“Luo Luo, where are we going now?”

After gathering the phoenix flame from the cave, Nesting Phoenix looped her arm through Nana Toki’s, and they walked out of Moonview Peak’s rear slopes like two silhouettes stepping from ash into dawn.

She’d been caged in that seal for far too long; joy kept blooming on her face like sunlight melting frost.

Pity the flowers and grasses around them; even with no visible fire on her, anything Nesting Phoenix brushed whooshed into cinders, like dew turning to smoke at noon.

Nana didn’t even have time to see which sprig vanished before the heat erased it.

“We’re heading back to the sect first.”

Worry pressed like stormclouds; Shrine Water would be anxious. To stop more ripples, Nana chose to report she was safe. As for Nesting Phoenix…

One step, one ripple. She’d take it as it came.

The original plot never mentioned Nesting Phoenix; tossed in now, who knew what dominoes would fall.

If it got messy, Nesting Phoenix could grab her and their master, and they’d run like wind slicing through pines.

“Back to the sect? What sect?”

Nesting Phoenix halted, eyes clear as a mountain spring, confusion rippling through them.

“Cloudpeak Sect,” Nana said, giving the beauty at her side a look; sealed for centuries shouldn’t mean forgetting home.

“What’s Cloudpeak Sect?” Nesting Phoenix asked, head tilted, soft as a fawn in the snow.

“...”

Was this real amnesia?

“You really don’t remember?” Nana’s suspicion pricked like a thorn as she studied the face on her arm.

“Before the seal, you stayed in Cloudpeak Sect, and you even took a badass master.”

“Did I? I don’t remember that at all,” she said, blinking like a bird waking from winter.

“...”

Great. Looks like it’s real.

First time Nana had seen a seal scrub someone’s mind clean like rain scouring ink off stone.

She’d only cracked a seal early; why did the whole plane feel like it was collapsing like a sand cliff in a tide?

Host, Nesting Phoenix isn’t amnesiac. The System’s voice dropped into Nana’s mind like a pebble into a still pond. Centuries of qi deviation birthed a new personality that replaced the old. She only remembers the Immortal Realm. Her mortal-world memories are gone. And yes, this is all because of your recklessness.

I broke a seal early and it reached back centuries like a shadow swallowing noon?

Yes.

Nana: “...”

So it’s basically body-snatch rebirth—except she grew a new self and took her own body like a snake shedding skin.

Done for. If the Great Elder hears, what will he think? That I used some shady spell to bewitch his disciple like a fox slipping into a temple?

“Eh, Luo Luo, why’s your face all scrunched?”

Seeing Nana’s cheeks twitch, Nesting Phoenix smiled like peach blossoms after rain and pinched her cheek. “Did something make you unhappy?”

“...”

Not unhappy—just drowning in trouble like a boat in crosswinds.

For now, head to Stream Peak and talk with Shrine Water.

Nana sighed, a leaf falling, then led Nesting Phoenix out from Moonview Peak’s back trail.

After a while, unease pricked her skin like cold mist.

She’d left Moonview Peak, but where were the sect disciples?

Normally, this path buzzed like a beehive; outer sect kids would be chatting under the pines.

Why wasn’t there a single soul today?

As her doubt hovered, a silhouette drifted over from deeper within the Cloudpeak Sect like a crane on the wind.

Nana narrowed her eyes; the lines sharpened, and it was Yiling Shen, unseen for days.

“You’re still alive?”

Fresh from the alchemy hall, Yiling Shen stared at Nana, shock flashing like lightning across snow.

The rumor mill had churned that Feng Luo Luo died in Moonview Peak’s forbidden grounds.

How was she walking through sunlight again?

“Of course I’m alive.”

Nana rolled her eyes, a wave slapping a stubborn rock.

What was with this heroine—first line and she’s already asking about corpses?

“Luo Luo, do you want me to kill her?”

Nesting Phoenix stepped forward, crimson eyes locking on Yiling Shen like embers catching dry paper.

Air shimmered; several flames budded around them, petals of fire opening in the breeze.

Something in Yiling Shen’s aura rubbed Nesting Phoenix wrong, like cold iron against bare teeth.

Tainted. Crooked.

“...”

Nesting Phoenix moved like a ghost—say kill, and she’d paint the sky with it.

Nana didn’t exactly mind if the heroine got erased like chalk in rain.

“Sure. Kill her.”

She’d been wondering where to find the heroine; and look—delivered like a fish jumping into the net.

“This is Cloudpeak Sect territory. If you don’t want trouble, weigh it before you act,” Yiling Shen said, feeling those phoenix flames hiss like oil on a pan.

