After Li Mucheng and the others left, Shen Mengli and Ye Feng also began making their way toward the village. As they walked, the two engaged in conversation.
"Mengli, did Xie Yuyan give you any trouble?"
"Not at all~"
Shen Mengli shook her head, nestling closer to Ye Feng’s arm as she murmured,
"Xie Yuyan just talked to me about the mistakes she made before. Most of it was her apologizing and admitting her faults."
"R-really?"
"Mhm. Though Xie Yuyan seems remorseful now, it’s still too early to say for sure. I won’t allow her near you until I’m certain she won’t hurt you."
"I see..."
"What? Can’t bear to see Xie Yuyan looking so sad?"
"Mengli, don’t say things like that! I’m just surprised by how much she’s changed. You know how extreme she used to be—it’s hard to believe she’d turn around so quickly."
"Tch, that’s because you don’t get it, Feng."
Shen Mengli muttered under her breath before pinching Ye Feng’s arm.
"Get what?"
"It’s because you’re too soft!"
She pouted, lightly thumping his chest in frustration at his clueless reaction.
"Haven’t I told you before? Sometimes you need to be firm, or people will think they can walk all over you! Look at Xie Yuyan now—she’s behaving properly when talking to me, isn’t she?"
"Alright, alright, our Mengli is the best, okay?"
Ye Feng chuckled, pinching her cheek playfully before brushing a fallen leaf from her hair.
"Of course! With me around, no one’s getting any funny ideas about you!"
"Mhm, being with you makes me feel so safe."
"Hehe, since I’ve worked so hard today, shouldn’t I get a little reward?"
Shen Mengli’s tone shifted as she wagged her fox tail mischievously.
"Oh? So this is what you were after. Fine, what do you want?"
Ye Feng assumed she’d ask for something simple—like accompanying her somewhere or staying in the mountains a few more days.
"Mm... three times! No, five! Wait, that’s still not enough... eek!"
Before she could finish mumbling to herself, Ye Feng rapped her lightly on the head.
"Ow! Why’d you hit me for no reason?!"
"No reason? Mengli, listen to yourself. Don’t think I didn’t catch your drift—none of your word games."
"Hmph, you’re the one misunderstanding me!"
"Misunderstanding?! Alright, then explain what you really meant. If you can’t give a proper answer, you’re in for it!"
"I just meant... the number of times you’d take me back to the orphanage after we get home!"
Shen Mengli pouted, putting on an innocent act as if he’d truly misjudged her.
But Ye Feng knew her too well and saw right through it.
"Oh? I don’t buy that for a second. We can visit the orphanage whenever we want, can’t we?"
"Ugh... busted!"
"Honestly, I ought to scrub your brain clean. Look how far you’ve fallen."
"Well, it’s your fault... you’re just too addicting. And if you really want to empty my mind, go ahead—that just means more space to fill with you~"
Now fully dropping the act, Shen Mengli gazed at Ye Feng like a starved wolf, her love laid bare. Ye Feng quickly decided to end the conversation.
"Ahem... Mengli, let’s focus on dinner instead."
......
"Yuxin, what’s wrong? Things with the teacher didn’t go badly today—at least he didn’t seem impatient."
In the car on the way back, Li Mucheng noticed Su Yuxin resting her chin on her hand, staring gloomily out the window, and tried to comfort her.
"Mucheng, I know the teacher’s attitude wasn’t too bad, but I’m just... scared."
Su Yuxin turned her head, listlessly tugging at her pants.
"I’m afraid Ye Feng might disappear again, just like before."
"So that’s what’s worrying you. Don’t be—the teacher wouldn’t do that."
"R-really? I was even thinking of having someone watch the cabin. If he tries to leave, I could stop him in time."
"No! Yuxin, you can’t do that. The fact that the teacher was willing to talk to us today and open up means there’s still room to work things out. If we push him too hard and make him uncomfortable, it’ll backfire. Right now, we need to trust him, not let our fears take over. Understand?"
"Mm..."
"Li Mucheng’s right. We should wait and see, not panic and ruin things."
Xie Yuyan, who had been silent until now, spoke up, her eyes tinged with something complicated.
"Yeah."
Pleased by Xie Yuyan’s agreement, Li Mucheng smiled at her before continuing.
"Did you notice? When the teacher was explaining his situation earlier, he mentioned a 'method'—something that could free him from this ordeal. But he brushed past it quickly."
"So you caught that too."
Xie Yuyan sighed softly, recounting her private conversation with Shen Mengli in the room. After she finished, the car fell into heavy silence.
Finally, Su Yuxin broke it. "I’ll help too! Whatever it takes to save Ye Feng, I’ll do it. I won’t let him vanish again."
"Same here. I never expected Shen Mengli would cooperate with us, though. If it were me, I’d want to keep the teacher all to myself."
Li Mucheng clenched her fists, clearly surprised by Xie Yuyan’s revelation.
"But we should be careful. Shen Mengli might be hiding something. Right now, the teacher trusts her more than any of us."
"True. Once Ye Feng returns, we’ll find a time to discuss this together. No matter the cost, I’ll help him overcome this danger. Whatever it takes..."
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
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.”
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
