Lu Fei turned her head desperately to where Murong Yingyue was, only to find that she was already walking away.

“Yueyue? No, don't leave me! Why are you leaving me with him?” She lifted a hand towards her Fifth Junior Sister's shrinking figure, pleading with her.

“Now, now, my dear junior. Your cute little Yueyue and I have come to an agreement. You see, it seems like you need some extra training. So who better to help you than your beloved First Senior Brother? Think of it as me making up for all the time I've been gone.” She could hear the glee in his voice as he spoke.

“Why don’t we go on another training journey?” She shook in fear, looking to Murong Yingyue for protection, even though she was gone. She didn’t want to be stuck alone with this crazy asshole!

Lu Fei’s eyes caught the unconscious figure of her Second Senior Brother, who had hit his head when he had gotten kicked away, knocking him out.

“Why don’t we have Second Senior Brother help out? He’s been telling me lately that he wants to work out his pecs more lately, and this is an excellent opportunity for him to get into shape!” Ruthlessly throwing Yun Siye under the bus, Lu Fei lied to Di Jinming about the only touchy subject he had: His Second Junior Brother’s superior pecs.

She knew that Di Jinming could read her mind and tell that it was a lie, but he would play along so he could torment Yun Siye more for his own entertainment, focusing more on him instead of Lu Fei.

“What a great idea! Let’s bring him along!” Waving his hand, their fellow disciple’s body catapulted over to them, crashing into the ground and rousing Yun Siye.

“What the fuck?” He blinked his silver and gold eyes, and his heart nearly stopped when he saw the blank mask of his First Senior Brother.

“We’re going out to train, and you’re coming with us. "Picking up his younger disciple by the collar, Di Jinming started to drag him out of the training grounds, Lu Fei following behind.

“You know, I was thinking that maybe we should switch things up a bit. Instead of me throwing you guys into a dangerous forest, I should assign you guys to break into a dangerous place. How does invading the Purple Emperor’s Cold Palace sound, hm?”

The Purple Emperor was one of the most powerful people in the realms. He was the leader of the seventh realm, and wielded considerable influence. Every sect leader in the seventh realm had to answer to him, and he was the strongest person of his cultivation realm.

The current Purple Emperor was known for his debauchery, having over twenty wives and more than one hundred concubines. That wasn’t even including the countless mistresses he had. He was easily angered and prone to jumping to conclusions, a model villain who would be easily offended by the main character.

This naturally made sneaking into his home for anyone below the eighth realm suicide.

“B-But what about you?” Yun Siye asked weakly. “Won’t it be dangerous for you too?”

“What considerate juniors I have. No need to worry about me, I have it all covered. Qie!” Di Jinming called. “Teleport us to the Purple Emperor’s Courtyard Gates.”

“F-First Senior Brother, Qie can only be called at the gates if you don’t have his formation array with you.” A tall, dark figure appeared, quaking in fear at Di Jinming and throwing Yun Siye’s words back into his own face.

“I’ve already memorized his formation array. Qie, how fast can you get us there?”

“Master gave me direct access to all of the Emperor’s residences when he first made me. It should only take a couple seconds.” Qie said quickly.

“Then what are you waiting for?” He snapped.

“I’m sorry, I’ll do it right now!” A few seconds later the three of them had disappeared from the training grounds.

...

Murong Yingyue knocked twice on the large red door of a bright red temple. There was no reply, and she scowled in irritation. Again, she made to knock twice on the door again, but just before the fourth knock, she was teleported inside.

The interior was even more tasteless than the outside. The walls were painted a “light red,” and various pieces of differently shaded red furniture were carefully arranged. Lucky trinkets hung on the walls, and meditating in the center of the room was her master.

Chu Cheng looked up at her, gold eyes flashing with a deep profoundness.

“Yingyue. You’re here for the mission. How did it go?”

“Great. One hundred percent, perfect marks. No one died.” She bullshitted easily, having fibbed more than a couple times to her master over these things.

