I Snatched the Male Lead’s "Cool Novel" Script - Chapter 54

Yan Yu stared blankly at Yin Beiqing. It was not that she had been frightened. She simply had not expected her way of appearing to be so… wild.

“Cough, cough, cough.” She opened her mouth to speak, but abruptly coughed up several mouthfuls of blood.

This was the first time Yan Yu had maintained a barrier for so long. It had almost reached the limit of what she could endure. Now the soul power inside her body was a complete mess, and the blood she coughed up came as if it cost nothing, one mouthful after another.

“Where’s your medicine?” Yin Beiqing frowned and first casually stuffed two Fou Pills into her mouth.

Ever since returning from Yaochi, she had developed the habit of carrying Fou Pills with her. Spiritual pills worth hundreds of ying coins were treated by her like cheap little candies worth a few cents.

These Fou Pills were large. With two stuffed in at once, Yan Yu’s cheeks immediately bulged. She gritted her teeth and worked hard to swallow them down. Before she could recover, two more were brought to her lips.

“No need.” She turned her face aside and dodged, signaling with her eyes for Yin Beiqing to look at the atmosphere.

What time was it right now? How could this person still act as if no one else was around and do whatever she wanted?

Only when Yin Beiqing followed Yan Yu’s gaze and looked behind her did Yang Pei, who had been neglected to the side, finally get a chance to speak.

“Who are you?”

“Do you imperial people all ask such unoriginal questions?” Yin Beiqing said lazily.

Seeing her expression of not taking her seriously, Yang Pei grew furious. She raised her hand, and a black mist of spiritual arts attacked Yin Beiqing. “You still cover yourself up when meeting this empress? Take off your mask!”

“Stay still.” At this critical moment, Yin Beiqing still had time to instruct Yan Yu.

But immediately afterward, the spiritual art attacking them was swallowed in one bite by Guilian, who leapt out of thin air and opened her snake mouth.

“Burp!” She flicked her tongue.

So full.

“You…” Yang Pei could not believe it.

Even if she had not used her full strength just now, it still was not something that could be casually ignored to this degree.

Since childhood, she had been a genius girl held high by others. After reaching adulthood, she had risen all the way to Special rank and became the youngest person in the past thousand years to pass the Special-rank Beast Arts Master assessment. In the empress election ten years ago, she had been the undisputed number one person in the Jin Kingdom. Yet today, this young Beast Arts Master who had appeared from who knew where had not only easily broken the barrier she had spent months strengthening, but had even dismissed her attack with disdain.

Yang Pei was about to explode with anger. Competitive by nature, she could least tolerate anyone stepping over her head, and even less tolerate anyone looking down on her.

“Are you sure you want to see?” Yin Beiqing turned around, her gaze locking onto her. “Those who have seen my true face have already turned into white bones.”

“We’ll know if we try.” Yang Pei’s face darkened. The hand hanging by her side began to gather even more soul power.

A black crow Beast Soul taller than a person stood behind her, layers of killing intent brewing in its black pupils.

Yang Pei threw everything else aside. Taking off the head of the woman before her became her only thought at this moment.

In a battle between Special-rank Beast Arts Masters, anyone else interfering would only become a burden. Lin Luo tactfully retreated to the side, her expression not very good as she rubbed the neck Yin Beiqing had just grabbed.

“Crude.”

Over there, the fight had officially begun.

“BAM JUN TOO!” Yang Pei’s accent sounded heavier, and the spell was spoken by her with the force of a command.

After the hand seal was completed, the Beast Soul behind her immediately spread two pairs of wings that seemed capable of blotting out the sky and covering the sun. After two urgent, hoarse cries, the feathers on its body abruptly rose into the air, arranged themselves into formation, and fell toward Yin Beiqing like dense, fine rain.

Yan Yu quickly found the memory of this spell in her mind.

It had not been recorded in any spiritual arts directory because it was Yang Pei’s original spiritual art.

At this moment, the crow feathers flying out looked ordinary, but in truth, every one carried a spiritual arts mark. As long as one was struck, those marks would remain on the victim’s body. Not only could they consume the victim’s strength, they could also absorb soul power from the victim for Yang Pei’s use.

It could be said that as long as one was pierced by it, the outcome would be more than half decided. This was Yang Pei’s unsolvable move that had won a hundred battles. Yet she had actually taken it out at the very start to deal with Yin Beiqing. It was clear just how much she wanted to win.

“A petty trick.” Yin Beiqing raised her sleeve and brushed them away. Just as she was about to counterattack, she discovered that the feathers knocked to the ground had risen into the air again and were flying toward her, like chewing gum that could not be shaken off no matter what, refusing to stop until they achieved their purpose.

Even though her reaction speed was fast enough, she inevitably still got hit by a few.

Annoying.

She had always liked the collision of real blades and real spears, but Yang Pei’s moves were more like winding around in false pretense.

The most laughable part of the whole thing was that Yang Pei thought she could win by playing these little tricks.

“Stop being so arrogant!” In the blink of an eye, Yang Pei had already approached her with a short blade in hand.

