Ah Cui shook her head and said, "Although they are yaoguai, they are all very good."
Little Hua let out a laugh, raising her voice, "Oh my, marrying a yaoguai must be nice. Look at you, dressed up like a young lady from a wealthy family. Probably stolen goods, right?"
Her words attracted the people around, and many looked over.
Ah Cui was taken aback, suddenly remembering what Fang Zhiyi had said about "jealousy." She had only heard about it from him, but now she felt it firsthand—a strange fire surged from the depths of her heart.
"Oh dear, sorry, I accidentally let it slip. Look at my mouth..." Little Hua quickly covered her mouth.
Ah Cui frowned. "I did not marry a yaoguai, and they have never stolen anything."
Little Hua pinched her nose. "Ew, you have a stench of yaoguai on you."
Ah Cui was very direct. Having been with the yaoguai for so long, she hadn't learned any tact at all. "Are you jealous of me?"
Her directness made Little Hua somewhat awkward, who then forced a smile. "What nonsense! Why would I be jealous of you marrying a yaoguai? I just think you shouldn't follow those monsters and do things that harm heaven and reason..."
Finally, Granny Chen, who couldn't bear to listen any longer, spoke up, rapping her cane. "Huanir, you mustn't talk nonsense! My granddaughter will marry a proper man someday. How can you slander her innocence without proof?"
Little Hua gave a hollow, insincere smile. She had heard the villagers say several times that Ah Cui had become a yaoguai's concubine.
"What does a blind old woman know!" She planted her hands on her hips. "She is a yaoguai's concubine! Otherwise, why would the yaoguai treat her so well?"
Ah Cui's face flushed crimson. She never imagined that someone she considered a friend would see her this way.
"You're talking nonsense!" Granny Chen was furious, repeatedly striking the ground with her cane.
"Hmph! A cheap woman who consorts with yaoguai, and an old fool with no respect for her age!" Chen Xiaohua planted her hands on her hips again. She didn't believe they could do anything to her here in the city, especially Chen Ah Cui, who had been bullied by other children since she was young. A few insults were nothing—who told her she had no parents?
Ah Cui comforted her grandmother and sniffled. "My teacher once said."
Little Hua was confused by her words. "Teacher? What's that?"
"If you don't understand my reasoning, I am also somewhat skilled in martial arts."
Little Hua didn't see clearly how Ah Cui moved. She only felt a sharp pain on her face—left cheek, right cheek, left cheek, right cheek again!
The crisp sound of slaps made the onlookers cover their own faces, gasping in unison.
Having slapped her fill, Ah Cui stepped back a few paces and pointed at Little Hua. "Are you hurt? If I injured you, I am also somewhat knowledgeable in medicine. Of course, if I accidentally treat you to death, my teacher also taught me feng shui. And if you won't rest even after death, I can also learn ghost-catching."
Little Hua covered her face, her head buzzing. She never expected that dull, lonely girl to become so fierce now. "You... you!"
Ah Cui felt an incredible sense of relief in her heart. Fang Zhiyi was right! When you encounter someone who makes you uncomfortable, you have to vent your anger first, otherwise it's not worth getting yourself sick with rage!
Several people pushed through the crowd.
"Little Hua, Little Hua, what happened?" A woman rushed over.
Seeing her parents, Chen Xiaohua burst into loud sobs. "This stinky woman who married a yaoguai hit me!"
Hearing this, several villagers from Chen Family Village turned their heads. When they clearly saw the grandmother and granddaughter pair before them, their expressions changed.
"How are you still alive?"
"Yaoguai!"
They began shouting and yelling. Ah Cui sensed trouble. She shot a hateful glare at the group, supported her grandmother, and tried to leave. But a squad of city patrol guards arrived. "Where are the yaoguai?"
Recently, word had it that a eminent monk from the Great Tang in the East was coming. The authorities had even doubled the patrol strength. It would be a disgrace if there were yaoguai now.
Seeing the soldiers, the Chen Family Village folks seemed to gain courage and pointed at Chen Ah Cui's retreating back. "It's her! She married a man-eating yaoguai! She's a yaoguai woman!"
