I Snatched the Male Lead’s "Cool Novel" Script - Chapter 29

The thing Yan Yu had thrown just now was a golden leaf from the prophecy tree in her Soul Domain. On the way here, she had asked Panpan to pluck it for her.

Gold was Shen Nanxing’s weakness.

Or rather, it was the weakness of Dream Demons.

Previously, she had always felt that something about Shen Nanxing was strange. That strangeness was enough to prove she was not just some ordinary passerby. But in the book, there had never been any mention of a character who looked like the original body.

Later, it was only after Yan Yu kept hearing the You tribespeople repeatedly emphasize Shen Nanxing’s identity as the “goddess” that she suddenly found inspiration.

The Dream Demon Guo Lu encountered before reaching the summit of Yaochi Mountain had been described in the original book with traits very similar to Shen Nanxing’s.

Dream Demons had no sex, no form, no mother, and no father. In the beginning of their birth, they were a “substance” made up of segments of dreams.

Yes, at first, they were merely an invisible, intangible “substance.” Only after eating enough dreams and accumulating energy bit by bit would they begin to transform into a physical body. And the bodies they transformed into were usually related to the dream they liked most.

The Dream Demon in the book had accidentally entered Lin Hegui’s dream and eaten her prophetic dream. After suddenly obtaining a surge of energy, it had transformed into a physical body in a short period of time.

Ever since birth, it had drifted from place to place. No one spoke to it, and no one could see it. What it longed for most was to receive attention from others. If that attention was praise and worship, it would become even more excited.

That day, in Lin Hegui’s prophetic dream, it saw a woman in a white dress standing beneath a tree covered in golden leaves. The woman raised her head, and under the illumination of light, her face carried a holy radiance like that of a celestial being. Her expression was as calm as still water, yet her gaze held a gentleness that seemed able to contain all things in the world.

It could not help developing the impulse to remain forever in that dream.

“When the sun rises in the west, the demon blade descends into the world. The goddess shall wield the blade and eliminate the scourge.”

These were the words it heard from that woman’s mouth.

That’s right. Then it would become the goddess. That way, everyone in the world would treat it kindly, respect it, and love it. Thinking this, it transformed into its current appearance.

The same appearance as the woman in the dream.

“Are you also one of my kind?” Shen Nanxing could only think of this possibility. She reached out and controlled the golden leaf that had fallen to the ground, making it hover before flying toward Yan Yu.

But just as it was about to hit her, a fluffy thing suddenly jumped out and caught it with its mouth.

“Master, Master!” Panpan held the golden leaf in its mouth and delivered it to Yan Yu’s hand. It blinked its black-bean eyes and launched a spoiled-child beam at her. “Was I amazing?”

Yan Yu accepted the golden leaf and conveniently rubbed its head. “Mm. Panpan was amazing.”

“You’re not a Dream Demon!” How could a Dream Demon have a Beast Soul?

“Of course I’m not.”

Shock appeared on Shen Nanxing’s face. She instinctively shook her head, denying the guess she had at this moment. No. Impossible…

“I am the goddess!” she shouted, suddenly raising her right hand that held the bell and shaking it forcefully.

The crisp ringing became loud and piercing, carrying a violent emotion.

Under the effect of the bell, pale-purple misty substances continuously drifted out of the bodies of those who had fallen, moving toward Shen Nanxing before merging entirely into her body.

Yan Yu recognized them.

They were those people’s dreams.

A Dream Demon’s barrier was different from a Beast Arts Master’s. It was not formed from spiritual arts, but a domain drawn out with her own aura. People who entered this domain would be affected by the shaking bell and could be manipulated into entering a sleeping state at any time.

Aside from others of the same kind, almost no one could detect a Dream Demon’s barrier. Even Beast Arts Masters of extremely high rank could do nothing about it. But because they were protected by soul power, although a Dream Demon could trap Beast Arts Masters, it was very difficult to harm them in the slightest.

But right now, a “prey” whose soul power aura was so faint that it was almost no different from that of a commoner was standing in her barrier completely unarmed. How could Shen Nanxing not be excited?

