The improved female villains regained their memories.

They've become awesome.

The reason it remained so timid was because it had run out of energy and had no choice but to pretend to be a cat and endure humiliation to survive.

But now, its energy has returned.

It's that omnipotent system again.

"So your name is Luo Benmo?"

It jumped down with its head held high and patted Robbenmo's face with its tail.

"Hmph, look at you now, you're still... Hey hey hey hey? My energy!"

The energy that had been fully replenished suddenly began to decline.

The light began to dim.

The airflow reversed, and the already overflowing energy was absorbed outwards.

The black cat went from being powerful to weak; it couldn't even meow and collapsed to the ground.

"Wait, my energy..."

It spoke weakly, but before it could finish, its eyes rolled back and it fainted.

The light dimmed.

The figure inside the carriage moved. She stood up and gathered the light into her embrace.

"Tsk, I didn't expect it to cause such a big fuss."

She pouted and lifted the carriage curtain.

"Ha, I'll see which blind fool dares to steal my things. Don't they know my nickname is 'Living Yama'? This time, I'm going to..."

Time seemed to stand still.

Yang Pingsheng looked up, as if summoned by something, and looked toward the carriage.

She was a gray-haired girl.

A braided pigtail ran across half of her head, coiling at the back and hanging down. Scattered gray hairs on either side covered her forehead. Her thin lips were rosy, her eyes were bright and watery, and her slender fingers touched her lips. She didn't exude any charm, but rather gave off a sense of disdain.

She was dressed in the attire of the Wan Jin Chamber of Commerce, with white embroidery covering her wrists on both sides. Gold threads moved across the reddish-brown fabric in the middle, like playful golden dragons. The buttons were gold, and the belt was also gold. A certificate of alchemy was hanging next to the belt, with a Tai Chi symbol in the middle.

She stepped out of the carriage with a smug smile on her face, but when her gaze fell on Yang Pingsheng, she froze, her pupils dilating as she stared at him in disbelief.

"you you……"

He stammered, and his speech became incoherent.

Although there was a warning of phantoms, Yang Pingsheng never expected that they would arrive so quickly.

He stood up, took a deep breath, looked at the girl whose pupils had widened in shock, and said helplessly:

"Mu Rong, are you alright?"

The familiar address made them both feel a little dazed for a moment.

Memories, like ocean waves, swept over the two of them.

-------------------

Snowing.

Yang Pingsheng carried his luggage and walked along the official road.

No longer looking old, he was a young man wearing a patched cotton coat, walking in the cold wind.

After walking only a few steps, he felt lightheaded, his nose was stuffy, and there was something stuck in his throat, making him extremely uncomfortable.

“This time you are a commoner with a weak body. Because you have been in poor health since childhood, you decided to study medicine. You were taken in as an apprentice by an old traditional Chinese medicine doctor and are now preparing to go to the city to do odd jobs for him.”

The system's voice kept nagging in Yang Pingsheng's mind. White snow covered his eyes, and Yang Pingsheng asked while wiping them, "Didn't I become an apprentice?"

"Um, I wonder if apprentices usually start as general laborers?"

"Oh……"

The body was extremely weak. Yang Pingsheng needed to hurry on his journey and didn't have the strength to argue with the system, so he just listened silently.

It explained the background of this world, Yang Pingsheng's character, and the first step in the Heavenly Dao's plan. After gaining a general understanding, Yang Pingsheng asked, "Are we still going to maintain the established character?"

"It doesn't matter, you didn't leave in the last world either," the system said. "I don't see any reaction from Heaven, so if you don't want to leave, then you don't have to."

Fine.

He coughed again and quickened his pace.

The city not far ahead is called Liuyun City, a small outlying town of the Yan Kingdom. The background of this world is not the war-torn land of the past. The Central Plains have been unified by a country called the Yan Kingdom. Unlike other worlds, the countries in this world do not have superior sects. The power of immortals is itself a part of the power of the country.

The royal family has been passed down through generations, with celestial beings inheriting the throne. The succession to the throne is tested not only on political ability but also on one's own level of cultivation. In this country, mortals cannot become emperors.

Logically, immortals should look down on mortals, which is why in previous worlds, immortal sects only used mortal nations as fronts, rarely directly participating in their management. But this world is different. Spiritual energy is scarce, and the potential to become immortals is even rarer than in other worlds. In the entire country, apart from the royal family, it's extremely difficult to find another immortal. This scarcity of immortals prevents them from forming a higher-level world order, forcing them to live alongside mortals.

The scarcity of spiritual energy makes it difficult for many, even those with the potential to become immortals, to gather it and cultivate spiritual roots. The place with the richest spiritual energy in the world is the imperial palace in the capital of the Yan Kingdom, which contains the only spiritual spring in the entire world. This is why only the royal family of the Yan Kingdom produces immortals.

In a small border town like Liuyun City in the north, there is hardly any spiritual energy, let alone any signs of life.

