005 Driven to desperation, one would even eat excrement.

Xu Xinqi dashed forward, the cold wind whipping against his face, turning it a purplish-red from the chill.

He came to a halt outside a dilapidated courtyard gate, feeling that his tangled heart and chaotic thoughts desperately needed someone to help him sort them out and bring calm.

He raised his hand to knock on the wooden door but stopped halfway, recalling that at this hour, his second uncle would have already gone to bed. His heart, aimless and heavy, sank like stagnant water.

Confusion, turmoil, doubt, and fear clouded his mind like dark storm clouds.

“Is my sister... still the same sister?”

He instinctively resisted this harsh reality.

When Qu Zhanyi followed the path from memory to find him, what she saw was a fragile, emaciated boy with vacant eyes, sitting like a lost soul on the stone steps.

He looked exactly like a frightened, lost fawn, as if a gentle touch would make him kick out and then flee in panic.

Appearing adorable but inherently defensive.

The moment Xu Xinqi saw his sister, he couldn’t help but shout with delight, “Sister, you came...”

Before he could finish, Qu Zhanyi doused him with a cold splash of words: “Squatting here begging for alms? Go home.”

The warmth in his heart quickly plummeted into an ice cellar.

“You’re not my sister,” Xu Xinqi said, turning his tear-filled eyes away, his tone both fierce and wronged. “All my life, my sister never spoke harshly to me, nor ever hit me.”

“Slap!”

Qu Zhanyi struck him sharply on the back. “Now you’ve got what you wished for.”

Xu Xinqi’s body was already frail; Qu Zhanyi struck without holding back, and the angry boy staggered.

Fortunately, he reacted quickly, catching himself with his palms, avoiding a humiliating fall to the ground.

The shadow over his heart was somewhat dispelled by Qu Zhanyi’s sudden action.

He stood up, brushing the dust off his hands, his eyes freezing over inch by inch.

“A person changes for many reasons—personality, approach to life—but hatred never changes, or only rarely.”

“And you, sister, have always been afraid of dogs and especially hated eating fish mint.”

Qu Zhanyi crossed her arms, amused, “If you don’t push yourself, how will you know you won’t eat dirt?”

Xu Xinqi was momentarily speechless, unable to refute her words. But he could not accept his sister’s overnight transformation.

[Host, please actively complete the task. Comforting your emotionally wounded younger brother will increase your morality by 10 points and grant you one chance to draw in the Celestial Pivot Mall.]

The system’s electronic voice kept urging in her ear.

As soon as Xu Xinqi ran out of the house, Qu Zhanyi had just slipped under the covers when this long-term mission popped up.

“Raising a brother?” Qu Zhanyi almost doubted her hearing. “You want a merciless female demon to raise a child? That’s not just absurd, it’s laughable.”

Qu Zhanyi told Brother Seventeen not to dream.

——

Brother Seventeen gave her a harsh lesson.

After being forced to vomit five times, she crawled darkly to him like a maggot in a toilet.

During that time, Brother Seventeen kindly reminded her that the previous mission’s reward was about to expire.

Qu Zhanyi accepted it perfunctorily, not expecting to draw a spell key that could unlock the “Soul-Binding Shackles.”

Only then did her interest finally stir.

She began to trust Brother Seventeen’s words a little more.

As for how the Celestial Pivot Sect—the foremost among the Hundred Immortal Sects—and its secret treasure, the Celestial Pavilion, became the Celestial Pivot Mall in her mind, the truth would naturally emerge once she unlocked the remaining eight “Soul-Binding Shackles.”

[Detected: Original younger brother’s morality is declining. Host, please cooperate with the system to complete the task of raising your brother.]

“Ah...” Qu Zhanyi sighed deeply, inexperienced in childcare.

Recalling her past life raising dogs, she raised her hand to Xu Xinqi’s head, fingers curled like claws, scratching his scalp.

Then her hand slid down to his jaw, gently stroking it.

“Good boy, come home with me.”

This way of coaxing felt somehow off to Xu Xinqi, though he couldn’t say why.

But seeing his sister soften, speaking gently as if the cold, ruthless girl from a moment ago was just an illusion, he felt his wounded heart soften.

His eyes brimming with hurt, he whispered, “Sister, you’ve changed... can I know why?”

Xu Xinqi had calmed considerably. He understood that some questions others couldn’t answer; only a dialogue with the person involved could resolve hidden conflicts.

Qu Zhanyi did not beat around the bush and told him the whole story of Zhang Wanqing’s deliberate assault.

As for the fact that she, a demoness from the Netherworld who had been dead for who knows how many years, had suddenly “borrowed” this body to be reborn and was forced to bind with a “transformation system,” she kept silent.

Firstly, it was too shocking for an ordinary person.

Secondly, to avoid unnecessary trouble.

Hearing this, Xu Xinqi became deeply frustrated with his own weakness and irrationality. His sister, once a gentle and introverted girl, had changed completely because of such an ordeal.

He even heard of people who had fallen into depression and committed suicide over this—yet his sister abandoned weakness and became strong. He suspected she’d been tainted by something unclean. He felt he truly deserved to die.

The more he thought, the more he felt he had been unfair. Tearfully, he threw his arms around Qu Zhanyi.

“Sister, don’t worry. I’ll work hard to become strong—strong enough that no one dares to bully you.”

Feeling the faint warmth from the boy’s thin body, Qu Zhanyi’s voice was dry as well.

“Oh, thanks.”

She pushed him away gently, preventing the two streams of snot hanging from his chin from falling on her shoulder.

——

Xu Xinqi remained lost in guilt and emotion.

Qu Zhanyi, however, felt little.

She believed she had no heart left.

The last trace of kindness had been worn away by betrayals and deceptions in her past life.

In her view, human nature was inherently evil, like the dog she once raised.

People would turn and bite you mercilessly as soon as you offered them the slightest benefit.

Humans were profit-driven animals, and Qu Zhanyi was among the best of them.

Having just calmed her brother’s emotions, she immediately asked the system:

“What’s the reward this time?”

[Detected: Host’s younger brother’s morality +5, sense of responsibility +20. Reward: a wild boar and one chance to draw in the Celestial Pivot Mall.]

This time, Qu Zhanyi did not hesitate and clicked “draw.”

The Celestial Pivot Mall quickly returned the result.

[Congratulations, host, you have obtained an ink painting titled “Wild Ducks Playing in Water.”]

“That’s it?”

Qu Zhanyi didn’t even glance at it, disdainfully tossing the “Wild Ducks Playing in Water” into a small corner beside the Celestial Pavilion.

“What a worthless thing—pretty but useless.”

[Host, please actively complete tasks to accumulate morality points, which can be exchanged for items you desire in the Celestial Pivot Mall. Do not harbor any illusions of gaining rewards without effort.]

She understood the reasoning.

But after winning a spell key on her first draw, she had tasted a bit of sweetness.

Not getting another spell key on the second draw left her somewhat displeased.

“Brother Seventeen, you’re being annoying.”

The system fell silent.

Watching Xu Xinqi’s recently gained 5 morality points suddenly drop to zero, while his sense of responsibility shot up to 100, her nonexistent eyelid twitched violently.

What on earth was going on?!