I'm A Minor Villain In A Martial Arts Novel (38 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 2

“I have a fever. At this rate, I might really collapse.”

“Seriously, talking just makes things more annoying. It was better when you couldn’t speak at all.”

Yun Ling placed me in front of her and spoke as if she were brainwashing me.

“Every child gets fevers like this. You’ll wake up perfectly fine after a good sleep. Such excessive complaining, tsk tsk.”

“But….”

“This is exactly why I said you don’t need to go to training. Even if you trained, Miss, you’d never amount to anything. Not with such weak willpower.”

In truth, Yun Ling was not wrong.

“Nangong Lin has ordinary physique, ordinary comprehension, and merely average talent.”

Unfortunately, Nangong Lin had been born without any exceptional gifts.

This fact had been stated multiple times even in the Heavenly Demon Sovereign.

“I heard my father was exceptionally outstanding even among the Nangong Clan.”

I’d heard the clan members had been deeply disappointed, having expected me to inherit his remarkable talents.

Yun Ling always whispered to me,

“The clan head will be terribly disappointed when he sees you—someone like you, who devours a brilliant father yet turns out so ordinary.”

At such times, I never said a word.

After all, arguing with Yun Ling only ever brought me hunger.

“Your mediocre talent won’t improve even with training. Master Nangong Xianzong saw that clearly.”

Yun Ling added, emphasizing her point,

“So there’s no need for you to attend training. Nobody would care even if you didn’t go.”

This, too, was true.

Children of the Nangong Clan began martial arts training at age five.

But I never went. More precisely, I was never allowed to.

Yun Ling always interfered whenever I tried to join, and Nangong Xianzong never permitted me to train.

Whenever I expressed a desire to train, Nangong Xianzong would click his tongue and mutter, “Pathetic creature.”

“Do you understand how important today is?”

At Yun Ling’s words, I quietly nodded.

As she said, today was important—the day Grandfather returned to the clan after being away for a long time handling Wulin Alliance affairs.

A grand banquet was currently underway at the Nangong Clan.

“Don’t wander outside. Stay quietly in your room. You know what happens if the clan head notices you, right?”

“……”

“On such an important day, don’t go causing trouble by drawing unnecessary attention from others.”

After saying that, Yun Ling frowned in annoyance and left my room.

Normally, she should have stayed with me until I fell asleep, but Yun Ling had never once done so.

“Luckily for me, really.”

I shivered from the cold.

No matter how many layers I wore, there was a limit.

The clothes given to me were always of poor quality.

Sometimes Yun Ling appeared wearing fine fur coats, and I suspected she was embezzling what should have been mine.

“I feel dizzy.”

I felt the fever rising in my head.

I now realized I could no longer delay what needed to be done.

If I stayed like this through winter, I truly might freeze to death.

Once all signs of presence vanished, I stepped outside.

Escaping the Nangong Clan alone was nearly impossible.

“So first, I’ll find the rare item inside the Nangong Clan itself.”

The rare item I intended to bring to Ji Tianwu wasn’t anything extraordinary.

I recalled a passage from the Heavenly Demon Sovereign:

[Ji Tianwu looked at the dagger in his hand. He felt a faint, humming vibration.

“Must be my imagination.”

He sometimes felt as though the sword he held was speaking to him.

“Only the chosen one may hear and see.”

Each time the dagger resonated, that line came to mind—but Ji Tianwu never took it seriously.

If he wasn’t the chosen one, then no one in this world was.

Thus, the dagger was nothing more than an antique.

Annoying and useless—but in the cold winter, it had its uses, as heat emanated from the blade.]

A sword that emits heat!

“That’s useful.”

Though Ji Tianwu, who would later become impervious to heat and cold, found it useless, I did not.

“It’s exactly what I need right now.”

Yun Ling abandoned me even in the freezing winter.

Because of her, I always shivered on the cold floor.

“At this rate, I’ll freeze to death. Ji Tianwu barely uses that blade anyway—he’ll discard it soon.”

Ji Tianwu had found the dagger in an old storage house inside the Nangong Clan.

While cleaning the storeroom, he picked up the worn-out dagger and noticed warm energy emanating from it.

At the time, he thought it utterly useless—but when winter came, he realized just how vital that function truly was.

