"Kekeke... This Emperor has a merciful heart and dislikes unnecessary slaughter. Though you are guilty of heinous crimes, I am willing to grant you one chance. Run. Flee for your life. If you can escape my grasp, you may yet live."
The Second Prince glanced at the twelve pools of blood behind Gu Qingfeng and swallowed hard.
"Do you mean it?"
Bam!
Without another word, Gu Qingfeng kicked the Second Prince, shattering his internal organs and sending him flying hundreds of feet away.
"Gah—!" The Second Prince coughed up mouthfuls of blood and fragments of his organs, but he paid no heed to his injuries. Gasping and spitting blood, he staggered away in desperate flight.
Gu Qingfeng watched the Second Prince's embarrassing escape with deep satisfaction.
For some reason, the stronger he became, the more he enjoyed this game of cat and mouse—watching his prey struggle for survival, clinging to hope before plunging into despair. The thrill of holding life and death in his hands was intoxicating.
The Second Prince ran farther and farther, his figure soon vanishing from sight. Yet he kept glancing back in terror, fearing Gu Qingfeng would appear behind him at any moment.
Even when he saw no sign of pursuit, he felt no relief, no safety.
Then his eyes locked onto the towering silhouette of the Border Pass in the distance, and a feverish hope ignited within him.
If he could just reach the Border Pass, he would be safe. Truly safe!
......
"Master, kill him now! If you don’t, he’ll reach the Border Pass!" Shangguan Wan'er urged, her voice sharp with impatience.
Gu Qingfeng raised an eyebrow. "What happens if he enters the Border Pass?"
"Master, you may not know this, but the entire Star River falls under the jurisdiction of the Starry Zenith Celestial Dynasty. The Border Pass is their creation—a means to control the entire river.
The Border Pass is colossal, like a kingdom unto itself, teeming with mortals and immortals alike. But whether human or celestial, all exist to serve the Celestial Officials.
These officials are envoys of the Starry Zenith Celestial Dynasty, dispatched to govern the Border Pass.
They have decreed that no violence is permitted within its walls. Violators face execution without trial.
In the Star River, the Starry Zenith Celestial Dynasty is heaven itself. Their officials are its angels, their words divine law. No one—no matter how powerful—dares defy them. Not even the mightiest factions from the upper reaches would dare.
It’s not that the officials themselves are invincible, but they represent the dynasty’s authority.
So, Master, do you understand now? If Shangguan Ji reaches the Border Pass, you can no longer kill him."
Hearing this, Gu Qingfeng’s eyes gleamed with excitement.
The Border Pass? Celestial Officials? Directly under the Starry Zenith Celestial Dynasty?
Wasn’t this a gift from the heavens?
Gu Qingfeng had been agonizing over how to reach the Star River’s source and enter the Starry Zenith Celestial Dynasty to find his family. Now, here was a direct path!
Traveling from the lower reaches to the source would take years—if not decades—and the journey was fraught with peril. The further one ventured, the stronger the foes. What if he encountered... virtuous people along the way?
This very concern had kept him from setting out directly for the source.
But now, everything had changed. The Celestial Officials in the Border Pass were servants of the dynasty—subordinates of his family.
Surely, they had means to contact the Starry Zenith Celestial Dynasty at the source. A teleportation array, perhaps? A direct passage? How perfect would that be?
"Master, why are you hesitating? That dog Shangguan Ji is about to enter the Border Pass!" Shangguan Wan'er pressed, frantic.
Gu Qingfeng only smiled mysteriously. "Let him. Come, we’re going in too."
With that, he strode confidently toward the Border Pass, his three female slaves in tow.
......
"At last... I’ve survived!" The Second Prince, brandishing the token of the Feather Transformation Celestial Dynasty, stepped past the Border Pass’s gates.
Inside, the streets bustled with life, packed with crowds as dense as any mortal metropolis.
"Ahahahaha—!"
Ignoring the odd looks from passersby, the Second Prince threw back his head and laughed wildly, drunk on the euphoria of survival.
He knew—he was safe now.
