I Snatched the Male Lead’s "Cool Novel" Script - Chapter 6

“Wu!”

The meatball didn’t seem to have a good handle on its soul power yet; it tumbled straight out of mid-air and hit the ground with a dull thud.

“Are you okay?” Yan Yu was about to get up to check on it, but she saw the meatball already waddling toward her with a bounce in its step.

A round body, a distinct black-and-white coat, and those signature black circles around the eyes…

Yan Yu narrowed her eyes. This thing looked incredibly familiar. Aside from being a bit small, it looked exactly like a National Treasure panda.

In the book, the original host never awakened a beast soul before her death, so there was no description of what her soul would look like. Yan Yu was equally clueless about the little round sphere before her.

The beast soul pressed its meaty paws onto Yan Yu’s leg and burrowed into her arms. It rubbed its furry head against her, then looked up, blinking its watery eyes at her. Its mouth moved, and a string of baby noises popped out.

“panpanpan! Paaaa!”

Can’t it talk?

Logically, an awakened beast soul possesses spiritual awareness; they can understand human speech and talk. Even the weakest awareness can evolve to the intelligence level of a ten-year-old child, but this one didn’t seem to speak yet.

The little thing in her arms whimpered persistently. Fearing it would wake Lu Jia, Yan Yu made a shushing gesture.

“What’s wrong?”

The beast soul seemed to understand her. Looking a bit frustrated, it covered its mouth with its front paws, then stood upright, retracted its sharp claws, and gently tapped a soft paw pad against Yan Yu’s forehead.

“panpan…” Sing.

It was strange; although the little meatball only had the one sound, “pan,” Yan Yu understood its meaning this time.

“You want to hear me sing?”

“pan!” The meatball nodded.

Yan Yu smiled and pulled it into her embrace, patting its back like she was soothing a child while continuing to hum the lullaby from before.

As she sang, she began to feel drowsy herself and gently closed her eyes.

Not long after the singing stopped, Lu Jia’s breathing grew rapid and its body temperature spiked. The painkiller’s effect had likely worn off. It began to feel uncomfortable, its body curling in a struggle, only to be rendered immobile by the sharp pain in its ribs and lungs.

“panpan?” The little meatball in Yan Yu’s arms poked its head out, looking at Lu Jia in confusion. It tilted its head, learning on the fly, and mimicked Yan Yu’s shushing gesture toward Lu Jia.

Lu Jia couldn’t help it; its struggling grew more intense.

Puffing out its cheeks in annoyance, the little meatball crawled out of Yan Yu’s arms. It pressed its paws together and kneaded a light-blue orb of light. The orb grew larger and larger until, with a shoo, it enveloped Lu Jia.

If Yan Yu were awake, she would have noticed that this light orb was strikingly similar to the protective shield that had blocked Yin Beiqing’s attack in the storehouse.

The orb circled Lu Jia and began to spin rapidly, channeling a steady stream of soul power inward. In the blink of an eye, the freshly sutured wounds on Lu Jia’s abdomen were healed; its skin was smooth and brand new, without so much as a scar left behind.

“Humph.” The little meatball actually put its paws on its hips, reached out, and tapped Lu Jia on the head with a bossy, finger-pointing air. “pan!”

Now you can sleep peacefully.

Yan Yu was a light sleeper and prone to insomnia in new beds; normally, any movement from Lu Jia would wake her. But last night, she had slept surprisingly well. Despite having no extra blankets, she felt warm all over.

She sat up and was shocked to find the pain in her abdomen gone. She hurriedly lifted her shirt to check; the area that had been severely bruised was completely healed overnight.

Recalling the beast soul that had awakened last night, a far-fetched guess formed in Yan Yu’s mind. She stood up, walked to the mirror, pulled up her clothes, and checked her back. Not only was the abdominal injury gone, but there wasn’t a single scratch or bruise the size of a fingernail left on her entire body.

Could that beast soul’s ability be something like healing?

In the original book, this ability was collectively called Imperial Arts, but Beast Masters and souls possessing it were exceptionally rare.

To illustrate how scarce they were: at the Spirit Mastery Academy—the world’s greatest school for Beast Masters—enrollment in the Imperial Arts major had been zero for ten consecutive years. The school had even changed its admission rules but still found no one, which allowed the instructor, Lin Hegui, to spend her years on paid vacations.

