"Senior brother, be careful—"
Ye Shutong’s tears still clung to her face.
Her water-blue dharma robe had already slipped halfway off, revealing a breathtaking expanse of snow-white skin exposed to the biting wind. She had no idea what was happening, acting only on instinct, wanting to use her frail, delicate body to shield Ye Chen from this strike.
Her stunning face was filled with unreserved love and the desperate resolve of a sacrifice.
Ye Chen looked at her.
There was no emotion, no pain. In those usually gentle eyes, there was only an ice-cold calculation and the purest will to survive.
He lunged out, grabbing hold of Ye Shutong’s slender, supple waist with brutal force.
The strength in his fingers was savage, instantly leaving livid bruises on her pale skin.
"Senior brother?"
Ye Shutong froze for a moment, a flicker of confusion in her clear eyes.
The next moment.
"Get out of my way!"
A guttural roar, like a wild beast’s, tore from Ye Chen’s throat.
Instead of protecting her, he ruthlessly and mercilessly hurled her burning, fragile body forward—like a lifeless shield—
Straight into the falling black palm imprint and the icy giant sword from midair.
Bang!
Using this inhumanly violent thrust, Ye Chen’s body slid backward across the ground for dozens of zhang.
He didn’t even glance back at his beloved junior sister he had just thrown away.
His hands moved with practiced speed, crushing a bloodstone talisman reeking of gore.
A blood escape talisman.
Pfft! He spat out a mouthful of his own vital blood, his body transforming into a streak of bloodlight.
Like a complete coward, he plunged headfirst into the intricate maze of the Thousand Wall Stone Forest, vanishing without a trace in the blink of an eye.
Midair.
Ye Shutong was like a white butterfly with broken wings, flung into a meat grinder.
The raging palm wind and the piercing icy sword qi tore through what little remained of her protective true qi.
Crack!
The sickening sound of bones breaking echoed.
Ah——
Blood mixed with fragments of her internal organs burst from her pale lips.
Her water-blue dharma robe, already half-slipped, shattered into countless tragic cloth strips.
She landed like a discarded rag, crashing heavily onto the muddy, ice-littered shore.
The freezing mud instantly coated her trembling curves and fragile neck.
But the physical pain was nothing compared to the catastrophic collapse within her sea of consciousness.
Ye Shutong lay sprawled in the mud, her body convulsing uncontrollably.
Frost clung to her eyelashes, mixed with blood, blurring her vision.
She stared at the direction where Ye Chen had fled, her pure, beautiful face frozen in an expression more hopeless than death itself.
Why?
That warm, jade-like senior brother, who said he would protect her for lifetimes—the same one who had just moments ago "fought desperately" to block a strike for her—
Had personally thrown her into hell?
Cough... cough...
The collapse of her absolute faith made the core of her exquisite heart—her Seven Apertures Exquisite Heart—tremble violently.
She curled up in the mud, her chest heaving heavily, the skin flushing red from sheer terror and despair.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. So this is your Righteous Alliance's so-called 'Haoran Sword Immortal'?"
A harsh, mocking, gravelly voice sounded above Ye Shutong.
The three assassins from the Hidden Abyss Pavilion had stabilized the half-step Core Formation sword spirit and surrounded her in a triangular formation, landing with icy cruelty.
The glow of their formation pinned the severely wounded Ye Shutong to the frozen mud.
The black-robed leader looked down at the half-naked beauty in the mud.
There was no lust in his murky eyes, only greed and longing for a rare medicinal ingredient.
"Using your own dual cultivation partner as a meat shield—even I, a demonic cultivator, am impressed by such low tactics," he said.
Another assassin let out a sinister chuckle, the stench of blood wafting from the "Soul Severing Needle" in his hand as it gleamed eerily in the moonlight.
"Little girl, your lover ran away. But no matter; leaving that Seven Apertures Exquisite Heart inside a fool like you is a waste."
As he spoke, he crouched down slowly.
His rough, cold assassin’s boot ruthlessly pressed down on Ye Shutong’s delicate ankle.
"Mmph..."
Ye Shutong let out a pained groan, her mud-stained foot tensing to its limit.
The enormous force pinned her down, helpless as a fish nailed to a chopping block, waiting to be butchered.
The assassin’s icy, bloodstained Soul Severing Needle glided slowly across her collar bone, smeared with filth.
The cold metal pressed against her soft, heaving skin.
"Don’t blame us for being heartless. Blame your good senior brother."
The assassin’s lips curled into a cruel grin.
"Hold still. This will hurt. Don’t move, or your beautiful body will die for nothing."
The tip of the Soul Severing Needle slowly pierced the snow-white, tender skin over her heart.
A single drop of bright red blood slid down, tragically beautiful along the curve of her skin.
Ye Shutong closed her eyes in despair.
Two streaks of bloody tears flowed from her eyes. She no longer struggled.
When grief surpasses all, the heart dies.
Clang—
Just as the Soul Severing Needle was about to fully pierce her chest,
Amid the roaring wind and clashing steel by the Cold Water Pond, an unusually crisp sound of collision rang out.
It wasn’t deafening.
But it made the three Hidden Abyss Pavilion assassins’ hair stand on end, like falling into an icy abyss.
The Soul Severing Needle aimed at Ye Shutong’s heart stopped dead in midair.
No matter how much the assassin channeled his spiritual power, the high-grade magic tool seemed rooted in place, unable to advance even a fraction.
Because.
His wrist had been caught, light as a feather, between two calloused fingers.
Dark red stone pillar shadows stretched like a tide, silently covering the muddy bank.
Gu Yang wore a cheap gray rogue cultivator’s hemp robe, his deep black eyes like ancient, unchanging ice.
He stood quietly beside the assassin, looking down at the man’s terrified face.
There was no sharp sword aura, no violent pressure.
Only an extreme coldness, as if from an abyss, viewing all living things as dead.
"Ye Chen’s wretched life, I want to keep."
Gu Yang’s thin lips parted slightly, his voice calm without a ripple.
His gaze swept past the sweat-drenched assassin, casually glancing at Ye Shutong lying in the mud, half-naked, her face frozen in despair.
"As for her."
The wisps of dark-golden flames at his fingertips flickered silently again, dyeing the Soul Severing Needle and the assassin’s wrist a glaring dark gold.
"She’s mine."
with countless casualties. As a top-tier gamer, Liu Xuan volunteered to join the fight, intending to dominate with his skills, but instead he obtained the hidden class: [Pacifist]. Unable to attack. Unable to use active skills. Fortunately, with each level gained, he acquired a new passive skill. And so, armed with a body full of passives, Liu Xuan slaughtered his way through the battlefield of ten thousand races! [You attacked Liu Xuan] [You gained the debuffs: 'Poison', 'Fear', 'Burning', 'Bleeding', 'Freeze', 'Silence', etc.] [Your attack speed has been reduced by 99%] [Your armor and magic resistance have been reduced by 99%] Warriors of the Ten Thousand Races: How the hell am I supposed to fight this?!
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
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!" "......"
