Chapter 65 Martyrdom: Is this the fate of novel characters? ...
Dongtang had always thought that the things people said about Shen Qingyan in the past were just jokes. The so-called perfection, purity, and goodness were nothing more than an excuse for his stupidity.
Unexpectedly, he was actually able to resist the erosion of the boundless life force.
Dongtang planted the evil seeds of Wuliangsheng in many Kunlun disciples, waiting for anger to grow in their hearts and eventually erupt. The stronger the anger, the stronger Wuliangsheng's power.
She also wanted to use the same method to make Shen Qingyan work for her.
But she didn't expect that Shen Qingyan would be able to escape harm.
Looking at Shen Qingyan's clear eyes, Dongtang suddenly found it laughable. So this is the truth of cultivation: those without desires ascend to immortality, while those with ambitions are hindered and fall into demonic possession.
How jealous! He seems to have gotten to where he is without suffering any hardship.
Dongtang couldn't help but think.
She painstakingly accumulated wealth and endured hardship; she did so much so that she, as an outer disciple of Kunlun, could also gain a place within Kunlun. She wanted to shatter the hierarchical system within Kunlun. Her purpose was good; she was fighting for more people like herself.
She never felt she had done anything wrong, but Shen Qingyan's presence before her filled her with uncontrollable anger. They clearly shared similar backgrounds, yet he received the spotlight from the moment he entered Kunlun. She, on the other hand, had worked so hard to achieve the same fame and status as him. She was unwilling to accept this.
Then, a series of voices echoed in her mind: "He's the one who stole everyone's attention. If it weren't for him, you would have been famous long ago. Quick, let's refine him into a puppet! No... the evil seed is useless against him... Strange, why is it useless? Since it's useless, let's kill him and refine his soul!"
On Dongtang's neck, a black bead bulged beneath her skin, like a beating heart. The voice echoed in Dongtang's mind again and again, trying to urge her to harm Shen Qingyan.
Dongtang's eyes glazed over for a moment, then she suddenly raised her hand and pressed hard on the back of her neck, shoving the bead down: "I've done so much to get to where I am today, I can't make a move now. I can't let them see through my true nature... Amitabha, only when I die can you absorb my power. Don't think I don't know that, I won't let you succeed."
Shen Qingyan watched as Dong Tang suddenly slapped her neck hard and said, "Did you get bitten by mosquitoes too? It seems there are a lot of mosquitoes in this room. Let's hurry up and go out."
Dongtang's expression cleared up again, and she smiled at him: "Okay."
Shen Qingyan opened the door and walked out with her. He took out bottle after bottle of medicine from the medicine box and said, "I've just concocted several new medicines with different effects. This is a painkiller, this is a fever reducer, and this is for sprains and bruises..."
He showed Dongtang the bottles of medicine one by one, and finally handed her the entire medicine box: "With these medicines, the patients who come to Xingxiang Hall will definitely be cured." The batch of medicines he made before were all effective, but they actually only treated colds and flu. He was afraid that other people would really treat those medicines as a panacea and take them for any illness, which would eventually make people sick.
He hesitated for a long time, but still asked the system for prescriptions for several common diseases. Now that he has made the pills for these common diseases, he can finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Shen Qingyan handed the entire medicine box to Dong Tang, thinking that now that he had done Xingxiangtang such a big favor, his favorability should increase.
When he saw the favorability data in the backend, he was stunned.
"System, why did Dongtang's favorability points drop to zero?" He looked at Dongtang, who was smiling warmly and showed no signs of anything amiss, and hesitated. "Is there a bug in the backend data?"
The system kindly replied, "It's not a bug~"
"Dong Tang's favorability has decreased, doesn't that mean my honor points are going to turn negative? But the medicine prescriptions and alchemy furnaces I exchanged are still there..." Shen Qingyan quickly opened the honor point interface, and the situation was completely beyond his expectations. "What's going on... Wasn't Dong Tang's favorability supposed to be reset to zero? Why are my honor points increasing instead of decreasing?"
"I don't know~" the system whistled.
Shen Qingyan realized something was wrong: "You're definitely hiding something from me. Is the decrease in Dongtang's favorability rating related to you?"
The system finally refuted his statement: "Her decrease in favorability is purely due to her own reasons. What does it have to do with me? Her decrease in favorability is because she doesn't like you anymore, she hates you, understand?"
"I didn't do anything, why does she hate me?"
“You don’t need a reason to hate someone,” the system muttered, then couldn’t help but say, “This is a novel, this is an online novel. The people here are like two sides of a coin. If they’re not good guys, they can only be villains. She’s not your type. She can’t join the main characters, so she can only be a villain.”
"I'll go back and get busy now. If you need anything, come find me at Xingxiang Hall." Dongtang waved to Shen Qingyan while carrying her medicine box and ran away.
Shen Qingyan suddenly asked, "Will she die?"
