On How to Get a 'Long Aotian' to Win Themselves Over - Chapter 1

“Nether Beast, go! Tear him apart! Bite through his neck!”

“Yes, just like that!”

“Heh, look, that kid is finally about to kick the bucket.”

The coliseum was a cacophony of noise, except for one spectator stand where it was so quiet people barely dared to breathe, fearing they might disturb the noble guest.

Anyone capable of opening a beast-fighting arena in Shishui City naturally possessed overwhelming power, but today’s guest was not only personally received by the coliseum’s young master, even the Young City Lord of Shishui City accompanied him. A large group of people had respectfully ushered this distinguished guest inside.

The maidservants lucky enough to serve at this stand kept their eyes lowered and hearts steady.

With such a grand display, they were naturally interested in getting closer, but this guest brought eight of his own beautiful maidservants. Some fanned him, some brewed tea, and some played melodies. The division of labor was so precise and their postures so elegant that the coliseum’s young master and the usually arrogant Young City Lord could only stand awkwardly to the side.

At the center of it all, the noble youth being attended to by the crowd looked indifferent, save for a microscopic furrowing of his brow.

The young master’s heart skipped a beat as he tried to guess what was causing the displeasure.

Ying Jue, Daoist title “Lord Lingxiao,” the Chief Disciple of the Heavenly Path Immortal Sect—one of the four great immortal sects.

Before receiving Lord Lingxiao, the young master had heard rumors that the man had followed his junior sister here out of concern for her safety. Therefore, this displeasure must be related to the junior sister.

Thanks to his secret arrangements, the little junior sister had an excellent seat where no blind fools would offend her. The only problem was that this junior sister was currently looking at the arena with a face full of worry, her gaze fixed directly on the youth being mauled by the demonic beast.

In an instant, the young master understood the reason for this displeasure.

He had long heard that the Chief Disciple of the Heavenly Path Immortal Sect harbored feelings for his junior sister. However, the girl was young and didn’t realize the power Ying Jue represented. She had always been lukewarm toward this pampered lord. Now, seeing his cold junior sister suddenly looking at another man with such pity, Ying Jue was naturally dissatisfied.

The young master lightly turned the ring on his finger, and someone beside him silently withdrew.

Meanwhile, Ying Jue—who was presumed to be frowning out of jealousy—was actually just finding it hard to look.

Look at how the male lead is bleeding. Brutal, too brutal!

Is this something a “Five-Good” youth from modern society should be watching?

Ying Jue slightly raised his fan to block his amber eyes, fearing he might lose control and snatch that poor little male lead out of the wolf’s mouth.

Seeing this reaction, the young master’s heart jumped.

Not good! This lord is so angry he doesn’t even want to look anymore. That person just now was too slow! I’ll punish her by making her clean beast dung later.

On Ying Jue’s side, he grew more terrified the longer he watched. At first, he felt a sense of novelty watching the male lead from the front row, but as it progressed, he became restless, sincerely worrying that the protagonist might accidentally die in the early stages of the plot.

As a freshly baked, unlucky transmigrator, Ying Jue didn’t want to lose the script he was familiar with—especially since he had transmigrated into the body of the “First Senior Brother” who looked noble and refined but was actually a malicious, hypocritical villain.

Speaking of the original soul, he was a favored son of heaven. He was the Chief Disciple of the Heavenly Path Immortal Sect, wealthy, powerful, incredibly talented, and backed by unfathomable forces. Unfortunately, his taste in partners was too good—he fell for the “Number One Harem Member” of the Long Aotian male lead: his own little junior sister.

The little junior sister was a kind-hearted girl who took great care of the male lead when he first arrived at the sect. The original Ying Jue, who adored her, naturally found the male lead eyesore. Ever since the male lead entered the sect, Ying Jue never gave him a good look and later took pleasure in humiliating him. A villain like that, of course, met a gruesome end after the male lead’s counterattack.

When Ying Jue was reading the book, he enjoyed it as a comedy, laughing like a fool. After transmigrating, he wished he could slap his past self awake for ever picking it up.

Can you just casually read a book where a supporting character has the exact same name as you these days?

Now, the moment the supporting character died was the moment Ying Jue transmigrated.

After coming to terms with the reality, Ying Jue decisively rejected the death-seeking script. He just wanted to be a rich and powerful second-generation immortal.

He could still save this plot.

Unfortunately, just as he thought that, a sound like an electrical current loading echoed in his mind.

Things didn’t seem right.

Sure enough, the next second:

“System binding in progress—”

“System binding successful.”

“System loading—”

“Loading 1%…”

“Loading 2%…”

After a long time—long enough for the male lead to escape death several times—the system finally finished loading. Truly worth celebrating.

“Hello Host, Villain System 1377805 is at your service.”

It was full of professional flair. If he hadn’t been transmigrated for so long before the system showed up, Ying Jue might have been intimidated by those words.

