The Feast of Immortals was one of those dark-path, male-protagonist cultivation novels whose comment section, the moment you opened it, was filled with arguments like:
“The male lead is just following the principle that if you don’t look out for yourself, Heaven and Earth will punish you.”
“Do you people upstairs even have a moral compass? Hope you run into a psychopath like the male lead in real life.”
The flame wars came one after another.
Of course, “masterpiece” didn’t mean the author’s prose was particularly exquisite or that the novel had some profound message. It meant…
The various plotlines were simply too far beyond the limits of decency!
The man had no feelings, no love, and no romantic pairing. The entire theme and tone of his life could be summed up in one sentence:
Kill people. Cultivate. Kill more people.
If he wanted to kill people to refine pills and increase his cultivation, fine. But the male protagonist, Shang Daoling, killed villains and righteous cultivators alike. Anyone who could be of use to him—kill them, kill them all. He would carve out their cores, stuff them into the furnace, and refine them in an instant.
When he casually killed the novel’s “second male lead”—a character who had been painstakingly written with the aura of an immortal sage devoted to helping the world, and who had played a major role in the early story—with a single sword strike, the readers finally couldn’t take it anymore.
A bloody storm of one-star reviews erupted in the comments.
The author’s response was:
“What second male lead? There is only one true protagonist in my book, and that’s the male lead. Every other supporting character is nothing more than a random passerby. If I kill them, I kill them. Don’t expect me to spit out the lunchbox afterward. I write books to be emperor. If you don’t like it, hold it in. I, the Emperor, shall delete your comments myself!”
What an arrogant response—
And so.
Overnight, the rating of this dark masterpiece plummeted, all the way down to 4.0.
This supposedly ten-out-of-ten novel with a miserable four-star rating had nevertheless once ranked near the top of the subscription charts.
Because far too many people had come specifically because of its infamous reputation.
Yes, the male lead had abruptly slaughtered a supporting character who had been completely free of moral flaws and had received a huge amount of screen time in the early chapters.
And that—
Was only the beginning of the novel’s descent beyond all limits.
What came afterward was truly…
[The following content contains large amounts of G-rated material involving gore, grotesque forms, Eastern Cthulhu-style horror, and other disturbing content. Recommended for viewers aged twenty-one and above…]
Rong Chunsong ignored the system’s warning and continued reading several hundred more chapters.
Unfortunately, after those hundreds of chapters, the author suddenly announced that he’d inherited fifty million yuan from his family and was going on hiatus to enjoy life!
And just like that, five years passed, leaving behind a wasteland of unfinished plotlines.
It was also possible that the young and arrogant “Emperor” who had written the novel had finally snapped after accumulating fifty thousand negative reviews in the comments section—far too many to delete.
If you asked Rong Chunsong, though, netizens these days were simply too easily shocked.
Back in the wild days before the internet had been properly cleaned up, this sort of dark-web literature had been everywhere. When she was young and roaming the internet, she’d read who knew how many such ancient relics.
Besides, they were only stories.
Yes. Even though she’d awakened memories of her previous life just an hour ago and discovered that she was now living inside some sort of dark male-oriented cultivation novel, she still wore an utterly unconcerned expression.
She had always been this way.
Ever since she was little, she’d faced storms with the same relaxed attitude, taking whatever came at her in stride.
In her previous life, getting a perfect score had been easy. Climbing over the school wall had been easy. Coming in first on every major and minor exam had been easy.
Even seeing through the sword techniques her father had honed through decades of experience was still—still—easy.
Then, during the summer before her final year of high school, she had been thinking about her future.
Should she apply for an engineering program involving electrical engineering and climb to the peak of life?
Or should she graduate from a top-two university and then, despite having achieved such heights, quietly disappear into ordinary society and inherit her family’s kendo dojo?
Then, during her graduation trip, a sudden car accident occurred.
As the tour bus overturned on a mountain road, she instinctively shielded the friend sitting beside her.
