Ye Xuan walked back to her and raised her chin with the tip of his foot. “Do you think I’m going to forgive you?”
Zi Yao’s entire body trembled violently, despair gnawing at her heart like a venomous serpent.
After a long while, she gave a tragic laugh. There was no light left in her smile—only the deathly stillness of resignation.
“Husband…”
Zi Yao reached out with trembling fingers and lightly grasped the hem of Ye Xuan’s golden-black robe, like a soulless puppet. “You can torment me however you want… Rip out my tendons, strip my skin, refine my soul, boil my bones—I’ll accept it all… As long as you let me stay by your side…”
“Just don’t abandon me.”
Ye Xuan gave a cold snort and casually flung her aside as if she were a piece of trash.
Then he turned his wrist. A top-grade jade slip radiating a heavy, earthy-yellow glow appeared before Zi Yao.
“From now on, cripple your demonic cultivation and start cultivating this supreme earth-element technique, the Earth Burial Heaven Scripture.”
Zi Yao clutched the jade slip to her chest with trembling hands as if she had seized a lifeline. She did not even ask about its side effects, only nodding frantically.
“Yes… Husband, I’ll cultivate it. I’ll definitely cultivate it properly! I’ll do anything for you!”
Without a trace of expression, Ye Xuan turned and strode toward the prison’s exit.
“Follow me.”
Dragging her grievously wounded body and heavy chains, Zi Yao staggered to her feet. Like a dog whose spine had been broken but which still clung desperately to its master, she stumbled along behind Ye Xuan.
Ye Xuan led her out of the gloomy dungeon and into the depths of the Sword God Palace, bringing her to the entrance of a top-grade secluded chamber filled with abundant spiritual energy.
Standing outside the chamber, Zi Yao gazed foolishly at Ye Xuan’s cold, chiseled profile. Her eyes were filled with a twisted dependence and fanatical devotion.
“Husband…” Zi Yao’s voice was hoarse, yet carried a strange piety. “I made mistakes in the past. I was too filthy… But I’ll never do it again. I’ll work hard to cultivate this technique. I’ll become someone useful to you.”
Ye Xuan did not look at her. He merely nodded noncommittally, then waved his sleeve.
With a thunderous crash, the heavy dragon-severing stone descended, completely sealing Zi Yao inside the chamber.
As he watched the intricate formation patterns on the chamber door gradually light up, Ying’er, who had been following behind Ye Xuan the entire time, finally stepped forward.
A trace of ruthlessness flashed through her lively eyes as she asked softly, “Husband, Zi Yao is naturally cunning. Although her Dao heart has collapsed for now, there’s no guarantee she won’t return to her old ways someday. Should I go inside and plant a few life-and-death restrictions in her soul?”
Ye Xuan stood with his hands behind his back, the formation light from the chamber door reflected in his deep eyes. At her words, he suddenly let out a scornful laugh.
“Restrictions?”
Ye Xuan shook his head, the corners of his lips curling into a bone-chilling smile. “There’s no need for that at all.”
“You must understand, Ying’er: extreme guilt and a twisted desire for atonement are themselves the strongest and most unbreakable restrictions in this world.”
Ying’er nodded as if she understood, but then remembered something and could not help asking curiously, “Husband, what you said to Zi Yao in the dungeon just now…”
“The matter of you being Li Tianxing—was it true, or did you make it up to completely destroy her psychological defenses and give her a comforting lie?”
Ye Xuan sighed and turned around, his deep gaze settling on the distant sky.
“It was naturally true.”
“But even so…”
Ye Xuan’s eyes gradually became cold and rational. “Doesn’t that still count as betrayal?”
“If I hadn’t seen through her greed and killed the real Li Tianxing in time to take his place, that cuckold’s hat would have been firmly placed on my head long ago.”
Ying’er furrowed her delicate brows and thought for a moment before saying, “That’s true. But… there’s one thing I don’t understand. In the Heavenly Demon Sect, aside from Li Tianxing, Zi Yao apparently kept herself pure and didn’t seduce any other men. In a sense, she wasn’t naturally promiscuous.”
After hearing this, Ye Xuan simply shook his head, a cold indifference born of seeing through human nature flashing in his eyes.
“You’re mistaken, Ying’er. Do you think she didn’t seek out other men because she was loyal?”
Ye Xuan sneered. “Zi Yao’s betrayal was never because she fell in love with another man, nor because her feelings had broken down. Her betrayal was purely for profit.”
With his hands clasped behind his back, Ye Xuan slowly descended the white jade steps. His voice echoed through the silent Sword God Palace, carrying the desolation and mockery of someone who had seen through all the ways of the world.
“The woman Zi Yao has truly loved has never been me, Ye Xuan, nor Li Tianxing.”
“From beginning to end, the only person she has loved is herself. To climb higher, she can sell anything—including her body and her soul.”
“Therefore, she is inherently cold-hearted and selfish to the extreme. To deal with a woman like that…”
Ye Xuan paused slightly, a feverish red glow flashing in the depths of his eyes.
“You must first give her a little hope, making her believe that redemption is still possible. Then make her willingly cultivate the Earth Burial Heaven Scripture.”
One hour later.
The Sword God Palace, rear mountain imperial garden.
The sun shone brightly, and spiritual energy drifted through the air. Cranes cried out melodiously among the clouds, while all kinds of rare spiritual flowers and herbs competed in beauty, filling the air with a refreshing fragrance.
On the jade-stone path that looked like a paradise on earth, Ye Xuan strolled leisurely in a loose golden-black robe embroidered with cloud patterns, his hands clasped behind his back.
His expression was languid, like an idle young master from a mortal aristocratic family out sightseeing. Not the slightest trace of his terrifying pressure escaped from him.
Beside him, Ying’er wore a charming pink-and-white ruqun and held onto his arm with a sweet laugh.
The breeze brushed past, tangling Ying’er’s waterfall of dark hair with the hem of her skirt and making her look lively and alluring.
Yet behind Ye Xuan, Ye Qingcheng knelt cautiously, her gaze filled with indescribable humility.
Ye Xuan glanced down at her from above, the corners of his lips curling into an indifferent arc.
He slowly extended his right hand, curled his five fingers slightly, and pressed his palm against the crown of Ye Qingcheng’s head.
“Hum!”
The next moment, the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art erupted into motion.
A pitch-black vortex radiating a terrifying power of devouring appeared out of thin air in Ye Xuan’s palm.
“Ugh… ah…”
Ye Qingcheng let out a muffled groan of extreme pain, her graceful body convulsing violently.
Visible to the naked eye, streams of incredibly pure lunar spiritual energy flowed continuously through Ye Xuan’s palm, forcibly drawn into his body.
Ye Qingcheng’s already pale face instantly turned as white as gold paper. The veins on her forehead bulged, and cold sweat immediately soaked through the few scraps of cloth remaining on her body.
In the space of just a few breaths, the tiny amount of cultivation Ye Qingcheng had painstakingly recovered was devoured completely by Ye Xuan, strand by strand, until not a trace remained.
transmigrates into the role of a villainous rich second-generation kid in an urban fantasy novel, and gets bound to a god-tier choice system. Right at the start, he catches the female lead stealing exam papers! This triggers the villain's choice options! [Choice 1: Pretend you didn't see anything] [Choice 2: Loudly call her out, drawing everyone's attention] [Choice 3: ...] And thus, a twisted villain is born. To avoid getting killed by the protagonist, he has no choice but to take down all the protagonists first. Jiang Che: Nobody understands being twisted better than me!
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.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
