Tianyan Sect, Pearl Peak.
Chu Xingchen held the white pieces as he played against Bai Xuanling.
A tangled mess lay beneath the chessboard.
Yet the game was decided soon enough.
Chu Xingchen won.
Bai Xuanling raised her eyes. Seeing the dejection in Chu Xingchen’s expression, she wanted to say something, but had no idea what.
Comforting people had never been her strong suit.
“Ah, this is a little embarrassing.” Chu Xingchen reached out to clear away the pieces. “To be honest, I’m still a little afraid.”
Bai Xuanling did not know how to respond.
After putting away all the pieces, Chu Xingchen looked at Bai Xuanling with solemn eyes.
“The rest is in your hands. If Bai Qing makes a mistake, I’ll take responsibility as her master. No matter what happens, I’ll keep her safe.”
Bai Xuanling nodded solemnly. “I will. Leave the rest to me.”
Chu Xingchen let out a sigh of relief. Then he stood and took out the Shattered Spirit Butterfly Jade, his eyes turning once more toward the five-colored lotus that was almost impossible to see.
Central State, Flowerfall Ridge.
At that moment, the atmosphere in the Wishful Starreturn Sect had grown tense.
Chen Baiqing sat quietly beside the deep pool, unable to conceal the unease in her expression.
Li Yingling was also somewhat dazed as she sat off to one side.
Chu Xingchen had been gone from Flowerfall Ridge for three days without sending back a single message.
Chen Baiqing had questioned Xie Lingyu at first, but received no answer.
Her master had acted completely normally along the way—so normal that Chen Baiqing had been misled into believing there was still time, and that nothing serious would happen, just as her master had said.
Cui Hao stood beside the deep pool, his expression calm as still water, watching the spirit fish swim by.
As her master’s wife, Xie Lingyu could still keep Chen Baiqing under control for now.
A streak of azure light suddenly flew in from the horizon.
The sect-protecting array did not react. The azure light passed straight through it.
Xie Lingyu raised her eyes, recognizing Bai Xuanling, who possessed a command token.
Everyone’s gaze shifted toward the covered corridor at the corner.
A moment later, Bai Xuanling appeared. She walked toward them at an unhurried pace and spoke as she came.
“From this day forth, I am the Supreme Elder of the Wishful Starreturn Sect.”
“I will remain here to oversee the Wishful Starreturn Sect. Until your master returns, I will no longer go back to Tianyan Sect.”
Li Yingling rose, her expression anxious as she tried to say something, but Bai Xuanling immediately immobilized her with a spell.
Under everyone’s gaze, Bai Xuanling walked to the center. She looked toward Cui Hao, who stood beside the deep pool.
“Cui Hao will take over from Chu Xingchen as the current sect master. All disciples of the Starreturn Sect must obey his arrangements. Cui Hao, where is the token your master gave you?”
Cui Hao turned around. His expression was desolate as he extended his hand.
The embroidery needle shifted through countless forms and transformed into a long sword, landing in Cui Hao’s grasp.
The myriad strands of Dao resonance flowed around it. Everyone knew at once that the sword in Cui Hao’s hand was the genuine article.
Xie Lingyu drew a deep breath, suppressing the emotions in her heart.
After hearing all this, Chen Baiqing rose and stared straight at Bai Xuanling. Her voice was terrifyingly cold.
“So it’s all been decided. Whoever wants this sect can simply take it. Can you tell me where my master has gone now?”
“I don’t know where he went,” Bai Xuanling replied, her gaze shifting back to Chen Baiqing. “But I do know how he will return.”
“How?”
Bai Xuanling took out the Shattered Spirit Butterfly Jade, her expression calm.
“Recover the lost authority, and exchange it for your master.”
Upon hearing this, Chen Baiqing suddenly laughed.
It was not a joyful laugh. It carried the sound of utter collapse. Her brows lifted slightly, her expression almost unhinged, while her voice was hoarse beyond measure.
“So you traded our master for this so-called common people of the world?”
“Your master wanted to trade himself for you.”
“I don’t!” Chen Baiqing shouted. “No matter how many reasons you have, no matter how easily everyone else can tell themselves that this is the best possible outcome—I can’t!”
“I can die anywhere in the world without complaint, but I cannot use my master as the price!”
“Do you think I’m stupid?”
“If he could be exchanged for, why didn’t he explain everything to us himself?”
“It’s because Master knows! He might not be able to come back! He isn’t even sure whether he’ll die!”
The spiritual energy around Chen Baiqing began to spiral out of control. Her gaze swept toward Li Xingtian, and when she saw the stony silence on her Second Senior Brother’s face, she gave a bitter laugh.
