Chapter 5 005 (Major Revision) Frivolous! Dissolute! ...
Behind this heavy sandalwood cabinet piled high with ancient scrolls, in the shadows where the windowsill and the base of the wall intersect, a person lies motionless.
The damp robes of the Shu Mountain Clan lay on the ground, revealing a faint patch of peach-colored blood. It was blood that had been dissolved by the rain.
Seemingly hurt by her stomp, the fox tail, as if alive, trembled suddenly and retreated under his clothes. The man stirred, raising his head almost imperceptibly.
The rain poured down, lightning flashed like silver snakes, and the night sky was suddenly bright. In that flash, half of his thin, bloodless face was illuminated.
Her dark blue eyes shone in the flickering candlelight, a cold, ethereal glow. In the darkness of the night, she was breathtakingly beautiful.
Lu Yuanyuan stared intently at him.
The carved wooden window was blown to its maximum opening, and torrents of icy rain poured into the room. With a thud, the candlestick closest to the window went out, and the mist soaked her hair, clothes, and trousers. Ancient books toppled in the wind, their pages turning with a clatter, the ink on the pages becoming wet and quickly blurred.
But right now, she can't hear or see anything.
The torrential rain outside the window, the lush foliage swaying like ghostly shadows, and the system notification sounds... all faded away from her. A violent spasm gripped her chest and abdomen, constricting her trachea; her eardrums rang loudly, as if a deafening thunderclap outside had exploded directly inside her, leaving her a bloody mess.
Duan Lansheng—how could he be here?! How could he possibly be here?!
Lu Yuanyuan's fingertips dug into her palm, her heart felt like it had been bitten by a venomous fang, a bitter and twisted murderous intent flashed through her mind, and unconsciously, she took a step toward the corner.
However, at that very moment, something unexpected happened—an invisible barrier suddenly rose in the air, exuding immense pressure, aimed directly at her face. Lu Yuanyuan was startled; instantly, like a weightless child, she was flung away, thrown straight backward, crashing into a black lacquered, painted, and gilded low cabinet. The jade vase landed and shattered upon impact.
Bang—thump!
The intense dizziness and throbbing pain caused by the impact instantly drained the water blocking her ear canal, making the system's series of warnings crystal clear.
System: "The probability of the host interfering with the plot has exceeded the limit. The protection system will be automatically triggered."
System: "Story data is being transmitted... Please refer to the supplementary storyline and do not approach Duan Lansheng to avoid triggering the protection system a second time."
System: "Host's health has been detected to be below the safety threshold. To avoid a soul separation reaction, please replenish your health as soon as possible."
Lu Yuanyuan's nostrils trembled, she gasped for breath, moved her fingers, checked the panel, and suddenly felt like swearing.
The moment she was thrown back by the barrier seemed to drain all her strength. Sure enough, her health points had plummeted to 2/100.
After working yourself to the bone and secretly absorbing half a day's worth of good fortune, you're back to square one.
However, thanks to the supplementary plot sent to her mind by the system, she quickly understood what was going on.
As is widely known, "The Enchanting Fairy Tale" is a stock market novel told from the female protagonist's perspective, with the plot focusing entirely on the romances between the little fox demon heroine and different men. Scenes where the heroine doesn't appear are mostly glossed over.
This approach works fine when the story exists only on paper. However, when it's transformed into a three-dimensional world, limited words are only enough to support a basic framework. Therefore, the system will expand the logic and flesh out the story without violating the original setting.
The scene unfolding before her eyes was a plot point that had been briefly mentioned in the original work.
A month ago, Duan Lansheng and four disciples from Mount Shu arrived in the mortal realm to hunt down a demon. This was his first time leaving the cultivation world to carry out a mission. However, the journey did not go smoothly. This was because the other four members of his team had been intentionally or unintentionally isolating Duan Lansheng along the way.
This is because, in the cultivation world, half-demons have always been at the bottom of the social hierarchy, a synonym for lowliness. Although they have half-human blood, they are not accepted by either the cultivation world or the demon world, and are unwelcome everywhere.
