Early the next morning.
The dawn over the Sword God Palace filtered through the ornate lattice windows, spilling across the white-jade plaza.
The Azure Emperor had not slept all night. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she looked utterly haggard.
Dressed in green, she stood beneath a willow tree at the edge of the plaza, her gaze fixed unwaveringly on the inner halls of the Sword God Palace.
She was waiting.
Waiting for Ye Xuan to appear.
Everything that had happened yesterday replayed endlessly in her mind like a nightmare from which she could never awaken.
The suffocating terror of being forced beneath the icy lake, the humiliation of kneeling on the stone slabs to apologize, the searing pain of being kicked away by Ye Xuan...
All of it left her in unbearable misery.
But what tormented her even more was that she had finally experienced what Ye Xuan had felt back then.
The despair of being cast into the abyss by the one he loved most.
The loneliness of being unable to defend himself, abandoned by the entire world. The grievance of having done nothing at all, yet being forced to bear every accusation.
So this was the torment Ye Xuan had endured, day after day, night after night.
And she had always believed he was merely petty, merely jealous.
She truly was the most foolish, most selfish woman in the world!
Just as the Azure Emperor was drowning in boundless remorse, a crisp voice suddenly sounded behind her.
“Well, well. Isn’t this Madam Lu?”
The Azure Emperor’s body stiffened abruptly.
Slowly, she turned around and looked toward the voice.
Bai Qiangu, clad in a flowing crimson gown, was walking toward her with elegant steps. A faintly mocking smile rested on her exquisite face, while her seductive phoenix eyes gleamed with undisguised amusement and hostility.
The Azure Emperor’s expression instantly turned cold. “Bai Qiangu? What are you doing here?”
“What am I doing here?”
Bai Qiangu stopped before her, tilting her head slightly as the smile on her lips widened. “Naturally, I’m here to see my husband. But you, Madam Lu—why has an outsider come to the Sword God Palace so early in the morning? This is not a place you should be.”
“You...”
The words “Madam Lu” pierced the Azure Emperor’s heart.
She glared at Bai Qiangu, fury blazing in her eyes. “I am not Madam Lu! I am Ye Xuan’s wife! You demoness, get out!”
“Oh?” Bai Qiangu arched a brow, her tone brimming with ridicule. “Madam Lu, you are an elder—how can you say such things? Who in the world does not know of that dual-cultivation ceremony that caused such a sensation ten thousand years ago?”
“Wearing a crimson bridal gown, you bowed in marriage with Lu Yanchen before the gathered heroes of the realm. That is an undeniable fact. And now you have come running back to entangle yourself with my husband?”
Her voice became ever sharper. “Why don’t you take a look at yourself? A used woman who has already been married—what makes you worthy of competing with me?”
“How dare you!”
The Azure Emperor flew into a rage, and the pressure of a peak Great Ascension cultivator erupted forth.
The surrounding willow trees swayed violently beneath the terrifying force, countless leaves rustling down in showers.
She glared at Bai Qiangu, gritting her teeth. “That wedding was fake! I never became his Dao companion! I never let him touch me! I, Bai Qiangu, have had only one man from beginning to end—Ye Xuan!”
“Fake?”
Bai Qiangu let out a cold laugh, her eyes brimming with mockery. “If it was all fake, then why did you marry him? If you are Ye Xuan’s wife, why did you marry Lu Yanchen in the first place?”
“I did it to repay a debt of gratitude!”
The Azure Emperor’s voice trembled violently, tears glimmering in her eyes. “My sister died before my very eyes. My Dao Heart shattered, and inner demons took root. Lu Yanchen clouded my judgment! Everything I did was to dispel those inner demons, so that I could go further on the path of the Great Dao!”
“Repay a debt of gratitude? What a fine excuse!”
Bai Qiangu threw back her head and laughed, her laughter dripping with undisguised scorn. “If you were repaying a debt, then keep repaying it! Bear his children, serve him like an ox or a horse, and hand over every resource your Qing family possesses!”
“You only got halfway through repaying your debt before running off to pester another woman’s husband. What kind of repayment is that?”
“You…”
The Azure Emperor trembled with rage, yet found herself utterly unable to come up with a rebuttal.
Every word Bai Qiangu spoke was like an iron hammer striking the softest part of her heart.
She wanted to argue, but it felt as though her throat had been stuffed with cotton. Not a single word would come out.
Because everything Bai Qiangu had said was true.
She had indeed married Lu Yanchen before the eyes of the world.
No matter how many reasons or hardships she had, it was a stain she could never erase.
And now, that stain had become Bai Qiangu’s sharpest weapon against her.
“What? Nothing to say?” Bai Qiangu sneered. “Then hurry back to your Qing family. Ye Xuan is mine. You have no right to fight me for him.”
The Azure Emperor abruptly raised her head, her gaze turning razor-sharp. “I have no right? What about you? You butchered Ye Xuan’s parents and younger sister. What right do you have to stand by his side? Your hands are stained with the blood of his closest family. How dare you claim to love him?”
Bai Qiangu’s face instantly turned deathly pale.
That blow cut far deeper than the one the Azure Emperor had suffered moments before.
