It had been a little more than a week since Lin Qiuyue arrived at Qi Bingwen's sect, that night he carried her like a potato sack the entire way without an ounce of care. When she finally arrived at the sect her whole body was sore and numb, she didn't even have to look at it to know that countless bruises were developing all over.
Her waist almost broke digging into his shoulder blade, it felt as though she was resting her soft innards on a steel beam. She wanted to curse him to death, how many times had she suffered in the same night because of him?!
Whether it was from her arm blocking his sword strike or her legs dangling in the winds, every part of her was hurting and that wasn't even the worse of it.
Lin Qiuyue felt as though her fear of heights might have been tortured away because of him. Her head was pointed to the ground every time he flew through the air, seeing such a beautiful scene each and every time. She wanted to vomit but there was no place to vomit, her head spun and even her soul was lost.
When she was finally on the ground again she almost collapsed, if it wasn't for her unwillingness to break character she would have thrown up and fainted right in front of him but even willpower wasn't enough. In the end, her system rushed to feed her a sobering pill, only then was she able to clear the dizziness and keep herself standing.
It was so miserable.
But her days only got worse from there. When Lin Qiuyue received her system's summary of Qi Bingwen's life thus far. She knew that the sect she was in, he had built completely from the ground up, everyone inside the sect was his own people and all of them were loyal to him.
The sect wasn't large since he wasn't interested in expanding but the abilities of all his subordinates were very high, even the little servants all knew martial arts and weren't inferior to the average jianghu warrior.
All this was very good for Qi Bingwen, but what did it mean for her? It meant that every single one of his subordinates was a better martial artist than her, even some of the servants were comparable to her.
Defending herself in this kind of place? She didn't have enough time to sleep to dream of it.
Lin Qiuyue wanted to cry, who told her to throw herself into the wolf's den. She was bullied day and night by every character in the sect, no matter how big or small. She worked harder than an ox, doing every chore they could think of, her once smooth skin turned rough, her fine nails brittle, her long silky hair dry and even the clothes on her body were of the worst quality, coarse and crude.
She really didn't know what Qi Bingwen said to his subordinates but there wasn't a single place she was treated well in the entire sect.
Even the affection meter stagnated because she hadn't seen Qi Bingwen's face since the day he bought her here, it was as though he had forgotten about her entirely. Lin Qiuyue shouldn't have praised herself so soon, what "brilliant strategy", what "infinitely better choice"?! She should have acted out the dog-blooded revenge drama, so what if she got pelted by a few rotten tomatoes, at least she could still hold her head high.
Lin Qiuyue squatted in front of the flowing river, the basket of dirty laundry next to her ignored in favor of admiring her reflection. The person reflected in the water barely resembled the beauty in white the first night she came to this world. Her hair was messy and her face was caked with dirt and grime, the only hint of her previous temperament was her clear eyes, still boundless and serene.
The little system watched its host look at the river before returning to draw circles on the soft mud, it flew a bit closer to peek at her drawing, it was a round face with two dots for eyes and a smirk. After she drew a little sword next to the round face, she crossed its features with a large X. Its host did it a few more times before she seemed satisfied.
While she vented on the drawing, she was muttering under her breath. The system floated near her face to hear: "Stingy bastard, see how I fix you... Let your people bully me, huh? Make me suffer, huh? Not showing your face, not raising your meter, huh?!"
The little system shivered, it could almost see the endless darkness pouring out of its host, even the air around her was cold.
It didn't know how to comfort her. This time its host had suffered a lot, this was only her first task but the difficulty level was too high, never mind raising affection, its host could barely escape death. It really wanted to do something to help her but it had no advice to give, no benefits, and no cheats...
It was the most useless system in the world! It didn't have anything going for it, other systems were strong and experienced, it was poor and green. Its host might as well throw it away, having it was like having no system at all!
Lin Qiuyue who had been focused on her drawing saw the system's flickering light in the corner of her eyes. She turned to the little thing, a bit concerned.
Before she could say anything, the system had already spoken.
『Host, I will work hard! I will prove that I'm not useless!』
Lin Qiuyue was a little puzzled at her system's sudden exclamation.
『I will not let you down! I will gather more information about Qi Bingwen and report his every movement to you!』
The little system said such words very heroically before disappearing. From beginning to end, Lin Qiuyue couldn't squeeze a single word in, she blinked a few times before returning to her drawing.
She could guess the turbulence in her system's heart.
The little ball of light was feeling down because of their lack of progress but small-time employees like them had to accept this unfair treatment. Even if they were given inhumane tasks at the start, they could only grit their teeth and work harder.
Lin Qiuyue drew a box in the mud and wrote two characters in it: Main System. She proceeded to cross it out with an even larger X.