Reaching the storage house wasn’t difficult.

No one paid me any attention, and since I was still a child of the Nangong family, even the guards willingly let me pass.

“Is this the place?”

With trembling eyes, I surveyed the storeroom. It was extremely dirty, having been neglected for years.

“The Heavenly Demon Sovereign clearly stated it was here.”

It had said the dagger was found behind old books in the storeroom. With trembling hands, I began searching.

My fingers were already slowly freezing from the cold.

A fever surged in my head, and my vision blurred.

Then, suddenly—

I sensed someone approaching and quickly hid myself.

“Do you want something to eat?”

“I want candy!”

“Alright, since you trained so hard, let’s go get some candy.”

“Yes!”

“It’s cold out, isn’t it? Come here.”

Since this was inside the Nangong Clan, these people were probably distant relatives of mine.

Hearing the warm conversation between mother and child, my nose suddenly stung.

“How troublesome.”

A child’s body truly was a nuisance.

Even the smallest thing could trigger overwhelming sorrow.

A single tear fell.

“It’s okay.”

I murmured softly.

It really was okay.

Because I wasn’t truly a child.

My breathing grew rapid.

I realized I was running out of time.

If I stayed here much longer, I might collapse right in this old storeroom.

“If that happens, I might really die.”

If I died, would I meet Nangong Xian?

Or my mother, who died giving birth to me?

That was typically how an extra’s life ended.

Nangong Lin’s tragedy was never properly detailed in the Heavenly Demon Sovereign.

It claimed I’d always been ill-tempered from the start.

[Nangong Lin was always filled with malice. Ji Tianwu couldn’t understand why her personality had turned so twisted, considering she’d grown up loved and cherished within the Nangong Clan.]

I felt wronged.

“If I die here, I won’t even qualify as an extra.”

That couldn’t happen.

I genuinely wanted to live.

“I’ll survive and thrive, just to prove them wrong.”

Gritting my teeth, I tried to force my body up.

As soon as I stood, dizziness overwhelmed me.

Panting heavily, I resumed searching the storeroom.

At the edge of my blurred vision, a glint of light appeared.

“I found it!”

With my last ounce of strength, I reached for the shimmering object and pulled it close to my chest. Warmth instantly spread through my body.

But perhaps because I’d pushed myself too hard—

my body could no longer hold on and swayed.

“Oh, I’ll get hurt.”

If I fell like this, I’d surely suffer serious injuries.

I tightly shut my eyes.

But no impact came.

Someone had caught me before I hit the ground.

“Grandfather? He shouldn’t even be here in the manor…”

Through my hazy vision, I saw Grandfather Nangong Jintian’s expressionless face staring down at me.

Why was he here?

He ought to be attending the banquet held in his honor, not in this old storeroom.

Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen him since I was eight—only now had we met again.

From his unreadable expression, I sensed an indescribable aura.

Almost as if he were furious…

Could someone in the Nangong Clan have angered Grandfather? Or perhaps someone in the entire martial world?

“Anyone who angers Grandfather won’t survive.”

Nangong Jintian was as fearsome in temperament as he was in power.

He would never spare anyone who provoked his wrath.

I grew curious—who dared to anger him?

But I couldn’t think further. I passed out right then and there.

[This is the timeline separator]

The banquet celebrating Nangong Jintian’s return was in full swing.

Nangong Xianzong glanced around.

He couldn’t see Nangong Jintian anywhere.

He frowned.

A man quickly approached him, his face etched with urgency.

The man leaned close and whispered carefully,

“Nangong Lin collapsed in front of the clan head.”

Nangong Lin.

At the mention of that name, Nangong Xianzong’s brow furrowed deeper.

That child left behind by his younger brother, Nangong Xian, occasionally irritated him.

Nangong Xianzong clicked his tongue in annoyance.

He didn’t know how Nangong Jintian had encountered Nangong Lin.

Nor why the child, who should have stayed quietly in her room, was wandering about.

“This is troublesome.”

He shook his head.

Of all days, Nangong Lin had to cause trouble on the very day his father returned.

Normally, he never cared what Nangong Lin did or where she went.

After all, her talent was insignificant, and her temperament outright vicious.

No one in the Nangong Clan liked Nangong Lin.