Lu Qianqian did not answer Ji Wushuang’s question.
She simply stared at her with bloodshot eyes.
Ji Wushuang didn’t seem to care.
She glanced at her wristwatch.
"Warm-up. Ten minutes."
"Then, we begin today’s training."
Lu Qianqian remained silent.
She would use her silence to protest against Ms. Ji!
She wanted Ji Wushuang to know she wasn’t someone to be pushed around!
After completing the warm-up under Ji Wushuang’s guidance, Ji Wushuang took the lead in running.
Her pace wasn’t fast.
But it was as steady as a precision machine.
Lu Qianqian followed behind, gritting her teeth.
Less than a kilometer in, her lungs felt like they were about to explode.
Her throat burned as if lined with blades.
Her legs trembled, weak and unsteady.
She wanted to stop.
She wanted to collapse on the ground and tell this devil she was done.
But then she told herself—I refuse to admit defeat!
She fixed her gaze on the slender yet unwavering figure ahead of her.
A surge of unwillingness rose in her heart.
Why?
Why is this woman so strong?
And why am I so weak?
She wanted to be stronger.
At the very least, strong enough to keep up with Ji Wushuang’s pace.
That thought was like a spark.
A faint flame ignited in her nearly exhausted body.
She began adjusting her breathing.
Mimicking Ji Wushuang’s rhythm.
Inhale every three steps. Exhale every three steps.
She stopped thinking about how far was left.
She just focused on Ji Wushuang’s heels.
Step by step, she followed.
Sweat blurred her vision.
But she didn’t stop.
When the final kilometer ended, Lu Qianqian collapsed onto the grass.
She felt like she had died.
But she knew she had survived.
She had run five kilometers—on sheer willpower.
Ji Wushuang walked over.
Handed Lu Qianqian a bottle of warm water.
And a clean towel.
"You did well."
Ji Wushuang’s voice was as calm as ever.
But to Lu Qianqian, those four words sounded sweeter than any praise she’d ever heard.
She gulped down the water greedily.
For the first time, she felt an unfamiliar sense of fulfillment.
In the afternoon, Lu Qianqian, dressed in workout clothes, stood on the garden lawn.
Under the stern guidance of Ji Wushuang, she drilled through basic physical training.
Sweat soaked her forehead, her delicate face now pale, her legs quivering.
But her eyes no longer held the spoiled willfulness of before—instead, they burned with stubborn determination.
When Lou Mengling rushed back from Qingzhou, this was the scene she witnessed.
She couldn’t help but resent Ji Wushuang for "mistreating" her daughter.
But Lu Qianqian spoke first.
"Mom, it’s not Ms. Ji’s fault. I asked for this."
Leaning into her mother’s warm embrace, drawing comfort she hadn’t felt in so long, her voice remained firm.
"I don’t want to be a clueless doll anymore."
Lou Mengling froze.
Staring at the unfamiliar resolve—an adult’s resolve—on her daughter’s face, her heart ached with mixed emotions.
…
Over the next two weeks,
The Lu family estate transformed into a high-intensity, militarized training camp.
Every morning, a six-kilometer run—rain or shine.
Lu Qianqian went from half-running, half-walking,
To barely keeping up with Ji Wushuang’s pace.
Mornings were for combat training.
Ji Wushuang didn’t teach her flashy moves.
Only the simplest, deadliest strikes.
Eye-gouging, throat-locking, groin-kicking.
How to turn anything nearby into a weapon.
Hairpins, pens, high heels.
"Remember, your goal isn’t to defeat your enemy."
Ji Wushuang effortlessly locked a 1.8-meter-tall Lu family security guard in a chokehold, pinning him to the ground as she spoke.
The guard, sent by Lu Chenyuan as a "training partner,"
Now red-faced and humiliated, tapped the ground in surrender.
"Your goal is to create chaos—and a chance to escape."
"Attack with everything you have. Run like your life depends on it."
Lu Qianqian watched the burly man, helpless under Ji Wushuang’s grip.
Watched Ji Wushuang’s face, as calm as if she’d done nothing more than tie her shoelaces.
And for the first time, she truly understood what "strength" meant.
Afternoons were for wilderness survival.
In a training ground nestled in the northern outskirts of Jingzhou’s forests,
Ji Wushuang taught her how to navigate,
How to find clean water,
How to start a fire with the simplest tools,
How to distinguish edible plants from deadly mushrooms.
Lu Qianqian, a young lady who couldn’t tell rice from wheat,
Now learned to recognize the plants and trees she’d never noticed before.
She studied hard.
Because Ji Wushuang warned her:
"In the wild, every wrong bite could be your last."
Lu Qianqian groaned in exhaustion.
Every night, she felt like she’d been disassembled and reassembled.
Every muscle in her body ached.
More than once, she wanted to quit.
But whenever that thought arose, Ji Wushuang’s unwavering gaze would appear before her.
And so, she gritted her teeth and pushed on.
Her persistence surprised Ji Wushuang.
This porcelain doll had far more resilience than she’d expected.
Occasionally, Ji Wushuang would offer a few extra words.
"Your core is still weak. Do more planks."
"Don’t hesitate when you strike. Hesitation kills."
"This trap is decent. But the camouflage needs work."
These weren’t compliments.
Yet they became Lu Qianqian’s greatest motivation.
Two weeks passed in a flash.
Only one day of training remained.
That afternoon, Lu Qianqian was supposed to rest.
Lou Mengling had rushed over,
Bringing her daughter’s favorite sweets and snacks,
Hoping she could finally relax.
Everyone expected Lu Qianqian to sleep the day away.
Or book a spa day to soothe her exhaustion.
But to everyone’s surprise,
She refused her mother’s arrangements.
Instead, she changed into casual clothes.
Then, to Ji Wushuang, she said:
"Wushuang-jie, could you take me somewhere?"
"Where?" Ji Wushuang asked.
"Chunfeng Community."
Ji Wushuang was taken aback.
But she didn’t ask questions.
"Alright."
The car didn’t head to the city’s bustling shopping centers.
Instead, it turned into Jingzhou’s old district, stopping at a worn-down community.
The car parked in front of a community canteen.
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
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.”
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...
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.
