The Substitute Female Supporting Character Sees the Bullet Screen

The Nie family remained unchanged, their gates bright and prosperous, with interconnected courtyards stretching endlessly. It was spring, and the crabapple trees in the yard were in full bloom, their blossoms spreading like a sea of clouds and mist between the pavilions and towers.

Nie Yinzhi suddenly returned, and her parents were momentarily stunned. Even after she had been speaking with them for an hour, they would occasionally pause and pinch themselves to make sure they weren’t dreaming.

Nie Yinzhi hadn’t expected that, apart from the sword cultivators from the Cloud Scripture Sect, there were also spell cultivators from the Taixin Gate guarding the Nie family.

In total, there were four cultivators from both sects. These cultivators were elusive, rarely interacting with the Nie family even while stationed there. They didn’t interfere with the family’s daily activities, but when Nie Yinzhi’s father had to travel for business, a cultivator would accompany him for protection.

Thus, even though the Nie family knew the cultivators’ true intentions, they still treated them as honored guests, preparing several courtyards for their residence.

Three months ago, coinciding with the upheaval at the Ten Thousand Demons Cave, these cultivators suddenly turned hostile. The four of them first fought among themselves. Initially, some of them were cautious of the mortals, using protective formations, but eventually, even the cultivator who had been shielding the others couldn’t hold on and turned his sword toward the innocent people below.

Everyone closed their eyes, waiting for the wrath of the immortals, but when the dazzling talismans and sword lights finally descended, their power inexplicably dissipated, transforming into a gust of wind that swept through the Nie estate.

The cultivators above all fell from the sky, crashing to the ground with bloodied heads.

During this time, Nie Yinzhi stayed with her parents, while Feng Hanying went to check on the four cultivators. He found that the key points of their spiritual meridians were embedded with the Blood Moon Shadow’s demonic energy. Their spiritual channels were severed, their consciousness sealed, and even their protective spiritual energy was unusable. If not for the cultivators’ robust physical bodies, they might have died from the fall.

The demonic energy embedded in their meridians wasn’t just the Blood Moon Shadow—it was Gu Jiang’s demonic energy.

Feng Hanying had long studied this. In this land tainted by the Blood Moon Shadow, demonic energy wasn’t in a free state. Even though it merged with the mountains, rivers, and plants, it was still under Gu Jiang’s control, as if he had fused his Blood Moon Shadow space into this region.

Therefore, his master might not have escaped the fate dictated by the heavens. Like those ascended cultivators, he might have become part of the world’s foundation, though perhaps not entirely.

Sometimes, while walking, Feng Hanying couldn’t help but wonder if he was stepping on his master’s face.

Of course, he didn’t share these rebellious thoughts with Nie Yinzhi, fearing that his young mistress, who wasn’t even a fraction of his age, wouldn’t be able to handle the shock.

Now, it seemed his master’s consciousness was still present, as he had protected the Nie family.

Feng Hanying chose the weakest spell cultivator and tried to break the seal on his consciousness, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t make a dent. Frustrated, he nearly crushed the cultivator’s head in anger.

Meanwhile, Nie Yinzhi, after comforting her parents, came out and saw Ah Huan and Cheng Bi waiting at the courtyard gate. The three of them talked for a while.

“Miss, what do you plan to do with those cultivators?” Ah Huan asked uneasily. “While they were here, they didn’t do anything bad except for that one day… I don’t know what happened, but they didn’t cause much damage. The master and mistress are fine, and they even called a doctor to treat their wounds…”

Nie Yinzhi knew what she meant and smiled. “I understand. Take me to see them.”

The four cultivators were all unconscious, and for convenience, they had been placed in different rooms within the same courtyard. When Nie Yinzhi and her maids arrived, Feng Hanying was sitting on the corridor, shaking his leg impatiently. The demonic energy around him had scattered the flowers and plants in the courtyard, and it suddenly surged toward the gate.

Nie Yinzhi quickly pulled Ah Huan and Cheng Bi behind her and waved away the Blood Moon Shadow energy. “What are you doing here? Are they still unconscious?”

