After work, Qin Ya returned to her villa and shut herself in her room, refusing to see anyone.
For the first time, she began to doubt herself.
She doubted her own abilities, doubted everything she had always believed in.
That night, she sat alone in the empty living room, watching the myriad lights of Jingzhou outside the window, yet she felt no warmth.
Only a biting loneliness.
Just then, the doorbell of the villa rang.
She didn't want to answer it, but the bell rang persistently, over and over.
Finally, with irritation, she got up and opened the door.
Standing outside was Huangfu Chengshi.
He was wearing simple athletic wear, with fine beads of sweat on his forehead, as if he had run all the way there.
In his hand, he carried a thermal lunchbox.
"Ya Jiejie."
Looking at her pale face and dim eyes, the heartache in his gaze was almost overflowing.
"I... I heard..."
His voice was very soft.
"I brought you some congee."
"My mother used to drink this when she was unhappy."
Qin Ya looked at him, at his face etched with caution and worry.
The string that had been pulled taut in her heart suddenly snapped.
She didn't say a word, simply stepped aside silently to let him in.
That night, he didn't ask a single extra question.
He just quietly kept her company, watching her finish the bowl of plain congee that had gone slightly cold, sip by sip.
Then he quietly packed up the thermal lunchbox and left.
From start to finish, there wasn't a single superfluous word of comfort, yet it made Qin Ya feel a long-lost warmth more than any consolation could.
Huangfu Chengshi walked home, the night breeze blowing against his young face.
His mind replayed, over and over again, Qin Ya's fragile and exhausted face.
He clenched his fists.
For the first time, he hated his own powerlessness so intensely.
He could ward off a few annoying flirtatious men for her, could use playful whining to get her out of a few tight spots.
He could even borrow her influence to scare off fools like Huangfu Chengxuan.
But when she truly faced a crisis, when she was betrayed by those closest to her, when she sat alone in the cold darkness...
He could do nothing.
All he could do was deliver a bowl of bland, harmless plain congee.
What use was that?
It wasn't enough. Far from enough.
Merely being her "pendant," merely being her "lackey" was far from enough.
What he wanted wasn't to hide under her wing seeking shelter; what he wanted was to be able to hold up a piece of the sky for her.
He needed to possess real power.
Powerful enough to crush petty schemers like Qin Huai.
Powerful enough to make her father never dare to sacrifice her lightly again.
Powerful enough to completely rescue her from that cold, calculating family.
At that moment, the clarity and dependence belonging to a youth completely faded from Huangfu Chengshi's eyes.
Replacing it was a flame, belonging to a beast—obsessive, craving strength.
His goddess had fallen into hardship.
He, her most devout believer, had to grow up quickly.
Then, take up arms and fight for her.
...
That failure was like a tempering by fire.
Qin Ya did not shatter.
She was only forged harder, colder, and sharper.
During her six-month suspension, she did not wallow in despair.
She turned herself into a sponge.
Frantically absorbing any knowledge that could make her stronger.
Finance, law, psychology.
She operated like a tireless machine at high speed.
Six months later, Qin Ya returned to the management of the Qin Group.
This time, she was like a newly sharpened blade.
Whoever stood in her way would be mercilessly cut down.
Including her cousin, Qin Huai.
She spent three months setting up an intricate trap.
She paid Qin Huai back for his methods of framing her, with interest.
Qin Huai was completely removed from the line of succession.
She had won.
She won cleanly and decisively, but she also won as a loner.
She grew increasingly powerful, and increasingly lonely.
She crafted a perfect mask for herself.
Aloof, capricious, willful.
This mask could help her scare off suitors with ill intentions.
It could also let her lull her opponents in brutal business negotiations.
Over time, even she almost forgot what she was like beneath the mask.
Only when facing Huangfu Chengshi.
Would she occasionally remove the mask, revealing a hint of genuine impatience and helplessness.
Because she knew this little "brother" posed no threat to her.
He was just that sticky pendant who would always follow behind her.
Time is the best catalyst.
Huangfu Chengshi grew like a vine in the shadows, climbing upward frantically.
His height surpassed Qin Ya's.
His shoulders broadened.
His voice shed its youthful timbre, becoming deeper.
He also grew increasingly handsome.
He was now a tall, seventeen-year-old youth.
His feelings for Qin Ya also quietly transformed during this silent pursuit.
From dependence to worship, to the possessive desire quietly sprouting in adolescence.
It was a turbulent emotion even he couldn't fully understand.
He only knew that when he saw other men appear by Qin Ya's side...
The silent beast in his heart bared its fangs for the first time.
That man was called Wei Xianzhe.
The second son of the Wei family, another prominent clan in Jingzhou.
Handsome, outstanding, elegant and poised.
Most importantly, Wei Xianzhe was a second son.
And the Wei family was only slightly less influential than the Qin family.
Wei Xianzhe was widely considered one of the top choices for a son-in-law among the elite circles.
Wei Xianzhe launched a fierce pursuit of Qin Ya.
A daily bouquet of blue roses air-freighted from Holland.
Limited-edition jewelry sent to Qin Ya's office at the Qin Group from time to time.
He would reserve entire restaurants just to have a meal with her.
He would appear at every one of her public appearances.
His gaze was gentle and focused.
He told everyone that Qin Ya was the only woman he ever wanted to conquer.
All of Jingzhou watched, observing this top-tier love game between the prince and the queen.
Qin Ya remained cool and aloof towards him.
But she didn't explicitly reject him either.
To her, this was just a boring game on the social scene.
A relatively useful shield to fend off her family's pressure to marry.
She calmly accepted Wei Xianzhe's attentions, seemingly also enjoying the thrill of having him wrapped around her finger.
But in Huangfu Chengshi's eyes, all of this...
Was the most serious violation of his sacred territory.
His goddess was being coveted by another believer.
He could not tolerate it.
Huangfu Chengshi began his silent hunt.
He no longer just followed behind Qin Ya.
He began to investigate Wei Xianzhe.
Investigate this man who dared to challenge his claim.
He used every means at his disposal.
Using a program he wrote himself, he infiltrated Wei Xianzhe's social networks.
He browsed all his public information.
And those private posts he thought he had deleted.
Like the most patient hunter, he sifted through vast fragments of information, searching for his prey's weakness.
He believed that, like most scions of wealthy families,
Wei Xianzhe, this seemingly brilliant golden boy, was in private nothing more than a complete hypocrite.

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?!

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?"

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.

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.”