The Male Lead Always Thinks My Script is Wrong - Chapter 22

The heavenly fire had only just arrived, but the moment it touched the ground, it erupted into a roaring inferno.

“Wh—what is that?”

“Falling from the sky… could it be.”

“The Xiao family… heavenly fire.”

The heavenly fire that flashed for a split second was like a match, igniting the night before quickly being smothered by the darkness.

Ji Shinian darted through the night. Snippets of conversation, stirred by the strange events, drifted past on the wind, but only a few words reached his ears.

He didn’t need to listen to know what they were saying.

Perhaps someone saw Xiao Shu, or perhaps no one did. The “match” had only been bright for an instant, but it was enough to ignite the undercurrents of Chaofeng City and the entire Central Heavens Realm.

However, none of that mattered to Ji Shinian.

The southern part of the city was currently swarming with people, most of whom had come for the spectacle. Some stood by and watched in awe, while others tried to step closer, only to be blocked by an invisible barrier.

Cries, pity, disdain, satisfaction, indifference.

All sorts of voices intertwined like a grand, chaotic banquet.

Ji Shinian moved along the alleys and street corners, his footsteps light as he flowed through the crowd like moonlight. The temperature rose steadily as he ventured deeper, until finally, the estate he had visited just a few days ago appeared before him.

In a street separated from the front row of the crowd, the Xiao manor was being swallowed by a wild, arrogant blaze. The fire was eye searingly bright, devouring everything within and making a loud crackling sound.

It really was “Heavenly Fire.” Ji Shinian’s expression soured.

If he hadn’t been sure at first glance, the moment he saw the flames with his own eyes, the conclusion was undeniable.

He had traveled the Central Heavens for years, and while he wasn’t an encyclopedia, he knew that the “Four Qi” were the absolute masters of the world, representing the highest power in this realm. Flames that shared the same source as those four could only come from a place higher than this world.

Immortals.

He didn’t have time to ponder this world-building detail that had been hidden since the beginning. Ji Shinian leapt onto the highest nearby pavilion, activated his hairpin, and used its power to wrap around his body. He then threw himself lightheartedly into the sea of fire.

A night breeze blew, and a white light streaked across the pavilion like a lonely, flickering star.

Thump.

Ji Shinian had jumped a bit too hastily. He had intended to land on a specific outer wall, but he hadn’t expected the wall to be so old. It couldn’t withstand the impact of his “meteor” kick.

His landing brought down half the wall. His feet hit empty air, and he went down with the rubble, crashing unceremoniously onto the ground. A thick cloud of dust filled his nose, severely disrupting his rhythmic breathing.

Fortunately, he was currently a living puppet.

Ji Shinian crawled out from the debris and wiped the dust and dirt from his face, hurriedly looking around.

This seemed to be the veranda where he and Li Moyan had eavesdropped last time. Aside from the wall he had just destroyed, the plants and buildings inside were engulfed in a nearly transparent fire, yet they remained perfectly intact.

Outside the wall was red, inside was white.

Strange, Ji Shinian thought suspiciously as he observed the difference. The power on his body kept the fire at bay, but he could still feel the temperature inside was dropping sharply.

An unknown blue flower happened to be growing near the veranda’s railing. He reached out to touch it, and the delicate petals actually leaned into his hand as if they had a consciousness of their own.

Ji Shinian pulled his hand back, seeing that the flower had “licked” away half of his shimmering white light. This confirmed one fact:

This fire shared the same source as the world’s origin energy, and like that energy, it did no harm to anything belonging to the world’s essence.

Meaning plants and inanimate objects were perfectly fine inside.

Although he didn’t know how the category of “world’s essence” was defined, as a living puppet, it was impossible for Ji Shinian to move freely within it.

He wasn’t very familiar with the Xiao manor, so he had no choice but to leap onto the roof of the veranda. He silently hid the glow of his white power and prayed no one would see him as he hurried toward the center of the heavenly fire.

But before long, Ji Shinian couldn’t help but feel that his wish was being granted a bit too easily.

According to his memory, before the heavenly fire, there should have been a scene where those noble young masters forced their way in, using debts as an excuse to unceremoniously and immorally trash the Xiao manor.

Only after that was the heavenly fire supposed to occur, the catastrophic disaster described by the author, “Nanmo Shinian Dao,” as a living hell where everyone in the manor wailed in agony.

But as he traveled, he didn’t see a single soul.

Could it be because he paid the debt for the male lead? Did the heavenly fire not only arrive early but also swallow the male lead, making its power even stronger and wiping everyone out in an instant?

