🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 2 — “You’ll Have to Do It Yourself.”
Su Cheng froze for two seconds, then instantly turned into a broken record.
“Murong Yue? My fiancé? South River Academy?”
Maybe the author had burned all their brain cells writing explicit scenes and couldn’t be bothered to properly build the plot. The original storyline was basically a stitched mess of overused tropes.
There was the “grandpa-in-the-artifact” spirit up front, and the genius fiancée who looked down on the trash-tier protagonist in the back.
All standard elements of fantasy webnovels.
On Lin Yun’s second day after transmigration, his childhood betrothed—whom he had been engaged to since infancy—personally traveled from the imperial capital just to break off the engagement.
She and her entourage all assumed the male lead was a complete waste. Yet when they arrived at the Lin household, they discovered that the “trash” of the past had already managed to condense battle qi and even passed the Warrior Servant rank assessment.
Even so, the fiancée didn’t change her mind.
The situation turned ugly, and Lin Yun felt deeply humiliated. In a fit of anger, he even issued a challenge—agreeing to a duel one year later.
…If all these elements were identical, it couldn’t just be a coincidence in naming, could it?
Su Cheng turned her head toward the bedroom mirror.
The glass reflected a young girl: thick black curls scattered over her shoulders, her skin pale and luminous.
Her features were bright and refined—straight nose, large amber eyes like rippling autumn water. The corners of her eyes tilted slightly upward, carrying a youthful vitality and sharp intelligence.
Her face hadn’t changed.
It was exactly the same as the “pale supporting character” Su Cheng.
Or rather, very similar to her own face before transmigration—except her skin was better now, her hair thicker.
A level of “well-rested glow” a sleep-deprived college student could never achieve.
“Yeah,” the boys nearby looked at her strangely. “You’re not going crazy, are you, Su Cheng?”
“……”
Alright.
Even the name hadn’t changed.
Su Cheng took a deep breath and started questioning them. The two kids were only fourteen or fifteen and had no real guard up; they quickly revealed everything she wanted to know.
—Right now, she was no longer the Lin family patriarch’s marriage tie. Instead, she had become his niece. Her parents had died young, so she had been raised in her uncle’s household.
Because she couldn’t cultivate battle qi, she was infamous as the “useless girl” in the surrounding towns, constantly mocked by the Lin family relatives.
What’s more, the current Lin family patriarch didn’t even have a Su-named niece in his original family tree. In other words, “supporting character Su Cheng” had effectively been erased from existence.
Su Cheng sat on the bed, listening in a daze. The two boys sneered at her a bit more, lost interest when she stayed blank-faced, and left with a curl of their lips.
A few seconds later, she suddenly stood up and scanned the neat bedroom.
A full wall of wardrobes, a simple vanity, a full-length mirror, and a four-poster bed covered in soft down bedding.
She walked into the adjacent room—it was a larger study. Wooden shelves were filled with brand-new books.
On the desk lay a thick volume titled:
“Why You Cannot Condense Battle Qi: The Shocking Truth of Attribute Compatibility.”
“…………”
Su Cheng raised her hand.
A current of wind slowly gathered in her palm, forming a sharp, cyan wind blade.
She flicked her wrist and sent it flying out the window.
CRACK!
In the small garden outside, a bamboo branch was cleanly severed, falling onto a rock by the pond before rolling into the water with a splash.
She let out a breath… then frowned.
So she still had magic?
Then why was she labeled as “trash”?
Su Cheng already understood. Her current background was essentially identical to Lin Yun’s—the only difference was gender and name.
Of course, Lin Yun originally had no magical talent either. After transmigration, he relied on a cheat-like artifact spirit to slowly unlock magic abilities.
So what exactly was going on?
Su Cheng’s memory stopped at the moment she killed Lin Yun and watched Lin Zhen smash the bracelet.
Even if that object couldn’t easily be destroyed by a fifth-tier warrior, her goal had at least been achieved.
And then?
Someone had spoken to her.
What did they say?
She tried hard to recall, but her mind was completely blank—only that strange sensation of sinking emptiness remained.
And that gentle voice, whispering in her ear:
“Replace him.”
Su Cheng’s eyes snapped open.
It’s that thing messing with me.
Everything was caused by it.
But why?
If this world truly had something like “the Heavenly Dao” ensuring the existence of a protagonist, forcing someone to follow the plot… why not just revive Lin Yun directly?
If it could even rewrite her identity, saving Lin Yun shouldn’t be impossible.
Su Cheng picked up the heavy battle qi textbook on the desk and slammed it against her head.
A dull pain spread across her forehead.
Then she realized in despair—
This might not be a dream.
She might really have to become that damned protagonist.