Under the system’s explanation, Ying Jue understood he had transmigrated due to a spatial distortion. If he didn’t follow the plot, the world would likely collapse. Once it collapsed, he could never go back. That was the best-case scenario; more likely, the world would kill him the moment it started trending toward collapse. Simply put: don’t follow the script, and you’ll drop dead instantly.

Ying Jue immediately raised an objection. “If I remember correctly, following the script means getting my kidneys stabbed three times by the male lead, getting my face disfigured once, and then suffering through body-shattering, Qi deviation, and finally dying a miserable death.”

The implication was: this deal isn’t worth it!

Being killed by the “World Will” is an instant thing, but being stabbed in the kidneys and having your whole face ruined? God knows how excruciatingly painful that would be.

“After successfully completing the script, the host can return to your original world,” the system said, avoiding the main issue.

“But the kidneys are getting stabbed! The face is being ruined!” Ying Jue emphasized.

“Just endure it and it’ll pass. ‘When Heaven is about to confer a great responsibility on any man, it will first exercise his mind with suffering and his bones and sinews with toil.’ Host looks like an extraordinary person; surely you have this bit of endurance.”

So, the pain was still mandatory.

This person standing there talking clearly didn’t have their own kidneys at risk.

Ying Jue considered himself a “Five-Good” youth who, at most, was a study-grind king who left no path for his classmates. Even if he were guilty of something, he didn’t deserve this punishment.

He said amiably, “Is it too late to unbind? I don’t mind dying along with the world.”

Naturally, it was too late.

After a long silence, the system spoke again.

“Host, you know, we systems only issue tasks.”

Ying Jue sneered. “Heh, you wouldn’t want the male lead to die before he even finishes his apprenticeship, would you?”

“…Actually, our system is quite humane. We can provide a ‘Newcomer Benefit’ to lower the difficulty. As long as you play the villain well and the major plot points remain unchanged, minor errors are acceptable. Every time you grind the male lead’s ‘Humiliation Value’ to 100, you can exchange it for one ‘Painless Injury’ pass. This value can be farmed infinitely. From now on, your mother never has to worry about you getting hurt. Opportunity knocks but once—Host, have you considered? Right now, today, fresh Humiliation Value is within reach.”

Ying Jue, who was only bluffing: “…”

This system must have worked in an advertising company.

“What if I can’t reach 100?”

Fearing he might actually destroy the world, the system retreated further: “As long as you maintain a daily Humiliation Value of 10 or more and uphold the villain persona, the pain value can be partially reduced.”

“How much is ‘partially’?”

System: “…”

After a long session of haggling, Ying Jue became an unlucky laborer forced into a job before even starting an internship.

Right now was the very beginning of the novel. The opening described the leopard-like, agile youth—the male lead—fighting a four-to-five-meter-tall Nether Beast.

The author fully grasped the readers’ desire for catharsis. They didn’t let the protagonist be invincible from the start; instead, they used various descriptions to suppress him: the oppressive environment, the mocking laughter of the spectators, the drooling beast closing in, the worry of the cute girl… all this suppression was for the sake of the “rush” when the male lead finally defeated the beast.

Ying Jue admitted that when he read it, he felt that rush too.

The author was definitely a veteran shut-in who understood the selling points of web novels. But that wasn’t enough; the second wave of catharsis was coming.

The male lead defeating the beast that bit him all over was one point of satisfaction, but not enough. It was a predictable trope. At this point, you needed an unexpected rush. Thus, the scene where a noble scion—who had just lost a bunch of spirit stones in a bet—comes to humiliate the male lead. This required another cycle of suppression before release. To make it even better, the cute girl described earlier came into play.

Harem Member Number One made her grand entrance: the cute and lively little junior sister. She would domineeringly protect the male lead, making countless otaku readers howl with excitement.

As for why she saved him? Because the male lead was also part of their immortal sect. However, his status in the Heavenly Path Immortal Sect was awkward. His family had been wiped out, his spiritual roots destroyed, and he was taken in as an outer disciple. The junior sister, meanwhile, was the Sect Leader’s personal disciple. Despite the gap in status, she looked after him because they were childhood playmates. This was what triggered the original Ying Jue’s retaliation. To put it bluntly, many of the hardships the male lead suffered actually stemmed from the junior sister’s special treatment of him. His presence in this coliseum was also the original Ying Jue’s handiwork.

Except…

Ying Jue lightly tapped the arm of his chair.

Something felt wrong now.

His memory was excellent—bordering on photographic—and he knew the book’s descriptions by heart.

The male lead was supposed to awaken a trace of his bloodline shortly after his abdomen was torn open.

But right now, although the youth on the field was faster than before, he was still sent flying by the brute force of the Nether Beast. With a “thud,” he crashed down; he likely had several broken ribs now.

