"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."
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
