Changning Village had large trees at both ends. When Su Zhuyi awakened, the tree had been struck and broken by lightning, but despite such a massive thunderstorm, the crooked-necked old tree at the other end of the village was completely unharmed, still lush and verdant.

That old tree was probably several thousand years old.

After Xueluo Sect massacred the village back then, they set it ablaze. The old tree was also burned to nothing, flames leaping up to the ninth heaven, dyeing the clouds at the horizon crimson red.

Su Zhuyi suddenly remembered that day when Changning Village was ablaze with soaring flames. They, a group of over ten children, were tied together with rope like a string of little quails, hanging stupidly in midair, watching the village where they lived being devoured by great fire, those familiar people struggling and wailing in agony in the firelight, watching that peaceful village transform into a living hell.

Several children were frightened unconscious, and the few who remained awake cried heartbreakingly. The only one who stayed calm without shedding a single tear was Su Zhuyi herself.

She had no feelings for Changning Village.

There was even a trace of joy in her heart, a strange sense of pleasure, like a tingling sensation crawling up her spine from her tailbone, making even the back of her neck feel hot, causing her whole body to tremble—that was the shudder of excitement. So she was born a demon head. Qin Jianglan reciting the Pure Heart Incantation for six hundred years, thinking he could make her reform, was truly wishful thinking.

When young Su Zhuyi faced the village massacre and death, she wasn’t afraid. Instead, she felt satisfaction and excitement. Who told you all to bully me and set dogs on me? Now it’s good—you’re all dead!

“I want to become strong too, as powerful as those people, able to kill whoever I want!”

She was silent and calm, gazing down at that sea of fire with cold eyes, observing that destruction that made blood boil. It was precisely this calmness and coldness that made her stand out among the twelve boys and girls, earning special attention from the Xueluo Sect cultivators.

Now, looking at this crooked-necked old tree again and recalling that scene, Su Zhuyi suddenly remembered certain things she hadn’t cared about as a child, certain things she had forgotten that contained intriguing secrets.

During the village massacre, the fire burned for a day and night, and they, this group of children, were hanged upside down for an entire day. In the end, only she remained conscious. She even received a pill as a reward for this, something the other children knew nothing about. Without that pill, she probably wouldn’t have been able to persist through the subsequent training, not due to insufficient will, but because her body was too frail.

Su Zhuyi remembered that other things in the village burned quickly, but that old tree burned for a very long time. The Xueluo Sect cultivators would occasionally make hand seals and throw things onto the tree. After the tree burned completely, they even set up a barrier beneath it.

She had seen it then but didn’t know what those cultivators were doing. Later, struggling to survive daily, how could she care about how the tree was? If she hadn’t returned a thousand years ago and seen this old tree again, she would never have remembered this detail. But now that she recalled it…

Su Zhuyi walked beneath the old tree and began observing by moonlight.

Because the tree was so ancient, the villagers believed it had a spirit. The tree was wrapped with many red cloth strips, and many incense sticks were inserted beneath it, though now, at night, the incense fires had all died out.

She reached out to pick a leaf, crushed it between her fingers, and brought the crushed leaf fragments to her nose to smell. She detected a faint fresh fragrance with a wisp of spiritual energy within, so refreshing that she took a deep breath.

Changning Village had no spiritual springs or veins. The spiritual energy between heaven and earth here was pitifully scarce, almost negligible. If so, why would these old tree leaves contain spiritual energy? The spiritual energy between heaven and earth remained very thin, even around the old tree. Su Zhuyi looked around, then crouched down to dig a hole with her hands, excavating some wet mud.

The mud had nothing special about it either…

Moonlight was pure as jade, filtering through gaps in the leaves and casting patches of light on the ground. Su Zhuyi grasped a thin root, snapped it off, and carefully sniffed it. Indeed, she sensed spiritual energy. She used her sleeve to clean the broken root section, peeled off the outer bark, and directly ate the inner root.

The spiritual energy in the root was even more concentrated than in the leaves. Though an ordinary tree and not a spirit plant, it already contained spiritual energy equivalent to low-grade medicinal herbs. Su Zhuyi chewed while thinking—where did this spiritual energy come from?