Stop. His scalp tingled, and he didn’t dare think about it anymore, picking up his pace once more.

****

“Quick, leave… don’t, don’t worry about us!”

“It hurts, Mother, I want to die, aaaaaah!”

“It doesn’t hurt. You, hurry, get out of here.”

Ji Shinian sprinted ahead and finally heard some wailing. He followed the sound and ducked inside, and sure enough, he saw people.

Or rather, the entire Xiao clan.

In a courtyard with a western entrance, items were piled up everywhere as if the place was being demolished. However, the people beside the piles were lying on the ground in twisted positions, their flesh melting away to reveal pale bone, the edges where the meat met the bone charred black.

Every single one of them had a terrifying look in their eyes and an expression of extreme agony, writhing unconsciously on the ground.

Ji Shinian had never seen anything like this. He checked three or four of them, only to find that they were nothing more than moving corpses!

How could this happen?! Ji Shinian let go of a corpse and looked toward the center of the courtyard, that was where the crying was coming from.

In the midst of the roaring flames, various clothes and chests were scattered across the bluestone courtyard, and there were even more corpses melting under the heat.

Among them were a man and a woman. Their lower bodies had already been fused into the ground by the fire, making them look as if they were growing out of the earth.

It was Xiao Qingdi and the man Ji Shinian had seen on the veranda before.

Xiao Qingdi was holding Liu Xianzhong. Her face was deathly pale, her final expression frozen in anger and despair, while Liu Xianzhong’s eyes were mostly white, as if he still wanted to shout something.

They were different from the other corpses in the courtyard, aside from their lower bodies, everything else was perfectly preserved, with fragments of pale blue souls floating around them.

It was a death where the soul itself was shattered.

Ji Shinian looked at the traces of the shattered souls and only then noticed a youth with disheveled hair standing before them.

He was kneeling in the fire, but he seemed to have no sensation at all.

There was no rain, yet the hellish flames seemed to isolate him from the tragedy of the mortal world.

Just like the description of the heavenly fire in “Slaying the Heavens”:

The spirit remains whole, while the mortal flesh withers.

“Xiao Shu.” Ji Shinian looked at the shattered frost sword beneath the youth’s black robes, and for a moment, he didn’t know what to say.

“Ji… Shinian?”

Suddenly, the youth in the courtyard looked up slowly like a sluggish puppet, his gaze moving toward the moon gate and finally landing on the girl who had rushed in.

His pupils were black and deep, but when he saw Ji Shinian, they suddenly constricted. The girl’s reflection fell into his eyes as if it were being pinned down.

Only then did Ji Shinian realize that he had whispered the male lead’s name in his daze.

“Ahem,” he coughed, feeling uneasy under the youth’s stare. He lifted his chin and said disdainfully, “You’re actually not dead yet? Your luck is pretty good, isn’t it?”

Wait, he had blocked the OOC system, so why did he instinctively jump into the “Eldest Miss” persona? Did he have a professional habit after playing the role for so long?

No, now wasn’t the time for that.

Seeing that the male lead didn’t respond, Ji Shinian coughed a few more times to cover his tracks. He walked up to the youth, crouched down, and reached out a hand, his expression arrogant. “Hey, if you’re not dead, you can’t be so weak that you can’t even stand up, right?”

His gesture was like an act of charity, but he forgot that his face was completely exposed to Xiao Shu. He had tucked back his stray hairs, and the silver mark on his forehead, shaped like a crescent moon, was incredibly prominent.

Xiao Shu stared at him expressionlessly, his gaze moving from his face to the mark before he finally blinked.

He didn’t accept Ji Shinian’s help. Instead, he lowered his head and methodically pulled out the fragments stuck in his palm, asking coldly, “Why did Miss Ji come here?”

I just came to do my good deed of the day.

Thinking this, Ji Shinian didn’t say it aloud. He pulled back his hand and crossed his arms. “What are you looking at me for? Your house is on fire, so I came to take a look…”

“How did this fire not burn you to death?”

Xiao Shu didn’t respond again.

Fine, the act was completely over.

Ji Shinian looked at Xiao Shu’s bloody hands beneath his sleeves, and a wave of frustration at the youth’s lack of spirit rose in his heart.

You idiot, don’t you know there’s a villain in this place!

In “Slaying the Heavens,” the male lead stayed in the fire for three days and nights, not to roast himself, but because there was a great demon named “He Yin” in the flames. As soon as he appeared, he started hunting the male lead. His motives and origins were a mystery that was never explained, even after he died.

