With the freshly crafted 'interactive storybook' tucked under his arm, Gu Chengming set off once more toward the Hidden Sword Pavilion.
This time, his luck held. He didn't make the trip for nothing.
Yu Wenqiu was seated behind that wide rosewood desk, a jade slip in hand, looking every bit the picture of an elder diligently attending to sect business.
But Gu Chengming's sharp eyes caught it immediately — her gaze was drifting, her mind clearly somewhere else entirely.
The moment she spotted him walking in, her eyes lit up.
She had obviously remembered the 'one-of-a-kind edition' he'd promised her last time.
"Ahem."
Yu Wenqiu set down the jade slip, straightened her back, and cleared her throat.
"Gu Chengming. What brings you here today?"
Gu Chengming didn't call her out on it. He smiled and produced the elegantly bound storybook from inside his robe, presenting it with both hands.
"This disciple is pleased to report success. I have obtained the book Elder requested — the one 'containing the profound truths of the mortal world' — and have come to present it."
Yu Wenqiu's gaze lingered on the thick volume for just a moment. She reached out, her manner perfectly casual — though her hand moved with remarkable speed — and accepted it. In one smooth, practiced motion, she slid it straight into the wide sleeve of her robe.
Fluid, seamless, effortless. The move of someone who had done this many, many times before.
"Mm. Thoughtful of you."
Yu Wenqiu gave a slight nod.
Naturally, this was not the moment to start reading. There were other disciples moving about nearby, and the dignity of an elder was a burden one did not simply set down.
They exchanged a few more words. Mainly, Yu Wenqiu probing — with artful indirection — about where the book had come from and whether there would be more. Gu Chengming gave deliberately vague answers, saying only that if the Elder found it to her liking, he would see to it that further volumes were supplied.
Satisfied with that response, Yu Wenqiu's mood lifted considerably. She even graced him with a rare, genuine smile — a notable departure from her usual composure.
Seeing that he had accomplished what he came for, Gu Chengming politely took his leave.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
That evening. Yu Wenqiu's private dwelling.
Sprawled across the comfortable rattan hammock, Yu Wenqiu had changed into her soft lavender house clothes. She fished out the storybook she'd been sitting on all day and, unable to wait a moment longer, cracked it open.
By the gentle glow of a moonstone lamp, she turned to the first page. Sure enough — a title she had never seen before.
Yu Wenqiu felt a quiet thrill of satisfaction. Little Gu really does deliver, she thought. He didn't lead me on.
She settled into a comfortable position and began to read.
At first, she approached it the way she approached most things she hadn't chosen herself — with a certain critical detachment, ready to be mildly entertained and not much more.
After all, she generally preferred her storybooks the way she liked her dramas: gifted scholars, beautiful women, tangled grudges, star-crossed lovers. The kind of story this one seemed to be — some cultivator's journey, fighting monsters and leveling up — wasn't really her thing.
But as she kept reading, something in her expression shifted.
The way this story was told was unlike anything she'd encountered before.
Where other storybooks kept you at arm's length with a narrator's detached overview, this one pulled you straight into its world. It was written entirely in first person — entirely as "I."
The inner monologue was achingly vivid. The scene-setting wrapped around you like a second skin. Before she knew it, she wasn't reading about a lowly, forgotten odd-jobs disciple who dreamed of something greater — she had become him.
The burning humiliation of being looked down on. The wild, electric joy of a stroke of incredible luck. The tight, cold knot of dread when facing an enemy far beyond your reach.
Every emotional beat hit her like a needle finding a nerve.
"The immersion on this thing..." Yu Wenqiu murmured to herself. "It's absurd."
She'd only meant to flip through a few pages. Instead, she had fallen in entirely — hook, line, and sinker.
She read through the night.
Until —
The story reached a pivotal moment. The protagonist stood at the edge of a life-or-death crisis, forced to make a choice. And then, on the page before her, two unmistakable choice boxes appeared.