All living things between heaven and earth could cultivate, but the process of plants absorbing heaven and earth spiritual energy for cultivation was much longer, with more restrictions. After all, for long periods, they were rooted in place, unable to move at all. But once they succeeded in cultivation, their strength would certainly not be underestimated.

The old tree was originally mundane, but through fortuitous circumstances absorbed spiritual energy into its body. Long-term spiritual energy nourishment gave it a certain spiritual intelligence, which is why the Xueluo Sect cultivators used secret techniques when burning the tree to destroy the tree spirit.

This great tree had lived for several thousand years. Its roots had spread who knows where. Investigating would be quite difficult for her, but she now had a place to stay temporarily. Staying by the old tree daily to observe, eating tree roots and bark, and cultivating the meridian-moistening technique would surely be much better than wandering around like a headless fly. Thinking of this, Su Zhuyi leaned against the tree, pulled off two more leaves, and chewed while thinking. Soon, she had a plan.

The cultivation world had many magical treasures for detecting spiritual energy. The simplest was the spirit-seeking disk, which wasn’t difficult to make—just an iron needle, a lodestone, plus a spirit stone and an array plate. Changning Village definitely couldn’t buy such things since the villagers here were all ordinary people. Once she had some spiritual energy in her body, she could try making a spirit-seeking disk.

A crude spirit-seeking disk wasn’t practical for treasure hunting, but she could use it to detect the concentration of spiritual energy in these tree roots and follow the trail. The closer to the treasure location, the denser the spiritual energy would be. This way, she could determine the approximate location.

If it was Ji Wuxin’s remains—that is, his tomb—he couldn’t possibly have buried himself deep in the earth’s core. When the time came, she could dig some holes and might be able to unearth the grave.

Su Zhuyi’s body was only just over five years old. After being tired all day, leaning against the great tree while thinking, she gradually became drowsy. Her eyelids were too heavy to keep open. As sleepiness overcame her, Su Zhuyi couldn’t hold on anymore. She slowly closed her eyes and soon fell into deep sleep.

When she woke the next day, there were already sounds of commotion around her. Before Su Zhuyi opened her eyes, she sensed the presence of people nearby. Thinking this was bad, she squinted her eyes open a crack, wanting to see where there might be gaps in the encirclement to slip through the crowd and escape. But just as her eyelashes fluttered, she heard a voice say: “She’s awake, she’s awake!”

Since pretending to sleep wouldn’t work, then…

She suddenly opened her eyes, planning to fight her way out through a bloody path, only to find a bowl of white porridge before her. A middle-aged woman wearing an apron held the porridge in her right hand and chopsticks in her left, looking at her with a gentle expression.

Beside the middle-aged woman stood a seven or eight-year-old boy. Seeing her awake, the boy rolled his eyes unhappily and thrust the steamed bun in his hand toward Su Zhuyi, pretending to be fierce as he said, “Here!”

Eh?

Su Zhuyi was stunned. The current situation was very different from her memories. In the past, if villagers discovered her, being beaten was common. Everyone didn’t want her to stay in Changning Village, saying she was unlucky, a jinx who had killed her parents.

But the next moment, she understood.

“Where did this little monk come from? Actually, so hungry that he’s eating tree roots? Didn’t your master teach you how to beg for alms?”

Originally, she had been filthy all over with a dirty black face where you couldn’t even see her natural skin color. Now that she had washed her face and body clean and shaved her head bald, though her clothes were torn, they were clean and neat. At her young age, gender wasn’t distinguishable, so the villagers took her for a little monk and thus offered her a bowl of vegetarian food.

She had been rejected before, actually, because she was someone driven out by the Su family. The villagers of Changning Village were timid and afraid, unwilling and not daring to offend the Su family. They also needed to curry favor with the Su family, so they kicked a lone girl when she was down. But setting aside Su Zhuyi’s identity and the worry about offending the Su family, some people were willing to lend a helping hand.

Qin Jianglan, you see, this is the goodness you spoke of—how hypocritical.

Su Zhuyi sneered inwardly. She couldn’t manage false kindness, so her former self had chosen true evil.

But now, Su Zhuyi licked her lips, smiled sweetly, put her palms together, and said: “Amitabha, many thanks, benefactor.”

