By the following day, news that Yu Xingwu had seriously injured Lin Xi, been sentenced to thirty lashes with the Discipline Whip and confined at Reflection Cliff had spread throughout the Tianlan Sect.
After receiving her lashes yesterday, Yu Xingwu had been escorted to Reflection Cliff by disciples from the Law Enforcement Hall. They hadn’t even treated the bloody whip wounds covering her back.
Fortunately, she had earned 100 points for completing her mission. She immediately exchanged them for an item called “Healing” and used it, healing the wounds on her back completely.
Watching the points she had worked so hard to earn disappear just like that genuinely made Yu Xingwu’s heart ache.
But her body was her most valuable asset, so naturally, she had to take good care of it. She still needed this body to throw her weight around! Ahem, no, she meant diligently follow the storyline.
As for copying the sect rules one hundred times, there was absolutely no way she was writing even a single word!
She was an arrogant, spoiled, and domineering Vicious Female Supporting Character. Refusing to copy the sect rules was perfectly consistent with her persona! She was a dedicated professional, all right?!
Besides, her hands had already spoken—they didn’t want to write.
Bored out of her mind, she was currently sitting in a shabby room, staring at the Black Jade Slip in her hand while continuously muttering complaints and curses.
The Black Jade Slip was a communication tool used in the Cultivation World, more advanced than a Voice Transmission Talisman.
Not only could multiple people chat through it, but the jade slip also contained all sorts of gossip from the various immortal sects. It could even record images and share pictures.
It felt surprisingly modern to her, but it also infuriated her because apparently, keyboard warriors existed everywhere!
The Tianlan Sect’s internal message board was currently flooded with gossip about her and Shen Zhuo!
There were even lengthy gossip posts and fictional stories about them!
She casually opened one of the gossip posts, only to discover that it claimed that even before she had forced Shen Zhuo into their engagement, she had already used her status as the Grand Elder’s daughter to force herself on him and coerce him into sleeping with her.
Fuck! These people were seriously sick in the head!
“System, Shen Zhuo must have seen these rumors too. Can’t I explain things to him? I really don’t like him! Break off the engagement! I’ll break off our engagement with him right now!”
The system shook its head repeatedly.
“Host, you cannot break off your engagement with the villain. The female protagonist is about to appear, and the next part of the storyline you must follow is this: After discovering that Shen Zhuo has fallen in love with the female protagonist at first sight, you become convinced that she seduced him and begin bullying and taking revenge on her!”
“All these plot developments depend on the host being in love with Shen Zhuo, so please maintain your Vicious Female Supporting Character persona, dear host!”
Yu Xingwu: “…” The last time she’d been this speechless was the day before yesterday, when the power of the plot had strangled her to death.
“System, tell me, how is this maintaining my Vicious Female Supporting Character persona? This is practically forcing me to maintain my persona as Shen Zhuo’s hopeless simp!”
The system replied, “Don’t be so impatient, Host~ Even if you want to break off the engagement, the villain should be the one to propose it. That’s how the original novel’s plot unfolds.”
“The good news is that, in the novel, the villain publicly breaks off his engagement with the Fake Young Miss after falling in love with the female protagonist at first sight.”
“Host, you only need to endure it a little longer. It probably won’t take more than a few days.”
“There’s another piece of good news! Apart from the main storyline missions, there’s also an optional mission: Express your love to the villain every day!”
“Stop right there! What kind of stupid-ass mission is that?! I’d rather die than do such a brainless optional mission!”
One moment, the system told her that the villain would soon break off their engagement. The next, it wanted her to complete an absurdly simp like mission. Was this idiotic system out of its mind?!
The system asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to accept it? Mission reward: 200 points for every successful expression of love.”
Yu Xingwu: “?” Wait, what? 200 points?!
“I’ll take it! I accept! This mission was practically made for me! Where’s Shen Zhuo? I’ll go simp for him right now!”
This wasn’t her being spineless. This was professional dedication! Since she had to maintain her persona, how could she not pretend to be in love with Shen Zhuo?
Simp for him! If simping didn’t kill her, she’d simp like there was no tomorrow!
It was just that the day before yesterday she had sworn that if she simped for Shen Zhuo even one more time, she wasn’t human, and the face-slap had certainly come way too fast.
