That incident was actually orchestrated by Yu Lin who deliberately led Ying Ying there to provoke jealousy.

She wanted to stir Ying Ying’s envy toward Xiao Ran, since Ying Ying who is the daughter of the Grand Elder and a Nascent Soul cultivator actively pursuing Jian Li.

By that time, Yu Lin had already realized that Xiao Ran had slipped beyond her control and no longer had romantic feelings for the original male lead Chi Jia.

Instead, she had become ambiguously close with Jian Li.

Moreover, Jian Li was originally one of the male leads Yu Lin knew from the book.

It was just that in Xiao Ran’s heart, Chi Jia held the highest position.

She panicked because of this and decided to use the original villainess supporting character to deal with Xiao Ran.

Yu Lin knew very well that Jian Li who is the Holy Sword Sect’s honored cultivator deeply disliked Ying Ying’s persistent harassment.

However, because Ying Ying’s father Ying Yizhi was a Diety Transformation cultivator at the late stage, while Jian Li was only at the early Diety Transformation stage, he could not easily offend them and could only endure and avoid her.

So when Ying Ying discovered the relationship between the two, Yu Lin had already anticipated her reaction.

On one hand, Ying Ying pressured her father Ying Yizhi to force an engagement with the male lead.

On the other hand, she placed a bounty on assassins to kill Xiao Ran.

All of this was within Yu Lin’s expectations.

What she did not expect was that the

male lead’s cultivation, with the help of Xiao Ran’s cheat-like opportunities, had just broken through to the mid Diety Transformation stage.

Combined with his extremely domineering sword technique that allowed him to fight above his level, he ended up drawing evenly with the Grand Elder in a clash of sword energy.

Even more impressive was Xiao Ran herself.

Not only did she defeat the assassins sent after her, she also broke the control restriction placed on one of them.

She successfully took in this assassin, a stubborn and loyal late Nascent Soul cultivator with a "loyal dog" personality as her subordinate and personal guard.

Later, when Xiao Ran was hunted by another villainous supporting character, Qi Mengyao, a female Diety Transformation cultivator who was obsessed with the demon clan male lead Zhong Kui, this assassin died in order to protect her.

Afterward, Xiao Ran used the excuse of avenging him to brutally kill Qi Mengyao.

It was a true slaughter.

Zhong Kui himself even captured Qi Mengyao and handed her over to Xiao Ran to vent her rage.

However, what Xiao Shou thought of when recalling this plotline had nothing to do with the tangled love affairs between the female lead and the two male leads.

What he remembered was the assassin’s background.

The assassin was named Ye Ying.

Although he was a Nascent Soul cultivator, he was only 26 years old when he died.

When Xiao Ran removed his restriction, he had once reported his life story in detail.

Ye Ying originally came from the mortal world in the southern region.

When he was eight years old, a cultivator came to a remote temple in his village, claiming to be widely recruiting disciples and bringing children to test their spiritual roots.

In that impoverished place where officials rarely came, the cultivator identified nine children with spiritual roots.

He then gave their parents generous gold and silver as compensation, claiming he would take them to an immortal sect to cultivate.

After that, the cultivator took the nine children away from the mortal world.

However, he did not bring them to any sect.

Instead, he brought them to a secluded cave near Endless Grief Mountain, where a mysterious ancient formation had been left behind by an old cultivator.

That formation used sacrificial rituals to seize the spiritual roots of those offered as sacrifices.

Once the ritual was completed, the victims would lose their lives.

The cultivator never intended to take them as disciples.

He only wanted to steal their spiritual roots.

Ye Ying was both fortunate and unfortunate.

He was fortunate because his spiritual root was a mutated water spiritual root and when his talent was being extracted by the formation the mutated water spiritual root triggered an instinct of mirror reflection, rebounding the formation back onto itself.

The formation immediately went berserk and absorbed the cultivator’s cultivation instead.

However, this was his misfortune.

He was the final sacrifice and all the other children from the mortal world who had come with him had already died before him.

Even more unfortunate, after he reflected the cultivator’s attack and barely escaped the cave with his life, he was still only ten years old, yet already possessed a late stage Golden Core cultivation.

This attracted the attention of the Nine Abyssal Gate cultivators.

Not only was he abducted and implanted with a puppet Gu to be trained into an assassin, they also discovered the Fate Devouring Array inside the ancient cultivator’s cave.

Because of that formation’s abilities, the Nine Abyssal Gate continued to grow stronger and eventually became the number one assassination organization in the Heaven Origin Realm.

Xiao Shou carefully recalled that part of the plot.

In the original book, the cultivator was described as a late Golden Core stage cultivator from an orthodox sect.

After his spiritual root was damaged in a battle, he had no hope of forming a Nascent Soul and wandered in search of opportunities.

By chance, he discovered that ancient cultivator’s cave.

After passing its trials, he obtained a preliminary explanation of the Fate Devouring Array and a peripheral map of the cave.

The preliminary explanation of the Fate Devouring Array briefly described its function.

It was a formation that used moonlight energy as a trigger and allowed the formation controller to absorb the cultivation of sacrificial victims.

The Fate Devouring Array was located in a strange stone cave near the inner perimeter.

The cultivator who is troubled by his damaged spiritual root and stagnant cultivation discovered it and immediately became obsessed.