Yu Liang awoke to someone shaking his body vigorously. Absentmindedly, he grumbled, “Five more minutes, mom…” But then he realized that he was 23 years old and hadn't lived with his parents in years! 

“Who’s your mother, pah!” said a young man’s voice as Yu Liang was kicked viciously awake. 

Yu Liang rolled onto the ground, quickly awakening. However, he found that his whole body ached, and that there was no strength in his legs. Fumbling around, he gripped onto a nearby tree and pulled himself up. 

Wait… trees!?

Yu Liang stared at the scene before him. He was in a forest! But he remembered that he had fallen asleep in bed last… unless he’d been kidnapped!! Fuck, he had no money to pay ransom!!

“You! What’re you doing stupid!?” shouted a figure from his peripheral. Turning his gaze over, Yu Liang just barely refrained from gawking at a young man dressed in the old Chinese style robes. The young man had a fierce expression and glared heavily at him. “You had one fucking job and that was to drug that bitch’s food, but you couldn’t even do that right! Useless!” 

Wait, what!? Yu Liang was thoroughly confused as his mind tried to keep up to what was happening. Apparently he had failed at drugging someone??

“If it wasn’t for your failure, Li Qiuyue would be in our hands right now!” 

… !! Did he just say Li Qiuyue!? 

Yu Liang couldn’t believe what he was hearing! But then a little voice in his mind said that he wasn’t dreaming and maybe… maybe he’d transmigrated into the world of Rebirth of the Strongest Female Cultivator! The thing that every novel fanatic dreams of!! 

But before he could rejoice too quickly, he found himself being kicked again by the angry young man. The impact caused his side to burst with pain, and Yu Liang cursed his luck at being thrown into the world during such a disadvantageous situation. However, with his quick thinking, Yu Liang fell into a prostrated position before the young man and began to speak. “I was wrong! Forgive me, senior brother!” He clutched his aching side and spoke through gritted teeth. He had somehow discerned that this young man, with his clear display of power and authority, was probably a senior brother of some sorts. With the young man’s age and his peculiar robes, Yu Liang guessed that there had to be some sort of sect disciple relationship between him and the angry young man.

“Senior brother Ma, please have mercy!” cried some other voices as Yu Liang heard some more pah pah hitting sounds. “It wasn’t our fault! Li Qiuyue somehow knew we were trying to drug her, and she even made brother He take the poison instead! Someone must’ve told her!” 

“Nonsense!” 

Pah! Pah! More hitting sounds… Yu Liang winced each time. After awhile, when it seemed like this ‘senior brother Ma’ was finally finished venting his anger, he dismissed all of them and walked away. 

Yu Liang finally got up from his prostrated position, clutching his body tightly to preserve through the pain. Someone helped him stand up, and he thanked them. “Thanks, brother…” His voice trailed off awkwardly because he didn’t really know this friend’s name. 

“Brother Yu, did you hit your head?” asked the young boy. He looked maybe fifteen? Sixteen? He had a plain appearance but had nice big chestnut eyes; he kind of looked like a little rabbit honestly. “It’s me, Sheng Fu!” 

“Yeah, I probably did hit my head… I think Senior brother Ma hit me too hard because I can’t really remember some things…” Yu Liang said, hoping to test the waters and see how gullible this young friend was. If he took it seriously, then at least Yu Liang could get some answers. If he looked confused or weirded out, Yu Liang could play it off as a joke.

However, the young kid continued to look seriously worried, so it seemed like his words were taken as the truth. “Okay… Let me take you back to our room, and you can ask me some questions there.” 

Yu Liang nodded his head lightly in response, but even that small amount of movement hurt so he was left with a headache as they made their way back to a small courtyard with many rooms. He stumbled his way, with the aid of the kind brother Sheng, to a small room with two beds and a single table with two chairs. Yu Liang plopped down on one bed as the young boy sighed and sat down on the other. 

“I’ll go get some medicine and be back soon.” The young boy said as he left the room. It was only a little while before he returned, but Yu Liang couldn’t keep track of the time with all the pain that his body was in. “Take these low-grade restoration pills.” 

Yu Liang obediently took two pills that were handed over to him. After a few minutes, he felt the pain dissipate from his body, leaving behind a dull ache. When he felt clear-headed enough, he sat up and thanked the younger boy with a smile. “Thanks, brother Sheng.”

The younger boy perked up, looking quite happy. It seemed as if he was unused to Yu Liang’s kind words. And then he said, “Wow, this is the first time brother Yu has thanked me before!” His words were filled with innocence, and the young boy grinned happily. 

Yu Liang grimaced, thinking that maybe this body’s original owner was a rather horrible person. He had already inferred from the recent events that this body probably belonged to some type of mean bully type because senior brother Ma had mentioned poisoning Li Qiuyue. Who else would try to poison the female protagonist other than some villainous antagonists? However, he still needed a bit of information and was hoping to get some clarity from this brother Sheng… “Um, does brother Sheng know what my full name is?”

The young boy looked shocked at Yu Liang’s words. “Did you lose all your memory!?” He exclaimed worriedly.

“Sort of? Maybe.” Yu Liang shrugged non-committedly.

The young boy gave him a sympathetic look filled with pity. “No, unfortunately I don’t know your full name. Brother Yu never really talked to me much, but then you invited me out to help you do something…” He looked a little embarrassed as he continued speaking. “I just didn’t expect brother Yu to want me to help you drug sister Li.” He scratched his head awkwardly.

Yu Liang felt a bit embarrassed about the body’s owner being so shameless. But he had to thank his luck that at least he still had the same surname. For now, he could keep his same name. 

The young boy kept talking and explaining a few things. “We were just assigned as roommates yesterday after completing the Mountain Wu Sect’s new disciple examination. I’m guessing senior brother Ma must still be holding a grudge against sister Li for beating him up in the examination…” 

Wait… this situation sounded really familiar! It was all coming back now! Yu Liang knew exactly where in the story he was! This was somewhere in 100 chapters in the beginning when Li Qiuyue had already reincarnated, broken free from the murderous Li family, and had entered the Mountain Wu sect. Mountain Wu sect was a small and less prestigious sect that she had joined in her last life. He remembered that during the examination, Li Qiuyue’s beautiful appearance had stirred the lust of some of the senior brothers. It was a senior outer disciple named Ma Chang who openly suggested that Li Qiuyue become his woman, and he could help her within the sect; Ma Chang was the nephew of a Sect Disciplinary Guard so he had the backing to be able to terrorize new recruits, especially pretty women like Li Qiuyue. However, she openly rejected him causing a public humiliation; then he pulled some strings and got the opportunity to fight her during the examination and was badly beat up. This Ma Chang was none other than the senior brother Ma who had beat him up earlier for failing to poison Li Qiuyue! 

“Brother Sheng, do you know how I became acquainted with senior brother Ma?” Yu Liang waited patiently for the young boy’s answer and wasn’t too surprised to hear his answer.

“Um, brother Yu once said to me that I had to learn how to grasp the biggest trunk in the forest to be able to climb up and be on top…” Sheng Fu said awkwardly. 

So from those words, Yu Liang knew exactly what kind of person this body’s original owner was! He was nothing more than a villain’s lackey used as cannon fodder to fight with the protagonist!!