Looking at the scroll in his hand, Su Qi tentatively asked a question.
"Is that big shot back there?"
The scroll did not respond.
"Do you have your own consciousness?"
Su Qi guessed that this thing should possess some form of intelligent AI.
In the cultivation world, such beings would be called artifact spirits.
The scroll still didn't respond.
Su Qi narrowed his eyes, threw the scroll onto the ground, and began undoing his belt.
Just as he was about to unleash a water dragon onto the scroll, the scroll on the ground suddenly disappeared.
He cautiously walked a short distance away, and as expected, it returned.
He picked it up and opened it. This time, there was only one line of text remaining:
[If you are willing to take the place of the original owner and continue the transaction, please drip your blood onto the scroll.]
"What if I don't want to? Will you send me back?"
Su Qi changed the question.
This time, the scroll responded.
[My name is Su Qi, and I have transmigrated. An opportunity is presented to me, yet I hesitate to accept it. After much deliberation, I choose to refuse.
The moment I refuse, that being makes its move. It erases my memories, forcing me to continue living the life of the original owner. In the end, just like him, I die at Ye Feng's hands.
After my death, I enter the cycle of reincarnation alongside billions of other souls, living countless ordinary and mundane lives.
In every subsequent life, each time I die and reenter the cycle of reincarnation, I remember that an opportunity for transcendence was once presented to me but I failed to cherish it and only regretted it after losing it. If given another chance, I would seize it!]
"Hey, are you trying to provoke me?"
Su Qi was amused.
Ordinary and mundane lives?
This scroll clearly understood human psychology.
Who would willingly accept mediocrity?
To put it bluntly, this was being used as a pawn. But phrased more pleasantly, it could be called encountering a benefactor.
Not everyone was useful, after all.
Su Qi was not one of those self-important, hot-blooded fools who believed they were destined to stand at the peak.
Even after years of cultivation, the original owner had only reached the Foundation Establishment stage.
Let alone reaching the summit, he would be out of breath just climbing the foothills.
Reaching halfway would already be a miracle.
Moreover, he had now become a thorn in the side of the male and female leads.
If this thorn were not removed, they could never truly be together.
Would life remain mundane, or would he seize the opportunity for greatness at the cost of countless lives?
At worst, his soul would scatter and cease to exist.
Su Qi had already made his decision, though he wasn't in a hurry.
He looked at the scroll with a thoughtful expression.
"You said before that He needs me to make the female leads turn evil. Does that mean He gains something from their corruption?"
As Su Qi habitually reached out to rub his chin, he noticed how good his skin felt, smooth, supple, and resilient.
The land shapes its people; it truly was a land of beauties.
Ahem… off topic.ofg topic..cough
"Also, my cultivation increases after a female lead turns evil, and you never mentioned any upper limit. Can I assume that if enough female leads fall, I might even rise to His level?"
After voicing this possibility, Su Qi smiled and shook his head.
"If He could elevate people so easily, He wouldn't need me. So the resources must ultimately come from those female characters, right?"
It was like a labor relationship.
The boss provided a platform for employees to create value and generate profit, the boss taking the lion's share while employees received only a fraction.
Su Qi was merely a low-level worker.
"So, what is the profit-sharing ratio between me and Him? If I perform well, can my share increase?"
The scroll did not respond, but Su Qi felt confident in his deduction, and a sly smile crept onto his lips.
"Boss, restarting this world's timeline must have cost you quite a bit, right? Tell me, if I spread word that you covet power from the female leads, wouldn't all your efforts in this life be wasted?"
After he spoke, the scroll visibly trembled, and a sentence appeared.
[You insignificant ant, how dare you threaten me? Aren't you afraid I'll crush you?]
So the entity behind it had finally shown itself.
Su Qi paid no attention to the threat; his life was hardly worth much anyway.
"If you could fire me whenever you wished, you wouldn't need me. Besides, with my "
'outstandingabilities', you probably wouldn't want to lose me, right?"
Was his selection truly coincidence?
In his previous life, he excelled at dealing with women, and now his mission involved dealing with female protagonists.
Was such perfect alignment really accidental?
Frankly, Su Qi didn't believe so.
[Excellent. As expected of the one I chose. Your request for improved treatment is granted. Sign the contract.]
" hehe, Then thank you, Boss."
Su Qi smiled and dripped blood onto the scroll.
The blood seeped in, forming a strange pattern before fading away.
The scroll's surface returned to blankness.
To be honest, despite the promise of better treatment, Su Qi still didn't believe a word of it.
He didn't know the commission percentage, nor the total profit from completing a single "transaction."
How much he received depended entirely on the other party's conscience.
And as everyone knew, capital had no conscience.
So the question was, knowing all this, why did Su Qi still go through with it?
The answer was simple.
It was much like working a regular job: if you never ask for a raise, most bosses will never offer one.
But once you bring it up, as long as you have the ability, the boss will grant you additional compensation accordingly.
Although the increase would certainly not be substantial, even a small gain was still something.
Moreover, Su Qi's main purpose was to make an example of himself.
He wanted to tell the other party that he was willing to be a pawn but if pushed too far, he would not hesitate to fight to the death.
After carefully putting away the scroll, Su Qi followed his memories and wandered around until he finally returned to his residence.
It was an independent courtyard, built by the former sect leader, Su Yun, specifically for her "daughter." At the time, she had not known that her "daughter" was actually her son, so she named it Qifeng Courtyard, located at the foot of the main peak of the Yunmiao Immortal Sect.
"Young master, why did you take so long?"
A young girl dressed as a maid came out to greet him. When she saw Su Qi's somewhat disheveled appearance, she gasped and covered her mouth.
"Oh, young master, what happened to you?"
She hurried forward to support him.
An Qing, a maid given to the original owner of this body by the Mu family, had once been a noble lady of the Southern Region. After the Great Ling Dynasty conquered the six kingdoms, she was reduced to slavery and eventually purchased by the Mu family.
It was common knowledge that Mu Feier refused to consummate her marriage with Su Qi.
The Mu family, sheltered by the Yunmiao Immortal Sect, naturally felt embarrassed. Thus, they sent this exceptionally beautiful and graceful maid to help the original owner relieve his frustrations.
However, the original owner had been a fool who believed this to be a test from the Mu family, and he stubbornly refused to touch her for more than a year.
"It's nothing. When I went to see your young lady, I discovered someone with ulterior motives lurking near her secluded cultivation grounds. I got into a fight with him, but I couldn't defeat him, and he knocked me unconscious."
Su Qi's eyes darted about as he pretended to have a headache and appear weak, waving his hand dismissively as his face showed a look of sadness.