It is said that the male lead is extraordinarily handsome; whether it’s the aloof and ethereal senior sister of the Sword Sect or the charming and seductive demoness of the demonic path, whenever they see his face, they all “unconsciously blush and their hearts start racing.”

As for whether it’s because he’s a walking furnace radiating warmth, or because all those female characters suffer from varying degrees of heart disease, this is something Grace Carter has no way of knowing.

The only thing she can be sure of is that Henry Clark personally crushed all his romantic prospects to dust, and at the end, forgot all worldly ties and ascended alone—truly a case of “I am so noble, none of you are worthy.”

So arrogant it’s out of this world.

Fourth, “The Sacrifice of Tool Character X.”

This is an incredibly sad and heavy topic.

Grace Carter just wants to wipe away her streaming old tears and say, after all this, she’s finally arrived at her own happy homeland.

According to the conventions of feel-good novels, there are always countless supporting tool characters bustling about—some deliver fateful weapons to the protagonist, some give him pointers to improve his swordsmanship, and Grace Carter belongs to the third type of character.

The constantly scheming, malicious female supporting role.

The original character was also called Grace Carter, a direct disciple of the sect elder Tian Xianzi. Born into a wealthy merchant family, she was pampered and spoiled from a young age, gradually developing an arrogant and domineering temper.

Now, in this flourishing dynasty, martial arts, Daoism, Confucianism, and cultivation techniques all compete for supremacy, and the Xuanxu Sect that Grace Carter joined is the number one sword sect among them.

She was exceptionally talented, and at the disciple recruitment ceremony, Tian Xianzi picked her out at a glance and accepted her as a direct disciple. This master was highly skilled but solitary, and including Grace Carter, had only four direct disciples in total.

The original character’s journey was smooth and favored within the sect, but today, things suddenly took a turn for the worse.

Every year on the day of Spring Awakening, the Xuanxu Sect holds a grand competition for disciples to spar and hone their skills. The original character was proud and arrogant, looking down on everyone else, and unexpectedly, she was assigned Henry Clark as her opponent.

Henry Clark’s bloodline was impure, and his sword intent was mostly suppressed by demonic energy, so during the entrance test, he performed only averagely and was assigned as an outer disciple.

But the protagonist is the protagonist after all; a temporary setback is just the prelude to a dramatic comeback. Through relentless cultivation, Henry Clark gradually learned to restrain his demonic energy and revealed an incredibly sharp sword intent. This secret was known to no one but himself, as he waited for the day he could play the underdog and shock everyone.

The original character was that “tiger” waiting to be shocked.

Too tragic, truly too tragic.

If she had fought with all her strength, she shouldn’t have lost.

But the girl looked down on an ordinary outer disciple and only used about half her strength. By the time she realized her opponent was formidable, she was already caught in a hopeless situation.

Losing to him, the young lady completely lost it.

It was at this moment that Grace Carter crossed over.

According to the plot, she was supposed to follow the path of the malicious female supporting role step by step—not only constantly provoking the male lead, but also shamelessly stirring up trouble for the other characters, all the way until the story’s end.

The first step in this self-destructive path was to go to Henry Clark’s residence after the competition and humiliate him face to face.

The system that brought her here explained it like this: “Think about it, it’s like you’re third in the class, but at the end-of-term exam, you get overtaken by the third-to-last student. Wouldn’t you be mad? Wouldn’t you want revenge?”

Grace Carter had never experienced that.

Grace Carter had always firmly held first place in her grade.

And she had hardly ever even cursed, let alone bullied anyone.

“You don’t need to feel too guilty.”

The system comforted her: “Villains are a necessary part of the plot! Think about it—if you don’t bully the male lead, he won’t be motivated to work hard to surpass you; if he doesn’t work hard, his cultivation will never improve by leaps and bounds; with his personality, if his cultivation doesn’t advance, how could he possibly survive in the cultivation world? Who knows when he’d just drop dead.”

It even emphasized, hammering the point home: “He’s the chosen one! The male lead of the whole story! If he falls just because you refuse to bully him, how could you bear it?”

Utter nonsense.

Yet Grace Carter was embarrassingly persuaded by it, feeling like she was just a wishy-washy little piece of trash.

After all, according to the plot, the original character’s self-destructive actions wouldn’t actually cause the male lead any real harm; instead, they would inadvertently help him obtain all sorts of fateful treasures.

On the contrary, she would always reap what she sowed, ending up in humiliating situations every time.

So much so that when reading the original novel, whenever the female supporting role started causing trouble, Grace Carter would instinctively think: Good, now the male lead gets to show off and slap faces again.

Seeing her attitude soften, the system continued, “Most importantly, once the mission is over, I’ll help you fake your death and escape, so you can start a new life in this world—after dying so easily in your last life, you must feel unwilling, right?”

At these words, Grace Carter fell silent and stopped arguing.

In her original world, she had died of a serious illness.

Seventeen years old, late-stage stomach cancer, lying in bed in excruciating pain, unable to move or speak, even breathing was a burden.

The system was right—she really didn’t want to die so young and for nothing.

Grace Carter wasn’t a sentimental person, so she nodded and agreed right away: “Okay, boss, thank you, boss, I’ll work hard, boss!”

And so, she finally arrived at the male lead Henry Clark’s residence.