Pulling Together A Villain Reformation Strategy Chapter 2

We're now picking up after the cliffhanger from chapter 1, and entering the slower starting arc of this novel. I just finished a whole slew of midterms, so I hope to churn out these chapters relatively quickly to get over the hump.

(Honestly, one of the reasons I picked up this novel was because the main characters swear so much, and I love my profanities <>

Please let me know if any translations can be improved!

Chapter 2 – The Idiot Du Heng

There are some alive who have already died; there are some alive who should have long since died.

Jiang Xunyi felt this phrase fit himself very well, since he had clearly already died--died guilty of evil crimes, died at the perfect moment. Yet he had not been dead for even an hour when he opened his eyes once again.

This definitely wasn't the promised "returning home"!

Upon opening his eyes, his surroundings were pitch-black to the point where he couldn't even see his hand in front of him. He could only hear weeping and sobbing noises echoing from his side, coming from both men and women. Furthermore, he seemed to be in a relatively enclosed s.p.a.ce.

Jiang Xunyi's lips moved slightly, silently chanting a few incantations. Upon touching his brow bones with his fingers, his line of sight finally became clear.　

Around a dozen young men and women were here in this narrow mountain cave, each one wailing and weeping so grievously as if their dear mothers had died. At the mouth of the cave, two masked men dressed in black robes with red embroidery grasped long lances and stood utterly still.

These people obviously did not know why they had been locked up here. It was also obvious that although Jiang Xunyi no longer held the leading role "equally famous as the main character, one of the Dual Jades1 of the Spirit Stage"… he had definitely transmigrated yet again.　

Jiang Xunyi wrinkled his nose, sensing that some disguise object had been applied to his face, though he had no intention to remove it at the moment. 　　

He didn't know if he had transmigrated into a book again this time. Will I have to play a villain boss? The feeling of being screamed at, accused, chased, and beaten isn't pleasant, I don't want to go through that again! …f.u.c.k, could this girl right beside me not use my sleeves to wipe her tears?

Jiang Xunyi roared complaints in his heart, but his face maintained a smile. He patiently waited until the girl took a temporary intermission from wiping her mucus and tears, and then suppressed his irritable nature to speak slowly and softly: "I just woke up and my brain is a little unclear. Girl, where is this place?"

Unexpectedly hearing someone speaking into her ear, that woman trembled from shock. Then upon immediately discerning it was Jiang Xunyi talking, she straight-up shook her sleeves and spat out: "You d.a.m.ned second idiot2, have you forgotten my name again? And has your pig brain ever been clear once? We're about to die and you still want to stick to my side, pah, I'm truly unlucky."

Jiang Xunyi's patience had all been used up. He had originally been confident that he could return to the modern world after completing that task, but then ended up in this annoying situation. He had continually restrained the anger in his heart, yet was now inexplicably being berated by this person out of nowhere. His facial expression immediately changed and he had just raised his hand, when he heard another voice quietly urging from the side: "Big Sister Fang, don't scold Du Heng any more. After all, he was deceived into taking the fall for the young lord. He's quite pitiful too…"

Jiang Xunyi slowly put his hand down and did not speak any more. 　　

This Big Sister Fang spoke through her tears: "Pitiful? Yeah right! All he can do alive is be disdained and looked down upon by everyone. He might as well die off nicely and cleanly. But why did we get roped in the same situation?! Demon Sovereign Xuan Li's resurrection back into this world is said to require eighteen male and female sacrifices born on the Ghost Festival. I already knew I would have trouble escaping this calamity……"

Jiang Xunyi had already stopped listening to her endless complaining after that. The four words "Demon Sovereign Xuan Li" had completely drew his attention and put him on high alert3. That name quickly raced through his mind over and over.

Dammit, he's actually still inside this accursed 《Rising Clouds, Billowing Skies4》.　　