But who could blame her when Shen Zhuo was practically her personal points ATM?!
The System Shop was filled with all kinds of wonderful items. How could she possibly not want more points?!
Fortunately, that damned villain was ridiculously good-looking. Otherwise, as someone who was a complete sucker for good looks, she really wouldn’t have been able to bring herself to profess her love to him.
…
Yu Xingwu put away her Black Jade Slip and was just about to give up on doing anything productive and take a nap when the system’s electronic voice sounded at an inconvenient moment.
“System notification: Someone has arrived at Reflection Cliff! It’s your eldest senior brother, Ye Su, who is also the devoted second male lead in the novel.”
“Like the villain, he will fall in love with the female protagonist after the True Young Miss appears.”
“However, while Shen Zhuo falls in love with the female protagonist at first sight, Ye Su gradually develops feelings for her after witnessing her being bullied. He begins to pity her, eventually falls in love, and silently protects her.”
“Unfortunately, he’s not the male protagonist, and the female protagonist doesn’t love him. He’s the character whose unrequited love breaks my heart the most!”
Yu Xingwu pursed her lips.
【Well, it’s a novel. There’s always got to be a devoted second male lead to make readers cry.】
【But what the hell does that have to do with me? According to the novel’s plot, once Ye Su falls in love with the female protagonist, he’ll stop doting on me, his junior sister. He’ll even turn against me and become my enemy because of her.】
【Tsk, tsk, tsk. Calling him a devoted second male lead makes it sound romantic, but isn’t Ye Su really just the female protagonist’s pitiful backup boyfriend?】
The system replied, “Host, when you put it that way, you’re not exactly wrong.”
Reflection Cliff was surrounded by a restrictive barrier.
Ye Su knew that his junior sister had been spoiled and willful since childhood, accustomed to fine clothes and delicious food. She had also never practiced Fasting.
So, using the excuse of delivering food, he had obtained the Jade Access Token for Reflection Cliff from the head of the Law Enforcement Hall, allowing him to enter.
However, the moment he stepped through the barrier, he heard his junior sister’s voice calling him something like a “devoted second male lead” and a “pitiful backup boyfriend.”
What did those words mean?
“Eldest Senior Brother, why are you only coming now? Do you have any idea that I didn’t eat anything last night? I don’t even have any Fasting Pills on me! I’m practically starving to death!”
Yu Xingwu looked at Ye Su with shining eyes, and what she said was no lie.
She really was hungry. In fact, seeing the food container in Ye Su’s hand made her even hungrier.
However, the important part of what she had said wasn’t that she was “hungry.” It was that she didn’t have any Fasting Pills!
Ye Su was Sword Venerable Feng Chen’s eldest disciple. Not only did he cultivate the Dao of the Sword, but he also practiced alchemy, making him one of the sect’s rare geniuses who cultivated both swordsmanship and alchemy.
It was precisely because Ye Su was proficient in alchemy and skilled in medicine that whenever the female protagonist was repeatedly bullied and injured, he was always the one who treated her wounds.
After helping her time and again, he gradually developed sympathy for her, and as they spent more time together, that sympathy naturally blossomed into love.
Later, he even gave the female protagonist all sorts of superior, top-grade pills that he had personally refined.
Yu Xingwu was willing to bestow upon Ye Su the title of—the female protagonist’s walking medicine cabinet.
For now, the female protagonist had yet to appear, and Ye Su hadn’t turned against her or become her enemy.
Since she could still call him Eldest Senior Brother, surely asking him for a Fasting Pill wasn’t too much? She would even be willing to buy one from him.
That way, if nobody came to deliver food tomorrow, she wouldn’t have to go hungry again.
She was here to complete storyline missions, not to lose weight.
If she lost any more weight, what would happen if the little bit of flesh on her chest shrank too? Cosmetic procedures were expensive, okay?!
Besides, hers were completely natural!
【System, why isn’t Ye Su saying anything? Why is he staring straight at me like that?】
The system replied, “Could it be because the host is so beautiful~?”
【You certainly know how to flatter someone. You’ve got real potential to become a simp yourself.】
Ye Su stared at Yu Xingwu’s lips as though he’d seen a ghost. Had he just imagined hearing something?
His junior sister clearly hadn’t opened her mouth, yet he had heard her voice.
“Junior Sister, what did you just say?”