Reincarnation Girl Becomes Immortal

She sheathed her longsword and looked toward the restaurant next door.

Smoke was already rising from the chimneys over there, the bluish smoke drifting slowly upwards and being dispersed by the cold winter wind.

She slowly approached, and even from this distance, she could already smell a faint fragrance.

"Is it ready? New Year's Eve dinner?" Xi Heng wondered.

This was the first time she had celebrated a festival with familiar people in this world she had traveled to.

In my previous life, I worked at a pharmacy. Although I received things like mooncakes and zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), I didn't have any friends around me, and there was no festive atmosphere.

But today is different... She has been in the Sword Academy for almost a year and a half and has come to regard it as her home.

Even if it doesn't feel like "home," it's at least a college dormitory where you live with friends, so you have a vague sense of belonging.

A sense of belonging brings a festive atmosphere, adding a touch of warmth to the so-called New Year's Eve dinner tonight.

Surrounded by the aroma, Xi Heng entered the dining hall and saw four people busy in the open kitchen.

One person tended the fire and the pot, another washed and chopped various ingredients into pieces to be used as filling for dumplings, and the third person wrapped the dumplings.

As for the other person, it was Senior Sister Hongmiao, who was watching these actions with a curious look on her face.

She also had a small pancake in her hand, and she was using chopsticks to pick up the filling and put it on top, then slowly pinching it with her fingers.

As I kept pinching it, the bottom of the dumpling broke.

The eldest sister blinked and tried to pinch the broken part to mend it, but then another piece was squeezed and broken by too much filling.

Seeing Senior Sister Hongmiao's unprecedented flustered state, Xi Heng covered his mouth and chuckled to himself.

So even my senior sister has her embarrassing moments.

……

As night fell, the remaining dozen or so people from the Red Thread Sword Academy gathered in the dining hall.

Several small red lanterns were hung in front of the hall, and red paper was simply pasted on them and decorations were hung. The light from the lanterns cast a slightly dim orange-red glow in the hall, like a candlelight party.

Everyone was seated in an orderly fashion, with Xi Heng sitting next to Hong Miao.

The dumplings in both of their bowls were crooked and misshapen, and could hardly be considered neat no matter how you looked at them.

When Senior Sister Hongmiao saw that the dumplings Xiheng made were exactly the same as hers, she no longer felt embarrassed because she had someone to keep her company.

She said, "Junior sister doesn't know how to do it either. She was laughing at me just now. She made a fool of herself, didn't she?"

Xi Heng stubbornly tried to justify himself: "It's only natural that a princess wouldn't know how to make dumplings."

"Mmm." Hong Miao's obedient nod only fueled the annoyance.

Xi Heng glanced at her, then slowly began to finish the dumplings in his bowl.

Meanwhile, her cheap cook didn't touch his chopsticks. He just leaned on his hunched back, his nostalgic gaze sweeping over everyone in the dining hall, letting out a few soft, hoarse laughs.

"Good, good, good..." the elder said repeatedly.

Time doesn't linger in warm and comforting moments like people do; it relentlessly leaves its mark on us.

The simple New Year's Eve dinner ended quickly, and everyone left. Xi Heng said goodbye to his senior sister Hong Miao and his cheap master.

A bright winter crescent moon hangs high above, reflecting on the flowerbed, while a few wisps of cold wind brush against my clothes.

Once you leave the canteen in the courtyard, the world seems to be completely silent, with no noise under the cover of night.

Xi Heng gazed at the sky and saw a flickering spark rise high into the distance.

It exploded into a flash of light in the air, shining its own moment of light upon the world.

The loud bang of the fireworks exploding reached Xi Heng's ears, followed by silence. The stark contrast caused a long tinnitus in his ears.

"It's the New Year... This is the first time I've ever celebrated the New Year in this world."

There had never been any festive atmosphere before, but this time there was a tiny bit.

……

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Enemy Approaches the City

End of the second year of the save file.

Outside Jinshi City, the Tianliang army was pressing in.

Dark, ominous clouds rolled like a giant beast, casting a pall over the earth.

The sunlight stubbornly pierced through it for a moment, only to be covered by gray clouds the next, as if half of the sky had fallen, creating an extremely oppressive atmosphere.

