The male supporting character was actually myself.

"Whether it's a bug or not is not important. The most important thing now is to get Zhou Zhixue settled as soon as possible; and keep a close eye on the script. I have a feeling that the male lead was punished by being forced to face the wall to reflect on his mistakes today, which is considered a misfortune, but the main system did not issue any tasks. It is very likely that the place where the sect leader imprisoned him may lead to a new adventure."

Based on the original plot, there are only two scenarios for Lin Xucheng to be rescued from his current confined space: First, the big fish he met later in the fishpond appears early and is quickly captured by him.

The Nascent Soul Realm cultivator is capable of tearing through space, allowing one to take him out to roam freely without anyone noticing;

The second possibility is that he might be swept away by a spatial turbulence, enter a secret realm, and make a fortune. Not only would he win the heart of a beautiful woman, but he could also increase his strength and incidentally obtain a treasure that would shock the cultivation world.

Heavy treasure?

Upon hearing these two highly valuable words, the little white cat immediately perked up, its deep blue eyes gleaming with greedy light. "Host, do you need me to keep an eye on him? Don't worry, with my soft and adorable little white cat around, if he manages to enter the secret realm, I'll make sure he comes back empty-handed!"

"You money-grubber!" Jiang Chen was amused by it, patted the fluffy little head of the ball of fluff and instructed, "Not for now, we'll deal with whatever comes our way once the script is updated."

In any case, apart from having a large fishpond, Lin Xucheng didn't have any overly powerful cheat codes like a system.

Don't push him too hard; take it slow, like slaughtering a pig with a dull knife. Otherwise, you might push him to the point of mutation, which would be a real problem.

The soul weapon he dispatched split in two; one side kept an eye on Lin Xucheng, while the other followed Zhou Zhixue as she was dragged into the punishment hall. The punishment hall disciples' actions were swift and fierce, completely destroying the foundation she had built up over the years since joining the Xiaoyao Sect.

She was on the verge of death when she was expelled from the mountain gate, her life almost completely cut off.

If left unchecked, Zhou Zhixue wouldn't even live to see tomorrow's sun, so how could she possibly become a threat to the male lead?

If Lin Xucheng, the chosen one, wants her dead, then she must disappear from this world!

"Cough cough..." A violent cough spurted blood from the corner of her mouth, waking Zhou Zhixue from her unconsciousness. Her increasingly withered hands instinctively clenched a few times before she belatedly felt the unique coldness of the stone slab spreading up from beneath her.

His whole body was still trembling slightly unconsciously—this was the lingering pain in his body after his learned martial arts were forcibly abolished.

Zhou Zhixue dared not recall what she had experienced in the torture hall. The pain, comparable to having her tendons and bones ripped out, almost made her unable to endure it several times. However, the resentment and hatred in her heart, as well as her expectations for Senior Brother Liu, made her burst forth with an extremely strong will to survive.

Grit your teeth and hold on, you absolutely cannot give up!

As long as I hold on until Senior Brother Liu comes looking for me... he'll definitely find a way to save me...

The image of Senior Brother Liu's gentle smile flashed through Zhou Zhixue's mind like a hallucination. It was as if she had returned to a long, long time ago, to the time when she first went down the mountain for training and encountered the Night Demon, nearly getting trapped and dying. She had also collapsed in the grass, barely alive. Just when she thought she was doomed, Senior Brother Liu appeared like a god descending from the sky, bringing a ray of light.

He repelled the dangerous Night Demon;

So gentle and considerate, she bandaged his wounds and even fed him two very precious pills to heal him...

"Senior Brother Liu..." Zhou Zhixue was in a daze and couldn't distinguish between illusion and reality. She seemed to see that dazzling light again.

Just like the first time we met, a pure white dress came into view.

She strained to look up and saw a tall figure walking towards her in the bright afterglow of the setting sun. He slowly bent down and said in his usual gentle voice, "Junior Sister Zhou, I'm here."

Zhou Zhixue forced a smile, then relaxed, rolled her eyes, and fainted.

"Meow~ Is it going to die already?" The little white cat was startled and quickly reached out its little paw to check its breath. "Thank goodness, it's still breathing and alive!"

He bent down, pried open her mouth, and stuffed a pill inside. "With the original owner's top-grade pill keeping her alive, she won't die."

After confirming that she was out of danger, Jiang Chen tossed her onto his flying sword like a sack of potatoes and carried her down the mountain.

Zhou Zhixue woke up in a clean and tidy bed in a VIP room at an inn.

"Senior Brother Liu?!" She struggled to her feet, ignoring the excruciating pain all over her body. At this moment, when she was weak, the most important thing was to seize Liu Jiangchen's heart while he felt sorry for her!

Otherwise, without cultivation and expelled from the sect, with nothing and severely injured, it would be difficult to survive.

The fluffy ball that had been dozing nearby was suddenly startled awake. It yawned, stretched, and scratched its paws on the bedding impatiently, saying, "Host, she's awake!"