The problem was that, according to Beast Soul grades, one only awakens a unique ability after evolving to Grade A. Yan Yu’s little one couldn’t even speak clearly; it was likely just a tiny Grade C cub.

Unless…

Yan Yu recalled the spirit art gestures and incantations from the book. She hooked the ring, middle, and pinky fingers of both hands together, extending her index fingers and thumbs to touch, forming a tower shape.

“KA SHA DI KA.”

There are over a thousand languages in this world, but the common tongue used across nations sounds very similar to Chinese, which was why Yan Yu had no trouble communicating with the maids.

Among these languages, the most ancient comes from the Polai tribe. The earliest recorded spirit art incantations originated from their tongue, which is what Yan Yu was reciting now.

The purpose of this incantation is to detect and mobilize the soul power within the body. It is generally used by Beast Masters for healing, but Yan Yu just wanted to see how much soul power she actually had.

The heart is the fountain of soul power. Yan Yu probed inward with her consciousness and found it unexpectedly deep. However, the aura of this power was very foreign, showing a slight rejection reaction to the original host’s own soul power.

A master’s soul power affects the grade of the beast soul. Yesterday, that Soul Bead had mysteriously burrowed into Yan Yu’s body, flooding her with power. The little meatball was likely stimulated by this, causing its grade to skyrocket.

Yan Yu kept her eyes closed and continued to probe deeper. She felt her soul squeezing into a narrow sheep-gut path; it was dark, but there was a beam of light ahead guiding her.

As she walked, her field of vision suddenly opened up. An intuition prompted her to open her eyes.

Whether it was a hallucination or something else, the narrow room had vanished, replaced by a vast, boundless plain. She could even smell the fresh scent of soil.

Yan Yu loved the weather after rain—slightly damp, but with beautiful sky colors. A light breeze and a peaking sun created the perfect temperature she found comfortable. Everything here was exactly as she imagined it.

She saw a familiar building in the distance and wanted to walk toward it. The moment the thought formed, her body flickered, and she was standing right in front of the door.

“Teleportation?”

Yan Yu turned back to look at where she had started. It was at least a thousand meters away. Putting aside her clumsy spirit arts, she hadn’t even recited an incantation; she couldn’t have achieved this through spirit arts.

The only remaining possibility—this was her Soul Domain.

Only within one’s own Soul Domain can one move at will or even move objects through space without using spirit arts.

A Soul Domain is similar to a pocket dimension. Aside from being invisible to outsiders, it is no different from the real world. Furthermore, it is filled with dense spiritual energy. Outsiders cannot enter or exit without permission, making it a perfect place for secluded cultivation. Even the plants and trees grown in this soil have higher medicinal and nutritional value.

One thing worth noting: within the Soul Domain’s barrier, the master’s consciousness is supreme. Yan Yu held absolute authority; if she wished, she could crush an intruder like an ant with a single thought.

Some masters skilled in “Soul Charming” would lure enemies into their Soul Domain to hunt them. This tactic is nearly impossible to counter, but few people can do it because a Soul Domain is something only Special Grade Beast Masters can potentially awaken—and not even every Special Grade Master manages to manifest one.

The first time the Soul Domain was described in the book was as a “Golden Finger” power-up for the male lead, Guo Lu.

Guo Lu had stolen Yin Beiqing’s Soul Bead, then apprenticed under the Divine Doctor Lin Hegui to learn breathing methods. After struggling to merge the bead with his body and enduring forty-nine days of burning pain, he awakened the Soul Domain while half-dead. Now, Yan Yu had somehow stumbled into this prize.

The catch was that she didn’t even know why that Soul Bead had suddenly decided to dive into her forehead. Picking up this “bargain” made her heart race with nerves.

“Creeeeak.”

While Yan Yu was lost in thought, the door swung open on its own without warning. She was tugged inside by an invisible force and hurriedly took a few small steps to keep up. Her throat gave way to a few more coughs, and the blood on her lips stained another handkerchief red.

Yan Yu sighed and tucked the handkerchief away, feeling helpless about the original host’s fragile constitution. She raised her left hand to steady herself against something, but her palm pressed into a soft, bouncy texture. She quickly looked up to survey her surroundings.