"The formula for online novels is the same as that for games. Readers get their satisfaction from the protagonist defeating the villain. That's the rule. Create a really bad villain, make the readers empathize with the protagonist, and make them hate the villain. Then the protagonist takes over and kills the villains one by one, eventually reaching the pinnacle of life, and the story ends. All the formulas are written like this. People love to read them, and this kind of writing won't go wrong."
Shen Qingyan stubbornly asked, "Then will she die?"
"Why do you care so much? Even if she doesn't die, someone else will. Someone will always have to go through this part of the story. Even if it's not her, it will be someone else," the system said anxiously. "If you don't believe me, go out and look at other online novels. Everyone's story is written like this. What's wrong with what I wrote?"
"Didn't you say that I need to collect favorability points and honor points in order to gain the ability to complete the main storyline?" Shen Qingyan suddenly shed his usual naivety and looked at the floating system orb in front of him, asking, "If Dongtang, Senior Sister Qiusheng, Senior Sister Linglong... if everyone becomes a villain and everyone has to die, then where will my favorability points come from?"
The system didn't answer, but Shen Qingyan pressed on: "Didn't you need me to accumulate honor points? If I lose these favors, how am I supposed to accumulate honor points? You're really strange. You were the one urging me to win over other people, but now that you see Dongtang's favor points have dropped to zero, you're completely unmoved. System, you've been lying to me all along, haven't you?"
Shen Qingyan wasn't actually stupid; he just shut down his five senses and made himself numb.
"The favorability points you want me to accumulate aren't actually the favorability points from the NPCs in this world, but rather the favorability points from readers outside the novel, right?"
The system was as quiet as if it were dead; only the floating orb of light in front of us proved its existence.
“You only care about the plot points, the character designs, and the plot effects, but you’ve never cared about us,” Shen Qingyan said. “Have you ever thought that before you pulled me into this world, I was also a reader of this novel?”
A scalding tear fell to the ground.
"I love them more than you do, and even more than the authors do."
Why does the plot have to involve him?
"Wait, what are you doing!" the system screamed.
"If the story can only end with someone dying between the good guys and the bad guys, then let me die." Tears streamed down his face as he raised the Weeping Ghost God to his neck.
"Wait a moment!"
The blade sliced across the skin, drawing a thin line of blood, but the blade was gripped and held firmly in mid-air, unable to get any closer.
Blood dripped from between his fingers, falling drop by drop to the ground and melting into the snow.
Shen Qingyan opened his eyes and saw his own face, but that face was full of anger and vitality, unlike his own.
The system gritted its teeth and said, "Do you think I haven't tried any of these things? If I die, this world will just keep restarting, it will never end."
Shen Qingyan's pupils trembled as she stared intently at his face, her voice hoarse as she asked, "Are you me from the past?"
The system's expression went blank. It took a step back, and a string of garbled text flew past its eyes.
"No, I'm the system..." He covered his head, blood smearing his cheeks and sliding down his neck. "No, who am I?"
Suddenly, a gust of wind swept past her eyes. Shen Qingyan covered her eyes and reached forward, but only managed to grab a thin layer of snow.
“System!” He opened his eyes and saw only a dilapidated temple, withered trees, and a desolate expanse of snow.
The ball of light that often floated beside him disappeared, along with the nagging voices.
"System?" he called again, but the ever-responsive voice could no longer answer him.
At that moment, barrages of comments flew past his eyes.
Waaaaah... No way... Give me back my nagging mom...
Why the sudden shift to violence?
[Is the system no longer available? This plot is so strange, how could it just log off without any warning?]
[ks... Forget it, I'm not shipping them anymore. Expired candy is like poison.]
[Will Yanzi be all alone from now on?]
Shen Qingyan sat in the snow, quietly watching the barrage of comments fly past his eyes. He could feel his power rising continuously and see his honor points climbing rapidly.
He knew that the person who orchestrated all of this had achieved their goal. Everyone who posed a threat to the plot would be eliminated, including the system. The system had told him the truth, that it would influence the future plot, and in return, the system had to disappear, offering its final moment of glory in death so that Shen Qingyan's honor would be elevated.
Is this the fate of characters in novels?
Even though the system isn't an NPC in the novel, can it still escape this ending?
Shen Qingyan looked down at his hands, stained with blood. In that moment, he felt as if he and the system had become one. Suddenly, as if struck by inspiration, he opened the favorability value interface in the background.
As expected, the system, which was originally detached from this world, has now become an NPC in this world, "martyrdom" for him under the control of the Heavenly Dao, and has become a part of the plot.
He suddenly remembered what the system had once told him.
"Goodwill is nothing. Someone with 100% goodwill can still kill you."
“You’re wrong,” Shen Qingyan said. “A person with 100% favorability will only die because of me.”
No matter where he goes from here, it won't be the ending he wants. He wants everyone to live well. Is even this wish impossible to fulfill?
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