“You… you hit me?”
Xiao Honglian’s voice trembled like a withered leaf in the wind.
Ye Xuan looked down at her from above. There was not the slightest trace of pity in his eyes because of the slap. If anything, his gaze had grown even darker, filled with undisguised disgust.
“Junior Sister.”
He slowly withdrew his hand, took a snow-white silk handkerchief from his robes, and leisurely wiped his fingers. His voice was savage.
“Have you become addicted to acting like a shameless harlot? Do you really have to force a cuckold’s hat onto my head?”
The moment those words left his mouth, Xiao Honglian shuddered violently, forgetting even the pain in her cheek.
Like a startled fawn, she hurriedly scrambled to her feet. Without bothering to wipe the blood from the corner of her mouth, she frantically waved her hands as she tried to explain.
“No! I didn’t! Senior Brother, I absolutely didn’t mean that! How could I ever dare put a cuckold’s hat on you…”
She had only wanted to express that she regarded him as her one and only beloved. How could she possibly have meant to humiliate him?
“You didn’t?”
Ye Xuan tossed the handkerchief he had used to wipe his hand onto Xiao Honglian’s face. His gaze was cold enough to pierce bone, and his words came at her relentlessly, leaving her no chance to catch her breath.
“I’ve emphasized this to you over and over again. From the moment Xiao Huo appeared, the two of us have been nothing more than senior brother and junior sister!”
“Everything I did to protect you back then—searching for spiritual medicines, fighting through secret realms for you, even going to the black market to buy medicine for you—everything was done solely because a senior brother was protecting his junior sister!”
Ye Xuan advanced step by step. The overwhelming pressure forced Xiao Honglian to retreat involuntarily.
“I admit that perhaps some of the pitiful affection left over from my youth was mixed in with it. But…”
Ye Xuan’s gaze suddenly sharpened.
“I never crossed the line even once! I never held your hand, never stepped over that boundary, and never once asked you for the status of a man and woman in love!”
“So as far as reputation and chastity are concerned, we are perfectly clean! Completely innocent!”
The instant his voice fell, Ye Xuan’s figure flashed forward like a ghost.
His right hand shot out.
“Urgh…”
Xiao Honglian let out a muffled groan of pain.
Ye Xuan’s hand, hard as an iron vise, had already clamped tightly around her slender, swanlike neck.
If Xiao Honglian had been willing, the strange flame inside her body—powerful enough to burn the heavens and boil the seas—could have reduced Ye Xuan’s physical body to ashes with a single thought.
But she did not.
Not only did she offer no resistance, she obediently tilted her head back, allowing Ye Xuan to lift her entire body from the clouds like a marionette on strings.
Her face flushed red, and tears streamed wildly from the corners of her eyes, dripping onto the back of Ye Xuan’s hand.
As Ye Xuan choked her, his gaze grew darker and darker. Deep within his eyes, a horrifying madness began to churn.
He leaned close to Xiao Honglian’s ear and spoke in a voice slow and cruel, like a devil whispering in her ear, each word carefully enunciated.
“Xiao Honglian! Since you refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit, since you insist on shamelessly claiming that I’m your husband…”
“Fine. Then let’s settle this account properly!”
Ye Xuan’s grip around her neck tightened abruptly. Xiao Honglian grabbed at his arm in agony. Deprived of air, her mind began to swim in waves of dizziness.
“Listen carefully. If I, Ye Xuan, truly am your husband…”
“Then back then, knowing full well that I was your husband, you betrayed me without the slightest hesitation for the sake of resources and power. You willingly stripped yourself naked and climbed into Xiao Huo’s bed, becoming that man’s plaything!”
Ye Xuan’s gaze was like a blade, slicing Xiao Honglian’s heart open piece by piece and exposing the bloodiest truth within.
“While you were acting all lovey-dovey with Xiao Huo right in front of me, you brazenly ordered me—your husband—to run errands and handle things for you and your lover.”
“Tell me, Lady Flame Emperor… does that count as planting a vast expanse of green grass on my head?”
“Does it count as giving me the most humiliating cuckold’s hat in all the world?!”
Suspended in midair by the throat, Xiao Honglian was utterly stunned.
Her mind exploded in that instant, going completely blank.
Her eyes, originally filled with pleading and tears, contracted violently. They were filled with boundless panic and helpless confusion.
At last, she understood why Ye Xuan became so furious whenever she called him “husband”!
Ye Xuan’s grip around her neck tightened further and further, his knuckles paling from the force.
His gaze grew increasingly deranged as he pressed her relentlessly, leaving her no room to retreat.
“Look into my eyes and answer me!”
Ye Xuan’s roar exploded beside Xiao Honglian’s ear.
“Think carefully and tell me! What exactly is the relationship between us?”
