Young Lord, Help Me Take One Down!

Song Chihuan had been tough as nails since childhood, enduring all kinds of beatings while always smiling carefree. She lived like a little sun that never wilted, no matter how long it sat in the heat.

Until one day, she transmigrated into a cultivation novel as a good-for-nothing cannon-fodder character who died young, and happened to save a pitiful young lord from the Demon Realm.

[Congratulations, you've won the grand prize! The Pinduoduo System has been credited to your account!]

[The harder people hit you, the faster your cultivation improves!]

This golden finger seemed tailor-made for her. She'd never been afraid of pain, and when it came to getting slashed by blades or cut by swords, the harder the better!

Just as she was rubbing her hands together and planning how to make use of the System, the young lord from the Demon Realm she'd casually rescued suddenly pressed a poisoned dagger to her throat.

His voice was cool and detached. "Don't move, or I'll kill you."

She grabbed the blade with her bare hand, her eyes suddenly lighting up. "You mean it? If you're my brother, come and give me a slash!"

Later, when the young lord was surrounded by demon soldiers, she cried as she rushed over and wrapped her arms around his waist, insisting through her tears that she'd take the blade for him.

When their former enemies came after them, the tip of a sword aimed straight at the young lord's heart. Song Chihuan leaped in front of it, her words dripping with anguish. "If you want to kill him, you'll have to step over my dead body first!"

Her cultivation kept shooting up.

The pain was hers, but the joy was all in her heart.

Later still, a blood moon loomed over the Demon Capital. The new Demon Lord conquered all three realms, yet abducted only one young woman from an immortal sect.

Everyone thought he would torture her to death and tear her to pieces.

But when the Demon Lord found her that day, he simply rested his chin gently on her shoulder. His fingertips brushed over the scars on her arm that had yet to fade, and his voice came out choked and low:

"...Does it hurt?"

He paused, as if it took everything he had just to finish the sentence.

"Could you... stop coming back covered in wounds all the time?"

Song Chihuan froze, her expression blank for a moment.

After a long pause, she hesitantly raised a hand and rubbed his bowed head.

"...All right."

How strange.

She got hurt every day, but no one had ever asked if it hurt.

Actually... sometimes she was pretty afraid of pain.

[Reading Guide]

1. Mutual first love, one-on-one romance: the sunny girl x the obsessive, lovesick type.

2. The male lead is a real bastard early on.

3. My own take on cultivation, with piles of original worldbuilding and a plot that reads like a grade-schooler's work. Feel free to point out any logical problems.

Theme: Keep your heart turned toward the light.