Then darkness rushed over her.
And that was where her memories of her previous life ended.
Her eighteen years of youth.
Her eighteen years of wild dreams.
Her eighteen years beneath blue skies and beside green waters.
Her eighteen years in which countless tomorrows had been hidden inside gift boxes, waiting for her to open them.
All of it came to a stop.
“Congratulations! Mother and child are both safe. City Lord, the little young lord is a girl.”
One year…
Two years…
Three years…
Ten years…
Eighteen years.
She had read every book of poetry and history, a treasured sword in her hand, riding the long winds and plentiful rains, thriving beneath the bright clamor of spring.
Eighteen years in another world passed like a mighty river surging onward.
Meanwhile, the system’s notification chimes continued ringing incessantly in her ears.
[Complete the system’s missions to obtain one of two ultimate rewards.]
[One: Replace Shang Daoling and become the absolute protagonist of this world, enjoying an exhilarating life of unlimited wish fulfillment.]
[Two: Return to your original world, where you can still enjoy a life at the pinnacle, but will be unable to slaughter your way through the world.]
Although she believed that when the time came to use an iron fist and an iron will, one should absolutely do so, outright slaughtering everyone in one’s path was probably a bit much.
Even so, the choice was still somewhat difficult.
She couldn’t bear to part with her parents, friends, relatives, and the people of the city in this life either.
Before she knew this was a book, the eighteen years she’d lived had been her real life all along.
Rather than calling it “transmigrating into a book,” Rong Chunsong felt it was more like some inexplicable character from a book had suddenly dropped into her life.
Enjoying a wish-fulfillment life or living at the pinnacle—she felt she could accomplish either without relying on this system.
But since the system had brought it up, she might as well see what kind of cheat abilities it could give her!
“All right, then. What kind of system are you, and what are your missions?”
[This system is the Restriction-Novel Female Protagonist System.]
[With this system, you can arm and beautify yourself with the skills and items of a restriction-novel heroine, transform yourself into a delicate beauty, attract the male protagonist, seek his protection, and conquer him, making him develop an insatiable taste for you and fall hopelessly in love with you, thereby completing the mission of reforming him and persuading him to abandon his plan to destroy the world.]
[The main mission consists of two parts: One, increase the male protagonist’s Favorability; Two, lower the Dark Value of this book—in other words, twist The Feast of Immortals to the point where the book won’t be banned.]
Rong Chunsong was speechless.
Rong Chunsong fell silent.
Restriction-novel heroine.
Delicate beauty.
Attract the male protagonist.
Make him develop an insatiable taste for her.
If she remembered correctly, on most novel websites, graphic violence and gore would get a book banned.
And so would all that other… censored stuff.
Besides, why did she have to become the male protagonist’s dish?
“What the hell?”
“If I don’t use your system and don’t complete your missions, what happens?”
[Not using this system and failing to complete the missions will have no impact whatsoever on your daily life. However, given that your current mission progress is 0%, the world’s destruction will be unavoidable. After one hundred years of living in carefree bliss, you and everyone else in this world will be devoured by Shang Daoling.]
“Can I just uphold justice and kill this great male protagonist?”
[Unfortunately, if you choose to kill this world’s protagonist, the book’s world will collapse even faster. However, after replacing Shang Daoling as the protagonist, you may do anything you wish to “supporting character Shang Daoling.”]
Rong Chunsong thought for a moment.
“Sure, I suppose. It’s only a little mission…”
Hearing what sounded like an agreement, the system was just about to play a cheerful fanfare to signify the beginning of the mission.
But before the little background tune had even played for three seconds, she added:
“But you know, instead of dressing myself up like some delicate flower and delivering myself to him, I think I’d rather turn this dark-path male protagonist into a beautiful, wealthy woman for me to enjoy.”
She smiled sweetly.
