Chapter 4 RJS Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – Where Did This Little Demon Come From?

In the middle of the night, Song Zhen noticed vague shadows moving near her window, accompanied by hushed voices.

An old woman whispered, “This girl doesn’t look like she’s from a rich family. But that sword of hers is worth quite a lot. Not as wealthy as the last girl, though.”

The old man who had brought Song Zhen into the village replied, “Maybe she’s hiding her wealth. If she really has no money, we can just kill her and arrange a ghost marriage. Didn’t the last one sell for quite a bit?”

Song Zhen’s eyes widened. Good grief—what kind of cursed place had she ended up in?!

Outside her window, the two continued scheming in low voices.

“Liu’s family is pretty lucky—they always manage to trick rich ones.”

“Yeah, that’s true. The whole village makes its money off this.”

Song Zhen’s expression completely changed. This village didn’t have a single decent person in it.

And since there were no good people… even better. Time to start a massacre.

Watching her expression, the elder monitoring the trial suddenly had a very bad feeling.

The next second, Song Zhen grabbed her sword and charged out.

With swift, clean strikes—like chopping vegetables—she cut down the two outside.

After checking the duo, she put her hands on her hips and yelled, 

“A life for a life! You want a ghost marriage? Blood for blood! I want your blood debt paid!”

The elder was so shocked he couldn’t close his mouth. Not only that, he actually watched Song Zhen storm from one end of the village to the other. 

This… this wasn’t how the test was supposed to go!

And something about “blood for blood” felt distinctly off…

Every household Song Zhen came to, she started interrogating them about the crimes they had committed, using that to decide how many times to stab them.

Right now, Song Zhen was covered in blood—truly a god of death descended to the mortal world.

Normally, modern people raised in peaceful times could barely stomach killing even one person, let alone cutting people down like chopping vegetables.

But Song Zhen’s mindset was a bit unusual. She had an incredible tolerance, her mental state was unlike that of normal people, and overall… She was still a good person—but definitely not a typical one.

Soon, the entire village had been wiped out. Not a single residence left alive. Every single one of them is guilty.

The elder swallowed hard, his fingers trembling.

D-Do we really want to recruit this girl? If we don’t, he’s genuinely afraid she’ll turn to the dark demonic path.

If she really goes rogue, she’ll be a huge threat to the righteous side in the future.

Thick-skinned and full of tricks… just look at how she kills without batting an eye. Sure, they’re all villains, but she’s looking way too terrifying right now.

“Blood for blood! To all the innocent souls who died in vain here, I, Song Zhen, have avenged you!”

Suddenly, rain poured from the sky and thunder rumbled. Song Zhen felt it was heaven cheering for her—and all the spirits here were celebrating with her.

When she struck the first person, she did feel a bit uneasy. But as she heard how these people harmed others and killed, her emotions completely took over, and she didn’t care about anything else.

Letting them simply die was already giving them an easy way out. The people they had deceived all died without a proper burial, and some were even forced into ghost marriages. Isn’t that far worse? A true tragedy!

At least these villains just died—she didn’t arrange ghost marriages for them.

Just as Song Zhen’s emotions were boiling over and she was about to vent again, the illusion shattered—and she suddenly found herself standing at the entrance of the Mystic Cloud Sect.

An old man with a white beard stared at her with a complicated expression.

Song Zhen instantly realized she must have cleared the trial. Heh, she knew she had amazing luck!

“What’s your name, young girl?” The white-bearded elder sounded very, very tired.

“My name is Song Zhen, and I want to join the Mystic Cloud Sect. Elder, I think I did pretty well just now, right?”

Song Zhen herself was quite satisfied and proud of herself.

The elder’s mouth twitched, his expression indescribably complex.

Did she seriously think she performed well?

Someone who didn’t know better would assume she was from the demonic path.

Someone who didn’t know better would assume she was from the demonic path. In all the years since this illusion trial existed, no one had ever done that.

