(GL) The Supporting Female Character Strategy Manual - Chapter 31

Yan Song’s hand trembled, and the agarwood strip crashed against the incense burner with a loud clang.

“What did you say?”

Qian Wanyu’s expression remained calm. As soon as she thought of Jian Tongyao, a hint of warmth inadvertently surfaced in her cold eyes.

“She is a demon with a particularly small gut. She is afraid of pain and afraid of sourness. When the pain becomes unbearable, she whimpers and comforts herself, saying it does not hurt. She cannot bear to see the weak being bullied, whether they are humans or demons.”

Clang.

The teacup and incense burner all fell to the ground.

Yan Song suddenly stood up.

“Qian Wanyu, are you clear about your identity? Do you still remember your duties in this life?”

Qian Wanyu’s reaction was calmer than imagined.

“Master often taught us to take on slaying demons and eliminating devils to save the world as our own responsibility. We must distinguish between good and evil and right and wrong. However, Master, have you achieved this yourself?”

Yan Song pressed his hand over his heart and glared at his proud disciple before him. She had good roots and excellent talent. For so many years, she had always been obedient to him as her Master. Yet after one trip out for experience, she actually dared to refute him.

“Good. Very good. I see that your mind has been bewildered by that demon, and you can no longer distinguish between black and white. As your master, I…”

A coldness penetrated Qian Wanyu’s eyes.

“Instead of caring about whether I have been bewildered by a demon, Master should worry about Junior Sister. Master is probably unclear about how much innocent blood is on Junior Sister’s hands. I kept forgetting to ask Master what unspeakable secret exactly exists between you and Junior Sister.”

Yan Song’s pupils constricted, and he subconsciously took a small step back.

“You… Wanyu, what nonsense are you talking about? I fear you have been possessed by a demon!”

Qian Wanyu sat upright on the prayer cushion, her tone unhurried.

“My demon hunting skills were all taught by Master. You have raised me for over ten years, and although we are not blood relatives, we are closer than family. Master might as well reveal the truth to your disciple. As long as you say that you have your difficulties regarding your collusion with demons, I will believe you and will turn a blind eye, pretending I know nothing of this matter.”

Yan Song narrowed his eyes to scrutinize the other party’s calm expression. After a long while, he sneered.

“Wanyu, oh Wanyu. When did you discover this?”

The very first skill a demon hunter practiced was their eyesight. Demons had thousands of changes. To avoid being confused by demons, demon hunters constantly sharpened their observation skills, sense of smell, and ability to identify demons. Only those who qualified were allowed to go down the mountain for experience.

It was obvious that Qian Wanyu was one of the top demon hunters on Shenji Mountain. She was better than her master in every aspect, surpassing the one who taught her. Especially after becoming invulnerable to a hundred poisons, her sensitivity to smells was even sharper than before.

Qian Wanyu’s face could not conceal her disappointment, and her fingers curled tightly for a moment.

“Master, on the day I returned, there was another scent in your room. You perhaps wanted to hide her existence from me, so you specially opened the window that day.”

That scent was faint and seemingly nonexistent, yet she had captured it.

Yan Song felt helpless. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he was once more that indifferent and calm Master from before.

“You are indeed a good disciple cultivated by me. However, it is too a pity.”

Bang. Bang. Bang.

The windows and doors were sealed simultaneously.

A circle of light emerged from beneath the prayer cushion where Qian Wanyu sat. She looked at all of this and finally let out a sigh.

“Master, with so many paths placed before you, why did you have to choose the worst one? I said that as long as you handed over Yan Ying, the half-demon who killed Junior Sister Jiang Qin…”

Yan Song interrupted ruthlessly.

“Do you think I can tolerate someone holding leverage over me?”

Seeing Qian Wanyu’s stunned appearance, he could not help but mock himself.

“She was right. Once you found out, you would ruin my good deeds sooner or later. I should not have harbored any hesitation. On the day you returned, I should have listened to her and decisively taken your life.”

Seeing this Master turn from a gentle and refined person into someone who seemed like a stranger with her own eyes, it would be a lie to say her heart did not ache. Qian Wanyu pursed her lips tightly.

“Disciple still has one matter that is unclear. I hope Master, for the sake of our affection over so many years, will let me die understanding why.”

Yan Song naturally knew what question she wanted to ask. For a moment, his voice lowered, and his ferocious face softened.

“You are the child I raised since childhood, but she is my own flesh and blood. Wanyu, you must believe your master. If it were not for the fact that you knew too much, and if it were not for the fact that you two could not tolerate each other, and furthermore that you absorbed Yan Ying’s mother’s hundred years of cultivation… as your teacher, I really did not want to lay a murderous hand on you. It is too heartbreaking.”

This relationship not only left Qian Wanyu sluggish but even Jian Tongyao, who was hiding in her sleeve to eavesdrop, was completely dumbfounded. Blame her thoughts for being too dirty, but she had never thought of this layer of relationship.

I absorbed the hundred years of cultivation from Yan Ying’s mother?

“Your cultivation has grown significantly, and your whip injuries have recovered quite well.”

Yan Song pointed this out meaningfully. Conversely, Qian Wanyu pondered for a moment and quickly figured out the misunderstanding within. By a strange combination of circumstances, she could not hold back and laughed out loud.

“So that is how it is.”

Clang.

Yan Ying rushed in with injuries, and snake scales openly covered most of her face.

“Do not believe her words! She betrayed you!”

Outside the door, the majority of the Shenji Mountain disciples were all standing outside the house. Every person held a yellow transmission talisman in their hand. Qian Wanyu’s hearty laughter was transmitted right out from that small talisman.