This wasn’t a house. There were no walls, no ceiling, and even the “floor” beneath her feet was a transparent, smooth “floor” with a texture like slime. She felt as if she had been tossed into a water balloon, swaying like duckweed on a lake. Feeling dizzy, she began to cough again, as if once she started, she couldn’t stop.

“Pffft—”

At that moment, a small piece of the transparent water balloon separated near Yan Yu’s head. It drifted wobblily through the air and suddenly merged into the lotus beast mark on her forehead.

Yan Yu felt as if a stream of clear, cool water had been poured into her body. It was refreshing, sweeping away the dry, stinging pain in her throat; even the dull ache in her chest felt much better.

The water ball swirled around inside her body, then plop, popped back out from her forehead. The previously transparent sphere was now red. It floated back into the wall. Simultaneously, the entire room vibrated violently as if having a rejection reaction.

Seeing she was about to fall, two transparent arms reached out from the wall behind her to support her waist, even patting her back as if telling her not to be afraid.

After a while, the vibrations ceased, and another transparent ball floated before her. Yan Yu instinctively reached out her hands to cradle it, fearing it might fall.

“Ji ji ji…”

The transparent ball wiggled twice, making a sound like laughter. It rubbed affectionately against Yan Yu’s palm, then began to expand continuously like a balloon. Once it reached its limit, it exploded with a boom.

What remained in Yan Yu’s palm after the water ball burst was a book as thick as three fingers. The pages rustled and flipped on their own to a middle page.

Yan Yu held it up to read. It seemed to be a book similar to a pharmacopeia. On the open page, the color of the text in a certain paragraph was different from the rest, as if intentionally drawing her eye to it.

[Those with impure soul power will have scattered Qi and a weak constitution. Symptoms mostly include coughing up blood, cold body, and fatigue. Use the stem of the Soul-Gathering Grass as the main medicine, supplemented by Lotus Bead petals to brew a decoction. Take three times a day; results seen in two days.]

Yan Yu’s mother was an experienced veteran of traditional medicine; having grown up under her influence, Yan Yu knew a thing or two.

Although the Soul-Gathering Grass and Lotus Bead flowers mentioned in the book didn’t exist in her world, looking at the introduction, the medical principles here were largely the same as traditional Chinese medicine—such as Yin-Yang complementarity and the Five Elements theory. It wasn’t difficult for her to digest.

She flipped through a few pages. When she encountered an unfamiliar, rare Polai word, the water ball would act as if it had telepathy, actively bringing over a dictionary to help her find the definition.

This book contained not only prescriptions but also many alchemy techniques. Yan Yu became engrossed, losing all track of time.

Immersed in the pharmacopeia, she completely forgot what day it was—until an uninvited Yin Beiqing appeared in her room.

That memorable cold fragrance instantly snapped Yan Yu back to consciousness. She hurriedly closed her Soul Domain and opened her eyes, pretending she had just woken up.

Today, Yin Beiqing was rarely dressed in white, yet she managed to make the color look seductive and cold. She stood at the door with a grim face and a tight frown, seemingly disgusted by the shabby room.

“Is the daily routine of you Goddesses always this peculiar?” No matter what Yin Beiqing said, it came with a natural, light mockery.

Yan Yu looked outside and saw that it was already dark. A massive blood moon hung in the sky, looking very close to the ground, giving off an uncomfortable sense of pressure.

Lu Jia, who seemed to have been waiting by her side for a long time, saw her wake up and tried to climb onto her with its claws.

“It’s alright.”

Yan Yu didn’t react much to Yin Beiqing’s words. She picked up Lu Jia and looked it over. The wounds on its body had healed miraculously, with no trace left behind. Seeing that it was fine, she finally felt at ease.

“Its injuries are healed?” Out of curiosity, Yin Beiqing crossed the threshold and walked in.

Yesterday, Ruan Yuemian had pronounced a death sentence on this beast pet. Today, it was alive and well, walking and climbing. Could this sickly girl truly have something special about her, to snatch a beast’s life back from the Underworld in just one night?

“Yes.” Yan Yu smiled and patted Lu Jia’s head. “Does it still hurt?”