In this world, eight or nine out of ten cultivators are obsessed with appearances. And the number of demons whose original forms are good-looking can be counted on one hand. The vast majority of demons are ugly creatures that eat raw meat and drink blood; their offspring with humans are unattractive, and may even be deformed creatures that resemble neither one nor the other.
Not only are they unpleasant to look at, but most half-demons also cannot eradicate the animalistic nature they inherited from their demonic counterparts. Every spring, their lust surges, sometimes even leading them to display their unsightly behavior in public. This clashes with the cultivation world, which values restraint of desires and self-cultivation, and thus, they are despised by most cultivators.
If some half-demons are unlucky enough to fall into the hands of cultivators who despise them, they might be killed indiscriminately.
From these two points, it's clear that Duan Lansheng's parents are both beautiful nine-tailed foxes and outstanding graduates of a male virtue class who grew up in Mount Shu, making him one of the few half-demons who have a head start in life.
Even so, it was only after he had enough power that he was able to reverse the prejudice that the outside world had initially imposed on him.
At present, Duan Lansheng is just a fledgling outer disciple of the Shushan Sword Sect.
The four Shushan disciples accompanying him were also quite stereotypical villainous NPCs. Although they were extremely reluctant to team up with Duan Lansheng, according to Shushan rules, they wouldn't know the identities of their companions before accepting a quest. Once a quest was accepted, they had to see it through to the end and couldn't abandon it because they were picky about their teammates. Otherwise, it would affect their rating.
On the way, the four of them, suppressing their anger at being forced into this situation, expressed their thoughts through their actions. They were unwilling to speak to Duan Lansheng, unwilling to eat at the same table with him, and even less willing to act together or share the rewards, as if they were afraid that being with the half-demon would make them a laughingstock among their fellow cultivators.
When faced with thankless tasks, they know to use their seniority to pressure others and push all the work onto Duan Lansheng. It's a very Schrödinger-like form of discrimination.
Soon, they got a chance to get rid of the trouble openly and legitimately.
Before Duan Lansheng turned twenty, his condition would become somewhat unstable on the night of the full moon. This time on the road, he suddenly had an episode. When the four of them saw his inhuman and demonic appearance, they all showed disgust and resistance, and took the opportunity to shake him off by saying, "If you continue to follow us like this, you will be a burden to us."
As if things weren't going to go wrong, Duan Lansheng, after being separated from his family on Langya Mountain, unexpectedly encountered the Grand Preceptor of Yong Kingdom, who was making a grand display of his demon-hunting skills nearby that night, and was captured by the latter.
The imperial advisor possessed a gourd-shaped magical artifact, the contents of which, unbeknownst to anyone, were sealed within a demonic dragon. By feeding it, one could acquire magical power.
This is a shortcut to gain without effort. Ordinary cultivators improve their cultivation by meditating and circulating their vital energy through the body, accumulating it over time. Extracting energy from demons for one's own use is considered an evil and heretical path in the cultivation world.
That's right. Doing this can rapidly increase one's cultivation level in a short period of time, but it will also pollute spiritual energy and dull the golden core, preventing the cultivator from ever reaching the pinnacle of immortality. Moreover, everything has a price. Just like cutting off your own flesh to feed a ferocious beast, you have to give it the same amount of benefits you receive from the monster to maintain balance.
The Imperial Preceptor, because he took such crooked and evil paths, couldn't survive in the cultivation world, so he came to the mortal realm to beg for food.
Ironically, due to the information gap, the King of Yong had no idea about the good deeds he had done in the cultivation world and even treated him as an honored guest.
Lu Yuanyuan: "..." This shows how important background checks on employees are.
Let's get back to the main topic.
The Imperial Advisor certainly wouldn't be foolish enough to cut off his own flesh to feed the Chilong. To satisfy the Chilong's appetite, he had used human sacrifices and even dissected the inner cores of monsters.