Yan Song’s eyes widened as he looked at those familiar faces. He saw disappointment, disgust, nausea, and even coldness in the eyes of this group of people. He looked again at Qian Wanyu, who sat cross-legged without moving an inch. His body swayed, and he nearly collapsed.

“Hahaha, you really are my good disciple.”

Qian Wanyu pinched out the transmission talisman in her palm that had been on the whole time.

“Master, I gave you a chance. Unfortunately, you would rather choose the daughter of a half-demon than hand over the murderer who killed Junior Sister Jiang Qin to me. You even wanted to kill me.”

When she heard these words from Xiao Jiu’s mouth, Qian Wanyu instinctively resisted it. But emotions could not withstand any test. She lost to something called blood relation, and also lost to a hundred years of cultivation.

Compared to these things, she was truly insignificant.

The little vine demon seemed to sense her low mood and subconsciously rubbed against the side of her wrist. The cold yet gentle touch made Qian Wanyu feel even more sorrowful.

In this world, unexpectedly, only a little vine demon was willing to give her warmth.

“Presumably, all Junior Sisters and Junior Brothers have just heard quite clearly. Master fell for the snake demon’s temptation and gave birth to Yan Ying, this half-demon, with the snake demon. To detoxify himself, he vainly attempted to seize my cultivation. Master has completely fallen into the demon path.”

To a certain extent, Qian Wanyu had hit upon the truth.

More than ten years ago, when Yan Song passed through Xianyao Town, he heard that a great demon was causing trouble in the mountains and had abducted many local commoners. Like a newborn calf that does not fear the tiger, he thought he could subdue the great demon with just his awe-inspiring righteousness. Unexpectedly, because he was too young and aggressive, he fell for the great demon’s trap and was abducted instead.

To humiliate his arrogance, the great demon imprisoned him by her side as a forbidden plaything. Yan Song wasted some effort to escape that lewd snake’s control, and then he met Qian Wanyu, who had lost both parents.

He originally thought that by not mentioning the past, he could forget that humiliation. Unexpectedly, he had unknowingly been afflicted by that great demon’s strange poison, which flared up every year. Thus, he set his sights on Qian Wanyu, which conversely trained her into a constitution invulnerable to a hundred poisons.

Even so, he still failed to detoxify the poison. All of this continued until Yan Ying went up the mountain. The other party’s blood resolved his pain very well, and they successfully recognized each other as kin through their blood.

“Set up the formation.”

“You want to kill your teacher?”

Qian Wanyu lightly pinched Jian Tongyao’s demon vine and spoke indifferently.

“Master is wrong. You said that for the sake of justice in the human world, one must place righteousness above family loyalty when necessary. Have you forgotten all of this?”

“Why are you not leaving yet?”

“To avenge Junior Sister Jiang Qin, I already had the Junior Sisters set up an inescapable net in advance. You cannot go anywhere.”

Before coming to see Yan Song, Qian Wanyu was not certain what the result would be. She only instructed her Junior Sisters to guard against this demon who harmed Junior Sister Jiang Qin. With the incident of the demon coming up Shenji Mountain the previous night, the Junior Sisters immediately became cautious. Thus, they waited for Qian Wanyu and Yan Song to finish negotiating before taking action, so they arranged everything early on.

Everyone was obediently holding a transmission talisman waiting for Senior Sister’s command… they did not expect to hear a truth that overturned their cognition.

Jian Tongyao hid in Qian Wanyu’s sleeve so that Yan Ying, this demon, would not catch any leverage. She only distinguished their fighting positions through the wind whipped up by the robes, not even popping her head out once.

The knot of Qian Wanyu being wronged to death by humans and demons was considered completely passed after this ordeal. Jian Tongyao’s worried heart also completely relaxed. Swaying back and forth with the hem of the clothes, she unknowingly fell asleep.

“Ding.”

“Ding.”

The annoying sound of cold machinery appeared incessantly in her ears. Jian Tongyao was very annoyed. As soon as she opened her eyes, she found herself lying in a room. Judging from the furnishings and layout, it actually had somewhat of the flavor of an inn.

“Xiao Hui.”

A voice so hoarse it was difficult to recognize made Jian Tongyao so scared that she froze in place. Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed a pair of extremely old hands on the quilt, where ridges of deep wrinkles almost covered the skin completely. When she moved, those two hands moved as well.

She lifted the quilt in disbelief and saw a pair of atrophied legs, all of which manifested the fact that she had now aged.

Jian Tongyao almost rolled and crawled while searching around the room but did not find any mirror or anything that could provide a reflection.

“Get the things ready for me. I have a use for them.”

“Yes, guest.”

As soon as Jian Tongyao heard the familiar voice, she subconsciously ran toward the door. Then, remembering something, she hurriedly jumped out of the window instead.

“Xiao Jiu.”

“Xiao Jiu.”

There was a forest outside the window. Jian Tongyao did not dare to look back, deeply afraid of seeing an old lady in the other party’s eyes. She used the advantageous terrain to run far away in one breath. For the first time, the body experienced panting and a feeling of suffocation.

She could not run.

She actually could not run?

When Jian Tongyao realized this point, her legs trembled as she found a river. She mustered the courage to take a few steps closer, but the thought of what might happen made her retreat in fear again, her heart pounding as if it were about to jump out of her chest.

Only after mentally constructing it again and again did she close her eyes and boldly lean close to the riverbank. The clear river water reflected a white-haired little old lady. Jian Tongyao held her breath and opened her eyes, meeting the wrinkle-covered face on the water’s surface. From the outline, she could vaguely see her appearance from when she was young.

Plop.

She slumped onto the ground, eyes widened in disbelief. She touched her own wrinkled face and the white hair that had lost its luster and appeared slightly withered…