The broad city walls stood tall, winding like a long snake in front of the enemy army.

The oppressive heat of late summer stirred up dust outside the city, making the flags flutter loudly.

The heavy sound of war drums echoed across the cracked loess ground. The army outside the wall stretched as far as the eye could see, as dense as an ant colony. Although they were not like the government troops, which were arrayed in formation and their armor was not uniform, their sheer number, which could be described as covering the entire mountainside, was already overwhelming.

Thousands of guards stood in a row on the city wall, solemn and dignified. Countless arrows were placed in quiver, and torches were placed on the city wall, swaying constantly in the stuffy wind.

Chaos and tension permeated the city, with ordinary people either hiding in their houses or packing their belongings to escape.

The Tianliang army arrived too quickly this time. Most people had barely heard the news and hadn't even made a decision about whether to stay or leave when the enemy was already at the gates of the city.

The doors of the houses and shops in the street were tightly closed, and guards or soldiers were constantly moving among them.

As Xi Heng walked through the city, listening to the faint sounds of war drums and shouts coming from outside, even though he was not afraid of death, he couldn't help but feel a little nervous because of the atmosphere.

"Although I knew there might be news of the Tianliang Army attacking recently, this is too sudden..." Xi Heng sighed softly.

Although there wasn't much laughter and joy in the past few days, Jinshicheng was relatively peaceful, with people going about their daily lives.

However, in just one day, news of the impending attack by the Tianliang army was posted on the city wall, causing chaos.

The man from Midtown, carrying his child and a pile of valuables, quickly hailed a taxi and left.

Upon reaching the outer city, a group of ragged beggars would swarm and pounce on the wealthy carriages. Some were thwarted by the carriages' efforts to escape, while others were killed or scattered by the warriors inside. However, some managed to drag the noble members of the family out of the carriages and steal every valuable item.

The order within the city gradually collapsed. All the soldiers, guards, and officials were focused on the formidable enemy outside the city and had no time to manage the order within the city.

On his way back to the Sword Academy, Xi Hengxing was surrounded by several street thugs.

She drew her sword and beheaded the two men, at which point the attackers scattered and fled.

Xi Heng flicked his sword to shake off the blood, and the longsword went back into its sheath with a slightly muffled squeak.

She put down the medicine basket in her hand, clapped her hands, picked up the head from the ground and dragged the corpse that was still spitting blood, then turned and went to the dark and desolate alley next to her.

The girl hummed a soft tune, dipped her fingertips in blood, and drew blood-like patterns on the dry ground, then drew tentacle patterns, the tips of which pointed towards the two corpses on the ground.

Pinch your fingers together and take a few more steps.

After muttering a few words to herself, she used the blood from her fingertips to draw a bone pattern on her arm.

As the bone patterns encircling the arms were drawn, they emitted a faint light, and the two corpses on the ground began to wither and shrink very quickly, turning into two gray-black mummies in the blink of an eye.

Xi Heng took out a handkerchief, wiped his hands, and nodded gently:

"As expected, there is more spirit in the human body than in a horse. Just two people are enough to unleash the Bone-Shocking Transformation once."

She turned around, picked up the medicine basket from the ground again, left the alley, and continued back to the Red Thread Sword Academy.

Xi Heng went out this time because the elder had caught a cold, so he went out of the hospital to buy some medicinal herbs to treat the elder.

She went out for the first time in several days and realized that the outside world had become so chaotic.

If one doesn't possess martial arts skills and is merely an ordinary person, every step one takes would feel like walking on thin ice.

From the Sword Academy to the only remaining pharmacy in the distance, a journey of only a few quarters of an hour, Xi Heng had already killed five people.

Dressed in warrior attire and carrying a bloodstained sword, she could no longer deter the increasingly frenzied people in the city.

Although there are still armed soldiers patrolling the road, they will back down once enough criminals gather.

"Blood Arrow, Blood Claw, Blood Surge, Bone-Shattering Transformation..." Xi Heng used the five people he killed along the way to condense four kinds of magic, which occupied the backs of his hands and forearms respectively.

Now that Jinshi City is under siege, neither inside nor outside the city is a safe place, so it is natural to make some preparations.

And... I should leave this place too.

Xi Heng looked around the city where he had lived for two years, feeling somewhat reluctant to leave.

