Stepping in for the Heroine to Crush the Protagonist Group [Transmigration] - Chapter 30

“Host, wake up!!!” The System’s voice exploded in Hu Li’s ears like a thunderclap.

Hu Li gasped, her eyes snapping open. A dull ache still lingered in her chest.

[Li Li’s finally awake.]

[The Fox Spirit still has no idea her home’s been raided.]

[Gu Sheng is such a Black Lotus! sniffle So thrilling!]

[Fox tail play is the real thrill!]

[Aaaaaah, that dream was so spicy!]

[The Fox Spirit thought it was just her own dirty dream, lol. It was all Gu Sheng pulling the strings!]

[Sheng Sheng knows how to dream! She’s such a master manipulator!]

[Sheng Sheng just hooked her finger, and Li Li fell right into the trap. No wonder she got played.]

[Li Li: I just made the mistake every woman makes.]

Hu Li sat stunned on the ground, her thoughts gradually returning to order. But after processing the comments scrolling before her eyes, she froze completely.

So, all those dreams… Gu Sheng had orchestrated them?!

Shocked, Hu Li’s mind flashed back to that dream of their passionate encounter. If Gu Sheng really created that dream, she thought, she wouldn’t have gone so far.

Even as she thought this, the comments began debating the dream’s authenticity.

[Sisters, did Gu Sheng really… you know… with Hu Li? This is crucial! Please answer!]

[Don’t worry, sisters. They went all the way.]

[Sheng Shengzi’s dream-weaving abilities are limited, so she has to do everything herself in each scene.]

[Ooh~ “Do everything herself,” I get it.]

Hu Li’s gaze froze on the words “do everything herself,” turning her to stone once more. Only one thought echoed in her mind: She slept with Gu Sheng.

It took her a long time to recover from the shock.

Leaning back against the rough stone wall behind her, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to assess her situation.

She vaguely remembered being on the Tianyan Sect’s Immortal Skiff before falling asleep, but the place she was now was clearly a prison cell.

The cell was spacious, with a narrow rectangular iron window high above, about two meters away. The narrow slits in the window offered no chance of escape.

Hu Li was surrounded by stone walls, seemingly cast from some indestructible material.

Looking down, she crouched and brushed aside the straw on the floor, carefully examining the grooves etched into the ground. She realized it was a Spirit-Binding Array, designed to suppress cultivators.

“Tsk, don’t they do background checks? Locking up a single demon with a Spirit-Binding Array?” Hu Li muttered under her breath. She then formed a hand seal, chanted an incantation, and gathered her Demonic Power, preparing to break the array.

To her surprise, after several attempts, not a single wisp of Demonic Power coalesced at her fingertips.

Moreover, she sensed the Spirit-Binding Array was actively suppressing her.

Could this thing actually be universal? Hu Li frowned, stood up, and tried the hand seal again, but still felt no Demonic Power flowing within her.

“System, what’s going on?” Hu Li, utterly perplexed, closed her eyes and poked at the System.

The System, finally remembered, retorted with a hint of annoyance, “Host, just take a look at your reflection in that puddle over there. You’ll understand immediately.”

“Huh?” Hu Li tilted her head, puzzled, but followed the System’s instructions. She walked to the rainwater puddle in the center of the cell and peered down.

There, reflected in the water, was a woman in a black dress.

Hu Li froze, then quickly bent down, twisting her head back and forth to scrutinize the face in the puddle. Her heart stopped cold, her eyes widening in shock.

“How did I turn into Gu Sheng?!” she exclaimed.

The System scoffed. “Host, you can thank the Calming Incense you gave Gu Sheng for this.”

“What do you mean?” Hu Li demanded.

“The calming herbs in that medicinal pouch were replaced with Soul-Swapping Grass,” the System explained bluntly. “When your souls intertwined in the dream realm, you exchanged bodies.”

Soul-Swapping Grass? Hu Li was still reeling from the revelation, but the Comments section had already erupted into a frenzy of speculation.

[Gu Sheng must have planned this soul swap from the beginning. Remember when she deliberately switched Hu Li’s red-haired dog with Yu Yan’s? That was probably to lure Hu Li away so she could sneak into the Immortal Forest and retrieve the Soul-Swapping Grass.]

[Sisters, have some confidence! Drop the “probably” and “must have”!]

[If you ask me, Gu Sheng had this whole scheme mapped out the moment she entered the Floating Life Pagoda.]

[I also suspect Gu Sheng knew Hu Li was pretending to be a spirit pet to spy on her, but she never exposed her. She wanted to keep Hu Li under constant surveillance, waiting for the perfect moment to swap souls.]

[Ahhh! Everything you’re saying makes so much sense! That Black Lotus is truly sinister!]

[But… can someone tell me why Gu Sheng wanted to swap souls? Surely it wasn’t just to take advantage of the Fox Spirit, right?]

[Heh heh heh… what if it was?]

[You never know…]

Hu Li fell silent.

She tore her gaze away from the comments and demanded coldly, “Why didn’t you warn me sooner about Gu Sheng switching the medicine?”

The System paused, then replied guiltily, “The System cannot interfere with the female lead’s actions.”

Hu Li detected the System’s unease. “Are you lying to me?”

The System remained silent, confirming her suspicions. “You only found out about it from the comments too, didn’t you?”

Embarrassed, the System tried to change the subject. “Host, that’s not the main issue right now.”

