The Male Lead Always Thinks My Script is Wrong - Chapter 9

In less than the time it takes for a stick of incense to burn, the group emerged from the cover of the woods. Something glowed faintly in the sky, blurring everything into a sheet of frosted glass. A dark green expanse of water stretched out before them, bleeding into the darkness. There were no stones or sand on the shore; instead, thick, fuzzy weeds grew ankle-high, swaying as the waves slapped against them in distorted ripples.

The shallows were a mess of jagged tree stumps, fallen trunks with exposed roots, and decaying yellow leaves floating on the surface like scattered mold.

Li Moyan spoke up, his voice tinged with hesitation. “This place… it’s been flooded.”

“When I passed by earlier, the lake was still half an inch below the shore. Now, it has submerged the roots,” Xiao Shu explained, walking along the edge to a tree half-buried in water. “If my observations are correct, this entire area will be completely underwater in an hour.”

Li Moyan gasped. “An hour? Looking at these trees, they’ve clearly been submerged for a long time. Young Master Xiao, do you mean someone is doing this on purpose? Someone wants to drown this island?”

“Exactly,” Xiao Shu said. “We need to hurry.”

As the two exchanged theories, Ji Shinian adjusted the veil Li Moyan had handed him and took in the surroundings. Though he couldn’t see clearly into the distance, he could sense a faint, familiar aura—one so ingrained in his memories it felt as though it were part of his very marrow.

Suddenly, a piercing, heavy sound of footsteps echoed from behind Ji Shinian, impossible to ignore.

Someone was coming.

Before Ji Shinian could react, Li Moyan grabbed his hand and pulled him back, his voice tense. “You—”

Likely unsure of how to address the newcomer, Li Moyan hesitated, unable to find a suitable title.

Then, Xiao Shu’s voice rang out. “Miss Zhou, it’s been a while.”

His tone was slow and carried a hint of a smile, as if he were greeting a beautiful woman amidst a garden of blooming flowers—gentle and polite to a fault.

Ji Shinian felt that if the person stepping out from the woods hadn’t been Zhou Hongluan, that voice would have been perfect for welcoming a new heroine into the story.

Unfortunately, Zhou Hongluan wasn’t buying it. Her eyes curved into crescents as she sneered. “Heh, you’re clever enough, but knowing now won’t save you.”

“From the moment you broke the maze and stepped foot here, the only thing waiting for you is death!”

Her voice was raspy, and her nearly flawless face was twisted with delight. Compared to the frantic terror she showed when the fake illusion shattered, she looked like a completely different person.

Li Moyan was incredulous. “Zhou, cough, what do you mean by this?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Zhou Hongluan acted as if she were bored, raising her hand to admire her nails. “You’re all about to drown here and become food for my children. You didn’t actually think you could escape, did you?”

Normally, they wouldn’t. But Ji Shinian glanced at the “Child of Destiny” standing beside them and felt that this speech was just asking for a face-slapping rebuttal.

Also, why did he feel a mysterious sense of being upstaged?

“And why couldn’t we?” Ji Shinian, completely unaware he had already stepped onto the path of being a “face-slapping victim,” tilted his chin up to look at her. “We have a Golden Core master and… a cultivator here. Why would we be afraid of a lowly rogue practitioner like you?”

“Miss, it’s called a ‘Ghoulspeaker,'” Li Moyan corrected.

“A Ghoulspeaker? A Golden Core? So what?”

Zhou Hongluan spat out the words “Golden Core” with biting sarcasm. “A bunch of fools who blindly follow the Heavenly Dao and practice spiritual energy. I want to see how long you can last against my Blood Plague Worms!”

As soon as she finished speaking, the entire illusion shuddered. A heavy, metallic scent pressed down on their tongues and sank into their stomachs. The light in the sky flickered, and beneath the skin of the seductive woman, something seemed to be boiling. Countless rays of bloody light burst from her body—no, rather than light, it looked like a miasma of blood and flesh, trailing translucent slime at the edges. It reflected both its own color and the light from above, lunging toward the three of them as if it had a mind of its own!

Li Moyan couldn’t react in time and dragged Ji Shinian toward the woods. Recognizing something in the thick stench, his voice grew urgent. “She’s actually using her own blood to refine a Blood Plague Seed? How is that possible?!”

The spot where they had been standing was instantly pierced by the seemingly soft, light substance. The weeds at the edges sizzled with heat, and from the blackened borders, red Blood Plague Worms began to tumble out.

They clumped together in a slimy mass, their countless black spots merging into lines. In the silent, misty woods, they let out a series of squelching, ear-piercing laughs.

“What does ‘refining a Blood Plague Seed’ mean?” Ji Shinian asked, clutching Li Moyan’s arm while feigning ignorance.

“I’ve read in ancient texts that people once tried to refine this thing using their own flesh and blood as the seed, turning water into insects. But without fail, they all had their brains eroded by the plague. How is she still sane?!”

Li Moyan’s pipe moved in a blur, hacking through the air. He used his spiritual power to shake off several pouncing worms, only to see the tide at the shore churned up by that bloody entity. Countless worms were crawling out of the water.

He felt like he might faint. “I’d like to thank the Zhou ancestors. How on earth did she do this!”

Ji Shinian watched Li Moyan struggle and realized his earlier attempt to “add more drama” had earned him a lot of “extra attention” from Zhou Hongluan. At least seven out of ten Blood Plague Seeds were chasing them.

Is having a master supposed to be impressive? He looked at the worms that showed no fear of him, then glanced at Xiao Shu. The protagonist had also retreated into the deep woods under the onslaught, his snow-white sword weaving through the red insects.

