When a Fanfic Protagonist Transmigrated into the Original Novel

Seeing his master return, Yi Xichen quickly got up. But just as he was about to walk over, Yao Budu’s strange appearance caught his attention.

He was hurt.

The clothes in front of his chest have been torn apart. Across Tongxiu Spring, Yi Xichen couldn’t really tell whether it was blood or something else on his clothes. He also lost a strand of hair, and had his uneven hair scattered across his shoulder. His expression was in a panic, and continued to look back even after he reached his cabin, as if afraid that something would be chasing him. But after making sure he had not been found, Yao Budu seemed to let out a sigh of relief.

Immediately after, he entered his cabin.

From Tongxiu Spring, Yi Xichen could only see part of what was going on beside Yao Budu’s cabin. This was because Yao Budu wanted to make sure he could see when someone entered his cabin while he was working in the medicine fields. After one entered the cabin however, it would be impossible to see anything from the medicine fields.

Yi Xichen immediately stepped on his sword and flew out of the medicine fields.

“Master!” Yi Xichen quickly got to the cabin and knocked on the door, “Master, open the door!”

Yao Budu opened the door with an angry face, “What are you shouting for! What do you want?!”

At this moment, Yao Budu had already changed into a new set of clothes, and his hair had been reorganized as well. If it wasn’t because Yi Xichen just witnessed how he looked a moment before, he would have never guessed that something had happened.

“Master, are you hurt?” Yi Xichen asked.

Yao Budu seemed to be slightly surprised, then he yelled angrily with a pale face, “Yi Xichen, where did you come from?!”

Yi Xichen almost jumped from this loud yell. Although Yao Budu was frequently angry, this was the first time he changed moods so quickly. Yi Xichen murmured, “I, I just came from the medicine fields.”

A second later, Yao Budu’s face slowly returned to normal, “You this brat, I thought you sneaked out of the mountain instead of competing.”

“Sneaked out of the mountain?” Yi Xichen asked, “Master, were you out of the mountain? Who attacked you?”

“I went to the outer mountains to pick some herbs and accidentally came across a monster, nothing more.” Yao Budu replied, “What did you come here for?”

Yi Xichen was in disbelief, “What monster? Ouch! Master, what are you hitting me for?”

“Why the hell are you asking so much? Who’s the master? You? Do I have to report to you everything I do?”

After being his disciple for over ten years, Yi Xichen knew when Yao Budu was really angry and when he was just showing an angry face to scare people off. At this time, he was no longer angry. He just cared a lot about his reputation, so perhaps he suffered some losses outside and didn’t want to speak in front of his disciple. Yi Xichen could only swallow his question back down.

“Oh right,” Yao Budu said, “I have already repaired the Black Fire Stone you brought last time and I’ve made something for you. I’ll probably finish by the day after tomorrow, you can come here to pick it up after you finish competing.”

Yi Xichen immediately became excited, “Master, what did you make?”

But Yao Budu didn’t seem to have any intention to satisfy his curiosity, “You’ll see when you get it.”

Yi Xichen twitched his mouth and attempted to take a peek, but Yao Budu immediately blocked in front of him and said, “Hurry up and go practice! You still have to compete tomorrow.”

After stalling for a few more minutes and seeing that Yao Budu didn’t seem to change his mind in the slightest, he could only leave with disappointment.

Yi Xichen came to the peach tree forest and saw that Zhangsun Zijun happened to return from Qiu Jian as well. They sat down together beside a peach tree.

“Hey, what did Qiu Jian have to say to you?”

“He wanted to accept me as a disciple.”

“What?” Yi Xichen asked with surprise, “He wants to take you to Sword Refining Hall?”

At the Heavenly Sword Sect, a disciple transferring halls was a very rare sight. A disciple like Zhangsun Zijun who was sent to the Medicine Hall due to him breaking the rules even more rare, and now that Sword Refining Hall wanted to take him back, he was definitely the first.

“No, he wants to take me as a inner disciple.”1

Yi Xichen became even more surprised. As an elder of a hall, everyone under the Sword Refining Hall were technically Qiu Jian’s disciples. When accepting disciples, some Zhenren2 would distinguish between inner and outer disciples, but here at Heavenly Sword Sect, there was no such difference. What Qiu Jian meant was that he was willing to personally take Zhangsun Zijun as his disciple, without having anything to do with Sword Refining Hall or even Heavenly Sword Sect. One could see from this how highly he thought of Zhangsun Zijun.

“Then did you agree?”

“No.”

“Well, as expected,” said Yi Xichen, “But there’s nothing bad about agreeing, I really want to learn his Lone Shadow Sword Method.”

