On the second deck of the airship, inside a cabin where four sets of bedding were laid tightly side by side, an ordinary looking male cultivator was making his bed while grumbling impatiently in his mind.
[System! Why do I have to stay in a room like this? Playing a background cannon fodder with no special features makes it more likely they will suspect I am not actually Wen Xuan!]
Before Xie Shurong could finish his complaint, a heavy hand slapped his shoulder from behind. He spun around to find a thick browed male cultivator staring at him with concern.
“Junior Brother Wen, what is wrong with you?” the man asked in a gruff voice. “Are you feeling unwell? You have not said a word all day.”
At this, the other two men in the room stopped what they were doing and looked over. Although Wen Xuan was usually quiet and reserved, he would typically offer a few responses or share a joke. Since boarding the flying vessel today, however, he had not uttered a single word to them.
Tied to Wen Xuan’s skin, Xie Shurong felt his body stiffen for a moment under their suspicious gazes, but he quickly adjusted his state.
“To be honest with you, Senior Brothers, I am feeling a bit out of sorts,” he said. He looked up at the man before him with a gentle smile, putting on a weak front. “It is likely because I have not rested well these past few days, combined with this being my first time on an airship.”
Hearing this, the expressions of the other three instantly softened into understanding.
The thick browed cultivator let out a laugh and patted him again. “Are you suffering from air sickness? I am telling you, that is perfectly normal. The rest of us were in much worse shape than you when we started.”
Another man, finished with his bed, nudged him teasingly. “Exactly! Look at Senior Brother Zhao here. Back then, he vomited for three days and nights and cried about wanting to go home! Hahaha! You will get used to it after a few more trips.”
The room erupted in laughter, and the thick browed cultivator flushed red. “Junior Brother Wen, do not listen to his nonsense! I did no such thing!”
“I understand,” Xie Shurong replied with a smile and a nod.
In reality, he was rolling his eyes internally. How tiresome. These people talk too much, and the whole room stinks because of these boorish men.
Speaking of scents, Xie Shurong could not help but recall the fragrance on Yuzhu. That ethereal, captivating breeze of perfume truly obsessed him. He wondered what kind of scented powder the young Sect Master used; he had searched privately for a long time but could never find that exact scent.
It had been over half a month since his last meeting with Xian Yuzhu at Cangjing Peak, and he had not found a second opportunity to see him. Just as the Secret Realm Trial plot line arrived, the system assigned him this insignificant, low level identity.
Xie Shurong lived on the second deck, while Xian Yuzhu was on the fifth. With such a vast distance between them, let alone finding a way to manufacture a romantic encounter, he could not even catch a whiff of the boy’s scent!
[Detected that the Host’s emotions are unstable. Please focus on maintaining your character persona,] the Fate Changing System’s mechanical voice rang out. [Once you successfully enter the Secret Realm, cause the protagonist Huo Yan to be heavily injured, and seize the Ancient Demon Beast egg, you will obtain 3% luck value.]
The voice paused for a moment. [Additionally, upon completing Task 2, the “One Night of Spring” card you requested can be unlocked. It only requires 1% luck value to exchange.]
The “One Night of Spring” card was a high level buff specifically created by the Transmigration Bureau for hosts with different preferences. Each host only had one chance to obtain such a buff. The system had detected the lustful nature of the modern world’s Xie Rong, and because his performance in the previous nine worlds had been outstanding, he was granted this card.
The key to this card was simple: as long as the person Xie Rong desired was not part of the protagonist’s harem, he could use “One Night of Spring” to fulfill his wish. Furthermore, the character targeted by the card would retain no memory of the event.
This was the system’s ultimate tool for Xie Shurong’s predatory pursuits, and the bait used to spur him into completing the tasks of this final world.
[Based on the original world’s character positioning, it is detected that the Yuxian Young Sect Master Xian Yuzhu is a character in the villain camp. The no CP protagonist has no Dao companion, harem, or romantic interests. Host, please rest assured.]
“Why did you not bring this card out earlier!?” Xie Shurong demanded.
The system remained silent.
“Fine, no need to say more. Do you still doubt my acting skills? Just watch and see,” Xie Shurong guaranteed with total confidence.
Just thinking about that haughty male beauty from the other day submitting beneath him made Xie Shurong’s heart feel as though it were being scratched by a cat. For now, he only needed to wait quietly for the airship to reach Mobei and then enter the Secret Realm with the Yuxian cultivators.
A Night of Terror
During the first night on the airship, perhaps because it was his first time away from home, Xian Yuzhu had a rare nightmare.
In the dream, he seemed to be running for his life. Behind him, someone whose face he could not see was in pursuit. Yuzhu’s mind was filled with the terrifying thought that he must not be caught. He was in a state of utter disarray.
However, as everyone knows, one can never run fast in a dream. Almost effortlessly, he was seized by the ankle by a cold, large hand and easily dragged back into a room with no light, where he was tossed onto a soft bed.
In his terror, Xian Yuzhu clutched his heart, backing away in fear. Just as he was about to see the man’s cold, dark eyes in the darkness, he snapped awake.
“Ah!”
A scream was caught halfway in his throat. Xian Yuzhu gasped for air, his body drenched in sweat. Seeing the faint glow from the night luminescent pearls in his room, he finally felt a sense of reality.
“Whew!”
Xian Yuzhu held his pounding chest and buried his face between his knees. The dream had been too real. Whether it was the paralyzing fear where he could not even cry or the lingering sensation of cold chains around his ankles, it left him with an unprovoked sense of horror.
But how could that be? He was the noble Young Sect Master of the Yuxian Sect. With his status and position, how could he ever fall to the point of fleeing for his life? And that person who caught him at the end! Why was he afraid of him? Why would he be afraid?
Xian Yuzhu tried to coax himself back to calm. At that moment, the wind from the window blew open the storybook by his pillow. By chance, it landed on a page depicting the protagonist being caught and punished by a perverted captor after a failed escape attempt.
As the saying goes, what you think about by day, you dream of by night. Before bed, Xian Yuzhu had been reading the escape plot. The rest was too intense, so he had saved it for the next day, but now he felt there was no need to finish it.
Xian Yuzhu gritted his teeth and slammed the book onto the floor. This book was the culprit behind his restless sleep; it was better to throw it away!
Noticing his sweat-soaked nightclothes, he knit his elegant brows. He got up to bathe in the adjacent room and then crawled back into his comfortable bed.
However, for some reason, the moment he closed his eyes, that terrifying scene returned. In the dream, his face was covered in tears, and his mouth was moving as if pleading for something, but a large hand with distinct knuckles covered his mouth from behind.
“Wuuu!”
Xian Yuzhu could only watch helplessly as that hand dragged “himself” back into the darkness. He swallowed hard, suddenly afraid to sleep.
Because Yuan Shun had worked too hard during the day, he was currently in the outer room snoring loudly. The master was suffering while the servant slept soundly. Xian Yuzhu pursed his full lips in anger and stomped his feet a few times, but he failed to wake Yuan Shun.
He paced around the room in frustration and tried lying back down, but nothing worked. Finally, Yuzhu, who desperately needed his beauty sleep, had no choice. He pushed open his door and followed the corridor through the night wind until he reached a tightly closed door.
The plaque hanging by the door was clearly carved with two words: Huo Yan.