No one. No one! Dared spill blood within the Border Pass.
This was the law decreed by the Starry Zenith Celestial Dynasty’s officials.
To defy them was to defy heaven itself. The punishment was death—or worse.
"Cough—!" The Second Prince suddenly doubled over, hacking up another chunk of his ruined innards.
Such injuries would have killed an ordinary man, but he was a True Immortal. His body should have healed long ago, were it not for Gu Qingfeng’s bizarre and overwhelming power.
Yet despite the agony, the Second Prince grinned through bloody teeth.
He had lived. And as long as he lived, there was hope. Hope for vengeance.
No matter how strong Gu Qingfeng was, could he stand against an entire dynasty? Could one man topple the Feather Transformation Celestial Dynasty?
If twelve Earth Immortals weren’t enough, he would summon Heaven Immortals. The dynasty had no shortage of them.
"Dare to cross this prince? In the days to come, I will make you beg for death!" the Second Prince snarled.
Just then, a mocking voice drifted from behind him.
"Oh? Who exactly are you planning to torment?"
The Second Prince whirled around, his blood running cold. There stood Gu Qingfeng and his entourage.
His first instinct was to flee—but then he remembered where he was. Straightening, he met Gu Qingfeng’s gaze with a venomous glare.
"Fool. Your greatest mistake was letting me live!"
The Second Prince’s face, streaked with blood, twisted into a savage smile.
"To repay your... mercy, I swear this: for the rest of your miserable existence, I will hunt you with every resource at my disposal. I will spare no effort, no expense, no cruelty!
"Wherever you flee—to the ends of the world—I will find you. I will chain your soul and torment you for ten thousand years!
"Ahahahaha—!"
The Second Prince’s mad laughter echoed through the street, drawing curious stares from the crowd.
To the long-term residents of the Border Pass, such scenes were uncommon but not unfamiliar. Many had sought refuge here to escape their pursuers.
Time and again, the hunted would stagger to the Border Pass, knowing their enemies dared not strike within its walls.
For in the Star River, to defy the will of the Starry Zenith Celestial Dynasty’s officials was to court annihilation.
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
Heart] Chen Yi traversed the cultivation world for eight hundred years, charging his way to the Tribulation Transcendence stage. Just as he was outwitting his 81st Heavenly Tribulation to ascend to immortality, he was suddenly pulled into a chat group called the "Multiverse Transmigrators Support Group." To his surprise, the group was filled with nothing but fresh-faced newbies who had just transmigrated. [Help! I transmigrated into a disgraced concubine in the cold palace, and the tyrant emperor is about to execute me!] [I ended up as a cannon-fodder villain, and the protagonist is still chasing me—WTF!] [I woke up as the protagonist’s father, but I’m about to be sacrificed in a ritual! What do I do? Urgent!!!] Chen Yi stared at the chaotic flood of desperate pleas in the group and fell into deep thought. "Seriously? You drag me into a newbie transmigrator chat group… only after I’m one step away from becoming an immortal?"
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
reezy rom-com) Good news: Jiang Liu is quite the ladies' man. Bad news: He’s lost his memory. Lying in a hospital bed, Jiang Liu listens to a parade of goddesses spouting "absurd claims," feeling like the world is one giant game of Werewolf. "Jiang Liu, I’m your first love." "Jiang Liu, you’re my boyfriend—she’s your ex." "Jiang Liu, we’re close friends who’ve shared a bed, remember?" "Jiang Liu, I want to have your baby." The now-lucid Jiang Liu is convinced this must be some elaborate scam... until someone drops the bombshell: "The day before you lost your memory, you confessed your feelings—and got into a relationship." Jiang Liu is utterly baffled. So... who the hell is his actual girlfriend?! ... Before recovering his memories, Jiang Liu must navigate this minefield of lies and sincerity, fighting to protect himself from these women’s schemes. But things spiral even further out of control as more people show up at his doorstep—each with increasingly unhinged antics. On the bright side, the memories he lost due to overwhelming trauma seem to be resurfacing. Great news, right? So why are they all panicking now?