After three days, the people in the Xiao manor were burned to ashes, the heavenly fire went out, and the grand array covering the manor vanished.

Xiao Shu fought hard for a long time before taking the chance to escape, changing his name and starting his journey of revenge.

Ji Shinian could tell from this courtyard that the Xiao family had intended to move out early, but the heavenly fire had arrived even earlier, seemingly determined to make the protagonist witness his entire clan being sacrificed for power.

But looking at Xiao Shu’s current state, Ji Shinian felt that the youth wouldn’t last three days, he’d probably die on He Yin’s first move.

In the eerie heavenly fire, the two stared at each other in the silent, creepy courtyard, as if in a standoff.

In the end, Ji Shinian couldn’t take it anymore. He had spent points to get here, was he really going to leave empty handed?

“Hey, are you mute? I said—” He grabbed Xiao Shu’s wrist, intending to drag him away by force, but as soon as he grabbed the uninjured hand, his own wrist was clamped in a tight grip.

In an instant, the world spun.

By the time Ji Shinian regained his senses, he had been pinned to the cold, hard floor, his hands held down firmly.

A hand was clamped under his jaw, forcing him to look up.

Xiao Shu’s cold voice rang out before him, “I asked you, why did you come?”

Their current distance wasn’t exactly romantic. Xiao Shu looked down at him from above, his dark gaze like a snake’s tongue tracing his features. His naturally aggressive looks had lost their gentle mask and were now exceptionally cold and intimidating.

His grip was incredibly strong. Ji Shinian could feel liquid flowing from the youth’s hand, trickling down his neck and into his hair—it was warm, slick, and horrifying.

The pungent scent of blood filled his nose. Ji Shinian felt uncomfortable and a bit insulted, so his tone became sharp as well. “I told you, I saw your house was on fire and came to look. Is this place off limits?”

Xiao Shu’s expression was unreadable. “You.”

The hand on his face suddenly loosened, but then the youth leaned down. A warm breath belonging to another person brushed against his face, and Ji Shinian could even see the gaze fixed on his lips beneath the lowered eyelashes.

Too close.

This excessive proximity made Ji Shinian’s scalp tingle more than the physical restraint. A sense of being offended and watched with such intensity instantly washed away his previous annoyance.

As their breaths mingled, Ji Shinian’s temper flared. He twisted and yanked his pinned hands, actually managing to break free from the hold.

Are you kidding? If you want to pin me down and beat me, the current male lead isn’t strong enough yet!

With a “crack,” in the blink of an eye, Ji Shinian’s hand was on Xiao Shu’s shoulder. He quickly dislocated half of the shoulder of this not yet fully grown, partially crippled protagonist.

“Did no one ever teach you not to ask a question twice?” Ji Shinian patted Xiao Shu’s face triumphantly and tried to sit up from under him.

Xiao Shu’s face was as cold as a ghost’s. Even with one arm injured and his shoulder dislocated, he stubbornly held himself up with his other arm, not saying a word.

Ji Shinian saw him swaying, surrounded by corpses, and couldn’t help but feel a bit of guilt for bullying the weak. “Hey, if you don’t want to answer, you don’t have to play mute.”

This was the second time he had called the youth mute, but he still reached out and pulled the boy into a hug.

Dead bodies everywhere, a lonely child left behind. This scene felt strangely familiar to him.

Perhaps having reached his limit, the pitiful youth didn’t refuse and was actually pulled into his embrace.

Then, Ji Shinian almost had the soul crushed out of him by a sick person.

Did this male lead grow up on hormones? Ji Shinian hadn’t expected that even though the youth was only half a head taller, he would have such broad shoulders and a narrow waist, and the muscles beneath his clothes were terrifyingly hard.

No wonder even a “strong” person like himself couldn’t carry him…

With a thought, the white mark on his forehead flared, and his body glowed with white light. He managed to half support, half carry Xiao Shu up.

“Who… exactly are you?”

Xiao Shu’s voice rang out again, sounding a bit raspy. His hand was draped over Ji Shinian’s shoulder. He probably realized that his current state was like an egg hitting a rock, so he didn’t resist any further and allowed himself to be led forward, stumbling.

“This lady never hides her name, I am Ji Shinian of the Ji family.”

Seeing that the boy was willing to walk, Ji Shinian felt a wave of relief. He patted Xiao Shu’s shoulder, met the ghostly gaze, and said with a smile:

“As for why I’m so powerful, let’s just say I’m practically Song Yuban’s godmother.”