Transforming into a stunningly beautiful fox spirit, leaving a scar on the heart of a prodigy.

Life in the Moon Palace moves very slowly.

There is no sunrise or sunset, only the cold moon that hangs forever overhead, and the white frost that can never be swept away no matter how hard you try.

Su Xiaojiu sat on the stone steps in front of the palace gate.

She held the withered cassia branch in her hand, idly drawing circles on the ground.

The cloak wrapped around her body looked somewhat empty.

The sound of light footsteps came from afar.

Two little demon girls, carrying brooms and hunching their shoulders, walked over from the other side of the corridor.

They dared not approach the main hall, but stopped at the side gate in the distance, breathing on their hands to warm them while chatting in hushed tones.

This Guanghan Palace is too desolate. If we don't speak soon, we'll probably be driven crazy by this deathly silence.

"Have you heard?"

The little demon with rabbit ears on the left lowered his voice.

"The new storybook that came from the west, told by that storyteller named Moon Rabbit, is now spreading like wildfire throughout the Heavenly Demon City."

The cat demon on the right twitched its ears and put its hands into its sleeves.

"What book? And whose talented scholar and beautiful lady are they?"

"No, that's not it."

The rabbit demon shook its head, its eyes revealing a hint of excitement.

"It's about a tiger and a fox."

Su Xiaojiu paused for a moment while drawing circles.

She didn't turn around, but her ears twitched slightly.

The rabbit demon's voice drifted on the cold wind, intermittent yet clearly audible.

"They say the tiger was a fool, guarding an empty swamp, sharpening a broken knife day and night."

Someone asked him why he was sharpening his knife.

He said he was going to poke a hole in the sky to bring his fox home.

The cat demon sniffed, somewhat disbelieving.

"To cause a major upheaval? That would require an incredible amount of skill. That's probably just bragging."

"Who knows?"

The rabbit demon sighed, her face filled with longing.

"But Mr. Moon Rabbit told a very good story. He said that the fox was willing to go with the bad guy to save the tiger, and even drew a mark on the tiger's palm before leaving."

"The tiger lived by that mark, saying that as long as the mark remained, the fox would still be alive."

"Tsk tsk, what kind of demon is this stupid?"

The cat demon pursed its lips and picked up a broom.

"Alright, stop dreaming. We little demons are lucky to even be alive; who would be willing to sharpen a knife for us?"

The voices of the two little demons gradually faded into the distance.

Su Xiaojiu sat on the stone steps, looking at the half-drawn circle on the ground.

She lowered her head and opened her palm.

My palms are empty.

But she remembers the feeling.

I remember that day in the ruins of Yunmengze, when she used cinnabar to draw that little fox in Bai Yin's calloused palm.

"Silly tiger."

Su Xiaojiu murmured softly.

But the corners of his mouth couldn't help but turn up slightly.

That silly tiger who would blush at the slightest provocation has now become a legend in other people's mouths.

They even want to tear a hole in the sky.

That's some serious boasting; aren't they afraid of their tongues getting twisted in the wind?

Su Xiaojiu threw the osmanthus branch in her hand on the ground.

"Bai Yin..."

She kept repeating the name.

The story was so well-crafted that even she, the person in question, felt a pang of sadness upon hearing it.

Just then.

A long-lost mechanical voice suddenly echoed in my mind.

"bite--"

The sound was crisp, like the sound of ice cracking.

Su Xiaojiu's body stiffened for a moment.

She sat up abruptly.

"system?"

She tentatively called out in her mind.

Ever since I escaped death at the Supreme Forgetfulness Sect, this broken system has been undergoing upgrades, but it's like it's crashed; no matter how much I call it, it doesn't respond.

She thought the thing was broken, or that it was blocked by the laws of this world.

"Ding—System upgrade complete."

Current version: Strategy System 2.0.

"Host behavior detected has caused a major deviation in the plot, generating a huge amount of causal energy. The system has completed recharging and restarting."

Suddenly, a pale blue light screen appeared in front of me.

The light screen flickered slightly, as if the signal was weak, but the text on it was very clear.

Su Xiaojiu looked at the line of text and raised an eyebrow.

"The plot has taken a turn?"

She sneered inwardly.

"I've already been captured and brought here, and now I'm being bled dry? Isn't the plot going off-topic enough?"

The system ignored her complaints.

The text on the screen disappeared, replaced by a huge progress bar.

The progress bar is red, and it has only progressed a little bit so far.

Below is a line of small print:

[Saving Value: 35%]

"What is this?"

Su Xiaojiu asked.

The system's voice remained the same emotionless, mechanical tone, but this time, it seemed to carry a hint of solemnity.