It wasn't that he was super sensitive to this name, but Demon Sovereign Xuan Li's presence was extraordinarily strong. Inside this《Rising Clouds, Billowing Skies》book, he counted as a very important villain boss character. Before Jiang Xunyi's betrayal, he and the protagonist Yun Xie strategized together how to take this Demon Sovereign down……Wait a second. f.u.c.k.

Demon Lord Xuan Li resurrected back into this world?!　

This isn't right!　　

Back in the day I spent so much G.o.dd.a.m.n effort and almost f.u.c.king died to kill him, how come he gets to be revived at the drop of a hat?!

Now Jiang Xunyi somewhat realized why he still couldn't go back home.　　

In addition, this shocking realization also shocked out some memories and impressions of Du Heng——that is, his current body.

Speaking of Du Heng, what Big Sister Fang said about him being a "d.a.m.ned second lunatic" wasn't technically wrong. Du Heng really was a congenital, incurable idiot.

Of the top sects in the cultivation world, the seventh place belonged to the Heze5 Du Sect. The Du family head had both a wife and a concubine. The wife was named Yin Ling, the concubine called Cheng Dan. This wife and concubine both gave birth to a son on the same day. The concubine's son was born earlier, and named Du Li. This Du Li was very famous with a virtuous and wise reputation; Jiang Xunyi had heard of him before, though never seen him in-person. On the other hand, Madam Du suffered a difficult birth. Only after an entire day and night in labor did she deliver the Du Sect's first legitimate child, who took the name Du Heng. Unfortunately, though Du Heng was the son of the first wife, his head had been injured at birth so he became dull-witted and slow.

Making matters even worse6, his mother also pa.s.sed away from illness when he was still an infant. As the cla.s.sic wicked stepmother, Cheng Dan wouldn't live up to this t.i.tle if she didn't screw him over. The only reason Du Heng had been able to smoothly live up until now was because no one wanted to deal with this intellectually disabled idiot. Then when Demon Sovereign Xuan Li's re-emergence selected eighteen men and women as sacrifices, Cheng Dan certainly couldn't bear to send her own dear son to die. In the midst of her fretting, she thought of Du Heng.

Du Heng and Du Li were originally brothers of the same age and status. Their appearances even looked half-similar, so Cheng Dan slightly modified Du Heng's face and dressed him up as his older brother. Together with the other seventeen men and women, he was sent into Demon Sovereign Xuan Li's Breaking Heaven Demon Cave7. …It was still unclear how he got replaced with Jiang Xunyi.

Jiang Xunyi secretly controlled his breath8, and discovered this body actually had an abundance of spiritual energy. It was still slightly below that of his original body, but Du Heng had somehow cultivated to quite a level. This comforting revelation raised his mood enough to start caring about the outside world. 　　

The woman who had just been called Big Sister Fang actually had the surname of Cheng. She was also a young lady from a great cultivation family, and was in fact Cheng Dan's niece. This was why she could recognize Du Heng was not Du Li. At the moment, she was still crying while talking. Her words through her tears were honestly quite expressive and meticulously detailed. After just listening for a while from the side, Jiang Xunyi already understood the basics of the situation before him.

These eighteen people--including him--were currently lambs awaiting the slaughter. The previously set hour for them to be sacrificed to the Demon Sovereign had already arrived, but for some unknown reason, Xuan Li's arrival had been delayed. This indefinite wait actually filled everyone's hearts with tension, anxiety, and extreme uneasiness.　　

Jiang Xunyi held a blade of gra.s.s in his mouth as he leaned against the corner of the wall, concentrating on appearing as a quiet beautiful man. On the inside, his heart was unstable from this flood of new information. After being killed once, this world had changed too much--he had a bit of trouble keeping up. After pondering his situation over for a moment, he decided to stay here to wait and see what was going to happen.

Just at this moment, his sleeve was pulled by someone. Jiang Xunyi looked back to see that someone sitting down by his side. It was the girl who had recently stopped Cheng Fang from abusing him.

