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I am the Main Character? No Thanks!: Chapter 25 (Volume 2)
🕑 Added 2025-01-27 07:39:51 +0000 UTCAuthor Notes: Not really satisfied fully with this chapter but I saw no other way to improve it even after spending two whole days pouring over it, so here it is.
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Yin Lingxi sat on her throne, watching the bickering of her two brothers as they debated the best course of action to deal with the sudden attack of the Baihu empire.
She loved her brothers just like any sibling would, but she also hated how these two never agreed on anything. It was as if they were born to annoy each other.
Thankfully, despite their mother’s attempts to poison their relationship in their childhood, they still held a close relationship with each other and supported each other.
They even agreed with their father when he decided to hand the throne to her, allowing her to smoothly ascend to her status as an Empress unchallenged.
Ever since then, things have been going very smoothly for her and her empire.
The Yin Long empire was thriving and expanding its borders steadily, the mortals led content lives while the cultivators worked to protect her empire from the demonic path. The Holy Lands kept to themselves as always, allowing her to rule her lands in peace despite the occasional attacks from the Baihu Empire which were swiftly crushed by her Aunt who led the empire’s military.
Yes, everything was as perfect as it could be for her.
‘Y..L..xi!...up!’
Except for the voice that had been haunting her for as long as she can remember.
Once again, the empress ignored the voice and continued watching her brothers debate with a happy smile.
However, the voice rang out in her ears again, annoying her like always.
‘Can’t this stupid voice stop bothering me for once!? Why must it always mess up my happy moments with its jumbled, unintelligible words!?’
‘You are right. He really needs to stop with his futile struggles and let you enjoy your life indefinitely’
‘Right!? It is so rare that I get the time to relax like this-wait, WHAT!?’
Yin Lingxi immediately sat up on her throne and started to look around, trying to find the source of the new voice that spoke to her.
The terror in her actions made her brothers stop arguing and turn to her with concern.
“Sister? What happened?”
Yin Lingxi continued to watch her surroundings as a strange feeling filled her heart as if she was forgetting something very important but could not remember what it was.
After using her senses and finding nothing, she slowly started to calm down and turned to answer her brother’s question.
Only for her vision to overlap and replace what she was seeing with something else entirely.
Yin Tianzhu, her older brother, had his smiling and gentle expressions replaced by one filled with hate and rage as he glared at her.
Yin Haoran, her younger brother, similarly had his gentle and playful expressions replaced by of drunk and idiotic expressions. His vitality disappeared, replaced by the feeling of someone who had spent all their life playing around instead of properly taking care of themselves.
Yin Lingxi’s heart chilled as she somehow found this scene to be more fitting of her siblings than the natural one she was familiar with.
Just as suddenly as it had happened, the image reverted to reveal their normal forms that showed their clear concern for her.
“Looks like you have been running yourself ragged again, sister. You should take some rest and leave the rest to us.”
“Eldest brother is right. You should retreat to your chambers and take some rest.”
Still in a daze, Yin Lingxi slowly got up from her throne and headed toward her chamber while he servants bowed to her on her path.
As she finally arrived at her room, she saw two servants stationed outside, trying very hard not to appear suspicious as they tried to eavesdrop on whatever the person inside was doing.
With an amused smile, Yin Lingxi coughed, making the servants jump and turn to face her with pale faces.
“Y-Your Highness! w-we were just-“
“Calm down, you two. I know exactly what you were doing. So tell me, is he bickering with the princess again? What is it about this time?”
The two servants looked at each other before bowing and started speaking.
“Yes, Your Highness. The consort is bickering with the princess again. This time, it is about following him to his work without informing him.”
Yin Lingxi smiled as she pushed open the door, revealing her beloved husband and their daughter.
“Yin Ling! Don’t you dare try to divert the conversation-“
“But Father! I only wanted to see why you are always stuck- Oh! Mother!!”
Yin Ling, her daughter and the sole princess of the empire, jumped into Yin Lingxi’s embrace as her husband held a grumpy expression.
“I hear that she followed you to the Formations Guild?”
“She did, and she did not even inform me about it. She used that stupid illusion technique that your aunt taught her to follow me straight to the forbidden area and nearly caused a disaster when she messed with one of my experimental formations.”
Yin Lingxi laughed as she walked towards her husband and gently killed his cheek with a sly expression.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll talk to her about how she should not disrupt your work. After all, my Empire would not have been what it is today without your work.”
“…I better get some compensation for what I had to deal with”
“Oh, don’t worry, you will get all the compensation in the world once we retreat to our private chambers-“
He held his palm on her mouth with a slightly embarrassed expression as he looked past her at the servants who acted like they did not hear anything.