Now, she chose white porridge and steamed buns.

“Changning Village has no temple. Where did you come from, monk?” While she was eating the steamed bun, several more youths gathered around. One of them was older, probably around ten years old, wearing coarse clothes with several patches on his pants. He had a thin, long scar on his brow from fighting as a child.

Su Zhuyi had some impression of this youth. He was the last to die, the last youth killed by Su Zhuyi. But this was also over a thousand years ago—Su Zhuyi had long forgotten his name.

“Zhang Enning, this little monk looks quite handsome.” A six or seven-year-old boy nudged the youth with the scarred brow with his elbow. “Since your family is poor and you definitely won’t be able to marry a wife in the future, why not take this little monk home to raise?”

“Pfft…”

Su Zhuyi nearly spat out her mouthful of porridge. Just as she looked up, she saw Zhang Enning punch the boy, directly knocking him to the ground. The boy cried loudly while the youth who had given Su Zhuyi the steamed bun curled his lips and said: “Knowing you can’t beat him but still provoking him every day—are you stupid?”

“Your mother is a fox spirit who specializes in stealing men, so her son is also a bastard…” The youth on the ground cursed while crying. Zhang Enning rushed over and kicked him twice more. At this point, several villagers hurried over to pull them apart, and one of them slapped Zhang Lin hard, swelling half his face.

Seeing this, Su Zhuyi understood why Zhang Enning could persist to the end.

He also had hatred.

But he still had a mother.

There was still a soft place in his heart, so in the end, he died, and Su Zhuyi lived.

“Hey, you still haven’t said where you came from.” The steamed bun youth spoke again.

“Pujue Temple.” After eating and drinking her fill, Su Zhuyi went to the well not far from the tree to fetch some water to wash the bowl clean, planning to return it to the steamed bun youth. But she saw him wave his hand and say, “You don’t even have a begging bowl for alms, so I’ll give you this bowl. Where is Pujue Temple? Is it in Yongan Town? How did you come to Changning Village? Came alone? Oh my!”

“Not in Yongan Town.” Su Zhuyi shook her head. “It’s separated from Yongan Town by a river and several mountains, belonging to Rongcheng territory.” Under the shocked gazes of this group of boys and girls, Su Zhuyi lowered her head and smiled sadly. “I came with my master. We heard the sacred tree here had spiritual power and came specially to pay respects. Who knew that while crossing mountains some days ago, we encountered fierce beasts, and my master was severely injured and passed away.”

Having lived so long, making up stories to deceive children was effortless. While speaking, she could even redden her eyes, making the children sigh with sympathy.

“Don’t be too sad. Our sacred tree is very spiritual—it will bless you.” The steamed bun youth, who had been fierce before, now spoke in a gentler tone. “Though my family isn’t well-off, we can afford a bowl of porridge. If you’re hungry in the future, come find me.”

When he said this, Zhang Enning clearly glanced at the old tree with obvious disdain in his eyes. It seemed that even though this old tree had spiritual intelligence, its cultivation was limited and its influence in Changning Village insufficient.

Speaking of this, the steamed bun youth paused and said through gritted teeth: “But there won’t be steamed buns…” Seeing the little monk look up at him pitifully, he said: “Then, then I’ll share half with you.” He was at the age of growing, and his family only gave him one large white flour steamed bun daily. Having given it to the little monk today, he had none for himself, which was why he had been fierce earlier. But now, seeing this little monk was quite pitiful, he was moved to compassion. Though reluctant, he agreed to share half his rations.

Su Zhuyi pressed her lips together. “Many thanks, benefactor. I can just eat tree roots.”

The youth’s eyebrows shot up. “How can eating tree roots work? The whole steamed bun is yours, all yours—is that okay?”

Su Zhuyi: “…”

Living again, through a series of coincidences, she was mistaken for a little monk. Her situation wasn’t as difficult as in her previous life. Did this indicate that her future path should also be adjusted?

Thinking of those righteous hypocrites who did evil but could find righteous justifications, killing people while receiving applause, Su Zhuyi’s eyes lit up.

She could be bad in less obvious ways, bad more subtly, wearing the skin of famous righteous sects while doing bad things behind the scenes. Ah, just thinking about it was somewhat exciting!