The Throne of God was a borderline explicit cultivation novel, very different from traditional power-fantasy “dragon-slaying hero” stories.
It had a lot of “adult scenes,” and once those became frequent enough, readers inevitably grew numb to them.
So increasingly bizarre and extreme elements began to appear.
It was fine as fictional entertainment.
But experiencing it in reality was something else entirely.
If she imagined herself in those scenarios, just thinking about them made her scalp crawl.
And the original story wasn’t even finished yet. If the author’s ending was something like the protagonist becoming crippled, going insane, disappearing, or dying together with the villain…
That kind of precedent was far too common in male-oriented fiction.
After a few minutes of emotional breakdown, Su Cheng forced herself to face reality.
First, she needed to quickly understand this body’s abilities.
Because from now on, she would likely need to use magic frequently.
Elemental mages were elemental resonators—they could sense and alter the vibration frequency of elemental spirits.
Then they output mana, guiding those spirits into structured patterns to form spells.
Most humans lacked this talent and couldn’t perceive elemental spirits at all—they could only see the resulting magic.
Mage resonance levels were divided into four tiers: low, medium, high, and special.
Su Cheng was a wind-fire-lightning triple-element resonator.
Her wind affinity was high-level, while the other two were low. So the original owner only studied wind magic and was most sensitive to wind spirits.
She currently knew four wind spells:
Tier-two spell Wind Blade, and tier-one spells Summon Wind, Wind Shield, and Wind Step.
“Summon Wind” created a breeze.
“Wind Shield” formed a barrier of airflow.
“Wind Step” wrapped air currents around the legs to increase speed.
They were beginner wind spells, but also the foundation for many advanced techniques.
Spell strength depended on mana input.
Su Cheng silently chanted the Wind Step incantation. Her body immediately felt lighter. With a bit more mana, she started hopping around the room—soon reaching the ceiling.
She experimented repeatedly, carefully adjusting mana output and observing the differences, until a slight headache began to form.
That was a sign of mana depletion.
Mana was the power formed when elemental spirits were absorbed into the body through meditation and merged with flesh and blood.
It was the core of a mage’s cultivation.
During her attempts, she could also sense wind spirits.
Swift, light, elusive—like something impossible to grasp. That was the nature of wind.
But the more she tried to focus, the faster they dispersed, slipping entirely out of perception.
When she pushed further, her head started aching more intensely. She had no choice but to stop.
She got up to tidy the room, hoping to find more information and organize valuables.
Then she froze.
Wait.
Where was the cheat bracelet?
That artifact was inherited from the protagonist’s father’s family—a crucial heirloom that he always wore.
Given her current identity mirroring Lin Yun’s, she should have it too, either on her or somewhere in the room.
Su Cheng stared at her empty wrists and searched the entire bedroom and study, flipping everything over.
Nothing.
Her headache worsened.
That thing was troublesome. It gave the protagonist many advantages, but also brought endless complications—benefits and risks intertwined.
It should either be obtained and used quickly, or disposed of as soon as possible.
But now it was completely missing.
Before she realized it, night had fallen outside. The courtyard was swallowed in darkness.
Su Cheng lit a crystal magic lamp and began stuffing the disordered drawers back into place.
Then—suddenly—
A burning pain spread across her back.
She froze.
Without hesitation, she tore off her outer robe, pulled aside her inner clothing, exposing her pale back, and turned toward the mirror in shock.
At the center of her back was a blood-red heart-shaped sigil.
It was wrapped tightly in dark crimson thorny vines, twisting like serpents.
Su Cheng let out a strangled cry.
“No!”
She had inherited the protagonist’s curse too.
That damn curse—once triggered, she would be forced into “certain intimate acts” or she would die.
She stared at the mirror in disbelief.
Lin Yun’s weakness came from his inability to cultivate the Lin family’s inherited battle qi technique.
In fact, most techniques didn’t work for him at all. Even buying manuals outside was useless.
After the bracelet’s old spirit awakened, it explained the reason and taught him a new method. That same night, he condensed battle qi successfully.
And that triggered the curse, leaving a sigil on his back.
The old spirit recognized it as a life-draining curse. During activation, it could only be relieved through physical intimacy.
Who cast it, and why—it remained a mystery.
Even over a hundred chapters later, the curse was never resolved or traced.
But—Lin Yun only activated it after condensing battle qi.
She was a mage. So why was this happening to her too?!
Was activation not related to battle qi at all?
Was it time-based?
The sigil on her back grew brighter, every line glowing with eerie intensity.
Su Cheng’s face twisted in despair.
In the original story, Lin Yun solved it by visiting a brothel. But that same night, a female supporting character infiltrated the Lin estate after sensing a strange dark aura.