Her physical arts had something in common with Yu Fusang’s. Both were known for dazzling technique, with movements so complex they made people’s eyes blur.

She continuously shortened her steps, narrowing the distance between herself and Yin Beiqing, finally reaching a distance where the blade could reach Yin Beiqing’s neck.

But her right hand, carrying absolute momentum, was firmly caught in midair. That arrogant voice, so irritating it sounded almost punchable, rang out lazily.

“The strength of a country’s empress is only this much?”

Yang Pei’s lips trembled, her eyes filled with disbelief.

How was that possible? This person had clearly been pierced by her crow feathers. Why did she still have such powerful soul power?

Yin Beiqing had no intention of giving her a considerate explanation. She applied just a little force with her hand… and something snapped in response.

“Ah! Ah—” Yang Pei screamed in agony.

The hand holding the short blade was now twisted at an extremely strange angle. This was not simply broken. It had been shattered from the inside by soul power, the bones snapped into several sections.

Her ferocious expression allowed the people around them to feel that scalp-piercing pain as if it were happening to them.

For Beast Arts Masters, the importance of the hands was second only to the Beast Soul. With Yang Pei’s hand injured like this, even if her soul power was abundant, completely recovering would take quite some time.

“Shh.” Yin Beiqing unhappily raised her hand and covered her mouth. In that posture, she grabbed Yang Pei’s jaw and, as if flinging a rag doll, lifted her whole body into the air before slamming her heavily to the ground.

The ground sank heavily into a large pit. Yang Pei curled up inside it and coughed miserably. She propped herself up on her arm and was just about to rise and continue fighting when Yin Beiqing’s knee immediately pressed down, pinning her neck and cutting off her breath.

“Does it hurt?” Yin Beiqing easily seized the short blade from her hand. The muscles in her arm suddenly tightened, and she held the blade suspended above Yang Pei’s pupil. Her voice was cold, like a demon crawling up from hell. “Remember this feeling.”

Sensing her intention, Yang Pei immediately raised her hand to grab Yin Beiqing’s wrist, but her injured strength was completely unable to contend with her.

The two forces opposed each other. Yang Pei’s hand trembled like a sieve, and she used all the strength in her body, yet still could not stop the short blade from drawing closer and closer.

Yin Beiqing’s eyes did not change, but her hand did not hesitate as she drove the blade into Yang Pei’s right cheek, stabbing it in fiercely before slowly dragging it downward.

Warm blood quickly flowed down, dyeing most of Yang Pei’s face red before disappearing into her hair.

This cut was deep enough to see bone. Even the best wound medicine could not prevent the scar it would leave after healing.

People of the Jin Kingdom often said scars were medals, but Yang Pei could not think that way. She understood the meaning of this cut too well. It was to make her remember this moment of miserable struggle and powerlessness every day when she looked in the mirror afterward.

Even through the mask, she could feel what expression this woman must have on her face right now.

She was smiling. Her eyes carried contempt for all things. She did not regard this as a life-and-death battle.

—It was nothing more than a hunting game.

Yang Pei, who had spent half her life as someone in power, had never imagined that one day she too would be looked at by someone with such eyes.

An unprecedentedly intense fury burned in her eyes. Exploding soul power surged upward, then instantly burst open in the air. Wherever the thick black mist reached, whether living or dead, everything turned to ash. In the blink of an eye, all objects in the two-meter-wide space around her were “cleared out.”

Yin Beiqing had sensed it beforehand and nimbly picked up Yan Yu, jumping back.

After landing, she impatiently brushed off Yan Yu’s skirt. “It’s all dirty.”

Yan Yu: “Is this really the time to focus on that?”

Do you know what it means to escape death by a hair?!

It was one thing to save someone, but why did you have to provoke her? Now look, she has exploded.

“Today, either you die or I live.”

Yan Yu raised her eyes. At this moment, Yang Pei had already completed combined beast form with her Beast Soul. Her entire body was covered in thick feathers, and those feathers shone purple or blue under the light, looking smooth and hard. The whites of her eyes were also filled with black mist, and behind her grew a pair of skeletal wings made only of bone. Yet they violated the laws of physics by flapping and lifting her body off the ground.

Yin Beiqing’s expression finally changed. The color of her lips faded at a terrifying speed, as if something had also flowed out from her body.

She frowned and pulled out the crow feathers stuck in her body that she had not dealt with since earlier. Only then did her complexion improve a little. But the pain had only lessened somewhat. It had not completely disappeared.

“She’s absorbing your soul power.” Yan Yu looked worriedly at the wounds on Yin Beiqing’s back.

The stronger and more spiritual arts Yang Pei used, the deeper the marks left on Yin Beiqing’s body would become. Her pain would increase, and likewise, more of her soul power would be taken.

Yan Yu quickly took out needles and inserted them into several important acupuncture points on her back, helping her slow the loss of soul power in her body. She reminded her softly, “End this quickly.”

“Who wants to waste time on her?” After saying this, Yin Beiqing raised her hand and pinched a bit of flesh on Yan Yu’s cheek, tugging it. “This reward has to be better than last time.”

