Clan Building System: I'm not the Protagonist?! - Chapter 327

Chapter 327: 327- Updated*
Lin Xi’s qi surged violently, shaking the ground beneath her.

The rooftops trembled, the air rippled, and the empty streets twisted as her suppressed frustration erupted like a storm she had held inside for years.

Across from her, the heart demon shaped like the teenage Fang Yuan stepped forward.

His footsteps were unhurried, his expression calm and composed, yet every word he spoke sliced into her like a blade dipped in poison.

“Struggling again? You truly never learn,” he said with an easy confidence.

“You were always slower, always behind, do you think you can ever catch up?”

He circled her slowly, hands clasped behind his back, exactly the way the real Fang Yuan used to walk.

“No matter how early you arrived, I was already there. No matter how clever your plan, I had already surpassed it. You called it harassment because you refused to admit the truth. I’m superior to you and you know it.”

His smile deepened, eyes filled with a mocking light.

“You are way too inferior to be even noticed.”

Those words struck the deepest crack in her heart. Her breath hitched and her fists tightened until the bones in her fingers creaked.

Her qi flared again, filling the illusion with rolling waves of pressure.

“I am not inferior,” she hissed through clenched teeth.

The heart demon tilted its head.

“Then prove it.”

He appeared behind her in an instant, voice whispering coldly by her ear.

“Come, try your best and strike me down. Perhaps thats the only way you could ever win against me, inside your own mind.”

Lin Xi spun, her palm glowing.

The blow connected with the heart demon’s chest, sending the phantom figure skidding across the street.

Cracks spread across the ground where he landed.

The heart demon rose without a hint of injury.

“Do you see it now?” he said softly. “Even here, in your own mind, you cannot defeat me. Admit it, you’re inferior to me.”

Lin Xi trembled. Her breathing grew ragged.

The years of frustration, humiliation, and exhaustion she carried on her shoulders.

Her knees nearly buckled and st that moment, a faint shimmer of light gathered behind her.

The shred of Zhao Lusi’s spiritual qi that had entered the cavern earlier took form, radiating a soft, soothing glow.

It was neither fully solid nor entirely illusion, but its presence was unmistakably warm.

The projection placed a gentle hand upon Lin Xi’s shoulder. Its voice was calm like flowing water.

“Let go.”

Lin Xi’s trembling slowed and she looked at the projection with dazed eyes.

“Let go of the hatred that weighs inside your heart,” the figure said.

The words flowed through the air like a chant.

“Let go of the jealousy that clouded your own vision. Let go of the inferiority you have carved into yourself.”

Lin Xi was confused at first before heeding the advice and slowly, the chaotic storm within her began to calm.

“You are a cultivator. Do not cling to mortal resentment. Look beyond Fang Yuan and beyond your past. Aim for your own betterment. Walk your own path.”

The heart demon’s face flickered. Its confident smirk wavered for the first time.

“Lin Xi,” the projection said gently, “do not fight him, instead, release him.”

Lin Xi closed her eyes and the illusions of her failures flashed through her mind.

The countless nights she blamed Fang Yuan, the silent jealousy she swallowed, the helpless fury she felt every time fate seemed to favor him over her.

She inhaled deeply and when she opened her eyes the next time, everything around her felt crystal clear.

“You are too slow, Lin Xi,” the heart demon drawled.

“Do you ever wonder why you always loses despite going up against someone in his teens? It’s because you were inferior to him.”

Lin Xi exhaled once, long and steady, she remembered these words.

She remembered how many times she had secretly agreed with them but not this time, this time, she was not going to repeat the same mistake.

She stepped forward.

“No,” she said calmly. “That is not why I lost.”

The heart demon flickered and a hint of surprise crossed its face.

Lin Xi looked around the illusion, the shops she opened, the years she spent planning, the district she fought for, the negotiations she lost and won.

“It was not my inferiority that defeated me. It was not your talent or luck,” she said.

“It was because I kept measuring myself against you.”

The heart demon raised its brows and Lin Xi continued.

“You were not my enemy. You never even targeted me.”

She lifted her chin.

“I created this rivalry alone, and I trapped myself inside it.”

A stillness spread across the realm.

Wind brushed through the empty street, carrying away years of frustration she had never said aloud.

“For so long,” she whispered, “I believed that because you were ahead, I must be behind. But that was a lie I forced on myself.”

The heart demon straightened, its smirk wavering.

Lin Xi took another step, voice steady and sharp.

“My worth was never measured by you.”

“My failures were not caused by you.”

“My path… was never yours to begin with.”

The illusion trembled.

Cracks formed under the heart demon’s feet, fracturing like broken glass.

Lin Xi met its eyes directly.

“You are not an obstacle. You are a memory.”

She raised her hand and pressed her palm against the heart demon’s forehead.

“You existed only because I allowed you to.”

The heart demon’s smirk finally vanished.

Light poured from Lin Xi’s palm, spreading like dawn across the illusion.

The teenage Fang Yuan’s figure wavered, breaking apart into motes of silver light.

“You have lost your purpose,” Lin Xi said softly.

“And I am done carrying you.”

With a final, shattering crack, the heart demon dissolved completely.

The business district crumbled and faded away.

The illusion collapsed into a serene, empty void.

A quiet warmth washed over her as the last chain in her heart snapped.

She rose gently into the air, wrapped in a cocoon of glowing energy.