The new captain's concern was palpable. "Yes, really, if you're not feeling well, you should just go back and rest today. We can handle the competition."
"I'm fine," Zhou Benxin insisted, shaking his head as if clearing cobwebs. "Probably just didn't sleep well last night, had a brief lapse. We've prepped for this for so long; I can't bail and let the substitutes take my place. They're only sophomores – no way they could beat that seasoned team across the table just yet."
He seemed genuinely revived after the near-death encounter, focused again. Just then, the ride-share car arrived. Seeing his resolve, the captain let him climb in.
The host school, eager to demonstrate how seriously they took this friendly debate, had borrowed a small auditorium from the Youth League Committee.
The auditorium featured two large crystal chandeliers hanging directly above the positions of the opposing debate teams.
The competition began. The affirmative side's first speaker had only finished delivering half her opening statement when Yun Jianyue suddenly leapt to her feet. She simultaneously yanked Zhou Benxin out of his seat next to her and shouted at her teammates, "Move!"
Acting purely on ingrained obedience to their influential senior, the new captain and the other sophomore instinctively scrambled sideways.
CRASH!
The massive crystal chandelier directly above plummeted the moment they cleared the area. It smashed onto Zhou Benxin's vacated chair, reducing it to splinters.
Deafening silence filled the auditorium.
The captain and the other student, realizing how close they'd come to a horrific death, broke down sobbing and clung to each other. Their three teammates rushed forward, frantically checking everyone for injuries. The host school students and organizers stood frozen, utterly stunned by the disaster unfolding before them.
The debate was unequivocally canceled. Fighting to maintain composure, the new captain arranged a rain check with the organizers. The shaken group of seven quickly departed.
Once outside the host school's grounds, Zhou Benxin, face ghostly pale, turned to his teammates. "You guys head back first. I need to talk to Senior Jianyue."
Traumatized and exhausted, his teammates readily agreed, hailing a ride-share to leave immediately.
The moment they were alone, Zhou Benxin crumbled. He threw his arms around Yun Jianyue, massive shoulders heaving with sobs of raw terror. "Senior! Save me! I don't want to die! I really don't want to die!"
"Stop crying first," Yun Jianyue ordered flatly, pushing him back with minimal effort despite his size. "What exactly is going on?"
Zhou Benxin wiped tears and snot with the back of his hand. "During National Day holiday… me and my roommate… we went to Chongguang Mountain." He took a shaky breath. "Ever since we came back… I've been incredibly unlucky."
"It started small. Finding cockroaches in food. Then suddenly discovering razor blades hidden in my shoes." His voice cracked. "The nightmares came every single night. And then… then today happened."
A car aiming to crush him. A chandelier plummeting for his head.
Every terrifying incident started after his trip to the forbidden mountain.
Yun Jianyue remembered Zhou Ruyan's warning: Never go to Chongguang Mountain before you turn 24.
"Does your sister know why this is happening?" Yun Jianyue pressed.
Zhou Benxin nodded, then shook his head frantically. "But I can't tell her I went! I just can't!"
Knowing his sister's fiery temper, he was terrified that confessing wouldn't summon her help, but her wrath – likely fatal before whatever was haunting him even had a chance.
"You won't tell her? I will," Yun Jianyue stated firmly. She dialed Zhou Ruyan immediately. The call rang unanswered. Unfazed, Yun Jianyue sent a detailed text message outlining Zhou Benxin's string of near-misses and explicitly linking them to his forbidden mountain trip, urging Zhou Ruyan to call back as soon as possible.
Yun Jianyue escorted Zhou Benxin back to campus. She made him set her as his emergency contact on his phone, instructing him to call her instantly if anything else happened, no matter how minor.
Later that evening, around 7 PM, just after finishing dinner, her phone rang. Cai Zeyu.
"Get to the SAB HQ. Now. It's urgent."
"I'm at school. My contract stipulates no assignments during term time," Yun Jianyue countered, already loading her favorite mobile game, eager for a quick match.
Cai Zeyu sounded like he was grinding his teeth. "It concerns your origins."
Yun Jianyue snapped her phone shut instantly. "On my way. Half an hour."
Forty minutes later, inside the SAB office.
Cai Zeyu visibly fought down the urge to comment on her tardiness.
"This is Fang Lin'an. You've met. He'll brief you." Cai Zeyu practically shoved the disheveled figure forward.
Yun Jianyue took one look at Fang Lin'an and blurted, "Whoa."
She genuinely couldn't decipher the meaning behind his current presentation.
The last time she'd seen him, despite reeking of alcohol, he'd been relatively presentable.
Today? A thick, unkempt stubble covered his face. His hair hung in oily, matted locks. His clothes looked like they hadn't seen a washing machine in weeks. He radiated the potential of a genuine street-begging contender.
Fang Lin'an explained he'd returned to the Lingxi Sect after leaving the SAB that day. For the past two months, he had practically lived in the Lingxi Sect's scriptorium, poring over ancient texts.
Finally, his persistence paid off. He'd found a book describing circumstances eerily similar to Yun Jianyue's.
"You are a descendant of the Divine Maidens. Your missing mother… she was likely one too," Fang Lin'an stated succinctly.
Lu Changxue's head popped out of the jade pendant, her spectral eyes wide with disbelief. "So, my stinky treasure… you're actually a little fairy? With magic sparkles? Biu-biu~?"
Yun Jianyue expressionlessly reached up and shoved the ghost back inside.
The "Divine Maidens' descendants" referred to individuals carrying divine blood – a lineage passed exclusively through the female line. Hence the name "Divine Maiden".
Millennia ago, according to the legend, during a period of divine seclusion, a celestial being left children with a human mate.
The celestial parent remained unaware, and this lineage continued secretly within the human populace.
The Divine Maidens possessed a fragment of divine power. Over countless generations, diluted by mortal blood, the power surviving in the Maidens of today had waned to near nothingness.
This finally explained the bizarre effects of Yun Jianyue's blood on Lu Changxue: the sudden empowerment into an A-class Malignant Spirit and the inexplicably clear mind – all due to the lingering touch of the Divine Maiden's heritage.
"This means," Cai Zeyu interjected, "your mother's disappearance… likely isn't straightforward."
Yun Jianyue's mother was also a Divine Maiden. Demonic entities, malevolent spirits, and monsters all coveted Divine Maidens, believing consuming them granted immense power. It was possible Yun Xiangrong, aware of her identity and threatened, faked her death to escape.
Or perhaps she truly perished.
Either way, the revelation of the Divine Maiden lineage turned her vanishing into an intricate puzzle.
"So," Yun Jianyue asked, her voice calm, "will you keep investigating my mother?"
Cai Zeyu met her gaze steadily. "Now that we know she was likely a Divine Maiden, even if we wanted to stop investigating, we couldn't."
"Okay. Understood." Yun Jianyue nodded.
"Just... okay?" Fang Lin'an stared at her, flabbergasted. "That's your reaction? Hello! You're a Divine Maiden!" For an ordinary person to learn such a world-shattering identity, this level of calm bordered on absurdity!
Yun Jianyue obliged. She broke into an exaggerated performance: clapping her hands wildly, spinning in a clumsy pirouette. "Oh! I am a Divine Maiden! How joyous! How thrilling!" Boom!