Hu Shaoyou lay in the coffin, his face growing ever more ashen, yet his expression remained utterly still—not even the slightest frown creased his brow.
This caused Ren Tianye to gasp sharply.
Damn, that was tough.
But soon enough, he realized this fellow must have taken some kind of fake-death potion, one with a numbing component that allowed him to face any storm unflinchingly, unmoved even as mountains crumbled before him.
Yet this left Ren Tianye somewhat stumped. Killing Hu Shaoyou outright did not serve his interests, but for the moment, he couldn't "wake him up" either.
"Lord Duke, Lu Shuang requests an audience."
Ren Tianye turned slightly and saw Lu Shuang rushing in. She first whispered something to Zhang Shi; Zhang Shi's expression shifted to surprise, then he pointed, and Lu Shuang came straight over.
Looking at Lu Shuang, dressed in rough mourning clothes and radiating a sharp, efficient air, Ren Tianye knew at once that Su Jin had indeed recommended another talent to the Demon Suppression Bureau.
"Lord Duke..."
Lu Shuang leaned in and spoke in a low voice, repeating the report she had just given to Zhang Shi, laying it all out for Ren Tianye once more.
"Truly?"
"Absolutely certain, my lord. I could not have been mistaken."
"Good."
Ren Tianye turned back to face Gu Qing, Hu Shaoyou's corpse, and Hu Shaoyou's weeping, nearly broken parents. He said calmly, "This matter is concluded now."
"You are right—Hu Shaoyou, though he had a thousand reasons not to die and ten thousand reasons to deserve death, has already atoned with his life."
"Since that is the case, I will not trouble him further."
"Zhang Shi!"
"At your command!"
"Take some men and help hand Hu Shaoyou's body over to his parents. Let them take it home for a proper burial."
"Yes!"
Zhang Shi obeyed and went to carry out the order.
Hu Shaoyou's parents, overwhelmed by the emotional shock, forgot even basic courtesies. Wailing and sniffling, they allowed the men to lift their son's body and led the way as they carried him off.
Before leaving, they did not forget to glare fiercely at Gu Qing.
The meaning in their eyes was clear—resentment.
Resentment that Gu Qing had not repaid her debts sooner, forcing their son to suffer such torment even in death.
Gu Qing saw it, and her heart ached all the more.
She knelt before Ren Tianye and said respectfully, "Thank you, Lord Duke, for sparing my husband's life. I, Gu Qing, will keep my word. For the rest of my days, I will devote myself entirely to repaying my husband's debts."
With that, Gu Qing bowed her head and knocked it several times against the ground.
"Thank you, Lord Duke!"
"Thank you, Lord Duke!"
"Thank you, Lord Duke!"
She offered her thanks to Ren Tianye, whether truly heartfelt or not, he accepted them all.
Once his soldiers had brought a chair, Ren Tianye sat down casually and remained silent until the hall had mostly emptied. Only after Hu Shaoyou's parents had left did he reveal a grin.
"Just wait—soon enough, you'll be thanking me even more."
"Huh?" Gu Qing was puzzled.
"Get up. You haven't eaten in a long time, have you? Have some food and rest a bit. In a moment, I..."
"I'll return to you a lively, kicking husband!"
"What?" Gu Qing's entire body trembled.
...
"All right, you've delivered my son's body, now go. We have to prepare the funeral for our boy."
"Yes, leave quickly!"
Hu Shaoyou's parents practically shooed Zhang Shi and his men out the door, then closed it behind them. They turned to look at their son Hu Shaoyou's corpse.
Both of them rushed over, wailing more heartrendingly than before.
"My boy! How, how could you have suffered so cruelly!"
"It's all that slut Gu Qing's fault! If she hadn't stopped you from being with Wanqing back then, none of this would have happened. Curse that woman Gu Qing—she deserves to carry this debt forever!"
After crying for a while, they remembered that their son had taken a potion. Now his eyes couldn't open, his mouth couldn't speak, and his breath was so faint that only a skilled physician could diagnose him clearly.
