Stepping in for the Heroine to Crush the Protagonist Group [Transmigration] - Chapter 45

Following the Demon Abyss Evernight City uprising, Min Yaxing spent a day in consultation with Min Xiuhe and Hu Li. They ultimately decided to throw Min Xiuhe back into the Demon Abyss.

As for Shang Miaoyun, Min Yaxing kept her by her side.

However, Min Yaxing’s motives for keeping Shang Miaoyun weren’t solely to control her supposed daughter. More importantly, she wanted to learn array formations from Shang Miaoyun to study the Cultivation World’s “anti-missile system.”

With a solution for the Demon Abyss in place, Min Yaxing no longer needed to detain Hu Li.

Within days, Hu Li set off with Gu Sheng and Ye Qingtang, whom Min Yaxing had sent to study at the Bright Medicine Hall in Baoning Town.

Baoning Town, situated at the border between the Demon Race and the Immortal Sects, lay in a lawless no-man’s-land.

Its population was a motley mix of “righteous” Immortal Sect disciples, rogue cultivators, Demon Cultivators, Evil Cultivators, demon cultivators, and even shadowy ghost cultivators.

After two days and nights of relentless travel, the trio finally arrived at Baoning Town on the third day.

The town teemed with activity, its streets lined with stalls and vendors pushing carts, hawking their wares at every turn.

As soon as Ye Qingtang arrived in Baoning Town, Min Yaxing had a Medical Cultivator take her away.

Hu Li, left behind, walked through the crowded streets, raising a hand to protect her pale pink veil. A red cord dangled from her wrist, the other end held by Gu Sheng, who had changed back into her black dress and donned a black veil.

“So, do you know where Martial Uncle Yu is?” Gu Sheng tugged on the red cord, asking.

Hu Li scanned the crowd, shaking her head. “No idea, but it’s just a small town. Can’t be too many people here. We should find her in a day or two.”

Gu Sheng stared at the long street, where roughly a hundred people crowded every ten steps, and remained silent.

By midday, Hu Li had barely managed to survey half the street. Panting heavily, she collapsed onto a stool at a teastall, too exhausted to continue searching.

“How is it that this town has more people than even the cities?” Hu Li asked, her voice hoarse.

Gu Sheng poured Hu Li a cup of tea and slid it across the table. “Baoning Town is a lawless zone. No one cares who you are or what you do here. Everyone lives as they please.”

“That’s why impoverished cultivators ostracized by the Immortal Sects and lower-tier Demon Cultivators mistreated by the Demon Race have all gathered here. Over time, the population has steadily grown.”

Hu Li downed two cups of tea, finally understanding. Baoning Town was essentially a utopia within the Cultivation World.

Once the plot wraps up, she thought, settling down here wouldn’t be so bad.

After a few more cups of tea, both of them had largely recovered their energy.

Hu Li went to pay the shopkeeper for their tea and turned to call Gu Sheng to leave, but as soon as she turned, she saw a familiar spiritual arrow suddenly pierce the wooden table in front of Gu Sheng.

It was a message from the Fox Clan. Hu Li hurried back to Gu Sheng’s side, who had already activated the Communication Talisman.

“Young Highness, the King commands you to return to the clan immediately,” a female voice echoed from the talisman.

Hu Li exchanged a glance with Gu Sheng, then waved her hand. “I have no idea what’s going on.”

Lowering her voice to a whisper only Gu Sheng could hear, she added, “I haven’t told anyone about our soul swap.”

Gu Sheng lowered her gaze and burned the Communication Talisman. “I know it has nothing to do with you.”

As she spoke, she lifted her sleeve, flipped her hand, and exposed her wrist, placing it beneath Hu Li’s nose.

Hu Li instinctively recoiled, but after catching a familiar floral scent, she leaned closer for a more careful sniff.

“The scent of Fragrant Bloom… What’s going on?” she frowned, turning to Gu Sheng.

Gu Sheng withdrew her hand, lowered her sleeve, and said calmly, “The poison will take effect in half a month.”

