“As if I could have whatever I wanted just by wishing for it…”
Liu Yuan muttered under her breath.
Su Qi’s blunt calculations shattered the fragile illusions lingering in her heart.
Sometimes, no matter how beautiful a dream may be, it can’t withstand the harsh constraints of reality.
Her mood plummeted. “So you say barren soil can’t nurture delicate flowers… and that’s why you went to pluck the one atop the highest peak?”
Su Qi hadn’t expected Liu Yuan to fixate so stubbornly on that offhand remark he’d made long ago.
With a sigh, he explained, “We’re really just ordinary friends.”
Yet Liu Yuan gazed at him earnestly. “Su Qi, don’t give up. The gap in status doesn’t mean anything.”
It wasn’t just her admiration for Yun Huang at play.
She was thinking of herself…
And the older brother she’d never met…
He must be like Yun Huang—one of heaven’s chosen, right?
Probably…
Without unshakable confidence, how could someone casually say things like: I once reached heights most people could never achieve in their lifetime, all without even realizing it.
Perhaps what I toss aside without a thought is the masterpiece others would sacrifice everything just to glimpse.
Liu Yuan didn’t even have the courage to entertain such thoughts.
Su Qi, though? He might say something like that. For one, his skin was thick enough. For another, he was just a lousy novelist—though those lines were probably crafted for his protagonist.
In a way… only a true prodigy could utter such words without a hint of shame.
Suddenly…
She felt small.
She wasn’t like those glamorous, sharp-tongued women who turned heads effortlessly. Nor did she have a tall, striking figure…
Her family situation was a mess too…
Cheering Su Qi on felt more like comforting herself.
[Delight +666]
“It’s not like that. The reality is more complicated than you think.”
Su Qi hesitated, wondering if Liu Yuan was the type to gossip.
Maybe not?
But “maybe” wasn’t good enough.
He decided to tweak the truth slightly, offering a vague summary of Yun Huang’s circumstances—
Excessive surveillance became overbearing family rules; world-weariness turned into immense pressure.
“So, you get it now?”
“I get it. All you’re missing now is a motorcycle, Su Qi.”
Deng, huo, an?
Of course, Liu Yuan was only teasing.
She never imagined Yun Huang, idolized by so many peers, had such a hidden side.
But still…
Su Qi really had some nerve…
He wasn’t some reckless delinquent, and Yun Huang wasn’t carrying his child. How could he whisk another family’s daughter out like this without fearing the consequences?
Yet the more she thought, the heavier her heart grew.
What if her long-lost brother was also trapped in a family like that—crushed under the weight of expectations?
So then…
Was she the equivalent of some homewrecking punk?
No way!!!
The two lapsed into silence, each lost in their thoughts.
Even so, the past month had seen them talk more than the entire previous year combined.
It was almost time to head back.
They exited the mall, one after the other, maintaining a distance of about two meters—not too distant, yet not too close.
A faint evening breeze drifted through the square as they wandered aimlessly.
From slightly behind, Su Qi studied Liu Yuan’s profile.
Her hair cascaded like a waterfall over her shoulders, swaying gently in the wind. A few strands brushed against her eyes, and she tucked them behind her ear with a delicate motion.
The image lingered in Su Qi’s mind.
Liu Yuan’s beauty was the kind that struck you at first glance.
What made it even more arresting was her tender, youthful charm—like the sweet girl-next-door from those careless childhood days.
Pretty? So what?
Still got teased.
Back then, it all seemed so ordinary.
Only years later did he realize how much had slipped away—not just autumn leaves or winter snow, but also the girl who moved away.
The one who left him with the sharpest pang of regret.
Add to that the perfect evening breeze, the soft glow of the square’s lights, and the hazy moonlight…
Some beauty defies description.
Like the heart of Shangri-La, a paradise untouched by time.
Or the abyssal depths at the northern edge of the world.
Or the unassuming alleyways of a city, where warmth flickers unexpectedly.
Su Qi snapped out of it.
Truth be told, he’d felt a fleeting spark just then.
But a man shouldn’t—no, mustn’t.
He’d let himself get carried away.
“Want to go somewhere else?”
“Mm…”
Su Qi paused, but Liu Yuan’s eyes gave nothing away.
He was puzzled.
“Yun Huang is so pitiful,” Liu Yuan murmured, stopping to gaze at the distant crowd. “She can’t choose her own path—just a puppet for others, with no chance to resist…”
“Compared to her, I’m lucky… Even if I’ve never known warm family ties, or understood that kind of suffocating love… at least no one’s dictating my future…”
“Even if I have no idea what that future holds…”
Su Qi followed her gaze.
Couples strolled hand in hand under the dusky sky, laughing without a care.
He nodded quietly. “Yeah…”
“So, Su Qi… try to spend more time with Yun Huang, okay?” Liu Yuan said softly.
ts me of treason?" "Correct. The host must return to the capital and gradually build up influence." "Wait—I have half a million soldiers, and you want me to go back to the capital to 'build influence'?" "Host, you are currently the Northern Garrison General, loyal to the Great Xia Dynasty." "Of course I am loyal to Great Xia! Absolutely loyal!" "But you keep referring to yourself as 'We'..." "Never mind the details! Summon all the regional commanders and military officers! We suspect treacherous officials are manipulating the court! They shall march with Us to the capital and purge the corrupt!" "......"
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
