The night passed without incident.
The next morning, when Luo Xi woke up, she found herself still being held. Dazed, she glanced behind her and noticed a strong arm wrapped around her, gripping one of her soft mounds.
Ye Chuan's eyes were closed, seemingly still deep in sleep.
Luo Xi bit her lip and was about to move his intrusive hand away when she was suddenly poked.
"Y-you... you!" Luo Xi jerked away as if electrocuted, turning her head to see Ye Chuan already awake, his dark eyes gleaming with amusement.
"Can you blame me? I didn’t sleep comfortably either," Ye Chuan said with an innocent expression as he watched the girl puff up her cheeks in frustration.
"You jerk! You left a mark!" Luo Xi's face flushed as she glared at the handprint on her chest, her voice laced with a mix of embarrassment and annoyance.
Ye Chuan sighed. "But I’m still uncomfortable."
"..." Luo Xi studied his exaggerated pained expression before her gaze drifted to his inflamed, swollen wound. Softly, she asked, "Does it hurt?"
Ye Chuan nodded. After all, shouldn’t an injury be treated?
"Want me to take a look?"
Hesitating for a moment, Luo Xi silently reached out and unwrapped the bandage—only for her face to be abruptly slapped by something springing free.
"?!..." Her beautiful eyes widened in shock as she stared at the wound, now purple and throbbing with swollen veins.
"Why is it so bad? Should I... help disinfect it?"
"You know how?" Ye Chuan raised an eyebrow. Had she practiced for his sake?
"Hmph, forget it if you don’t want my help."
...
Outside the room.
"Time to wake up," Luo's mother called softly, having already prepared breakfast.
Soon, the door creaked open, and both Luo Xi and Ye Chuan stepped out.
"I bought you steamed buns and rice noodle rolls," Luo's mother began, only to see her daughter scurrying into the bathroom without even a greeting.
"Maybe she’s in a hurry," Ye Chuan explained.
"Then, Xiao Chuan, you can wash up in the kitchen," Luo's mother offered with a smile.
After freshening up, the two sat at the dining table, though Luo Xi seemed oddly fidgety, avoiding her mother’s gaze.
"What’s wrong, Xi Xi?" Luo's mother asked, concerned. Was her daughter feeling unwell?
"Nothing, Mom... I’ll have some soy milk," Luo Xi mumbled, reaching for the glass.
"This batch is great—creamy, thick, and perfectly white," Luo's mother remarked, only for her daughter to suddenly choke on her drink.
"Xi Xi, are you okay?"
"I-I’m fine, just drank too fast," Luo Xi coughed out.
Ye Chuan handed her a tissue, wiping her mouth. "The beautiful Miss Luo must’ve been too hungry," he teased.
As he spoke, he felt a foot press down on his own under the table.
Unfazed, Ye Chuan turned to Luo's mother. "By the way, Auntie, where’s Uncle?"
"He went back to work at his old company. His former boss reached out..." Luo's mother replied warmly.
"With my health better now, he couldn’t keep working night shifts at the barbecue stall forever. It’s good to have a stable career."
Ye Chuan recalled the middle-aged man who had approached Luo's father before. He hadn’t expected him to give up the stall so quickly.
"What about the equipment?"
"We’ll probably sell it soon," Luo Xi chimed in.
"That’s good."
As Ye Chuan ate, his phone buzzed with a notification.
It was a message from Qiao Xin, sent the previous night.
Qiao Xin: Good morning. Free for coffee today?
Ye Chuan: Busy.
Ye Chuan: I’ll mail the medicine to you later.
Qiao Xin: Alright. Another time then.
Curious, Luo Xi leaned over, resting her chin on Ye Chuan’s shoulder as she peeked at his screen.
"Chuan Chuan, any plans for today?"
"Not really." Ye Chuan shrugged. After feeding Lilith later, he planned to laze around at home, maybe tinker with some renovation ideas.
"Then come shopping with me?" Luo Xi asked.
"Sure. But I need to stop by my place first. Wait for me here." He didn’t refuse—after all, Luo Xi had worked hard that morning, her lips probably sore from all the effort.
"Hehe."
Luo's mother watched their affectionate exchange with a fond smile.
She had seen the two grow up together.
Even as toddlers, she’d always thought they were a perfect match.
Had Ye Chuan’s parents not passed away so early, she might’ve even arranged a childhood betrothal for them.
After leaving Luo Xi at home, Ye Chuan headed back to his place—not to change or anything, but simply to feed Lilith.
Pushing the door open, he found the living room empty.
Checking his phone log, he saw Bai Qianshuang had begun another round of cultivation, even breaking through to the mid-stage Golden Core realm!
"Reaching Golden Core in this world? She’s something else," Ye Chuan muttered, impressed.
Still, the stronger Bai Qianshuang became, the safer he was.
Now, if anyone crossed him, he could just obliterate them on a whim.
A bag of chips for a hundred-kilometer radius.
"Well, well, look who’s back?" Unlike the meditating Bai Qianshuang, Lan Xiaoke was the first to notice Ye Chuan’s return.
She popped her head out from the wall. "Morning!"
"Oh? You’ve reached late-stage Qi Refinement?" Ye Chuan noted her rapid progress.
Lan Xiaoke nodded eagerly. "Ye Chuan Chuan, about that five thousand..."
Seeing her rubbing her hands like an eager fly, Ye Chuan chuckled. "Here’s ten grand. Consider it a reward for your hard work."
"Justice prevails!!" Lan Xiaoke cheered, immediately hovering around him, massaging his shoulders and legs—almost climbing onto him for a full-body rubdown.
Ye Chuan just laughed. After earning over a million last night, money was no issue.
After transferring the cash, Lan Xiaoke zipped around the room like a deflating balloon, ecstatic beyond words.
"Keep training hard."
"Yes, sir!"
Ignoring her, Ye Chuan headed straight to his room.
Sitting on the bed, he glanced at the jade pendant around his neck. "Lilith, you awake?"
No response.
He lifted the pendant, and before he could do anything else, a violet light shimmered, coalescing into Lilith’s petite form.
Yawning mid-air, she crossed her legs as if sitting on an invisible chair. "Why dost thou summon me?"
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!
] [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!"
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?!
and couldn't return to the real world. Finally, I gave up and decided to go with the flow, only to discover that writing a diary could make me stronger. Since no one could read it, Su Luo wrote freely, daring to pen anything and everything. Female Lead #1: "Not bad. This diary helped me steal all the protagonist's opportunities. I just want to get stronger." Female Lead #2: "I don’t care about reaching the peak of the cultivation world. Right now, I just want to enjoy the chaos." Female Lead #3: "What? Everyone around me is a spy? I’m the Joker Demon Lord?" ... It’s so strange. Why is the plot completely off track, yet the ending remains the same? Are you all just messing with me?!