Zhou Zhixue sat up and immediately looked down to check her clothes. When she found that they were still intact, she felt a little disappointed.

She then remembered that she was no longer a young and beautiful girl, but rather looked like an old woman. Even the frivolous and scumbag Lin Xucheng wouldn't be interested in her, let alone her upright and polite senior brother Liu, who would never take advantage of her.

"You're awake?" Jiang Chen put away the book and walked into the bedroom, a gentle smile on his face as he comforted her, "After taking two pills, your body is much better now. Don't worry about any lingering ailments."

"Waaaaah... As expected, Senior Brother Liu is still the best to Xue'er!" She was sobbing with tears streaming down her face, finally able to put her mind at ease.

With Senior Brother Liu by my side through thick and thin for the rest of my life, I am already a million times luckier than many people!

Even if his cultivation was abolished, with his spiritual root and Senior Brother Liu's continuous supply of pills, he could still embark on the path of cultivation again and even surpass most of his fellow disciples.

Jiang Chen naturally knew what she was planning.

She used to ignore the original owner, simply because she was too lazy to deal with sycophants because of her beauty.

Now, she has lost her beauty and status as the darling of everyone. Even if she wanted to live an ordinary life in the mortal world, she would not know needlework or needlework and would have no means of making a living. She has no way out but to become a prostitute.

In times of crisis, if you grab onto a sycophant and make him take over, you'll naturally have nothing to worry about.

“Although Junior Sister Zhou’s cultivation has been abolished, you still have spiritual roots and can start over.” He thoughtfully served her a bowl of medicinal soup and sighed, “If Lin Xucheng were just an ordinary disciple, I could use my status as an alchemist to help you try to return to the sect. Sigh… why did you have to provoke him of all people?”

As expected, Lin Xucheng is no ordinary person!

The hatred in Zhou Zhixue's heart made her heart race as she pressed on, asking, "Senior Brother Liu, who exactly is he? How could he make you so wary?"

At this moment, she completely forgot about the humiliation she had suffered at the mountain gate from Liu Jiangchen.

This love-struck woman is convinced that Liu Jiangchen still has feelings for her and will never leave her. Her previous words and actions must have been because she was furious when she found out that her beloved was having an affair with another man.

Now, seeing his beloved in distress, he still cannot suppress his burning emotions. That's why he is willing to offend the mysterious Lin Xucheng in order to save her and please her, hoping to win back the heart of the woman he loves and make her fall in love with him wholeheartedly!

"You were together with him day and night, whispering sweet nothings, and you didn't even notice?" Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow and asked, "When you were being affectionate and honest with each other, you weren't so focused on enjoying yourselves that you didn't notice anything unusual at all, were you?"

When such a private matter was asked to her face, Zhou Zhixue felt both ashamed and embarrassed, her face immediately turned red, and she lowered her head, not daring to utter a sound.

"Lin Xucheng has ruined you to this state, and you still don't hurry up and think about how to survive and how to get revenge?" He put the medicine aside, picked up the mirror on the table and threw it at you. "Look at your face, it's all because of him! Not only will you live like this from now on, but your life force will also be almost completely cut off. You don't have many years left to live."

The harsh reality shattered Zhou Zhixue's original fantasy of being deeply in love and cherished by Liu Jiangchen.

With trembling, wrinkled hands, she picked up the bronze mirror and glanced at it.

This was the first time Zhou Zhixue had seen her own face properly after her life force was drained by the forbidden secret technique.

"Ah!" she screamed, threw the mirror to the ground, covered her face with her hands, and began to wail.

What a face it was! It was loose, dull, covered with wrinkles, and even had many brown age spots! Her once jet-black and shiny hair had become dry and gray, and it was not nearly as presentable as she had imagined. She had no trace of her former charm.

Zhou Zhixue still naively fantasized that although some of her life force had been drained, she was saved by Senior Brother Liu and would still have some beauty and grace. As long as she took good care of herself and had elixirs to nourish her, she would definitely become a graceful and noble beauty.

However, a bronze mirror shattered her illusions completely.

This is a horrible sight...

Sure enough, even Senior Brother Liu didn't want to look at him anymore!

“What’s the use of crying?” Jiang Chen continued to use reverse psychology. “If you can cry yourself to death Lin Xucheng, the Nine-Sound Divine Child, then you can waste the little time you have left. Otherwise, calm down and think carefully about whether there was anything unusual about him when you had a deep interaction with him.”

"Nine...Nine-Sound Divine Child?"

Zhou Zhixue was truly dumbfounded this time. The wave after wave of shocks failed to numb her; instead, she was utterly shocked by these four words.

"Lin Xucheng is actually the one from back then..."

"How many people have successfully ascended from the lower realm in recent years? Consider Lin Xucheng's rapid progress and the unusual treatment he received in this incident, can't you guess? He is the Nine-Sound Divine Child who was fought over by old monsters from all realms as soon as he stepped into the cultivation world, the most likely cultivator to ascend to become a God Emperor in legend."