Nesting Phoenix ignored her. With Nana’s nod, she freed a hand and flicked Spirit Energy; the flames leapt like hunting hawks.

Yiling Shen couldn’t hold. She raised wall after wall of ice; the fire bit through each one like butter under a hot knife.

“Ah!”

After a few dodges, flame grazed her arm. Pain swarmed her nerves like ten thousand fire ants gnawing blood and bone.

The world went white at the edges; she almost blacked out.

Ding! Because the host has the special bug “Nesting Phoenix,” a temporary rule is now in effect. In this plane, the host may not kill the male or female lead for any reason. Violation will immediately fail the main mission.

Icy frustration hit first, like hail on bare scalp. “Hey, hey! You’re playing dirty!”

So unfair it burned.

She’d finally gotten a chance to flex, and the System yanked the rug like a prankster in a market.

Why not announce a temporary task: “Let Nesting Phoenix die in front of me,” huh?

System: “...”

This is for your own good.

“For my good, my ass. You’re my System, not the protagonists’ nanny. Try acting like a support system.”

That only holds if the host doesn’t break the plane like a drum. If the leads die, the plane collapses. If it collapses, your mission ends.

“Fine, fine. You’re the boss.”

Irritation buzzing like a trapped wasp, Nana waved Nesting Phoenix to stop. She tossed the heroine—clutching her arm and gritting her teeth—a lofty glance, then turned away with the wind in her sleeves.

If she couldn’t kill the heroine, she’d keep her alive and grind her slowly—sand in an oyster.

“Why did you suddenly stop me from killing her?”

Feeling Yiling Shen’s hateful gaze like thorns at their backs, Nesting Phoenix twisted around, displeasure dark as rain in her eyes.

Another minute and she’d have been bored and done.

Luo Luo had stopped her.

“...”

The sealed beauty didn’t have the most basic common sense, Nana thought, a headache blooming like a knot.

On the way to Stream Peak, Nana repeated the rules like a monk ringing a bell.

Especially the part about setting fires whenever she felt like it.

“When we reach Stream Peak, behave. Don’t start fires and stir up trouble.”

Nana pictured her master or junior sister catching Nesting Phoenix’s eye wrong, and a stray flame turning them into smoke—her chest tightened like a strung bow.

“I just don’t want you to leave me.”

Nesting Phoenix looked at Nana with pure focus, steady as a candle in a still room. “If Luo Luo doesn’t like it, I can stop.”

“...”

Soft-girl mode, unlocked.

“I’m not against killing. Just learn the setting. Some people you kill. Some you don’t.”

Nana didn’t expect a few words to turn a river. But at least nudge its banks.

“Mm. Anyone who gets close to Luo Luo should be killed,” Nesting Phoenix said solemnly, like swearing an oath under a full moon. “You’re mine.”

“...”

Talking to a wall carved from jade.

“I’m telling you, when you see my master and my junior sister, be respectful. No playing with fire.”

At the foot of Stream Peak, Nana still didn’t trust fate; she warned her again, like tying one more knot in a rope bridge.

She feared one careless spark would light her own mountain like tinder.

Only after Nesting Phoenix nodded did Nana lead her up the stone steps, breath syncing like steps on a drum.

They stumbled back to the summit of Stream Peak; as expected, neither master nor junior sister appeared like cranes in fog.

No one in the inner room, no one in the outer room; the place felt hollow as a shell.

Only at the lakeside pavilion behind Stream Peak did they find Shuiqin Lin, staring into the water like a willow watching its reflection.

“What are you doing here?”

Nana guided Nesting Phoenix over the bridge. “Why haven’t I seen Master?”

This girl was getting lazier by the day; not cultivating, just idling like a cat in sun.

“Senior Sister?”

Shuiqin Lin, eyes fixed on the ripples, turned. Seeing Nana’s face, she froze like snow under night. “Senior Sister, you’re not dead?!”

“...”

What is with everyone?

Why is the first greeting always a funeral bell for me?

Do I look like I’m born short-lived?

“Even if you die, I won’t,” Nana flicked her forehead, a light snap like a twig. “Where’s Master?”

“Master got badly hurt when he went to save you. He’s been healing these days.” She covered her stinging forehead; tears pooled like glass.

Senior Sister’s flicks hurt like thunder.

Master got badly hurt saving me?

The words struck, and Nana’s head turned to Nesting Phoenix like a compass to north.

“Did you do something to my master?”

“No.”

Nesting Phoenix shook her head fast, like a rattle drum in festival hands. “I stayed in the cave the whole time. Besides burning a wisp of some stray divine soul at the start, I did nothing.”

“What injury did Master suffer?”

“Mm… I heard his divine sense was wounded… pretty serious.”

Nana: “...”