This woman was named Cheng Wei, and was the younger twin sister of Cheng Fang. Though these sisters were born together from the same mother, their temperaments and appearances were as different as could be. Cheng Wei looked around to see no one was paying attention to her. Only then did she reach into her sleeve, quietly take out some small snacks wrapped in a handkerchief, and whisper: “Little Brother Heng, you're probably hungry, right? Here, come eat a few snacks.”　　

This body had not reached the level of being able to fast9, so Jiang Xunyi really was somewhat hungry. After just casting a spell, he could see in the dark and glanced over to see that the handkerchief wrapping the snacks was clean. He was very satisfied and unceremoniously took the snacks over. He gulped them down one at a time, without even saying a word of thanks. 

Hey, it wasn't that he didn't have manners, but because he was supposed to be an idiot.

Cheng Wei seemed to be used to it and didn't mind his att.i.tude. Instead, she softly tidied up Jiang Xunyi's somewhat messy hair and quietly sighed: “…I don't know how this Demon Sovereign Xuan Li became so powerful. Back in the day, the Yun and Jiang disciple-brothers fought a life-and-death battle to defeat him, and had to set nine seals before he was suppressed. No one could have expected him to manifest again so quickly. It's a pity that after Jiang-s.h.i.+xiong's10 death, Yun-s.h.i.+xiong was seriously ill and didn't even speak for many months. He probably received an extremely heavy blow, and I don't know if he'll be able to come rescue us in time…"

Jiang Xunyi ate the snacks, his mouth secretly twitching. Complete and utter nonsense, where did she hear these Jianghu11rumors? I really was killed by him--yeah f.u.c.king right he 'received a heavy blow'. In the future when he finds out I'm alive again, that'll be when he'll truly receive a heavy blow…… 　

Still, it was rare for someone to actually bring him up in a situation like this, and even be willing to call him "Jiang s.h.i.+xiong". Although Jiang Xingyi usually handled matters quite viciously and did not have any tender feelings for the fairer s.e.x, he would not dispute these meaningless things with a girl who was treating him kindly. As a result, he only listened silently and then carefully showed a silly smile to this gentle beauty.　　

Cheng Wei was mostly just talking to herself, and didn't really expect him to understand what she was saying. Seeing this, she pat his head. She originally wanted to give him some encouragement since that would be better than nothing, but before she could open her mouth to speak, a huge clanging noise came from outside the door. 　

The chaotic din inside the cave immediately stopped, and everyone looked at the door. Two arrays of masked men in black-red robes entered, all carrying spears. The leading man knocked on the ground with his spear and harshly ordered: "All of you, go out!"

Footnotes:
1. 双璧(shuāng bì): 璧=jade annulus (ring-shaped artifact), traditionally used as symbol of rank. The entire phrase of 双璧 often refers to a pair of matchless things–in this case, Jiang Xunyi and Yun Xie as the premier talented duo of their generation.
2. Du Heng is the second son of the Du family.
3. 振聋发聩 lit. "make a deaf man hear and a blind man see"
4. This book t.i.tle has some relations.h.i.+p to Yun Xie's name: Yun means Cloud, and is the exact Cloud in this t.i.tle.
5. 菏泽(hé zé) I think is a real prefecture located in the Shandong Province, in eastern-northeastern China.
6. 雪上加霜 lit. "adding hail to snow" = one disaster on top of another, making a bad situation even worse
7. 戾天: 戾=to violate, to go against, ruthless/tyrannical; 天 = sky, heaven
8. 调息 = Pranayama, a meditative technique of controlling the breath to draw out one's life force (or something like that).
9. 辟谷 (pì gǔ) = originally a Taoist practice of abstaining from grain. In cultivation novels, this instead refers to how once you reach a high enough level of cultivation, you don't need to eat or drink.
10. 师兄 (shī xiōng) lit. "disciple elder brother" = senior fellow male apprentice. I don't want to keep spamming "disciple elder brother" over and over, so I decided to keep this as "s.h.i.+xiong".
11. 江湖 (jiāng hú） lit. "rivers and lakes" = the martial arts world of ancient China