Atop Cold Moon Peak, one could hear a pin drop.
It was a deathly silence, where even the chirping of insects seemed frozen in the air.
After taking some time to rush to the Cold Moon Palace, Gu Yang did not take the main entrance.
Following the golden intel, he bypassed the area to reach the southwest corner of the pavilion's grand protective array.
There stood a willow tree. Gu Yang lightly tapped the array node with his fingertips, his spiritual energy surging. Just as the intel had stated, the originally perilous Cloud Smoke Sun-Obscuring Array truly experienced a momentary lag.
Holding his breath, he vaulted over the wall like a nimble civet.
The moment his feet touched the ground, a chilling aura ten times colder than the Sword Cleansing Pool assaulted his face.
This was not the coldness of the weather; it was a bone-piercing baleful chill.
Outside the bedchamber, the maid named Hongxiu was nowhere to be seen.
Gu Yang furrowed his brows, a trace of an ominous premonition rising in his heart.
Zhao Wuji's trap had probably already been sprung.
Hesitating no longer, he quickly stepped forward and pushed open the heavy profound ice doors of the hall.
Creak—
The heavy friction echoed throughout the spacious, empty hall.
No lamps were lit inside; only the moonstones inlaid in the walls emitted a pale, ghostly halo.
A thick layer of white frost covered the floor, emitting a crisp crunch with every step he took.
Who is it...
An extremely weak female voice, yet still carrying a touch of majesty, drifted from behind the cascading layers of bed curtains.
Her voice trembled, sounding like two pieces of icy jade clashing together.
Your disciple, Gu Yang. I have an urgent matter to report to Master.
Gu Yang stopped ten paces away from the curtains, his voice steady and firm.
Get out...
Behind the curtains, Shen Qingyue's voice suddenly rose in pitch, only to plummet instantly due to agony, turning into a suppressed, muffled groan.
Get out!
Gu Yang did not move.
Not only did he not retreat, but he took a step forward, speaking rapidly:
Grand Elder Zhao Wuji has bribed Hongxiu. He plans to break through the array tonight at midnight, taking advantage of Master's cold poison flare-up, to use you as a cauldron for his harvesting arts.
This disciple has come solely to warn you.
As his words fell, the grand hall sank into a deathly silence.
There was no furious outburst or questioning as Gu Yang had anticipated.
There was only an increasingly heavy and erratic breathing seeping through the merman silk curtains, which were as thin as cicada wings.
Hah... Zhao Wuji...
The voice carried a bone-deep hatred, yet it was soft and weak, even mixed with a trace of blush-inducing sweetness.
Something was wrong.
Gu Yang keenly caught a wisp of a peculiar, sweet fragrance in the air.
There was also an aphrodisiac!
Zhao Wuji was leaving absolutely no way out!
Master?
Gu Yang tentatively parted the curtains.
The next second, even with his steady temperament, his pupils could not help but shrink slightly.
On the massive cold jade bed.
His master, Shen Qingyue, who was normally aloof and as unapproachable as a divine maiden, was currently curled up into a ball.
Her white palace dress with gold embroidery was already completely disheveled, exposing large swathes of snow-white skin that resembled creamy jade.
However, upon that skin, bizarre livid veins were now crawling all over. It was the sign of the Nine Yin Cold Poison completely erupting.
She bit her lower lip fiercely, blood sliding down her pale mouth and staining her fragile, slender neck red.
Sweat drenched her temples, and a few strands of black hair clung messily to her cheeks. Her eyes, originally as cold and clear as the moon, were now clouded with a hazy mist, her focus scattered.
Half of it was an extreme chill, making her feel as if she had plummeted into an ice cavern.
The other half was the raging fire of the drug, burning away her reason.
The dual torment of ice and fire was destroying this Golden Core Master's mental defenses inch by inch.
Gu... Yang?
Shen Qingyue tried desperately to see the person in front of her clearly, but her vision was already blurred.
Scram... Scram!
Shen Qingyue's voice trembled. The reprimand that should have contained the oppressive might of a Golden Core cultivator now sounded more like the whimper of an injured young beast.