“Are we lovers bound together as Dao companions—a relationship in which you consciously betrayed me and put a cuckold’s hat on my head?”
“Or are we… from beginning to end, perfectly clean, nothing more than ordinary… senior brother and junior sister?”
At that moment, Xiao Honglian was completely frozen.
The extreme suffocation, combined with the torture of this mental dilemma, drove her almost insane.
Ye Xuan was not reminiscing with her at all. He was wielding a blade that killed without drawing blood, forcing her to sever with her own hands the spiritual pillar she had relied upon for thousands of years.
He had given her two choices.
If Xiao Honglian wanted to preserve that false affection and insisted on acknowledging Ye Xuan as her “husband,” then according to Ye Xuan’s logic, her act of climbing into Xiao Huo’s bed back then would not be “seeking a better source of support.”
It would be outright marital infidelity.
It would mean placing an enormous cuckold’s hat on Ye Xuan’s head—one that would make the entire world laugh at him.
She would be transformed from a “selfish woman who chose Xiao Huo for the sake of benefits” into a “despicable, shameless slut who betrayed her husband.”
And that was a disgrace and moral accusation that the proud Flame Emperor absolutely, absolutely could not endure.
But if… if Xiao Honglian wanted to clear herself of the accusations of “cheating” and being a “slut,” she would have to follow Ye Xuan’s words and personally admit that the two of them had only ever been “senior brother and junior sister.”
If they were merely senior brother and junior sister, then her relationship with Xiao Huo was perfectly reasonable. She had been unmarried and free to choose her own partner.
At most, Ye Xuan would have been nothing more than a lovesick fool, a backup who willingly groveled at her feet.
Xiao Honglian had never betrayed Ye Xuan, in body or in name, in the slightest.
But!
The moment she admitted this aloud, it would mean that she had personally denied every bit of love between them.
She would have severed with her own hands the bond between Dao companions that she had gone mad for and suffered unbearable pain over for thousands of years, all in the hope of making amends.
She would forever lose the right to call herself his “bereaved wife” or the “woman he loved deeply.”
Before Ye Xuan, she would forever be nothing more than a cold and distant junior sister.
How vicious!
How cruel!
This was a deadlock with no solution at all. No matter which way she chose, Ye Xuan would crush the pride and obsession she had clung to for thousands of years until not even the dregs remained.
“No… I won’t admit it… I don’t want to choose…”
Xiao Honglian completely broke down!
With one hand clamped around her neck, she sobbed as tears poured down like pearls from a broken string.
She desperately shook her head, both hands clawing at Ye Xuan’s iron-hard arm. Her fingernails even carved several bloody scratches into it.
How could she choose? Either choice would lead to eternal ruin! Either choice would mean ripping her own heart out with a knife!
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...
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?"
y came from. The chests contained supplies, currency, class-change scrolls, skills, talents… and even godhood! The laws of the world were completely rewritten. This became a world where everyone gambled with their fate! Some people, despite having nothing, opened a divine artifact and rose to the top, eventually ruling the world. Others went bankrupt, opened nothing but worthless junk, and leaped from skyscrapers in despair. Lin Ye arrived in this world from another reality, utterly bewildered. “What is going on? Why is everyone a gambling addict?!” “Opening chests? No way. I refuse to gamble. I’ll start with myself!” Until— On his first chest, he obtained a Mythic Talent: Void Incarnation! He could become completely intangible, pass through all things, and reduce everything to nothingness! … On his fiftieth chest, he obtained a Mythic Weapon: Blade of Karma! With a single slash, karma shattered, twisting the universe and overturning the myriad phenomena of creation! … On his ninety-ninth chest, he obtained a Mythic Divine Treasure: Primordial Purple Energy! It could split open the heavens and earth, create all things, and evolve countless worlds with a single thought! Lin Ye: “Now that I think about it… shouldn’t someone have told me that every chest is guaranteed to contain something Mythic?!”
+ Slow Paced + Main Character Thrives Together with His Disciples】 Transmigrated into a cultivation world, Chu Xingchen awakens a discipleship system that reveals the tags of his disciples! Starting from scratch, he builds the strongest sect. Disciple One: Li Yingling 【Gold Tag: Genius Cultivator】【Purple Tag: Extremely Lucky】【Blue Tag: Bewitchingly Beautiful】 Disciple Two: Li Hangtian 【Gold Tag: Reincarnated】【Purple Tag: Ruthless and Decisive】【Blue Tag: Loyal and Noble】 Disciple Three: ??? 【Orange Tag: Alluring Demoness】【???】【???】 Thus, in the cultivation world, an unremarkable little sect appears out of nowhere, but little do others know that each member of this sect is a powerhouse in their own right. The book is also known as: Cultivation? It's Exactly Like This!