“Honestly, where is the shyness that you showed when we first met all those years ago?”
Yin Lingxi grinned at that question as she snuggled up to her husband while still holding her 12-year-old daughter.
“That was just a ploy to get close to you. Otherwise, how was I supposed to capture the attention of a powerful cultivator like you who hid himself in a remote village!? You have no idea how many women I had to take care of secretly to keep you to myself.”
Even as she said that Yin Lingxi suddenly felt that something was wrong.
She tried to remember the faces of the women she just mentioned but came up blank. She tried to remember exactly how she managed to win over her husband in the first place, but still could not remember the details.
Then, her worries and bad feelings disappeared instantly as her husband, Da Wei, smiled at her words.
“Well, I guess you got what you wanted in the end. Let’s go and eat something before we take some rest.”
Yin Lingxi just nodded her head at those words as the family of three walked out of her chambers and headed towards their dinner where they sat with the other two princes of the Empire.
And just like always, things devolved into discussions of stately affairs in which her husband actively participated and provided ideas for her.
Once again, Yin Lingxi felt a sense of wrongness as she watched her husband actively engage her brothers on matters related to the Empire, specifically the issue with the Baihu Empire.
This time, no matter what she tried, she could not get rid of this strange feeling.
“Brother-in-law, what do you think we should do to deal with those prisoners we captured during the latest assault?”
“I suggest we interrogate them for information before getting rid of them.”
Yin Haoran nodded at those words as the sense of wrongness within Yin Lingxi increased further at those words.
‘Since when was Da Wei so ruthless towards others? I don’t remember him being capable of dismissing the lives of others so callously’
‘Does it matter? He is making your job easier, isn’t he?’
‘While that is true, I-….never mind. I guess this is for the best.’
She stayed silent and continued to watch the interaction.
As the conversation continued, her strange feeling continued to intensify as Da Wei increasingly became more and more callous with his words
‘This is wrong. This is not the man I married. What is going on here!?’
‘Calm down. Everything is fine. Just focus on your happiness-‘
The strangely hypnotic voice suddenly stopped as it was replaced with the familiar jumbled mess of words that she always heard since her childhood.
Yet, somehow, she felt like the voice was slightly clearer than before.
‘Yin L..xi! Wake ….!’
This voice was clearly calling for her, but what was the other half? She could not hear it clearly.
Then, the hypnotic voice returned and suppressed this jumbled voice.
‘you should get back to your room with your husband and spend some time relaxing’
‘Yeah, I guess you are right- no, no. Something is wrong.’
With the stuffy feeling in her heart increasing by the minute, Yin Lingxi got up from her seat and quickly ran out of the room, heading straight for her personal garden.
For some reason, she broke down crying in the center of her personal garden as unexplainable emotions ran through her heart.
Soon enough, Da Wei found her in that position, prompting him to embrace her and ask worriedly.
“Lingxi, what happened!? Why did you run out like that!?”
“I-I don’t know! Something is happening, something bad. But I can’t tell what it is. What do I do?”
“Maybe you should take some rest and forget about all of this?”
Terror enveloped her heart as she pushed herself away from Da Wei, making him adopt a hurtful expression.
“Lingxi, what are you-“
“Who are you!? You are not my husband. He would never tell me to forget about my problems. Neither would he suggest killing helpless prisoners like you did before. He would never suggest a plan to attack a helpless border village to distract the Baihu empire’s forces and he would most definitely never care more about his pride than the lives of his loved ones like you did during that conversation just before.”
As she continued speaking, she felt something starting to break in her consciousness as a strange calmness engulfed her, making her stand tall and continue questioning this anomaly that took the shape of her love.
“So, I ask again, who are you and where is my Husband?”
With a resounding crack, her world fell apart like shattered glass as a rage-filled snarl rang out in her ears.
“Stupid girl. All you had to do was listen to me and stay ignorant. You could have had everything you ever wanted, but, I guess those that love misery will never accept happiness.”
The darkness of the void was once again replaced with the image of her castle, but this time, it looked just like it did in her childhood when her mother was the Empress.
Turning to the throne, she found the perfect replication of her mother’s form looking down at her with the same contemptuous expression that she remembered from the woman.
The creature got up from the throne with a cruel grin as it continued speaking in the same voice as Yin Lingxi’s mother.
“A life where your mother’s venom did not poison your relationship with your siblings. A life where you peacefully ruled your empire. A life where you marry the man you love without worrying about the secrets you keep from him or worrying about what will happen in the future. A life where you did not have to worry about your neighboring empire as is your duty. A perfect life. That is what I gave you, yet you reject it so vehemently. How ungrateful, just like the rest of you humans.”
