Chapter 27: The Fate of a Protagonist

“Ridiculous!”

Yuan Shufang used the Golden Dragon Sword Art, the technique of a gold-element inner disciple. His sword qi turned into a swimming dragon that shot toward Lin Yaoyao.

“As expected of Senior Brother Yuan. His Golden Dragon Sword Art has already reached minor achievement.”

Someone in the crowd marveled. That one move was enough for Yuan Shufang to beat Lin Yaoyao.

Lin Yaoyao channeled her qi into both palms and swung them at the dragon from midair. Icy air burst out, and the dragon froze solid.

Bang! The dragon shattered, and the sword qi scattered.

“Wow! What technique is Lin Yaoyao using? She actually blocked that sword qi!”

The crowd marveled. Lin Yaoyao then unleashed the third form of the Icy Palm at Yuan Shufang.

“Ice-Breaking Slash!”

Her palm wind condensed into a sword of ice and flew at Yuan Shufang with terrifying speed. The wave of spiritual power was more than he could withstand.

Yuan Shufang had no way to block it. The strike hit true.

Yuan Shufang lay on the ground, shivering. Struck by the Icy Palm, his body felt like it had fallen into an ice cellar. He trembled uncontrollably from the cold.

“Senior Brother Yuan, what are you shaking for? Don’t be scared. Weren’t you going to give me three moves? I’ve only used one!”

Lin Yaoyao was deliberately teasing him. Yuan Shufang knew he had underestimated her.

Lin Yaoyao’s spiritual power was so strong and pure that her cultivation had to be at least the eighth level of Qi Refining.

“You’re at the ninth level of Qi Refining?”

Lin Yaoyao nodded at his probing. In the spiritual sense space, she had been breaking through three minor realms a day.

Yuan Shufang tried to run his qi, but the spiritual power inside him was completely suppressed.

“Senior Brother, do you still want to continue?”

Lin Yaoyao was ready to hit him with a second palm. Seeing that, Yuan Shufang immediately backed down.

“Junior Sister Lin, I concede!”

‘Sensible of you.’

Lin Yaoyao had shown strength beyond the eighth level of Qi Refining and defeated Yuan Shufang. Everyone was full of praise for her.

“Lin Yaoyao, you’ve improved with remarkable speed!”

“The rumor used to be that she had no spiritual root. Now it looks like she has a water spiritual root. Without a spiritual root, she could never have practiced the Icy Palm.”

Lin Yaoyao waved at Zhou Linyu, signaling him to come up for a match. Zhou Linyu shook his head. Watching Yuan Shufang twitch on the ground, he felt a lingering dread.

The Icy Palm was rumored to be a Xuan-grade technique. Zhou Linyu wasn’t stupid.

He gave up the challenge of his own accord. He was only at the fifth level of Qi Refining. Why go up on stage just to humiliate himself?

The academy’s final assessment came to an end. Elder Hong announced the list of the top ten. A month later, they would enter the Tianxuan Secret Realm on behalf of Tiandu Academy.

Besides Lin Yaoyao, Lin Feiyuan, Lu Yan’er, and Gu Mingchun, who all earned their spots as expected, Zhang Yu and Zhou Linyue also made the list. Those two had been everyone’s punching bags.

They really were strong, and easy on the eyes too. Lin Yaoyao was stealing glances at them when Lin Feiyuan caught her at it.

“Yaoyao, stop staring. Keep it in check! Father is watching from the stage, and your future husband is there too.”

‘Future husband?’ Murong Tian had also seen Lin Yaoyao making that lovesick face.

“A dog can’t change its taste for shit!”

Yun Yi was trembling with fear on the sidelines. Was the master angry?

‘The rumors say Miss Lin is boy-crazy, that she can’t move when she sees a handsome young master. They must be true.’

‘Miss Lin isn’t going to abandon the master for some other young master, is she?’

When the results came out, the happiest person in the venue was Lin Xuanzhong.

In past assessments, Lin Xuanzhong never dared to come watch. Lin Feiyuan often found excuses to skip, and Lin Yaoyao was always dead last.

Lin Xuanzhong was the head of the Lin family, one of the great western clans of the Tiandu Kingdom. His old face had been rubbed into the dirt by his children.

Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river!

Now Lin Yaoyao and Lin Feiyuan had both passed. The Icy Palm Lin Yaoyao had shown was shockingly powerful. A true prodigy was about to be born into the Lin family.

Surrounded by the crowd, Lin Xuanzhong’s mouth hadn’t closed all night.

Shen Bai had set his heart on dying. He refused to drink his medicine and wouldn’t let Gu Mingchun treat his wounds.

Gu Mingchun was never good with words, so all he could do was send a servant to fetch Lin Yaoyao.

Lin Yaoyao brought Lin Feiyuan and Lu Yan’er along to visit Shen Bai.

“Senior Brother Shen, are you feeling any better?”

Shen Bai was extremely weak. As a cultivator, his foundation was not like an ordinary person’s, and with proper care he should have recovered. Yet his complexion was even worse than when he was first injured.

Lin Yaoyao understood that Shen Bai’s affliction went beyond the body. There was a wound in his heart too.

“Senior Brother Shen, are you really willing to die like this?”

Shen Bai answered in a weak voice, “Whether I live or die, no one in this world cares.”

“I care!”

Lin Yaoyao’s reply was firm and resolute, without a trace of hesitation. Everyone present could feel her sincerity.

Shen Bai was moved. He and Lin Yaoyao had never crossed paths before. Why would she help him?

Lin Feiyuan quietly tugged at Lin Yaoyao’s sleeve and whispered, “Yaoyao, you’ve taken a fancy to him too?”

Lu Yan’er also had the look of someone enjoying the show. Yaoyao changed her crushes so fast. A few days ago it was the “Ghost-Faced Yama,” and today it was a man desperate to die.

Lin Yaoyao knew exactly what those two little minds were thinking.

Even if she told them that Shen Bai’s life and death were tied to the Lin family’s fortune, they wouldn’t believe it.

It was better to put her energy into Shen Bai. That was the proper course.

“Senior Brother Shen, there’s something I don’t understand, and I hope you can enlighten me. You’re the victim, so why are you punishing yourself? Shouldn’t you be punishing the ones who hurt you and humiliated you?”

Shen Bai’s lips trembled slightly. Everyone called him a jinx. His parents loathed him, and his lover abandoned him. It was all his fate, all his fault.

“What if the ones who hurt you and humiliated you are your own flesh and blood? Junior Sister Lin, what would you do then?”

In her previous life, Lin Yaoyao had suffered plenty of harm from her own kin. She had long had the answer to this question.

“The ones who hurt me and humiliated me never treated me as kin. Why should I force this bond? From the moment they hurt me, from the moment they humiliated me, we stopped being family. We became enemies.”

Not family. Enemies.

Shen Bai looked at Lin Yaoyao in astonishment. The rumors said the Lin family’s Fifth Miss was a good-for-nothing. How could she have such insight?

Lin Yaoyao continued, “Senior Brother Shen, you have a protagonist’s fate! A miserable destiny is a given! Every protagonist goes through a series of horrific ordeals, is cast aside by the world, crawls out of the mud, and only then can achieve something great.”

“What is a protagonist?”

Lin Feiyuan, Lu Yan’er, Gu Mingchun, and Shen Bai all turned to look at Lin Yaoyao. They couldn’t understand a single word she said.

How was she supposed to explain what a protagonist was? Lin Yaoyao could only make something up.

“Hmm… a protagonist just means that every one of us is the master of our own fate!”

Gu Mingchun nodded approvingly. Lin Yaoyao’s words always had a way of enlightening people.

Striking while the iron was hot, Lin Yaoyao sat down beside Shen Bai.

“Senior Brother Shen, have you ever considered that all the trials you’ve gone through might be heaven’s test for you?”

A flicker of light passed through Shen Bai’s eyes as he looked at Lin Yaoyao.

“What test?”

Lin Yaoyao thought she needed to dangle a carrot in front of Shen Bai, or this guy might try to kill himself again one day.

“All the hardships of the past are meant to make you a ruler of your own domain, Senior Brother Shen. Your talent is extraordinary, and your future is limitless. If you don’t mind, we can become sworn siblings!”

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