Chapter 1: Whoever I Choose, I Die

At the grand disciple-selection ceremony, I was just about to hand the Azure Jade Token to the boy in white below the dais when a line of tiny, blood-red text appeared before my eyes.

【Give it to him! Hurry! Qin Lang is the destined male lead, born with an Innate Sword Heart. Ten years from now, one swing of his sword will seal the Demon Abyss!】

My hand froze.

Before I could feel relieved, a second line appeared.

【But you, the stepping-stone master, are doomed. You only take the hero and leave the villain Gu Chen behind. Seven years later Gu Chen slaughters his way back to the sect, and the first person he sacrifices to his banner is you.】

Me: “…”

Then the red text began to scroll like mad, as if a thousand people were talking at once.

【Look down the steps! The kid in black being dragged out by the stewards, that’s Gu Chen!】

【Nobody takes him today, so he gets expelled. Three years later he turns demonic, seven years later he massacres the Xuantian Sect.】

【Wait, so what if she doesn’t take Qin Lang? The male lead holds grudges forever. In the original he killed his own martial uncle over a single insult.】

【One future Sword Sovereign, one future Demon Lord. Whichever one she picks today, the other kills her later.】

【LOL, she dies no matter who she picks. What a script!】

I looked down at the Azure Jade Token in my palm.

My name is Shen Yunci. I am the Peak Master of Azure Cloud Peak, in the middle stage of Spirit Transformation.

Outsiders say I am cool and otherworldly, indifferent to fame and gain.

The truth is I’m just lazy.

Reaching Spirit Transformation was exhausting enough. I don’t want to compete, I don’t want to fight. I only want to shut the door of my cave and sleep for another three hundred years.

The only reason I was sitting here today was a rumor that this year, each personal disciple came with a separate allowance of spirit stones from the sect.

And instead of spirit stones, I had been handed my own death sentence.

I looked up.

Qin Lang stood in the middle of the stage, his back as straight as a sword. Sixteen years old, late Foundation Establishment, and the entire square was gazing at him like he was the bright moon.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the stone steps, a thin boy in black was being dragged away by two stewards.

His wrists were crisscrossed with old scars. Between his brows was a very faint dark mark.

“Mixed spiritual roots, demonic qi in his bones,” the steward said coldly. “No peak will take him. By the rules, he is expelled.”

The boy didn’t struggle, and he didn’t beg.

He only looked up at the high dais once. There was no hope in that look. He looked like someone long used to being thrown away.

I sighed inwardly.

You say I die no matter who I pick.

Then let me do the math.

If I take Qin Lang, seven years from now Gu Chen comes for my head.

If I don’t take Qin Lang, he holds a grudge. But so what if he does? He’s the male lead. He has destiny on his side, and everyone will be fighting to raise him. Someone who has everything won’t die from losing one master.

But if nobody takes Gu Chen, he walks out of the sect gate today and becomes a Demon Lord in three years.

Then it’s simple.

I just have to make sure nobody has a reason to hate me.

I stood up.

“Qin Lang.”

The boy in white immediately cupped his fists. “Disciple is here!”

“An Innate Sword Heart is suited to the killing path of the sword. Azure Cloud Peak cultivates the mind and nourishes qi. It’s slow and leisurely. It won’t suit you.”

I turned to the sect leader, Wen Changfeng.

“Senior brother, your Heavenly Sword Peak holds the most complete sword lineage in the whole sect. Take this child. Consider him my recommendation.”

Wen Changfeng was stunned for a moment, then looked as if he’d just picked up a bar of gold.

【???】

【The master is giving the male lead AWAY???】

【Smooth. Offends no one and earns a favor.】

Qin Lang was dumbfounded.

He had already prepared his words of discipleship. He had already pictured himself becoming the disciple of the only female Spirit Transformation cultivator in the sect.

He opened his mouth. “Master…”

“I haven’t accepted you,” I said lightly. “Your master is standing right next to me.”

His expression stiffened for a moment. Just a moment, before he bowed his head and saluted Wen Changfeng.

But I saw it.

His fingers had clenched until they were white.

【Welp. The male lead will remember this.】

I didn’t look back.

Holding the Azure Jade Token, I walked straight down the steps. The whole square watched me, and nobody understood what the laziest Peak Master in the sect was planning to do.

“Stop.”

The two stewards let go in surprise.

The boy in black collapsed onto the stone steps. I stopped in front of him.

“Your name is Gu Chen?”

He raised his head. His eyes were black, deep, cold and full of wariness.

“…Yes.”

“Do you want me as your master?”

Gu Chen looked at me like I was insane.

“Does Senior know what’s inside my bones?”

“I know.”

“Then why would you take me?”

Now that was a good question.

Everyone who had ever “taken” him in had done it for what was inside his bones.

I thought about it for a moment and answered honestly:

“Azure Cloud Peak is short on someone to sweep the leaves.”

Gu Chen: “…”

【Pfft.】

【That’s the most broke reason to take a disciple I’ve ever heard.】

The boy stared at me for a long time, as if trying to dig even a speck of falseness out of my face.

Then he slowly knelt and knocked his head against the stone.

“Disciple Gu Chen greets Master.”

I placed the Azure Jade Token in his hand.

The moment our fingertips touched, the red text before my eyes exploded.

【WARNING! The cannon-fodder character just took the villain home!】

【Amazing. Now nobody knows who kills who in seven years.】

【I bet she doesn’t survive past chapter ten.】

I brushed off my sleeves and led my newly picked-up disciple up the mountain.

Go ahead and bet.

My life is mine. I’ll keep it myself.