“Mmn. Very good. You are bringing yourself great fortune when you accumulate good karma from these missions. Do not forget that, even when you find yourself in a difficult situation. Always remember that the universe pays you back in the most mysterious of ways.” Her master stared off into the spot next to her head, lost in deep thought. A tinge of paranoia crept up on Murong Yingyue.

It... it couldn’t be that the bullshit Master has been spewing all these years is true, right? I mean, I did really fuck up the mission before this. I couldn’t even cover it up. Could it be that it’s the cause of all these main character scenes and characters popping up like weeds? Dammit, I swear, from now on, I’ll do my mission properly!

“Show Master the sign of your mission's completion.” He held out his hand expectantly. Yingyue dropped her spiritual ring into his hand.

Chu Cheng activated the recording formation, and an image of the two Murong Yingyues popped up. He sighed in relief, and shut off the formation.

“Good job. She is still alive. I’ll give you your new mission now.” Was that it? She didn’t even have to help the stupid puppet user guy? She could’ve just cleaned up the body and taken a picture with it? Dammit! I just helped myself dig a deeper hole.

“Wait, Master, I have a request.” Chu Cheng raised a dyed eyebrow.

“What is it? You don’t usually ask for things.”

“I need to stay in seclusion with you until my main character aura dies out. I should be able to cut it off by staying inactive for a while since those dumbasses are always in constant action trying to get stronger. If I just stay here with you and stay stagnant, it should be enough to break out of it.” Her master nodded along.

“But Yingyue...” He started, “Have you considered that another force may come into play if you do this?”

“Huh?”

“Think carefully. If you are going to try to stop the storyline’s progression in terms of reaching the final goal of the main character, what are you opening it up to? What other essential element of a wuxia story with a female main character is there?” Murong Yingyue stared blankly.

“You don’t mean...” Chu Cheng looked solemnly at her face, his expression severe.

“Yes. They will. You cannot understand these people. Do not underestimate their wicked ways.”

“That’s repulsive! How could these shitty authors do this?” Their eyes met each other, and they knew what they had to do.

“I’ll go and prepare some talismans to ward them off. Yingyue, your Master is giving you a mission to retrieve Shui's scroll. Take your time.”

“I’ll start packing up.” Her master teleported her back into her cottage.

Through years of knowing one another, Murong Yingyue and Chu Cheng thought on the same wavelength. They had set up plans to counter each possible trope that could descend upon them, and this was one of them.

Which trope was it for?

The Master-disciple relationship. In the romantic sense.

And that was absolutely unacceptable for the two of them. Chu Cheng viewed Murong Yingyue as a daughter, and to Murong Yingyue, her master was the crazy *cough* cool uncle in her family.

They had decided to put her on another road in the main character’s path. The important mission retrieval that would link into something even larger and cause a huge mess that would span several arcs.

But the difference was that the mission Chu Cheng had given her was ridiculously easy for Murong Yingyue.

Why?

Because her father was the owner of Shui’s scroll. All she had to do was visit her parents and stay there to lay low, in the safety of a heavily formation enforced home. Murong Yingyue could stay there until it was safe to go out again and ask her father for his scroll when she left.

There would be no major problem since she would only be going back home, and the route of having troubles back home from a stronger power for the main character was also closed since her parents were some of the strongest people in the entire universe.

In fact, just being with her parents should suck away some of the main character aura - actually having parents did wonders for lowering the probability of being a main character.

After packing some more snacks to bring home, Murong Yingyue went back to her master’s house and was teleported back home to her parents.

...

“First Senior Brother, please, get me out!” A wail echoed out in the underground dungeon of the Purple Emperor’s estate.

“Lu Fei, shut up! You’re just asking for a beating by attracting the guards here!” Another voice hissed at her. “And what do you mean ‘get me out’? Shouldn’t it be ‘get us out’?”

“Hmph! You can rot in here for all I care.” She snapped back. “Besides, he wouldn’t really let us get executed, right? How would he explain that to Master?”