The Yan Kingdom unified the world, but that didn't mean the world was at peace. Beyond the northern border lay vast grasslands inhabited by various barbarian tribes. In recent years, the Iron Ball Bone tribe had unified the entire barbarian tribes. They coveted the Yan Kingdom and raided it year after year, causing constant suffering to the border towns.

The Yan Kingdom has been ruled by eight emperors. By the time of the current emperor, the military has long been in disarray. The officers who come here to serve either have the idea of ​​making a quick buck and running away, or they have the idea of ​​compromising and living in peace with the barbarian tribes. After all, the emperor is far away and the towns here are not really under anyone's control.

Treason is the dominant theme here, and the fourth female villain lives here.

Yang Pingsheng walked along, exhaling cold air, and stopped when he reached the end of the road.

He had arrived at the outskirts of the city gate.

Not far away, the ancient city stands alone, its walls bearing the marks of time. The flag of the Yan Kingdom flutters above the city gate, trembling in the cold wind, stubbornly refusing to fall.

There were no soldiers guarding the city gate, only an old soldier huddled there wrapped in a blanket. Outside the city gate, amidst the vast expanse of white snow, beggars huddled together, and several corpses lay frozen stiff, unattended.

This is a place forgotten by the world.

This is an unattended place.

This is a place that can accept traitors.

This is where the female villain lives.

"She's there." The system's voice rang in his mind.

Yang Pingsheng looked over and walked away, his footsteps crunching through the snow.

She sat against the city wall, hugging her knees, dressed in a cloth robe and straw sandals, her arms and legs exposed. Her gray hair was dirty and stuck together with snow, piled high with straw because she was afraid of the cold. Her nose was red from the cold, and she would sniffle occasionally. In front of her was a wooden board with four large characters written on it: "[Selling herself to bury her father]"

The characters were written in the Yan state style. With systematic help, Yang Pingsheng could barely recognize them. The reason he said "barely" was probably because the other party's writing was too ugly.

He stopped there, looking closely at both the wooden plank and her.

"Hey."

The girl suddenly spoke up: "Look where your mother is!"

Yang Pingsheng was taken aback.

Although I had heard from the system that the female villains in this world had bad personalities, I didn't expect them to be this bad.

She looked just like Wen Shihan, ragged and impoverished. But Wen Shihan was a beggar, his very being tinged with inferiority. When Yang Pingsheng touched her, she was even afraid that her dirt would taint his purity, so she was timid and hesitant. But this man before her…

"Haven't you ever seen someone whose father died?" She looked at Yang Pingsheng, baring her fangs. "Buy it if you want, leave if you don't. What are you doing standing here watching your mother?"

"Your father has passed away?"

What is death?

"He's dead."

"Nonsense, can't you read? Can't you see what I wrote here?" the girl said irritably. "You look so respectable, but I didn't expect you to be illiterate."

Yang Pingsheng was speechless. He carefully examined the girl, who was not afraid at all. Instead, she looked up at him coldly.

"Are you going to buy it or not? If you're not going to buy it, then don't stand here."

I have no idea what's so great about her selling herself to bury her father.

Where is your father's body?

Generally, a woman who sells herself to bury her father would carry his body with her, but judging from the girl's situation, she was all alone and there was no sign of her father's body.

“There!” The girl pointed to the snow at the doorway.

Yang Pingsheng looked over and saw the frozen corpses piled up there, and he had no idea which girl was referring to.

So which one is it?

"Who knows? They're all piled up together," the girl said nonchalantly. "Anyway, they're just there. Whichever one you think it is, that's it."

Yang Pingsheng remained silent.

The system allowed him to chat with the girl freely, but he was running out of things to say. Just as he was thinking of unpacking his bag to see if there was anything to eat for her, he heard the girl staring blankly at something behind him:

Watch out, behind you!

Yang Pingsheng turned around, but unexpectedly, a sharp pain shot through him as soon as he turned his head. The girl had hidden the wooden stick in the snow and struck him while he was looking back.

His weak body had been chilled all the way, and he already had a bit of a cold. Now, after being hit like this, Yang Pingsheng collapsed on the spot.

"I told you to watch your back."

The girl snatched his package, left him with those words, and ran away. Yang Pingsheng ate the snow in his mouth, feeling excruciating pain and seeing stars. Fortunately, the system intervened and prevented him from completely passing out.

Yang Pingsheng's first meeting with Su Murong ended with him being robbed.

This was definitely not a pleasant memory, so when the two met again, they both unexpectedly thought of this past event.

Su Murong recovered from her surprise and looked Yang Pingsheng up and down, as if to confirm whether it was really him.

"You are... Yang Pingsheng?"

"Ah."

She slapped herself.

"Am I dreaming? Hahaha, did I drink too much yesterday and that's why I'm drunk today?"

Yang Pingsheng sighed.