Her eyes were sharp and keen, like daggers wet with morning dew. Ordinarily, a smile should have softened the edge of such eyes somewhat. But when Rong Chunsong smiled, her raised brows and lips curved with careless amusement only added another layer of effortless nobility and haughty composure to her striking features.
The system in her mind seemed to fall silent for a moment.
Perhaps it had belatedly realized that this host was not someone to be trifled with.
[Host has voluntarily accepted the mission. Please draw your initial items and skills.]
Like most games, this system had a basic pool and a special pool. At present, the special pool remained locked.
A line of tiny text below stated that ordinary skills and items had a 5% draw rate, while S-rank skills and items had a 2.5% draw rate. An S-rank skill or item was guaranteed after 168 draws.
What a scam.
This was the first gacha system she’d ever encountered where you could spend all that effort pulling and still fail to get what you wanted.
Rong Chunsong grumbled inwardly as she lightly tapped the “Permanent Wish” basic pool that had appeared in her sea of consciousness.
Cheerful music rang out.
A burst of festive pink light flashed—
[Congratulations! You obtained one A-rank item: “Snow-White Skin, Red Beauty Pill.”]
[Congratulations! You obtained one A-rank item: “Graceful Figure Pill.”]
[Congratulations! You obtained ten B-rank items: “Health Bar Recovery Pills.”]
[Congratulations! You obtained one A-rank item: “Dream-Making Rhinoceros Incense: A Spring Dream.”]
[Congratulations! You obtained one S-rank item: “She Must Be a Goddess Descended to the Mortal Realm!” Aura.]
[Congratulations! You obtained one S-rank item: “We’re All My Good Brothers, So Stop Fighting!” Aura.]
[Congratulations! You obtained one B-rank skill: “Delicate and Soft.”]
[Congratulations! You obtained one B-rank skill: “Lotus Steps.”]
[Congratulations! You obtained one A-rank skill: “Seductive Fragrance Seeping into the Body.”]
[Congratulations! You obtained one B-rank skill: “Fall on the Selected Target 100% of the Time.”]
[Congratulations! Achievement unlocked: “Newborn Calf, Little Lucky Emperor.” Ten pulls, ten hits, ten successes. Additional reward: A-rank skill “Atmosphere.” Additional reward: S-rank item “A Spectacular Exit—I Have Something Urgent to Do, So I’ll Leave First! 100% Successful Fake Death Escape” ×1.]
The purpose of these items and skills was obvious at a glance.
What interested Rong Chunsong was—
After going through their detailed descriptions one by one, her mood grew better and better.
Aside from the Dream-Making Rhinoceros Incense, none of the items or skills placed any restrictions on their targets. They merely described their respective effects.
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
Her gaze shifted toward the window—
[Skill “Fall on the Selected Target 100% of the Time” activated.]
Sure enough, in the very next moment, a little kitten playing with butterflies in the courtyard suddenly went—
Thump!
It tumbled into the soft flowerbed, sending a cloud of colorful butterflies fluttering into the air.
The kitten looked utterly bewildered, meowed twice, then got back up and returned to playing.
A skill this useful was only B-rank?
The only unfortunate part was that it had a cooldown and could only be used once every hour.
After finishing her pulls, there was only one thing left…
[Would you like to designate the target of your, “Shang Daoling,” as your Display Boy?]
The system interface could also be switched into what it called Display Boy Mode.
In Display Boy Mode, she could “observe” and “interact” with the male protagonist.
Yes, that was the exact word it used:
Observe.
The description built into Display Boy Mode made it sound as though this great male protagonist were some unobservable, indescribable entity, while she was an investigator studying it.
Fine.
She might as well see what this great male protagonist really looked like.
The first thing to appear in her sea of consciousness was the back of a young man dressed in black Daoist robes.
He was tall and slender.
His shoulders were broad, though that was merely because he had a naturally good bone structure. Looking lower, the Daoist robe fluttered in the wind, outlining a waist so terrifyingly thin that it looked almost skeletal.