Reward? What reward? When did she agree to that?

Yan Yu watched Yin Beiqing’s back as she had already flown out, her mind full of question marks.

The advantage of bird-type Beast Souls lay in their agility in the air. At this time, Yin Beiqing should use Jiwu to fight, but she was stubbornly refusing to summon her out of spite.

“Guilian, bite.”

The huge python mouth opened toward Yang Pei once again, but she flapped her wings and dodged. Just when everyone thought she was escaping, she rapidly changed direction in the air and repeated her old trick. More crow feathers formed an array in the air, attacking Yin Beiqing from all directions with no blind spots.

This time, the crow feathers were faster and stronger than before, and there were more of them. They were like a giant net entangling Yin Beiqing, leaving her nowhere to escape.

Yan Yu’s heart clenched tightly as she watched. She silently formed a hand seal, ready to build a barrier at any moment.

This time, she could not be a useless bystander again.

“Heh…” A familiar voice, a familiar laugh.

The corners of Yin Beiqing’s lips lifted on her lowered face.

No spell, no hand seal. With only a snap of her fingers, countless fine ice needles flew from her fingertips.

Those ice needles met the crow feathers point to point, precisely knocking down every single feather. Yet they did not stop their trajectory, instead piercing into Yang Pei’s body one after another.

Delighting in blood, they immediately followed the meridians of this living body and roamed everywhere, leaving burning pain wherever they went.

These were Soft-Bone Needles. Back at Yaochi, Yan Yu had seen Yin Beiqing use this spiritual art once, so she knew all too well how terrifying it was.

The butterfly poison they carried was extracted from Jiwu’s shed shell. It was incurable and fatal. Even if one was lucky enough to survive, they would be left with permanent aftereffects.

Yang Pei, who had been showing off her might in the air just moments ago, instantly lost all strength to resist and fell straight from the sky.

She lay on the ground, painfully scratching at the skin all over her body, yet she had no way to deal with the poisonous needles running wildly everywhere inside her.

A duel between Special ranks was often decided by the difference of a single move.

Yin Beiqing then landed and approached her step by step, as if to finish her off.

Seeing this, Yan Yu hurriedly rushed forward. “Don’t. You still can’t kill her.”

She did not have much pity for Yang Pei. The reason she stopped her was also for Yin Beiqing’s sake.

If one wanted to become empress, one had to obey the rules.

The empress of the Jin Kingdom needed not only strength, but also the hearts of the people. Yan Yu had said she would let Yin Beiqing sit on the throne, but she did not want to turn her into a tyrant. If that happened, what meaning would there be in her trying every possible way to stop Yin Beiqing from blackening?

Yang Pei’s methods were cruel, but she had done enough surface work. In political affairs, she attached great importance to disaster relief, poverty assistance, and diversified education, and because of this, she had won many supporters. Among the people, there were even many voices calling for her to serve another term.

If Yin Beiqing killed her here, regardless of the reason, once the news spread, the people would only know that the empress they loved was dead. Then Yin Beiqing, who killed her, would become an utterly unforgivable demon.

If that really happened, Yin Beiqing would never be able to take off the title of calamity no matter what. When the time came, even if she successfully passed through all the trials and became a candidate, she would still fail at the voting stage.

Of course, Yin Beiqing understood what she meant, but what she hated most in her bones was being bound by all kinds of rules.

However… she could not exactly disobey her own goddess’s words either.

She had to find a compromise.

Thinking this, she raised her bone fan, aiming the spike at one end toward Yang Pei and looking down at her coldly. “Choose.”

She gave Yang Pei the choice: continue fighting with backbone, or step back and beg for mercy in order to survive.

Words like admitting defeat and begging for mercy had always been regarded with shame by the people of the Jin Kingdom. Yang Pei was also the empress of a country. If she begged for mercy today under the eyes of these trusted aides around her, it would be equivalent to giving up all her dignity.

Yang Pei clutched her chest and laboriously opened her eyes to meet Yin Beiqing’s gaze. Such contempt, such arrogant pride.

Exactly the same as herself when she was young.

She had once been as proud as Yin Beiqing, and only today did she learn that the gap between Special ranks could also be so vast.

But no matter how much she wanted to deny it, reality had already been placed bloodily before her eyes.

Perhaps in this entire imperial palace… no, even in the whole Jin Kingdom, there would not be a single person who could fight the woman before her to a draw.

Thinking of this, Yang Pei closed her eyes in humiliation and said powerlessly, “I lost. You may leave.”

“Leave?” Yin Beiqing laughed softly. “Is this your attitude when asking someone for something?”

That was right. Right now, it was not Yang Pei letting them leave. It was her requesting Yin Beiqing to show mercy.

Yang Pei clenched her fist tightly, her nails digging so hard they nearly tore the flesh from her palm. Through gritted teeth, she said, “What else do you want?”

Yin Beiqing straightened, pulled Yan Yu beside her over, and pushed her in front of her. Both hands held Yan Yu’s shoulders from behind.

“Apologize to my goddess.”

Author’s Note:

Sister Yin: Reward, reward!