The System Teaches You How to Be Human

Si Yisi glanced at his own hair a few times.

Qing Lin kept sneaking glances at him, only to quickly and awkwardly avert her gaze. This back-and-forth continued until the delicate Junior Sister Qing Lin could no longer endure it.

She blinked her sore eyes, which had been dazzled by the flickering sparks, and excused herself. “Senior Brother Mobai, Ah Lin dares not disturb you any longer. Please excuse me…”

As she lifted her gaze, she caught sight of her unparalleled and charismatic Senior Brother Mobai pinching his fingers together like a blade, extracting a tiny, glowing creature from his hair.

It resembled a bald little snake. Its head bore two short, stubby whiskers, and its body shimmered with lightning, as dazzling as a bolt of thunder against a clear sky.

“The Primordial Heaven-Shaking Demon-Vanquishing Thunderbolt Divine Earth-Shaking Thunder Dragon. Don’t move.”

Si Yisi rattled off the name in one breath, his voice low yet inexplicably exuding an air of sophistication.

The Primordial… What dragon?

Qing Lin froze, tripped up by her Senior Brother Mobai’s sudden burst of speed-talking. All she managed to catch was the last word; ‘dragon’.

“Senior Brother… is this little one a dragon?”

“Not entirely accurate,” Si Yisi said, now able to replicate Mobai’s signature roguish smile as he addressed Qing Lin, the Junior Sister from the original owner’s memories. “It’s the Primordial Heaven-Shaking Demon-Vanquishing Thunderbolt Divine Earth-Shaking Thunder Dragon. Despite its grandiose name, it’s actually just the remnant dragon spirit condensed from a sliver of a dragon’s essence that managed to barely survive the tribulation’s lightning.”

The tiny dragon, displeased by Si Yisi’s description, opened its mouth wide, wiggled its bald tail, and bared its sharp teeth to bite Si Yisi.

“Don’t mess around.”

Qing Lin heard a sharp crunch and, startled, turned toward the source of the sound. She saw the stubby-whiskered dragon bite down on Si Yisi’s finger with all its might.

“Senior…Brother.”

Her voice faltered mid-sentence as she watched her Senior Brother Mobai calmly withdraw his finger.

A few small, white shards of teeth scattered to the ground.

Senior Brother Mobai maintained his usual slightly mischievous smile, but Qing Lin couldn’t shake the feeling that…

Senior Brother Mobai had changed…

Is he fiercer? Stranger? …In any case, he seemed more intimidating than before.

It felt as though something ferocious had been unshackled from within him after the tribulation lightning, baring its teeth.

And those very teeth had just shattered.

The now-toothless little Thunder Dragon shuddered, releasing a sudden burst of electricity. The lightning surged most intensely around its head, glowing brilliantly.

It swished its tail dejectedly and, with a pitiful whimper, buried its upper body back into Si Yisi’s hair.

Only a small section of its slender tail remained visible.

Qing Lin found the little dragon somewhat pitiable, but after a moment’s thought, she decided she pitied herself even more.

With a hasty bow to Si Yisi, she turned to leave, her lowered eyelashes glistening with tears brought forth by the sparks.

Si Yisi watched Qing Lin retreat before turning to face the stone door. “Master, I’m here.”

The stone door opened in response. As Si Yisi stepped through, his mind wandered to the soul fragment of Mobai, which had left him with a firm warning.

“My transformation into another person won’t escape Master’s notice.”

“Master has lived long and knows me best. Don’t try to deceive him. Tell him the truth; or at least half the truth; but under no circumstances should you attempt to lie to him. Master’s temper is…”

“Mobai.”

“Master.” Si Yisi entered the room and bowed respectfully.

Si Mobai’s master, Mu Weiqing, appeared to be a venerable old man with an aura of immortality. Crane patterns danced along the edges of his sleeves.

“…Mobai? No, you’re not him. Where is he?” The seemingly unremarkable elder had an extraordinary intuition.

At first glance, he had already discerned that the person standing before him wasn’t his disciple, Si Mobai.

“Body snatching?” Mu Weiqing’s eyes suddenly blazed with astonishing light. His natal spirit sword, which had been positioned by his side from the very beginning, rose several inches, lifted by the spiritual energy that surged with his emotions.