After eating several hundred dreams, Shen Nanxing instantly filled with energy. The large hole in her shoulder melted open by the golden leaf also quickly recovered.

Red light flashed in her eyes. She raised her hand and charged toward Yan Yu again, moving so fast the other party had no time to react.

Yan Yu wanted to dodge sideways, but the other woman struck her chest with one palm. The familiar taste of blood quickly rose into her throat. She turned her head and spat out the stagnant blood, wiped her mouth, and stood up without saying a word.

“Panpan.”

“Mm!”

The tacit understanding between the two sides needed no extra words. They understood each other’s meaning.

Yan Yu retreated several steps and pulled away from Shen Nanxing. She pressed her hands together into a mountain shape, then separated and raised her index fingers toward the sky, while her ring fingers and middle fingers joined together and pressed downward, folding into a ninety-degree angle.

“FU LA VOO.”

At her command, Panpan immediately leapt from the ground and entered the Beast Mark on Yan Yu’s forehead. Very soon, Yan Yu felt a warm, soothing energy sweep rapidly through her entire body, so she lowered her guard and fused with it quickly.

This was what combining beast form with one’s own Beast Soul should feel like. Unlike Jiwu, who only brought her painful torment.

This was Yan Yu’s first time using the spiritual art for combined beast form, and she was not skilled at it, so she did not know what kind of result it would produce.

Very soon, Panpan’s energy finished conducting through her body. Strange sensations spread through the bones and muscles of her right hand. She lifted it before her eyes and discovered that her fingers were rapidly lengthening. Black beast fur grew over the back of her hand, her palm became wide and thick, and even short, blunt claws grew out.

She felt as if her whole body was filled with power!

With her five senses magnified without limit, Yan Yu could even hear the sound of blood flowing through her own body.

Beside her ear, the sound of wind stirred. The movement was faint, but she caught it sharply.

Yan Yu immediately looked toward the direction of the sound. Shen Nanxing’s next attack was already close at hand!

She hurriedly raised the bear paw that was larger than her own head and placed it horizontally in front of herself. She had originally only wanted to cushion some of the pain from being hit, but she had not expected Shen Nanxing to be directly flung away in midair.

She stared blankly down at her palm, not having expected Panpan’s soul power to be even deeper than she imagined.

After suffering a setback, Shen Nanxing immediately became much more cautious. She realized that Yan Yu was not the sickly weakling who looked as if she would fall with a single gust of wind, and she could no longer treat this as a child’s game.

Although Yan Yu was surprised by her own strength, she also knew that with her physique, she definitely could not support the consumption of combined beast form for long. She had to end this quickly.

Since that was the case, she had to learn to attack first.

A Dream Demon’s weakness was the crystal core inside its body. As long as that was destroyed, the Dream Demon would lose the support that allowed it to maintain form. At that time, whether it was the barrier or the body, both would turn into smoke and disperse.

Yan Yu tightly gripped the golden leaf in her left hand. Her footsteps quickened as she sprinted toward Shen Nanxing.

A Dream Demon’s advantage lay in exquisite illusions. It could disturb an enemy’s thoughts during battle. After all, in a real fight with blades and spears, even a single second of hesitation could turn the entire situation around.

But Shen Nanxing shook the Soul-Capturing Bell so hard it was nearly breaking, only to discover that Yan Yu did not react in the slightest.

Of course, Yan Yu herself did not know why either. But she knew that what she had to do now was clear her mind of all distracting thoughts and stab the golden leaf in her hand into Shen Nanxing’s crystal core.

If she was immune to illusions, then only by using this advantage to its fullest could she do what she wanted.

Protect the lives of the more than one hundred people behind her!

…

Several hours earlier, inside Li Zhao’s house.

The two of them were curled up on the cramped single bed. It should have been a night to fall asleep and rest as soon as possible, but Yan Yu, who lay on the outer side, found that she simply could not suppress the chaotic thoughts scattering through her mind.

The scene of the fight against the evil spirit that afternoon repeated in her mind over and over.

She kept thinking of the instant Yin Beiqing held her hand and cut the evil spirit in half. Warm blood. Trembling hands. Yet she did not feel afraid. Instead, there was a kind of excitement, as if she had been released.