[Option 1: Swallow your pride. Hand over the treasure and buy your life. (Turn to page 45.)]
[Option 2: Fight to the last breath. Activate the remnant soul's power and force a breakthrough. (Turn to page 68.)]
"This..."
Yu Wenqiu stared.
You could do that?
You could actually make the character's choice yourself?
This utterly unprecedented novelty detonated a bomb of curiosity somewhere in her chest.
"Hmph. Would I, Yu Wenqiu, ever cower and beg for my life? Of course not — fight to the last breath!"
Without a moment's hesitation, she chose option two and turned to page 68.
What unfolded next left her completely floored.
Because the protagonist's cultivation wasn't strong enough. Forcing the remnant soul's power shattered his meridians. He dealt a devastating blow to his enemy — but his own body exploded apart in the process.
[Ending: A Blaze of Glory.]
[Achievement Unlocked: Some roads can't be walked on passion alone.]
"He died?!"
Yu Wenqiu's eyes went wide. She stared at the page, utterly incredulous.
She, a proud elder of the Wenjian Sect, had picked the death route?!
"No, no, no! That doesn't count! Do-over!"
Refusing to accept it, she flipped back to the choice page and selected option one instead.
She turned to page 45. The protagonist survived — but surrendering the core treasure had cracked his Dao-heart. He never recovered. He faded into obscurity, just another unremarkable face in the crowd.
[Ending: A Life of Mediocrity.]
[Achievement Unlocked: Surviving through cowardice is shameful, but... effective? ...Maybe?]
"AAAARGH! This is infuriating!"
Yu Wenqiu slapped the book down onto the hammock and thrashed about in a full-blown tantrum.
What kind of terrible options were these?! No matter what she chose, it ended in tragedy!
She absolutely refused to die, and she absolutely refused to accept some pitiful, spineless outcome like that!
But...
That gnawing, burning need to know what happened next — and the sheer refusal to be beaten by a book — dragged her hand right back to it.
"I refuse to believe there isn't a perfect ending in here!"
And so this normally cool and composed elder went to war with the storybook.
With the single-minded dedication of someone with a touch of obsessive compulsion, she worked through every single branch — every choice, every path, even the ones that looked obviously ridiculous. Not one went untested.
She hated watching the protagonist die. But some strange, collector's instinct — that burning compulsion to unlock every ending, to see every possible outcome — made it impossible to stop.
The thrill of dancing on the knife's edge of death, of steering fate with her own two hands, was a hundred times more intoxicating than simply reading a story.
Without her noticing, the sky outside had begun to pale with the first grey light of dawn.
"Haah... now that hit the spot."
She closed the book with a deeply satisfied sigh and stretched out in one long, luxurious sprawl.
But then her gaze drifted to the window — and the bright, cheerful sunlight pouring through it.
She froze.
"Oh no..."
Yu Wenqiu looked at the book in her hand. Then at the fully risen sun outside.
"I read through the entire night?! I'm done for — I still have to go to work!"
She let out a wail, launched herself off the hammock, and began frantically washing up and getting dressed, all while sporting two faint but unmistakable dark circles under her eyes.
She was halfway through tidying herself up when the itch became unbearable again.
No. She had to finish it before heading to the Hidden Sword Pavilion.
Decision made — and without any further concern for the fact that she was only half dressed — she cracked the storybook open again.
She turned to the final page, reached the last passage, and was just settling into that delicious anticipation of what would come next — when she spotted a line of small text that practically begged to be punched:
[Part One · End.]
[To find out what happens next, stay tuned for the following installment.]
"It just ends here?!"
Yu Wenqiu's teeth ground together with barely suppressed fury.
The thing was so thick — she'd assumed it was a complete story! And it cut off here?!
AAARGH. Damn it all!
She desperately wanted to read what came next!
...Wait. I think I've skipped work again.
— — — — — — — —
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