Tomb raiding: following the plot while tearing up the script

"boom……"

With a loud bang, Su Li felt not only his physical body shatter into dust, but also the formation within his body breaking apart, his nascent soul dissipating, and even his soul being torn into pieces.

Ouch...it hurts so much, Master! Didn't we agree that death stops causing pain? Who spread this rumor?!

Pain acting on the soul is more terrifying than any form of torture in the world. The soul experiences a tearing pain at all times. It does not cause unconsciousness, but slowly makes one lose consciousness. Apart from the pain, one cannot perceive the passage of time or changes in space.

Ultimately, the perception of passing away leads to the annihilation of the soul.

Suddenly, in a daze, Su Li felt a familiar presence approaching her. Then, the pain in her soul subsided, and her senses returned.

The familiar spiritual energy enveloped her entire body, and she felt as if someone was piecing together and nurturing her soul bit by bit. The cool and comfortable feeling made Su Li want to hum comfortably.

"You brat, you've suffered a lot, haven't you? It's your fault. I made you cultivate, refine array plates, meditate, and sunbathe and daydream. You're a wood spirit root, not a piece of wood. You don't need watering or sunbathing."

A clear voice whispered in my ear, mixed with heartache and disappointment.

"You're usually quite mild-mannered, so why are you so reckless in a fight? Are your master and fellow disciples just sitting around doing nothing? Huh?"

Now look what happened! You've ruined yourself. Your physical body is destroyed, and your soul is shattered like this. If I hadn't noticed something was wrong and pulled you back, you would have been completely destroyed by now.

Our Xuanqing Sect only sent ten people in total, and you were the only one. Hey, well done! I bet your senior brothers and sisters will laugh at you for a hundred years…”

Stop reading, stop reading, my head hurts so much...

Su Li drifted off into darkness, her thoughts hazy, enveloped in a familiar and comforting atmosphere.

Sleeping is still the most comfortable thing. I wish I could take my little nest to Kanyun Peak to bask in the sun...

"boom……"

The loud slamming of the table startled even the sleeping soul.

"Stop giving me this nonsense. What happened to 'absolutely foolproof'? What happened to 'everyone being accounted for'? Did you think I'd just throw in tons of points and expect nothing in return?"

"Calm down, calm down, host!!!! Mind your image. You are now a Supreme Elder of the Xuanqing Sect, not a college student from Blue Star China. Can you be a little more composed?"

"Calm down my ass! I raised this brat from the ground up, and now he's in a bottle, and you expect me to calm down???"

If I hadn't believed your nonsense and bought your lousy substitute doll, would I have sent my little brats to the battlefield? Huh? Now my little brats are dead! Completely dead!

"Didn't you see how horrible it was? This kid was so timid and afraid of pain, and he ended up blowing himself up! Not a fart left, his soul was shattered into pieces, I couldn't even glue it back together. It breaks my heart, I really want to tear you to pieces too!"

Su Yunqing, with the most gentle and refined appearance, slammed the table and cursed in a clear voice, giving the system, which had been forced to take human form and stand in front of its host, a thorough dressing-down.

"No, host, we have to be reasonable. How can it be a broken substitute doll? Everything produced by this system is guaranteed to be top-notch, okay? Your second and third children almost died too, are they alright now...?"

What is a system? My second senior sister and third senior brother almost died too? Thank goodness, only I'm gone...

"Don't give me that crap! What did you say when you were selling this stuff? Absolutely foolproof! Even if a Celestial Venerable self-destructed, you could bring the person back. You wouldn't lose out, you wouldn't be cheated! And now? I'm going to complain! This garbage system is selling counterfeit and shoddy products, causing a centenarian to lose his son in his old age!"

A centenarian...? Master? Thinking of my own master's ethereal appearance...

"Host!!" The thing called the system suddenly emitted a sharp, explosive sound. "You can't do this! This really isn't the system's fault! The principle behind this puppet is to replace the original body in the face of fatal injury, taking the suffering for the original body!"

The problem is, your little Li Zi has a very peculiar way of thinking. It wasn't an external injury; it was an internal explosion!

"What kind of decent family's child would inscribe arrays on their own physical body and nascent soul? Not only did he inscribe them, he also detonated them. Fortunately, the puppet didn't work because of the array within his body, otherwise it would have been your Xuanqing Sect's main peak that was blown up..."

"So it really didn't work." Su Yunqing, who was cursing just moments before, suddenly smiled faintly, elegantly flicked her long sleeves, and sat back down on the extra-thick, extra-soft, extra-large futon that her little apprentice had specially modified for her.

Looking at the system in front of him, which seemed eager to unleash its full power, he said, "Tell me, how are you going to compensate me?"

"..." How did that clear-headed, foolish college student of yesteryear turn into such a cunning and shrewd old fox? Those guys outside who keep chanting about the Supreme Elder's refined and elegant demeanor and the peerless Venerable Yunqing should really see the true face of this thing.

"Um...this...it's really not the fault of me..."

"Thud..." A jade pendant the size of a palm was slapped onto the table.

Su Yunqing curled his lips into a wicked smile. "I recorded it, and I also included screenshots of the product descriptions in the purchase history. I've wanted to complain about you for a long time."

"Host...host..."

"Don't think I don't know about your previous practices of taking kickbacks and raising prices to take a cut. I just couldn't be bothered with you."

Now, the choice is yours: file a complaint or seek compensation.

Having just been caught red-handed, and now even some of its previous little tricks being dug up, the system silently cowered in a ball, sob X﹏X The host is so scary, I want to shut myself off...

The sound of Su Yunqing's fingers gently tapping the memory jade pendant echoed in the hall, each tap giving the system the illusion that it was tapping its own core code.

"Waaaaaah X﹏X Host, I was wrong, please don't complain about me..."

"Don't want to be complained about? Then let's talk about compensation now?" Satisfied with the response he wanted, Su Yunqing withdrew his hand.

"How...how will you compensate me?"

"First, revive my little cub, healthy and without any illness, with its whole body intact."

"This...this...this system can't do it X﹏X"

"Okay." Su Yunqing's smile deepened, showing no sign of anger, while her hand seemed to be gesturing something.

"Huh? Host, you're not angry?"

Silence filled the hall; the quiet was eerily profound.

"Waaah, host, say something..."

"Quiet down, we're filling out forms."

"Fill out, what information do you need to fill out?"

"Complaint materials, did your company steal our Chinese complaint template? This process, it's not that it's completely unrelated, it's just exactly the same." Su Yunqing said, picking up the jade pendant beside her and about to press it on the system panel in front of her.

"Stop!!! Leave the commander alone!!!! I can do it, I can do it, host, stop!!"

The jade pendant stopped a finger's width away from the panel. "Really?"

"Really, really, believe me, host. As long as you don't complain, everything is negotiable. I'll even borrow money from loan sharks to save our little apprentice."

The system felt its heart bleeding. After thousands of years of diligent work, it was all for naught. Waaah, the system's life is also a life!

"Oh, so you system world has loan sharks too?" Su Yunqing casually closed the system panel. "Tell me, how do you do it?"