The Jialan Empress was utterly devastated!
She had never imagined that upon waking, her own daughter would actually blame her, the mother!
Just what kind of bewitching potion had Jiang Che fed her?
How had her once sweet and obedient daughter turned into this?
"Ling'er... Ling'er, listen to me..."
Jia Ling'er's expression turned sorrowful, looking pitiful beyond words. Combined with her frail appearance after just being freed from petrification, she gave off the aura of a grieving widow.
"Mother... you... you still took action against him..."
The girl lowered her head. She didn’t openly rebel against her mother but chose silence instead—after all, her mother still held immense weight in her heart.
"I didn’t kill him! And I couldn’t even if I tried! You have no idea... Jiang Che has been..."
Just as the Empress was about to expose Jiang Che’s wicked deeds, his leisurely voice echoed in her ears.
[Your Majesty, have you forgotten our agreement? If I stop providing my heart’s blood willingly... Ling'er might just turn back to stone by tomorrow!]
Jiang Che’s voice was infuriatingly smug, transmitted directly to the Empress.
[You—!]
[Ding! Host successfully scammed the Jialan Empress, earning 400 million points.]
Truly, only the Empress could yield such massive rewards—over two billion points in such a short time. No ordinary person could pull that off!
"Mother... what has he been doing?" Jia Ling'er pressed urgently.
"You—he’s not even dead! Just turn around and look!" The woman pointed behind Jia Ling'er, exasperated.
The girl slowly turned her head...
"Cough..." A young man stood there, his clothes tattered, blood trickling from the corner of his lips. His chest was drenched in crimson, the terrifying wound visible even through the fabric.
Jiang Che’s face was deathly pale, looking like he was on death’s doorstep.
"Jiang Che!!!"
Jia Ling'er was overjoyed to see him, but the sight of his miserable state left her stunned.
She glanced at Jiang Che, then back at her mother.
"Mother... did you torture him?"
[Ding! Host successfully scammed Jia Ling'er and the Jialan Empress, earning 300 million points.]
The Jialan Empress was speechless. She had never met someone so shameless!
In just one second, Jiang Che had changed into this pitiful state—clearly to manipulate Ling'er’s sympathy. Once he revealed the truth about the "Midnight Heartbreak," Ling'er, with her tender heart, would undoubtedly fall completely for him.
There’d be no turning back then!
"Cough... Ling'er, it’s not like that. Don’t misunderstand Her Majesty. I... cough... volunteered!"
When it came to acting, the entertainment industry owed Jiang Che an Oscar.
Corny? Maybe. But who cared if it worked?
This smooth combo was bound to leave Jia Ling'er utterly fooled.
[You... what exactly are you trying to do? Lies will eventually be exposed...]
Jiang Che shot a sidelong glance at the frantic Empress. What’s the rush? Just stay there and keep generating points!
"Ling'er, I did it willingly."
Jia Ling'er blinked. "Willingly? What happened? Why am I no longer petrified?"
"It’s nothing. Her Majesty just... told me another way to save you, and I took it."
Jiang Che smiled weakly.
Jialan Empress: "???"
[What do you mean? Explain yourself... Since when did I tell you anything? Don’t you dare pin this on me!]
She had sorely underestimated Jiang Che’s shamelessness.
This guy was clearly shifting the blame onto her while painting himself as the noble hero—even risking Ling'er resenting her.
[Your Majesty, remember our agreement. Stay calm, alright?]
Calm? She was about to be branded a cruel mother! How could she stay calm?!
"Another way to save me? There’s another method?!" Jia Ling'er exclaimed excitedly.
"What is it???" Her beautiful eyes sparkled with hope.
Before, there had only been one way—Jiang Che’s death.
Now that there was another option, no matter what, it had to be better than dying, right?
The naive girl thought so.
Truthfully, if her feelings for Jiang Che had been ambiguous before, now... she had finally recognized her own heart.
She might not have fallen completely for him yet, but Jiang Che had already carved a permanent place in her heart.
This emotion had taken root in twisted circumstances, leaving even her bewildered.
"It’s nothing... as long as you’re safe, Ling'er." Jiang Che didn’t elaborate, merely gently smoothing her hair.
But his demeanor only deepened Jia Ling'er’s suspicion.
She studied him again, and her pupils shrank in horror.
"Jiang... Jiang Che, what’s with these injuries? You’re so badly hurt... is it because of... me?"
"Shh." Jiang Che pressed a finger to his lips. "Don’t ask, Ling'er."
Yet the more he avoided it, the more convinced she became.
Jiang Che must have paid an unbearable price to break her petrification.
She’d read enough romance novels to recognize this trope—the male lead striking a deal with the devil or wagering his life to save the heroine.
Tears streaming down her face, the girl threw herself into Jiang Che’s arms, right in front of the Jialan Empress, and the two began whispering sweet nothings.
Jialan Empress: "......"
She was on the verge of a breakdown. Despite her unrivaled power, she was helpless to change anything. Worse, this damned human was shamelessly fondling Ling'er right before her eyes!
And to think... not long ago, the same wretched human had kissed her too! Now this—!
"Enough! Ling'er, I’ll tell you the truth!"
Veins bulged on the Empress’s forehead as she used her magic to separate the two.
"Ling'er, I... I scoured our ancestors’ records and finally found a way to break the ancestral curse. But..."
In the end, the Jialan Empress caved, covering for Jiang Che.
With Ling'er’s life in his hands, she had no choice but to comply.
"What? Midnight Heartbreak?!"
Jia Ling'er clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide with terror.
Then her gaze fell on the bloody wound over Jiang Che’s heart.
[Ding! Host successfully scammed Jia Ling'er, earning 50 million points.]
Instantly, twin trails of tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Waaah... how could you be so foolish?! Midnight Heartbreak... how much pain did you endure?!"
Girls were emotional creatures, and Jia Ling'er was no exception.
Once a haughty young mistress, she’d had her pride crushed by Jiang Che, her spoiled temper worn away...
Now that he’d saved her life, how could her heart not sway?
She wasn’t Shen Yu, after all.
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
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)
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