She glared at the Azure Emperor, killing intent surging in her eyes as demonic energy roiled uncontrollably around her.
Gritting her teeth, she said, “I was deceived! Someone told me that his parents and sister had made him marry another woman—that he had betrayed me! I acted in a moment of rage!”
“Deceived?” The Azure Emperor gave a cold laugh, her eyes full of contempt. “Could you not come up with a fresher excuse? Back then, when I committed my mistakes, I too was deceived by Lu Yanchen.”
“And now you claim that you were deceived as well. We women, no matter what wrongs we commit, can always blame someone else. But does that change the facts?”
“You killed Ye Xuan’s parents and younger sister. That is a sin you will never be able to wash away!”
Bai Qiangu’s lips trembled violently.
She wanted to refute her, to explain, to tell the Azure Emperor that she had already paid the price.
But when the words reached her lips, she could not utter a single one.
Because what the Azure Emperor said was true as well.
She had killed Ye Xuan’s parents and younger sister. No matter how many reasons or hardships she had, it was a sin she could never escape.
And now, that sin had become the Azure Emperor’s sharpest weapon against her.
The two peerless women, once lofty and untouchable in their pride, now resembled wounded beasts, tearing mercilessly at each other’s deepest scars.
Their eyes brimmed with hatred and fury, each wishing she could rip the other to pieces.
Just then—
An icy voice suddenly sounded from behind them.
“You two, have you caused enough of a scene on my grounds?”
Azure Emperor and Bai Qiangu both stiffened.
They whirled around and looked toward the voice.
Ye Xuan stood upon the white jade steps some distance away, gazing down at them from above, dressed in flowing white robes.
At his side, Ying'er wore a pale yellow gown and clung obediently to his arm.
Behind him, Ye Jiuhuang watched the entire scene with a cold, indifferent gaze.
Morning sunlight fell across Ye Xuan, lending his handsome features a faint golden glow.
Yet his expression was as cold as ten-thousand-year black ice, and there was not a trace of warmth in his eyes.
“Husband!”
Bai Qiangu was the first to recover. At once, she put on a seductive smile and fluttered toward Ye Xuan like a butterfly.
“You’re finally here! That shameless woman came here first thing in the morning to pester you. I was only helping you drive her away!”
Not to be outdone, Azure Emperor hurried two steps forward, her eyes filled with grievance and pleading.
“Ye Xuan, I came to see you. There’s something I want to tell you…”
“Enough.”
Ye Xuan’s voice was terrifyingly calm, yet it carried an unquestionable authority.
He swept a cold glance over the two of them, his tone as indifferent as though he were discussing some trivial matter.
“My wedding is approaching. If you two have nothing better to do, then get lost. Stop standing here and offending my eyes.”
The moment those words fell, both Azure Emperor and Bai Qiangu turned deathly pale.
“Husband…”
Bai Qiangu’s eyes immediately reddened, tears gathering in her alluring phoenix eyes.
Biting her lip, she spoke in a trembling voice.
“How can you treat me like this? I already agreed to become your concubine. I already knelt before you and admitted my mistakes. What more do you want from me?”
Azure Emperor’s tears also spilled forth.
She clenched her fists tightly, her fingernails digging deep into her palms until crimson blood seeped out.
In a hoarse voice, she pleaded, “Ye Xuan, I beg you—give me one chance. I don’t ask to be your wife. Even if I can only be a servant who pours your tea and attends to you, as long as I can remain by your side…”
“Can’t you understand plain speech?”
Ye Xuan’s gaze abruptly turned piercingly cold. Slowly, he raised a hand and pointed toward the entrance of the Sword God Palace, his voice as frigid as the ice of the Netherworld.
“I’ll say it one last time: get lost. Otherwise, I do not mind invoking the Sword God Token.”
At his side, Ying'er lifted her chin slightly, a faint and barely perceptible look of satisfaction flashing through her eyes.
Ye Jiuhuang simply stood behind him in silence. There was no expression on her cool, beautiful face, as though everything before her had nothing whatsoever to do with her.
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
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.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
his freshman year, Su Bai accidentally bound the "Indulgence Tycoon System." 【Sleeping in? Reward: +$1,000】 【Spent $288 at a street barbecue stall? Cashback: +$2,880】 【Dropped $14,396 on in-game skins? Special reward unlocked: A brand-new Porsche Panamera!】 Luxury cars, penthouses, corporate shares, financial empires… College life was all about living freely and doing whatever he pleased! … When the adorably naive academic genius faced family medical bills and financial struggles, Su Bai waved his hand dismissively: "Your future is on me." "Wuwu~ Big Brother is so good to me! I’ll become a scientist to repay you!" When the genius girl got bullied by a shady professor? Su Bai casually dropped a billion-dollar investment, forcing the university to grovel and beg for her return. A company’s funding chain collapsing? Su Bai smirked—cash was the one thing he’d never run out of. Years later, when people traced the rise of the AI prodigy beauty, who was the man behind her success? Not just that—Su Bai also became the tsundere campus belle’s unattainable dream, the contrast senior’s daily necessity, and the beautiful counselor’s emotional anchor…
