Chapter 9 Protagonist Villain

Chapter 9 Protagonist and Villain

Chu Ji’s hand hovered mid-air—wanting to push the other away but unwilling to touch him.

His scalp prickled as he wrestled with conflicting thoughts. Though only a few moments had passed in reality, he leaned against the wall, shaking his head vigorously as his consciousness gradually blurred.

Jun Xueyi had just taken a palm strike, and the blood had already risen to his throat. Now, activated by the Mental Technique radiating unintentionally from Chu Ji, he could only turn his head aside and spit out the blood.

He watched as the blood stained Chu Ji’s shoulder, silently wiping the corner of his own mouth.

“……Jun Xueyi, you didn’t just vomit on me, did you?” Chu Ji felt a cold sensation seeping into his shoulder, fighting to stay coherent.

Jun Xueyi fell silent.

He glanced up coldly. “You started this. If I don’t spit on you, where else should I spit?”

Right now, he could barely stand, yet he couldn’t collapse onto Chu Ji. Chu Ji was unconsciously channeling his energy to resist the pollen he had just inhaled. In his current state, getting close would only mean suffering.

As he spoke, his nose twitched slightly. An elusive fragrance drifted from Chu Ji to him—like morning flower buds carrying the crispness of dew, yet also like an intoxicating illusion of the night. He lowered his head slightly.

Chu Ji gripped the wall. Now it wasn’t only a fire in his heart—his entire body felt ablaze. He grew hotter and hotter, to the point where he could no longer focus on the fact that Jun Xueyi had vomited on him.

He swallowed quietly, his hand still clutching his collar.

So hot.

Chu Ji couldn’t stand heat or cold. His Mental Technique made him unique—regardless of the external temperature, he lived as if in perpetual spring. Now, experiencing real heat and cold firsthand, even the slightest extremes became unbearable.

His fingers tugged at his collar—it was the first time he felt he was wearing too many clothes.

He wanted to strip off these clothes, he thought hazily, his hand reaching for his belt. Just then, a voice sounded by his ear, as gentle and nauseating as ever, but the words sent a chill through his blood.

“So it really is the Young Master, even wearing perfume to come kill me.”

Chu Ji snapped awake, his face turning cold as he tried to slap Jun Xueyi but found he had no strength.

He took a deep breath, speaking almost calmly, “Antidote.”

Jun Xueyi retreated slightly, glancing down at Chu Ji’s expression. That face was as cold as his own Mental Technique. He adopted a similarly cold expression, then remembered he was wearing a mask and relaxed into a lazy expression.

Calculating the time, he said, “Lift the spell from me, and I’ll give you the antidote.”

All Chu Ji wanted now was the antidote. Pressing his middle and index fingers to his forehead, a blue light flashed, and the spell within Jun Xueyi vanished. Gasping, he repeated, “Antidote.”

With the spell gone, it was like a long illness suddenly cured or a suffocating person finally able to breathe. Jun Xueyi felt immediate relief—the piercing pain that had plagued him was gone, and sensation slowly returned to his arm.

He let out a long, slow breath.

Seeing Chu Ji staring intently at him, he tossed over the antidote pellet he had held earlier. Watching Chu Ji swallow it, he said, “Sit down and channel your energy. It’ll take about fifteen minutes.”

Fifteen minutes would be enough for Chu Ji’s Mental Technique to refine the inhaled pollen.

He had noticed upon entering that the pollen from these poisonous flowers was highly beneficial for those cultivating extreme fire or cold-based Mental Techniques. Unfortunately, each flower yielded only a tiny amount of usable pollen—even collecting from all the flowers here wouldn’t fill a fingernail’s worth.

The fruit had been an unexpected boon. Both he and these poisonous flowers were of a cold nature. If not for this Young Master barging in, he might never have discovered it.

The fruit seemed unripe, and with that sword strike damaging it, it would take at least ten thousand years for the next one to form.

Chu Ji absorbing it would do no harm—it would repay the debt for saving him from that group earlier.

He detested all forms of entanglements. A debt of gratitude only created more ties.

In everything he did, he preferred to be the one giving cause and effect.

This person had become an exception, probably because he was a good person.

A naive Young Master—anyone else would have been swindled out of even their sword.

He watched the meditating figure, plucking a flower and using its stem to brush aside the strands of hair falling over Chu Ji’s face.

Even animals have those “wisdom hairs.”

Demon clan members somewhat resemble beasts—did this one have wisdom hairs?

Circling Chu Ji twice, he found not a single wisdom hair. Suddenly, it all made sense—no wonder he was so fixated on killing him yet saved him first. So it was because he wasn’t clever.

Thinking this, Jun Xueyi crushed a nearby poisonous flower, dipped the stem in its sap, and, seeing that Chu Ji wouldn’t wake for a while, used the sap to create a wisdom hair for him.

Maybe once he finished meditating, that misaligned meridian would reconnect properly, and he’d decide to give up on him and return home to wreak havoc and do as he pleased.

As Jun Xueyi pondered, his instincts kicked in—he drew his sword to block.

A massive spider leg nearly pierced his skull.

Some of the poisonous flowers had been destroyed, affecting the hatching of the egg sacs farthest from them. The silver spiders, sensing the disturbance, were heading this way.

They had managed to enter and harvest the flowers and frost thanks to ideal timing and location. If the silver spiders gathered, their webs would seal the cave, rendering Teleportation Talismans useless—they’d be trapped in this nest.

A few adult silver spiders alone were manageable, but once they gathered, their webs would cover everything.

Jun Xueyi sighed. What a hassle. Staring at Chu Ji, he wondered who owed whom at this point.

He raised his sword and lured the silver spiders away.

“Dude, wasn’t he just trying to kill you?”

