Stepping in for the Heroine to Crush the Protagonist Group [Transmigration] - Chapter 8
Dropping the hand grenade, this was an existence that was truly explosive.
In fact, when the little red-furred demon said one of the three of them would be eliminated, Hu Li desperately wished she would be the one kicked out. As a game idiot, her only fate in this game was to be blown up.
But just as she was in a daze, Xie Qingyang suddenly sent her a voice transmission: “Hu Li, don’t worry. With me here, I’ll definitely get you out of the Floating Life Pagoda.”
Hu Li looked at him with a complicated expression and let out a confused, “Huh?” She was just starting to think he was planning to sacrifice himself for her, but the very next second, she saw the scoundrel trip Gu Sheng.
This was the first round. Gu Sheng, feeling she was the Senior Sister, had accepted the first grenade and was playing the first game. She was originally guaranteed to win this round, but Xie Qingyang’s trip sent her sprawling to the ground, where she was caught by the little demon responsible for chasing.
Everyone had two chances. Now Gu Sheng only had one chance left, and her knee was injured from the fall. Xie Qingyang feigned concern, helping Gu Sheng up while spouting apologies.
But Hu Li understood he did it on purpose. Xie Qingyang had already decided who he wanted to eliminate in this game.
[Seriously, Shampoo is so disgusting.]
[I’m going to throw up. What kind of disgusting move is that?]
[Fk, helping the fox spirit is one thing, but why is he sabotaging my Sheng Sheng?!*]
[It’s not about who he helps. Can’t he just play fair?]
[Don’t bother with the wife-chasing crematorium for this kind of male lead. Just cremate him directly.]
[Did the fox spirit bewitch the male lead?]
[It’s possible.]
[But the fox spirit is obviously confused, okay? The male lead is doing this on purpose!]
…
The book reviews swirled around Gu Sheng and Xie Qingyang. Hu Li took a deep breath, snatched the grenade from the little red-furred demon’s hand, and said, “I’ll take the next round.”
Just as Xie Qingyang harbored a selfish bias toward the original host, she, as a female-lead loyalist, also had a selfish bias toward Gu Sheng. Coupled with Gu Sheng’s meticulous care for her these past few days, she wanted to help the woman teach this scummy male lead a lesson, even though Gu Sheng had injured her earlier.
Xie Qingyang clearly hadn’t expected Hu Li to volunteer for the second round. He had initially planned to sabotage Gu Sheng again in this round to eliminate his Senior Sister, preventing her from participating in the subsequent trials. Before entering the Pagoda, He Shiqing had told him that as long as he found a way to get Gu Sheng eliminated, one of the spots for the Grand Immortal Sect Competition would be his.
But now, the development of events seemed to be spiraling out of his control.
“Everyone close your eyes.” The little red-furred demon gave the command.
Hearing this, Xie Qingyang reluctantly closed his eyes, comforting himself: Senior Sister just hurt her, so she definitely wants to take revenge this time.
But as he comforted himself, he felt a strange killing intent coming from behind him.
At the same time, Hu Li, who was secretly applying super glue to the grenade, was asking the system, “System, are you sure cultivators can’t deal with this super glue?”
The system looked at the half-tube of super glue that had been squeezed out and swallowed nervously, counter-questioning, “Host, is it really necessary to be this cruel?”
In the original novel, there was no clear statement about Xie Qingyang and the second female lead’s romantic plot line, but Hu Li’s action of sabotaging Xie Qingyang for Gu Sheng inexplicably reminded the system of something a senior system had once said:
“Some Hosts like to go to extremes. You tell them to break up the male and female leads and capture the male lead, but they only listen to the first half, steal the female lead, and leave the male lead forever alone.”
The male lead is forever alone. Wouldn’t that mean the entire original plot collapses?
The system wanted to stop Hu Li’s actions, but it was too late. Hu Li raised an eyebrow and smiled, silently moving behind Xie Qingyang. She then swiftly tossed the grenade right into his arms.
Xie Qingyang instinctively caught it, opened his eyes in surprise, and met Hu Li’s gaze for a fleeting moment. He wanted to ask, “Why?”