Hu Li’s heart tightened. She was about to ask Gu Sheng about her next move when the System flashed in her Sea of Consciousness, issuing a mission:

Female Lead Mission: “Through Thick and Thin” has been issued. Host, accompany Gu Sheng, the person designated as the Male Lead, to the Fox Clan to resolve the poison crisis.

Simultaneously, Gu Sheng rose, adjusted her veiled hat, and declared, “I need to go to the Fox Clan.”

Hu Li’s right eye twitched, an inexplicable sense of foreboding washing over her.

[Going to the Fox Clan?!]

[Good news: Meeting the parents!]

[Bad news: The parents seem to be the villains.]

[Does anyone remember Yu Shibai by Daming Lake? He’s probably still suffering in some forgotten corner.]

[Martial Uncle Yu can just walk back to Tianyan Sect. That’s hilarious.]

[Yu Shibai: No one cares whether I live or die.]

Right, there was still Yu Shibai… Hu Li and Gu Sheng’s gazes fell on the ever-changing crowd, and they fell silent.

Finding him would be difficult.

After a long pause, Hu Li suggested, “Why don’t we ask Min Yaxing for help? She could watch over your martial uncle for another ten days or so. What do you think?”

Gu Sheng considered it, found it feasible, and nodded in agreement.

Thus, the two who had rushed to Baoning Town to find Yu Shibai disappeared into the night.

Meanwhile, Min Yaxing, who was discussing array formations with Shang Miaoyun, received a Communication Talisman from Hu Li: “Dear Sister, an urgent matter has come up. I need to go to the Fox Clan. Could you watch over Martial Uncle Yu for a few more days?”

Min Yaxing: I knew Hu Li asking for my help wouldn’t be good news.

Shang Miaoyun overheard the message. She set down her brush, her brow furrowing with worry. “Auntie, do you think something’s happened to Senior Sister and the others again?”

Min Yaxing waved her hand, discarding the Communication Talisman, and reassured Shang Miaoyun, “Those two are blessed by fate. Even if something happens to me, they’ll be fine.”

One was the original novel’s female lead, radiating her own protagonist’s aura. The other was a transmigrated female lead, equipped with her own cheat-like advantages.

Min Yaxing thought to herself: Those two? They might encounter trouble, but nothing life-threatening ever happens to them.

Unlike her, stuck with a villain’s role, never knowing when she’d meet her end.

The Fox Clan resided in Bamboo Grove Valley, where towering green bamboo forests appeared chaotic at first glance but concealed deadly formations that invisibly ensnared intruders.

Today, the intruder caught in this trap was Hu Li, who had accidentally stepped into a pit.

Outside the pit, a Little Fox Demon guarding the valley raised her spear, its tip aimed directly at Hu Li below. She demanded of Gu Sheng, who had removed her veil, “Young Highness, why have you brought a Cocklebur Spirit here?”

Her eyes narrowed warily at Hu Li, who was covered head-to-toe in sticky green cockleburs. The Little Fox Demon instinctively assumed Hu Li was a cocklebur that had somehow gained sentience.

Moreover, this Cocklebur Spirit seemed to have charmed her Young Highness into bringing her back to the clan.

This will break the hearts of countless maidens in the clan, she thought bitterly.

“She’s not a Cocklebur Spirit,” Gu Sheng replied, glancing at the Little Fox Demon. With a snap of her fingers, the spear vanished from the guard’s hand. Hu Li then floated out of the pit and landed gracefully beside Gu Sheng.

The Little Fox Demon stared in shock, her fox ears standing straight up.

Is our Young Highness being protective? Of a Cocklebur Spirit?! This is utterly absurd!

“If she’s not a Cocklebur Spirit, then what is she?” the Little Fox Demon demanded, pulling out another spear, her cheeks puffed with indignation.

Gu Sheng shot her a sidelong glance, about to deliver the rehearsed explanation she and Hu Li had prepared earlier.