She gripped the cold jade beneath her fiercely, her knuckles turning white from the force. Her originally perfectly manicured nails even snapped at the edges, scraping against the icy surface with a piercing screech.
She was resisting. Resisting not just Gu Yang, but also her own self that was gradually breaking down.
Watching this scene, the calmness Gu Yang had prepared showed a trace of a crack.
Memories flooded him like a tidal wave.
In the twenty years since he transmigrated, although he was a genius in the Falling Cloud Sect, he was also envied and hated by others.
It was Shen Qingyue who, when he was falsely accused, stood silently in front of him, using her Cold Moon Sword to force back the Law Enforcement Hall's harassment.
It was a month ago, when he failed his Foundation Establishment, was reduced to a cripple, and everyone avoided him like the plague, that this normally icy master did not hesitate to deplete her own cultivation. She forced her way out of seclusion and shoved the two Life-Transformation Pills—which were originally meant for her own breakthrough—into his mouth.
Gu Yang, only by living is there hope.
That was the only sentence she had said to him at the time.
Even now, trapped in a desperate situation with her consciousness blurring, what she cried out was still for him to scram, rather than asking him for help.
Today, even if he had to risk his life, he would save her.
Master, Zhao Wuji should be right outside the door by now. Time is of the essence.
Gu Yang's voice gradually calmed. He reached out his hand, his fingertips not touching her directly, but hovering three inches above her bare ankle.
Across a mere distance of three inches, the fierce and overbearing Desolate Ancient Extreme Yang aura radiating from Gu Yang acted like a raging prairie fire, instantly igniting Shen Qingyue's frozen senses.
Mmh!
Shen Qingyue suddenly threw her slender neck back, letting out an uncontrollable, soft moan.
The moment the sound escaped her lips, she acted as if she had suffered an immense humiliation, biting down hard on her lower lip until she tasted blood.
Shame.
The person in front of her was her disciple.
Yet now, her body was actually trembling in front of her disciple!
Don't come near me... I am your master...
Shen Qingyue held onto her last shred of clarity, trying to mobilize her spiritual energy to blast Gu Yang away.
But the moment she raised her hand, it was limp and devoid of any strength, looking instead like an invitation.
Gu Yang grabbed the wrist that was flailing in mid-air.
It felt freezing cold and smooth to the touch.
I will heal your injuries now.
Master, forgive my offense.
Gu Yang's voice did not waver in the slightest.
If he did not save his master tonight, they might both die.
He somewhat roughly twisted her unruly wrist back, pinning it firmly against the icy cold jade pillow above her head.
The distance between the two instantly closed.
Insolent!
Shen Qingyue struggled desperately, her waist twisting wildly on the bed as she tried to break free from her disciple's suppression.
But under the dual erosion of the cold poison and the aphrodisiac, this seemingly fierce resistance looked more like a seductive dance of feigned resistance.
Gu Yang ignored her reprimand. The newly awakened Desolate Ancient Extreme Yang spiritual energy within his body followed their tightly pressed palms, surging into Shen Qingyue's meridians like a breached dam.
Boom—!
It was the sound of boiling oil pouring over accumulated snow.
Ah...
It was too hot.
That peerlessly overbearing extreme yang heatwave brutally smashed through the congested cold energy within her body. Wherever it passed, the originally frozen meridians instantly thawed.
That refreshing sensation of sweet rain after a long drought spread madly through her marrow.
She instinctively wanted to curl up, but her wrists were locked in Gu Yang's dead-grip, forcing her entire body to remain open.
A monstrous sense of shame almost burned her rationality to ashes.
She was the exalted Golden Core Elder, the untouchable icy goddess of the Falling Cloud Sect.
Yet now, in the hands of her own disciple, she was actually trembling from a surge of spiritual energy.
"Stop... I command you to stop..."
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
end. Thus one must continue to cultivate, and become a saint or great emperor, in order to prolong one's life. Chen Xia, however, completely reversed this. Since his transmigration, he has gained immortality, and also a system that awards him with attribute points for every year he lives. Thus between the myriad worlds, the legend of an unparalleled senior appeared. "A gentleman takes revenge; it is never too late even after ten thousand years." "When you were at your peak I yielded, now in your old age I shall trample on you." - Chen Xia
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
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!