A profound sense of powerlessness washed over Zhou Zhixue, who found it somewhat comical.

Can someone who's heartless after getting what they want and then turns their back on you ever achieve enlightenment?

The laws of Heaven can actually tolerate this?!

“He, he seems to be…” Zhou Zhixue racked her brains trying to recall her time with him, and felt a headache coming on.

Since the two didn't have a clear romantic relationship, they actually spent very little time together. Usually, it was either him or Lin Xucheng who couldn't stand the loneliness, so they would secretly exchange letters and arrange to have a passionate encounter in a secluded place.

Especially after he began practicing the superior cultivation technique he had given him, he became increasingly insatiable and demanding.

Lin Xucheng always readily accepted the invitation, which was quite normal, considering that one was a male cultivator who was naturally dissolute and energetic, and the other was a beautiful young woman with fair skin who became even more irresistible after cultivating her charm.

The two seemed to be getting along perfectly well, each fulfilling their desires without any apparent abnormality.

Besides, what else could there be between men and women besides...?

Jiang Chen was getting impatient. At present, Zhou Zhixue was the only woman who had been honest with Lin Xucheng and knew each other's depths. If he could get some information from her, he might be able to deduce some of Lin Xucheng's secrets.

But looking at her flushed face, could it be that she's having another love-struck episode and is too busy reminiscing about those blissful moments?

"Ahem!" He coughed lightly and asked directly, "When you two are together, who always takes the initiative? Does Lin Xucheng have any... special abilities or techniques? For example..."

Jiang Chen tentatively asked, "Could he be practicing the art of yin-yang replenishment?"

"Eek!" The fluffy little ball bristled and shyly covered its round face. "Oh dear, host, I'm still a child! What kind of indecent things are you saying?"

Zhou Zhixue was taken aback. "Plucking Yin to Replenish Yang? You suspect he's using me to cultivate?"

"Otherwise, I really can't understand why he would give you such a high-level cultivation technique to practice." Jiang Chen shrugged, silently adding the second half in his mind: Not only you, but also all the fish he encountered in the original script, he gave them all and patiently taught them to cultivate the art of charm and then practiced dual cultivation with them.

Judging from Lin Xucheng's high regard for the harmony of Yin and Yang, and how he spent almost the entire year before his ascension tending to the large fishpond, tirelessly squeezing all kinds of fish into milky white fish soup in various ways, Jiang Chen had reason to suspect that he might be able to extract some benefits from it.

Otherwise, if one's energy is completely drained, how could one possibly become stronger with each battle and successfully overcome tribulations and advance in one after another?

After being given a hint, and recalling the embarrassing process in detail, Zhou Zhixue's face, which was originally flushed with shame, gradually turned pale.

"I...I was used as a cultivation vessel, and even..." She felt incredibly angry and desolate. She thought the sweet words were fake, but at least the unforgettable enjoyment was real. But now, upon closer reflection, she realized that she had been a tool all along!

Deceived and exploited, Lin Xucheng even lost most of his own life force!

The angrier Zhou Zhixue became, and she cried out in anguish, "I want revenge! I want to curse Lin Xucheng to a terrible death!"

"What revenge can you take in this horrible state?" Jiang Chen stabbed her in the heart again, then handed her a small jade bottle. "Lin Xucheng is the Nine-Sound Divine Child, highly valued by the sect. I am powerless to contend with him."

You can never return to the Free and Unfettered Sect, you can't even live anymore, otherwise Lin Xucheng will hunt you down to the ends of the earth if he finds out. I can save you once, but not a second time. For your safety, Zhou Zhixue must die.

Her face filled with terror as she stared at the small jade bottle, trembling as she asked, "Is...there poison in here?"

The fluffy dumpling couldn't help but facepalm. "Host is so stupid, can she really be trusted?"

"If it were poison, why would I have bothered to save you?" Jiang Chen tossed the jade bottle over and said in a deep voice, "Inside is a Rejuvenation Pill, which I painstakingly refined. Swallowing this pill will allow you to transform into any form you desire, but it will only make you look younger on the outside; in reality, your life force will still be nearing its end."

Moreover, after taking the Rejuvenating Pill, you only have one chance to change your face. Make the most of it and be sure to get a more stunning and beautiful face so that you can approach Lin Xucheng with a new identity in the future to avenge yourself.

The Rejuvenating Pill only lasts for one year. If you don't take a second pill by this time next year, your true form will be revealed.

Junior sister probably doesn't want to appear in public looking like this, does she?

Chapter Nine: New Plot and Plan A

Upon hearing that she could regain her youthful beauty, Zhou Zhixue grabbed the jade bottle, fearing that such a precious and rare rejuvenating pill would disappear into thin air.

She quickly understood the meaning behind his words: if she wanted to keep her new and prettier face, she had to listen to Liu Jiangchen. With new hope in her sight, she breathed heavily and nodded, saying, "Senior Brother Liu, please give me your orders. Xue'er is willing to do anything!"

That being said, Zhou Zhixue was actually quite worried.