The Script Collapses! Lin Yuan: Whatever, I'm the Protagonist Anyway!

Night spread like thick ink.

Yan Jing City, which had bustled for an entire day, finally gradually settled into calm.

Lin Yuan strolled alone along the tree-lined path back to the manor.

The streetlights stretched his shadow long, and the surroundings were so quiet that only the rustle of wind through the leaves could be heard.

He enjoyed this tranquility.

Compared to the deafening uproar inside Dragon's Nest Stadium, this place was practically heaven.

Unconsciously, he began reviewing everything that had happened today.

Ye Xuan—the protagonist of the Original Work, who should have charged ahead in triumph, become a god in a single battle at the National League, and thoroughly cemented his position as the Child of Destiny.

Now, however, he had become a prisoner everyone wanted to beat, a pitiful wretch whose cultivation had been crippled.

The course of his life had been distorted beyond recognition by the flutter of a butterfly from another world—him.

That Extreme Dao Ancestor in Ye Xuan's Consciousness Sea was probably so furious that its soul had flown apart by now, wasn't it?

And there was the Huangfu Family, which had wanted to kill with a borrowed blade and use Ye Xuan as a weapon.

That investment had completely gone down the drain. They had lost so badly they did not even have their underwear left.

After his series of "fine adjustments," the plot of the Original Work had thoroughly collapsed and slid in a completely unknown direction.

But...

So what?

The corner of Lin Yuan's lips curled into an indifferent arc.

Did he care?

He did not care in the slightest.

To hell with the Child of Destiny; to hell with the direction of the plot.

Before absolute power, every scheme and trick, every blessing of fate, was nothing more than a laughable game of house played by children.

No matter what Ye Xuan's future might be, no matter what new trouble this world might cough up.

One thing would never change.

That was...

No one was allowed to disturb this young master's peaceful lying-flat sleep!

"Sleeping is the foremost principle of life..."

Lin Yuan gave a huge stretch and quickened his pace toward home.

Just Then.

A crisp, pleasant female voice, carrying a trace of urgency and breathlessness, rang out behind him.

"Lin Yuan! Please... please wait!"

Lin Yuan paused, his brows creasing almost imperceptibly.

Annoying.

Why did people always like disturbing others in the middle of the night?

He slowly turned around and saw a beautiful figure leaning against a streetlamp, breathing lightly.

It was Gu Ningxue.

She seemed to have run all the way here. A layer of fragrant sweat covered her forehead, sparkling under the moonlight.

A faint flush from her exertion tinged her striking Pretty Face, while her bright Beautiful Eyes stared unblinkingly and intently at him.

"I... I've been looking for you for a long time."

Gu Ningxue steadied her breathing.

She quickly walked up to Lin Yuan, her tone filled with sincerity and gratitude.

"On the field today... thank you."

She took a deep breath.

As though gathering enormous courage, she continued, "If you hadn't acted at the end, I might have... already..."

She did not finish, but the danger behind those words spoke for itself.

Ye Xuan's final punch had been a killing strike fueled by every last shred of his life and reason.

Even if she had been able to block it, she would inevitably have been seriously injured, perhaps even left with permanent damage to her Dao.

Lin Yuan had pulled her back from the edge of the cliff with the bearing of a god descending upon the world.

This debt of gratitude was as heavy as Mount Tai.

She would never be able to repay it!

Yet faced with the heartfelt thanks of this newly crowned champion, Lin Yuan's face showed no expression at all.

He merely looked at her quietly, his gaze as flat as if he were looking at a passerby asking for directions.

He waved his hand and casually said in a matter-of-fact tone, carrying even a hint of impatience:

"Just a small effort."

After saying that, he did not even give Gu Ningxue the chance to speak again. He turned directly around and continued toward the manor.

As though, to him, that heart-stopping rescue of a beauty had truly been no different from Casually Swatted a mosquito to death.

Gu Ningxue froze where she stood.

She had prepared a bellyful of words, prepared for countless possible developments afterward.

Yet she had never expected the other party's response to be so...

Cold.

In the instant she stood there dazed.

Lin Yuan's figure beneath the shadow of a streetlamp not far ahead suddenly blurred.

The next second, he seemed to melt into the night, silently vanishing without a trace.

As if he had never appeared at all.

The Cool and Aloof night wind swept past.

Gu Ningxue stood alone on the deserted path.

The champion's trophy in her hand, representing the pinnacle of glory among universities nationwide, suddenly seemed incomparably heavy.

She stared blankly in the direction where Lin Yuan had disappeared.

Only after a long while did she slowly clench her fist.

The gratitude and reverence in her Beautiful Eyes were gradually replaced by a fiercer, more resolute light.

"Lin Yuan..."

"What kind of person are you, really?"

Elsewhere.

Inside a shabby infirmary that was dimly lit and thick with the smell of disinfectant.

Ye Xuan slowly woke amid bursts of noisy discussion.

His consciousness was still somewhat muddled, and he vaguely heard two men deliberately lowering their voices as they spoke.

"Sigh, what a pity, truly a pity! He was once such a proud son of heaven, a strong contender for the national championship, yet he ended up in this state! What was he even thinking? Instead of walking the broad, sunlit road, he insisted on cultivating some forbidden art that harmed both others and himself!"

"Pfft, give me a break! You actually believed all that media nonsense about a 'grassroots comeback'?"

The other voice was full of scorn and contempt. "I heard that this Ye Xuan's talent was mediocre to begin with. He was nothing but trash! The only reason he rose before was because a woman behind him had forcibly piled resources onto him!"