Before Gu Sheng could answer, Hu Li, who was frantically picking cockleburs off her clothes, cut in, “Since when can cockleburs become spirits? Do you think these are celestial cockleburs watered with immortal dew? Just shake them a few times and they’ll transform?”

The Little Fox Demon was speechless.

Hu Li continued, “In this desolate place, spiritual energy is so thin that even cultivating immortality is as difficult as climbing the heavens. If I were truly a cocklebur spirit, I’d probably rot in the ground before even developing spiritual awareness.”

The Little Fox Demon: ……

“So, who are you really?” The Little Fox Demon realized that this person the Young Highness had brought back was even more like the Young Highness than the Young Highness herself. Just a few words from Hu Li had already made her uneasy.

Hu Li plucked the last cocklebur clinging to her hair and tossed it into the abyss behind her. Crossing her arms, she replied, “I’m the Young Highness’s attendant.”

The Little Fox Demon nodded: So, she’s the Young Highness’s—

“Attendant?!” An attendant dares to act so arrogant with me?!

The Little Fox Demon tightened her grip on her spear, its tip now pointed directly at Hu Li. “As an attendant, you should show me proper respect. Do you even know who I am? I am—”

Hu Li interrupted, “I know.”

The Little Fox Demon choked, momentarily stunned. “Then tell me, who am I?”

Hu Li, though lacking logic, spoke with unwavering conviction, “I don’t remember. I’ve forgotten.”

The Little Fox Demon: ……

*******

There was no arguing with her—absolutely none.

How could the Young Highness’s companion be exactly like the Young Highness herself when she was a child? Her tongue was just as sharp!

Gu Sheng, who had been standing aside, had seen enough of the spectacle. She pulled Hu Li, who was still itching for another round with the Little Fox Demon, behind her and said to the Little Fox Demon, “Take me to see the King.”

The Little Fox Demon, about to retort, snapped his mouth shut. He glanced at Gu Sheng’s icy expression, swallowed hard, and instantly became obedient. “Yes, Young Highness.”

With the Little Fox Demon leading the way, their passage through the valley became much smoother.

They walked through two bamboo groves, past a lake, and finally squeezed through a narrow underground tunnel. At last, they arrived at the true heart of the Fox Clan’s territory—a vast village stretching as far as the eye could see.

The Fox King’s residence stood at the very center of the village—a three-story bamboo tower.

The Little Fox Demon led them to the tower’s entrance, exchanged a few words with the Fox Demon guarding the gate, and then withdrew.

The guard recognized their Young Highness. She bowed respectfully to Gu Sheng, pushed open the bamboo tower’s door, and went inside to announce their arrival.

Moments later, she emerged from the tower and said respectfully to Gu Sheng, “Young Highness, the King is waiting for you on the third floor.”

Gu Sheng nodded, returned the bow, and stepped into the bamboo tower with Hu Li.

*******

The bamboo tower’s spacious first floor was filled with masks of all shapes and sizes, each uniquely crafted. Hu Li’s gaze fell upon one depicting a demonic face, and her mind reeled. A throbbing pain shot through her temples.

She felt she had seen this mask before, yet no memory of it surfaced.

“Hiss—” Lost in thought, Hu Li stumbled on the bamboo stairs.

Gu Sheng, walking ahead, stopped at the sound and looked down at Hu Li, who had fallen.

“Are you alright?” she asked, helping Hu Li up.

Hu Li pulled free of Gu Sheng’s grip, steadied herself against the railing, and glanced at Gu Sheng. “I’m fine. Let’s keep going.”

Gu Sheng lowered her gaze, glanced at her empty hand, then turned away to avoid Hu Li’s eyes. “These stairs are narrow,” she warned. “Be careful.” Without another word, she continued up the stairs.

The third floor served as the Fox King’s private quarters. A winding corridor, its windows tightly shut, felt dark and cramped.

Hu Li followed Gu Sheng down the corridor, a sudden chill creeping down her spine. She glanced tentatively over her shoulder.

What she saw nearly stopped her heart.

A woman in a red dress had been following them the entire time.

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