“We won’t die, but that’s all the guarantee we have. Who’s to say he won’t just let us get tortured for a bit and then shove some pills in us to make us look good-as-new?”

“Oh shit...”

“‘Oh shit’ is right! Now help me take my needles out of my clothes. I’m going to get off these chains.” There was some awkward shifting as Lu Fei tried to position her hands at a better angle.

She stretched, reaching desperately for the hem of Yun Siye’s sleeves. However, as they were chained too far apart, she couldn't get to him.

After trying for a few more minutes, Lu Fei gave up.

“Argh! I can't do this! This is completely unfair. We've even been conveniently thrown together in the same cell, and we can't even reach each other? Yueyue, where are you? She'd know what to do...” She sulked. Her Second Senior Brother turned to her.

“It’s your fault that we got into this!” He accused.

“Hey, did you see that jawline? Can you blame me for going for it? He was super hot!”

“You're not supposed to flirt with the guards of the place you're breaking into!”

“That's a good diversion tactic!”

“Not when you're holding the stuff they're supposed to be guarding!”

“I couldn't avoid them, so I thought that I might as well get some! At least I could've gotten something from this.”

“You could've avoided them! You just doubled back and ran at them!” They continued to bicker back and forth until a cold voice interrupted them.

“ENOUGH! I've had it with you two fools! If I knew getting thrown into prison meant dealing with dumbasses like you, I would've run for it. Being a fugitive would be better than this!” Lu Fei and Yun Siye simultaneously looked at the new person. It was dark in the dungeon, and they could only make out stained white robes, dirt covered pale skin, and icy blue eyes. Angered by his statement, the two disciples of Chu Cheng began to yell at him.

“Hey, aren't you the fool here? If you could run, why didn't you?” Lu Fei shot right back.

“I couldn't! I was trapped!” The voice said defensively. Siye snorted.

“Then why'd you say that you would've run if you couldn't? Don't go posturing around and pretending to be able to do things you can't. Only a real fool would be so short-sighted as to claim to do things they can't.”

“I meant it hypothetically!”

“Ooh, a big word! But an educated fool is still a fool!” Yun Siye snarked.

“Oh yeah? It didn't sound like it. Maybe you aren't actually educated at all. You can't even properly articulate your points. You're probably just parroting random words. Go back to school, fool!” Lu Fei followed up.

“Third Junior Sister, we can't be too cruel to those less fortunate than us. Our fool here was most likely dropped on the head as a child, we can't blame him for that. We can only blame his parents for making him unable to go to school and study.” Yun Siye sighed and shook his head. He smiled “kindly” at the other prisoner. “Now tell me, what is it like to be a fool? Don't worry, feel free to confide in me. I know it must be difficult.”

“You dare call me uneducated when the only insult you know is 'fool'? Don't you know any more words, or are you just ripping them off of me?”

“The only thing I want to rip off of you is your face! It would be doing the world a favor if I spared them the sight of it.”

“Don't worry, Second Senior Brother. I'll take one for the team and slice his face off. I'm willing to sacrifice my sword to this noble cause!”

“Are you implying my face is disgusting? You-” Lu Fei cut him off.

“No wonder you're a fool, fool. We didn't imply it, we said it!” She tsked at him. “Poor fool, maybe if we hit his head again he'll be fixed. What do you say, Siye?”

“Feifei... I don't know how to put this, but perhaps it would be a mercy to the fool if we ended his life now. I have some poisons that are perfect for this.” he replied, his voice dripping with fake concern.

“Hey! You three! Shut the hell up!” A guard came by, slamming his hands on the bars of their cells.

“Yo bitch, untwist those panties! We’re just talking!” Lu Fei immediately responded.

“What? What are you talking about, retard? I don’t wear panties!”

“Are you sure? You seem like the kind of guy with some special hobbies...” If her hands had been free, Lu Fei would’ve been covering her smirk with her hand.

“Shut up, ugly!” Her face twisted in anger, and Yun Siye braced himself