They ended up entangled, temporarily suppressing the curse—but also triggering a chain of future complications.
And that “dark aura” was actually coming from the bracelet.
But now that the artifact was gone… that entire plotline should have disappeared, right?
“….”
Su Cheng scanned the darkened room.
The magic lamp had gone out at some point. Wind howled through the window, lifting the curtains into the air.
“You’re quite sensitive, mage.”
A low voice suddenly sounded behind her.
Su Cheng reflexively released a wind blade.
A shadow flickered. Pain shot through her wrist—her arm was seized and twisted behind her back, forcing her down onto the study desk.
—Exactly the same position as the male lead in the original story.
Su Cheng stared blankly at the desk.
In the novel, the female supporting character had planned to drain the protagonist’s essence to recover her strength. She originally intended to force him, pinning him down—but the protagonist, seeing her beauty, had instead willingly engaged with her.
“…Can you let go of me first?”
Su Cheng sighed.
Her face was pressed against an open book, hair spilling across her exposed back under the cold moonlight, like seaweed drifting in water—or a coil of serpents.
The next second, the eerie curse sigil on her back flared to life.
The blood-red heart wrapped in thorny vines burned like fire.
“Hmm?” The person behind her sounded slightly surprised. “This is—”
A scorching claw traced across her back, parting her hair, brushing over the sigil. Hooked fingertips grazed her skin slowly.
“Yes,” Su Cheng said flatly. “A curse. Don’t ask me how it got there—I don’t know either.”
She thought: this woman’s voice sounded a bit low. Maybe she was deliberately disguising it.
The person behind her paused.
“…You know what this is?”
“Roughly,” Su Cheng sighed. “Mages read too many books. We accumulate a lot of useless knowledge.”
This person had immediately recognized her as a mage—clearly sensitive to elemental spirits. Unlike those clueless Lin family warriors who still thought she was trash.
She coughed lightly. “Can you let go of me first? I promise I won’t attack again.”
The woman seemed about to speak—but suddenly exhaled sharply, her grip loosening as she sank down beside her with a muffled groan.
Su Cheng glanced back—and froze.
Moonlight spilled into the room, illuminating the figure by the window.
The woman panted heavily, wearing ill-fitting clothes. Her outer robe hung open, revealing a strong, pale chest.
Her damp bangs clung to her forehead. Sweat traced down her face as she tilted her head slightly, her throat moving with strained breaths.
A deep wound ran across her abdomen, blackened blood still seeping out, staining her clothes dark.
Only then did Su Cheng look at her face.
Dark curls. Strikingly handsome features. High nose bridge, deep-set eyes. Her irises were a cold pale blue—like a frozen lake under a winter night.
Yet beneath that ice, something dark and burning seemed to churn.
“Damn it—”
The woman gasped, pain twisting her expression as another low groan escaped her lips.
She gritted her teeth, tugged open her collar, revealing a chain wrapped around her neck. Golden light flickered along it, occasionally forming strange runic symbols.
The shifting glow illuminated her skin and the tense veins beneath it, creating an unsettlingly seductive aura.
Su Cheng paused.
Everything else differed, but the setting was identical.
In the original story, that female supporting character also wore a chain like this.
“You,” the woman said hoarsely, still struggling to breathe. “Your curse needs relief… or you won’t survive until sunrise.”
Su Cheng looked at her with deep internal conflict.
“Perfect…”
Every sentence seemed painful for her. Sweat dripped continuously from her face, damp lashes trembling like shattered butterfly wings.
Even so, Su Cheng didn’t dare act rashly.
This woman had released her because she believed a transaction was possible. That didn’t mean Su Cheng had any chance of escaping—or resisting.
“I…”
The woman’s breathing grew heavier. Her clothes at the back suddenly tore apart, revealing a pair of folded black bat-like wings.
Horns curved from her temples, spiraling with dark ridges.
Black markings spread across her face like vines, crawling over forehead, eyes, and cheekbones.
A scaled tail emerged from her lower back.
Its glossy black scales shimmered, the twin bone blades at the tip curving inward like sickles—forming a strange heart shape when they crossed.
A succubus demon.
A high-ranking demon race from the far western lands, beyond human territory.
Long-lived, powerful, and rumored to be servants of the Dark God. Even their young possessed formidable strength.
Only high-tier holy casters could contend with them.
“I also… need you.”
With that, the demon tugged open her belt.
Her flexible tail snapped forward, wrapping around Su Cheng’s waist and pulling her in.
She fell directly onto the woman’s muscular thighs.
“I’m tired,” the demon said breathlessly.
“Do it yourself, mage.”