"Host, what do you think this world would be like without your intervention?"

Su Xiaojiu was stunned for a moment.

"What is it like?"

"Let's just follow the original plot."

She said it casually.

"Chen Xuan will become an emperor, Bai Yin will become a demon saint, and Gu Xiang... Gu Xiang will probably be a brilliant scholar?"

The system remained silent for a moment.

The light screen suddenly went black.

Immediately afterwards, a scene slowly unfolded before Su Xiaojiu's eyes.

That's not writing.

It's a picture as clear as a photographic stone.

In the picture, the sky is gray.

It's raining.

That's a mass grave in the Northern Region.

A thin, frail child lay in the mud, with a huge, bloody hole in his chest, where his supreme bone had been dug out.

His eyes were wide open, staring intently at the sky, his eyes filled with resentment and bitterness.

Several wild dogs were gnawing on his corpse.

That's Chen Xuan.

The scene changes.

Yunmeng Marsh.

The fire turned half the sky red.

The sword formation of the Supreme Forgetfulness Sect descended, piercing hearts with ten thousand swords.

A huge white tiger lay in a pool of blood, its fur stripped away to reveal its bright red flesh.

His head was cut off and displayed on the flagpole of the warship.

That's Bai Yin.

Turn again.

Black Wind Village.

The government troops surrounded and suppressed them, raining down arrows.

A bearded man wielded a large knife and brutally murdered a righteous scholar.

That's Gu Xiang.

The image freezes on this moment.

As Su Xiaojiu looked at the light screen, she felt a chill run from the soles of her feet straight to the top of her head.

She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

"this……"

She pointed at the image on the screen, her fingers trembling slightly.

"What is this?"

The system's voice echoed in my mind, cold and cruel.

"This is the original destiny."

"If no host had traveled here, and without your intervention..."

"After Chen Xuan's bones were removed, he wouldn't even last until he entered the secret realm; he would die in the mass grave."

"Bai Yin died from exhaustion during the first siege of the Supreme Forgetfulness Sect, becoming material for cultivators to forge weapons."

"Gu Xianghui died a violent death during an ordinary siege by government troops."

Su Xiaojiu was stunned.

She always thought of herself as an outsider, a troublemaker who disrupted the plot.

She thought these so-called "protagonists" were protected by divine intervention and would never die no matter how much they did.

But now the system tells her...

If it weren't for her.

These people are long dead.

To die meaningless, to die like roadside weeds.

"That……"

Su Xiaojiu swallowed, feeling her throat go dry.

"So the so-called original plot, the so-called demon saint, the so-called great emperor, are all fake?"

The system did not provide a direct answer.

The image on the screen disappeared, and it returned to the red progress bar.

"System 2.0 core tasks released."

"Mission Name: Defying Fate"

"Mission Description: While continuing to capture the targets, change their inevitable fate and gain salvation points."

"Current Salvation Value: 35% (Chen Xuan's inevitable death has been changed, Bai Yin's inevitable death has been changed, and Gu Xiang's inevitable death has been changed)."

"Mission Reward: For every 10% increase in rescue value, the host will have one chance to draw a Heavenly Dao-level reward."

"Reward has been issued and can be claimed."

Su Xiaojiu looked at the task panel.

Her mind was a bit of a mess.

This was completely different from the world she had previously understood.

She always thought she was playing a strategy game where she could complete it by maximizing her affection level.

But now it seems...

This is not a game at all.

Unbeknownst to her, she had already saved three lives.

It was because she saved them that the current situation has come to this.

Bai Yin didn't die, so he went to the far west to sharpen his sword.

Chen Xuan did not die, so he vowed to kill his way to Zhongzhou.

Gu Xiang did not die, so he resolved to protect the region.

All these changes are because of her.

Su Xiaojiu took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.

She looked up at the cold moon overhead.

"system."

She asked herself.

"Since their original fate was that they would all die."

"Where exactly did that so-called 'original work' come from?"

"If they all die, then who writes the rest of the story?"

The system fell silent.

The light screen flickered twice, as if there was a poor connection.

After a long time, the system finally gave an ambiguous answer.

"Insufficient permissions to query".

Su Xiaojiu narrowed her eyes.

Insufficient permissions.

This lousy system just used those four words to fob her off.

But this time, she had a vague feeling that there was a huge secret behind it.

A secret about the truth of this world.

"Alright."

Su Xiaojiu stood up and patted the dust off her cloak.

"Whatever the truth is."

"Anyway, they're still alive."

She stared at the red progress bar on the screen, her eyes filled with determination.

"Since you're not dead, then live well."

"I want them dead."

"That depends on whether I agree or not."