Chapter 172
Chapter 172
13.1 – This kind of sweet and easy plot was the hardest to change…
editors: alamerysl & BlueBug
After the dust settled, Xue Ling kept his promise and had Xi dispel the poison in Ivan’s body.
But he had merely removed the poison in his body. The traces of darkness left behind by the corrosion of darkness weren’t erased. Ivan’s future changed from that of a healer with infinite possibilities to a broken body who was no longer loved by the power of light. However, this was unimportant for him, because Ivan’s IQ and mental state had regressed to that of a five-year-old child after he killed his lover. He did not want to grow up, did not want to face what he did, and did not want to recall the scene of kneeling by his lover’s side in a pool of blood of his own making…
So he chose to avoid it.
He couldn’t understand what he had done that night, and did not want to spend the rest of his life suffering from guilt and repentance, so he completely sealed himself up after waking up from his coma.
News of what happened in the palace that night was completely blocked by Murphy. She wanted to protect the royal family, so she could only watch as the Crown Prince died. She even came to an agreement with Xue Ling and pulled the Queen from the throne.
A month later, the Queen was banished to the Demonic Beast Forest. She lost everything she had and wandered naked through the forest, but that wasn’t enough for Xue Ling. He had Xi turn the Queen into a demonic beast with gorgeous fur, and because her beautiful fur, the Queen’s remaining days were spent avoiding the hunters who wanted to hunt her. She was finally killed brutally by the hunters, skinned, and made into the beautiful clothing she once wore.
After all this was over, Xue Ling stayed with Xi in accordance with the agreement they had made, but the relationship between them had always been somewhat strange. Xi brought Xue Ling back to the center of the Demonic Beast Forest, which was the only place on this continent suitable for the existence of gods. The system had always been very curious about where the other gods had gone, and wanted to know what exactly Xi had done back then to make himself the only god, but Xue Ling never asked, and Xi never touched on the matter, so the system’s curiosity was never satisfied.
Many unexpected incidents had occurred in this world. Most of them were related to Xue Ling’s tail that had somehow appeared in Xi’s body. The system sent an inquiry to the Ten Directions World and received instructions to tell Xue Ling that it could help him remove the energy contained within that tail, but there would be after effects in doing so.
“He will forget about me completely in the next world?” Xue Ling’s face was a bit strange as he responded to the system’s words.
“Yes. Normally, he will fall in love with host as soon as he sees you because the accumulated love from these words has made his feelings for you so strong. But helping host force out the energy will affect this particular setting, and the situation where he falls in love with you at first sight won’t happen in the next world.” The system helped Xue Ling make this analysis, and added, “In other words, host can choose to enjoy the next world without being harassed by him, or set up a fun play where you take the initiative and seduce him to fall in love with you~”
Xue Ling rubbed his chin and said, “Not only will he forget me, he’ll also forget his love for me…” He made a sound of acknowledgement, and felt that doing it this way wasn’t bad at all. The man had always come to him on their own initiative over countless worlds, and there was nothing so impossible about him trying to approach the man for once… He felt that it would be more fun that way, like starting an entirely new love affair.
Xue Ling seldom took the active position in the relationship between them. Most of the time, it was because he was lazy and the man always diligently stuck close to him… This was probably because the man’s ‘accumulated love from every world’ was flaring up. Now that this setting had been affected and no longer had its original effect, it could also be considered as an opportunity for Xue Ling.
“Host, have you decided yet?”
“I have no other choice.” This was not a choice at all, more like a single-choice question. He definitely needed to recover his strength. But there was another key point. “Will the breaking of these so-called settings of yours also affect his original memories?”
“No, these settings seem to be set by the Ten Directions World… I don’t know why the boss wants to do these strange things, though.”
Xue Ling nodded and said, “We’ll do that, then.”
Xi had no objection to Xue Ling’s proposal to take away the energy that did not belong to him in the first place. He seemed to know that Xue Ling did not belong to this world and even appeared to understand that Xue Ling was not Oliver, so he never called him by that name.