Hu Li raised an eyebrow. “Oh?” She closed her eyes, gripped the electronic panel in her Sea of Consciousness, and asked, “Then what is the main issue?”

The System pried Hu Li’s hand away and covered its face. “The main issue is that after you swapped souls with the female lead, your identity has reverted to hers.”

Hu Li pondered this for a moment, then realization dawned. “You want me to follow the female lead’s storyline.”

The System chuckled sheepishly. “Yes, and there’s a new mission—”

Before it could finish, Hu Li muted it.

A new mission? I don’t have the energy for that right now.

Hu Li returned to the wall, leaned against it, and sat down. Resting her hands on her knees, she gazed up at the iron bars overhead, trying to untangle the chaotic mess of thoughts in her mind.

At that moment, Hu Li still didn’t know why Gu Sheng had swapped bodies with her, a tragic second female lead destined for a miserable end. She didn’t know where Gu Sheng had gone, nor who had taken her off the Immortal Skiff and imprisoned her.

But tracing the timeline back, the first thing that struck her as odd was Min Xiuhe and Shang Miaoyun’s attitude toward the “Gu Sheng” she was impersonating after they emerged from the Water Moon Secret Realm.

Min Xiuhe…

Hu Li’s thoughts paused as she remembered her. Finally, she recalled the detail she had overlooked earlier.

In the original story, Min Xiuhe’s other identity was the Demon Princess. Hu Li remembered that her second appearance occurred after the Immortal Sect Grand Competition concluded.

That time, Min Xiuhe hadn’t participated in the competition. She had suddenly appeared as the protagonist group was leaving Cloud Jade Immortal Island.

At the time, no one knew about her dual identity, so they were completely unprepared for her.

It was precisely because of this lack of suspicion that Min Xiuhe had the opportunity to strike against the protagonist group.

During their return journey, she secretly slipped into each person’s room and burned Deep Nightmare Incense.

Deep Nightmare Incense could exploit a person’s deepest fears or desires, weaving vivid nightmares or alluring dreams. Those who inhaled it would become trapped, either dying of terror or succumbing to fatal obsession.

The entire protagonist group had been manipulated and captured by Min Xiuhe, all thanks to that incense.

As Hu Li’s thoughts raced, she recalled the strange scent she had smelled in her dream and suddenly understood.

She never imagined that the barrier she had erected would fail to stop Min Xiuhe, giving her the opportunity to strike.

However, when this new clue was added to the three previous mysteries, it solved two of them.

First, the person who had captured her. Hu Li guessed it must have been Min Xiuhe, mistaking her for Gu Sheng and dragging her back to the Demon Race, imprisoning her in this cell.

Then, Gu Sheng’s whereabouts. Hu Li reasoned that since Gu Sheng was now using her identity, Min Xiuhe likely saw her as an ordinary Spirit Pet and let her go.

Spirit Pet—

Hu Li abruptly stood up, remembering Gu Sheng’s appearance in her dream. A sudden realization struck her.

So Gu Sheng really did know her true identity all along, just like the Comments had said.

As Hu Li pondered this, she recalled Gu Sheng calling her “Li Li” before kissing her in the Storage Bag. She couldn’t help but berate herself for being so clueless at the time, completely missing the significance of that slip-up.

[Why is the Fox Spirit just sitting there like a dummy?]

[Probably doubting Fox Life.]

[Thinking about how Sheng Shengzi tricked her heart and body.]

[“Emotional Con Artist” should be awarded to Gu Sheng. She’s the real master of the game.]

[Gu Sheng truly embodies the saying: “The most skilled hunters often appear as their prey.”]

[The Fox Spirit is quite pitiful. She probably still doesn’t realize that Gu Sheng had already seen through her the moment they first met.]

[Well… “seen through” in the most literal, physical sense, at least initially.]

[Upstairs, you have a way with words.]

Hu Li stared blankly at the comments, finally realizing two things: first, Gu Sheng’s eyes could also see the comments; second, the comments Gu Sheng saw weren’t censored.

Leaning against the stone wall, she had another epiphany.

If Gu Sheng could see the comments too, that would explain why she knew Hu Li’s true identity from the start.

So, while Hu Li had been relying on these leaky sieves for information, Gu Sheng had been relying on them too.

Hu Li chuckled bitterly, thinking how her schemes against Su Weiyun had come back to haunt her like a boomerang, each dart striking herself.

This is truly a nightmare.

But if Gu Sheng knew the original plot, she should know Hu Li was just a tragic, short-lived female supporting character. Why would she insist on swapping souls and stealing her identity?

And why were the comments Gu Sheng saw uncensored? Hu Li couldn’t figure it out.

She paced back and forth in her cell, desperately trying to piece together an answer that would explain everything.

Lost in thought, Hu Li was startled when a figure suddenly dropped through the iron window above, landing softly on the straw at her feet.

A moment later, with a clang, the lock on the iron window was opened from the outside.

Hu Li looked up at the newcomer, her gaze settling on the dark crimson demonic markings etched across his face.

A Demon Cultivator, she thought, her eyebrow twitching. This means I’m about to follow Gu Sheng’s original plotline.

“Young Sect Master Gu, my Venerable One requests your presence,” the Demon Cultivator said, his voice raspy as he looked down at Hu Li.

With a flick of his wrist, an Immortal-Binding Rope shot out, binding her tightly before he dragged her out of the dungeon.

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