Chapter 5: Plan Changed, Prepare to Raise Junior Sister

Lin Xiao crouched on the crooked old tree in the Outer Sect Disciple Gathering Area.

The scene before him almost made him depressed.

By the well not far from the old tree, three female disciples had been waiting for Xiao Luoyi for a long time.

The leader, Lu Renjia, “accidentally” splashed the entire bucket of freshly drawn well water onto Xiao Luoyi as she passed by.

Water splashed everywhere.

Xiao Luoyi was drenched, her eyelashes trembling, but she didn’t speak, her eyes locked onto Lu Renjia.

“Ah, Junior Sister Xiao, how could you be so careless.”

Lu Renjia patted Xiao Luoyi on the shoulder.

“You actually bumped into my bucket yourself.”

“I’ll let it slide this time, but don’t do it again.”

With that, she poured the remaining water from the bucket onto Xiao Luoyi’s head.

Xiao Luoyi didn’t resist.

She just stood still, closed her eyes, and let the water droplets slide down her pale cheeks.

The three of them, still not satisfied, pointed at Xiao Luoyi’s disheveled appearance and laughed heartily.

‘Tsk… these people are really taking advantage.’

Lin Xiao gritted his teeth, took a pebble from his pocket, squinted to aim, and flicked it with a trace of weak spiritual power.

“Ouch!”

Lu Renjia suddenly felt her leg give way and fell forward, landing flat on her face.

Her front tooth hit the edge of the well, almost cracking in two.

The other two female disciples were also startled by the sudden turn of events.

“Who is it!”

Lu Renjia covered her mouth and looked around.

“It seems to be over by the male disciple gathering area.”

“What are you standing there for? Hurry up and find the person!”

“Yes… yes!”

Xiao Luoyi watched Lu Renjia and the others curse as they went to look for the culprit.

Only then did she look up, her gaze falling on the crooked tree where Lin Xiao had been crouching.

The wind blew, the tree shadows swayed, but it was empty.

The culprit Lin Xiao had already slipped away.

He fled back to his remote, humble room, closed the door, and pressed his ear against it to listen.

No one had followed.

He couldn’t help intervening again.

After that impulsive rescue on the thunderstorm night, he had intended to go back to being invisible.

But his eyes, which hated evil as much as they did, always had their own ideas.

Xiao Luoyi truly lived up to her reputation as a protagonist with a built-in taunt ability—trouble followed her everywhere.

And yet she was as quiet as a shadow, hiding away whenever she was bullied.

Lin Xiao clearly remembered that in the game’s original story, the junior sister was bullied for a long time with no one to help her, and in the end, she became dependent on the only senior brother who had shown her warmth.

‘Dependence…’

Lin Xiao suddenly sat up straight, his eyes lighting up.

“Right! That’s exactly the problem.”

If Xiao Luoyi only relied on him, then after she turned dark, she would naturally want to hold onto him by any means necessary.

‘Then just make her strong and independent so she no longer needs my protection, wouldn’t that work?’

‘If she can become an inner sect elite, her focus will naturally shift—relying on herself is more reliable than relying on a senior brother, right… probably?’

Lin Xiao felt he had found a new way out.

“The sect’s junior competition in one month. The top ten in the outer sect can enter the inner sect.”

“As long as Xiao Luoyi breaks into the top ten, she’ll naturally discover that an outer sect senior brother like me is nothing special…”

In the original story, the protagonist and his junior sister were bullied, couldn’t get good resources, and had their disciple tokens stolen so they couldn’t register for the one-month sect competition.

As a result, they were forced to stay in the outer sect for another year.

Although in the game, this year was quickly skipped with a montage.

But if it happened to him now, he didn’t have any fast-forward method to skip that long period.

A crash course for a Phoenix Heroine was imperative.

Lin Xiao quickly came up with a plan. For now, he just needed to “borrow” a few techniques from the Scripture Depository that no one practiced at the moment—ones that seemed weak stat-wise but actually had overpowered mechanics.

In simple terms, three types: durability, escape, and damage.

Lin Xiao muttered to the air.

“Now the problem is… how can I naturally start the master-disciple storyline without revealing that I’m the masked person from that rainy night?”

He needed a new identity.

“…”

Three days later.

Lin Xiao glued on a fake beard, styled his hair into that of a sage, and changed into a set of servant uniform.

He hid behind the reeds by the riverbank, intending to observe secretly and find a good moment to make a grand entrance pretending to be a mysterious expert.

But instead of the right moment, he witnessed another bullying session.

The persistent Lu Renjia and her group snatched the herbs Xiao Luoyi had just gathered and pushed her.

Causing her to fall by the river, her palms scraped by gravel, with bright red beads of blood seeping from the wounds.

After those people left with jeers.

Xiao Luoyi sat quietly for a while, then walked to the water, cupped some clean water, and washed her wounds.

Her movements were gentle.

The sunlight illuminated her profile, making it very pale, but couldn’t penetrate the gloom on her face.

Lin Xiao saw the glaring red on his junior sister’s hand and instinctively furrowed his brow.

He stepped out from behind the reeds.

The sound of footsteps startled Xiao Luoyi.

She turned sharply, her eyes wary, her fingers instinctively gripping the hem of her clothes.

When she saw it was a gray-robed “old man,” her wariness faded and turned into confusion.

“Young lady…”

Lin Xiao lowered his voice, trying to sound profound.

“I’ve been sweeping here for many years, and I see you often come here. Today… you were wronged again?”

Xiao Luoyi didn’t speak.

She slowly turned back and continued washing her wounds.

Lin Xiao took a few steps closer, keeping his distance.

“Don’t you want to… fight back?”

Xiao Luoyi lightly brushed her hand over the flowing water without answering.

After a long while, just when Lin Xiao thought she wouldn’t answer, the girl’s voice rang out.

“I didn’t want to before.”

She wrung out her wet sleeve, her voice very soft.

“Because, once upon a time, there was no light in my world. Fighting back or not, the outcome was the same.”

Those words made Lin Xiao’s stomach clench.

“But,” Xiao Luoyi raised her head, her gaze falling on the river, “recently… I seem to have seen a little light.”

She paused, then spoke in a soft but clear voice.

“Although that light is faint. But I don’t want to stay in the darkness anymore. I want to… grab it.”

Lin Xiao was impressed without understanding why.

He thought she was talking about some abstract concept like hope for the future.

He completely failed to realize that the beam of light the girl spoke of was currently standing behind her, with the sun at its back.

The sunlight wrapped around his figure, as if he really was glowing.

So Lin Xiao felt relieved instead.

As long as she has motivation—that’s good.

With motivation, she can become independent.

He tried to look like a transcendent sage.

“Young lady, I see that you have an extraordinary bone structure. You are a rare cultivation genius once in ten thousand years. The heavy responsibility of maintaining world peace falls on your shoulders!”

“…”

She turned her head and quietly looked at him.

Those eyes were too clear.

Lin Xiao felt inexplicably creeped out being stared at like that.

“Senior,” she asked softly, “do you… know me?”

“No, no, no! I live in seclusion here, sweeping and comprehending the Dao. I don’t know you!”

Lin Xiao quickly denied.

“I just saw that your bone structure is good, and I don’t want you to be wasted.”

“So, I have a few low-grade techniques I obtained in my youth. If you want to learn, I can guide you a bit.”

“I guarantee that after a month, in the outer sect junior competition… you’ll at least pass.”