As if influenced by Yin Beiqing, even her own blood had heated up.

At that time, Yan Yu had instinctively wanted to avoid that feeling, because before this, she had never experienced such a sensation—every muscle in her body excited to the point of losing control. It made her uncomfortable, because it became difficult for her to remain calm.

But her repeated recollection afterward made her face the fact that although that restlessness was unfamiliar, it gave her an abnormal sense of satisfaction. It was like successfully removing a lesion during an extremely difficult surgery, making her unable to resist wanting to give someone a heavy high five.

From birth, the education given to her by her elders had been to teach her how to become knowledgeable, reasonable, dignified, and elegant. Even the specialty classes she had been signed up for were calligraphy and painting, talents that required her to calm down and learn.

Yan Yu had once thought she should have continued that way forever. But when her two hands gripped a longsword and cut through an evil spirit’s flesh and bone, the sense of exhilaration and liberation was addictive.

Perhaps there was no such thing as “should.” She could also pick up a sword and fight.

And so, in a moment of impulsiveness, she asked Yin Beiqing a very stupid question.

“Can you teach me spiritual arts?”

There was no movement behind her. Just when she thought she would not receive an answer, Yin Beiqing finally deigned to speak.

“Does the goddess still need to be taught?”

Yan Yu froze, unsure whether she could say the rest of her words.

She feared that if even one word was wrong, her identity as a fake goddess would be exposed. But there was always an emotion in her mind pushing her forward, continuously urging her to make irrational choices.

“I’m serious.” She turned around, lifted her eyes, and met Yin Beiqing’s gaze. “I want to protect you, protect Langdie Valley, and protect everyone. But…”

She pressed her lips together, her gaze somewhat downcast. “But I’m too weak.”

She wanted to become stronger faster, yet there was a helpless feeling of being trapped in a mire.

Yin Beiqing stared at her expression for a long time before suddenly raising her hand and touching the corner of Yan Yu’s eye. Her fingertip touched delicate skin and felt a slight warmth and dampness.

Was she crying again?

“You should know that if you want to get something from me, you have to pay something.”

“What do you want?” Yan Yu answered without hesitation.

Yin Beiqing covered Yan Yu’s eyes with her palm, closing her eyelids, afraid that if she looked at those eyes even one more time, she would soften.

“Prove to me your determination.”

…

Her thoughts returned to the present. Yan Yu’s emotions surged fiercely, and her right palm, clenched into a fist, actually expanded another size under the influence of that emotion.

The sharp claws on the bear paw stood upright. Carrying a surging pale-blue flame, it slammed heavily toward the top of Shen Nanxing’s head.

For a split second, Shen Nanxing was frightened by Yan Yu’s momentum. But she only lost focus briefly and quickly reacted, dodging this attack.

The bear paw landed on the ground behind her, directly smashing out a pit several chi deep.

Shen Nanxing had never expected that such a thin and weak body could contain such enormous energy. She did not dare imagine what would have happened if her reaction had been any slower just now.

Fortunately, although Yan Yu’s attacks were fierce, her speed was not fast. In addition, this was inside Shen Nanxing’s barrier, and there were over a hundred sources of energy. After several exchanges, Shen Nanxing quickly gained the upper hand.

At this moment, Yan Yu, who had already struck out dozens of palms, was so tired she had begun to pant.

Her beast form would not last much longer. She had to be faster.

Repeated failures made Yan Yu realize that fighting was not simply a contest of strength. Especially in a situation where there was a gap between the enemy and herself, the importance of using her brain became even more obvious.

She needed a strategy.

When Shen Nanxing attacked again, Yan Yu was no longer in a hurry to counterattack. She shifted from offense to defense, buying herself time to speak.

“You want to be the goddess, right?”

“As long as you don’t exist, I am the only goddess!” Shen Nanxing said through gritted teeth.

“But how can you prove that you are the goddess?” Yan Yu coaxed patiently. “That was only a dream. How can you judge whether it was real or false? And losing your true self for the sake of a dream—don’t you think that’s a pity?”

