Upon hearing these words, Li Guanqi froze in place, her hand holding the ring stiffening mid-air, lingering there for a long moment without lowering.
She stared blankly at Su Cheng before her, blinking her beautiful eyes before lowering her head dejectedly, her voice slightly hoarse: "Just now, you seemed to be struggling in pain, and I felt I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. So I tried to do something to change the situation. I wasn’t sure if reaching out randomly was the right thing to do, but now it seems my actions were indeed abrupt… I’m sorry for causing you trouble."
Su Cheng shook his head and reassured her, "The fact that you were willing to give me such a precious ring already leaves me flattered—how could I possibly blame you? Regardless, thank you for your trust. But I truly don’t have the fortune to accept it. Please understand."
Li Guanqi fell silent for a moment, tightening her grip on the ring, lightly biting her red lips before finally sighing and nodding. "If that’s the case, then I’ll take it back for safekeeping."
"You mentioned earlier that there’s a secret behind this ring, one that’s closely tied to me. Can you tell me what it is?" Su Cheng interrupted, a trace of gravity flashing in his eyes.
Ever since she had brought it up, this question had been gnawing at his mind, impossible to shake off.
Li Guanqi raised her head, her gaze earnest and resolute, as if summoning all her courage, and spoke solemnly, word by word: "Do you remember when you asked me about the ring at the hospital? At the time, I answered: 'For certain reasons, I don’t need to wear it when visiting you.'"
Su Cheng recalled how puzzled he had been by her response back then, so he immediately pressed further, "So, what exactly is the reason?"
"Because of you," Li Guanqi slowly uttered the three words.
"Because of me?" Su Cheng grew even more confused.
Li Guanqi’s eyes darkened as she fixed her gaze on him, calmly explaining, "If you’re not by my side, taking off the ring makes me feel intense restlessness, and negative emotions instantly flood my entire mental state. But as long as I’m near you, removing the ring doesn’t cause this discomfort."
"Me?!" Su Cheng was stunned. "Only me?"
"That’s right. I discovered this by accident after you accidentally knocked the ring off my hand during P.E. class last time," Li Guanqi affirmed. "That’s also why I said this ring is closely connected to you."
Su Cheng stared at her in a daze, countless thoughts rushing through his mind. After a long pause, he spoke with difficulty, "So… the reason you approached me was also because of this?"
If what Li Guanqi said was true, everything now made sense—why she had gone out of her way to interact with him despite the pressure from the Ji family, why she had been so eager to understand his thoughts and extend help to him.
So that’s how it was…
Su Cheng muttered to himself, his lips trembling slightly, "No wonder."
Li Guanqi didn’t miss the subtle shift in Su Cheng’s expression and immediately apologized, "I’m truly sorry. Due to certain circumstances, I couldn’t tell you directly before."
"It’s fine," Su Cheng waved his hand, forcing a bitter smile. But then, as if catching onto something crucial, he asked, "Wait a minute, Li Guanqi. If removing the ring causes negative emotions, why were you so insistent on giving it to me?"
"Because I thought that if I handed it to you, it might eliminate the negative effects of the ring," Li Guanqi answered without hesitation, then quickly added, afraid Su Cheng might misunderstand, "Ji Qingyi and Gu Ruoxue also have the same rings, and they’ve already rid themselves of the negative emotions."
This bombshell left Su Cheng utterly dumbfounded. His eyes widened in disbelief as he repeated under his breath, "Gu Ruoxue… Ji Qingyi… They have them too?"
Li Guanqi nodded. "Yes."
Su Cheng took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. The sheer volume of information made his thoughts sluggish. But upon closer consideration, it all seemed to fit.
"But they never gave me their rings?"
"I suspect they regained their memories, which is why the negative emotions disappeared."
"So you were taking a gamble?"
"You could say that. Even if it didn’t erase the negative effects, I thought you might be able to help me recover my memories."
Su Cheng closed his eyes, processing everything he had just heard. After a long while, he slowly reopened them. "So the reason they approached me was also because… I’m connected to the rings?"
"I’m not sure about that," Li Guanqi shook her head, but then continued, "But I suspect it’s because they, like me, lost their memories and later regained fragments of them. And in those fragments, you must have appeared—or perhaps you shared some past experiences together."
"Memory loss again?!" Su Cheng frowned. This whole situation was more convoluted, absurd, and dramatic than any novel plot, making him wonder if he had somehow crossed into a fictional world.
"Please stay calm. There’s one more thing I need to tell you," Li Guanqi said, noticing Su Cheng’s dazed expression. Then she dropped another bombshell—
"You’ve also lost your memories before. Based on my investigation and observations, you had a girlfriend back in your hometown."
The moment these words left her mouth, Su Cheng shot to his feet, staring at Li Guanqi in shock, momentarily unable to react.
Because it was true—except that girlfriend belonged to the original owner of this body. After he transmigrated here, he had no emotional attachment to her and hadn’t bothered learning much about her, only knowing she was supposedly beautiful.
What a joke. How pretty could a small-town school belle really be?
So he had never paid much attention, not even bothering to learn her name. And those around him, afraid of reopening old wounds, never brought her up in front of him.
Besides, he didn’t need to seek revenge for the original owner. Getting into Flame City Private Academy was revenge enough—that small-town school belle must have been kicking herself by now.
But then Li Guanqi continued—
"Gu Ruoxue once visited your hometown."
She nodded, adding, "I believe your ex-girlfriend is most likely her."
Su Cheng was stunned. His expression shifted from shock to bewilderment, then to deep contemplation, even revealing a trace of anguish. He didn’t know how to describe his emotions—his mind was a tangled mess, as if a boulder had lodged itself in his chest, suffocating his breath and thoughts, leaving his entire body rigid.
That small-town school belle… was Gu Ruoxue?
What kind of luck did the original owner have?!
He could almost understand now why the original owner had jumped into the river.
Wave after wave of revelations crashed into his mind, leaving him unable to digest it all at once. He needed time to sort through the logic, to slowly piece everything together.
Li Guanqi quietly observed his reaction, not interrupting, simply sitting beside him in silent companionship.
After a long while, Su Cheng gradually steadied himself. He bent down, rummaged through his school bag for medication, and swallowed a few pills with a sip of water before finally looking up at Li Guanqi, his gaze terrifyingly solemn.
"Why did you suddenly decide to tell me all this?"
"Because my sister told me that as long as you open your heart, any problem can eventually be resolved."
Li Guanqi answered with sincerity, the gentle light in his eyes softening Su Cheng's previously tense demeanor, dissolving the pressure between them into something tender.
"I can't give you an answer right now," Su Cheng said, standing with her hands behind her back on the rocky shore as she gazed at the shimmering sea in the distance, her voice tinged with quiet melancholy. "You've given me too much to process—I need more time to think."
"Mm." Li Guanqi watched her back in silence, saying nothing more. He simply held the ring lightly before slipping it onto his own finger.
A few minutes later—
"I should go home."
Su Cheng turned to bid him a brief farewell.
"Mm." Li Guanqi nodded in response.
Their conversation ended there,
but a new storm was only just beginning.
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.”
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?!
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
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