Regarding Xue Ling’s departure, Xi only asked a single question. “Will we meet again?”
Xue Ling asked him back, “If I approached you on my own initiative, would you still fall in love with me?”
The two of them fell silent, and nobody answered at the end because they both knew what the answer was.
They had split apart and come back together again in so many worlds; a short separation was always followed by a long time of companionship. It was just like the reincarnation process of a world, no matter what, they would always be able to return to each other’s side, and then accompany each other for a lifetime.
The figure of the man finally appeared in Xue Ling’s mind when he returned to the sea of his memories once again.
There would always be transmigrators around the Boundary Masters because Boundary Masters controlled space. They would naturally make adjustments to their world for the sake of stability, and Xue Ling, who was now a spirit that had escaped the shackles of the body, used the child named Ji Zichen whose body he had hitched a ride on as a focal point as he explored outwards. He discovered that all the transmigrators in this world were all connected by the same bond.
That link was called Su Liunian. Ji Zichen had been to his home before, but Xue Ling had not felt that there was anything strange about it at the time.
Xue Ling thought hard, and finally asked Ji Zichen. He overlaid the people he met in Su Liunian’s home with the people he saw when he sensed the aura of the Boundary Master, and finally discovered one person.
That man’s name was Su Xuanyan, and he was the head of the Su family in that world.
Looking back on these memories, Xue Ling had a very strange feeling. He was watching himself from a third person perspective and he sometimes wanted to point out the way for his younger self when he was caught up in a problem, but he couldn’t do anything at all. It really made him uncomfortable.
He remembered the man’s name. Back then, that man had repeated it over and over again in his ear, telling him to remember him, and remember his face…
So he was the Boundary Master of that world…
Xue Ling suddenly realized. Su Xuanyan was a Boundary Master! No wonder he could follow him through so many worlds; it was a very simple matter for Boundary Masters to shuttle through worlds. And according to the information he knew now, the Boundary Master Su Xuanyan was very powerful, and his methods for making adjustments to the worlds were very distinctive.
Then what kind of relationship did he have with Su Xuanyan?
The last memory was still hidden in the fog. As long as he moved forward, he would be able to remove the blurriness, but when Xue Ling tried to reach for it, his entire body was dragged back. He fell backwards, and abruptly woke up.
He ‘tsked’ in discontent. He really needed to find the last tail so that he could learn exactly what had happened in the end.
The system was still waiting for his go ahead. Xue Ling knew that the man was probably watching him from nearby, but he could guess that after hiding for so long, there was no way he’d be willing to come out to see him now. Xue Ling planned to properly settle accounts with him after he remembered everything behind their current situation.
After experiencing the now-familiar feeling of entering a new world, Xue Ling opened his eyes. For once, he was lying peacefully in bed. Xue Ling moved slightly; the body wasn’t hurt either. He found it a little strange. Could it be that the system hadn’t made things difficult for him?
System: “…” It was such a good system. How had it turned into such a tricky thing in its host’s mind? Its heart felt so tired… When this task was over, it was going to go find ways to distract itself…
Xue Ling flipped over and sat up. Going by his surroundings, it looked like he had entered a high-tech futuristic world. He didn’t try to learn more about it, and instead looked around to find a mirror so that he could check his own appearance. After the original owner’s appearance came into view, Xue Ling raised his eyebrows and pretty much understood that this was another of the system’s schemes. The system typically arranged for him to be transmigrated into relatively weak characters. Not tossing him straight into some grand scene was already being considerate.
Like right now. Looking at the appearance of this youth that looked like a young teenager, Xue Ling pinched his own cheek. He appeared incredibly tender, his frame very small, to the point where it might be some sort of damned ger world type setting. “Alright. What the hell kind of plot is there in this world? This body doesn’t seem to have been self-mutilated, and there’s nothing wrong with it. What happened to him?”
“The body chosen this time is a black lotus~” The system’s words practically made Xue Ling blow up. It happily continued, “Similar to the previous world, your current identity is a villain, and basically a cannon fodder.”