Si Yisi’s body was locked in place. He had no doubt that if he couldn’t give Mu Weiqing a reasonable explanation, the sword Qi aimed at him would pierce through him.

When in Rome, one must follow the local customs. As a tasker who had entered this small world, he had to abide by its laws.

This had also been one of the reasons why Si Yisi’s previous hosts had repeatedly failed.

However, Si Yisi would never allow himself to fail this time.

He wiped away the weary, system-induced smile, facing the faintly perceivable Qi, and slowly parted his lips…

***

“Cough, hiss…”

On the other side, Zhao Weijin continuously wiped away the blood that dripped from the corner of his mouth, bloodshot veins suddenly appearing in his pupils.

“Dammit…”

He muttered as he staggered forward, his body covered in cuts and gashes from shattered rocks.

Si Yisi’s strike hadn’t simply split a massive stone. To the lower-level cultivators who had witnessed it, it had seemed like a single strike. In reality, that sword had manifested three thousand sword Qi, which split the massive rock into several smaller pieces.

When the stone collapsed, the fragments had maintained a delicate balance. But when they struck Zhao Weijin…

Crack!

In that moment, the fragile balance between the fragments shattered!

This was why Zhao Weijin now looked so miserable.

His fierce gaze swept over the disciples who passed by him. Those who came near avoided his eyes, some sneering as they did so.

Zhao Weijin clenched his fist, slowly making his way back to the Yunhua Courtyard where the Foundation-Building disciples resided, sitting cross-legged to use his cultivation technique and heal his injuries.

He didn’t notice a cold, piercing gaze focused on him.

The owner of that gaze spoke lowly. “I thought you might be useful, but turns out you’re just mud that can’t be helped… Useless, go die already.”

“…”

“You… you lied to me…!”

“It’s you! It’s you who killed Ah Qing!”

“It was me.” The person leaned lazily on the platform, “Go ahead and die in peace. You might as well make use of your remaining warmth.”

He snapped his folding fan shut in his palm, then raised his hand; the silver gleam from the fan flashed and disappeared in an instant.

“Farewell, Zhao Weijin… Senior Brother.”

Foundation-Building cultivator Zhao Weijin was dead.

The death of a Foundation-Building cultivator wasn’t particularly noteworthy, but his death was… extremely suspicious.

Zhao Weijin’s seven orifices leaked black blood, a color considered ominous among cultivators, symbolizing “demonic” traits in a certain sense.

In the Qingmo realm, demons existed, though most of them lived in their own realm. 1,000 years ago, there had been a great battle between the immortal cultivators and the demons. The immortals narrowly won, and several advanced cultivators had sacrificed themselves to seal off the passage from the Demon Realm to the Immortal Realm.

Since then, the Demon Realm had not dared to invade.

But under the laws of this world, everything contained a demonic nature, and everything could become demonic. Cultivators would occasionally fall into demonic paths, or mortals would turn into demons, always causing great upheaval in the cultivation world.

As a result, the cultivation world had become terrified at the mere mention of demons.

At first glance, Zhao Weijin’s injuries seemed to have been caused by poison, but some brave medical cultivator disciples, wearing ice silkworm gloves, performed an autopsy and discovered tiny puncture wounds in each of his seven orifices.

This was… the most common method of demons. Zhao Weijin’s blood had actually dried up long ago, and the blood that had oozed from his seven orifices was a chaotic coagulation of demonic energy.

“It’s a demon! It’s a demon!” The medical cultivator’s face changed drastically, and she staggered back, shouting in horror.

Chaos erupted. The disciples quickly avoided the area, their faces filled with fear and disgust.

By the time the inspection team from Jinghua Sect arrived to suppress the further spread of the situation, the turmoil in the hearts of the people had somewhat settled.

At this moment, an unpleasant voice broke through the suppressed crowd.

“Did Zhao Weijin offend someone before his death?”

“Yeah, it seems he offended Senior Si Mobai…”

“Heavens… could it be?”

“No, no way?!”

“How could it not be? You can know a person’s face but not their heart. How many beasts in human guise are there? In my opinion… tsk…”

“In your opinion, what?” Si Yisi, his face expressionless, stepped through the crowd. He was dressed in a moon-white robe, his presence imposing and overwhelming.