Su Jiu didn’t hesitate and firmly refused.
"No!"
Her voice was crisp, carrying an air of finality.
Su Ji froze on the spot.
What was going on?
Weren’t her favorability points supposed to have increased?
After all that heart-demon ordeal and the mind-body unity.
The special plot had even progressed that far.
Why wasn’t she as accommodating as before?
Seeing Su Ji’s stunned expression, Su Jiu felt an inexplicable sense of satisfaction.
The reason for her refusal was simple.
Su Ji had been pushing his luck too much lately.
If she didn’t put a stop to it now, who knew what even more outrageous demands he’d make in the future?
She had to make him understand—she had her limits too.
Noticing her resolute attitude, Su Ji didn’t panic. Instead, he shamelessly leaned in closer.
"Junior Sister, to be honest..."
Su Jiu cut him off without even sparing him a glance. "Then Senior Brother should keep it to himself for now."
Su Ji’s words caught in his throat, nearly choking him.
Deciding to ignore her dismissal, he pressed on.
"Just now, I caught another glimpse of the future."
This made Su Jiu pause mid-step.
She had already guessed as much.
For Su Ji’s expression to darken so abruptly while walking, he must have foreseen something perilous again.
But still...
Couldn’t this guy handle problems in a slightly more normal way?
No wonder it was said many sect leaders, when seeking counsel, preferred the middle strategy over the best one.
When Su Jiu remained silent, Su Ji continued, his voice unusually grave.
"I saw the Love-Longing Sect’s sect master personally waiting at the mountain gate, specifically to intercept us on our return."
His voice dropped even lower.
"She’ll kill me."
Su Jiu’s heart sank.
The Love-Longing Sect wouldn’t activate its protective formation without reason.
Something must have happened within the sect.
Slowly, Su Jiu turned around. The earlier trace of girlish irritation in her clear fox-like eyes faded, replaced by a chilling coldness.
"Why would she kill you?"
Su Ji shook his head, a bitter smile on his face. "I don’t know. She only said the sect is in troubled times and that a ‘little thief with something extra’ had snuck in—that I couldn’t be allowed to stay."
Su Jiu’s fingers unconsciously clenched.
You knew this.
The current cultivation limit in Great Xia was the Golden Core Great Perfection.
At this stage, there was no further progress to be made.
The remaining centuries of life had to be spent honing skills or delving into unorthodox methods.
If you didn’t?
Well, others would. And when two Golden Core Great Perfection cultivators clashed, the one with more tricks up their sleeve would prevail.
Did you want to end up as roadkill, kicked aside like a stray dog?
So you had no choice but to specialize.
And now, with the Love-Longing Sect’s master—a five-hundred-year-old Golden Core veteran—personally making a move...
Given Su Jiu’s newly attained Golden Core cultivation, she wasn’t entirely confident she could protect Su Ji.
Worse, if Su Ji’s spiritual root was exposed, deceiving the sect was a grave crime.
As his "accomplice," she wouldn’t escape punishment either.
Su Jiu analyzed calmly, "Returning now would be walking straight into a trap."
"Then why don’t we just find a place to rest for a few days?"
"Hide?" Su Ji laughed.
"Junior Sister, do you really think we can hide?"
He took two steps forward, his back to her, and spoke clearly.
"Guess why the sect master appeared at the mountain gate in the first place?"
"My theory? Your little stunt of climbing high to survey the area alerted her!"
"Think about it. With the protective formation active and the sect on high alert, suddenly a Golden Core cultivator appears watching from afar."
"If you were the sect master, what would you think?"
Su Jiu’s breath hitched.
She hadn’t considered that.
She’d only wanted to assess the sect’s situation but overlooked how such behavior would arouse suspicion.
Su Ji’s reasoning was sound.
Almost too convincing.
"So, not only can we not leave, we have to return openly."
Su Ji turned back, his face the picture of calm confidence.
"That way, we appear above suspicion."