But Hu Li ran off, not even leaving him a shadow.
[Is the fox spirit taking revenge for Sheng Sheng?]
[I knew it! The fox spirit actually loves Sheng Sheng! I’ve shipped it…]
[Standing by the CP for one second.]
[The overall situation is orange (jú – which sounds like jī – chicken, and is also slang for female-to-female romance).]
[She really, really loves her.]
[Having read the first edition of the original novel, I find this hard to evaluate.]
[Xie Qingyang: An outsider to the orange.]
…
When Hu Li sat back down on the stool, the book reviews were still rolling overhead. She looked at Xie Qingyang, who was standing in front of her with eyes wide with fury, and smiled narrowly, “Immortal Master, it’s your turn.”
Her blatant schadenfreude stung Xie Qingyang’s eyes. He gripped the grenade in his hand, not noticing anything wrong, his mind only focused on the thought that the next round had become a life-or-death situation. It was up to the next round to decide who, he or Gu Sheng, would leave.
On the other side, Gu Sheng sat calmly on the stool, her gaze shifting back and forth between Hu Li and Xie Qingyang. She had somewhat guessed that Xie Qingyang and He Shiqing had conspired to force her out of the Floating Life Pagoda, but Hu Li’s willingness to help her was indeed a surprise.
“Alright, can all of you stop stalling!” The little red-furred demon, seeing that the trio was sulking and refusing to start the third round, urged them impatiently.
Xie Qingyang recovered his senses, glanced at Gu Sheng, and walked behind the group.
“Everyone close your eyes! The third round begins!” The little red-furred demon shouted excitedly as he saw Xie Qingyang move, eager to watch these idiotic cultivators betray each other.
But this time, he waited a long time and heard nothing but footsteps.
What’s going on? The little red-furred demon grew suspicious and opened his eyes. He saw Xie Qingyang looking like he was locked in an inseparable embrace with the grenade.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you?” The little red-furred demon walked over and asked.
Xie Qingyang frowned slightly, looking at Hu Li. He found her watching him composedly, clearly aware that there was a problem with the grenade.
Why? He asked this question for the second time, unable to understand why Hu Li was targeting him.
“Hu Li,” he called out to her, wanting a clear answer.
But Hu Li suddenly stood up and said to the little red-furred demon, “Little Demon Lord, I have an emergency. Would you let me go take care of some business?”
The little red-furred demon looked at her, his sensitive nose catching her demonic aura. After considering it, he agreed: “You are also from the Demon Clan. I won’t make things difficult for you. Go ahead.”
Hu Li thanked him, left the classroom, found a quiet place, sat cross-legged, pulled out the Floating Life Pagoda Records from her storage pouch, and flipped to the last page.
The topic of this page was “How to contact the Great Demons of the Floating Life Pagoda.” Hu Li had ignored it before, thinking, Who has time to look for demons to fight?
But now, the corners of her mouth curled up. She raised her hand and used spiritual power to draw over a dozen talismans. To the images of the demon beasts that floated out one by one, she said concisely, “I am the new teacher at the Nursery. Your children have caused trouble. Please come quickly to handle it.”
With that, she ignored their reactions, immediately cut the communication spell, and returned to the classroom.
In the classroom, the little red-furred demon had already forcefully torn the grenade from Xie Qingyang’s hand.
The moment Hu Li sat down, the little red-furred demon anxiously shouted, “Everyone close your eyes! The third round starts again!”
The third round was still Xie Qingyang randomly choosing a person and dropping the grenade. He walked a circle behind the others, finally choosing to stop behind Gu Sheng.
Gu Sheng’s knee is already injured. This time, I will definitely get her eliminated.
Thinking this, he swiftly tossed the grenade into Gu Sheng’s hand and ran away.
Gu Sheng opened her eyes, lowered her gaze to the grenade in her hand, sighed, and rose to limp after Xie Qingyang. But she had only walked a few steps when Xie Qingyang had already completed a circle and sat down in her spot.