“Why do you know so much!” Shen Nanxing, enraged, could not listen to reason at all. She shook the bell once more, gathering more energy as she planned to deliver a fatal strike directly to Yan Yu.

But facing the attack pressing down on her head, Yan Yu suddenly smiled at her. Her lips parted lightly.

“A RE SHU WANG LI BAN DU.”

This was the ancient language of the Polai tribe.

When a member of the Polai tribe was troubled by nightmares, the other tribe members would hang a pure-gold dreamcatcher by her bedside, then sit beside the bed and continuously chant this spell in a low voice, praying for her and expelling the source of the nightmare.

But because this spell had no use against Beast Arts Masters or spiritual-art attacks, it was gradually forgotten by people as the Polai tribe disappeared from the world.

However, although everyone else had forgotten it, to Dream Demons, their fear of the Polai tribe was carved into their bones. It had been passed down since their ancestors ten thousand years ago.

Shen Nanxing’s movements uncontrollably paused. It was only a few seconds, but Yan Yu seized the flaw and struck her palm toward the heart where her crystal core was located.

Shen Nanxing dodged left half a beat too late, but she had not expected that Yan Yu’s target had never been the attack from her right palm.

The scent of gold stimulated her sensitive nasal cavity, and her body trembled repeatedly from fear.

Just as Yan Yu thought she could finally use the golden leaf in her left hand to eliminate Shen Nanxing in one move, the woman before her suddenly dispersed, turning into mist that drifted in all directions.

Yan Yu stood where she was and looked around, unable to determine Shen Nanxing’s exact position.

Suddenly, a force kicked Yan Yu viciously from behind. Her entire body fell forward and crashed to the ground. She bent over, coughing miserably in the dust that rose up.

Shen Nanxing, who had transformed back into human form at some unknown point, stepped closer with the pace of a victor. She kicked Yan Yu in the abdomen and used the tip of her foot to flip her over.

Her abdomen and back had both suffered heavy blows. Blood uncontrollably spilled from Yan Yu’s lips again. Her lapel had long since been soaked, and that blood was continuously flowing down her neck.

She felt her body temperature gradually lowering. In a daze, she suddenly had the illusion that she was not far from death.

She wanted to open her mouth and call for help, but then she immediately remembered Yin Beiqing’s words.

“Prove to me your determination.”

You’re watching, right?

“Heh. I thought you truly had some remarkable ability, but it turns out you’re only this much.” Shen Nanxing pulled out the dagger tied to the side of her leg. “Just leave quietly like this. I’ll live well together with your share, Lady. Goddess.”

She squeezed out those four words through gritted teeth. Suddenly, her expression changed, and she raised the dagger high, bringing it down toward Yan Yu.

“DI WANG NU.”

A simple incantation paired with a simple hand seal. But in the next second, Shen Nanxing immediately froze in place.

The golden leaf gripped in Yan Yu’s left hand instantly lengthened several times after that incantation, transforming into a long, slender spike that cleanly pierced through Shen Nanxing’s abdomen.

Because the tip was excessively sharp, there had been almost no sound when it stabbed into flesh. But seeing the shock in Shen Nanxing’s eyes, Yan Yu knew she had gambled correctly.

What she had just used was a transformation spiritual art. If there was any spiritual art she was most familiar with, this absolutely ranked first.

After all, back then, in order to make up for Panpan’s mistake, she had spent half a day transforming Lotus Bead Grass in the Soul Domain, to the point that she was still chanting this incantation in her dreams that night.

“How… is this possible…” Shen Nanxing lowered her head foolishly, confirming the part of herself that had been wounded.

Just now, after she noticed that Yan Yu knew her crystal core was in her heart, she had immediately used her mist form to change its storage location.

But why? Why could Yan Yu still know where it was?

“Did you know that the scent of Dream Lotus Flower on your body is especially obvious?”

Author’s Note:

Yin: Since my wife is this determined, I’ll “reluctantly” teach her a little spiritual art.

(Yan-mei was super cool today!!! Yay yay yay!!!)

(Actually, it’s because the Dream Demon’s combat strength isn’t high that Sister Yin felt safe letting Yan-mei practice on her ovo.)