The lonely journey of the cold fairy

Chapter 2 Youth

"An illegitimate child, pretending to be chaste! Bring it to me!"

Before she was fully awake, Bai Siyao was shoved to the ground with great force, the item in her hand snatched away in an instant.

She rubbed her ears, thinking to herself, Who dares act so insolent in front of me? If I don't destroy your entire family, I would be unworthy of my title as the demon lord, cursed by the world for over a thousand years!

Her gaze lifted and met the eyes of a young man filled with malice. She paused, her expression turning odd.

"Big brother?"

The young man, busy inspecting the spiritual talisman, responded without even looking up. "Big brother? Do you think you're worthy of calling me that? Look in a mirror first!"

"Exactly," echoed one of his lackeys, emboldened by his master's arrogance. "Address him as 'Young Master'!"

The lackey then gently reminded the young man, "Young Master, 'chaste and virtuous' doesn't really apply here. She's just a girl, not some village woman being abducted."

"Is that so?" The young man pondered for a moment, "Then should I say 'pure as jade'?"

"Not quite..." The lackey gave up correcting him. Fine, let him say whatever he wants. As long as he's happy.

Bai Siyao was momentarily speechless, her gaze sweeping around the room. The familiar yet strange surroundings caught her eye.

A wide hall, rows of orderly desks, and at the center, three flamboyant words written on a plaque: Wen Dao Xin.

Though a thousand years had passed, she recognized it instantly. This was the Bai family's academy, where she had once studied Daoist arts until she left home at fourteen. And the young man before her was none other than her cousin, Bai Mengxing, who had always enjoyed bullying her.

So, what happened? Had she been pulled into an illusion of her youth by the Reincarnation Mirror?

No, that didn't make sense. Illusions usually targeted one's inner weaknesses. The Bai family had long since turned to ashes; she no longer had any attachment to it.

As her thoughts wandered, Bai Mengxing finished rifling through her things, stuffed the spiritual talismans into his pocket, and beckoned his lackeys. "Let's go!"

But before leaving, he didn't forget to warn her, "If you dare tell the teacher, you're finished!"

Bai Siyao: "..."

She remembered now. This was something that had happened in her final year with the Bai family.

Because her parents had passed away when she was young, she was often bullied, especially by her cousin, Bai Mengxing, who would steal her work whenever he couldn't complete his own.

Those spiritual talismans were due for class the next day, and every part of the process—from crafting the talisman paper to preparing the ink—had to be done by hand. It was time-consuming and laborious, and now that Bai Mengxing had taken hers, there was no way she could redo them in time overnight.

A thousand years had blurred her memory, but she faintly recalled what happened next. Oh, that's right. She had left a mark on the talismans, and during the teacher's inspection, Bai Mengxing had made a fool of himself, much to the displeasure of his father.

Her uncle, Bai Dingchang, was a hypocrite—righteous on the surface but a conniving schemer underneath. He had remained outwardly calm, but secretly manipulated events so that when the emissaries from Danxia Palace came to recruit disciples, she had made a fool of herself in front of them, missing her chance to enter the prestigious sect. It was that incident that had forced her to risk her life on the Treacherous Road to Heaven.