Reborn as My Nemesis's Junior Sister - Chapter 1

When Shen Fuchen returned to the sect, something about him had changed. He was so withdrawn, so unlike himself, that Master had to call him several times before he came back to his senses.

“The matter is settled, child. Stop dwelling on it.”

“This is your junior sister. Take good care of her from now on.”

“It was quite a coincidence, really. She had lost seven of her ten souls, but her aptitude was extraordinary, so I brought her back to study her condition. Who would have thought her souls would return to their proper places? I decided to accept her as my disciple.”

“The Kunlun Sect is fortunate to have her.”

Yes. The Kunlun Sect was very fortunate indeed.

My lips curved into a smile, light shimmering in my peach-blossom eyes. When Shen Fuchen met my gaze, he looked dazed.

It was as though he saw me, yet through me he was looking at someone else.

“Senior Brother, I heard you killed that demon with your own hands. Was she fierce? Did she have three heads?”

He stared blankly for a long time. “She… was only a young woman…”

Was that so? A young woman whom he had stabbed three times?

Seeing his mind wander again, Master steered the conversation back. “My dear disciple, you know the only real fortune I’ve ever had is with my disciples. When it comes to the sword, I can’t compare with you. You’ll have to put some effort into teaching this child.”

“Fuyao, aren’t you going to thank your senior brother?”

I immediately gave him a perfectly respectful salute. “I hope Senior Brother will favor me with his guidance.”

Shen Fuchen stood silent as a jade statue. Only after a long while did he nod.

“Your name is Fuyao?”

I beamed at him. “Yes. I’m Xie Fuyao.”

With my aptitude, soaring ninety thousand li into the heavens was only a matter of time. My very name, Fuyao, promised as much.

Despite having once been the Demon Sovereign, I settled into the Kunlun Sect remarkably well.

Every day, I practiced swordsmanship and martial arts, meditated and recited scripture. In my free time, I farmed and fished. I got along rather well with the disciples my own age too.

Listening to them tell stories about me was a special kind of entertainment.

They piled every crime imaginable onto my head without the slightest mercy. I had supposedly massacred a secret realm, seduced the Buddhist Holy Son, bedded ten women in a single night, butchered righteous cultivators, and even slaughtered demonic cultivators—one thousand people in a day.

Thank the heavens that Shen Fuchen, radiant champion of the righteous path, had killed such a thunderbolt-worthy fiend with a single stroke of his sword. Otherwise, why, the cultivation world would have been doomed.

“Wonderful! What a marvelous story!”

It would have been even better if I hadn’t been the person they were talking about.

When that secret realm was massacred, I had merely been a lackey. I killed three people at most, and all three were scum who had tried to assault female cultivators.

The claim that I seduced the Buddhist Holy Son was even more absurd. I defeated him openly and honorably, then took his sarira.

How had that become a tale in which I bewitched him into offering the relic up with both hands?

And ten women in one night? Since when did I swing every possible way? One moment I was involved with the Buddhist Holy Son, and the next I was with ten women?

What outrageously filthy gossip!

As for killing demonic cultivators, that part was true. There were too many people I couldn’t stand, every one of them sacrificing entire cities to heaven and committing every atrocity under the sun.

Once I rose to power, what was I supposed to do—keep feeding them instead of killing them?

“What nonsense are you spouting?”

A tall, somber figure stepped out from behind the trees, his eyes dark as a bottomless pool.

His white robes were not the immaculate white of untouched snow. They looked more like mourning clothes.

Shen Fuchen had spent these past days more dead than alive. It was rare to see any spark of life in him now.

Thin anger crossed his usually placid face. His brows drew tight, his gaze deep and cold.

“You are disciples of the Kunlun Sect, yet you so readily believe marketplace rumors distorted beyond recognition. Shameful.”

The others shrank like a covey of quail shivering in the winter wind.

His gaze swept across the crowd and came to rest on me. “Xie Fuyao. Get over here.”

I scampered to his side and trotted obediently at his heels.

Whatever Shen Fuchen was thinking, his steps grew heavier and heavier until he finally stopped before a cliff wall.

“Mu Yuntang was not evil.”

“She simply had no choice.”

His lowered lashes trembled. A glint of light suddenly fell, but before I could see it clearly, he turned away and continued up the stone stairs.

Was he… crying?

My heart itched as though the tip of a cat’s tail had brushed across it.

To think my death had affected him so deeply. I had not been wrong to regard him as my nemesis.

Shen Fuchen and I stood on opposite sides, one righteous and one demonic. We were the foremost talents of our generation, and whenever chance brought us together, conflict was inevitable.

Our fates crossed again and again. Though we were enemies, it was because of each other that we grew so quickly.

At first, I had envied him. He was born with sword bones and carried righteousness in his very bearing.

I was different. I had grown up in the Demon Realm, so all I could do was rot to the bitter end in that lightless world.

The sky there was forever gray. Hostile energy mingled with demonic qi, and cultivating in it year after year warped a person’s nature.

It made people irritable and violent, cruel and bloodthirsty.

There were no gentle souls in that place. Every last one was a demon who killed without blinking.

I survived by being cautious, slippery, and accommodating.

I carried corpses, scrubbed away blood, and smiled until my face ached, doing whatever it took to stay alive.

Then I finally grew strong enough to kill every person who had ever tormented me.

Weakness meant you could be bullied. Kindness meant you could be deceived.

The world drove people toward cruelty. It was not until I reached the Golden Core realm and my superiors sent me into the cultivation world that I learned there was another way to live—clear as wind beneath a bright moon, untouched by dust.

That was when I met Shen Fuchen.

I hid in the shadows and watched their every move. Everyone from the Demon Realm knew the cultivation world was full of hypocrites.

And the greatest hypocrite of them all was said to be Shen Fuchen, the Kunlun Sect’s chief disciple.

Everyone praised his chivalrous heart, his peerless swordsmanship, and his extraordinarily handsome face.

The moment I saw him, my eyes had no room for anyone else.

I loved watching him, examining him, waiting for the day he revealed his dark side.

The world was filthy. What right did he have to remain spotless?

But no matter how long I watched, he did not seem to be pretending.

That only made him more interesting.

The day I struck, I met his sword head-on. I had observed him for so long that I had memorized every technique he used, while he knew nothing about me. I won a resounding victory.

I won every encounter after that too.

I waited for rage to twist his face. I waited for defeat and public condemnation to crush the breath from his lungs.

Yet other people’s criticism never drew a speck of darkness out of him. He said only, “My skill was inferior.”

What?

Wasn’t he supposed to hate me enough to want me dead?

To hell with his serene indifference to praise and humiliation. He only made my teeth itch more.

Remembering all this as I stared at his back, a hundred new ways to torment him sprang into my mind.

Unfortunately, I was only a Foundation Establishment cultivator now. Even with the finest cultivation aptitude, absorbing spiritual energy whether I walked, stood, sat, or slept, I had not had enough time.

I could not ascend to the heavens in a single step.

Several sinister arts for stealing other people’s cultivation surfaced in my mind. But no! I had been granted another life. I absolutely could not burden it with senseless slaughter.

I was Xie Fuyao—Xie Fuyao, whose future shone without limit.