Feng Hanying snapped a branch and smirked. “Their consciousness is sealed.”

The two maids were clearly afraid of him, so Nie Yinzhi told them to wait outside and walked into the room. “You can’t break the seal?”

Feng Hanying didn’t answer, waiting for her to examine the cultivators herself. When Nie Yinzhi saw the Blood Moon Shadow embedded in their meridians, her eyes lit up. “This is Gu Jiang’s doing!”

“Yes, it’s Master’s seal. I can’t break it,” Feng Hanying said. Before he could finish, Nie Yinzhi had already dispelled the demonic energy sealing the spell cultivator’s consciousness and stepped back.

The cultivator immediately woke up, his eyes darting between the two in the room. When he saw the red mark between Feng Hanying’s brows, he recognized him and shouted, “Demon!” He threw a talisman at him.

Feng Hanying chuckled, crossing his arms and watching the talisman flutter to the ground. He released a wave of pressure, pinning the cultivator to the wall and making him cough up blood.

“Feng Hanying, don’t go too far. I still need to ask him questions,” Nie Yinzhi said, stopping him.

Feng Hanying clicked his tongue and withdrew his pressure. The cultivator slid to the floor, realizing his sealed meridians. He glared at them, recalling what had happened, his expression filled with shock and suspicion.

Nie Yinzhi said, “While you were guarding the Nie family, you didn’t harm anyone and even helped us. For that, I thank you.”

The cultivator looked her up and down, then glanced warily at Feng Hanying. He leaned against the wall and stood up, sneering, “Do you think we’re like you demons, harming innocent people at will?”

Feng Hanying laughed mockingly. “Funny. If you didn’t harm the mortals, how did you end up with your meridians and consciousness sealed?”

The cultivator’s expression stiffened. After a long silence, he raised his chin and said to Nie Yinzhi, “I didn’t act of my own will at the time. I was… overwhelmed by something, and I was controlled by an irresistible force, which made me do those things.”n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Nie Yinzhi knew what he was referring to—the same force that had once influenced her, the so-called “plot.”

Before the Ten Thousand Demons Cave incident, neither she nor Gu Jiang had sensed the existence of the plot, mistaking it for the will of the heavens. It wasn’t until the final moment at the Ten Thousand Demons Cave that the plot, desperate to fulfill itself, directly intervened, revealing its traces.

Even so, it seemed it could only influence people when their minds were vulnerable.

“Oh, how noble of you righteous cultivators. Even when you act, you can find excuses,” Feng Hanying said, clapping sarcastically.

The cultivator was furious. “How do I know it wasn’t you demons taking advantage of the situation to corrupt my mind?”

Feng Hanying smirked. “Your mind was already unstable, wasn’t it?”

The cultivator took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and stopped arguing.

Nie Yinzhi asked him how his meridians and consciousness had been sealed, but he couldn’t answer. She then asked about other matters.

Previously, Luo Sheng from the Taixin Gate had discovered the effect of Nie Yinzhi’s blood on demonic cultivators and guessed part of the truth. As someone who had reached the peak of the Nascent Soul stage and lived for centuries, he had heard of the legend of the Divine Maiden. He had wanted to use the Nie family as leverage to control Nie Yinzhi, but Gu Jiang had guarded her too closely, leaving him no opportunity to approach her.

Upon learning that the Taixin Gate had sent spell cultivators to guard the Nie family, Yan Yi of the Cloud Scripture Sect also sent sword cultivators to join them.

Nie Yinzhi then woke the other cultivators and, after confirming their stories, unsealed their meridians and let them go.

After some thought, Nie Yinzhi asked Feng Hanying, “When righteous cultivators ascend and merge with the heavens, becoming part of the world’s spiritual energy and foundation, doesn’t that resemble how the Blood Moon Shadow has merged with this land?”

