I Became the Male Lead’s Cruel Master - Chapter 4

Incredible. Truly incredible.

I’d lived a long time and met more people than I could count, yet Lord Mingshui’s sheer shamelessness still managed to stun me.

I asked the system, “Yun Qi wants to turn Ying Xun into an all-purpose restorative pill entirely for Lord Mingshui’s sake. So why does she end up as a pill herself? What happens to him?”

The system paused. “He gets a taste of his own medicine, naturally.”

I thought of the original Ying Xun: flesh cut away, blood drunk, skin flayed, tendons torn out, and finally half his body ground to pieces while he was still alive.

I fell silent too.

“The position of Dragon God has stood empty for thousands of years. Ying Xun is the Heavenly Dao’s chosen candidate, but a demonic dragon can’t become a god.”

The system sounded earnest. “You have to temper him, but you must keep him on the right path.”

I gave a couple of dry laughs.

On my way back, I passed Ying Xun’s room and heard Ruan Yu’s voice inside.

“This bottle of Essence-Restoring Pills cost five high-grade spirit stones. They work wonders. Do you know who bought them, Junior Brother?”

Her voice rang out brightly. “Master did!”

…

I stopped in my tracks.

A bad feeling rose in my chest.

Ruan Yu went on. “Master does care about you. She spent a fortune on your medicine.”

“You mustn’t resent her.”

Ying Xun finally spoke, his hoarse voice dripping with scorn.

“Every wound on me is her doing.”

Ruan Yu disagreed. “Then why does she only beat you, and never me?”

Silence fell inside. Never mind Ying Xun—I was speechless too.

“Because she has such high hopes for you, of course!”

“The deeper the love, the sterner the discipline. She searched far and wide for the herbs in your daily baths. She’s never put that much effort into me.”

Ruan Yu sounded utterly certain. Ying Xun’s voice was cold.

“Whenever anything upsets her, she punishes me.”

“If Master hits you, you should ask yourself why. Why does she beat you and not me? Because you don’t behave!”

“You have no talent, you can’t cultivate, and you glare at her all day. She still puts so much into you, and you resent her? Is that how you repay her?”

I was stunned. Cold sweat broke out down my back.

The system hadn’t mentioned that the heroine was a master manipulator.

I pushed the door open and met a pair of slightly bewildered golden eyes.

My heart sank. Had he actually fallen for it?

He might not have believed those words from anyone else, but Ruan Yu was the woman he cherished. What she said carried unusual weight with him. She could very well shake his convictions.

Besides, the male lead had never been educated.

I gathered myself and told Ying Xun to take his medicinal bath.

The confusion in his eyes turned vicious again. Much better.

Still, Ruan Yu had disrupted my plans.

Seeing my gloomy face, she edged over, hugged one of my arms, and blinked her big eyes at me.

Who could withstand a cool, commanding beauty acting all sweet and needy?

Not me. I reached out and stroked her hair.

I didn’t see Ruan Yu tilt her head and shoot a smug glance at Ying Xun, who had paused outside the door.

Thanks to that little performance, I had to bring out the spiritual herbs I’d been saving.

Ying Xun’s previous medicinal baths had all been designed to turn his body into a suitable ingredient.

This one would widen his meridians and rebuild his innate constitution. It would benefit him enormously, but the abrupt shift from one extreme to the other was a hundred times more painful than before.

The torment forced him back into his true form.

A small golden dragon thrashed in the medicinal pool, roaring without pause.

Suddenly, he surged out of the water, straight at my face.

Huge dragon eyes fixed on me. With a flash of fearsome fangs, he opened his jaws as though to swallow me whole.

Calmly, I formed a hand seal. My spiritual power became chains that coiled around his body and dragged him back into the pool.

With the male lead’s roars for accompaniment, I settled down to enjoy my book.

“Forge a dagger of dark iron. Immerse it in a cold pool for forty-nine days, then burn it in true fire for another forty-nine. Feed it dragon blood and chai grass. Even a mortal can use such a dagger to cut out a dragon’s horns.”

Ah.

So that was how it worked. Yes, that made sense.

The moon had risen high when the sounds finally faded.

A hand caught my skirt.

Ying Xun lay on the floor, his body covered in wounds that had burst open. Blood wound its way from the edge of the pool to my feet.

His hair hid his face. I couldn’t make out his expression.

“Master,” he said, “I want to cultivate.”

“I want to be as strong as Senior Sister.”

I gently cupped his face. “But if you grow strong, won’t I be the first person you kill?” I asked with concern.

He nuzzled into my palm. “No. Senior Sister was right. You were tempering me all along. How could I repay your kindness with harm?”

The heroine’s words had left their mark on him after all.

His docility made me want to laugh.

So I did.

Freely, fiercely, almost madly, with something like fire burning in my chest.

I withdrew my hand. His head struck the floor with a sharp crack.

“Of course not.”

Silly child. He’d actually learned to beg his executioner for mercy.

I wiped away the tears my laughter had brought to my eyes and left without another glance at him.