Reborn As A Villainous Cannon Fodder

Love stretches long like dreams that bind, I seek for you to walk beside.

No words of parting's bitter sting, no talk of sorrow's offering.

I'll take your hand through time unaging, share the endless sky's embracing.

Let autumn pipes sing their refrain, while I paint your brows again.

Years flow by with frost ascending, whispered words of heart unending.

If two hearts can love for ages long, why must we meet each dawn and song...?

The girl in blue robes sitting in the lakeside pavilion raised her eyebrow halfway through reading the letter then twisted her face with annoyance.

"What the hell is this garbage? None of it even makes sense."

"He probably copied random poems from the library again. And couldn't even copy them right..."

Ruoning sighed then crumpled the letter into a ball, tossing it into the lake beside the pavilion.

Ever since joining the Liuli Sect, she'd been coming to this lake every few days to read through letters. Male disciples kept writing her poetry and trying different ways to court her.

For Ruoning, this was nothing new.

She was a rich girl with talent, looks, and family background - basically the perfect rich young lady in everyone's eyes...

Excellent girls attracted persistent suitors no matter where they went.

Back when she lived in Jiangnan city, plenty of wealthy young scholars had serenaded her with subtle confessions through music and verse.

But now, here at the Liuli Sect outside the city, these cultivation-focused male disciples clearly had worse literary skills than the city scholars...

That wasn't even the main problem though. Ruoning didn't care if the poetry sounded good or not. She was just sick of all these roundabout, overly thoughtful approaches to hitting on her.

In a way, she wished they'd just be direct and confess to her face. That way she could reject them easily. Otherwise, she could barely bring herself to write rejection letters, and over time these guys were practically treating her like a literature teacher grading their daily assignments.

As time passed and Ruoning kept ignoring them, her image in their minds only became more noble and mysterious. All sorts of rumors about the Liu family young lady started spreading through the Liuli Sect.

Most rumors made her sound godlike - describing how Ruoning came from the Liu mansion, grew up surrounded by scholarly culture, mastered music, chess,GO, calligraphy and painting. So only the most elegant and poetic love letters could move her proud heart...

Come on, why did so many people think I was artsy?

When had I ever been connected to art?

Just because she rarely talked to people after joining the sect and spent all her time in closed cultivation, she became some kind of aloof cultural figure?

Honestly, despite being from Jiangnan, Ruoning's personality wasn't shy or subtle at all.

As a little girl, she'd been a budding young lady. But after getting screwed over a few times by that completely ungentlemanly Yino, her personality got warped. After all, if she didn't get tough with Yino, she'd just keep getting played for a fool.

So there was some cause and effect there.

Which meant...

Wasn't there a possibility that Ruoning looked down on those love letters because her heart already belonged to someone else?

"This world really is twisted."

"The guy who should be writing doesn't send one letter in three months!"

"But all these random strangers I've never even met keep wasting ink on me every damn day..."

"Ugh, I should just ask my master to give them a talking-to."

Ruoning propped her chin in her hands then slumped over the stone table, staring blankly at the lake.

Light footsteps approached from behind.

She'd already bought this elegant pavilion by West Lake, so usually only her master or friends would visit without permission.

Three months ago, Ruoning made a promise with Yino. She'd been obsessed with cultivation lately, and even in the Liuli Sect only had Yuebai as a friend.

So from the weight of the footsteps, the visitor's identity was obvious.

"Wow... I mean, why'd you throw all those love letters in the lake? That's pretty rude!"

The white fox girl walked up then sat down by the pavilion edge with exaggerated concern.

Ruoning glanced at her then just shrugged. "How else are they gonna know I don't even bother reading them... Besides, these letters dissolve into pulp pretty quick in the water."

"Hehe~ These are the troubles of youth! Not like me - I'm already an old hag~"

The white foxgirl sitting by the pavilion covered her mouth then smiled.

Ruoning looked back then noticed Yuebai seemed to be in a good mood today. She rarely came looking for Ruoning without some specific reason.

Today, Yuebai sat by the lake with her ten white tails swishing back and forth.

Clearly, she had something she wanted to tell Ruoning - something that made her very happy!

"So, did something good happen?"

Ruoning turned to face her, still propping her chin up with a listless tone.

But her words just made the foxgirl sitting by the lake look confused.

"What, is there something on my face?"

Ruoning raised an eyebrow, not understanding why Yuebai was staring at her so strangely.

"You don't know?" The fox girl tilted her head then seemed to consider some possibility.

