The Side Character Who Wins by Doing Nothing

Lu Sangjiu was surprised that even the normally honest Gu Jue wasn’t letting her off the hook.

She fell silent for a moment, then decided to stop trying to make excuses.

”Fine, I lied. The truth is, I wanted to enter the small world by myself. I didn’t want you guys coming in and fighting me for stuff. I’m just that selfish. Got a problem with that?”

Xie Ningyuan: ”...”

Gu Jue: ”...”

Naturally, neither of them believed she was lying because she wanted to hoard everything for herself.

After all, they had known each other for so long that they were confident in her character.

However, her saying this was a clear sign she didn’t want to explain. They feared that pressing her further would be pointless.

And so, the two who had been demanding an explanation shared a tacit understanding and chose not to press the issue.

Xie Ningyuan turned to look at the small path before them. ”Ye Zhiyao went that way. Should we follow?”

Seeing Xie Ningyuan change the subject, Lu Sangjiu let out a sigh of relief, then shook her head. ”There’s no rush.”

According to the original plot, aside from the Phoenix Cry Sword’s sword scabbard, this small world was just full of mechanisms and traps, with nothing else of value.

The Phoenix Cry Sword’s sword scabbard could only be obtained at the very end, after overcoming countless hardships. Even with her protagonist’s halo, Ye Zhiyao couldn’t have accomplished much in this short amount of time. It would be better to let her scout ahead and trigger any traps.

With that in mind, Lu Sangjiu added, ”Actually, what I said earlier wasn’t entirely wrong. This small world isn’t large, and the number of Cultivators it can support is indeed limited. I imagine you’ve felt it, right?”

Xie Ningyuan grunted in agreement. ”Although my current state is considered to be at the Golden Core Stage, the Spiritual Power in my physical body is too strong. So even though I was able to enter, I’ve still had a certain impact on this place.”

”After you two came in, I could clearly feel this small world become even more unstable.”

Lu Sangjiu nodded. ”Exactly. So, to avoid making this small world collapse entirely, we must be extremely careful when we need to fight. We absolutely cannot use techniques that are too powerful.”

’This was another reason she wasn’t in a hurry to chase after Ye Zhiyao... After all, given their relationship, if they caught up to her, someone might impulsively start a fight, and then they’d all be done for.’

’By explaining things clearly to them now and making them promise not to act rashly, she’d at least have some peace of mind if they ran into Ye Zhiyao again later.’

Xie Ningyuan had clearly realized this as well and couldn’t help but frown in displeasure. ”This Ye Zhiyao’s luck is just too good... How is it that every time, it seems like something is mysteriously protecting her?”

Every time he wanted to kill her, something would always get in the way.

Ever since he’d entered the Body Integration Realm, it had been a very long time since he’d felt the frustration of wanting to kill someone but being unable to.

Lu Sangjiu, on the other hand, was calm. After all, she had experienced this kind of frustration far earlier than Xie Ningyuan and had long since gotten used to it.

”You might be right, but I think...” She smiled faintly. ”Whatever is protecting Ye Zhiyao is a real piece of work.”

Xie Ningyuan paused, a little unsure if Lu Sangjiu was speaking normally about the matter or just cursing someone out.

But she clearly didn’t want to elaborate on it. Instead, as if she had suddenly noticed something, her brow furrowed slightly. ”I can’t use my Divine Sense.”

At her reminder, the other two also checked and nodded in unison. ”Me too.”

”It seems this small world has sealed our Divine Sense.”

’Although she had read the book, it wasn’t particularly detailed, so there were some minor points Lu Sangjiu was inevitably unclear about.’

’But after a moment’s thought, she figured it out. This small world wasn’t very big. If their Divine Sense wasn’t sealed, they could basically stand right here, fully extend their Divine Sense, and explore the entire place in an instant.’

So she didn’t say anything more and simply took the lead, heading down the small path. ”Let’s go.”

This small world was actually more like someone’s private backyard garden. Although it was overgrown with messy green plants, one could still faintly make out traces of man-made repairs, indicating it wasn’t a truly wild forest.

It had simply been untended for a long time, allowing weeds to grow wild and obscuring its original appearance.

Lu Sangjiu, who was familiar with the plot, naturally saw and knew more than the other two.

This place was likely a spatial manor created by some Great Power. Later, this Great Power probably perished, so this space became ownerless, hidden within a spatial rift near the snowy mountains.

Only by chance would its entrance appear for a brief moment.

At the end of this path was a small courtyard, which should be where the original owner lived.

In the courtyard was a small lake, and the sword scabbard of the Phoenix Cry Sword was sealed at its bottom.

However, according to the plot, the male and female leads never discovered who the master of this place was, even by the time they left the small world. Nor did they learn why the Phoenix Cry Sword’s sword scabbard was here.

It was an unsolved mystery, so to speak, which actually made Lu Sangjiu quite curious.

’She thought that if she had extra time later, she would explore the small courtyard thoroughly. Maybe she could figure out which great senior was the master of this place.’

As they walked forward, lost in thought, the three of them rounded a bend and saw Ye Zhiyao up ahead, fighting a group of menacing, clawing ”trees.”

Of course, neither Lu Sangjiu nor Xie Ningyuan had any intention of kindly lending her a hand. They stood their ground, observing the commotion from a distance.

Only Gu Jue hesitated slightly.

From their previous few encounters, he could naturally tell that Ye Zhiyao’s character wasn’t the best.

But he hadn’t personally witnessed Ye Zhiyao being vicious enough to try and take someone’s life. So, although his impression of her was poor, he didn’t detest her to the point of wanting her dead.

Therefore, seeing Ye Zhiyao struggling to hold on by herself, he couldn’t help but feel a little soft-hearted.

Seeing that Lu Sangjiu and Xie Ningyuan had no intention of going over, he hesitated before speaking, ”Ms. Lu, shouldn’t we... go over and help?”

Hearing this, Lu Sangjiu glanced at Gu Jue with some surprise. Only then did it slowly dawn on her that there were many things Gu Jue didn’t know, so he probably didn’t see Ye Zhiyao as a completely and utterly evil person.

’She had just finished ”lecturing” them about not judging a person based on what others say. Naturally, she wasn’t going to start bad-mouthing Ye Zhiyao now to change Gu Jue’s opinion of her, especially since there were many things she couldn’t reveal.’

’She was willing to believe that Gu Jue would trust her, but it was hard to truly empathize with things you haven’t seen with your own eyes.’

’For example, if she told him about how Ye Zhiyao had intentionally and severely injured and tortured Luo Linlang during the tournament, Gu Jue would certainly believe her.’

’But without having seen Luo Linlang’s miserable state at the time, he would inevitably have thoughts like, ”The injuries probably weren’t that serious,” or ”Maybe it was a misunderstanding.”’

’Even if he didn’t say it out loud and agreed not to save Ye Zhiyao, he might regret it later after seeing how pitiful she looked. He might even develop a slightly negative impression of Lu Sangjiu.’

’It wasn’t that Lu Sangjiu didn’t trust Gu Jue’s character; it was just human nature, and she couldn’t help but overthink it.’

So, after a moment of silence, Lu Sangjiu put the choice back in Gu Jue’s hands. ”Mr. Xie and I will not save her, but if you want to, I won’t stop you.”