Deep in the night, heavy rain poured down.

A bolt of lightning tore through the night sky, striking the large tree at the entrance of Changning Village. The entire tree was severed at its waist, flames sprouting from it before being instantly extinguished by the torrential rain.

Su Zhuyi groggily opened her eyes. She found herself lying beside a tree that had been struck and broken by lightning, with most of her body sunken into mud. Rainwater struck her body, ice-cold, making her shiver violently as her upper and lower teeth chattered together grinding with rattling sounds.

Was she dead? Or not dead? Was this the lightning-struck Wangtian Tree?

Her mind was confused and muddled, her eyes couldn’t see clearly. She only felt as if her entire body had been run over by a cart—everything hurt all over. She barely managed to prop herself up and crawl forward, leaving that puddle that was nearly swallowing her body whole. She lay down on a rock, and after completing all this, the exhausted Su Zhuyi fainted again…

“Get away, get away…”

In her daze, Su Zhuyi heard a little girl’s frightened cry. She opened her eyes as intense light stabbed into them, causing her to tear up immediately. The sky had been washed crystal clear by rain, the scent of earth rushing into her nostrils. Mixed within was also a faint bloody smell and a disgusting dog odor that made her frown slightly. She blinked, and when the scene before her eyes became completely clear, Su Zhuyi was first stunned, then looked down at her own body…

A skeletal, thin, small body, many dog bite wounds on her arms, tattered and ragged clothes…

She stared blankly at her small palm, standing stupefied for a long while before throwing back her head and laughing wildly.

She had returned.

Time had reversed. The Liuguang Mirror had brought her back over a thousand years. Yes, this was Changning Village. She should only be five years old now, still fighting with dogs for food every day…

“Don’t come over, get away!” The girl child in front of her, with her back turned, was waving a willow branch, trying to drive away a vicious dog. She was only six or seven years old. Though Su Zhuyi couldn’t see her face, though this had happened over a thousand years ago, Su Zhuyi remembered what that girl child looked like, remembered her expression then, even remembered her every movement…

She was Su Qingxun.

Su Qingxun, whom she had protected with all her might during the Xueluo Sect days. When someone came to rescue them, she had given the opportunity to Su Qingxun. Many years later, when her hands were covered in fresh blood and she had killed countless people, she never touched Su Qingxun. She would even occasionally show great mercy and spare the senior brothers and sisters with her. It was also Su Qingxun who ultimately led her into a trap and caused her downfall.

Su Zhuyi’s gaze was sharp as a blade. She stared coldly at Su Qingxun’s back, thinking: “How fucking stupid was she back then? Just because this damn girl waved tree branches to drive away wild dogs twice, she gave her entire life, her very existence to her.”

She sneered inwardly, then lowered her head to pick up a small pebble from beside her.

Su Zhuyi slightly curved her fingers. As long as this pebble shot out, it could penetrate that thin, small body and eliminate her early, saving future annoyance. She smiled with wicked intent, flicked her finger, and saw the pebble fly crookedly about three feet before it didn’t even touch a corner of Su Qingxun’s clothes.

Su Zhuyi: “…”

Damn it, she had forgotten that her current self had absolutely no cultivation and she still wanted to kill someone with a pebble. She was so excited that she had become stupid!

The slight commotion of throwing the pebble aroused the wild dog’s ferocity. The wild dog howled, crouched low in an attacking posture, ready to pounce. Su Zhuyi frowned, her ears twitching slightly as she sensed rapid footsteps approaching from behind. She steeled her heart, flipped over, climbed up, and shouted: “I’ll help you.”

Then she ran forward one step, deliberately tripped herself, and directly knocked Su Qingxun toward the wild dog that was just pouncing. Just as she was about to enjoy watching the wild dog open its big mouth and tear at the girl child with its fangs, Su Zhuyi suddenly felt a piercing pain in her heart that made her let out a miserable howl of agony. The commotion was too great, the sound too sharp, directly frightening the wild dog into a shudder. She clutched her heart and rolled on the ground—it hurt so much she wished she were dead. What the hell was happening?

Just then, a stone fell from the sky and struck the wild dog’s head. At the same time, a deep voice shouted: “Get lost!”

The wild dog immediately cowered, tucked its tail, and ran away!

The man behind them was Su Qingxun’s father, Su Xiang. He now strode forward and looked Su Qingxun up and down, confirming she wasn’t hurt before breathing a sigh of relief. Then he said unhappily, “I told you not to run around everywhere. This area is full of beggars—what are you doing here?”

Su Qingxun looked delighted, her eyes wet as she said crisply: “Father, my kite fell over here. When I came to get it, I saw that dog trying to bite someone, so I wanted to drive the dog away…”

She looked down at Su Zhuyi curled up on the ground: “Father, what’s wrong with her?”

“Don’t meddle in other people’s business.” Su Xiang coldly glanced at Su Zhuyi. “This is someone driven out by the main Su family of Yongan Town. If anyone sees us helping her, it will cause big trouble.” He took Su Qingxun’s hand to leave, but seeing Su Qingxun standing still, looking at the dirty girl on the ground without moving, he immediately said impatiently: “Stop looking, don’t look anymore.”