Then she rose and walked outside.
She had lost all control over her emotions. Terror filled her heart, and pain spread from her chest through her entire body.
Everything felt like an illusion, a dream. Her feet seemed to be treading on empty clouds.
Chen Baiqing did not know how to describe this grief. Her eyes reddened as she coldly vented the emotions inside her.
“Go be at peace with yourselves.”
Chen Baiqing felt that she could no longer remain here. The memories her master had left behind... she could not face them now.
She transformed into a streak of rainbow light and flew away, but the spiritual energy around her was in such disarray that she could not control it for a moment—not even enough to fly.
So Chen Baiqing staggered forward, walking step by step toward the outside.
Bai Xuanling watched her leave without stopping her.
Cui Hao looked at Chen Baiqing’s departing figure. Though he knew what the result would be, he still called out:
“Third Senior Sister, the sect is here. Master and I need you.”
“Senior Sister? When you took Master’s Wanban, did you remember that I was your senior sister?” Chen Baiqing did not turn her head. She continued walking without slowing. “Go be your Grand Sect Master Cui. Without the Star in the Starreturn Sect, what’s left of the sect?”
Cui Hao said nothing more.
He was just as heartbroken, just as close to breaking down. But his master had entrusted everything to him.
Third Senior Sister needed time to calm down. Yet the chaos in her aura and Dao resonance was truly frightening.
Cui Hao looked toward Bai Xuanling. Bai Xuanling lowered her eyes slightly, signaling that she understood. She would be responsible for watching over Chen Baiqing.
Li Xingtian looked at Chen Baiqing as she was about to pass through the corridor.
“Third Junior Sister, do you still trust your Second Senior Brother?”
Chen Baiqing’s footsteps paused for the briefest moment. But in the next instant, she continued walking away without hesitation.
Bai Xuanling raised a hand and released Li Yingling from the spell.
“Whether this is right or wrong, this is our opportunity.”
“Now it is your master who must rely on you.”
Today, the sect was unusually quiet.
The sobs of Senior Sister Li Yingling were the first thing to break the silence.
Li Yingling, who always cared about her dignity, was crying so hard that her face was covered in tears.
She had lost every trace of composure.
Her sobs were like dye, staining everyone’s eyes red.
The Wishful Starreturn Sect.
Today, nothing had gone as wished.
Bai Xuanling walked to Xie Lingyu and gently patted her shoulder.
Xie Lingyu’s eyes brimmed with tears, her lips pressed tightly together.
She nodded softly, yet the tears fell heavily from her eyes.
She regretted agreeing to Chu Xingchen back then.
Perhaps she was not as strong as she had thought. She could not accept this news either.
Memory was a blade. Sometimes, remembering was a form of torture.
Chen Baiqing held a pill in her hand, lightly rubbing it with her fingertips. Her eyes were half closed.
After a moment, she placed the pill in her mouth and chewed it slowly.
No one knew how long it took her to calm her emotions, but in the end, Chen Baiqing still chose the only option Bai Xuanling had given her.
She simply did not contact anyone in the sect again.
Alone, Chen Baiqing chose to search for the authority herself.
She would use her own methods—methods that made no distinction between good and evil.
The medicinal power released by the pill surged and boiled through her body, spreading an almost tearing sensation throughout her entire being.
Chen Baiqing’s expression remained unchanged, as though the pill had no effect on her.
The next moment, the Azure Heaven Treasure Ring on her wrist flared with light. She glanced at it, hesitation settling over her features. Then she lightly tapped it with her fingertip, and the glow faded.
A moment later, the door before Chen Baiqing was pushed open.
Li Xingtian walked in with calm, measured steps.
Chen Baiqing looked up but said nothing.
“I lied to Master.” Li Xingtian gazed at Chen Baiqing, his tone calm. “It’s not just that I can use it passively. I can use it actively as well.”
“As long as there’s even the slightest chance…”
“No matter the cost, I’ll seize it.”
“So, do you still trust me?”
Chen Baiqing’s gaze remained calm as she asked, “Was the current situation also your choice?”
Li Xingtian replied evenly, “I had to do this so I could make the choice Master never could.”
“The River of Time stretches for ten thousand zhang. I can’t see or understand most of what lies within it, so I need your help.”
Chen Baiqing remained silent for a long while. At last, she raised her head.
“I understand, Senior Brother.”
nto another world, I bought a slave for the first time, never expecting the silver wolf girl to be so cute... Lin Feng: I know it's cold, but you don't have to sneak into my bed! Yuna: Just sharing body warmth, if you dare do anything naughty, I'll definitely...
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 + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
