Chapter 27: Taming the Beast – Her Thoughts Part 1

The fixed strategy targets’ values on the Love Firmer Than Gold Panel of the System were determined based on the ink devoted to them in the Original Book Plot, with ranks set from the start that even the System could not change.

Bo Xuenong failed to change her own name to gold like Shen Yanting’s. As she gazed at Cheng Huaizhou and Yu Cenwan, whose names were also gold like Shen Yanting’s on that panel, she gradually grew displeased. She could tolerate it somewhat with Yu Cenwan, but with the original male lead Cheng Huaizhou, she itched to see him right then and slaughter him with her own hands.

Feng Jin could still guess some of Bo Xuenong’s thoughts. She reached out and covered Yu Cenwan’s name.

Bo Xuenong raised her brows at her. “You really care about your mom.”

“No, she’s not… my mom.” Feng Jin lacked confidence in her words. She lowered her head and said softly, “I just think Yu Cenwan is quite pitiful too. She died miserably in the Original Book Plot. They called her one of the Tribulation-Responding Twin Immortals, but the male lead had good luck all along while she was the unlucky one. She exhausted all ten lives from the Foluo Fruit… Actually, she caused the male lead to lose his five senses, so repaying five lives should have been enough.”

No.

Bo Xuenong took great issue with Feng Jin’s words. How could losing one’s five senses compare to losing one’s life? Even if the Foluo Fruit granted ten lives, giving one to that Cheng Huaizhou would have been utmost benevolence. If it were her, she would not give even half a life—she would save them all for Shen Yanting.

She pondered this inwardly while Feng Jin thought she was unwilling to let the female protagonist go and hurriedly said, “Senior Sister, Yu Cenwan is Elder Shen’s Little Junior Sister.”

Bo Xuenong watched Feng Jin anxiously speak up for the female protagonist and truly felt it would be a pity not to strategy-conquer her.

The female protagonist seemed quite responsible just from the Original Book Plot. If she knew she had a daughter, she would probably be willing to acknowledge her. At that point, Feng Jin would not even need to do much—Yu Cenwan would proactively deliver points to her.

Bo Xuenong lost herself in these thoughts and did not respond for a moment. Feng Jin grew even more anxious. “Senior Sister.”

When Bo Xuenong came back to her senses, Feng Jin was hopping mad, her head nearly bumping into Bo Xuenong’s face.

Her eyelids twitched. She raised her hand and pressed down on the hopping Feng Jin in front of her. “I wasn’t thinking of killing her. If you truly pity her, you should find a way to wear down her guilt toward the male lead. Otherwise, following the Original Book Plot, she would still die.”

“But that’s hard. Disciples taught by Mo Tingshu all have excellent character.” Feng Jin paused, then deliberately added, “Elder Shen is like that too—top-notch character!”

Bo Xuenong heard Feng Jin praise Shen Yanting’s character and instantly beamed with joy, unable to hide her delight. “Master truly is excellent.”

Feng Jin felt she had found the knack to getting along with Bo Xuenong. She even dared to stand a bit closer. “Senior Sister, about what Elder Shen said… As long as we don’t give Cheng Huaizhou a chance for a heroic rescue, Elder Shen won’t have a chance to feel guilty toward him. But the female protagonist already feels guilty toward him now—what do we do?”

Bo Xuenong pointed at herself in disbelief. “You’re asking me?”

After Feng Jin nodded affirmatively, Bo Xuenong subconsciously touched Feng Jin’s forehead. “Are you sick? I’m not killing her, but I won’t save her either. She has nothing to do with me.”

Feng Jin was stunned.

She had almost forgotten that a bloodthirsty maniac lurked in Bo Xuenong’s bloodline.

Feng Jin felt deflated. The hand covering Yu Cenwan’s name dropped, revealing another gold name as well.

Meng Lingchu.

A gold name proved she had significant plot in the Original Book Plot, but Bo Xuenong had not seen memories of this person in Guan Caimei’s memories. She might have glimpsed related passages without specific names. As an important character, she might have contact with Shen Yanting.