"Junior Sister, don’t you have reasons to stay in the Love-Longing Sect?"
"If the sect master marks you as suspicious, then..."
He trailed off deliberately, leaving the rest to Su Jiu’s imagination.
Sure enough, her delicate brows furrowed.
"Senior Brother makes a fair point. Leaving now would seem like an admission of guilt."
Seizing the moment, Su Ji stepped closer and lowered his voice.
"Junior Sister, I have a plan."
"Listen carefully. Remember every word I’m about to say."
He pulled the hesitant Su Jiu into a dense thicket by the roadside and laid out his scheme in detail.
As she listened, Su Jiu’s clear fox eyes widened.
Her expression shifted from shock to disbelief, then finally settled into a deep blush that burned all the way to her ears.
"...Th-this is impossible!"
The moment he finished, her first reaction was outright refusal.
This was... utterly absurd!
Not quite as outrageous as their heart-demon act in the molten cave, but close.
"Why impossible?" Su Ji began his trademark persuasion.
"Think about it. Why does the sect master want me dead? Because I’m a ‘little thief with something extra,’ violating sect rules."
"But what if I’m not?"
"Then the threat disappears. What reason would she have to kill me?"
Su Jiu’s head spun from his twisted logic.
She opened her mouth to argue but found no holes in his reasoning.
On second thought... it almost made sense.
Except...
The method was just too...
Seeing her waver, Su Ji knew it was time for his trump card.
His face turned solemn.
"Junior Sister, if it’s too much, forget it."
"Here’s another plan."
His voice trembled as if weighed down by despair.
"You return to the sect alone."
"After all, the conflict stems from me."
"If we can’t solve the problem, we’ll eliminate the problem-maker."
"I’ll be fine as a rogue cultivator."
"The Love-Longing Sect isn’t the only path for me."
"Being at the Foundation Establishment stage isn’t bad."
"I won’t be bullied out here."
"So be it."
"The immortal road is long. Farewell."
These words struck Su Jiu’s heart like a hammer.
Her chest tightened painfully.
Staring at Su Ji’s face—so full of "sincerity" and "tragic resolve"—she couldn’t help but recall all the times he’d stood up for her.
In the Nascent Soul cave dwelling, he’d slain the remnant soul to save her from possession.
At the Dragon-Locking Abyss, he’d killed that Joyful Union Sect temptress without hesitation to clear her doubts.
And his bold declaration just now—"I am the strong one"...
His ability to glimpse the workings of fate had never once been wrong.
If he said the sect leader would kill him, then it would surely happen.
Should Su Ji be forced to become a rogue cultivator?
No.
Absolutely not.
All shame, all absurdity—in this moment, they were utterly crushed beneath the weight of a fear called loneliness.
She had carried so much on her shoulders, and only now had she found someone to confide in.
Mm...
She simply wanted a friend to share her burdens with.
Su Jiu bit her lower lip, hard enough to nearly draw blood.
It was as if she had steeled herself for an unbearably difficult decision.
Her lashes lowered, trembling faintly, until at last, she gave an almost imperceptible nod.
"Fine."
Su Ji's face immediately lit up with a radiant smile, all traces of his earlier solemnity and sorrow vanishing in an instant.
"Then what are we waiting for?"
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
ap a wealthy young lady? Or else I'll be eliminated by the system? Ye Feng, who awakened the Kidnapper System, originally wanted to live a peaceful life but never imagined he would become a kidnapper of young women. However, after some time, he discovered that all the girls the system ordered him to kidnap were far from ordinary. "Big brother Ye Feng~ You've kidnapped my heart, and now you're not allowed to leave me ever again~" "Ye Feng~ You kidnapped me back then, now it's my turn to capture you♡" "Little Feng, you're mine! You can only be mine!" "Ye Feng, none of them deserve you. Only I love you the most♡" ... This is madness, they've all gone mad! Wait, what? Why are all the girls I kidnapped yanderes?!
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