The elder sighed and decided to push this troublesome girl onto the sect master. To prevent a future demonic overlord from rising, such a matter should be handled personally by the sect leader.

“Song Zhen, I will take you to meet the Sect Master. You’re quite fortunate—becoming his disciple is no easy feat.”

Wow! She would be a direct disciple?

Anyway, she had a long life ahead. Sooner or later, her position would either be sect leader or elder. 

Hahaha—amazing!

Song Zhen quickly nodded. “Alright, thank you Elder!”

_______________________________________________________

Meanwhile, the sect master stared at the recorded illusion realm footage with a very complicated expression.

No wonder Elder Liu rushed to bring him here, insisting this girl must be taken in.

Looking at the footage—where did she look like a righteous disciple?

This doesn’t look like someone from the righteous path at all. That vicious expression, shouting to the heavens after killing an entire village… 

She looked exactly like someone from the demonic path.

The sect master sighed deeply. Why did he feel like his peaceful days were about to end?

He already had five disciples. Only the youngest, Ji Fan, was currently by his side.

On the way here, Song Zhen kept asking Elder Liu questions without stopping..

For example, were the people who “died” in the illusion realm real? Those villagers’ victims—were they real?

“Those victims who were killed by the villagers were people like you, hoping to join the sect. But after they died, they left the illusion realm—they weren’t truly dead.” Elder Liu explained.

As righteous cultivators, of course, they would never treat human life so lightly..

Hearing this, Song Zhen was relieved. Good—so no one really died.

Otherwise she would have felt killing those villagers was letting them off too lightly.

When she saw the sect master in person, she had expected a white-bearded old man.

Instead, she saw an elegant man who appeared about thirty years old. But from his aura, she knew she should add another zero to that age.

“Disciple Song Zhen greets the Sect Master.” She performed a formal ancient bow.

The sect leader was actually quite pleased with Song Zhen. The girl’s eyes were remarkably clear and pure.

“Song Zhen, I have something I wish to test you with.”

Song Zhen replied, “Sect Master, please speak.”

He asked:

“People in this world place great importance on romantic feelings. If two people who shouldn’t be together end up hurting others because of their romance, what do you think should be done? Should we fulfill their wishes, or…”

Song Zhen thought for a moment. “Did they hurt innocent people?”

The sect master nodded. “More or less.”

“Did they hurt people who love them? Like family or friends?”

“You could say that.”

“So the two of them are ignoring their families and friends—choosing their love despite national hatred and family grudges between them?”

“Yes.”

Song Zhen immediately had an answer.

“Simple! Let them have their way.”

The sect leader frowned at her answer, but before he could continue questioning her, Song Zhen spoke again:

“Helping them be together doesn’t specify whether they have to be alive. Just kill them both—then they are together, aren’t they?”

Song Zhen grew more and more excited as she spoke. She had once had a childhood friend just like that—ten years of friendship couldn’t compare to some guy. Even when that man’s lies were obvious, her friend still degraded herself over him.

“Better yet, bury one in the northern frozen abyss and the other in the southern volcanic wasteland. This fulfills their vow to be together while relieving their loved ones’ hatred—killing two birds with one stone! Perfect!”

Where did this little demon come from?!

The sect leader had asked this question to many people before. Everyone’s answers were basically to persuade the pair to separate, or to help them be together—but no one had ever given an answer like hers.

The situation the sect leader was describing was something that had actually happened in the Sword Sect a long time ago:

A disciple had fallen in love with a demonic cultivator. The demoness had killed countless people—there was no telling how many cultivators had died at her hands.

That disciple, bewitched by her, even harmed his own master and fellow disciples, firmly believing the demoness had only done evil because she was “forced” to. The two insisted on being together no matter what.

And they even questioned why their love was rejected by the heavens. As if they themselves didn’t understand exactly why the heavens wouldn’t tolerate it.

In the end, the two of them were indeed executed—body and soul completely destroyed.