Bo Xuenong pointed at Meng Lingchu. “Feng Jin, did she ever harm Master in the book?”

Feng Jin shook her head lightly. “Though Meng Lingchu treated the senior Shishu as a romantic rival in the Original Book Plot, she never did anything to harm her. Actually, she was quite pitiful too. She…”

“That’s good.” Bo Xuenong cut off Feng Jin’s words and signaled with her eyes for Feng Jin to shut her mouth.

She was willing to listen to Feng Jin’s stories because Feng Jin was close to her. This Meng Lingchu was unnecessary. There were many pitiful people, and she had no time to sympathize with each one. She would wait… wait until the day Shen Yanting pitied her, then she would feel heartache.

Bo Xuenong was just about to put away the panel when she suddenly glimpsed a new completed task notification on the Love Firmer Than Gold section.

【The host received a comforting pat from silver-level strategy target Bo Xuenong: +5 points】

Bo Xuenong’s eyes suddenly lit up. She had not expected that even as an assistant, she still counted as a strategy target, and a head pat could increase points.

The Love Firmer Than Gold Panel truly earned points much more easily than the Punish Evil, Promote Good Panel.

Her beautiful eyes turned, and her gaze fell on Feng Jin’s head.

Feng Jin had a complete System. Unlike Bo Xuenong, who could only view the panel manually, she could communicate directly with the System. The moment Bo Xuenong patted her head, the System’s notification had rung in her mind. Noticing Bo Xuenong’s gaze lingering on her, how could Feng Jin not guess her thoughts? She subconsciously protected her head and cried pitifully, “I’ll go bald.”

“You’re a fruit. A bit of spiritual water and it’ll grow back.”

Bo Xuenong pushed aside Feng Jin’s hands guarding her head and unceremoniously rubbed her head. Seeing the +1 point pop up, her smile froze on her face. “Why only one point?”

Bo Xuenong rubbed Feng Jin’s little head again in dissatisfaction, but this time it added not even one point.

Feng Jin carefully struggled her head free from Bo Xuenong’s palm. She timidly glanced at Bo Xuenong’s gloomy expression and softly relayed the System’s message. “The Dead System says your desire to earn points is too strong, Senior Sister. Without true feeling, it won’t add points.”

Bo Xuenong’s gaze darkened. “It caused such big trouble, I haven’t even scolded it yet, and it dares to scold me!”

Feng Jin’s voice was feeble. “Senior Sister, the System didn’t scold you. It’s telling the truth.”

“It’s just true feeling.”

Bo Xuenong plastered a full smile on her face and gently touched Feng Jin’s cheek.

The points panel jumped again: +1 point.

If the System had a physical form, she would definitely kill it too.

Too stingy!

She was already this gentle, yet it only added one point.

Bo Xuenong gave up on earning points this way. She put away the panel and asked Feng Jin, “Ask it what to do about the Sect Master.”

Feng Jin obediently complied, but her expression grew heavier. “Senior Sister, we can only extinguish her soul before she fully possesses the Sect Master. Otherwise, the Sect Master…”

Fu Aoqing did not have much life left to begin with, and she could not walk this final path steadily.

Bo Xuenong was fine with it, but she felt Shen Yanting would be sad.

Just thinking of Shen Yanting made Bo Xuenong’s heart turn soft and sorrowful. Her resentment toward the System grew. “If you guide over too many souls, could they one day possess me? Possess Master?”

“No.” Feng Jin hurriedly explained, fearing Bo Xuenong’s anger. “They can only possess cultivators on the verge of death. They look down on ordinary people without spirit roots, and cultivators with strong vitality have souls that aren’t weak. She could target the Sect Master probably because the Sect Master’s lifespan is nearly exhausted.”

Hearing that Fu Aoqing’s lifespan was about to run out made Bo Xuenong recall Shen Yanting’s reluctant gaze on Fu Aoqing. She projected Shen Yanting’s sadness onto herself.

Bo Xuenong suddenly thought of how the System could exchange for anything and could not help asking, “Can’t your System exchange for something to extend the Sect Master’s life?”

