"Hah... hah..." Qiuyue gasped for breath, her voice trembling. "Savior... I can't continue. Please, let me rest for a moment."

Her voice clearly conveyed her exhaustion and limitations.

Chuckling, Niu Chang taunted Qiuyue with his seemingly limitless stamina from the system. "What are you talking about? I still have plenty of energy left. How can you ask for a break when I'm not finished yet?"

Niu Chang cruelly pushed Qiuyue to her limits, urging her to endure further. Qiuyue couldn't hold back a cry of anguish.

In the withered forest, a male, a female, and a hollow shell of a demonic snake came into view.

Contrary to expectations, Qiuyue was placing her hand on the demonic snake's body, draining its vitality. On the other side, Niu Chang was supplying vitality to the demonic snake.

Niu Chang found Qiuyue's playful innuendos amusing and played along, enjoying the banter. However, he soon realized that Qiuyue had reached her breaking point.

After being resurrected, Qiuyue's cultivation level had dropped to the peak stage. To progress further and achieve mastery, she needed to undergo a preparatory phase for a qualitative breakthrough, rather than a mere quantitative increase.

Since Niu Chang had forbidden Qiuyue from resting, she dared not stop consuming the demonic snake's vitality.

"You can stop now," Niu Chang finally said, ceasing his healing of the demonic snake.

He had slightly improved his proficiency in Verdant Will.

Though filled with vitality, Qiuyue could no longer stand and collapsed to the ground. Her body was overflowing with energy, making it difficult for her to breathe properly.

Lying down, she controlled her breath to prevent discomfort in her stomach.

Niu Chang approached her with a smile, intrigued by the sight. 'Can one be overstuffed from consuming vitality?' he wondered.

Shaking his head, he squatted down to examine Qiuyue's condition.

"Savior..." Qiuyue weakly opened her eyes but couldn't keep them open for long before closing them again.

Sensing Niu Chang's transformation qi entering her body, she held her breath.

Since her body was already brimming with energy, Niu Chang's qi put an additional strain on her mortal body. The excess vitality within Qiuyue rapidly transformed into ghostly qi, but the high quality of the vitality made the process time-consuming. Moreover, her body had limited capacity to hold such an immense amount of vitality and ghostly qi simultaneously.

Given that this was a gift from her savior, she refused to expel the excessive qi.

Using his Authority, Niu Chang commanded the ghostly qi and vitality within Qiuyue's body to calm down.

Since his body normally overflowed with qi, he chose to conceal his special abilities by toggling his Authority.

In the cultivation stages of peak and lower levels, qi freely circulated within the body. In normal circumstances, it didn't strain the physical body, but excessive amounts could cause harm.

Thanks to Niu Chang's Authority, the qi and vitality within Qiuyue's body began to settle.

Qiuyue relinquished her resistance as Niu Chang's Authority effortlessly took control of her qi and vitality.

"Convert," Niu Chang commanded once again with his Authority.

Scanning everything inside Qiuyue's body took only a few seconds for Niu Chang, who made note of the differences. He aided Qiuyue in digesting her vitality while pondering over her unique constitution.

'Her special constitution is like an innate cultivation method etched into her body. She doesn't require comprehension; it's as natural as breathing and eating for humans. However, consuming vitality alone cannot bypass major realm barriers. She must break through those barriers through her own efforts.'

Cultivation was akin to constructing a house. Martial artists began by clearing the ground, refining their qi, establishing a foundation, and ultimately forming a golden core. Foundation building required some understanding of construction, which martial artists could accumulate during the qi refinement stage or acquire from seniors, teachers, or cultivation books.

Unfortunately, none of these resources were available to Qiuyue at the moment. Niu Chang himself didn't possess a qi cultivation method for the master stage either. He had an idea about the foundation building stage, but it might differ from the master stage in this world.

Once the vitality had completely transformed into ghostly qi, the strain on Qiuyue's body lessened but did not disappear entirely.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Niu Chang withdrew his hand and observed the pale, ominous ghostly qi swirling on his palm. The warmth vanished rapidly due to its presence.

'What a peculiar qi. It repels all living beings yet is attracted to their vitality. It's like a parasite that cannot coexist with any living being. How can a living being contain such qi?'

Glancing at the healthy Qiuyue, who showed no signs of deterioration, Niu Chang contemplated possibilities. 'Could it be a special constitution? Perhaps a unique technique passed down through Shen Sanhua's family lineage? Or a ritual bestowing this constitution exclusively upon core members of her family?'

Numerous questions filled Niu Chang's mind, but he lacked answers due to the boundless possibilities of this world.

'One thing is certain: this woman, Shen Sanhua, is a pivotal encounter in my journey. Following typical plot development, her existence will bring forth a cascade of problems for the main character. If I were to act as a typical main character, the Shen family would hunt me down for kidnapping their gifted daughter, and the Shen family's ancestor would likely intervene...'