“Alright, the game is over,” the little red-furred demon jumped onto a stool, put his hands on his hips, and looked at the trio. “I announce that only she can leave the Fifth Floor.”
The little red-furred demon pointed at Gu Sheng.
Xie Qingyang’s expression suddenly changed when he heard this, and he exclaimed, “How is that possible? Wasn’t she eliminated?”
Hu Li, sitting next to him, scoffed, “This little red-furred demon never said the eliminated person stays.”
Xie Qingyang was confused.
Hu Li crossed her legs and kindly explained, “He’s looking for a playmate who can really play with him. A scheming person like you is perfect.”
She had noticed that the little red-furred demon’s gaze kept lingering on her and Xie Qingyang, but he hardly glanced at Gu Sheng. So, after a bit of thinking, she guessed that the little red-furred demon truly wanted to keep an antagonistic player who could conspire with him, not a Buddha-like, ‘go-with-the-flow’ player like Gu Sheng, who let others manipulate her.
Unfortunately, by the time she realized this, the little red-furred demon had already set his sights on her.
Gu Sheng was quickly teleported away by the little red-furred demon, leaving Hu Li and Xie Qingyang, the two antagonistic players, staring at each other.
“So, you actually wanted to help me just now?” After a long silence, Xie Qingyang broke the quiet with a conceited question.
Hu Li gave him a speechless look, not bothering to address him, silently waiting for her reinforcements to arrive.
But Xie Qingyang took her silence as acquiescence, immediately feeling touched and trying to move closer to Hu Li.
The moment he got close, Hu Li suddenly stood up from the stool and said in a serious tone, “Since you all have arrived, please sit down.”
You all? Who? Xie Qingyang was full of question marks and looked up at the newcomers.
This, aren’t these the high-grade demon beasts I encountered on the Seventh Floor?! Xie Qingyang’s breathing hitched in shock.
He then looked at Hu Li, who was chatting eloquently with the demon beasts, with even greater shock.
What is going on?! He was confused and bewildered, and his temples were throbbing.
Hu Li, currently playing the role of the Nursery teacher, spoke calmly to the four demon beasts she had randomly summoned: “Gentlemen, I am the new teacher at the Nursery. My surname is Hu. You can simply call me Teacher Hu.”
The demon beasts looked at each other. None of them knew Hu Li, but seeing she was a demon, they instinctively assumed that the previous teacher at the Nursery had been driven away by their bratty children again, and she was the new replacement.
“Teacher Hu, what exactly happened?” one demon beast asked cautiously, wanting to avoid having to take care of his own child if the new teacher quit too.
Hu Li pointed at the dumbfounded little red-furred demon, who was completely out of the loop, and said, “Do you recognize the item in this child’s hand?”
The demon beast looked at his son and the grenade in his hand, his brow twitching: “Yes, the Type 67 hand grenade.”
“That’s right, the Type 67.” Hu Li paused mid-sentence. “You recognize this thing?!”
The demon beast nodded: “This is a popular explosive artifact among the Demon Clan recently. A demon cultivator who was imprisoned in the Floating Life Pagoda half a month ago gifted it to a few of us. I didn’t expect the child to steal it.”
Hu Li’s smile hardened: “Since you know this artifact is dangerous, you shouldn’t let your child bring it here! If they get knocked or bumped, injuring themselves and others, what are we, the teachers, supposed to do?”
The demon beast felt Hu Li had a point and quickly said, “I’ll take the child back right now and give him a good education.”
Hu Li acknowledged him, about to reply.
Unexpectedly, the little red-furred demon, who had been standing on the side, urgently shouted, “Dad, don’t listen to her!”
Then, with a wave of his hand, he packaged up Hu Li and Xie Qingyang and sent them both to the Fourth Floor.
Teacher? He didn’t believe Hu Li was the new teacher at the Nursery. Even if she was, she wasn’t anymore.
The little red-furred demon thought this. The next second, the demon beast father picked him up by the scruff of his neck and roared, “Teacher, where did you send your teacher to?! It hasn’t even been a month, and you’ve driven thirty teachers away. What are you trying to do!”
The little red-furred demon: …