“He was killing you!!! Isn’t this the perfect chance now that the Demon Lord is meditating? What is Jun Xueyi waiting for? Kill him now!”

“The Demon Lord appeared so many chapters early—he hasn’t grown into the formidable foe from the later plot. One strike would settle it. What are you doing, Jun Xueyi?”

“He’s using flower sap to shape the Demon Lord’s hair into an ear-like tuft. Wow.”

“What’s wrong with Jun Xueyi? After being cut up like this, he still won’t strike?”

“……”

“I’m speechless. Jun Xueyi even lured the monster away.”

“Wait, am I reading fanfiction now?”

“Stay rational—rational, my foot. Was the protagonist possessed? I’ve been lost since the Demon Lord showed up early. What is Jun Xueyi doing?”

“Such a cool character reduced to being someone’s dog?”

“Don’t put it so harshly. How is he being a dog? He probably can’t kill the Demon Lord now. Didn’t you see the magical lock on his chest? As long as the Demon Lord lives, no one can kill him. Otherwise, Jun Xueyi wouldn’t have endured for so long, waiting until he was one step from godhood to finally kill him.”

“Hah, so he can’t kill him, so he gives him a crafted ear out of sap.”

“Hah, so he can’t kill him, so he guards him while he meditates.”

"Heh, can't kill him so he fed the villain an aphrodisiac."

"Aphrodisiac?!"

Chu Ji finally shook off the overwhelming sensation and burning heat. His eyes snapped open, and he found himself still sitting amidst the poisonous flowers, with Jun Xueyi nowhere in sight.

Though awake, he couldn't move as his mental technique was still completing its final cycle, but he could see floating text before his eyes.

Jun Xueyi stood guard while he meditated?

Aphrodisiac?

What kind of drug is that?

"Didn’t you watch the earlier plot? Those fools from the Clear Wind Sect thought the ultimate Mental Technique could immunize against all poisons, but Jun Xueyi is only immune to Cold Poison and fire poison. Those people figured poison wouldn’t work, so they specifically found this health-benefiting aphrodisiac to drug Jun Xueyi, trying to embarrass him in front of their sect."

"Jun Xueyi used his Mental Technique to freeze himself for a whole day to tough it out, then went and bought one himself to get back at him. Among those who framed him was the very person who drugged him. This drug was meant for that person. Later in the plot, it’s written that he beat that person to within an inch of his life, trapped him with a Sword Formation to ensure he wouldn’t survive the night, and then fed him this drug. No one knows whether that guy died from frustration or was finally killed by the Sword Formation."

"And he just fed it to the villain, fresh like that?"

"The demonkind’s constitution is different. Drugs meant for humans have greatly reduced effects on demons. I think part of the reason the villain ended up like this is that the golden finger meant for Jun Xueyi was pushed right in front of the villain by Jun Xueyi himself. The villain’s cultivation is built up from rare treasures—it’s very flimsy. The high-intensity operation of the Mental Technique gave the villain a burning sensation, and on top of that, he took an aphrodisiac, making him hot and bothered... Jun Xueyi, hard to judge."

Chu Ji’s face turned a kaleidoscope of colors as he read these words. Seeing "hot and bothered," he instantly understood what an aphrodisiac was. He was so angry his eyes narrowed, clenching his fists so tightly his fingertips turned white without him even noticing. He didn’t even care that the text called him flimsy.

Furious, he laughed bitterly. If he didn’t kill Jun Xueyi, he wouldn’t be Chu Ji anymore!

Aside from his parents and Xiong Qun, no one had ever seen his ears.

And that fragrance...

If he didn’t kill this person, he wouldn’t be the Little Demon King anymore!

"Oh no, the silver spiders have sealed off the cave."

"Jun Xueyi clearly had a chance to escape earlier, but he didn’t even glance at the exit. What was he thinking? Although the poison from the silver spider silk doesn’t affect him, it restricts spiritual power. If this goes on, whoever’s in the cave won’t be able to recover any spiritual power at all."

"The protagonist gave the transformed Demon Core to the Ji brothers. What now? The villain won’t die, but will the protagonist?"

"So dramatic. The villain won’t die, but the protagonist really might."

"I remember later in the story, it’s written that there’s a millennium cold pool beneath the nest, which is why these poisonous flowers can grow."

"!!! He mustn’t go down there! If he goes down, isn’t the protagonist done for?!"

Chu Ji completed the circulation of his Mental Technique. The first thing he did upon standing up was to take off his clothes.

They were stained with flower juice, mud, and something Jun Xueyi had spat on them—he couldn’t stand it for another moment.

After changing into a new outer robe, he picked up his sword. He didn’t know how to respond to these texts, otherwise he’d really say the protagonist will die—by his hand.

Before he could walk out, he heard heavy vibrations heading his way.

Chu Ji focused his gaze and saw Jun Xueyi followed by over a dozen adult silver spiders. The moment their numerous clustered eyes appeared, he instantly felt sick to his stomach.

And of course, Jun Xueyi was coming straight toward him.

Chu Ji could only retreat, averting his eyes as much as possible.

Jun Xueyi glanced back at those dozens of eyes. He thought this Young Master was fearless.

He entered this cavern within the cave, triggering the Sword Formation he’d set up earlier. It could only trap the silver spiders for a short while. If they didn’t leave soon, more would come, and they could easily be crushed.

Without pausing for breath, a flash of sword light came straight for his heart as Jun Xueyi dodged and said, "Still trying to kill me?"

He’d gone this far to help him out.

Based on all past experiences, shouldn’t someone who inexplicably hated him come around after he did something good for them?

He’d already been wrong about this guy three times.

To think someone like this actually existed in the world.

Behind his weary gaze, curiosity and amusement flickered.

Is that so?

Author's note:

----------------------