Feng Hanying: “…”

Nie Yinzhi crouched down and picked up a withered flower. “If your master has also become part of this land, becoming every blade of grass and every tree…”

Before she could finish, Feng Hanying transformed into a streak of light and fled.

Nie Yinzhi remained crouched, staring blankly for a while. Tears fell from her chin and landed on the withered flower. A faint tremor in her fingers startled her back to reality.

The withered rosebush beneath her hand suddenly began to regrow at a visible pace, blooming with delicate buds.

"Gu Jiang?" Nie Yinzhi was momentarily stunned. She hurriedly glanced at the golden sprout on her wrist, but there was still no change. The thoughts she had poured into it still received no response.

So what did this mean?!

Feng Hanying left the Nie family and led a group of fierce demonic cultivators, intending to pay a visit to the nearby immortal sects. In the region of Yuan Province, where mortals gathered, the immortal sects were distant and few. The only noteworthy sect was the Chengyang Temple.

The master of Chengyang Temple personally led his disciples to welcome them outside the temple. Without a word, he planted the banner of the demonic realm at the entrance of his temple.

The banner was woven from five-colored demonic energy, dominated by the dark red of a blood moon. A golden thread embroidered a fierce "Demon" character, exuding an aura of brutality—very much in line with Feng Hanying's straightforward and ruthless style.

This pathetic immortal sect surrendered too quickly, leaving Feng Hanying with no sense of accomplishment. Determined to stir up trouble, he forced the master of Chengyang Temple to divine for him, from morning till night, asking about everything from his career to his love life.

The temple master, who had been stuck at the mid-stage of Nascent Soul for three hundred years and was nearing the end of his life, found it extremely taxing to divine for a Soul Transformation cultivator. Each divination drained a significant amount of his true essence, leaving him utterly exhausted by Feng Hanying's demands.

Feng Hanying lounged carelessly on his seat, glancing at the statues of the Three Pure Ones enshrined in the main hall. He said unhappily, "You said my love thread is faint, but it still exists. Can you divine where it leads?"

The temple master's thin mustache twitched. "This humble Daoist's cultivation is limited. I truly cannot divine it."

Feng Hanying stared coldly at him. The more something was denied to him, the more he desired it. He chuckled, playing with a gleaming curved blade in his hand. "Then divine again. What will happen to your Chengyang Temple if you refuse me?"

[Oh my, Feng the Rabbit has grown up overnight and is now thinking about finding a wife?]

[Feng, don't bother looking! I'm your wife. Just wait for me to transmigrate into the story and have a happy ending with you!]

[Sis, be careful. You might transmigrate into the story and get killed the moment you meet him. The chance of a bad ending is 99.9999%.]

[His career line is thriving, but his love line is nonexistent. That's our Feng for you.]

[Even if it's divined, I doubt Feng Hanying, with his clueless straight-man energy, could ever win someone over.]

[Where? Where is Feng's love thread? I zoomed in and used a magnifying glass, but I still couldn't see it. It's so faint! Does it even exist? Is the temple master just being polite?]

[The emperor's love thread is transparent, LOL.]

Nie Yinzhi was trimming the branches of a rose when she saw these comments.

From the barrage, she guessed that Feng Hanying had gone to Chengyang Temple, a large temple outside Yuan Province. The temple had always been prosperous, with many disciples practicing divination. The most profound among them was the old temple master, who was at the mid-stage of Nascent Soul and could divine past and present lives. He rarely spoke, and his divinations were famously expensive. Most of Chengyang Temple's foundation lay in the mortal world.

Before Nie Yinzhi was taken in by Sang Wumian to cultivate in the Cloud Scripture Sect, her mother had brought her here to burn incense and ask for a divination. The temple master had started the divination, but the copper coins grew cold halfway through. With a complicated expression, he withdrew the tortoise shell and refused Nie Yinzhi's mother, claiming he did not divine matters of the immortal sects.

It was this statement that convinced Nie Yinzhi's parents to send their daughter to the Cloud Scripture Sect.

Now that the temple master had divined for Feng Hanying, perhaps he wouldn't mind divining for her as well.