Xue Ling made an ‘oh’ sound. This was nothing strange. In any case, now that this body was in his hands, he would be able to wash it white even if he had been a black lotus. There was nothing terrible about that. “I’ll give you the general plot and memories from this body first. They’ll probably be back in a little while, and you’ll have a heated argument soon.”
Xue Ling knew that while the system liked to talk big, it seldom truly deceived him, so there was probably a fight coming up soon. Xue Ling simply returned to bed, closed his eyes, and began to look through the memories.
This body was originally named Helan Jiuyun, a nurturer with low spiritual strength and low fertility. He was also the older brother of the protagonist shou, and constantly bullied the protagonist, spreading negative things about him and making trouble for him all day long.
Of course, he was only a half-brother. They shared the same father, but had different mothers. This body’s mother had already died, and the protagonist shou had been born to the woman his father brought back after his second marriage.
The original body did not call that woman stepmother, because no matter how well that woman treated him on the surface, she played many tricks and schemes behind his back. If it hadn’t been for the original character’s intelligence, he would probably have already been kicked out of the house by his stepmother’s poisonous means, his appearance ruined, and his reputation damaged. Even so, his present situation was not much better.
With the rapid development of science and technology in this world, people’s everyday lives was mostly surrounded by machines. The gender divide in this world was not between men and women, but between beastmen and nurturers as well as a portion of sub-beastmen.
As the name implied, beastmen were people who could change between human and animal form. They represented power, and were responsible for defending the country, piloting mecha and entering combat.
Nurturers on the other hand played a supportive role. They could reproduce for the beastmen, and could also do logistical work for the beastmen. Their spiritual power could penetrate into mineral ores to judge their quality and they also had the ability to process these ores.
Ores were the source of energy for this world. A mineral called the ‘energy crystal’ could be refined from the ores, which supplied energy for their daily lives. It was also a necessary element for beastmen in fights and training. Other than being able to look at ore, a strong nurturer could preserve the energy crystals contained within the ore and carve them into shapes that were most suited for the consumption of their power. What’s more, some powerful nurturers could improve the energy crystals and allow them to output even greater power by engraving them.
Apart from nurturers, sub-beastmen also had the ability to do these things. However, only a small amount of them were able to awaken their spiritual powers, and most sub-beastmen were unable to improve their abilities by cultivating their spiritual power. Therefore, they were more likely to take on lower-level jobs, and, although they could also carve energy crystals, most of them worked on the assembly line, and their chance to come into contact with high-level energy crystals was very slim.
The sub-beastmen were beings that were somewhere between nurturers and beastmen. They could not change into animals, but did not completely look like nurturers who had none of the characteristics of beastmen. Most of them retained some animalistic features such as tails and ears. They were not belittled despite having low fertility, and were given an almost similar standing in society as nurturers.
But there was still a difference. The Nurturer Protection Act was a law that drew a perfect dividing line between nurturers and sub-beastmen. It was also a distinction between freedom and no freedom.
Sub-beastmen had the freedom to marry whoever they liked. There were no rules that stated that they had to be married after they reached adulthood, but it was totally different for nurturers. Once an unmatched nurturer reached a marriageable state, the government system would automatically match the nurturer to an unmarried beastman, and they would be forcibly bound together after they became lovers.
In world settings like these, transmigrating into the body of a sub-beastman would be more useful, and the protagonist of this story had indeed transmigrated into a sub-beastman’s body. Then, relying on a golden finger, he stepped up to the peak of his life, becoming a Senior Energy Carver, marrying a rich and handsome counterpart, giving birth to several children, and living a very peaceful and beautiful life.
Xue Ling: “…” At the end of the day, the background was set up like this. Why did this kind of story seem so similar to those farming novels? … This kind of mass-market, sweet plot with no deep hatred and resentment was the most difficult type to change.
Couldn’t they change the plot?!
yes yes yes – the protagonist in this story is also a transmigrator. the author’s really vague about repeating this for some reason throughout the arc, so keep that in mind~
also, to wrap up the previous arc, our wonderful Ari once again made a fanart~ Queen!XL b*tchslapping Princess!Ivan: