how to refer to a subset of a list

[Skaperen]

i have a function that is given a list and it stores a special value into the first position (index 0) of that list.

def store_special_value(where_to_store):
    ...
    if isinstance(where_to_store,list):
        where_to_store[0] = special_value
    return

i want to call that function and put that value into the n-th element a list:

def main(args)
    ...
    target = []
    ...
    temp_list = [None]
    store_special_value(temp_list)
    target[n] = temp_list[0]
    ...

my question is: is there a more direct way to do this without using the temporary list? that would mean a list reference that refers to a subset of an existing list (target) but operates as if it were a whole list. list slicing creates a new list instead of referring to an existing given list, so that is not a solution. is there a way to make a subset reference like that?

i do have a real use case for this, which is more complicated, but, i prefer to work with a minimal example case, to determine a more general use solution.