A few breaths ago, because he blocked the teeth lunging for his throat, his hand had been pierced through with several bloody holes, the bone visible through the gore. Combined with his other injuries, anyone else would have died from blood loss. Clearly, even the male lead—possessor of the “Pure Yang Body”—was about to reach his limit.

Ying Jue put down his folding fan and stared intently at the figure that had gone from agile to increasingly wretched.

The plot was broken!

Initially, Ying Jue was 100% certain the male lead had an “invincibility buff,” so he could watch the fight like a curious spectator watching a gender-swapped “Beauty and the Beast.” But once the plot went off the rails, he got nervous.

If the male lead died prematurely, would that be blamed on the villain or the male lead himself?

“System, the male lead has that ‘Alpha Aura’ protection and an undying body, right?”

Even the system couldn’t help but roast him: “Host, you’re dreaming. The male lead is human; of course he can die. This shouldn’t be… I already identified and controlled the only transmigrator immediately.”

The controlled person: “Heh!”

“Don’t panic. We must believe in the male lead. The male lead is the strongest; he will surely turn danger into safety…”

Ying Jue reminded it: “I see the male lead’s arm is about to be torn off. That wolf is acting like it’s on steroids. A few more hits and the male lead might just kick the bucket and go to heaven.”

System: “…”

“Let me go check.”

Hearing the system’s serious tone, Ying Jue was just about to feel relieved when he heard it loading again.

“System inquiry loading…”

“1%…”

The heart that had been half-lowered immediately shot back up. Ying Jue said suspiciously, “Are you planning to just collect the male lead’s corpse?”

The system, which had just reached 2%, saw the male lead doing a 360-degree mid-air “Thomas Flare” and immediately abandoned the loading: “Host! Quick! Go save the male lead!! Some bastard is messing with the plot!”

Ying Jue, who was waiting for the system to show its divine power: “…Wait, I can’t do it.”

“A man can’t say he ‘can’t’.”

Ying Jue: “…” He suspected the system had secretly read all the internet slang in his brain.

“I really can’t. I only received the original soul’s memories, not his skills. Relying on me is worse than relying on a pig.”

Ying Jue immediately thought of someone to rely on.

The little junior sister!

But when he looked in her direction—F*ck, where did his huge little junior sister go? She had vanished.

“Host, quick, go! If you’re any slower, that beast is going to suck the male lead’s brains out. Host, be confident, you can do it!!”

Confidence my ass!

But the arrow was on the string; it had to be fired. Even if Ying Jue felt kidney-deficient, he had to step up.

Ying Jue bit the bullet and flew forward. Using spiritual power for the first time, he almost face-planted on the ground, nearly losing all the dignity the original soul had built over twenty years.

His mind working at high speed, Ying Jue successfully performed a teleportation spell to appear in front of the male lead. The first thing he saw was the giant beast’s claw lunging right at his face.

A stench assaulted his nostrils. Influenced by the original soul’s cleanliness obsession, Ying Jue almost rudely vomited.

In a life-or-death moment, there was no room for such minor ailments. Ying Jue’s adrenaline spiked, he tapped into the high focus he used during physics competitions, and finally managed to cast a spell before the beast could crack his skull.

Ying Jue liked to call this move the “Sunflower Acupoint Hand.”

On the vast, blood-stained platform, a handsome youth in black silk robes used a single finger to freeze the beast—which was many times larger than him—while protecting the wretched boy behind him.

Elegant robes, a face like carved jade, and a pair of amber eyes full of indifference—it was a sight that exuded grace and nonchalance.

The spectators, who had been about to curse because the fight was interrupted, didn’t speak immediately upon seeing who it was. Some even glanced covertly at the VIP stand he had come from.

They were all cultivators; few were truly stupid.

“Heaven Room Number One.” He was a noble guest.

Those who hadn’t controlled themselves and had cursed a few times—or even wanted to roll up their sleeves and storm the stage—realized something was wrong and shut their mouths.

A breeze blew by, lifting strands of hair. It brought a faint scent of herbal medicine mixed with a certain precious incense.

Qin Sheng, who was already dizzy and planning his final desperate strike, cleared his head slightly when this scent wafted past his nose.

Someone was standing in front of him. It was this person who had blocked that nearly fatal claw for him.

Blood dripped from his brow. Qin Sheng wiped it away, staring through the darkness in his vision, trying to see who the person in front of him was.

However, upon seeing who it was, a flash of malice crossed Qin Sheng’s eyes.

The newcomer was Ying Jue.

It was as if he had seen the most ridiculous thing in the world; he almost laughed.

People don’t act without incentive; everything has a motive. This person had developed murderous intent because of the junior sister’s concern for him and had thrown him into the coliseum. So, why was he saving him now?

Qin Sheng’s lips moved. Enduring inhuman pain, he spat out a sentence so quiet it was almost inaudible: “Could it be that First Senior Brother wants to do it himself?”