Clearly, Duan Lansheng was his unexpected gain tonight. However, judging from Duan Lansheng's later appearance at Mount Shu unharmed, it was clear that the Imperial Advisor hadn't done anything to him, and he would surely escape unscathed.
System: "Correct. According to the original supplementary plot, Duan Lansheng would hide in this dark, uninhabited room, rest for a while, and then escape from the palace in one go. No one would discover him from beginning to end. However, now you are living in this room that should not be empty. Fortunately, this is not a big problem. As long as you do not disturb him and pretend that you did not see him, it will not affect the development of the plot."
Lu Yuanyuan closed her eyes, exhaled, and her mind gradually cleared. Only after the system's voice faded did she belatedly realize that someone had been banging on the door from the beginning, accompanied by Yue Hong's suspicious voice: "...Hey, Lu Yuanyuan, what's wrong with you? If you don't speak, I'm coming in."
Lu Yuanyuan: "!!!"
System: "Please ensure that Duan Lansheng is not seen by anyone, otherwise you will be punished."
Lu Yuanyuan was taken aback, then argued forcefully: "No, are you being reasonable? The grievance should be attributed to the perpetrator, and the debtor should be held accountable. Why isn't the punishment placed on the person who witnessed it?"
System: "Firstly, Yue Hong is a native of this world and cannot be interfered with by external forces. Secondly, if he broke into this room, it's because you moved in tonight, so you are still ultimately responsible."
Lu Yuanyuan: "..."
She felt like swearing again.
The knocking grew louder with each bang. However, her health was too low; she was too weak to move and could only communicate with the system internally. She couldn't even utter a proper voice and could only watch helplessly as Yue Hong kicked the door open.
...
Just now, when Yue Hong was walking down the corridor and heard a loud noise coming from this room, he was initially too lazy to get involved.
But inexplicably, the image of Lu Yuanyuan looking half-dead today flashed before his eyes. After hesitating for a moment, his legs seemed to have a mind of their own, and he stepped back, intending to knock on the door and ask what was going on.
However, despite the deafening banging on the door, there was no response. Yue Hong suspected the person inside had fainted, frowned, and kicked the door open anyway.
As soon as he entered the room, his eyes narrowed slightly in the bright candlelight. Then, his pupils contracted sharply—the bed curtains fluttered, the vase and low cabinet in the corner were overturned, and the floor was littered with books and scrolls.
Lu Yuanyuan seemed to have been about to rest. She was only wearing a nightgown, her black hair was disheveled, and she looked as if her bones had been removed, lying weakly on the pile of messy things. One of her legs was even unshoes and socks.
Completely unprepared for this scene, Yue Hong froze for a moment, then glanced around, walked towards her, grabbed her arm, and pulled her up: "Why are all the things overturned? Can you get up?"
Upon touching him, Lu Yuanyuan felt as if she had found a lifeline, clinging tightly to his arm and burying her damp face in his chest. After a while, she finally had the strength to speak: "N-nothing... I just saw a mouse and got really scared, which is why I accidentally knocked over the cabinet."
"I'm fine now, thank you for helping me, you can go now."
At this moment, Lu Yuanyuan's only thought was to get him out of there as soon as possible, so that he wouldn't see Duan Lansheng.
Having just recovered, her breath was weak and trembling, and her legs were too weak to stand up properly. She could only cling to Yue Hong and use him as a crutch.
As her warm, faint breath gently caressed his neck, Yue Hong immediately stopped, his Adam's apple bobbing. After a long pause, he finally uttered a nonchalant voice: "It's just a rat, what's there to be afraid of?"
"Where is it? I'll catch it for you, just kill it."
As soon as he finished speaking, he was about to let her go and turn around to find where the mouse was.
Lu Yuanyuan's expression changed slightly.
No, brother, why are you playing by your own rules? Why are you fighting a ghost rat?
How could she really let him turn around and look! The room was so small; unless someone was blind, they could see Duan Lansheng with just a turn of their head. In desperation, Lu Yuanyuan lunged forward, grabbing his neck. Not strong enough, she hooked her legs around his body: "Don't go!"
