“Ugh…” Yu Shengyan frowned, struggling to open his eyes. Jialuo immediately watched him with vigilance.
Lan Tian noticed that Yu Shengyan was awake and instinctively glanced at Min Yue, seeing that Min Yue had already entered his “acting” state. Lan Tian felt a mix of nervous tension and excitement for the performance that was about to begin, his hands subconsciously clenching.
Min Yue turned his head to look at Lan Tian and immediately gave him a ferocious glare. Lan Tian was stunned for a moment before he understood, and he quickly made his own expression ice-cold.
“First Senior Brother… Master?!” Yu Shengyan sat up, rubbing his neck, and immediately realized that his Master, with a darkened face, was tied up in front of the First Senior Brother.
“Master… you…” Yu Shengyan turned his head to scan his surroundings, realizing they were no longer at the academy. Standing nearby was the stranger he had seen earlier—Jialuo. Only then did he realize he had been abducted.
“Yu Shengyan, it would be best if you didn’t move.” Min Yue struggled with his hands tied behind his back, signaling his helplessness. “Yu Shengyan, the Demon Lord’s target is you.” Min Yue’s expression was serious, his tone laced with a hint of tension as he watched him.
“Target… me?” Yu Shengyan was stunned. He looked at Lan Tian, only to find the First Senior Brother looking back at him with an icy expression.
“Why me?”
“I do not know. Regardless, you must be careful.”
“Jialuo, hold him down.” Lan Tian nodded toward Jialuo. Jialuo answered swiftly, and the next moment, he had Yu Shengyan’s hands bound behind his back, holding him in a tight grip from behind.
Yu Shengyan’s eyes were full of astonishment; he couldn’t believe it. “First Senior Brother?”
“He is no longer your First Senior Brother, Yu Shengyan!” Min Yue shouted at him, as if he could no longer hold back. “Yu Shengyan, do you even know what you have done?”
Lan Tian slowly walked over to his side, his eyes filled with indifference…
When Yu Shengyan heard this, he assumed it referred to the time he had “killed” him. His body shrank back, his eyes unable to look directly at the other man. He offered no response.
“Remaining silent… do you think that makes it okay?” Lan Tian extended his hand, holding a knife. A flash of shock appeared in Yu Shengyan’s eyes, but he quickly settled. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
“No!”
Just as Lan Tian was about to strike, Min Yue shouted and lunged forward. Yu Shengyan felt someone collide with him; although Jialuo reacted, he was inevitably dragged down by the falling Yu Shengyan. Yu Shengyan lifted his head, looked at Min Yue, and let out a heart-wrenching scream.
“Why?!” He saw Lan Tian plunge the knife into Min Yue’s chest. Why did Master save him?
Min Yue was injured, blood gushing from the wound. He looked at Lan Tian with complicated eyes before collapsing to the ground.
“Master! Why did you save me? You should have just let him kill me.”
“You wretch! Do you have any idea what you’re babbling about!” Min Yue, with his hands tied behind his back, could not stem his own bleeding. Pale-faced, he shouted angrily at Yu Shengyan.
Yu Shengyan paused. “Take a good look at Lan Tian. Do you really think he wants to do this?”
Only then did he turn to look closely at Lan Tian, finding that the First Senior Brother was clutching his head as if struggling with himself, his expression full of agony.
Ding-dong. Ding-dong.
A notification sounded in both Min Yue and Lan Tian’s minds: Protagonist’s trust value has increased by 1,000 each. Min Yue secretly winked at Lan Tian.
Min Yue continued to stir the pot, adding, “Do you think Lan Tian truly wants to kill you? He is being controlled! Before he fell, he entrusted me to look after you.”
“Now, how could I just stand by and watch you get hurt! This is a Master’s responsibility, and likewise, his duty…” As Min Yue spoke, his voice grew weaker. His face turned paler, and the color drained from his lips. Yu Shengyan was puzzled by how weak the Master’s body had become, but when he saw the “Spirit-Locking Rope” binding the Master’s hands, his expression stiffened as he realized the severity of the situation. He scrambled forward, tearing a strip of fabric from his clothing to bandage the wound…
Jialuo stepped forward and pulled him away. Yu Shengyan had only managed to bind the wound halfway…
“This won’t do! The Spirit-Locking Rope is draining all of Master’s spiritual energy. If this continues, he will surely die!” Yu Shengyan spoke, as if to himself or to the others present.
“Damn it, damn it!” Lan Tian threw the knife away, clutching his head with both hands. He shouted in frustration, the red in his eyes appearing to intensify… Jialuo looked at the Master with apparent concern. “My Lord…”
Lan Tian cut him off. “Jialuo, keep watch over him.” His face returned to its previous composure, no longer strained in agony. He glanced at Min Yue and sneered: Is taking a knife to the chest fun for you?
With that, he walked over to Min Yue, grabbed his collar, and dragged him into the depths of the cave. Min Yue could only let himself be dragged, the movement causing his wound to reopen, prompting him to grunt in pain with a frown.
“I’ll give you all the ‘taking the knife’ you want!” Lan Tian muttered, dragging him along. He walked to the spot where he had thrown his knife earlier, picked it up, and led Min Yue further inside.
“No, First Senior Brother, he is your Master!” Yu Shengyan struggled violently, but he was no match for Jialuo’s strength, forced to watch helplessly as Min Yue was dragged away…
Lan Tian, by now, acted as if he couldn’t hear a thing, slowly dragging him into the darkness of the cave where Yu Shengyan could no longer see them… only then did he relax.
Min Yue stood up immediately, looking nothing like someone about to die. He smiled at Lan Tian and nudged him with his shoulder. “How about that? My plan was pretty good, wasn’t it? Both of us managed to increase our protagonist values.”
Lan Tian gave him a thumbs-up, though his expression was not exactly pleasant. He frowned and said, “But I still feel like this isn’t right… look at the protagonist, he looks like he’s being pushed to the brink of insanity.”
Min Yue glanced back; the protagonist was still screaming his lungs out. Min Yue could only sigh. “Sigh, this is a rite of passage for all protagonists. Pain and sorrow—only a winding, treacherous path can forge a perfect protagonist. Consider this lesson a teaching on the value of life.”
Lan Tian found himself unable to refute the logic, nodding along, before realizing something was off after a long while. “Wait a minute, Boss, why are you suddenly being so serious?”
Min Yue stopped smiling. He tilted his head to look into the distance, though it was unclear what he was looking at. “At the very least, I’ve lived through many worlds. Wait, why can’t I be serious?” Min Yue lowered his head, looking astonished. A moment later, he slipped back into his “drama queen” persona.
He immediately reddened his eyes, looking teary-eyed and biting his lip as if in disbelief. “Could it be… that in your heart, I am just an unserious person?”
“Boss, you’re disgusting…” Lan Tian dismissed him without hesitation, his eyes filled with absolute disdain.