His aura was imposing, but his movements were defensive and cautious, lacking the decisiveness he’d shown when pinning the Corpse Ghoul with a single strike.

The protagonist is waiting for something. Through the dim woods, Ji Shinian couldn’t see Xiao Shu’s expression, but he felt certain that in this quest, which he should have been the one to solve, he had overlooked something besides those mysterious threads.

But a loyal servant’s stamina has limits. As the Blood Plague Worms increased, Li Moyan, burdened with a “useless” young miss, was clearly reaching his breaking point. The spiritual weapon in his hand was reaching its limit.

Ji Shinian knew that he was the one who designed the trap that brought them into this illusion. This Golden Core expert, the right hand of the Ji family, was suffering entirely because of him.

He closed his eyes, preparing to give Li Moyan a small “cheat,” when a white shadow suddenly burst from the depths of the forest.

The shadow had short limbs but a massive body. It slammed into the swarm of Blood Plague Worms, and the insects reacted as if they had been scalded, turning back into the red-and-white bloody miasma that had come from Zhou Hongluan.

“The Corpse Ghoul?” Li Moyan blurted out in surprise. He stayed in front of Ji Shinian, his pipe still raised, but he couldn’t look away from the clash before them.

What’s going on?! Ji Shinian’s eyes widened. He whipped his head around to look at Xiao Shu. In the darkness, the protagonist’s retreating figure was becoming a blur, but Ji Shinian could swear:

Just a moment ago—at a timing so subtle even Li Moyan wouldn’t have noticed—Xiao Shu’s monster-slaying sword had genuinely hesitated for a fraction of a second!

Questions flooded his mind: How did the Corpse Ghoul escape its restraints? When did it escape? If it broke free, why hadn’t Xiao Shu shown any reaction along the way?

Ji Shinian remembered that in the novel, to give the protagonist a logical way to always possess rare treasures or spirit pets, the author designed a “Soul Brand.” By using the target’s soul or physical body as a medium, a brand was placed. From then on, whether the creature was human or ghost, it could never escape the protagonist’s control.

This was a secret treasure the protagonist had found in the Xiao family’s ancestral lands—a “golden finger” he had from the start. The prologue even mentioned that all of Xiao Shu’s personal belongings were marked with this brand. A storage pouch with a Soul Brand could not be opened by anyone except the protagonist, and nothing inside could leave without his permission.

Only with such overbearing power could one be called a “Dragon Aotian” protagonist.

Ji Shinian felt a chill run down his spine. Looking at the protagonist’s blurry shadow, he quickly pieced together the situation: Since it was a secret treasure, it was meant to be unknown. With Ji Shinian’s sharp reaction and shifting emotions, someone as perceptive as Xiao Shu wouldn’t have missed it!

He took a deep breath and started shouting at the woods with a feigned air of ignorance. “Hey! What are you doing? Wasn’t that ugly monster with you? You scared the life out of me, do you hear?!”

“This Corpse Ghoul seems to be helping us…” Li Moyan observed for a while before looking toward Xiao Shu. “Young Master Xiao, are you alright?”

In the blink of an eye, Xiao Shu had somehow reappeared beside them. His robes were slightly disheveled and his lips were pale, making him look as though he had exhausted his spiritual energy. Even so, he shook his head. “It was my incompetence. Senior and Miss Ji have suffered… What is this?”

As he spoke, his gaze fell on the Corpse Ghoul. His pupils dilated slightly, his face a mask of total shock.

Li Moyan said, “It appeared out of nowhere while we were dealing with the worms. We don’t know where it came from.”

“I cannot say for certain,” Xiao Shu said, lowering his eyes as if riddled with guilt. “When the fake illusion collapsed, Miss Zhou seemed to be wrapped in invisible threads. I was caught in the aftermath, and when I landed in the secret passage, my storage pouch was already missing.”

“Those threads were indeed…”

Watching this flawless performance, Ji Shinian felt that if he were an Oscar judge, he’d definitely give the man a trophy.

After all, if Ji Shinian himself weren’t sensitive to spiritual artifacts, he probably would have believed this half-truth.

At the very least, in Ji Shinian’s perception, Xiao Shu’s pouch had definitely not been “missing” while he could still sense the other man’s presence.

He realized the protagonist was hiding something, but he couldn’t call him out on it. In this situation, comparable to a “weak son-in-law” facing a bossy, brainless wife and a powerful, overprotective father-in-law—hiding one’s true strength was perfectly normal.

It was just that whenever Ji Shinian thought of Xiao Shu hiding his cards, he remembered that in the later chapters, the more gently the protagonist smiled at someone, the more miserably that person died.

To think the protagonist is already showing his “black-bellied” side so early. Ji Shinian lamented inwardly, then rudely interrupted Li Moyan. “What threads? I didn’t see anything! You can’t even look after a pouch? What use are you to me!”

Just as Ji Shinian finished speaking, perhaps because he was being too unreasonable, the Corpse Ghoul, which had been fighting the Blood Plague Worms, suddenly turned around.

“You… you don’t have to be afraid.” Facing a defensive Li Moyan, the ghoul’s drooping eyes twitched violently. It took a long moment before it squeezed out the rest of its sentence. “It’s… none… of his business. I… escaped… on my own.”

The voice sounded as if it had been torn and crushed, the broken sounds barely forming words. It was harsh and grating, yet it had undeniably come from that horrific, gaping mouth.

Before they could process the shock of a talking Corpse Ghoul, Zhou Hongluan charged in from outside the woods. She grabbed the ghoul before it could turn back, her vertical pupils wide with rage as she roared:

“You little beast! You dare run here? I’ve finally caught you!”