Jiang Li, a 996 office worker, works himself to death at his desk. When he opens his eyes, he's become the cannon-fodder senior disciple Jiang Li, head of the Heavenly Sword Sect, in a cultivation novel.
The original Jiang Li is rigid and strict, the perfect whetstone for the chosen one, Lin Aotian, to gain experience. He makes things difficult for the protagonist in chapter one, frames him in chapter two, gets face-slapped in chapter three, and eventually dies a gruesome death at the hands of the Demonic Cult. Even his name becomes a mere backdrop.
Just as he decides to lie flat and focus on staying alive, the [Justice Enforcement System] suddenly binds itself to him. “The Host must play the villain and help the protagonist grow. Fail the mission and you will be erased!”
He was manipulated at work in his last life, and now the System is holding his life over him? All he wants is to lie flat and slack off, but he's forced to become a stepping stone for his good-for-nothing junior disciple, Lin Aotian.
Make things difficult for the protagonist? Fine, but he'll do it the way an office worker would.
He scolds him with a cold expression, then secretly goes easy on him and slips him opportunities. He embarrasses him in front of everyone, then turns around and hands him healing pills.
As Jiang Li is pulled in opposite directions by the System's missions and his desperate efforts to stay alive, he watches Lin Aotian rise to success with his “miraculous assists.”
What he never expects is that, on the day the protagonist becomes a god, his gaze at Jiang Li will hold a strange, inexplicable obsession…
System: “Host, why are you becoming more and more like a doting mother in your villain role?”
Jiang Li: “Staying alive comes first. Playing the villain is just a side job.”