A cultivator could accept multiple disciples, and similarly, a disciple could have multiple masters. Even if Zhangsun Zijun did agree to Qiu Jian and become his disciple, that didn’t mean he was disloyal to Yao Budu. In fact, sometimes, when cultivators felt like they could no longer help their disciple, they would even encourage him or her to go seek for stronger masters. As long as a disciple didn’t commit serious betrayal crimes against his or her master or sect, then most cultivators wouldn’t care about the details.

Zhangsun Zijun smiled, “I can teach you right now.”

“What?” Yi Xichen’s surprise didn’t decrease by the slightest, “You know what Lone Shadow Sword Method?”

“I also know the Dragon Roar Sword Method.” – Dragon Roar Sword Method was Yu Ying’s special move.

Zhangsun Zijun already had photographic memory to begin with, and the fanfic author didn’t want to waste too much time explaining his growth progress. Therefore, the story went like this: He accidentally got into the Great Storage Hall of Heavenly Sword Sect, in which all the elders accidentally placed their special moves there, and then the MC accidentally read all of them.

Yi Xichen immediately became excited, “Quick, teach me please.”

Zhangsun Zijun thought for a second, then started to recite the method.

“The real and fake, from inside to out, are kept at perfect balance. The walls of Yin Yang are changing and reforming. The spiritual energy in one’s body is vague and dim. When the oppositions are flipped, it’s time to use the five elements…”

But just less than an hour later, Yi Xichen gave up in frustration.

Although he had a mutated spiritual root, the seal has not been broken yet. Attempting to comprehend such an advanced method using only his current knowledge was way too difficult for him. He wished to learn the sword method, but he was still too young and couldn’t leave the Heavenly Sword Sect easily. After this year, when they are both old enough to leave the mountain to experience the world, they could then go look for the Elemental Heavenly Treasures and break the seal. It wouldn’t be too late to learn then.

“Whatever,” Yi Xichen sighed, “I’ll keep practicing by myself, until… what? You……”

Yi Xichen’s sentenced stopped midway, because he realized that Zhangsun Zijun was not listening to him. A second later, Yi Xichen found out that Zhangsun Zijun was having an epiphany! 

The so-called epiphany was when a sword cultivator suddenly had an enlightenment while cultivating. After an epiphany, the cultivator’s cultivation would increase sharply and so would their sword. For sword cultivators, an epiphany was something they dream for everyday, as each one was worth years of cultivation. But many cultivators fail to experience an epiphany ever in their lives, and only the exceptionally talented and lucky ones could experience these frequently.

The current Zhangsun Zijun was already replaced with the one from the twisted fanfic world, and the author had given him many overpowered talents. Although superficial, these were able to help him greatly in this normal world, which was why he was able to quickly enter a state of epiphany.

Yi Xichen didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, “Oh man, you’re always so enviable.”

With that, he sat down beside Zhangsun Zijun and set up a protection array for him. Once cultivators entered the state of epiphany, it could take hours or even days before they could get out of it. During this period, they must not be disturbed.

Yi Xichen tried his best to set up the protection, and then sat down with him.

…

The next day, the second round of sword matches began.

Due to a round of victory and defeat already, today’s matches had some more similar-level opponents facing each other, but most of the results were still within everyone’s expectations.

Lu Ziyao won the first match, and the second match was Xiao Kui against Bian Liang. The two’s strengths were almost identical, and their match lasted from morning until afternoon. After more than eight hours, it was still difficult to tell who was winning.

Many of the spectators have already started to discuss what would happen.

“Xiao Kui will lose,” said Yi Xichen.

Zhangsun Zijun nodded in agreement.

It wasn’t that they were trying to jinx Xiao Kui so that he would lose, but because Sword Refining Hall focused mainly on attacking and Sword Guardian Hall focused more on defense. For Sword Refining Hall disciples, the longer the battle, the weaker their attacks would be. Whereas for Sword Guardian Hall disciples, they wouldn’t really be affected as much by time.

Sure enough, Xiao Kui summoned a Nine Bolt Sword, but as the nine sword auras were sent out, each one was weaker than the one before.

“Huh?”

The spectating disciples exclaimed.

Bian Liang, who had been mainly defending, started to attack after seeing that Xiao Kui was reaching his limits. Bian Liang used a Trumpet Vine Sword. The flash from his sword collided with Xiao Kui’s ninth sword aura. Bian Liang was quite confident knowing Xiao Kui’s situation.

However, Xiao Kui’s ninth sword aura drastically increased in power.

The sword auras collided, and Bian Liang, who wasn’t ready to defend, was knocked away.

Bian Liang lost! Xiao Kui won!

No one knew that Xiao Kui would break out at the last second, so this match result was quite unanticipated, but was still understandable. It was definitely one of the more exciting ones.