Ah Cui sensed the danger. She shielded her grandmother behind her and said word by word, "I am not a yaoguai woman." Finally, she added, "And the yaoguai I know do not eat people."
The squad leader narrowed his eyes.
"You're saying you don't dare go out by yourself?" Fang Zhiyi looked at Little Hei, somewhat amused.
Little Hei pretended to wipe sweat. "I don't know why, but if I go just a bit farther, I feel a very strong sense of oppression."
"Useless."
"You too!"
"Pah!"
"Pah! Pah!"
Fang Zhiyi looked at the moon, feeling uneasy.
By rights, Ah Cui and the others should have returned by now.
"Great King! Great King! Something terrible has happened, Great King!" Following a series of shouts, the wolf yaoguai—no, Da Huang—scrambled in, looking utterly panicked.
"You're the one something terrible happened to! What is it?" Fang Zhiyi, for once, felt a sense of foreboding.
"The brothers who went to the city are in trouble!"
"What?"
Fang Zhiyi immediately stood up and rushed out of the cave dwelling at top speed. This wasn't right!
Da Huang explained briefly: Ah Cui had gotten into a conflict with someone in the city, the matter had escalated, the little yaoguai waiting outside the city tried to enter to rescue them but were also surrounded inside. Rumor had it many monks and Taoists had also appeared.
But just as Fang Zhiyi stood on the mountain path, his vision blurred, and a hunched figure blocked his way.
"You must be the Black Bear Great King? This humble one is called Yalong Taoist. I've come specifically to pay my respects." A strange tone, a stooped figure.
But every hair on Fang Zhiyi's body stood on end. This thing was powerful!
"Please move aside. I have urgent business!" Fang Zhiyi was desperate to be on his way.
Yalong Taoist, however, waved unhurriedly, and five more figures in Taoist robes emerged from behind him.
"Taoists?" Fang Zhiyi frowned, but the next moment, he saw five weasels that had transformed into human form.
"Nothing is more important than this humble one's business, is it? I have long heard this is the territory of you, the Black Bear Yao. Today I've come specifically to pay my respects." As Yalong Taoist spoke, his words were full of ill intent.
The yaoli within Fang Zhiyi surged violently. He suddenly threw a punch. He was confident that with this punch, this Yalong Taoist would be smashed into the ground. But the reality was, the hunched figure merely raised the tobacco pipe in his hand and blocked the punch.
Fang Zhiyi also saw Yalong Taoist's true form—an old fox.
Even uglier than Hu Lai.
The old fox narrowed its eyes at him, a trace of disdain in its gaze.
Behind him, dozens of torches quickly approached, followed by the shouts of his subordinates. They had finally caught up, with the wolf yaoguai at the front.
"Who dares to cause trouble at the Facing Sun Cave Dwelling?"
"Brothers, seize them!"
"Great King! We're here! Great King!"
Yalong Taoist seemed somewhat disdainful, then narrowed his eyes and scoffed. "Just as I wished."
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."
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.
orn and Humiliation】【Forced Love】 In his past life, Lin Ran was betrayed and murdered by his girlfriend and family, while the yandere female aristocrat, who had treated him as a mere plaything, avenged him by doing in his enemies. Upon seeing the yandere female aristocrat lying in the same coffin, ready to die with him, Lin Ran realized how profoundly mistaken he had been. Reborn, he abandoned the fickle campus beauty and wholeheartedly embraced the yandere female aristocrat's arms. "Ran! If I dig out your eyes and turn them into a specimen, you'll only be able to look at me!" Lin Ran: "Darling, kiss me!" "Ran! If I break your legs, you won't run away anymore, right?" Lin Ran: "Love, hold me tight!" "Ran! If..." Lin Ran: "Hush now! Love me more!" Luo Yao: ... Seeing his scumbag dad: "Take him out!" Seeing his stepmother: "Get rid of her!" Seeing his brother: "Eliminate him!" Seeing his white moonlight: "Send that to Southeast Asia!"
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
