"Ugh..."
On the other end of the phone, Shen Mengli hung up and carefully placed Xie Yuyan's phone back into the bedside drawer. Her disheveled hair made it clear how agitated she was, and her usually fair face had darkened, as if weighed down by sorrow.
"Xiao Feng..."
Shen Mengli murmured Ye Feng's name as she gazed at the empty living room, her eyes filled with deep concern for him.
"Why... why does it have to be like this..."
......
"Huh? R-Really?"
"Yes. Though I don’t know why Shen Mengli suddenly reached out to us, something must have happened."
Li Mucheng replied calmly before Su Yuxin's voice came through the phone.
"Alright... I understand. I’ll come early tomorrow. But Mucheng, be careful—don’t take Shen Mengli’s words at face value. I don’t hate her now, but for Ye Feng’s sake, we can’t afford to be careless."
"Don’t worry, Yuxin. I know what I’m doing."
"Good! I’ll get ready on my end too. See you tomorrow."
As the call ended, Li Mucheng let out a sigh.
"Did Su Yuxin say something upsetting?"
Xie Yuyan, seated on the sofa, turned her gaze from the moonlight outside and looked at Li Mucheng.
"No, it’s just... I feel uneasy about Shen Mengli suddenly contacting us. I’m worried something might have happened to Teacher."
"But no matter what happens, we’ll face whatever secret Ye Feng is hiding, right? As long as we can make him trust us, I believe everything will work out."
Xie Yuyan’s words were like a soothing balm to Li Mucheng.
"Yes! No matter what, I’ll make sure Teacher knows we have the strength to help him!"
"That’s the spirit."
Xie Yuyan gave Li Mucheng an approving glance before gracefully rising and heading toward the guest room.
"Then we’ll find out the truth tomorrow. Get some rest tonight."
"Okay, goodnight."
"Goodnight."
......
Click.
The door opened, and Ye Feng stepped inside, holding a box of cake. As soon as he entered the living room, he spotted Shen Mengli sitting alone on the sofa, silent and still.
"Mengli, I got the cake you wanted. Please don’t cry anymore, okay?"
"Xiao Feng..."
Hearing his voice, Shen Mengli slowly lifted her head. The emptiness in her eyes vanished the moment she saw him, and she immediately threw herself into his arms.
Feeling the warmth of Ye Feng’s embrace, the turmoil in her heart gradually settled.
But the secret he had just revealed to her left her utterly devastated.
......
"Xiao Feng, tell me. I’m ready!"
After dinner, Shen Mengli tightly held Ye Feng’s hand, her tone firm, as if prepared for whatever he might say.
"Alright..."
Ye Feng let her lean against his shoulder, gathering his thoughts before finally speaking.
"The reason I didn’t tell you this secret before is because it involves both you and me—and others too."
"U-Us? You mean... the others as well?" Shen Mengli gasped.
"Yes. Mengli, do you remember what I told you about the concept of 'life time'?"
"Yes! You said the missions assigned by the system were all to earn more 'life time'—that you had no choice but to complete them."
Shen Mengli recalled every word he had ever said about it. After all, this concerned Ye Feng—how could she forget?
"Right. Running around, doing all these things... just to survive. I’ve done so much I never wanted to do, all for this damned countdown. And in the end, the punishment is mine to bear."
"Don’t say that!"
The moment Ye Feng spoke self-deprecatingly, Shen Mengli reacted as if the words had struck her instead. She immediately pressed her hand over his mouth, glaring at him fiercely.
"I won’t let you talk about yourself like that, or I’ll get mad!"
"Fine, fine. I can’t even criticize myself now?"
"No! Xiao Feng is the best—always the best in my heart!"
Her words slowly eased the bitterness in Ye Feng’s heart.
"Am I really that great? I don’t feel like it."
"That’s because you’re always giving, never letting yourself receive the same kindness in return. The way you are... any girl would fall for you."
Her voice grew softer, barely audible by the end.
"What was that, Mengli?"
"Nothing! Don’t change the subject! Keep talking!"
"......"
Ye Feng sighed at her stubborn expression before continuing.
"But one day, I unlocked a new mission—one with a reward I wanted more than anything."
"The thing you wanted most?"
Shen Mengli didn’t rush him, instead carefully considering his words. She couldn’t assume everything he told her was the full truth—not just for her own judgment, but for his sake too.
"Xiao Feng, do you mean... the life you’ve always wanted?"
"No... that’s just a dream. The system’s reward was to completely erase this 'life time' countdown. If I complete the mission, all my worries would disappear."
"Then... isn’t that a good thing? Why wouldn’t you want to do it?"
The thought excited her. If Ye Feng succeeded, they could finally be together without the system’s chains holding him back.
"Because the condition to complete it... is something I refuse to do."
"Refuse? Is... is the condition too harsh?"
Ye Feng shook his head. "It’s not about difficulty. To fulfill it, I’d have to make all of you... fall in love with me. By any means necessary."
His voice was heavy with guilt.
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.
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?"
lan, the Luo family, tracked him down - along with the babies in their arms. Mo Xuan stared pensively at the paternity test results from over a dozen top institutions, both domestic and international, showing a 99.99% match between himself and the two baby girls. At 23, Mo Xuan, a doctoral student, had become the father of two three-year-old children. The kicker? The mothers weren't even the same person! He gradually realized he was being lured step by step into an elaborate trap designed by these two yandere sisters. "Be good, little Xuan. Sister's life belongs to you entirely." "Brother, if you try to run away, I'll have no choice but to tie you up." Mo Xuan: "Do whatever you want, ladies. I give up."
