MTLNOVEL Chapter 1 - The Ninth Life with Qin Hongyi
Chapter 1: The Ninth Life with Qin Hongyi
In the dark, damp confines of a prison cell, a frail young man with white hair knelt motionless. His head hung low, his eyes closed, and his pale, bloodless face appeared ghostly. The long years spent in darkness had drained all color from his skin, leaving him with a sickly pallor.
Shackles bound his wrists and ankles, their grip so tight that bruises and cuts marred his skin, exposing faint traces of bone where the flesh had worn away. Despite his pitiful state, he remained silent and still, his faint breaths barely audible, hovering on the edge of death.
Before him lay an array of fine dishes, now rotting and teeming with flies. The stench of decay permeated the cell, nauseating and oppressive. Though food was delivered to him daily, the young man could only gaze at it, unable to touch a single bite.
In this stagnant and deathly stillness, sharp footsteps suddenly echoed.
Click, click, click!
Moments later, a tall woman entered the cell, her figure commanding and elegant as she stopped before him.
The sound of her approach caused the young man’s eyelids to tremble ever so slightly. The already cold, dim cell seemed to grow even chillier with her presence.
She was a striking beauty, her face capable of toppling kingdoms. Draped in a fiery red gown that accentuated her lithe figure, her long crimson hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall, exuding an enchanting, almost otherworldly allure. In her hand, she held a steaming bowl of food that filled the air with a tantalizing aroma.
Her expression, however, was as cold as frost, her eyes shimmering with murderous intent yet tinged with a cruel satisfaction as they rested on the kneeling man.
“Shen Shuqiang, do you regret it?” Her voice was icy, carrying both authority and a trace of pleading. “Say the words, and I’ll let you eat. Say them, and I’ll grant you release.”
But Shen Shuqiang remained silent, his frail figure as unyielding as ever.
His defiance turned the frost in Qin Hongyi’s gaze into flames of anger. The temperature in the cell plummeted, as if the very depths of an icy abyss had been unleashed.
It had been over a month since she imprisoned Shen Shuqiang in this specially constructed cell, stripping him of his cultivation and subjecting him to unrelenting torment. Each day, she injected flesh-eating worms into his body, letting them ravage him from within. She inflicted all manner of tortures upon him, and she deliberately placed food before him to taunt him with the sustenance he could neither touch nor taste.
Every time he approached the brink of death, she would pour qi into his body to keep him alive.
This man—this person who had once cherished her deeply, who had taught her to read, guided her in life, and protected her like a treasure—was, beneath it all, a fraud. Yet with every act of cruelty, Qin Hongyi felt both satisfaction and a faint, inexplicable ache in her heart.
Her slender fingers gripped Shen Shuqiang’s chin, forcing his face toward her. Still, his eyes remained shut.
“Did you ever imagine, you who were once the world-renowned Sword Saint, that you would end up like this?” Her voice trembled slightly. “When you killed my family—thirty people, gone in an instant—did you ever think this day would come? Tell me, Shen Shuqiang. Say you regret it. Say those three words, and I’ll stop.”
Fifty years ago, when she was just six years old, her entire family was massacred before her eyes. The person responsible now knelt before her.
She had waited decades for this moment. Suppressing her hatred, she stayed by his side as his obedient disciple, all the while plotting her vengeance. Finally, after fifty years of relentless training, she had become the strongest in the world and was ready to exact her wrath.
Yet all she wanted was to hear him say three simple words.
Shen Shuqiang heard her words and sighed inwardly. He understood her pain, her hatred, and even her anger. It hurt him to see her like this.
For fifty years, he had known that Qin Hongyi despised him. Despite her outward obedience, her true desire was his death. Yet his affection for her was genuine, even as he sought to deepen her hatred.
He knew the truth of her past. And he knew he could never speak those three words, for doing so would destroy the resolve she had spent her life cultivating.
Deep within Shen Shuqiang’s mind resided a system—a system designed to help female protagonists become ultimate villains.
「Name: Shen Shuqiang 」
「Cultivation: Mortal 」
「World: Ninth Life, Xuanming Continent 」
「Female Lead: Qin Hongyi 」
「Note: As the host has yet to die, the mission is incomplete. The host may remain in this world for no more than two months after mission completion. Current duration: 57 days. Death will occur in three days, enabling return to the original world. 」
Shen Shuqiang was once an ordinary high school student on Blue Star. On a rainy day, he was struck and killed by a speeding dump truck. Upon waking, he found himself in another world with the Nine Lives Reincarnation System implanted in his mind.
His mission: to enter nine different worlds, find young female leads, and guide them toward becoming ultimate villains.
However, this “guiding” was different – whether through creating misunderstandings or verbal deception, the goal was for the female leads to hate him and, through his death, to hate the world as well.
The deeper their hatred, the faster they would grow. As the saying goes, “Evil is three times stronger than good.”
Just as with Qin Hongyi’s hatred for Shen Shuqiang, he had merely appeared at the right time to create a misunderstanding, making her believe he had killed her entire family, thus planting the seeds of hatred.
Shen Shuqiang’s heart pitied Qin Hongyi’s circumstances. Perhaps to cover his inner guilt, he had devoted all his love to her. Across nine worlds, Shen Shuqiang had no permanent place; he could only complete his missions to return home.
Now, after nine lifetimes, this was his final mission- the ninth life with Qin Hongyi. Qin Hongyi had already become the most powerful being on the Xuanming Continent, uniting demonic factions under her Heaven Demon Sect and crushing the righteous sects beneath her feet.
In three days, his journey across nine lifetimes would end, and he could return to Blue Star—his true home.
Qin Hongyi’s voice broke through his thoughts. “Shen Shuqiang, this is your final chance. Do you refuse to speak?”
When he remained silent, her frosty patience snapped. With a flick of her wrist, she summoned black, wriggling worms—the flesh-eating insects she used to torment him. They burrowed into his body like streaks of black light, bringing searing, mind-shattering pain.
Though numb to the agony after so long, Shen Shuqiang’s contorted face betrayed the torment coursing through him.
Qin Hongyi watched his suffering with cruel satisfaction, a flush rising to her cheeks.
An hour passed, each second filled with pain and mockery, until Shen Shuqiang was little more than a broken husk. Yet before he could succumb, Qin Hongyi infused him with qi, keeping him alive against his will.
As she withdrew the worms and prepared to leave, her gaze briefly lingered on the untouched food. A flicker of hesitation crossed her face but was quickly replaced by icy resolve.
Her footsteps echoed as she departed, leaving Shen Shuqiang kneeling in the dark, like a lifeless shadow.