“No way?!”
When he saw the notification from the system, Jiang Nian’s eyes went wide.
It could actually do that?
Force unlock?
This came as an unexpected delight for Jiang Nian.
It also made him feel somewhat relieved, glad that back then he hadn’t been swayed by temptation and chosen to portray those eunuch characters from worldviews and power systems that were far too advanced.
Because, as he’d just learned from asking the system, if the gap in comprehension was too large, it couldn’t be bridged—the difference between his own comprehension and the required comprehension couldn’t exceed three points.
And the amount of attention points needed for that unlock would absolutely be astronomical.
Lin Pingzhi’s requirement wasn’t small either—a full four hundred thousand.
But at the very least, it was still within Jiang Nian’s limits.
As for the fact that each session of training would only grant a fixed one point of proficiency…
Jiang Nian didn’t really mind all that much.
After all, he might not have much else right now, but he had time in spades!
All he had to do was keep at it!
With that thought in mind, Jiang Nian selected The Evil-Warding Sword Art and hit unlock!
As four hundred thousand attention points drained away…
His personal panel popped up right after:
[Movie & TV Martial Emperor System 1.0]
[User: Jiang Nian]
[Comprehension: 3]
[Realm: First-Rate Martial Artist]
[Skills: Evil-Warding Sword Art «Unranked» (0/10), Shaolin Boy’s Art «Thoroughly Mastered» (cannot be upgraded), Sword-Breaking Art «Grand Mastery» (cannot be upgraded)…]
[Attention Points: 1,320,000]
[Currently Portrayable Character: Eunuch]
[Unlocked Characters: Du Gao (Completed), Yu Huatian (Completed), Lin Pingzhi (0/3)]
After deducting the four hundred thousand unlock fee, Jiang Nian still had a solid one million three hundred twenty thousand attention points left!
The reason he had so much was, of course, thanks to the recent Spring City case and his own self-promotion.
Otherwise, with the five hundred thousand he’d had before…
It wouldn’t have been nearly enough to unlock Lin Pingzhi.
Seeing that he still had a pretty decent balance, Jiang Nian opened up Lin Pingzhi’s skill shop and started browsing.
[Name: Lin Pingzhi]
[Realm: First-Rate Martial Artist]
[Unlocked Skills: Evil-Warding Sword Art]
[Locked Skills: Mount Hua Sword Art «Grand Mastery» (400,000 attention points), Sky-Shaking Palm «Grand Mastery» (600,000 attention points)]
Jiang Nian: “…”
He looked at his remaining 1,320,000 attention points, then back at the shop.
Oh, fantastic. They really weren’t going to leave him a single coin, were they?
But Jiang Nian couldn’t really complain.
Because the system’s pricing had always been like this.
If he questioned it, he’d probably just get hit with a “Since when is a million expensive? It’s always been this price—think about whether you’ve been working hard enough.”
After sorting out the character business,
Jiang Nian handed the contract over to Yang Mi for a once-over.
After she confirmed there were no issues, he signed his name at the bottom.
Then he headed back to his room, closed his eyes, and began digesting the memories of Lin Pingzhi that had surfaced in his mind after unlocking the character.
As a villain—
and a notoriously despised eunuch in the martial arts world at that—
Lin Pingzhi wasn’t nearly as hateful as other eunuch characters.
On the contrary, he was a deeply tragic figure.
Born into a merchant family,
Lin Pingzhi had been pampered and adored since childhood, knowing nothing of the world’s cruelty.
Though his martial arts were mediocre, he was chivalrous and righteous, pure and proud, exceptionally filial and kind.
But unfortunately, because the Qingcheng Sect coveted his family’s heirloom Evil-Warding Sword Manual, his entire clan was slaughtered, forcing him to stumble into the jianghu alone.
During his wanderings, he encountered Yue Buqun, the leader of the Mount Hua Sect. He thought he’d finally found a good man to rely on, only to be used and betrayed by him.
He was constantly on guard, escaping death by a hair’s breadth multiple times. After lying in wait on a cliff for half a month and surviving countless brushes with death, he finally snatched the sword manual back from Yue Buqun.