"Ruthless scammer, see how I deal with you..."
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After spending equal parts drawing in the mud and washing clothes, Lin Qiuyue returned to the sect with her full basket. She held tight to it, just in case another servant passed by to knock her down, if the clothes got dirty then she would have to go back and wash them again. This happened the first few times she was assigned laundry duty but she learned to run quickly if anyone came near her, she even practiced Su Liling's qinggong to get away quicker.
Lin Qiuyue didn't enjoy being bullied but she also wasn't one to take it lying down, she avoided what she could and did her work well, all while maintaining her character settings. She never complained, never retaliated, and always kept her cool no matter the insults that were thrown away.
There was nothing anyone could complain about, the servants who had been keen to bully her the first few days found that they couldn't break down her attitude at all. Even the higher-ranked subordinates who saw her were surprised, they had thought that bringing her back was more trouble than it was worth. Especially since their sect master had to give up his revenge for a woman.
Even if she was a little bit more beautiful, it was only the skin on top, she would be a burden to them. Don't make them laugh, "become a servant", those little misses from big households couldn't even put on clothes themselves.
It was to everyone's astonishment that she did well and was even able to form relationships with some of the servants in her quarters.
On the surface, Su Liling's personality may seem rigid but that was only for outsiders and when she needed to be strong. Naturally to her older brother and mother, she was more lighthearted. Lin Qiuyue just had to bend this trait a bit to better fit her plans, Su Liling might have seemed arrogant and pretentious to outsiders before but now she was straightforward and sincere.
Such an open person, even if she originally had a higher status than these servants, she didn't make anyone feel uncomfortable.
"Liling jiejie! There you are! I was looking for you!" A clear voice called out to her, it sounded sweet and immature, the voice of a little girl who had already approached her.
"Qiao Qiao?" Lin Qiuyue said with a smile as she shifted the laundry basket to her waist. This little girl was one of the few servants that was good to her since the beginning, the little girl was interested in the outside world and would ask her many questions.
When Lin Qiuyue wondered how she knew so little outside the sect the little girl recounted her life story with much enthusiasm. Chun Qiaoqiao came from a small mountainside village, she left after her parents' death hoping to find work in the city but before she could set foot in one, the merchants she had asked to follow from the village were attacked by bandits.
Qi Bingwen happened to be passing along then and when the bandits attacked him, he wiped them all out in a single move. Chun Qiaoqiao recounted this part with great passion, her eyes were shining describing how fast Qi Bingwen's sword was, faster than the human eye could follow. His sword was so fast that it wasn't stained with blood when he cut people down, he was just that awesome and impressive. So cool, so great.
Lin Qiuyue's head was spinning as she listened to Chun Qiaoqiao fangirl for what felt like hours, it was so long and so detailed that she could imagine exactly how Qi Bingwen's sword would slice through her. By the end of that night, he didn't slice through her once or twice, it was at least a dozen times, each move different from the last.
After that tangent, Chun Qiaoqiao said that she begged Qi Bingwen to take her as his disciple but he didn't even bother to look at her, she thought that this was what a true martial artist should look like. A hero above this world whom mere mortals could not compare to. She didn't give up though, she followed him until he gave directions to his sect.
The rest was history, Chun Qiaoqiao joined the small sect with a big dream, to become a great martial artist and get as strong as Qi Bingwen, afterwards, she would travel the jianghu and make a name for herself. Wherever she went people would sing her praises and eventually she would take the seat as the Leader of the Martial Arts Alliance.
Lin Qiuyue didn't want to pour cold water on the little girl but she really wanted to say, 'Aren't you from an unorthodox sect, never mind singing praises to your name, people wouldn't wait to curse you to death.'
She didn't even address the Leader of the Martial Arts Alliance part...dreams can come true.
Aside from all that, this little girl was very good to her with a cute and vibrant personality. She was easy to love and a bridge for her to build relationships with others in the sect, Lin Qiuyue was happy to have met her. She was even willing to listen to a few more hours of martial arts fangirling because she liked her so much.
"I saved you some lunch! I told the others to not go too far but there are still a few that want to cheat you out of your meals," Chun Qiaoqiao said with a big frown, the two buns on her head moving along with her exaggerated expression.
"Thank you but you don't have to scold them too much, it must have been some kind of order from above," Su Liling said lightly, there was no resentment in her tone.
"No way! Our sect master can't do that, you're such a kind jiejie, so what if your family is bad. It's not like you can choose where you're born, how can he be so petty?" Chun Qiaoqiao crossed her arm, she was very aggrieved for this jiejie who had no will to defend herself.
Lin Qiuyue was about to answer simply but stopped when she heard her system's notification.
『Host! The target is here!』