Once he started, there was no turning back. A gambler's mentality is always to crave more after winning and chase losses after losing. He kept saying it was his last time, but in truth, there would never be a last time.
So he stole the family's savings and even borrowed money from the gambling den. When he couldn't repay it, his legs were broken as punishment. The loan sharks warned him they’d come back for their money.
Chen's Mother looked as if she had been struck by lightning after hearing this. Chen's Father, who had remained silent until then, stepped forward and started hitting him, only to be stopped by Chen's Mother after a few blows.
"Enough! Are you trying to kill him? Who will take care of us in our old age if he dies?"
Chen's Father glared furiously at his good-for-nothing son.
"What do we do now?"
Chen Azhi's eyes darted around before he suggested, "Find Chen Xiaoxiao!"
A glimmer of hope flashed in Chen's Mother's eyes.
Gu Xiaoxiao was called out of class by a schoolmate and found her birth parents waiting at the school gate. Chen's Mother scrutinized her while showering her with praise, making Gu Xiaoxiao uncomfortable. They had only met once before—why were they here today?
Sure enough, after a few pleasantries, Chen's Mother cut straight to the point and demanded money.
Gu Xiaoxiao was furious. "Why should I give you money? I have nothing to do with you!"
Chen's Mother froze, her eyes reddening as she wiped away tears. "You're our daughter! How can you say that? Xiaoxiao, you can’t be so heartless."
Her sobbing drew the attention of passersby.
Gu Xiaoxiao panicked. "Keep your voice down!"
"They took our daughter away, and you never came back! And now you won’t even acknowledge us? Heaven help us!" Chen's Mother wailed even louder.
"That’s not true! My parents gave you money!" Gu Xiaoxiao shouted.
But Chen's Father suddenly stepped forward and slapped her across the face. "Talking back? You’re my flesh and blood, understand?"
Gu Xiaoxiao was stunned.
"Money? Can money cut blood ties? You’re our daughter! Back then, if we hadn’t let you go to live a better life and help your brother someday, do you think you’d be living as a city girl now?"
More people gathered, and Gu Xiaoxiao spotted her classmates among them, wishing she could disappear into the ground.
"Talk to her properly, don’t hit her," Chen's Mother intervened. "Our daughter has always been filial."
Gu Xiaoxiao didn’t hear a word of it, clutching her stinging cheek, her eyes burning with hatred.
"You old monsters! I’m not your daughter!" she suddenly screamed before turning and running away.
Chen's Father was livid but didn’t dare chase her into the school.
Gu Xiaoxiao locked herself in her dorm room as her phone buzzed incessantly. She checked it—another message from that unknown number.
"Xiaoxiao, don’t blame your father for hitting you. Your brother is in the hospital and needs money. Please, help him."
Her heart turned to ice. So it had been her birth mother messaging her all along!
Trembling, she called Gu Xiuyuan, who dropped everything and rushed to pick her up.
The moment she saw him, the humiliation of being slapped overwhelmed her, and she threw herself into his arms, sobbing.
Gu Xiuyuan stiffened for a second before tightening his embrace, his eyes turning cold. Whoever had hurt his sister would pay.
But Gu Xiaoxiao never expected to see those two waiting in her home when she and her brother returned.
"Oh, Xiaoxiao’s back!" Chen's Mother greeted her with exaggerated delight.
Chen's Father stood stone-faced, as did Gu's parents.
"Dad, Mom, what’s going on?" Gu Xiuyuan had already heard the story on the way and was disgusted by anyone who harmed his sister.
"Hmph, ask your sister," Gu's Father said coldly, his voice dripping with resentment.
Gu Xiaoxiao’s heart skipped a beat—her father had never spoken to her or her brother like that before.
Gu Xiuyuan looked at her questioningly, but she shook her head frantically, clueless.
"Xiaoxiao, you... sigh." Gu's Mother also sighed in disappointment.
Chen's Father spoke up. "You already know the truth. I’m not an educated man, but blood is thicker than water. Our daughter has lived with your family for so long, yet she still remembers us. Now that her brother is in trouble, of course she should help."
Gu Xiaoxiao shook her head repeatedly but forced herself to maintain composure in front of her parents. "I... I cut ties with you long ago. I’m grateful you gave birth to me, but the ones who raised me are my real parents..."
Chen's Father’s face darkened.
Chen's Mother added, "Xiaoxiao, your father and I are right here. No need to pretend. You’ve been secretly saving your allowance to send us money because you worried about us. I was so touched."
Gu Xiaoxiao was stunned.
So was Gu Xiuyuan. Gu's parents stared at her in silence.
"What are you talking about? I never gave you money!" Gu Xiaoxiao panicked. She knew Gu's Father better than anyone—he had once berated Gu Panxi for supposedly still caring about her birth parents. His love was conditional.
"No wonder you suddenly asked for so much allowance before college," Gu's Father said icily. He despised being deceived most of all. "So you could support your birth parents."
"Old Gu! Is it wrong for a child to be filial?" Gu's Mother cut in.
"Filial?" Gu's Father scoffed. "Filial to people she’s met once? Using my money to play the dutiful daughter? Do you know how much she spent?" He stormed off to his room.
"No, that allowance was—" Gu Xiaoxiao wanted to explain but stopped abruptly. How could she say it? Admit she gave the money to Fang Zhiyi to bully Gu Panxi?
She was trapped. Who had impersonated her to send money to her birth parents? Was it Gu Panxi? Impossible—Gu Panxi had no money!
Seeing her distress, Gu's Mother sighed. "Xiaoxiao, talk things over with your birth parents. Once you’ve settled it, let me know, and I’ll try to calm your father down."
Gu Xiaoxiao’s mind was in chaos.
Chen's Mother reached for her hand. "Daughter, let’s go see your brother now."
Gu Xiaoxiao recoiled, but Gu Xiuyuan shielded her.
"No! I don’t acknowledge you!" she screamed before bolting out of the house. Gu Xiuyuan hesitated, then chased after her.
Gu Xiaoxiao wandered the streets, crying uncontrollably, with Gu Xiuyuan trailing behind.
"Let’s go home, Xiaoxiao."
She turned to him, eyes red. "Do I even have a home anymore?"
Gu Xiuyuan’s heart ached for her.
She bought alcohol with the little cash she had, checked into a hotel, and started drinking. Gu Xiuyuan couldn’t stop her, so he joined her. Soon, both were drunk.
The turning point of the original plot had arrived ahead of time.
with countless casualties. As a top-tier gamer, Liu Xuan volunteered to join the fight, intending to dominate with his skills, but instead he obtained the hidden class: [Pacifist]. Unable to attack. Unable to use active skills. Fortunately, with each level gained, he acquired a new passive skill. And so, armed with a body full of passives, Liu Xuan slaughtered his way through the battlefield of ten thousand races! [You attacked Liu Xuan] [You gained the debuffs: 'Poison', 'Fear', 'Burning', 'Bleeding', 'Freeze', 'Silence', etc.] [Your attack speed has been reduced by 99%] [Your armor and magic resistance have been reduced by 99%] Warriors of the Ten Thousand Races: How the hell am I supposed to fight this?!
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
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?!
