Chapter 008

The system was back.

This fact surprised Zhaoxue even more than the news it brought, so much so that when she left in a hurry, she barely noticed she couldn’t find her identity token—she just flipped through her things symbolically and left the back mountain.

“Where were you before? There’s been no news for such a long time.”

【Previously, I suspected there was an error in the system’s mechanism for detecting favorability toward the target, so I temporarily went offline for repairs.】

Although Zhaoxue didn’t understand some of the terms very well, she roughly got the meaning and hurriedly asked, “So, did you find a problem?”

【No.】

There was actually a somewhat complicated tone in the reply.

Only then did Zhaoxue breathe a sigh of relief. After a pause, she continued, “Then… what exactly is this favorability detection? Can a person’s favorability really be measured with numbers?”

【Originally, no. But to make it easier for the host to track mission progress, we quantified the favorability toward the target. When the host first has physical contact with the target after logging into this system, the favorability progress is unlocked. The system will notify the host at 0, 60, 80, 98, and at full value.】

“It’s not real-time? Can I see the exact numbers?”

【No. As you just said yourself, favorability toward someone can’t really be measured by exact numbers. The numbers mean different things for different targets. We developed this system just to help the host with their tasks, so please don’t become dependent on the numbers—that would be dangerous.】

Zhaoxue was silent for a moment.

The numbers mean different things to different people. So what does sixty mean to Ji Xueshou?

Is it someone deeply trustworthy, or just a friendly neighbor type?

Unconsciously, she had walked all the way back to the mansion. Although few knew she had sneaked out, Zhaoxue returned through the main gate. Because the system had returned, she told Ji Xueshou to go back on his own—there was no way to climb over the wall. She nervously went back to her room.

Before long, her eldest sister would definitely come to scold her.

Zhaoxue suddenly remembered something.

“The eldest sister’s senior brother—the one who rescued me from the lake that day.”

“Has his favorability been unlocked?”

【Unlocked.】

“So, what’s the number?”

Zhaoxue didn’t even realize her voice was a little nervous.

【Above 0.】

Above zero, but below sixty.

Zhaoxue actually let out a breath.

She had truly thought earlier that Jiang Lingfeng’s favorability toward her would be below zero.

At that moment, when he pushed aside her talisman with his sword and looked at her, his gaze was colder than ever before, and his words showed no trace of emotion. The terrifying aura of a cultivator froze her in place—she couldn’t move or take a step forward. Heaven only knew how she had summoned all her strength just to break free and chase after Taxue.

He must feel some guilt about her falling into the water.

“Oh, right.”

Zhaoxue said, “I suddenly want to ask about what you said earlier. You mentioned ‘suspecting an error in the favorability detection mechanism.’ What was that about?”

The system didn’t answer immediately.

How could it explain that it believed the current favorability of the target toward the host was too high—so much so that it deviated somewhat from the original story?

In the original plot, Ji Xueshou was cold and world-weary, unable to understand mundane rules, observing the world with detached eyes, following his own way of dealing with people. That was why he later withdrew from the world and ultimately became a demon lord.

In the earlier stages, he didn’t care about anyone except his white moonlight, Zhaoyang. Zhaoxue was merely a tool he used to get close to Zhaoyang. Normally, the favorability value should have been around 20, and it would gradually decline later on.

But now…

The moment it came back online, the system was informed that this guy’s favorability had actually exceeded 60!

After inspection, the system confirmed its detection mechanism had no issues.

So, what kind of problem is going on in his mind? Or did the plot already diverge during the years it was offline?

【You do not have permission to know.】

That was all the system could tell Zhaoxue.

This was a good thing, but anything running off the original track could still cause some unease, so it decided not to tell Zhaoxue in advance. Fortunately, Jiang Lingfeng’s favorability was fine.

Zhaoxue felt a bit disappointed: “If you won’t say, then forget it.”

Just as the system worried she might want to ask more, there was a knock on the door.

“Miss, the lady requests your presence.”

Zhaoxue hesitated, then stood up.

It wasn’t her eldest sister calling her this time. Could it be about her sneaking out?

As she pondered, she reached the door and noticed that recently, the gossip about her around the mansion had decreased a lot, and some faces had changed.