Yue Hong was caught off guard by her sudden attack and lost his balance. Lu Yuanyuan's buttocks slammed into a wooden frame against the wall. Yue Hong was also pulled forward and stumbled, his forehead almost hitting the wall.
He had barely straightened up when his neck was grabbed again, rendering him immobile. Lu Yuanyuan, her eyes lowered and eyelashes trembling, mumbled, "Wait, that rat was really... huge. I'm still a little scared when I think about it. Don't go yet."
Yue Hong: "..."
He remained motionless, neither saying "good" nor "bad."
Just as Lu Yuanyuan was racking her brains trying to figure out how to get him out of there, there was another knock at the door. It sounded like there were quite a few people outside: "Princess, we are here on the orders of the Imperial Advisor to patrol. Are you alright? Have you heard anything unusual?"
Yue Hong turned his head to look, frowned, and was about to speak when a small hand suddenly covered his lips: "Shh."
...
Duan Lansheng was in pain all over his body.
The pain was so intense that it could no longer maintain its human form, and it could no longer hide its fox tail.
But no matter how much pain he was in, a sliver of clarity remained deep within his mind; he was never completely at a standstill.
He vaguely remembered cutting the whisk from the hand of the person who had captured him and escaping. In this labyrinthine palace, he stumbled into a room that seemed empty. To his surprise, soon after entering, two maids came into the room and, in a space separated from him by a cabinet, began to scent the bedding with incense.
He could also hear them talking.
It turns out that the person who will soon move into this house is the future Crown Princess of Yong Kingdom.
He wanted to go somewhere else. However, by then, he no longer had the strength to leave. The tension in his body had reached its limit, and with a snap, he fell into a state of unconsciousness. He didn't know how much time had passed when he suddenly felt a pain in his tail. In his half-awake, half-conscious state, he could only see a blurry outline of light and shadow.
Now, he finally felt that the discomfort had subsided somewhat.
Duan Lansheng's fingers snapped shut, and he lifted his eyes, his vision gradually clearing.
He saw that there were two figures entangled together, only four or five meters away from him.
A young girl sat facing him, leaning against the wall. Most of her body was blocked by the boy in front of her, except for her slender arms, which were tightly wrapped around the boy's neck.
And... one of her legs was also hooked around the boy's waist.
As she shifted, her loose trousers rode up a bit. Duan Lansheng saw one of her bare feet, her slightly pink, curled toes, and a small mole under her arch, silently exuding a captivating charm.
They are in the light, he is in the dark.
When Duan Lansheng first briefly woke up, although his vision was blurry, he vaguely sensed that it was her who had stepped on his tail. She must have seen him.
Could it be that his intuition was wrong, and she hadn't actually noticed him?
After all, they didn't know each other. She had no reason to protect him or cover for him.
If a normal person saw such a suspicious monster, their first reaction would be to scream and call for someone to catch it.
Just then, Duan Lansheng heard a knock on the door. The sound of armor and weapons could be heard outside, indicating that many people had arrived.
Duan Lansheng's nerves tightened slightly, and he saw the girl also move, nervously covering the lips of the boy in front of her, and responding to the door: "Oh, I've already gone to bed, don't come in... I'm fine here, there's nothing wrong."
Then, she lowered her voice and whispered in the boy's ear:
"Keep quiet. It's so late. Do you want everyone, including your brother, to know you're here with me?"
...
To prevent those outside the door from hearing, she spoke in a very low voice, but it couldn't fool the cultivator with all five senses.
Although he lacked relevant experience, Duan Lansheng wasn't stupid. In an instant, he knew what kind of situation he had stumbled into.
This ordinary girl, who clearly already has a fiancé, is secretly having an affair with her future husband's younger brother in this place.
This behavior, which went against the teachings he had received since childhood and violated human ethics, made Duan Lansheng slowly frown. In his wariness, a trace of instinctive displeasure rose up.
frivolous and dissolute.
Before he turned his face away and stopped looking at her, such a thought vaguely popped into his mind.
Never mind, it has nothing to do with him.
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