"Know what?" Ruoning still didn't get it.

"Next month, on New Year's, Yino's coming down to Jiangnan to visit the Liuli Sect!"

"?_?"

Yuebai's words made the entire lake pavilion freeze for several seconds.

The girl in blue robes sat stunned for a full few seconds before snapping back to reality then sitting up with wide confused eyes.

"How... how do you know?"

"He wrote me a letter! Wait, don't you spend every day thinking about your engagement to him? Did your precious fiancé only write to me and not send you anything?"

The white foxgirl in loose robes covered her mouth. Her naturally charming fox face looked even more mischievous with that sly smile.

Ruoning's brain crashed for a long moment.

Suddenly, she seemed to realize something then quickly sat up:

"A letter... you said a letter... Wait! Hold on?!"

The more Ruoning thought about it, the more wrong this seemed. She quickly sat up then leaned over the railing to look at the lake water.

At the same time, Yuebai connected the dots, her lips twitching:

"You... you didn't just throw them all in the lake without reading them, did you...?"

Splash!

Before Yuebai could react, the girl who'd been slumped listlessly over the table dove headfirst into the lake.

Yuebai jumped at her shocking decisiveness.

She stood up then leaned over the railing to watch the former Liu mansion young lady fishing for letter scraps underwater.

"Oh my~ Young people these days are so impulsive~~"

The white foxgirl gazed at the lake surface. Though she sounded deeply moved, nobody knew she'd been wagging her tail all day since receiving the letter that morning.

The West Lake surface went quiet for a long time.

Just as Yuebai was lost in thought, a purple-gold sword shot up from the lake in a waterspout.

"I found it!!!"

The girl in blue robes descended from the sky. Though she was soaked through, her beautiful face couldn't hide her joy.

Yuebai was drawn by her excited shout then leaned in closer.

Under both their gazes, Ruoning carefully opened the letter/

[Next month, I will come to Jiangnan]

[After so many days apart, I wonder if you still remember the promise we made three months ago?]

...

...

...

Liuli Sect, Crimson Hall.

On a long chair, the Crimson Prince waved his fan then stared delightedly at the young man below.

"Hehe~"

"Xumo, oh Xumo, you've finally come around?"

His voice was soft and seductive. Combined with his already bewitching red-painted male beauty appearance, it made Xumo kneeling in the hall feel genuinely disgusted and nauseous.

Honestly, just making eye contact made Xumo's skin crawl.

When Xumo first entered the Liuli Sect, this Crimson Prince had taken a liking to his outstanding talent and appearance.

Back then, Xumo was still a newbie, while the Crimson Prince was both his senior brother and the personal disciple of the Liuli Sect's Grand Elder. He was called Prince because his father was his master - the Grand Elder himself.

The Crimson Prince's father controlled half the Liuli Sect's power, arguably the strongest elder besides the Sect Master and Purple Moon Fairy.

For ordinary disciples in the Liuli Sect, catching his eye meant they'd hit the jackpot for life.

But the problem was...

Though the Crimson Prince was clearly male, he only had interest in young male disciples. His preferences were downright perverted.

When Xumo first joined, the Crimson Prince had extended an olive branch. Back then, Xumo was young and naive. If Yuebai hadn't warned him through their mental connection that the guy had ulterior motives, Xumo might have actually taken his hand.

Later, after spending more time in the Liuli Sect, Xumo heard from an old senior that over the years, many orphaned disciples with good talent and looks had been lured to the back mountain by the Crimson Prince then mysteriously disappeared.

Orphaned background, exceptional talent, good looks...

That was basically describing Xumo himself!

He'd been terrified.

Since then, Xumo avoided the guy whenever possible in the Liuli Sect.

But the creepy thing was...

Though Xumo couldn't provoke him, the Prince remained obsessed with Xumo specifically, constantly finding new ways to harass him.

Xumo had always stood firm. He thought he'd never give in to the Crimson Prince's schemes.

But ever since that trip to Azure Forest three months ago...

Xumo's whole world had changed.

Without his former white foxmaster's support, Xumo was nothing in the Liuli Sect.

Now Xumo truly had nowhere left to turn!

Rather than slowly falling into the Crimson Prince's clutches like a frog in boiling water, Xumo chose to kneel before him then make one last desperate gamble with his remaining dignity!

"Your Highness..."

"Next month when the Liuli Virtual Realm opens, if you can help me fulfill my final wish, I'll submit to become your disciple!"