I Became the Male Lead’s Cruel Master - Chapter 2

Yun Qi had been clever, I’d give her that.

The whip was made from Ying Xun’s shed scales, steeped in medicinal herbs that suppressed dragons, then soaked in his blood over years of use. No wonder it could hurt him.

The system was displeased. “You didn’t cut off his horns.”

“What’s the hurry?” I tossed the whip aside and began searching the room.

The system had mentioned an ancient book Yun Qi owned.

Dragons stood above all other spiritual creatures. Powerful fighters and auspicious beasts favored by Heaven, they were not something most people dared covet.

Yet this book described the uses of every part of a dragon’s body, along with ways to subdue it. The detail was such that it might as well have dismembered a dragon in words.

It reduced those lofty creatures to delicacies and miraculous medicines for everyone to drool over.

Whoever had written it deserved to die for that alone.

Ying Xun had still been a dragon egg when Yun Qi found him.

Without that ancient book, she would never have thought to keep a dragon and refine him into an elixir of immortality.

Dragons developed awareness even before hatching. Yet she’d raised him like livestock, beating and humiliating him whenever something displeased her.

To Yun Qi, Ying Xun was nothing more than an ingredient.

So when she learned that dragon horns could grow back, she’d immediately summoned him, eager to cut them off and use them to curry favor.

I found the book in a corner of her storage space.

The title on its cover made me pause: Fuguang’s Notes.

Then I smiled.

An old acquaintance, after all.

As I read, someone knocked on my door.

It was my eldest disciple, the heroine ordained by the Heavenly Dao.

Ruan Yu stood with a sword in her arms, her black hair tied neatly behind her head. She had the face of a cool, aloof beauty.

A hundred-year-old Golden Core cultivator, the foremost young talent in the way of the sword—Yun Qi had always been proud of her.

I didn’t understand why an alchemist like Yun Qi had taken a sword cultivator as her disciple.

Clearly, the Heavenly Dao was getting desperate in its efforts to match up the leads.

I smiled. “What brings you to your master?”

“I just ran into Junior Brother. He’s covered in wounds again.” Ruan Yu’s fine brows drew together, as though she couldn’t bear it.

Still smiling, I nodded.

The heroine was kindhearted. She often brought the male lead medicine in secret, the sole warmth in his miserable life, and the woman he cherished as his unattainable ideal.

But Yun Qi treated her eldest disciple so well that the heroine didn’t see her master’s true nature until the male lead became a demon.

By then, it was too late.

I couldn’t understand why she was here instead of taking him medicine and deepening their bond.

Ruan Yu held out her hand as though it were the most natural thing in the world. “Master, you made those wounds. You should pay for the medicine.”

“I’ve spent every bit of my savings on medicine for Junior Brother.”

She stroked her sword mournfully. “I can’t even afford a new tassel for my darling.”

Sword cultivators were poor to begin with. Making her shoulder Ying Xun’s medical bills really was asking too much.

After a pause, I handed her a storage pouch with the confidence of someone rolling in money. “Take it. Spend whatever you like.”

Her eyes lit up.

Still a little uneasy, I added, “Don’t tell your junior brother the medicine came from me.”

She nodded repeatedly.

Ruan Yu left humming, her ponytail swinging. I watched her carefree, exuberant figure until I lost myself in thought.

The system reminded me, “It’s time to take Lord Mingshui his medicine.”

When I didn’t respond, it went quiet for a moment, then began chanting in my head at the volume of a thunderclap.

The Heavenly Dao had actually sent this thing to supervise me!

Cursing, I headed for the storeroom.

After a few choice words for the system, I started on Yun Qi.

That damned lovesick fool. She’d gone to all the trouble of raising a dragon and earned all that hatred just to help her senior brother attain immortality!

She even delivered the rare herbs she’d painstakingly collected to him on schedule, eager as anything.

A complete and utter doormat.

“You’re the doormat now,” the system said flatly.

The storeroom was small but neatly divided.

On the left were the pills and spiritual herbs destined for Lord Mingshui. On the right were the highly poisonous herbs used in Ying Xun’s medicinal baths.

I pulled out a brocade box at random. Inside lay a tanyang herb, a rarity almost impossible to find.

I fell silent.

“What are you waiting for?” the system urged. “Go give it to him!”

“I can’t bear to. It’s too expensive.”

“…It was bought with Yun Qi’s money.”

“But I’m Yun Qi now!” I said, heartbroken.

“You can’t break character!”

Ignoring it, I turned to rummage among the herbs on the right and found one that looked exactly like tanyang.

With the medicine in my arms, I set off happily while the system had a breakdown.