One of them quickly went to fetch a doctor the Silken Thought Pavilion had prepared in advance, while the other stayed to care for him.
The doctor, trained by the Silken Thought Pavilion, specialized in turning the living into the dead and then bringing the dead back to life. Years of practical experience had honed his medical skills to perfection.
When he arrived, he laid out his silver needles and immediately applied a legendary technique: with a series of swift jabs, Hu Shaoyou, who had lain there as still as a corpse, let out a groan.
As the doctor's needling grew faster, Hu Shaoyou's groans grew louder, more agonizing, more desperate.
Until he fully awakened.
"Ah..."
A deafening cry tore through the air.
The delayed, searing pain rushed through his entire body.
"Ah!"
Hu Shaoyou shot up from the bed like a carp leaping, moving as smoothly as a resurrected zombie. But his face was far more expressive—contorted with pain, collapse, and despair.
He went mad.
"Doctor, doctor, save me, save me!"
The doctor shook his head. "I can't save you."
"No, you must, you must!"
"But I truly can't."
"If you don't save me, how can I face Wanqing? I went through all this trouble, put on this whole elaborate act, and now I'm like this—how can I face Wanqing?"
"No, save me, save me!"
The doctor was deeply troubled and conflicted. Hesitantly, he suggested, "How about I prescribe some wolfberries, donkey penis, deer antler, angelica, and other Yang-replenishing herbs?"
"Wouldn't that just kill me faster?" Hu Shaoyou jumped up, ready to strike, but remembering that the doctor was a member of the Silken Thought Pavilion, he stopped himself.
Yet he felt even more crushed.
What could he do?
What could he do?
How could he face Wanqing like this?
He and Wanqing had worked so hard, come so far, and finally reached the day when their... happiness—his and hers—was within reach.
And now?
Gone.
Gone!!
Gone!!!
Right now, he truly wanted to die.
"There's really nothing more I can do. However, I hear the Silken Thought Pavilion has many cultivation techniques. One of them is said to be very powerful, passed down from the imperial palace. Since you, General Hu, are a military officer, practicing it would surely boost your martial skills considerably."
"Becoming a top-tier general would be well within reach."
"As the saying goes, 'A loss may turn out to be a gain.'"
But despite the doctor's good intentions, Hu Shaoyou was having none of it. He roared, "Get lost! Just get the hell out of here! Get lost!"
"Fine, I'll go!" The doctor had already bandaged Hu Shaoyou's wounds and completed the task the Silken Thought Pavilion had assigned him. He retorted boldly, turned, and walked away.
As he turned, a look of contempt spread across his face.
If it weren't for the Silken Thought Pavilion forcing him, his superb medical skills could have saved so many lives. Instead, he was reduced to doing these sordid, filthy deeds.
His medical ethics were nearly ruined.
As if he wanted this.
The doctor left, and only Hu Shaoyou and his parents remained in the room.
Hu Shaoyou's parents looked at him in this state, feeling both worried and afraid. However, a parent's love for their child means planning for the long term. At a time like this, when their son was on the verge of collapse, they had to comfort him well and ease the torment in his heart.
"My son, what's done is done. Getting angry now is pointless. But regardless, haven't we still kept a large sum of money? With this money, life will be easy from now on. Giving up women for all this cash—I think it's worth it. Don't be too heartbroken."
"That's right, son. She's just one woman. Wanqing may be good, but there are plenty of women out there. Now that you have money, if Wanqing dares to disrespect you, you can simply replace her. There are plenty of women like Wanqing in this world!"
...
If they hadn't tried to comfort him, it might have been fine. But their words only made Hu Shaoyou lose control even more.
Money?
What use was having so much money?
From now on, he would have to stay away from women.
He couldn't even keep Wanqing anymore. Damn it, he might as well have been beaten to death by Ren Tianye's three punches.
"Right, Wanqing, Wanqing... Wanqing is still waiting for me. I have to go find Wanqing, I have to go find Wanqing..."
...
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
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.”
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."
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