At this point, Jiang Nian’s focus sharpened.
Because if nothing unexpected happened, next came the part where Lin Pingzhi castrated himself.
In his memories, Lin Pingzhi seized back the kasaya robe, and his eyes fell upon the sword art’s incantation printed on it.
“To master this divine art, one must first castrate oneself.”
Those eight large characters slammed right into his view.
Like any normal man,
upon learning that cultivating this art required becoming a eunuch,
Lin Pingzhi’s pupils contracted sharply.
He felt as if fate had played a cruel joke on him.
Because of this sword manual, his Lin family had been wiped out—over a hundred souls reduced to bones without even knowing what had hit them.
Even he himself had endured endless suffering and humiliation because of this manual.
He’d thought that by reclaiming it, he could finally avenge that blood-soaked hatred.
But who could have guessed—this manual, this manual…
“Heaven wants to destroy my Lin family?”
“Heaven wants to destroy my Lin family!”
Lin Pingzhi went mad, clutching the kasaya and glaring up at the sky, his face caught between laughter and tears.
He couldn’t believe that the divine art his family had guarded for all those years turned out to be this.
He couldn’t believe that after all the suffering he’d endured, this divine art actually required him to castrate himself!
In that moment, Lin Pingzhi snapped.
His mental defenses crumbled completely. He felt his entire life had been nothing but a joke.
He raised a dagger to end it all—but just as the blade was about to slice across his throat, he stopped.
He thought of the Qingcheng Sect. He thought of the hundred-plus members of his Lin family who had died at their hands.
If he died now, wouldn’t those beasts just get away scot-free?
“I can’t die!”
“Blood debts must be paid with blood!”
The power of hatred jolted Lin Pingzhi back to his senses. He lowered his head, staring at the words on the kasaya, a ruthless glint flashing through his eyes—without a moment’s hesitation.
“Swish—”
A flash of white light passed by.
“Holy shit!”
Jiang Nian instantly felt a chill between his legs, jolted right out of the memory, his face pale with lingering fear.
He looked down, pulled open his pants to check, gave a little tug.
Only after confirming everything was intact did he finally let out a sigh of relief.
Damn it.
The immersion during memory integration was way too real.
Especially during that castration scene.
For a split second, Jiang Nian actually thought his own had been chopped off—thankfully, it was just a false alarm.
“Just scaring myself.”
“This sword manual is way too eunuch-y…”
Jiang Nian wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, took a moment to compose himself, then dove back into the memories.
This time, though, he didn’t go through it as carefully—he fast-forwarded.
In the memories, Lin Pingzhi’s personality warped drastically after the castration.
To wash away his blood-soaked hatred, he paid the price of blindness, disfigurement, severe injuries, and permanent disability.
In the end, he successfully slaughtered the Qingcheng Sect, mercilessly killed his wife Yue Lingshan, and then, under Zuo Lengchan’s orders, attacked Linghu Chong in the Siguo Cliff cave. He was ultimately defeated by Linghu Chong, who crippled his limbs and imprisoned him beneath West Lake.
Seeing Lin Pingzhi’s final fate, even though Jiang Nian had already read The Smiling, Proud Wanderer countless times, he still couldn’t help but feel a twinge of melancholy.
An innocent man’s crime lies in possessing a treasure.
And the most damning part of all—from start to finish, not a single person ever thought to seek justice for Lin Pingzhi. They only schemed about how to drain him dry, strip him to the bone.
In the end, Lin Pingzhi was forced to seek justice for himself. Only after he’d stirred up chaos beyond control did “justice” finally arrive—fashionably late.
Jiang Nian couldn’t help but sigh:
“Justice that comes late is never justice—it’s complicity! They were all in on it from the very beginning.”
Immersed in the lingering bitterness of Lin Pingzhi’s unresolved grief for a long while, when Jiang Nian finally came back to himself, his entire demeanor had already shifted ever so slightly.
Suddenly remembering something, Jiang Nian’s expression turned somewhat peculiar.
“To master this art, one must first castrate oneself.”
“The system didn’t auto-correct this either… What am I supposed to do about that?”
