Mu Xiaofeng is a professional transmigrator. After completing 99 transmigrate-into-a-book missions and just as he's about to retire in glory, he transmigrates into a cultivation novel that turns all the usual tropes on their head.
"What role am I this time? A cannon fodder? A substitute? The villain BOSS? A stumbling block on the protagonist's path to cultivation? Or the unattainable white moonlight he longs for?"
"You're the protagonist's mount."
"???"
"Don't worry, you're a very cute mount. You'll be able to take human form later."
"Damn! So I don't even have a human form right now??"
*
The first time Mu Xiaofeng meets the protagonist, he's being beaten up by people from the Qingshan Sword Sect.
He's covered in wounds and has no one to help him.
Mu Xiaofeng: "Oh, look, another formulaic story where the protagonist has a tragic past and gets his face slapped on the way to a comeback. Time for me to make my entrance and win some favor!"
After risking life and limb to drive those cultivators away, the protagonist doesn't thank him. He just leaves with a cold, "Mind your own business."
Mu Xiaofeng: "..."
Does the "against-the-trope" part of this story mean the protagonist has a terrible personality??
The second time Mu Xiaofeng sees the protagonist, he's being attacked by people from the Myriad Poisons Hall.
Mu Xiaofeng rushes in again and carries him off in his mouth.
The protagonist leaves with a stony face once more.
The third time Mu Xiaofeng sees the protagonist, he's had enough.
"Why is this protagonist always getting beaten up!?"
And this time it's the Heavenly Sound Pavilion, one of the Ten Great Immortal Sects, beating him up! He's completely unable to fight back.
System: "Because he deliberately picks fights."
Mu Xiaofeng: "?"
System: "In this novel, the protagonist gains strength by taking damage. In other words, if he wants to get stronger, he has to keep getting beaten up."
Mu Xiaofeng: "Then what about all the blood on him??"
System: "He spilled it himself to throw people off the scent."
The divine beast Mu Xiaofeng, beaten half to death by the people of the Heavenly Sound Pavilion: "Fuck! Why didn't you say so earlier? I risked my neck fighting for him! My blood is real!"
Just then, a slender, pale hand reaches out and lifts the blood-covered little divine beast.
The protagonist studies the filthy, silly little creature without expression. After a moment's silence, he slips it into his sleeve and walks away.
*
The protagonist has two secrets.
One: He can become stronger by absorbing damage.
Two: He's afraid of pain.
His blood is fake, but the pain is real.
Even so, no matter how agonizing the pain, his wounds only leave a red mark.
With every fresh bout of pain, he learns to endure it, growing cold and numb.
Over time, everyone comes to say he has no heart and feels no pain.
Until a fluffy, snow-white little creature barges into his world.
On a stormy night, the protagonist collapses in a cave, utterly exhausted and aching from head to toe.
The little creature curls up beside him, wraps its tail around his injured arm, and carefully licks his wound...
The protagonist opens his eyes, damp with cold sweat.
The wound suddenly stops hurting.
*
Later, Mu Xiaofeng asks the System, "Didn't you say I was the protagonist's mount? Why doesn't he ride me? He just carries me around all day."
Later still, after Mu Xiaofeng takes human form: Damn! So that's what you meant by riding me.
Theme: Fewer tropes, more sincerity
