Little Pink Starfish

San tian ya.

In the quiet room, a handsome young man with thick eyebrows and big eyes raised his hand and thrust out a sword. Instantly, seven or eight sword flowers flashed out, transforming into more than ten strands of sword qi that sizzled, crisscrossing in all directions, carving quite a few marks into the walls of the quiet room, revealing extremely powerful might.
However, he seemed somewhat dissatisfied. With a tangled expression for a second, he raised his hand again.
This time, ten sword flowers were thrust out, and the transformed sword qi was close to twenty. The marks on the wall increased to twelve in total!

The handsome young man slightly let out a breath, shoulders slumping: “Good, good, this time it passed. Otherwise, I’d have been locked up for three, four, five, six, or seven days again…”
With a sigh, he silently covered his face.

Just how did it come to this?
And what’s worse, even after falling to this point, he actually still had a little bit of… relief?
Habits are truly powerful.
Can even turn a normal person into a masochist…

Already didn’t know how many hundreds of times he had complained in his heart. The handsome young man gave himself a harsh self-ridicule and then energetically leapt up.
Alright! Time to come out of seclusion!
Although after coming out of seclusion, he still had to continue being disfigured!

But just as he reached the door… his steps halted.
The handsome young man hesitated a bit.
Would coming out at this moment disturb the alone time of “that one” and “that one”? If the timing was wrong, he’d be tragically doomed again! So frustrating, so indecisive, what to do.

But if he didn’t come out…
As an ordinary cultivator in the heart-moving stage, he was very hungry. If he didn’t go out now, he’d be dead!
This was enough!

Finally, after recalling the torment he had experienced in these few days, the handsome young man made up his mind.
Starving to death was still death. Coming out would at most mean being tormented and disfigured again. Disfigured? He was used to being disfigured! They couldn’t do anything more to him! Ha ha ha ha!
Thus, he painfully made the decision!
Ha ha… ha ha…

After persuading himself countless times, the handsome young man opened the door.
Ah, the sunshine outside…
Bright?
Fine, it never was bright on the snowy mountaintop.
But the light was still pretty bright, and the air was fresh, making the whole person feel rather comfortable.

However, the handsome young man didn’t have much time to enjoy that feeling. He secretly turned his head, looked around in all directions, randomly glanced… Very good, the target hadn’t appeared! He was still safe!
And then, he darted into the kitchen like a puff of smoke. After wolfing down food to his heart’s content, he leisurely returned to the main hall.

Very good, now as long as he was careful and didn’t encounter that person, he could be very pea—
Peaceful.
My ass!

That glance from the main hall—it was that pervert!
Yes, that pervert!
After interacting for several days, one could clearly see his true nature! What mount? What shishu! Bullshit, he was just a pervert!
Never seen a guy more perverted than him ah ah ah ah!
And Shizun even spoiled him…

Face full of blood and tears.

The handsome young man stiffened on the spot.
He felt that his whole being was not okay anymore.

The handsome young man—no, the original novel’s protagonist Ling Feng, instantly lowered his head dejectedly, quietly stood still, respectfully bowed, and waited for judgment: “Disciple Ling Feng greets Shizun, greets… Shishu.”

Hehe, this time, would it be swinging three hundred thousand sword strikes nonstop overnight, with no rest until finished, or carrying a big jar with sandbags without using true essence to run up and down Tianxiao Mountain ten-plus times, under the name of physical training, or being naked under the Wan Jun waterfall drenched from head to toe for seven days and nights for the so-called body tempering, or also naked, locked in a small dark room with ten thousand snakes and not allowed to come out unless he killed them all in half an hour…
Anyway, it would always be torment.

Ge was already a seasoned veteran, bring it on!

Actually, Ling Feng always felt that even after being tortured like this he didn’t die, something in the dark must have been protecting him, giving him that laughable yet dependable “cockroach” life, allowing him to survive under the hands of a pervert.
But strangely enough, it wasn’t like he had deep hatred for the pervert, because even though that guy constantly stimulated him with killing intent, his strength still rose rapidly, and he hadn’t really suffered any particularly humiliating incidents.
Besides, he actually… quite respected his current Shizun. Shizun had taught him without reservation. Even if he still shielded that pervert, he wasn’t bad to him. He had everything he should have. Many direct disciples didn’t get the benefits he did.

The most important reason was, over these few days, he finally understood one thing!
And that was!
Damn it, he was just a scapegoat!
Reasonable!

Sad to think about.
Ling Feng never expected that—no, rather than saying that, the strange thing was why a top-level ice-statue-like expert like his Shizun would be in a yaoi relationship with a snake!
This was not scientific!

Of course, Ling Feng thought that maybe it was just something he couldn’t understand. Unable to resist the life-and-death bond, he, the poor little guy who had just become a disciple, got targeted, really tragic.
But if he had to choose, he’d rather be targeted and grow stronger… Thinking like this, aside from occasionally sighing about the unpredictability of fate (not really), and the hardship of life (indeed), he was actually quite calm.