Each word felt like a stab in Yin Lingxi’s heart as the fog slowly lifted from her mind, allowing her to finally remember what had happened and what she had forgotten for who knew how long.
With her clarity returned, Yin Lingxi realized that she had been trapped in an illusion since the moment she confronted her inner guilt’s manifestation in the ruins, making her live a lie all this time.
For a split second, she felt despair as she realized that all that happiness, that contentment, was just an illusion. A devastating blow to her heart.
Yet, she suppressed those thoughts as she turned to confront the creature which continued looking down gleefully at her.
“Fortunately for me, you realized your situation too late. Any minute now, your body, soul, and cultivation will be completely refined by my core and you will cease to exist. Actually, that is a lie. You will continue to exist, as a part of my cultivation.”
“I see. I take it that you are some form of a Demonic Cultivator?”
The being snarled at those words, telling Yin Lingxi that she had been right to put out those testing words.
“Foolish human. I am not a demonic cultivator. I am one of the greatest treasures in this world, The Starlight Essence Dew. One of the nine heavenly waters. Now, die with that piece of knowledge.”
Yin Lingxi felt a chill travel up her spine as she immediately recognized the danger she was in.
Out of the nine heavenly waters, The Starlight Essence Dew in not considered all that dangerous to those who seek it since it is relatively weak in a direct confrontation if one could defend against its Light Qi-based attacks.
However, for those who are caught unaware, the Starlight Essence Dew is the most dangerous thing that they could ever run into.
As a heavenly water that is made of Light and Water Qi, it is exceptionally powerful in terms of illusions and healing capabilities. In fact, its illusions are so powerful that only cultivators with the strongest of wills can escape its illusions without any outside help.
Suddenly, the voice she had been hearing all along rang out in the space again. However, this time, she heard it very clearly and recognized who was shouting those words.
‘Yin Lingxi!! You better wake up right now or so help me, I will ban you from Da Ling’s cooking for a whole decade’
“What the hell!? Da Wei!! That is uncalled for!!”
Yin Lingxi instinctively exploded at that extreme threat to her food source before she remembered her current situation and calmed down again.
‘I see. So you were trying to reach me all this time, Da Wei.’
Yin Lingxi did not know if it was a residual effect from the illusion she lived through till now or her finally realizing her feelings, but she felt happy knowing that Da Wei had not given up on her till now and was still trying to get to her.
Somehow, this though gave her strength as she prepared to confront the damned natural treasure that had reduced her to a delusional woman.
The natural treasure looked at the Empress with an amused look.
“Do you really think you can confront me in my own domain? Foolish girl. From the moment you were caught in my illusion, you were already mine.”
“I know that I can’t defeat you in a direct confrontation, but who said anything about a direct fight?”
Suddenly, Yin Lingxi unleashed her cultivation and reached deep into her mind, removing one of the many seals placed on her power by her own hands. A secret technique of the Royal Family that she always kept as a trump card.
Instantly, Yin Lingxi’s golden eyes started to glow with power as a strange force started to distort her surroundings, making the natural treasure take her seriously for the first time.
“What are you doing!? I did not see anything related to this power in your memories”
“Of course you didn’t. It is one of the Royal Family’s many secrets and the handiwork of a Grandmaster level formations master. I would be very disappointed in her if you could see through her work that easily. Now, prepare for your end.”
“Hahaha! I admit that you are full of tricks, little girl, but do you really think you can defeat me just because of a strange power that can absorb the air around us?”
“Again, who said anything about defeating you?”
Yin Lingxi grinned viciously as she felt the changes in her real body and the foreign Qi that was being sucked into her by her technique.
The same changes that the natural treasure felt as well as it started to panic for the first time.
“YOU!! WHAT DID YOU DO!??”
“It's pretty simple. The Royal Family of my empire has been around for a thousand years during which we have accumulated a lot of knowledge and treasures. Did you seriously think that we would not have a way to deal with bothersome natural treasures like you?”
“W-Wha?”
“I admit, your illusions are good. You even caught me in an illusion that exploits my inner desires and guilt to trap me. Unfortunately for you, this is the end.”
The natural treasure roared in anger and tried to attack Yin Lingxi, only to be countered by the Empress who easily escaped the attack and countered with her own move, pushing the treasure back.
Yin Lingxi was not exaggerating when she said that the Royal Family had prepared counters for most kinds of natural treasures in the world.
As an Empire with a thousand years of history, her ancestors knew that there would eventually come a time when they came across such things and prepared accordingly.