She pushed open the door. Inside the study, an orange-yellow floor lamp was lit, incense smoke curling up, making it much warmer than outside.

“Mother.” She bowed slightly.

The family head was not home today.

The soft clinking sound of porcelain. Shen Qing gently set her brush down on the brush holder, smoothed the paper, and said, “I’ve heard everything from your eldest sister. You said you want to go with her to hunt demons—what exactly are you thinking?”

Zhaoxue lowered her head, pressed her lips together, and remained silent.

So it was about this matter.

Although Zhaoxue knew they would eventually come to her because of this, she didn’t expect it to be so soon.

“Your eldest sister said your determination is strong. She can see how resolute you are. But you’ve never had the foundation to cultivate, and your body is weak. Not to mention that the path of demon hunting is extremely dangerous, even just the long journey ahead is more than your body can endure.”

Shen Qing’s gaze finally rested on her. “Zhaoxue, tell me about your determination.”

“I don’t have any,”

Zhaoxue wasn’t sure if her voice trembled.

“Nothing special. I just want to prove myself.”

Shen Qing paused, “Prove yourself?”

“Yes.”

“Prove what?”

Zhaoxue took a breath and clenched her sleeve tightly.

“To prove that I’m not someone with nowhere to go.”

In front of them, Zhaoxue couldn’t reveal her true thoughts.

But somehow, she didn’t want to tell them flattering lies either.

After a long silence, the woman’s voice slowly sounded, “Then where do you want to go?”

Zhaoxue was taken aback.

She thought Madam would ask her something like, “Then how do you plan to prove it to me?” But instead, she asked where Zhaoxue wanted to go.

For a moment, she couldn’t answer.

According to the original story, she would follow her eldest sister to hunt demons and eventually return to the Sword Sect, where the main storyline would officially begin. But if that were the case, she wouldn’t be able to explain it to Shen Qing, and besides, that wasn’t the place she truly “wanted to go.”

Zhaoxue didn’t know where she wanted to go, her future was too uncertain.

“So, Zhaoxue, it’s not that you want to go somewhere,”

Shen Qing said, “You just want to leave here.”

Zhaoxue’s heart tightened.

The words she wanted to say but dared not were seen right through by Shen Qing.

What should come next? Would she be questioned about why she wanted to leave, or would she be accused of being an unfilial daughter after all these years in the Shen family?

But to Zhaoxue’s surprise, Shen Qing said nothing.

Zhaoxue felt the scent of incense fill her nose just as she heard Shen Qing’s cold voice:

“I will think carefully about this matter. It’s getting late, you should go back and rest.”

Zhaoxue knew that in their mouths, every “think carefully” really meant “this is hopeless, don’t even think about it.” But that was exactly what she expected.

She nodded, suddenly feeling tired, not even wanting to bother with formalities, and prepared to turn and leave.

But when she looked up, she suddenly saw clearly what Shen Qing was writing.

—”Xue.”

But Zhaoxue knew that wasn’t her name.

A long time ago, before she was abandoned in the snow, Shen Qing was supposed to have a daughter.

“My daughter will be born on a snowy day—this snow brings good fortune and blessings—so I will name her Zhaoxue.”

This name was meant to carry the family’s beautiful wishes, just like “Xueshou.”

But because of Shen Qing’s relentless hard work and a relapse of an old injury from her youth, she suffered a miscarriage on a snowy day.

She chose the name “Zhaoxue” for her daughter whom she had never met, but the heavy snow witnessed her sending her child away with her own hands.

After that, she visibly fell into depression and lost weight, no longer personally handling the family’s affairs. She handed over the family business and its reputation to her husband, who is now the head of the family. Until two months later, during the last heavy snow before spring arrived—

The family head found Zhaoxue, abandoned in the snow.

Zhaoxue knew she was not loved by her mother. She had heard from others that a child who grows up without a mother’s affection would become a miserable person.

When she was little, she never received Shen Qing’s care or praise. She was just an abandoned girl picked up from the snow by the family head, meant to comfort the wife who had just miscarried. But ironically, it backfired and only made her despised more. Everything about Zhaoxue came from them—even her name was inherited from that dead child. She didn’t even have any grounds to blame them.