He reached out and pulled, directly lifting Su Qingxun to sit on his shoulders, laughing heartily: “Come on, let’s go home. Your mother made pancakes today.”

“Mm.” Su Qingxun nodded in response.

But after walking some distance, she looked back at the small figure curled up on the ground, showing a pitying expression on her palm-sized face. She thought for a moment, took out a piece of candy from her pocket, gently tossed it out, and threw it beside Su Zhuyi’s feet.

…

Only after Su Qingxun and her father had gone far away did the pain in Su Zhuyi’s heart ease. She slowly propped herself up to sit, looking at the small piece of candy on the ground and the pebble that happened to lie together with the candy. She reached out and tightly grasped both the candy and the stone in her hand.

After sitting in place for a moment to rest, Su Zhuyi caught her breath. She slowly moved to sit on a bluestone by the roadside, lifted her thin layer of clothing a bit, and looked at the area around her heart.

A five-year-old body with a flat chest like a washboard—the difference was huge.

She had barely any flesh on her, hungry like skin and bones. On her chest was a red mark that looked somewhat ominous. Su Zhuyi had never had any birthmarks on her body before. Could that be the Liuguang Mirror? She touched it but didn’t feel anything inside. Right, where had the Liuguang Mirror gone? She couldn’t sense the Liuguang Mirror’s existence. Had it disappeared after one use?

Su Zhuyi rubbed the red mark on her chest twice. It didn’t hurt now, but the mark’s color grew deeper the more she rubbed it, looking like blood had seeped out. Also, after rubbing off the black mud and dirt on her body, the mark’s range had expanded somewhat, looking like…

She pulled her collar wide open, even burying her head inside her robe to look, then lifted her head and tore another hole in the already broken robe. Su Zhuyi cursed angrily: “Old Dog Qin, your damned ghost won’t leave me alone!”

No wonder he had spat that mouthful of blood on her heart then!

He had placed a Zhuxin Curse on her in such a short time!

This curse was carved right on her heart. As long as she did anything that violated the caster’s wishes, she would suffer heart-eating agony.

She didn’t know exactly what curse Old Dog Qin had placed on her!

Just now, when she tried to harm Su Qingxun, her heart hurt like ten thousand swords had pierced it. Was it forbidding her from killing his precious disciple, or forbidding her from killing and harming people in general? The former would be slightly better, but if it were the latter, Su Zhuyi felt her revenge enterprise and her Great Dao eternal life had suffered a fatal blow, like a basin of cold water poured over her head, extinguishing half her ambitions.

“Damn you, Old Dog Qin, setting me up even before dying. I curse you to be struck to ash by heavenly thunder and die without a burial place.” After cursing for a long time, Su Zhuyi suddenly thought that if the caster died, this curse would also cease to exist. But now this curse was still fine, meaning Old Dog Qin was also living well.

The Qin Jianglan from over a thousand years ago was indeed living well now…

Since time had reversed and everything started over, how could this damned curse still exist? Su Zhuyi couldn’t understand. She only wanted to immediately rush to the Yunxiao Sect and slaughter Qin Jianglan! She stood up with a whoosh, but before she could show her might, she felt dizzy and her stomach rumbled several times—she was truly panicking from hunger…

Su Zhuyi opened her hand and looked at the two small things in it, sighing softly after a long while.

She opened her fingers, letting the small pebble in her hand fall through the gaps between her fingers to the ground, then took out the candy, unwrapped it, and put it in her mouth, crunching it to pieces in a few bites.

The candy was sweet.

The sweet taste melted and spread on her tongue tip, filling her entire mouth with a clear, sweet fragrance, like flowers blooming between her teeth with an endless aftertaste.

Su Zhuyi looked up at the sky, and after a long while, smacked her lips: “Fine, since you won’t let me kill your disciple, I won’t kill her. After all, I already got my revenge and took her life in my previous lifetime. This time, I’ll spare her life.”

When she had just obtained the Liuguang Mirror, she had countless times imagined what she would do after repairing it and being reborn.

If she returned to childhood, she would kill in advance all those who humiliated her, harmed her, and avoided her like a viper—killing gods if gods blocked her way, killing Buddhas if Buddhas blocked her way. But now that she had truly lived again, looking at the small bamboo buildings of Changning Village, she suddenly no longer had that intense desire to personally destroy everything.

The Pure Heart Incantation that Qin Jianglan had recited for six hundred years probably had some effect after all. Su Zhuyi looked at the rows upon rows of bamboo buildings and houses at the other end of the small village, looked at the post-rain rainbow beyond the verdant distant mountains, and smiled with narrowed eyes.

Anyway, they would all die—she didn’t need to act in advance.

Su Zhuyi smiled, stood up, straightened her robe, and slowly walked toward the riverside. Under the sunlight, her thin weak body cast a long slender shadow. Her body was frail and delicate, but within it contained the energy to reverse time.

No one would know that hidden in that small, fragile body was someone who had once been covered in blood and made countless people tremble with fear—a female demon head.

Everything starting anew was truly wonderful.

Of course, it would be even better if Qin Jianglan were dead.

Thinking of the Zhuxin Curse on her heart, Su Zhuyi felt a headache coming on. Forget it, forget it—she’d take things one step at a time.