After walking out of the manor lord's study, Xue Yi was filled with complex emotions.
"Damn it..."
"Just what is the deal with this Xiao Qingruo?"
"And what's the deal with the manor lord?"
"What have I gotten myself into?!"
He felt very vexed.
Things would have been better if he hadn't met Xiao Qingruo. Even if he was just an ordinary guard, with the Imperial Five Spirit Formula in hand, he could have risen in power eventually.
But now, caught between the young miss and the manor lord, he felt like he was treading on thin ice. One wrong step would lead to utter ruin.
Now a problem stood before him:
- Should he tell Xiao Qingruo the truth when he returned?
If he did, and she really had the power to contend with the manor lord, then Xue Yi would be finished. Death would be the inevitable outcome.
If he didn't tell her, then he would be relatively safe for the time being. At the very least, he could make a run for it and get far away from Xiao Qingruo and Holy Might Manor.
This was a very difficult decision.
The key still lied in Xiao Qingruo's level of strength.
"When I get back, I'll test her again," Xue Yi thought.
Compared to running away, he actually hoped to stay at Holy Might Manor for a while longer.
After all, he wasn't very powerful yet. It would be dangerous for him to try to make it on his own out there. Holy Might Manor had abundant medicinal ingredients, light work, and he could have ample time to cultivate. Biding his time there would be more comfortable for his development.
But how should he test her?
When considering the worst possibilities, if Xiao Qingruo really was powerful, it would be quite difficult to probe her background without getting killed by her.
"The way I took liberties with her last night, and she didn't resist at all, means she probably isn't that powerful," Xue Yi thought.
If so, then...try it again like that!
Soon, Xue Yi returned to Azure Garden.
He went straight to Xiao Qingruo's room, knocked on the door, then entered.
"You were gone for so long. What did the manor lord want with you?" Xiao Qingruo was still reading her book, a bit surprised that he would knock on the door. She glanced up at him.
Xue Yi considered for a moment.
First he thought about the possibility that the manor lord had followed him here.
But he soon dismissed that notion.
The manor lord's cultivation level wasn't much higher than the level Xiao Qingruo was pretending to have. Logically, if the manor lord was eavesdropping from afar, Xiao Qingruo would have been able to detect it.
Therefore, to avoid awkwardness, the manor lord wouldn't do that.
In other words, inside Xiao Qingruo's Azure Garden, they could basically say anything without fear of being overheard.
Xue Yi replied, "He asked about my background and tested my loyalty."
"Oh? So are you loyal?" Xiao Qingruo asked with interest.
"Loyal," Xue Yi replied.
He set down the sword without bothering to examine how good it was. He closed the door and walked directly over, stopping less than half a meter from Xiao Qingruo.
"Why are you standing so close?" Xiao Qingruo's expression changed slightly. She felt something was off and recoiled from his actions. She immediately stood up and changed seats.
Xue Yi's heart was beating fast now. He was very afraid that the next moment, the young miss would slap him to death with a palm strike.
But...he didn't die last night when he went even further, so he probably wouldn't die now!
Gritting his teeth, he sat down in the spot Xiao Qingruo had just vacated. Reaching out with his big hand, he grabbed her slender waist and forcibly pulled her over.
"Xue Yi, what are you doing?!" Xiao Qingruo realized his actions were very strange. She immediately scolded him in a low voice, and tried to stand up to get away.
Xue Yi held her firmly under control. Next to her ear, he whispered, "To demonstrate my loyalty to you, the manor lord nearly beat me to death just now. Let me hold you for a bit to soothe my wounded heart."
At the same time, his palm rested on her lower abdomen, right over her dantian point, subtly sensing the fluctuations of her inner energy.
The result...he didn't detect anything!
At such close range, with direct body contact, even if she was at the Long Life realm, it would be impossible to completely conceal the subtle inner energy fluctuations that Xue Yi could sense.
But in reality, there was nothing!
Clearly, she really was just an ordinary person without the slightest bit of cultivation!
"Scoundrel! You've gone too far!"
Slap!
A slap landed on Xue Yi's face.
Taking advantage of his brief distraction, Xiao Qingruo instantly broke free and ran to the other side of the table.
She glared at Xue Yi, her hands clenched into fists. Gnashing her teeth, she said, "You really think that just because I'm useless, you can take liberties with me however you want? Who do you take me for?!"
"Young miss, I..."
Xue Yi thought to himself that this was bad, she was really angry now.
What he had said just now was no longer frivolous teasing, but outright humiliation of her. Not just Xiao Qingruo as a young miss, even an ordinary woman would find his actions unacceptable.
"I thought you were only superficially indecent, but actually quite reliable. I didn't expect...I misjudged you."
Xiao Qingruo looked completely disappointed and furious. Seeing the sword Xue Yi had brought back, she reached out to grab it, wanting to use it to defend herself.
But...she couldn't lift it.
The sword, still in its scabbard, weighed a full fifty or sixty pounds. Without any martial ability, there was no way she could wield it.
Unable to pick up the sword, Xiao Qingruo felt frustrated. She simply tore out the hair ornament from her head and pointed the sharp end at her own neck, saying, "Don't you dare violate me! I'd rather die!"
"No, no, no, I'm joking, joking!"
Xue Yi quickly explained, truly afraid that in her agitated state, she might leave a permanent scar on that beautiful neck.
"Joking?" Xiao Qingruo glared, her anger not diminished at all, but burning even more fiercely.
"Explain yourself clearly!" She gnashed her teeth, her gaze seeming capable of killing someone.
Xue Yi hesitated for a moment.
Shortly after, he said in a deep voice, "I'll tell you everything. Let's continue cooperating. Just pretend I never said those words earlier. I really didn't mean it that way. I only wanted to probe your strength up close."
His tone was very sincere.
Hearing this, Xiao Qingruo's anger lessened slightly.
But she was still very unhappy. She slapped the hair ornament onto the table, directly breaking it. Her tone was vicious as she said, "Tell me every word, exactly what did the manor lord summon you for?!"
"It went like this..."
Xue Yi told her the whole story.
After listening, Xiao Qingruo's expression became much uglier. She held the broken ornament and gnashed her teeth, "I knew Xu Conglong wouldn't be so easily fooled. So he was just waiting for me here..."
Xue Yi immediately asked, "Young miss, you and the manor lord...really exchanged blows before?"
Xiao Qingruo looked at him. Their eyes met for a long while, before she finally nodded.
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
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.
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