Zhaoxue clenched her palm tightly but couldn’t even feel the pain.

“If I had known earlier…”

Her voice was very soft, slightly hoarse, like a feather soaked in water, dragged down into the gray dust.

“If I had known it would be like this, I should have been left to die in the snow in the first place, shouldn’t I?”

With no position to speak, this was a truly rebellious thought.

But Zhaoxue couldn’t control herself.

That child had been gone for more than ten years, yet Shen Qing still remembered her. But here she was, alive and standing right in front of her mother, and her mother couldn’t see her.

Zhaoxue felt deeply sad—she felt sorry for herself.

After she finished speaking, she turned and left without looking at Shen Qing’s expression.

As soon as she pushed the door open, she heard the system’s hurried and anxious voice.

【When I logged off, did you mention to Shen Zhaoyang that you wanted to join the demon-slaying?】

“Yes.”

Zhaoxue walked slowly step by step on the bluestone path, waving away the maid beside her.

Her eyelashes drooped, her body bathed in cold, clear white moonlight, her expression gloomy and heavy with low energy.

“My eldest sister’s senior brother indirectly caused me to fall into the water, so I asked her to agree to one request as compensation. That’s why I brought it up.”

【Are you crazy?】

The system found this request utterly unbelievable, something with an almost zero chance of happening.

【You know you’re just an ordinary person—no, even less than an ordinary person. Even the low-level disciples of the Sword Sect can’t join this demon-slaying expedition. How dare you ask Zhaoyang for such a thing?】

“What do you want me to do?”

The cold wind slipped into Zhaoxue’s sleeves and collar. She returned to the courtyard and gave a bitter, self-mocking laugh.

“I’m just a mortal without talent or foundation, the ‘cannon fodder’ you all talk about. Do you want me to abandon my dignity and beg Ji Xueshou to give up his future and stay for me? Even if he agrees, his family won’t, and even then, I still couldn’t complete the mission.”

Her figure wavered. She held onto the stone table, bent over, and began coughing violently.

Her tone gradually dimmed.

“I can only be trapped within these walls for my whole life until I die. That’s my fate. Aren’t you clearer about this than I am?”

【……】

The system felt that it had indeed been too anxious just now.

It watched the human girl it was bound to, frowning tightly and coughing in pain, and realized that some strange emotion called “pity” seemed to have crept into its data.

【Sorry. I didn’t consider your feelings. The mission assigned by this system is indeed difficult for someone like you, who has lived secluded in the inner chambers with almost no chance to go outside.】

Zhaoxue waited until the rise and fall of her chest steadied and took a breath. She tried to suppress all her emotions, making her tone sound stable and indifferent:

“…You just realized that?”

She slowly walked back, her voice cool. “During those days you disappeared after I fell into the water, do you know how lost I felt? I even thought you weren’t real, just an illusion I conjured out of despair over all these years.”

【Sorry, I won’t log off carelessly anymore.】 The system asked her again, 【Then how do you know I’m not just a hallucination of yours?】

“No one wants to make themselves a bad dream.”

Zhaoxue said.

Shadows of trees gathered, and moonlight wavered softly. The wind blew through the gaps in the leaves, making a rustling sound.

The system’s database experienced strange fluctuations caused by its host’s words, still uneasy.

The system knew this unease amplified its anxiety.

Although Zhaoxue’s self-mockery and reprimand dispelled some of the feeling it had been holding since sunset, this situation lasted less than fifteen minutes.

Soon, it finally detected the source of the lingering, strong uneasiness.

At the moment the door was pushed open, alarms blared in Zhaoxue’s mind:

【Be careful!!!】

But it was still too late.

The moment the door opened, a masked figure lurking in the dark room rushed out, restraining Zhaoxue’s body and movements, and covering her mouth and nose with a coarse cloth containing a sedative.

After carefully observing the surroundings, they hoisted her onto their shoulder and quickly left the residence like a shadow.

In that instant, Zhaoxue only felt darkness before her eyes and the pungent, heavy drug smell blocking her sense of smell.

She lost consciousness and fell.