“No.” Feng Jin shook her head. “The System provides different exchangeable items based on the world. Besides universal System special abilities like mind-reading, we can only exchange for things that exist in this world. The only thing that can extend the Sect Master’s life is the Lifespan Pill, but taking it hurts a lot. She probably won’t want to.”

Indeed.

Shen Yanting probably already had Lifespan Pills, which did not even need exchanging.

If Fu Aoqing were willing to take one, Shen Yanting would have given it to her long ago.

Bo Xuenong stored the jade token in her Storage Jade Bracelet. She suddenly thought to ask Feng Jin, “Can all items in this world be exchanged? Does that mean even divine artifacts?”

“Yes.” Feng Jin nodded firmly. “But they’re very expensive.”

Feng Jin practically had “I’m really poor” written on her face.

Bo Xuenong’s mouth twitched. She did not take Feng Jin’s words too seriously. With the way Feng Jin earned points, it would be strange if she weren’t poor.

She was confident she could earn far more points—at least she dared to kill.

“I want to exchange a divine artifact for Master.”

Shen Yanting had once ranked on the Tianxiu Catalogue’s divine artifact list, but the divine artifact she wielded belonged to the Cloud Smoke Sect. She had made the list only as one of its masters and returned it when she left the Cloud Smoke Sect. Speaking of which, it was because Bo Xuenong had damaged a top divine artifact. Now that there was a way to make it up to Shen Yanting, Bo Xuenong certainly would not miss it.

Her Master was an Immortal Elder, and Immortal Elders deserved divine artifacts.

Bo Xuenong could already imagine the intimidating power of Shen Yanting wielding a divine artifact.

Bo Xuenong now had the idea of earning lots of points, but the problem was that when she did tasks, she only got half the points Feng Jin earned from completing them. Moreover, the strategy targets on the Love Firmer Than Gold Panel with richer rewards—she only wanted to interact with one: Shen Yanting. She could not farm points off Shen Yanting.

It seemed… she could only consider the Punish Evil, Promote Good Panel.

Divine artifacts were not urgent yet. What was more pressing was Fu Aoqing. Bo Xuenong pondered for a while before asking, “Besides the Soul Searching Technique spell arts, do you have any other ways to destroy a soul individually?”

Cultivators rarely had methods specifically targeting souls. Powerful spell arts generally destroyed body, soul, and spirit root together—none targeted only the soul.

Fu Aoqing’s situation differed from Guan Caimei’s. She had more than one soul inside her, so using the Soul Searching Technique to eliminate the extra one risked harming Fu Aoqing’s original soul. Unless Bo Xuenong could enter Fu Aoqing’s body in soul form and pinpoint the location of Fu Aoqing’s soul.

She needed another method specifically for souls that could selectively target them.

“I don’t.” Feng Jin rubbed her fingertips embarrassedly. “The System has one, but it’s very expensive—five hundred points.”

Bo Xuenong’s mouth twitched again. She began calculating inwardly how to obtain enough points to deal with the extra soul in Fu Aoqing.

She had gotten a hundred points for killing the gold-ranked Guan Caimei, fifty for silver-ranked ones, and black ones were worthless at only ten points.

Feng Jin got double points for killing these people. To accumulate lots of points, it was clearly more efficient to have Feng Jin do it, but… she had promised to protect Feng Jin. As long as Feng Jin kept her word and remained her bosom friend forever, she should follow through.

Shen Yanting had said one must keep their word.

Bo Xuenong dismissed the idea of having Feng Jin do tasks. She recalled Cui Huaizhou, whose name was silver.

According to the System rules Feng Jin described, people on the Punish Evil, Promote Good Panel only refreshed when near Feng Jin, with name colors based on the severity of their evils. Those who harmed innocent lives appeared at the base black level. Those who killed innocents turned silver, and those who killed many innocents became gold like Guan Caimei.

Since Guan Caimei was not innocent herself, Bo Xuenong’s killing of her did not make her name appear.

Cui Huaizhou’s silver name meant he had killed innocents.