Niu Chang massaged his forehead. 'In short, any initial fateful encounter foreshadows future story arcs.'

After pondering for a while, Niu Chang made a decision. Placing his hand on Qiuyue's stomach, he dissipated the excess ghostly qi.

Qiuyue suddenly opened her eyes, gazing at Niu Chang with a questioning expression.

"Did... did I make a mistake, savior?" Qiuyue asked sorrowfully, tears welling up in her eyes, unable to control her fragile emotions.

"No," Niu Chang shook his head. "Get up, I'm done testing. We should leave now."

Niu Chang's kind tone instantly calmed the turmoil in Qiuyue's heart. She rose from the ground and followed closely behind him.

Suddenly, Niu Chang stopped and swiftly dashed back to the hollow shell of the demonic snake.

After performing some peculiar actions, he extracted the snake's eyes, then incinerated the entire corpse, leaving nothing behind.

Niu Chang emitted a satisfied grunt and happily returned to Qiuyue.

"Here, hold these," he said, tossing a pair of eyes to Qiuyue.

Catching them mid-air, Qiuyue sensed an eerie aura emanating from the eyes, as if they were alive and observing their surroundings. Curiosity piqued, she refrained from questioning and continued to follow Niu Chang.

Niu Chang's destination was the Yellow Soil Village. Since they were both unclothed, they needed new garments to avoid attracting unwanted attention.

As they left the withered forest and entered the village, Niu Chang was struck motionless by the unsettling sight before him.

Empty human husks littered the ground, entangled by yellow roots. As he proceeded towards Qin Qing's house, his heart was deeply affected.

No words were needed to understand the horrifying truth revealed by the gruesome scenery.

Qiuyue, not fully mature in mind, found herself intrigued by the lifeless husks. She occasionally observed them closely, driven by her innocent curiosity.

'They resemble humans, but why do they look like this? Are they dead? And if so, why?' She glanced at Niu Chang's back, sensing his preoccupation, and decided to ask him later.

Finally, Niu Chang arrived at his destination. Before him stood a decrepit and impoverished house, with a different type of corpse adorning the open front door.

The corpse, that of a teenage girl, revealed her identity through her short stature. Her charred black skin and sunken eye sockets, streaked with red lines running down her cheeks, depicted a painful and sorrowful expression.

Niu Chang's breath caught in his throat. His mind conjured various alternative scenarios, envisioning the different paths the story could take. He saw himself saving the entire village, defeating the demonic snake and Huang Zhi, befriending the old man, and rescuing Shen Sanhua alongside Dong Qiuyue.

Moreover, he saw a possibility of saving his sister.

When he saw the familiar house once more, filtered through the lens of an alternative future, he witnessed Qin Qing scolding him while his sister defended him. Others were present in the house as well.

In that vision, the Niu Chang there realized something and turned to him, staring dumbfounded for a moment before raising an index finger and laughing.

"Serves you right!" he casually remarked.

'Ah... I understand now. This story is not about me after all.' Niu Chang took a deep breath, suppressing the turmoil within. 'No matter how much I try to deny it, the truth remains, waiting for me to accept it.'

'This world revolves around Niu Chang as the main character. Regardless of the dangers that lie ahead, there will always be a heroic way out to solve every problem. That's the nature of this story and this world.'

'No side characters should suffer, and no background characters should be sacrificed, as it would disrupt the story.'

'Looking back now, I realize I could have easily prevented any tragedies. If only I had accepted the responsibility of being a proper, ordinary human plot device, my story would have garnered much more attention.'

'This family... I can save them. This village... I can save it. These people... I can save them. This world... I can save it.'

'Due to my selfishness, they suffer when they should naturally find happiness.'

Niu Chang shook his head, accepting reality.

'But even so...' His cold eyes surveyed the surroundings. 'I have finally witnessed it for myself. The realistic outcome of a story, the outcome I always wondered about—what would happen if the main character made different choices? Now I see it.'

The withered forest, the destroyed village, the deaths of countless background characters—all consequences of the main character's choices not being the right ones.

'An undesirable outcome indeed,' Niu Chang murmured to himself.

He foresaw the future if he continued defying his fate as the main character. Everywhere he went, disaster would follow, innocent background characters would suffer due to the conflicts of the century.

Wherever he stepped foot, destruction would follow—a harbinger of doom, the bearer of ill tidings, and ultimately, a bringer of misfortune.

Niu Chang tore apart every lingering thought in his mind with his own hands. 'So what? What does their innocent lives have to do with me?'

'Everyone is destined to die once they are born into this world. It's merely a matter of time. If my choices burden my heart, so be it! I want to witness the weight of this burden in the final stage of my journey. Will it crush me with its sheer weight, or will it become my sharpest spear?'