It was practically a loose Daoist robe draped over a skeleton.
And beneath one of his wide sleeves was a thin arm.
The other sleeve, however, was completely empty.
Rong Chunsong frowned slightly.
Some people liked sickly beauties, but according to her own aesthetic preferences, she wasn’t particularly fond of someone who looked frail, wan, and malnourished.
She reached out and turned the figure around—
Oh no.
What the hell.
Was this for real?
She remembered that the original novel had described the great male protagonist’s appearance as:
“This young man was mysterious and demonic, handsome and languid. At this moment, he deliberately assumed an expression of compassion, resembling Guanyin of the Moon Reflected in Water in male form.”
Then what the hell was this thing in front of her, something that was only barely viewable after applying a giant mosaic over it?
What appeared before her was a face that could no longer even be confidently called human.
She could barely make out the lower half of a fairly straight nose and a pair of thin lips.
Everything else was covered in black markings.
Endless black patches spread across his entire face like a crawling curse.
The occasional glimpse of pale skin between them was so sparse that it might as well have been starlight scattered across the night sky.
[The current timeline takes place before the beginning of The Feast of Immortals. The protagonist, Shang Daoling, was born with extensive patches of birthmarks. Only after embarking upon his path of killing and devouring cores does his appearance gradually change.]
Looking at the virtual pet displayed on the Display Boy panel, Rong Chunsong was genuinely speechless.
As for when this virtual pet would eventually turn into the handsome man described in the book—
According to the system’s explanation, it would happen gradually.
Forget it.
She would just use the “Snow-White Skin, Red Beauty Pill” and “Graceful Figure Pill” on him.
She really couldn’t accept having a so-called “pursue the male lead” target who was nothing more than a human-shaped mosaic.
Still…
She couldn’t possibly give this guy her items for free.
Snow-white reeds swayed and rippled in the breeze.
A desolate wind blew from the riverbank, gently stirring the black gauze hanging from a bamboo hat.
A copper coin was tossed high into the air before falling back into a hand covered by a black glove.
The side with writing was facing upward.
The young man reclining beneath an ancient, shadowy tree smiled indifferently.
It wasn’t that he particularly wanted to kill the group of people he’d encountered that morning.
But since the coin had landed with the side bearing the writing facing upward…
Of course, even if it had landed the other way, he would have killed them anyway.
After all, one side meant following Heaven’s will, while the other meant swimming against the current.
The former was perfectly justified.
The latter was simply more interesting.
Before killing them, naturally, he would have to carve up their faces as well.
After all, casually judging the appearance of a passerby was hardly an act of good manners. If they suffered retribution for it, that was only right.
Shang Daoling put away the copper coin, brushed the blades of grass from his robes, and leisurely rose to his feet.
Excellent.
Very excellent.
Once he’d killed that group, he could even take some money from them and buy a few books to read.
The more he thought about it, the better his mood became.
Then a voice suddenly sounded beside him.
“I have heard your supplication.”
“You bear a curse, yet remain steadfast. Your ties with your six relations are shallow, yet you come and go freely. You are very suitable to become a believer of this seat.”
A young woman’s voice, ethereal and devoid of either sorrow or joy, echoed beside his ear.
On the other end of that ethereal voice was Rong Chunsong, putting on the acting skills she’d honed during three years of playing female leads in her high-school drama club.
She was improvising based on the contents of the novel.
In the novel, every time Shang Daoling tossed a copper coin, he was asking Heaven for guidance.
Of course, whether the coin landed heads or tails could never stop him from straying farther and farther down the path of evil, because the coin tosses were nothing more than an excuse for him to put on an air of mystery—
Or, more accurately, a little setting the author had added to make the protagonist seem more impressive while conveniently padding the word count.
But since he called it the will of Heaven, she might as well go along with it and pretend that Heaven’s will had truly manifested.