However, all these safeguards and techniques were only ever passed down to the intended heir to the throne.
The fact that Yin Lingxi was taught these techniques when she was just a child was already telling of who the previous emperor had chosen as his heir way before anyone else had even realized.
Yin Lingxi continued channeling her Qi into her Core according to the technique sealed into her mind, making her core suck in the Light and Water Qi of the natural treasure relentlessly while neutralizing any attempts at illusions that the treasure would make by using Yin Lingxi’s own Light Qi to distort the light in their surroundings.
An effective technique that would soon destroy the natural treasure on a fundamental level and allow Yin Lingxi to refine it into her spirit roots, dramatically boosting her power.
And yet, just like everything in life, there was one flaw with this technique.
Yin Lingxi suppressed her screams and continued fighting the manifestation of the natural treasure within her mind as the light and water Qi wreaked havoc within her real body.
As someone with a single element of Spirit Roots of high purity, the effects of absorbing Qi of a different elemental affinity would be tantamount to crippling herself.
The only reason why she had not ended up losing all of her cultivation, or worse, dying on the spot, is because of the powerful technique she was using to absorb the Natural Treasure along with the extremely pure Light Qi from said treasure that had a nourishing effect on her spirit roots.
It is because of this relentless process of destruction and healing that is causing her to feel pain the likes of which she had never felt.
However, her pain was not what dominated her mind. No, it was the blinding rage that she felt as she remembered how this thing had manipulated her emotions and dreams to create a blissful nightmare that would no doubt haunt her for the rest of eternity.
As the human and the treasure exchanged blows, the empress gave a devastating blow to the avatar of the natural spirit.
“This is for making me live a life that could never be. For making me feel hope for my siblings when there should be none.”
With another blow, she destroyed its legs.
“This is for making me relive the nightmare of that woman’s teachings, for making me remember a time that I would rather forget.”
With a final blow, she crippled the creature completely and glared coldly at its avatar.
“And this, is for distorting the image of the man I love, for trying to make him into something that he is not.”
Suddenly, the natural treasure grinned as it took on the form of Yin Lingxi just like it did when she was first caught in the illusion.
“Is that so? Then, how about you tell him the truth and see if he will not turn into what I showed you? How about you confess everything? Your childish feelings, the truth you had been hiding from him, the reality of the darkness his family hides. The truth about his father and his former sect, what you did to them, and that you still house the woman that was supposed to marry him in your palace. Let us see if he really is as saintly as you believe him to be”
Yin Lingxi glared coldly at the creature before striking again, shattering its core and finally absorbing its consciousness into her real body, along with the rest of the natural treasure power.
Despite the pain intensifying, Yin Lingxi gave a grim smile at the floor.
“I will. I will tell him the truth after we are done here. However, I have faith that he will not become the man that I saw in your illusions. Because unlike you, I know him better than he knows himself. And, even if you are right, even if the truth distorts him into the kind of man I saw in my dream, so what?”
She closed her eyes as she felt her consciousness slowly start to slip due to the pain.
“Even if he is distorted, even if he becomes a monster, even if he wants revenge, even if he hates me for hiding the truth from me. I will still continue loving him. Because that is who I am.”
Finally, Yin Lingxi, the insecure little girl who was easily fooled by illusions of a perfect life, ceased to be, the powerful Empress of the Yin Long empire, Yin Lingxi awoke in the real world.
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Da Wei panicked as the Starlight Essence Dew that engulfed Yin Lingxi’s body suddenly disappeared into her body, allowing it to fall like a puppet with its string cut.
With a burst of his Primal Qi, he rushed past the Nine Suns Soul Fire’s avatar and caught her in his arms.
‘David! You need to get out of here immediately!!’
‘On it!’
Da Wei did not waste a single moment before he turned around and prepared to burst out of the room, even breaking through the supporting walls if need be to take Yin Lingxi away from there.
However, he was stopped as he felt Yin Lingxi wake up in his arms.
“Lingxi! How are you!? Are you feeling anything strange? Did anything happen-hmp?”
Da Wei’s mind went black as Yin Lingxi moved forward and sealed his lips with her own before moving back with a tender look in her eyes.
“Don’t worry, I am fine. Now, stay put while I deal with this annoyance.”
For the next few minutes, Da Wei stared in a daze as Yin Lingxi effortlessly dealt with the Nine Suns Soul Fire by drowning it and the rest of the room with her newly acquired treasure, the Starlight Essence Dew while avoiding Da Wei.
‘….What just happened?’
‘…..I am too old to deal with such bullshit. Wake me up when you need me.’
Comments
Caleb Reusser
Feels very Deus Ex.