The third match was between Yue Xiaorou and Wang Qingqiao, and the one after that would be between Zhangsun Zijun and Gong Sundi.

Xiao Kui didn’t leave after winning his battle, still standing next to the battle plain. Yue Xiaorou and Wang Qingqiao were still fighting, and he just stood quietly in the crowd, waiting for Zhangsun Zijun to start.

Xiao Kui wanted Zhangsun Zijun to lose. Since he won today, the next round of drawings would match him up with one of the five winners. So if Zhangsun Zijun won today’s match, he would have a high chance of having to face Zhangsun Zijun tomorrow.

With his ability, he was already very lucky that he lasted until now. He would likely not win the next round, but even so, he didn’t want to lose against Zhangsun Zijun in front of everyone.

He remembered that year when Zhangsun Zijun was forced to leave Sword Refining Hall because of him. When they met later in one of the pavilions, he felt too guilty to even look at Zhangsun Zijun, but Zhangsun Zijun didn’t even take an extra look at him when walking past.

He was competitive in nature, and hated people who looked down upon him. Zhangsun Zijun’s carefree look angered him, so he went to provoke Zhangsun Zijun.

“Hey, isn’t this the prodigy with the Heavenly Spiritual Root? Look what you’re wearing? Gave up on your sword and want to study pills now?”

Zhangsun Zijun ignored him.

Xiao Kui continued, “Is the Forbidden Land fun? I thought that the rare Heavenly Spiritual Root could conquer the world, but how come I heard that you barely survived.”

Zhangsun Zijun stopped and looked coldly into Xiao Kui’s eyes, “If you went to the Forbidden Land instead, they won’t even find your bones.”

In Xiao Kui’s ears, this sounded like an insult. He sneered, “So what that you’re stronger than me right now? I wouldn’t be foolish enough to be easily tricked into the Forbidden Land like you!”

Zhangsun Zijun suddenly pulled out his sword, making Xiao Kui take several steps back from fear. In Heavenly Sword Sect, disciples were allowed to fight each other for experience, but deliberately hurting someone was strictly not allowed. This was why Xiao Kui had the guts to provoke him, he was confident that Zhangsun Zijun wouldn’t attack him — unless… unless he didn’t care whether he would be able to stay in Heavenly Sword Sect anymore.

But before he could think further, Zhangsun Zijun didn’t attack him with his sword. Instead, he waved his hand, and a deep ditch was cut out between them.

This was his warning, making it clear where his bottom line was.

Zhangsun Zijun put away his sword and turned around. Looking at his disappearing back, Xiao Kui yelled, “Zhangsun Zijun! I’ll see what you can do in the Medicine Hall! In the Sword Assembly ten years later, I will defeat you with my own hands!”

Thinking of the past, Xiao Kui couldn’t help but clench his fists. He thought that after chasing Zhangsun Zijun out of Sword Refining Hall, Zhangsun Zijun’s life would be wasted in Medicine Hall, and this Heavenly Spiritual Root would disappear from everyone’s minds forever. But who would have thought that not only Zhangsun Zijun’s skills improved, he was improving faster than him!”

Xiao Kui didn’t want to lose to Zhangsun Zijun, but he wasn’t afraid to fight him. Just now, everyone thought that he was purposefully faking his weak moves, but that wasn’t the case. At that moment, it just happened that the must-win will he had struck him. He remembered that in order to have a chance to go against Zhangsun Zijun, he must win this match. That was why his strength got a sudden boost. 

He wanted to fight Zhangsun Zijun, but didn’t want to lose, but also knew that there would be no way for him to win. Even Xiao Kui himself couldn’t understand his own feelings.

Xiao Kui looked at Zhangsun Zijun with complex emotions, and then suddenly felt that there was a pair of eyes staring at him as well. He looked toward where that feeling came from and met Yi Xichen’s eyes.

Yi Xichen’s eyes were full of disgust and hostility.

Xiao Kui was at a loss. He was a person who cared about the strong and looked down upon people who were weaker than him. That was why he has had such a grudge against Zhangsun Zijun for so long. As for Yi Xichen, before he beat Wang Qingqiao, Xiao Kui has always thought of him as just a little nobody beside Zhangsun Zijun. He has never deliberately caused trouble for him, and even if he did bring trouble, it was probably because he was always with Zhangsun Zijun. In addition, Yi Xichen has always been so cunning. After calculating, it even seemed that Xiao Kui suffered more in his hands.

But the strange thing was that even Zhangsun Zijun, who should hate him more than anyone, didn’t even have him in his eyes. Then how come Yi Xichen, who he barely caused any trouble for and who smiled at everyone in the sect, was looking at him with such vicious intents?

Why? Xiao Kui couldn’t understand at all. Yi Xichen’s attitude towards him was like he was looking at his love rival!