Chapter 2: What Is Cruelty

[The protagonist’s desperate efforts in the early stages were entirely due to the original host’s breaking of the engagement.]
The novel had devoted extensive passages to describing the psychological impact Hua Fan’s rejection had on Yang Fan. Whenever Yang Fan faced life-and-death desperation and was on the verge of giving up, it was his desire to make Hua Fan regret that kept his consciousness clear.
Although Hua Fan’s actions seemed ruthless and excessive in Yang Fan’s eyes, they were indeed the greatest motivation for Yang Fan to become the strongest.
Fu Jia’s eyes lifted slightly. [I do not wish to change this, and I truly do not want to continue this so-called engagement.]
[However, I will disguise my identity so that he does not discover that I am the one breaking off the engagement.]
Fu Jia’s current intention was to help Yang Fan. He did not care about Yang Fan’s attitude toward him; he merely needed a suitable reason to stay by Yang Fan’s side and find his weakness.
If Yang Fan eventually tried to kill him, he could rely on this weakness to save his life.
If Yang Fan did not act against him, Fu Jia did not wish to alter Yang Fan’s predetermined fate due to his transmigration.
But precisely because of this, he could not let Yang Fan know that the person helping him was Hua Fan, the one who broke off the engagement. Under the premise of the broken engagement, the nature of all his actions would undergo a subtle change.
Whether Yang Fan interpreted it as further humiliation and rejected him, or whether this event caused Yang Fan to lose the intense hatred he originally held in the novel, Yang Fan would be unable to reach the height he had achieved in the story.
[But you are still you. You will become his heart demon.] The System stated coldly and incisively.
Since Fu Jia had transmigrated into Hua Fan, Fu Jia and Hua Fan were now one and the same. Yang Fan knew nothing at present, but there was always the possibility that he would discover the truth. By then, having accepted Fu Jia’s help, the situation would be irreversible.
The person who helped him was the very one who had brought him immense humiliation.
Any normal person would be stimulated by such a revelation.
[The original host was already his heart demon. It was only when Yang Fan publicly challenged the original host during the sect ranking tournament and succeeded, causing the original host to lose all face, that Yang Fan’s heart demon disappeared.]
That was the greatest climax in the novel. The author had used extensive篇幅 to describe how Yang Fan defeated the original host, detailing the original host’s disbelief and bewilderment.
Because Yang Fan successfully defeated Hua Fan, his mental state broke through to a major realm. At that time, the original host’s Immortal master had just arrived to take him back. However, upon witnessing Yang Fan’s breakthrough, he temporarily changed his mind. Instead of taking Hua Fan, he took Yang Fan to the Immortal Realm.
Although the original host later entered the Immortal Realm through his own efforts and coincidentally met Yang Fan again, their statuses had completely reversed.
Even more, to enhance the dramatic effect, the original host eventually fell in love with Yang Fan.
[Will you let Yang Fan defeat you?] The System asked after a pause.
Fu Jia did not answer this question. Instead, he asked a seemingly unrelated question. [System, when you approached me, you said that if I died before the Spirit Guiding Stone exposed my true identity, you would help me reconstruct my body, regardless of the number of times, correct?]
[…Yes.] The System responded reflexively. It did not quite understand why Fu Jia had suddenly shifted the topic.
But suddenly, the System thought of something.
There were only two ways to resolve a heart demon. One was for the person suffering from it to see through it themselves and break free, relying entirely on their own strength. The other method aligned closely with the karmic bonds of the cultivation world: killing the person who caused the heart demon, personally severing the bond between the two.
For some reason, the System suddenly felt an indescribable sensation. It silently observed the host it had chosen.
He possessed exceptionally good looks, with extremely fair skin that appeared particularly luminous under the sunlight. Perhaps due to his skin being very thin, it seemed to carry a faint, ethereal glow, making his entire presence appear illusory.
The System paused.
It looked into Fu Jia’s eyes.
They were beautiful eyes, but they contained nothing. They were neither clear nor indifferent; they were truly empty.
It was as if everything he saw was merely seen, nothing entering his heart, nothing capable of stirring any emotion within him.
This was also the reason the System had chosen Fu Jia. The System had seen many cultivators, many who severed emotions and desires to pursue the Great Dao. But it had never seen anyone like Fu Jia, someone who seemed to care about nothing.
He resembled an Immortal more than anyone else.
The System clearly understood that someone with Fu Jia’s personality would not care much about the matter of the Spirit Guiding Stone, nor would he deliberately do anything just to survive. Therefore, Fu Jia did not choose to destroy Yang Fan before he grew strong. If Yang Fan did not discover the truth himself, Fu Jia would never voluntarily reveal that he and Hua Fan were the same person.
What he did was more akin to leaving things to fate.
If the System were truly rational, it would not have chosen Fu Jia. Yet it did, even going so far as to inform Fu Jia about the Spirit Guiding Stone and proactively offering to delay the time of its revelation. It was as if—
The young man before it maintained his calm demeanor. Throughout their conversation, no ripple appeared on his face, and his dark eyes remained still.
He seemed completely unconcerned about experiencing death once, and perhaps truly willing to die to help Yang Fan overcome his heart demon. Or, more accurately, he was simply indifferent.
The System withdrew its gaze from Fu Jia.
It did not know Fu Jia’s thoughts, but the System was very clear that if Fu Jia’s true identity were really exposed, and if Fu Jia were truly willing to undergo death for the sake of Yang Fan’s heart demon, things would not improve but would instead become much worse.
Yang Fan would regret it. That bone-eroding remorse would engulf Yang Fan like a tidal wave.
Before Yang Fan could recognize his own heart, before he could make a choice amidst struggle and hesitation, Fu Jia would have already cut off his retreat.
This was more cruel to Yang Fan than the fact that Fu Jia and Hua Fan were the same person.
But Fu Jia did not know.
He could not comprehend that Yang Fan would feel such regret. He would simply believe that Yang Fan had overcome his heart demon, completely failing to anticipate that Yang Fan would most likely collapse.
It was a cruelty born of unconsciousness.
Yet no one would bear to blame Fu Jia for his simple ignorance, including Yang Fan, who would believe he had no right to do so.
It was precisely Fu Jia’s simple ignorance and unconscious cruelty that bewitched the System, leading it to choose Fu Jia as if possessed by a ghost.
It was gambling. It bet that even if Fu Jia did not take active measures, his personality would cause events to develop into a state of disintegration.
Fu Jia did not know what mindset the System held. He simply waited quietly in the Yang family residence for Yang Fan’s arrival. Then, he took out two tokens from his storage ring.
One bore the character “Xuan,” symbolizing the identity token of a core disciple of Xuan Yun Peak. The other was from the cultivator in the Immortal Realm who had taken an interest in the original host.
The original host’s nominal master had actually intended to take him directly into the Immortal Realm, but the original host had refused.
The original host had requested to remain on the Yun Cang Continent for a while longer.
The original host’s decision to stay on the Yun Cang Continent was definitely not merely to break off the engagement with Yang Fan.
However, Fu Jia had not inherited the original host’s memories, nor did he know why the original host had chosen to remain on the Yun Cang Continent.
The novel had not mentioned this matter. Readers had pointed it out as a bug, and the author had honestly replied that he had not noticed it and had not made corresponding settings.
But—
Fu Jia’s eyelashes lowered slightly.
Since this novel had become a real world, there should be no bugs. The original host must have had a reason for staying here.
A reason significant enough to make him temporarily abandon entering the Immortal Realm he had long dreamed of.