"Afterwards, Jinshi City will become the battlefield between the soldiers of the Great Zhao and the Tianliang Army... Why don't we just go directly to the capital?"

"Will my senior sisters leave together?" Xi Heng asked softly.

A few days earlier, she had actually asked her senior sister about this matter and informed her that the Tianliang Army would break through Jinshi City.

But no matter what, Senior Sister Hongmiao's answer was always the same: the elder would not leave the city, and she would stay by the elder's side. If the elder didn't leave, she wouldn't leave either.

"It would be too dangerous for him to stay... I'll try to persuade him a little more when we get back." Xi Heng thought to himself, carrying his medicine basket, and returned to the gate of the Red Thread Sword Academy under the gloomy sky.

The faded courtyard gate looked dilapidated, and the plaque with the three characters "Red Thread Sword" on it was covered with dust and gradually became blurred.

Xi Heng used the key to unlock the copper lock and pushed open the courtyard gate to enter.

The courtyard was deserted, the ground was covered in dust and scattered with weeds and leaves.

Almost half a year had passed since the Lunar New Year's Eve, and most of the remaining senior and junior students in the academy had already left.

Now, only a handful of people remain in the entire vast Red Thread Sword Academy.

She, Senior Sister Hongmiao, the elder, and two other senior sisters who handle daily affairs, along with two or three staff members.

So much so that the task of purchasing supplies has recently been handed over to her.

Aside from food and daily necessities, you basically don't need to buy anything else.

"How desolate." Xi Heng walked through the front yard, then past the deserted sword practice area and the flower beds that were mostly dried up by the sun, and arrived at the door of the elder's residence.

Candles were lit inside the room. Although it was daytime, the dark clouds in the sky were so thick that it seemed as if night had already fallen.

A pale yellow light flickered as Xi Heng gently knocked on the door, then pushed it open and stepped inside.

The elder was lying on the bed, and the senior sister was sitting beside the bed holding a black medicine bowl.

A small spoon slowly stirred the medicinal liquid in the bowl, occasionally scooping a spoonful to cool it before feeding it to the elder who was half-lying on the bed.

"Senior sister, master, the medicine has been bought," she said.

"Just put it on the table for now," Hong Miao replied calmly.

"Also... the war drums have started beating outside, they might be attacking the city today. Are you really not planning to leave?" Xi Heng asked. "I heard that when the Tianliang Army captured Jianchang City, they didn't sheath their swords for three days, allowing the soldiers to plunder and loot. They might do the same this time."

"The elder and I will stay here." Hong Miao's expression was more serious than usual: "Xi Heng, you should leave today. If Jinshi City falls, even Ming Jin martial artists will be in great danger."

So, is my senior sister not in danger?

Xi Heng thought this to himself, but seeing his senior sister's serious expression, he knew it was difficult to persuade her, so he didn't say anything more.

"Then I really have to go." She was certain that she wouldn't stay any longer.

"Wait..." the elder, who was bedridden, said hoarsely.

"Elder, you are still weak, so please rest well. I will do what needs to be done." The eldest sister calmly raised her hand and pressed the elder's wrinkled left hand back onto the bed.

"Hmm..." The patient on the bed nodded slightly.

Hongmiao put the still-warm medicine pot aside, got up, and walked towards Xiheng.

"Xi Heng, have you mastered the Ming Jin technique?" she asked calmly.

"Not even close."

Today, my senior sister is no longer the casual and natural person she usually is.

“It’s not that much different.” Hong Miao said, walking to a wooden cabinet in the corner of the room, squatting down and pulling out a drawer from the bottom, taking out a book with a dark red cover.

"..." Xi Heng noticed that the cover of this red book was somewhat similar to the Blood Sea Great Art, and he was slightly surprised.

"This is the third level of hidden strength of the Red Thread Sword. Keep it safe."

"Oh, oh." Xi Heng took it and touched the book's antique feel, then paused for a moment.

"This doesn't look like a copy?"

“There are no copies of the third level of Dark Strength, this is the only original copy in our Sword Academy,” Hong Miao said.

"Well... I'll take it back as soon as I've finished reading it."

"No need." The other party shook his head: "Tonight you will take this book and leave Jinshi City."

Xi Heng narrowed his eyes: "Why?"