Bud Grafting (3)

Shen Yuxi sat alone by the window, gazing at the heavy night outside. The scene from earlier that day kept replaying in his mind.

He raised a hand and vigorously rubbed his throbbing temples, feeling even his sea of consciousness ache faintly along with them.

He was questioning life.

Of course, he was not questioning his own little life, which had somehow managed to survive for now. He was questioning whether Lin Mumu's life trajectory had been kicked clean off its predetermined tracks by some indescribable existence and was now racing all the way toward an unknown abyss.

As a serialized novel, Song of the Nine Domains had a vast cast, and Lin Mumu's role in it was not particularly substantial. In the early stages, she was more like a background prop, mentioned only in passing whenever the Seventh Elder came up. It would be a stretch to call her especially important.

The reason she later stood out, even receiving an independent side story and becoming such a memorable character, was because of her fated person. That was Zhu Jiugo, the absolute protagonist of that side story—the fellow who was currently still treated by Chu Xuan as a treasured spirit beast and existed in the form of a stone.

Whenever Shen Yuxi thought of Zhu Jiugo's true identity and potential, he could not help clicking his tongue. This man's identity was simply too special—so special that even Shen Yuxi felt that, if he had been the author of Song of the Nine Domains, he would have unhesitatingly pulled him out and given him an entirely separate novel as its protagonist.

But that was not how things had turned out.

Zhu Jiugo had merely earned the qualification to be a side-story protagonist. At the root of it all, the problem lay