"Your swordplay is weak and your moves are clumsy and stiff. Useless! Disgraceful! How can such trash compare to me! You're an embarrassment to me!"
"No dinner for her today. Make her repeat what I taught her yesterday a hundred times. She's not allowed to sleep until she finishes!"
The middle-aged man, in a fit of rage, flicked his sleeve, uttered these words, and left.
"Oh, my young master, can't you show some effort?" The plump aunt looked at Bai Shengyi with a mix of pity and anger, then took out a sword manual. "Come, practice according to this."
Bai Shengyi didn't move. She tried to resist the flow of events, but found her body moving forward involuntarily.
So Bai Shengyi said again, "I won't practice."
"Won't practice? If you don't practice, you're trash! If you don't practice, are you worthy of the servants or the madam?"
Bai Shengyi's words seemed to flip a switch, instantly provoking the plump aunt. She reached out and grabbed Bai Shengyi's neck.
A sense of suffocation washed over her. Bai Shengyi's consciousness blurred, and when she woke up again, she was standing outside the village.
The plump aunt grabbed her hand, "Oh, young master, thank goodness I finally found you..."
It's happening again.
"Interesting."
This time, Bai Shengyi refused when the middle-aged man asked her to practice swordplay. As expected, she died again.
Bai Shengyi died seven times in a row before finally understanding this illusion.
As long as she didn't resist the development of the important plot points in the illusion, meaning she reacted according to what the characters said, the illusion would continue. However, no matter what her reaction was, the words and actions of the characters in the illusion wouldn't change.
For example, this time, she got used to the heavy sword and swung it with practiced ease, but she was still scolded by the middle-aged man, and the plump aunt still gave her the sword manual to practice.
Bai Shengyi mimicked the moves from the sword manual, thinking to herself, it seemed the only way to understand the purpose of this illusion was to obediently follow the plot.
"Slap!"
A dull pain struck her arm. The plump aunt withdrew a wide paddle and lectured, "Young master, you made a mistake in this move. You have to do it again. This attempt doesn't count."
Bai Shengyi glanced at the sword manual, then mimicked the moves again. She had done it flawlessly, yet the plump aunt still said, "Mistake, do it again."
"Mistake again, do it again."
"Do it again."
...
The endless repetition severely damaged Bai Shengyi's self-confidence. She detested this feeling. She had done perfectly well, but the woman in front of her acted as if she couldn't see it, constantly negating her.
Just as Bai Shengyi was about to resist the plot again and truly repeat everything, the plump aunt finally said, "That's enough. Practice it like this a hundred times."
Bai Shengyi looked up. The sky had already darkened to a deep black, and the moon hung clearly in the sky, as if mocking her weakness. A true sense of frustration welled up in her heart. Gripping her sword, she began to practice the moves from the sword manual repeatedly.
A hundred repetitions, so what? She'll do it!
Whatever she learned was hers anyway, and practicing wouldn't hurt.
The consequence of this was that by the time Bai Shengyi finished the hundred repetitions, it was already dawn. As she was about to go to sleep, the plump aunt said, "Young master, it's time for morning practice."
Bai Shengyi: ...
After a sweaty morning practice, at the dinner table, Bai Shengyi finally met the madam mentioned by the plump aunt. The woman appeared to be someone with a mournful expression.
Seeing Bai Shengyi, she sighed with disappointment and said, "Why aren't you a boy? Why can't you attract your father's favor? Why are you so useless?"
The more she spoke, the more agitated she became, and the more hideous her expression grew.
She even grabbed Bai Shengyi's head and slammed it onto the table. Bai Shengyi wanted to resist, but her body seemed frozen, preventing any movement.
This was another unyielding plot point.
When the woman was tired of scolding and hitting, she had the plump aunt take Bai Shengyi to practice swordplay.
Practice swordplay, practice swordplay. Her life seemed to consist of only this one thing, from morning till night, from childhood to adulthood.
In the blink of an eye, Bai Shengyi found her body growing larger. She had grown into a young man of seventeen or eighteen, and had become exceptionally skilled in the Sun Family Sword Manual, truly the foremost among her peers.
"Master said that tomorrow we will arrange the ceremony for the young master to succeed as the head of the Sun family. Young master, think about how useless and inept you were in the past. It's all thanks to the madam's good upbringing of you. You must not forget the madam's kindness."
The plump aunt said to Bai Shengyi, "Tonight, the madam has invited Master to dine together. You must attend."
"Alright," Bai Shengyi lowered her gaze.
From the moment she saw the words "Sun Family Sword Manual," she suddenly felt that her initial understanding might have been wrong.
This illusion was not conjured from nothing.
Almost the moment the plump aunt finished speaking, night fell.
Bai Shengyi followed the plump aunt forward and saw a flicker of discomfort cross the madam's face. Then, she smiled sweetly and said, "Ying'er, come quickly. Your father has something to tell you."
The middle-aged man said, "You are almost eighteen. Girls of your age are already married and established. I have also found a good marriage for you. Lou Zhongyuan of the Lou family is quite suitable. Prepare yourself, you will marry him next month."
"Suitable? A cripple who lost his wife at thirty-seven, who has a son, and keeps several mistresses outside, this is considered suitable?"
Bai Shengyi looked at the scene before her in astonishment. She was still the young master, but the one speaking was not her. She was like an observer, hearing unresigned words spill from her own mouth.
"Father, I have practiced swordplay for fifteen years and am the most talented person in the Sun family. Why are you doing this to me?"
"Because you are a woman! What if you are the most talented, can you inherit the Sun family as legitimately as your brother?"
"Brother?"
Bai Shengyi saw the madam lowering her head, caressing her belly, and smiling affectionately, "Ying'er, don't argue with your father. He's doing this for your own good. Oh, right, I'm pregnant. Master Mei said it's a boy. Are you happy?"
Happy as hell!
Bai Shengyi regained control of her body and immediately overturned the dining table!
Damn it! She really couldn't stand it anymore! What kind of absolutely rotten relatives were these!
"I think I'll be happier if you two get together in the underworld!" Bai Shengyi drew her long sword and charged at the head of the Sun family.
Her Sun Family Swordplay had reached a perfect state, and with the recovery of her spiritual energy as she grew, within ten moves, she had the head of the Sun family completely at her mercy. She thrust her sword towards his heart.
"Crack..."
The sound of something shattering.
Bai Shengyi heard someone say, "See? I told you there are people like me who can't wait to kill those two scoundrels. Bald donkey, are you convinced you lost this round?"
"Benefactor Sun, it is understandable for a child to resent and hate their parents for their faults. However, to create unwarranted killings and be entangled by karma, this poor monk still cannot agree."
The illusion shattered inch by inch. Bai Shengyi saw the madam and the plump aunt in front of her about to disappear like fragments. Her heart stirred, and before the two behind her turned into dust, she swiftly delivered two sword strikes to each.
She had wanted to do this for a long time.
She was not one to just take abuse!
Not even an illusion!
"Not bad. This temper is very much like mine."
A clear and pleasant voice came. Bai Shengyi then noticed, not far ahead, a bald male cultivator and a sword-wielding female cultivator sitting before a Go board.
The female cultivator's form was ethereal, like a mere shadow of light. She held a white piece and placed it down, her calm expression carrying a hint of amusement. "Bald donkey, you lost."
The male cultivator, clad in a brown monk's robe, had a face devoid of emotion. His dark eyes, however, were fixed on Bai Shengyi.
"Buddhist cultivator from the outer continent?"
"Person from the continent of God's Abandonment?"
Bai Shengyi and the male cultivator spoke simultaneously.