find out!

Wait. No.

Anyway, after I arrived, I knew I was destined to die. But the book hadn’t bothered to explain exactly when or where the male lead’s master died, or any other useful details. Getting stronger was my only option.

To keep myself alive, I helped myself to the heroine’s cheats on multiple occasions, mostly by jumping off cliffs. You know how these things work. With the help of secret manuals, spiritual medicines, and even divine beasts, I became absurdly powerful.

I survived the disaster that should have killed me. But afterward, perhaps because this world thought I shouldn’t exist, it kept throwing obstacles at me in an effort to erase me.

To stay alive, I trained like mad.

In the end, I survived—and became the sect leader.

For over a hundred years, I’d thought of nothing but cultivation and getting stronger. Then Meng Xun brought Qin Wan before me, and for the first time, something else stirred in my heart.

“Qin Wan greets Grandmaster.”

The girl below my seat was sixteen, all youthful vitality and plump, fresh skin. She called me Grandmaster in a sweet voice.

Right. I was an old woman now. My darling disciple was actually an old fossil too, but men were men. Even if they lived as long as a thousand-year-old tortoise, they’d still love girls of eighteen. Surely they wouldn’t fall for a woman of a hundred and eighty.

As I quietly mourned, Meng Xun noticed my prolonged silence and called, “Master?”

I sighed. “After all these years, this is the first time I’ve seen you take a disciple. Let this Heavenly Treasury Scripture be my welcoming gift.”

With a wave of my hand, a roll of bamboo slips appeared before Qin Wan.

Calling it one of the cultivation world’s greatest treasures would have been no exaggeration. Anyone who began their cultivation with the Heavenly Treasury Scripture would find their future training twice as effective for half the effort.

Qin Wan didn’t know how remarkable it was. She accepted it properly and thanked me politely.

Surprise appeared instead on Meng Xun’s handsome, usually expressionless face. “Master, this Scripture was never sect property. You obtained it through your own fortunate encounter. Is it appropriate to give such a precious manual to a new disciple?”

Honestly, Qin Wan was supposed to find this manual by falling off a cliff. I’d taken it and used it, but eventually I had to return it to its rightful owner.

Sure, I’d borrowed her cheat. But I’d jumped off the cliff for her. She got the Heavenly Treasury Scripture without lifting a finger. She wasn’t losing out here.

Having successfully brainwashed myself, I cleared my throat and put on my sect-leader air. “I’ve already mastered this Scripture. Keeping it would be a waste. Better to give it to Qin Wan and wish her swift progress in her studies.”

Since I’d said so, Meng Xun offered no further objection. He simply had Qin Wan kowtow a few more times.

I looked at the pair below me: one ethereally elegant, the other lively and bright. They suited each other so well that it made me unhappy.

“You may go.”

Qin Wan obediently left. Meng Xun remained planted there.

He still looked just as he had when I first arrived: immaculate frost-white robes, an intricately patterned silver hair crown securing his waist-length black hair, a face as fine as jade. The very image of a beautiful, untouchable man from a novel.

Those eyes, bright as the moon, were fixed on me. “Are you entering seclusion again, Master?” His voice was cool and clear.

To absorb all those cheats, I’d spent these years going into seclusion over and over. Once I’d mastered one, I’d come out, find the next, and shut myself away again. Rinse and repeat.

But I’d now made every cheat mentioned in the book my own. I’d probably even forced myself to the very peak of the immortal realm’s combat rankings. There was no need to keep going into seclusion.

“No. I’m taking a break for a while.”

Meng Xun’s brows drew together slightly. He seemed hesitant. “Then… have you found another cliff, Master?”

Everyone knew that Sikou Dan, distinguished leader of the Xuanxiao Sect and a revered power of the immortal realm, had two great passions in life: secluded cultivation and jumping off cliffs.

Since my strength increased dramatically after those jumps, people assumed I’d discovered some unique method of training. I actually set off a cliff-jumping craze across the cultivation world.

Apparently, the cliffs I’d jumped from eventually became major tourist attractions in the immortal realm.

I was guilty.

“Xun, these old bones of mine have had enough. I won’t be jumping off cliffs again, or going into seclusion so often.” Now that my chances of survival seemed reasonably secure, I intended to settle into retirement.

“Master, you’re not old at all.” Meng Xun looked at me firmly. Those star-bright eyes were wonderfully convincing. Just as I began to feel comforted, he added, “You’re only two hundred and nine. In the prime of your life.”

“…” Please shut up.

I struggled to lift the corners of my mouth and look reassured. “You’re quite right, Xun.” My smile was strained.

A faint smile rested on Meng Xun’s face instead, reaching all the way to his eyes. “You’re hardly any older than me anyway, Master.”

I’m several decades older than you, all right? But you’re handsome. Whatever you say goes.

Having stayed behind specifically to offer me these few words of “comfort,” Meng Xun left too.

I sat alone in the lofty hall. The wind stirred its white drapes. Looking at the vast, empty chamber, I suddenly felt a little sad.

I’d spent a century desperately cultivating to stay alive. I’d fallen for someone who was destined never to be mine. And at last, I was going to become this world’s supreme, lonely ruler.