"She was peerless in beauty, ethereal and untainted by worldly cares—a goddess acknowledged by the entire martial world."
"She was of exalted status, decisive in judgment, a figure whose mere presence made countless factions across the Nine Heavens and Ten Realms tremble."
"She was peerless in strength, her sword's gleam chilling nineteen provinces."
"Her name was Leng Qingqiu, an empress, also known throughout the Nine Heavens and Ten Realms as the Cold Enchantress, for her might was a taboo existence in that realm."
With just a few words, Li Mo painted the vivid image of an aloof and overwhelmingly powerful empress.
Shang Wu pondered, skepticism lacing her voice:
"Is there really such a person? I’ve never heard of her."
Ying Bing also turned her gaze to Li Mo, eyes narrowing slightly.
Li Mo cleared his throat.
"Well, she’s called a taboo for a reason, and it was so long ago—it’s normal you wouldn’t know."
"The Great Shang Dynasty once flourished too, and many illustrious figures from that era have since vanished without a trace."
Shang Wu pursed her lips and took a sip of wine.
"Fine, go on."
Li Mo continued:
"Yet, as the saying goes, 'the tallest tree catches the wind.' How could a solitary empress, unbound by any faction or control, not be seen as a thorn in the side of many?"
"To deal with her, the righteous and demonic sects joined forces, driving her to the brink of annihilation."
"That day, the sun and moon dimmed, heaven and earth overturned, gods wept, and night ghosts wailed."
"Her palace ran red with blood, corpses piled like mountains, countless mighty experts perished—shaking the world to its core."
"Though Leng Qingqiu was formidable, she too was pushed to her limits, cornered before a bottomless abyss."
Shang Wu’s almond-shaped eyes shimmered, clearly engrossed in the tale.
Ying Bing, however, wore an increasingly pensive expression.
Something felt familiar.
Though the empress in Li Mo’s story bore a different name and life, certain trials resonated deeply with her.
In her past life, she too had been ostracized by the Nine Heavens and Ten Realms—not for any wrongdoing, but simply for pursuing her martial path, never intending to stir chaos.
Yet though she stayed aloof from the world, the world came for her.
A being of unmatched power, beyond anyone’s control, was threat enough to be deemed an enemy.
Still.
Her fate diverged from the empress in Li Mo’s tale.
"With no escape left, she uttered one final vow—'Even in death, my martial heart remains unbroken'—and leaped into the abyss."
"Ah? What happened next? What then?" Shang Wu pressed eagerly.
Did the protagonist die right at the start?
Was that the end?
Li Mo chuckled softly.
"Patience, Master. Think about it—if this secret history survived, how could the protagonist truly perish? Truth be told, this tale was left behind by Leng Qingqiu herself."
"At death’s door, she activated a mystical artifact known as the 'Spring-Autumn Cicada.'"
"And so!"
"Not only did she survive, but she also returned to the bloom of her youth!"
Li Mo, ever the storyteller, delivered this revelation with dramatic flair, pulling his listeners deeper into the tale.
Shang Wu gasped. "!"
Clatter—
For the second time that day, Ying Bing’s chopsticks slipped from her fingers and hit the floor.
Shang Wu smirked.
"Little Bing’er, you find this too unbelievable too, don’t you? How could there be an artifact that revives the dead?"
"And not just revival—it reversed time itself!"
Nothing in this world is more insurmountable than life and death.
Nothing more merciless than the passage of time.
Countless legends and peerless experts have all succumbed to time, never breaking free from the shackles of mortality.
"Transcending death, reversing time... How could such a thing be possible?" Shang Wu murmured, her tone tinged with melancholy.
"Perhaps... it exists."
"Hm?" Shang Wu turned in surprise.
Since when did Little Bing’er get so invested?
Seeing Ying Bing engrossed, Li Mo felt a flicker of satisfaction.
Then he shot Shang Wu an exasperated look.
"Master, if you keep interrupting, I’m stopping here."
"Fine, fine. The storyteller reigns supreme."
Shang Wu poured him another cup of wine, signaling she’d behave and refrain from nitpicking.
After all, legends were legends—who knew how much was true?
As long as it was entertaining, that was enough.
Li Mo took another sip before resuming.
As he spun the tale, the image of a solitary, transcendent woman, devoted solely to her martial path, took shape.
In this new life, she leveraged her past knowledge to rise swiftly.
Yet this same Leng Qingqiu, after her rebirth, encountered an ordinary man who had never practiced martial arts.
She began disguising herself as a commoner, interacting with him, growing closer... until she was moved.
Thus, the peerless empress took a mundane man as her husband.
Many amusing incidents followed.
Bizarre yet logical, brimming with pure, unfiltered sweetness.
And after finding love, her martial arts progressed even further.
Li Mo, fueled by the immortal’s wine, grew more animated as he narrated.
The plot twisted and turned under his delivery, gripping his audience.
Shang Wu was utterly captivated.
Compared to the usual plays and storytellers’ tales, this was on another level.
