"Bang."
Ye Xuan loosened his grip.
Ye Qingcheng collapsed onto the ground like a puddle of mud that had been completely drained dry, her body limp and unresisting. She gasped for breath in huge, ragged gulps, yet not a flicker of venomous resentment dared show in her eyes — only the relief of having survived a near-death ordeal.
She knew full well that as long as she still had cultivation base left for her master to devour, she still had value.
Feeling the abundant spiritual power swelling within his body, Ye Xuan clapped his hands in satisfaction, as casually as if he had just plucked a ripe fruit off a nearby tree.
"My dear husband seems to really have a soft spot for wicked women, doesn't he?"
Standing off to the side, Ying'er watched the whole scene without a hint of revulsion. Instead, she covered her mouth and giggled like a silver bell.
She poked Ye Xuan's arm gently with her slender, finger as fair as scallion white, her bright, lively eyes glinting with a mischievous light.
"Oh? What makes you say that?" Ye Xuan pulled his gaze away and continued walking forward, holding Ying'er's small hand in his own. The chains trailing behind him clinked crisply with every step.
"Look here," Ying'er said playfully, counting off on her fingers, "Xia Lengyue is a vain, wanton wicked woman. Zi Yao is a wicked woman who betrayed her loved ones just for cultivation resources. And that one crawling on the ground, Ye Qingcheng? Back then, she was nothing but a conceited, self-righteous vicious woman."
"You went through so much trouble to keep all of them by your side, using some as human elixirs, some as medicinal primers, and others as pets..."
"It would make anyone think you have some special preference for these wicked women, right?" Ying'er blinked, her tone laced with a touch of teasing.
Hearing her analysis, Ye Xuan suddenly let out a low chuckle.
He reached out and patted Ying'er's head with deep affection, her silky hair slipping through his fingertips.
"Ying'er, Ying'er, even after all this time with me, you still think I'm far too sentimental."
In an instant, Ye Xuan's gaze turned deep and icy, like black ice that had never thawed for eons. "I didn't keep them around because I like them, or because I have some special quirk."
He looked down at a blooming blood-red peony in the flower bed, and without a flicker of hesitation, plucked it and crushed it between his fingers.
"It's just that when I treat these inherently selfish, greedy, cold-hearted wicked women as tools to use, as furnaces to drain dry..."
Ye Xuan flicked the crushed petal remnants onto the ground, his tone carrying a chillingly rational, cruel edge that sent shivers down the spine. "I don't feel the slightest moral burden at all."
"It's just like slaughtering a pig or a sheep. If it's a loyal spirit beast that once saved your life, you might hesitate before bringing the knife down."
"But if it's a vicious wolf that once bit you back, or even tried to eat you alive? When you skin it, tear out its tendons, and crush its bones to suck out the marrow, you'd only feel a thrill of satisfaction, wouldn't you?"
Ying'er's eyes lit up with bright adoration as she listened, and a strangely twisted, worshipful smile curled across her lips.
She nodded vigorously, pressing her whole body against Ye Xuan's.
"Now I get it! My husband is absolutely right. Those lowly women were born to be nothing but stepping stones for you!"
Ying'er's eyes rolled, as if she'd just remembered something, and she looked up at him curiously. "Oh right, back in the dungeon, you mentioned a woman named Xiao Honglian, and said she's your next target. So... is this Xiao Honglian a good woman, or a wicked one?"
"Xiao Honglian?"
At the mention of that name, Ye Xuan's footsteps paused slightly.
His gaze drifted toward the sea of clouds in the distance, and a flicker of incredibly complex emotion flashed across his deep black eyes.
"Her?" Ye Xuan smiled, but the warmth never reached his eyes. "She's naturally a wicked woman. And one who's extremely selfish, utterly shameless."
"Wow, then tell me about her quickly!" Ying'er's interest was instantly piqued. She shook Ye Xuan's arm like a little girl pestering an adult for a story. "Did she also, like Xia Lengyue, cheat on you over and over behind your back?"
Ye Xuan glanced at her, a faint, helpless smile tugging at his expression.
"Well, the relationship between me and her is far more complicated than what I had with Xia Lengyue."
Ye Xuan led Ying'er to a white marble pavilion and sat down.
Ye Qingcheng, ever the sensible one, crawled over and knelt obediently at Ye Xuan's feet, acting as a soft, plush carpet.
Ye Xuan did not hesitate to rest his feet, clad in golden silk boots, on her fair, pale back.
"In that past life, Xiao Honglian and I were tangled up in all sorts of ways, our grievances and ties running deep. But from start to finish, our relationship was nothing more than senior brother and junior sister."
Ye Xuan picked up a cup of spirit tea from the stone table and took a gentle sip. "Xiao Honglian had her own husband. Strictly speaking, she never cuckolded me, because we never even entered into a dao companion contract."
Ying'er froze for a second, her little face crumpling into a confused pout. "No dao companion relationship? Then why do you say she owes you?"
"Because some betrayals don't need a contract to count."
Ye Xuan set down the teacup, his gaze growing distant, as if it was piercing through endless rivers of time, drifting back to those long-gone days.
"Xiao Honglian and I were once fellow disciples. The sect we belonged to was a tiny, remote place called the Blazing Fire Sect." Ye Xuan's voice was lazy and low, carrying the casual drawl of a storyteller.
He leaned against the pavilion's vermilion spirit pillar, his slender fingers idly toying with a warm, top-grade white jade pendant hanging at his waist.
"Back then, I was the senior martial brother, and she was the youngest junior sister. At that time, she always wore a crimson tassel dress, fiery-tempered yet innocent and bright. In those days when we didn't yet know how vast the world beyond our sect was, she would tug at the hem of my robe, her eyes full of softness, saying that she would never marry anyone but me for the rest of her life."
"I taught her how to draw spiritual energy into her body with my own hands, took her down the mountain to slay demons and gain cultivation experience, and even snuck my own top-grade Foundation Establishment Pill — the one I was never willing to use for myself — into her storage bag. Everyone in the sect took it for granted that we would become dao companions sooner or later, that it was only natural and meant to be."
As he spoke, a faint, icy sneer tugged at the corner of Ye Xuan's mouth.
"Until one day, a young man named Xiao Huo showed up."
e school belle recognized by the whole school, a genius girl from the kendo club. She also has a hidden identity, the youngest legendary demon hunter. Chen Shuo just transmigrated and found himself turned into a weak, helpless little vampire. He was caught by Su Xiyen and taken home at the very beginning. Since then, Chen Shuo's life creed only had two items. "First, classmate Su Xiyen is always right." "Second, if classmate Su Xiyen is wrong, please refer back to item one." Many years later, Chen Shuo, who had turned back into a human, led a pair of twins to appear in front of all the vampires to share the secret of how he turned back into a human. "It's simple, I tricked a female demon hunter into becoming my wife!"
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."
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
