Transmigrating into the world of Jade Dynasty, I was targeted by the female lead in a reverse romanc

After a long while, Lu Xueqi suddenly spoke in a low voice, her voice exceptionally clear in the silence.

"Why did you...?"

She paused, as if carefully choosing her words, her gaze falling on the candy on her fingertips.

"Why are you so good to me?"

Jiang Xiaochuan was sucking on a candy, savoring the sweetness as it dispelled the bitterness and bloody taste in his mouth.

Hearing this, he turned to look at her. Her eyes were slightly lowered, and her long eyelashes cast a faint shadow on her pale cheeks. The lines of her profile were softened in the red light, but she still carried that cold and aloof air.

Why be good to her?

It seems he had never thought about this question carefully, ever since that night at Hongqiao, when she handed him the candy she had made herself.

Or even earlier, when she was just a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl, coldly chasing after him for the "six-year promise"?

I made sword tassels for her, brought her snacks, practiced swordsmanship with her, listened to her talk... and it seems like I got used to it without even realizing it.

He was used to seeing other expressions occasionally appear on her usually aloof face, used to her being by his side, and used to the clean and sharp aura emanating from her.

Even as he jumped, he didn't think of anything else. He just couldn't watch her fall, he couldn't.

"Because you are Lu Xueqi."

Lu Xueqi's fingers, which were holding the candy, tightened almost imperceptibly. She looked up at him.

"Just because of that?"

"Hmm." Jiang Xiaochuan nodded, as if it were a matter of course. "Because you are Lu Xueqi."

So I want to be good to you, unconditionally good to you, without needing a reason, I just want to make you happy, want you to be safe, want you... not like in the original story, waiting bitterly for ten years, gazing at the moon in solitude, being misunderstood by so many people, being distorted, and being scolded.

These thoughts churned within him, but he didn't voice them.

He simply looked at her, his eyes clear and open, yet carrying a pure, unspoken desire to be good to her that he himself was unaware of.

Lu Xueqi looked into his eyes, which reflected a red light and her own image. They were clear and pure, without any impurities or the emotions she both longed for and feared to see.

A thought flickered in her mind: Jiang Xiaochuan, do you like me?

Like Tian Ling'er's affection for you, like the feelings that men have for women in the stories?

But she swallowed the words back down her throat.

She was afraid. She was afraid that if she asked, she would get a negative answer, or worse, an awkward silence and alienation, just like she had with Tian Ling'er, and she would start to avoid him and keep her distance.

This way... seems pretty good. He'll treat her well, protect her, and even jump down to die with her.

Although it might just be because "she is Lu Xueqi", because of their shared school, because... they are good friends.

Good friend. She hummed softly to herself.

"Why?" she asked persistently, her voice so low it was almost inaudible, as if she were asking herself, or perhaps him.

Jiang Xiaochuan looked at her slightly furrowed brows and the complex emotions in her eyes that he couldn't understand.

He scratched his head and repeated the same thing:

"Because you are Lu Xueqi."

Lu Xueqi held the amber-colored candy in his hand, applying slight pressure with his fingertips. The candy was hard, still warm from his palm.

She looked at the candy, then glanced up at his satisfied, squinting profile, and suddenly asked very softly, "What if... I weren't Lu Xueqi?"

Jiang Xiaochuan was stunned for a moment, then turned to look at her: "What?"

"If I changed my name, changed my identity, and wasn't Lu Xueqi of Xiaozhu Peak..."

She stared into his eyes, her voice as soft as a sigh, "Will you still be this good to me?"

Jiang Xiaochuan was stumped by the question. He opened his mouth and answered very seriously, "Yes."

Lu Xueqi's eyes lit up for a moment.

"Because," Jiang Xiaochuan added, rubbing his nose, "whatever name you change to, you're still you, aren't you?"

Looking at his honest yet somewhat confused expression, Lu Xueqi suddenly smiled.

She put the candy in her mouth, pressing it against her tongue, letting the sweetness melt away little by little. Yes, it was sweet, just like him—straightforward, simple, and inexplicably reassuring.

Because you are Lu Xueqi.

In the darkness, only the two of them breathed softly, and the faint sound of the sugar cube slowly melting on their tongues could be heard.

The red light of the God-Slaying Spear emanated steadily, separating this small space from the all-consuming darkness outside.

However, this deathly silence did not last long.

"roar-!!"

A furious, bloodthirsty roar, filled with greedy desire, suddenly exploded from the darkness on the left!

The sound waves were so real that they made the air buzz and even drowned out the monotonous sound of the merciless sea!

Immediately afterwards, a sickeningly loud "crack" sound came from the right, as if countless withered branches were being snapped and twisted at the same time. It was slow, heavy, and carried an inhuman malice!

Jiang Xiaochuan and Lu Xueqi jumped up at the same time!

Despite their depleted spiritual energy and exhausted bodies, their instincts honed through long-term cultivation and life-or-death battles instantly put them into combat mode!

Lu Xueqi almost instinctively stepped forward to shield Jiang Xiaochuan behind her, as his cultivation level was low and he was injured.

But before she could take a step, Jiang Xiaochuan stepped forward and blocked her way.

He had his back to her, facing the direction from which the roar came. He was not tall, and even somewhat thin, but his back was ramrod straight.

"Don't move." He didn't turn his head, his voice low and deep, carrying an unquestionable tone, "Stand behind me."

Lu Xueqi's outstretched hand froze in mid-air. She looked at his taut back and his profile, which appeared unusually calm in the dim red light. The worry and self-blame in her heart surged up, but were suppressed by a more turbulent and unfamiliar emotion.

She didn't step forward again, but her fingers tightened around the hilt of the Tianya sword.

In the darkness on the left, two scarlet lights lit up first, like two lanterns from hell, filled with violence and gluttony.

Immediately afterwards, a massive, mountain-like figure burst through the darkness and stepped into the edge illuminated by the red light of the God-Slaying Spear!

Was that a pig? No, it was a monster!

It was as tall as two or three people, and its body was as muscular as a moving hill!

It had a huge, ferocious pig's head with protruding tusks that were long and sharp, gleaming with a pale, cold light under the red glow.

However, its body resembled a vicious dog magnified several times, covered with a layer of jet-black, shiny, bristly brown-black fur that stood up like steel needles!

Those two scarlet dots were its eyes, as big as copper bells, containing nothing but savagery and greed.

Its thick limbs are like pillars, and its sharp claws are deeply dug into the ground. With each step it takes, the ground trembles clearly and makes a dull "thump, thump" sound.

Foul-smelling saliva dripped from its everted mouth, causing the ground to hiss and crackle as it corroded it.

The "click" sound was getting closer on the right.

A "tree" emerged from the darkness.

It was indeed a tree, but it grew in this lifeless underground abyss.

The trunk was astonishingly thick, requiring at least three people to encircle it. It was entirely black, with cracked bark like dragon scales, radiating a cold, metallic sheen.

The branches twisted and gnarled, like countless twisted, struggling ghostly claws reaching into the surrounding darkness.

The tree was bare, devoid of leaves, lifeless, yet exuding a chilling, eerie aura.

The most bizarre thing is that the roots of this "tree" are not embedded in the soil, but rather like some kind of multi-legged creature, supported by countless wriggling, black python-like roots, slowly and heavily "moving" forward.

On the tree trunk, a blurry, distorted outline resembling a human face vaguely appeared, with two eerie green will-o'-the-wisps flickering in the empty "eye sockets".

Red-eyed pig demon! Tree demon!