Clan Building System: I'm not the Protagonist?!

Fang Yuan was bleeding profusely, sprawled on the training hall floor.

While the two girls, Lin Zhaoyue and Xiao Bai both looked quite satisfied, as if this state of misery was the intended outcome all along.

With a casual flick of her wrist, Xiao Bai produced a small, murky pill.

The smell hit the room instantly, rancid, pungent, utterly revolting.

"Here," she said, her lips quirking in amusement. "Eat this. Don't swallow it whole, bite down on it and chew hard on it."

Too weak to argue, Fang Yuan obeyed.

The moment his teeth cracked the pill, his mouth was assaulted.

Disgust. Pure, unfiltered disgust.

It was so vile, so wretched, that Fang Yuan's first instinct was to spit it out.

This wasn't a medicine, it was a crime against humanity!

Still, he forced himself to devour it.

The bitterness clawed at his tongue, but almost immediately a surge of energy rushed into his veins, wild and abundant.

His body seized upon it greedily, absorbing every drop.

Xiao Bai folded her arms, pride shining in her eyes. "Not bad, right? This was refined personally by yours truly. One of the best. Everyone in my sect would kill for a bite of this. In fact, there's always a queue for any of the pills I refine so be grateful I'm feeding you one myself."

Lin Zhaoyue, standing serenely at the side, tilted her head with a gentle smile.

Her tone was sweet, yet her words sliced neatly.

"Are you sure it's because of the pill's quality… and not because you're the sect leader? Maybe they're all just currying favor?"

Xiao Bai made a face at Lin Zhaoyue's barb but chose not to take the bait.

Instead, she crouched beside Fang Yuan, her eyes gleaming with a teacher's pride.

"As your body heals," she began smoothly, "it will greedily devour this energy, not just to mend what's broken, but to over-compensate.

To knit muscle fibers denser than before. To temper your bones until they can bear ten times the weight they once could."

Her voice grew firmer, edged with a cruel kind of delight.

"Body refinement is not about drawing energy in. It's about forcing your body to change. Forcing it to adapt, to endure. You don't ask your body to grow stronger, you have to make it, through pain, through pressure, and through enough resources."

She straightened, hands on her hips, her grin widening as her tone cut sharp and clear.

"That is the essence of body refinement. It's quite simple but also brutal and endlessly expensive. You're not cultivating qi, you're forging your flesh and blood into a weapon."

Then she jabbed a thumb at her chest, smirking.

"A qi cultivator like you might dodge a sword strike. But a body refiner?"

Her grin turned feral. "I can bounce your sword right back into your face."

Fang Yuan couldn't even reply, his mouth was too busy enduring horror incarnate.

The pill's pungent taste clung to his tongue like rot itself, as though disgust had taken physical form.

On the other hand, Lin Zhaoyue sat serenely, her eyes was soft with satisfaction as Fang Yuan's wounds closed at a rapid pace.

"You say you can bounce attacks, hm?" she mused sweetly as she made eye contact with Xiao Bai, "I'm curious… may I try? Just a little slash."

Xiao Bai froze, color draining from her face.

"Hold it right there, you lunatic!" she barked, stumbling back several steps.

"Do you even know the difference between giving an example and being an example!?"

Her glare could have cut steel, but Lin Zhaoyue only returned it with a polite smile.

"I only want to see how effective your body refinement truly is. There's no harm in it."

"Absolutely not!" Xiao Bai snapped, panic sharpening her tone.

Then she swung toward Fang Yuan, practically shouting.

"Oi, Hollow Spirit Pill! Tell your wife to leave us so we can continue without a madwoman breathing down my neck!"

Fang Yuan, still gagging on the taste of vile medicine, made no move to intervene, perhaps he didn't even hear her.

Lin Zhaoyue let out a soft laugh, bowing her head slightly.

"Well… if that's what you wish. I suppose I should take my leave."

And then, she vanished.

But instead of relief, dread settled over the room like a suffocating mist.

Because if she couldn't be seen....

Just then, the training hall gate gave a slow, aching creak.

Xiao Bai's head whipped toward it but saw nothing.

Just shadows pooling on wood.

Not a second later, a sword clattered to the floor in the far corner.

She jumped, heart hammering.

Clang!

Another blade toppled, this time on the opposite side of the hall.

The ringing echoed and then faded, leaving behind only silence.

Except, of course, for Fang Yuan's pathetic groaning from the floor.

Xiao Bai instinctively leapt back, widening the gap between herself and every corner of the room, her eyes darting like a cornered rabbit's.

After several seconds of taut stillness, she forced herself to resume the drill, sword in hand, jaw tight.

One minute passed. Two. Three.

Finally, she dropped her stance with a frustrated sigh.

"Alright, you win!" she snapped, though her voice wavered.

"I'm sorry, okay? Can you please show yourself now?"

Beads of sweat slid down her temple as she stared at the silence.

"Hey!" Her tone cracked, louder now. "I said I'm sorry! Stop this. Please—"

The last word trembled out of her, sounding far more like begging than a demand.

Her knuckles whitened around the hilt of her blade, chest rising and falling in ragged heaves.

Just as her mouth opened to scream, to plead again—

The training hall door swung open with a gentle creak.

A girl stepped inside, balancing a tray of steaming tea.

Lin Zhaoyue.

Her face was as serene as moonlight, her smile soft, her every movement graceful, utterly oblivious to the terror she had just orchestrated.

"Training is exhausting work," she said gently, her voice a melody. "I thought some tea might help."

The porcelain cups clinked softly as she set them down.

Xiao Bai nearly collapsed on the spot, sword slipping in her trembling grip.