"Then, for some reason, that woman stopped giving him resources, and he was beaten back to his original form. The gap was probably too much for him to bear, so he went down a crooked path and tried to turn things around with forbidden arts! He deserved it!"

Those words were like red-hot steel needles, viciously stabbing into Ye Xuan's mind one after another!

Relying on a woman...

Beaten back to his original form...

Trash...

Deserved it...

"Urgh..."

A pained groan escaped Ye Xuan's throat as he abruptly opened his eyes.

The two medical staff in white coats who had been chatting enthusiastically were startled to see him awake and hastily shut their mouths.

After exchanging a glance, they hurried out as though fleeing from the plague.

With a bang, the door shut.

The entire world fell silent once more.

Ye Xuan turned his stiff neck and looked around.

He found himself lying on a cold iron bed, surrounded by mottled walls and several pieces of old medical equipment.

This was an old ward.

It seemed he had been sent to the hospital.

And for now, he should not be in mortal danger.

But...

So what?

At this moment, his heart became completely hollow.

Like an empty shell drained of every emotion, a walking corpse.

He knew...

He was completely finished.

His cultivation had been crippled, his Meridians severed.

His reputation had fallen from the clouds into the abyss, and he had become a fraud and demon everyone despised.

That foolish woman Li Xuan'er had already been squeezed dry of every last bit of value.

And the Huangfu Family, which had used him as a blade, had probably long treated him as discarded trash and thrown him into the garbage after seeing how miserable he was.

He had nothing left.

No, he still possessed one thing.

That was... an endless hatred for Lin Yuan, one that had sunk into his bones and made him wish to grind Lin Yuan's bones to ash!

"Lin... Yuan..."

Ye Xuan squeezed those two words out through clenched teeth.

He slowly tightened his fists, his sharp nails digging deep into his palms.

Blood ran through his fingers.

Drop by drop, it fell onto the yellowed bedsheet beneath him, blooming into glaring blood-red plum blossoms.

Within his hollow eyes.

A glimmer of light gradually rekindled.

It was not the light of hope.

It was a mad, obsessive light of destruction... one that sought to drag the entire world into hell!

Creak—

Just as Ye Xuan's heart was caught in a battle between heaven and man, on the verge of being completely devoured by madness.

The battered door let out a grating sound.

From outside, it was slowly Pushed Open a crack.

"Who?!"

Ye Xuan abruptly raised his head and looked over impatiently.

Yet when he clearly saw the familiar but bedraggled figure outside the door, his entire body froze.

The person who had come was actually...

Li Xuan'er!

"What are you here for?"

Ye Xuan's voice was cold, without the slightest trace of emotion.

An extreme flicker of disgust and irritation flashed through his eyes.

Ye Xuan abruptly grabbed a water cup from beside the bed and viciously hurled it at Li Xuan'er!

"GET OUT!!!"

"You piece of trash who only brings bad luck to men! Get out of my sight!"

Bang!

The water cup flew past Li Xuan'er's scalp and smashed heavily against the wall, shattering into pieces.

Fragments from the cup burst apart at Li Xuan'er's feet.

The crisp sound was especially piercing in this Dead Silence ward.

Yet in the face of Ye Xuan's hysterical roar and nearly crazed expulsion, Li Xuan'er showed not the slightest Fear or retreat.

She did not even make a motion to dodge.

She simply stood there quietly, allowing the flying shards of glass to slash across her cheek and leave a thin streak of blood.

On her pale, numb face, a strange and chilling curve slowly appeared.

"Get out?"

Li Xuan'er softly repeated the word. Her voice was hoarse, yet it carried an indescribably cold edge that pierced straight through the heart.

"Ye Xuan, look at what you are now."

"Like a Lost Dog whose fangs have been pulled and spine broken, you can only rage helplessly here at the 'trash' in your eyes."

"Do you think you still have the right to tell me to get out?"

Boom!

Those few words were ten thousand times more vicious than the earlier gossip from the two medical staff!

Like a dagger steeped in deadly poison, they precisely and viciously plunged into Ye Xuan's heart, which had already been riddled with holes!

"What... what did you say?!"

Ye Xuan's body jerked violently. He struggled to sit up from the bed, but the movement tugged at the shattered meridians throughout his body. Under the searing pain, he crashed heavily back down!

"You bitch! What do you know?!"

"If that bastard Lin Yuan hadn't plotted against me! If he hadn't shamelessly launched a sneak attack! How could I have lost?! I'm the champion! I'm the strongest!"

Ye Xuan's eyes were bloodshot as he roared like a madman.

He blamed every failure, every humiliation, on Lin Yuan!

"Is that so?"

The mockery at the corner of Li Xuan'er's lips deepened.

"A loss is a loss. No matter how many excuses you make, it won't change the fact that you're useless now."

She slowly walked toward the hospital bed, one step at a time.

Her high heels crunched over the floor littered with shattered glass, making crisp creaking sounds, as though they were stomping on Ye Xuan's fragile nerves.

"However..."

Just before Ye Xuan's rage was about to erupt completely, Li Xuan'er suddenly changed her tone.

She stopped before the bed and looked down from above at the man she had once loved so humbly and hated to the marrow of her bones.

On her previously hollow, numb face, a hint of chilling cunning and allure now surfaced.

"Ye Xuan, do you want revenge?"

Her voice seemed to carry magic.

"I can help you."

"Help you return to what you once were... no, to become even stronger than before!"