The little pangolin wagged its tail and bared its teeth at her. Yan Yu knew this was the expression it only made when it was happy.

Suddenly, a large hand reached over, breaking the harmonious scene between master and servant. Yin Beiqing frowned, holding Lu Jia by the tail and dangling it in the air. She surveyed it from top to bottom with a slightly disgusted look.

It really was healed; even the wound on its belly was gone.

Beast pets with spiritual awareness, like beast souls, can speak. Soon, Yan Yu heard Lu Jia’s terrified low cry: “Master, Master, save me!”

“Put it down.” Yan Yu reached out, but Yin Beiqing moved away.

“First, tell me how you did it.” Yin Beiqing’s silver eyes locked onto her face. “You know Imperial Arts?”

If that were truly the case, how could the talent-starved Spirit Mastery Academy have rejected Yan Yu’s application for three consecutive years? The reputation of this “Useless Beauty” was known even in Langdie Valley.

As for how she did it, Yan Yu wasn’t entirely sure herself. She suspected it had something to do with that chubby little panda.

“As you said, I am a Goddess.” Yan Yu took Lu Jia back while Yin Beiqing wasn’t looking. “Heaven’s secrets cannot be revealed.”

“Heh.” Yin Beiqing sneered. Before Yan Yu could understand what she meant, a hand wrapped around her waist. The world spun, and she was hit full-face by that cold fragrance.

Familiar pain and jolting hit her abdomen. Yan Yu looked utterly resigned as Yin Beiqing threw her over her shoulder like a sack of grain and moved toward an unknown destination.

She felt she really needed to find a time to talk to Yin Beiqing. She had legs and could walk herself; could she please not carry her like a sack of potatoes every time something happened? She was truly afraid that one day she wouldn’t be able to help coughing up blood on the woman.

“Can you put me down?” Yan Yu tried to negotiate.

Yin Beiqing didn’t reply. Her expression was dreadfully pale. The closer she was to Yan Yu, the stronger her resonance with the Emperor Moth became, and her soul power churned violently.

She moved with lightning speed, stepping directly across the rooftops and flying toward the back mountain. Passing through the dark forest, the Cobalt Rhodium Spring finally came into view.

Yan Yu’s sharp eyes caught sight of small, round red berries in the grass by the spring—exactly the Lotus Bead flowers mentioned in the pharmacopeia.

Before she could look more closely, the next second, Yin Beiqing unceremoniously tossed her into the water, clothes and all.

Splosh—! Yan Yu flailed frantically in the water for a moment before finally finding her balance. She surfaced, her long wet hair clinging to her cheeks and neck, looking somewhat bedraggled.

Guilian had been summoned by Yin Beiqing at some point. The python’s body was coiled around a nearby stone pillar, its head raised high. Its emerald eyes stared at Yan Yu as it hissed.

It seemed to be performing some kind of spirit art, as Yan Yu felt the temperature of the spring water begin to drop rapidly. Her skin soon felt a needle-like stinging pain.

She remembered what Yin Beiqing was doing. Today was the seven-day mark—the Emperor Moth had to molt. Every time this happened, Yin Beiqing had to endure immense burning agony. To alleviate the pain, she would soak in the freezing Cobalt Rhodium Spring for the entire incubation process.

By the spring, Yin Beiqing had unhesitatingly shed her clothes, her graceful silhouette sinking into the water as she slowly walked toward Yan Yu.

She looked to be in poor condition, her lips deathly pale, yet her eyes and expression were full of aggression. Yan Yu wanted to retreat and hide, but her limbs were so frozen they had no sensation. Instead, this terrifying woman was the source of heat she desperately craved.

Red beast marks, like rapidly growing vines, spread across Yin Beiqing’s skin, expanding their territory from her waist and abdomen all the way up past her slender neck and onto her cheeks.

Yan Yu couldn’t see what she looked like behind the mask, but she could see Yin Beiqing’s eyes. They were like hollow glass spheres filled with red paint—completely blood-red.

The way she stared at Yan Yu was identical to a werewolf driven wild by a full moon—pure animalistic instinct, ready to pounce and tear into her prey at any second.

Yan Yu suddenly realized: she was that defenseless prey.