After randomly thinking a bunch of things, Ling Feng fixed his gaze downward and maintained his composure, firmly refusing to look toward his Shizun. Even if he had to express respect, it would only be a quick glance, and he must keep his gaze restrained—absolutely no staring, no panic, no emotional fluctuations! Yes! After all the torment, his acting had leveled up!

He looked very calm, very serious, very proper, fully expressing one point—
Ge had no love for Shizun! No hate! No emotions! At most, a tiny bit of respect! Yes! Just a tiny bit! This tiny bit shows ge was not an ungrateful brat! Nothing else! Pervert shishu, don’t misunderstand!
Then, he waited for the judgment to come down.

At this moment, a voice pulled Ling Feng back to reality.
“Shizhi, there’s a guest coming today. You go entertain them for gege. When I return, I have something to instruct you on… Did you understand?”

Ling Feng shivered and straightened up: “Understood!”
Huh huh, today he didn’t say “go xx”, “go xx that xx”, “go xxx do xx come back”! Good sign! Who’s that guest? Ge loves you!

After that, Ling Feng put on a joyful expression and quickly, decisively exited.
Didn’t want to stay even one second longer!

After Ling Feng left, Gu Bai’s gaze wavered slightly. He looked toward Qiguan Rui: “Xiao Shan, don’t scare him.”
Qiguan Rui’s eyes instantly turned aggrieved. He placed his chin on Gu Bai’s shoulder: “Gege, how can you misunderstand me like this? I didn’t scare him… he’s just timid.” As he spoke, he affectionately rubbed Gu Bai’s cheek. “So gege, only I am the most perfect protagonist under your pen, right?”

Gu Bai: “…”
No no no, damn pervert, actually you’re the most flawed one, okay! So flawed it doesn’t even feel flawed anymore!

But seeing Qiguan Rui’s eager eyes, Gu Bai still nodded with difficulty.
Forget it, as long as the damn pervert is happy.
Perfect or not, that’s for others to say. In his heart… it’s not wrong to say so… maybe.
Ah haha.

Qiguan Rui was satisfied.
These past few days, even though he hadn’t shown his full hand, his minor efforts were enough to plunge Ling Feng into a miserable state. Plus, his methods were clever and technically advanced, so every time he tormented Ling Feng, the latter’s strength improved and his foundation remained unharmed.
Because of this, he got many “benefits” from Gu Bai, and took the opportunity to satisfy many of his own… so overall, his killing intent toward Ling Feng had indeed faded a lot.

However, Qiguan Rui was, after all, a pervert.
If Ling Feng was happy, then he was unhappy.
Therefore, even now, he still liked to use Ling Feng’s misery to make himself happy.

Just like now, Qiguan Rui had driven Ling Feng off to entertain guests, but that was only temporary.
In fact, this guest reception was the beginning of the next round of torment for Ling Feng.

After clinging to Gu Bai for a while, Qiguan Rui dragged Gu Bai to the side hall where the guest was.
Here, there was already a handsome young man and a cold-as-ice young girl.

When they entered the side hall, the young man was eagerly talking to the girl, and the girl looked like she was about to respond, but in the next moment, she sensed the presence of the elders.

Young man: I was just one step away from getting Shuangshuang to talk to me ah ah!
Young girl: Greetings, Ancestor.

Gu Bai looked at the young girl, his mood slightly complicated.
This was… the female lead.
Invisible.
The unquestionable female lead of the stallion novel, and the only female lead, no less.

As a deadbeat otaku author who had originally abandoned all integrity but still had some standards, Gu Bai wrote many stallion novels to make money. Because he never wrote true love, he was often criticized. When it came to this one, he tried a new route and actually let the stallion male lead have true love!

What kind of true love?
It was this female lead.
But if he had true love, why was he still a stallion?
Because…
The female lead died.

So the male lead, heartbroken, searched for her shadow in countless other women! Anyone who chased him, he accepted! Such a tragic yet passionate character!

↓
Although anyone with eyes could see this was total nonsense.

But what Gu Bai didn’t expect was, even with a female lead, he still couldn’t stop… the enthusiasm of the masses.
The so-called “fujoshi see BL, rotten girls see slash,” while countless people criticized him as an iceberg-lover, many fangirls suddenly popped up, vowing they had “seen through the truth of this story”!

Yes! They said there was only one truth! This was a substitute romance!
Those fangirls were all substitutes for the female lead! But the female lead herself! Was also a substitute!

What the stallion male lead truly loved was his iceberg-like Shizun… It’s just that he didn’t realize BL was an option, and Shizun was too hard to conquer! So he projected his feelings onto the female lead!
Because looking through the entire story!
The female lead’s temperament was most like Shizun! Right!

The male lead was truly a self-deceiving poor little thing…