"What is this crap?!" exclaimed Xiu Xiang as she slammed her fists down hard on the keyboard in front of her only to recoil back in fear of damaging it; the only expensive thing in her apartment. Xiu Xiang was an orphan who lived paycheck to paycheck and almost couldn't afford her cheap secondhand computer. Her only happiness was getting lost in stories and the latest story she had lost herself in was 'Adventures of the Demoness', whose main character so happens to have the same name as her.
It started off quite sad as the Demoness was a young and crippled child who was taken in by a great master. Unfortunately, the great master didn't live long as he was already dying. He handed off the Demoness to his brother disciple to train but the brother disciple had always been jealous of the great master. He used the Demoness as his emotional outlet and even let his disciples bully her.
Still, she tried to live life to the fullest. Among the disciples, the Demoness had fallen in love with the eldest brother disciple, Wang Yue. Like his master, he used her too but as a convenient pastime. When other disciples weren't around, he treated her like a precious gem but when other disciples were around, he treated her like dirt.
Despite the horrible treatment, the Demoness believed that one day Wang Yue would openly choose to love her. She dedicated most of her life to Wang Yue to the point of a servant. One day while on a training trip in the Gracious Deity Mountain, the Demoness caught Wang Yue kissing the second sister disciple, Liu Li. She was enraged by his unfaithfulness and fought with the two of them.
In the end she was thrown off the cliff by accident. She didn't die and ended up falling into a spiritual lake hidden deep within a cave on the side of the mountain.
Ten years later, she returned with a vengeance. Filled with dark energy after losing to her inner demons, she became the infamous Demoness. She killed off the entire sect that ridiculed and bullied her. From there she spread her hate and killed anyone and everyone who defied her. With every kill, she absorbed their dark energy and became stronger.
The immortal sects of the world could not stand her vicious acts any longer and sent out their strongest master, Wei Xing, who also happened to be a disciple who the Demoness had helped in passing a long time ago. He managed to defeat her and laid her disruptive soul to rest and the world became peaceful once again.
Xiu Xiang couldn't believe it. She had followed the story for an entire three years. It was the reason she spent an entire four months eating nothing but convenience store bought food and ramen noodles just to buy a computer. She was that dedicated! She even bought the hard cover copies of the book when it came out! All for what? A shit ending where the demoness dies by the hand of Wei Xing, a boorish, strait laced character who practices asceticism?
"All that money wasted... down the drain," she muttered bitterly. She turned her back to the computer screen to go boil herself some ramen. Even now she still couldn't afford to eat regular food. Three minutes later, she begrudgingly dragged herself and her bowl of noodles back to the computer screen where she read the ending over and over again. She only stopped after the fifth time when she realized that no matter how many times she read it, it wouldn't change. Sighing heavily, her eyes drifted unconsciously to the small circular piece of jade she had placed next to her computer. It was two inches in diameter with a beautiful carving of a phoenix. Its magnificent wings were spread out and its long tail encircled the piece of white jade. Hanging from the white jade was a small red tassel that almost resembled the color of blood. It was her family heirloom or so the orphanage had claimed. She had once taken it to a pawn shop to see how much it would be worth only to find that it merely cost twenty dollars. It was then Xiu Xiang was sure that the orphanage had pawned off the real one and replaced it with a fake instead. She could have sold it for twenty dollars. It would been a good week of satisfying her stomach but she couldn't bear to part with it.
Another heavy sigh escaped her lips as she took the fake jade into her hand. Her thumb rubbed over the carving as she stared at it for a long time.
"Demoness, you don't realize how lucky you have it. With all that power that you gained in the second half of your life, you could've made a fortune and live a life of blissful solitude. Instead, you lost yourself because of some douchebag. If it was me, I wouldn't have lived life the way you did. Sigh... I wish I had your life. It beats being hungry all the time," Xiu Xiang thought.
Light suddenly erupted from the piece of jade in her hand.
"What the...!" Xiu Xiang didn't even have to time make sense of it. The light was so bright it blinded her. She let go of the jade and used her arms to shield herself. Then a voice suddenly spoke.
Oh, Master of the demon beast that rises from the ashes. Your wish has been granted. From the ashes, you will rise, a new person, a new life. A second chance you now have. May you thrive and may you take flight.
The ground beneath her suddenly gave her.
She was falling!
Her stomach tickled and lurched. The light was gone and her body was suddenly tumbling forward as if someone had pushed her down a hill. She opened her eyes for a split second only to slam it shut. All she saw was black emptiness with twinkling lights in the distance. If she didn't know any better, she thought she was hurling through space. She was hurling forward faster than a rocket and it made her head spun to the point of wanting to puke. Just when she thought she was going to puke, she came to a sudden stop and dropped down. She face planted onto hard ground and could only groan out in pain.
"Ow..." She rubbed her pained face and slowly lifted herself up into a sitting position. Her surrounding had completely changed. Xiu Xiang looked around and gaped in shock.
A bamboo hut? A cheap bed made out of bamboo sat off to the side. Cheaply carved furniture set next to the bed. Stranger yet, she felt a strange warmth pooling at the pit of her stomach. She didn't know why but she could easily control this warmth. The warmth traveled up to her arm and into the palm of her hand. A misty like substance of blue swirled around in the palm of her hand.
"Wha...?" She couldn't form any words as she struggled to come to terms with what had happened. She was in her room, the white jade in her hand erupted with light, she fell, and here she was in a worn down shack?
Then she felt a horrible pain that traveled down the side of her face and back. Her hand reached up to her left cheek and it instantly burned upon impact. She pulled back her hand only to see bits of dried blood.
"Ow..." she moaned and struggled to get up to her feet. Even her legs ached. What happened to her? Did she get injured when she tumbled through space?
She made it to the small bronze mirror that sat on the wooden table. An unfamiliar face with a horrible gash on the side of her face reflected back. Among that gash were other scars that seemed to have faded quite a bit over time. Xiu Xiang raised her hand to touch her injury free cheek and realized that the face indeed belonged to her.
"Just what is going on...?" Xiu Xiang thought to herself. Upon gazing at the unfamiliar face, she thought that the person that was reflected would've been quite a beauty if it wasn't for all the hideous scars. After coming to terms with her new face, she looked down at herself and found that she was no longer wearing her t-shirt and sweatpants but in a white outfit that looked quite similar to the uniform of the Tian Ling Sect in the novel, 'The Adventures of the Demoness'.
"No way... this can't be! I'm not... I couldn't be... did I get sucked into the novel?" she gasped. There was no mistake. The horrible gash on her left cheek, the uniform, and even the horrible shack, they were the same as the novel. She suddenly remembered the voice that spoke when the white jade blew up in light.
Could that have been the reason for her suddenly transporting into the novel?