Even if parts strained credulity, it was... irresistibly addictive.
"In the end, Leng Qingqiu retired from the martial world with her family..."
"No rain, no rainbow."
Hic—"Though her life was fraught with trials, setbacks, even death..."
"She never yielded, and in the end, she gained both martial mastery and love."
Li Mo capped it off with his own reflection.
His point was clear:
If even death could be conquered, then no matter how turbulent life seemed, the clouds would part.
Young one, your journey has only just begun—why fret over temporary losses?
A perfect, uplifting conclusion.
"That’s it?" Shang Wu lamented, craving more.
She was about to coax Li Mo into another story when she noticed that Li—the storyteller—Mo had slumped onto the table, soft snores escaping him.
Having downed a third of the immortal’s wine, he’d peacefully drunk himself into slumber after his performance.
"Tsk, still needs work on his alcohol tolerance," Shang Wu mused.
With no other choice, she hauled him back to his room, finished the last of the wine, and retired herself.
"Martial mastery and love... both attained?"
Ying Bing lay in bed, the scent of a certain someone lingering in the air, the echoes of his storytelling still fresh in her mind.
For some reason.
As night deepened and she couldn’t train, her thoughts grew restless.
Was what Li Mo said fabricated... or based on truth?
Wait.
Ying Bing suddenly remembered—she still hadn’t completed her system’s punishment.
But... sharing a bed?
Her brows knitted tightly.
Did she have to... sneak into Li Mo’s room in the dead of night?
This... this was...
It shouldn’t have been a big deal.
Yet after that story, merely picturing the scene made the strange fluttering in her chest intensify...
Creak—
Suddenly.
The door swung open.
A figure staggered in and collapsed onto the bed.
Ying Bing swiftly dodged, her delicate hand already resting on the Skyfrost Sword.
But a strong wave of alcohol fumes assaulted her senses, followed by the sound of snoring.
"Mmm... hehe..."
The young man on the bed squirmed twice, as if lost in a pleasant dream, his sleeping face still wearing a foolish grin.
It was Li Mo.
Ying Bing stood silently by the window, her expression unreadable in the darkness.
[Ding. The first day is about to end.]
[Host, please complete your punishment as soon as possible, or the system will unbind.]
[Countdown: 10, 9, 8, 7...]
In the end,
a soft sigh echoed through the room.
ave】 Shen Qingling was a man with peerless looks, a cunning mind, and the ability to play both the aloof noble and the innocent sweetheart—a master of seduction who could outplay any player. But after an untimely death, he found himself bound to a system and transmigrated into the tragic "true young master" of a melodramatic novel. In the original story, his childhood sweetheart treated him as a backup plan, his fiancée swore to break off their engagement for the sake of the "fake young master," and his own sister saw him as the family's disgrace. He was nothing more than a rat everyone wanted to stomp on. System 077: "Your mission is to change the original fate and conquer the goddesses." Shen Qingling: "Thanks for the invite. If seduction had tiers, I’d be max level." His childhood sweetheart knelt, begging for forgiveness: "Qingling, I was wrong. Please give me another chance." His ex-fiancée refused to marry anyone else: "Shen Qingling, I was blind before. In this life, I’ll marry no one but you." A yandere CEO went mad for love: "Shen Qingling, you can only like me. I’ll stop at nothing to make you mine!" His green-tea sister clung to him daily: "Brother, look at me, won’t you? I’m more obedient than them—I love you the most~" At first, they scorned and trampled on him. Later, they burned themselves like moths to a flame, all for his sake. His looks were his weapon, his sweet words the bait—heroines obsessed over him, villains turned to madness for him. Shen Qingling became a true male siren, igniting battlefield after battlefield of women fighting for his affection. Years later, when System 077—now one of the elites—was asked how to become as outstanding as it, it lazily exhaled a smoke ring and replied: "Just know how to cheer ‘666’ at the right time."
his freshman year, Su Bai accidentally bound the "Indulgence Tycoon System." 【Sleeping in? Reward: +$1,000】 【Spent $288 at a street barbecue stall? Cashback: +$2,880】 【Dropped $14,396 on in-game skins? Special reward unlocked: A brand-new Porsche Panamera!】 Luxury cars, penthouses, corporate shares, financial empires… College life was all about living freely and doing whatever he pleased! … When the adorably naive academic genius faced family medical bills and financial struggles, Su Bai waved his hand dismissively: "Your future is on me." "Wuwu~ Big Brother is so good to me! I’ll become a scientist to repay you!" When the genius girl got bullied by a shady professor? Su Bai casually dropped a billion-dollar investment, forcing the university to grovel and beg for her return. A company’s funding chain collapsing? Su Bai smirked—cash was the one thing he’d never run out of. Years later, when people traced the rise of the AI prodigy beauty, who was the man behind her success? Not just that—Su Bai also became the tsundere campus belle’s unattainable dream, the contrast senior’s daily necessity, and the beautiful counselor’s emotional anchor…
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
