At the dinner table, everyone knew that Gu Chenan was about to leave, but by unspoken agreement, no one mentioned it. It was as if this was just an ordinary meal.
However, after the meal, no one seemed ready to leave, which made Gu Chenan sense something was amiss.
[Come to think of it... Su Qianmo and Fang Yuanyuan not leaving because they know I'm going and want to keep me company makes sense, but why aren't the other female leads leaving?]
[Could it be...]
A terrifying and embarrassing thought occurred to Gu Chenan.
[Damn! Can everyone else hear my thoughts?]
With this in mind, Gu Chenan stood up and went to the kitchen.
Watching Liu Mingrui's back as she was untying her apron, Gu Chenan called her name in his mind.
[Mingrui.]
Liu Mingrui immediately turned around, smiling, "What is it?"
Gu Chenan was stunned and quickly waved his hand, "Nothing."
"How was it? My cooking skills are pretty good, right?" Liu Mingrui said proudly.
"Indeed, it was excellent, especially the bull penis dish, cooked to just the right texture," Gu Chenan pointed towards the dining room, "I'll head out first."
"Alright, go ahead."
Walking out of the kitchen, Gu Chenan was completely questioning his existence.
[Damn it, Mingrui can hear my thoughts too.]
[So, when I first met her and thought about how big they were, she heard all of that?]
[What about Bai Yutian? If she can hear my thoughts, doesn't that mean she knows I've been thinking about her feet all this time!]
Realizing this, Gu Chenan immediately went to find Bai Yutian.
Three minutes later.
Gu Chenan walked out of Bai Yutian's room with flushed cheeks.
[Damn, everyone can hear my thoughts!]
[That means all my dirty, perverted thoughts have been heard by everyone?]
[No wonder these female leads sometimes seemed off!]
As he thought about this, Gu Chenan froze.
Wait a minute...
Damn!
He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth in anger, "No wonder my character portrayal of the female leads fell apart twice, so that's why!"
"System!"
"System is currently settling... Time remaining until settlement completion: one day and five hours."
...
For the time that followed, Gu Chenan had wanted to take the female leads out for some fun.
But the female leads unanimously decided to stay at home and go nowhere.
Gu Chenan had no choice but to stay at home with them.
Time flew by, and a day passed.
The next evening.
"System settling... Time remaining until settlement completion: ten minutes."
[Ten minutes... it's almost time.]
Gu Chenan rubbed his face and stood up from the sofa.
The female leads, hearing his thoughts, all stood up with reluctance in their eyes.
"Will you come back?" Su Qianmo asked softly.
Gu Chenan was taken aback and shook his head, "I don't know."
Liu Mingrui couldn't keep up the act anymore. She tried to say something, but before the words could come out, two streams of hot tears flowed down her cheeks.
"Young Master Gu!" Bai Yutian threw herself into Gu Chenan's arms, crying her heart out.
Hoshino Kannon fiddled with her fingers, silent, but tears kept falling.
Tang Yunjin gazed distantly, biting her lip, her mind constantly replaying her past moments with Gu Chenan.
Although they hadn't done anything significant or confirmed their relationship, Tang Yunjin had long since developed feelings for Gu Chenan.
Fang Yuanyuan turned her back, trying hard to hold back her tears.
She couldn't hear Gu Chenan's thoughts but could tell from everyone's reactions that he was about to leave.
"Sigh." Gu Chenan let out a breath, "I'm sorry for keeping this from you all for so long."
"But... it's time to say goodbye."
"Time remaining until settlement completion: seven minutes..." the System's voice appeared in his mind again.
Gu Chenan ignored it and continued, "Although this is a world within a novel, to me, you are all living, breathing people."
"I'll remember you all when I go back."
Originally, Gu Chenan had many things he wanted to say, but at the moment of parting, he couldn't recall them.
"Time remaining until settlement completion: six minutes..."
"Waaah—"
Bai Yutian's tears flowed like a fountain as she wailed loudly, "Young Master Gu, don't go! What will I do without you?!"
Gu Chenan sighed and patted Bai Yutian's head, "Don't cry, be good."
"No, I won't let you go, you can't leave!"
Bai Yutian couldn't hear Gu Chenan's words at all, tears and snot flowing freely, all smeared onto Gu Chenan's suit.
"Time remaining until settlement completion: five minutes..."
"Yutian, listen to me, I..."
"I won't listen, you just can't go!"
Time continued to pass amid Bai Yutian's tantrum. The other female leads wanted to say a proper goodbye to Gu Chenan, but now no one's words could get through.
Bai Yutian's grief was uncontrollable, her sobs turning into loud wails.
"Time remaining until settlement completion: one minute..."
[One minute!]
Gu Chenan's heart trembled, and he shouted to the female leads, "I have to go now, take care of yourselves!"
"Chenan!"
Su Qianmo was startled, tears streaming down her face as she quickly stepped forward to embrace Gu Chenan.
Liu Mingrui and Hoshino Kannon were equally heartbroken, but they just silently wiped their tears.
Fang Yuanyuan hadn't moved since earlier, always facing away from Gu Chenan with a determined look. But when she heard Gu Chenan say "I have to go now," her tears immediately burst forth.
"Time remaining until settlement completion: 10 seconds."
"Goodbye, Qianmo." Gu Chenan gently kissed Su Qianmo's forehead.
"Chenan, goodbye." Su Qianmo lifted her head and returned the kiss.
The two closed their eyes and kissed, as if time had frozen, the passage of time seeming to pause.
"Time remaining until settlement completion: 1 second."
"Ding, settlement complete!"
Hearing this sound, Gu Chenan opened his eyes, but was immediately stunned.
Su Qianmo was still in front of him!
[Still here?]
[What's going on?]
Before him, Su Qianmo was still frozen in their kiss, and Bai Yutian's hands were still clutching Gu Chenan's shirt, her head lowered and motionless.
Gu Chenan looked around and suddenly realized that everyone except him had stopped moving, as if they had all been paused!
[Damn, is this some kind of time-stop series?]
[No, no, what am I thinking...]
Gu Chenan shook his head and asked in his mind, "System, what's going on?"
"Settlement complete, host has finished the performance, the novel world has been paused."
"After System calculation, the host's performance this time is Grade A, villain portrayal accuracy is 76%, original plot presentation is 39%, rewarded with ten choice opportunities."
Gu Chenan was stunned.
"Ten choice opportunities? Choose what?"
"The host can make ten choices freely in this world, anything can be chosen."
"Anything?" Gu Chenan thought for a moment, "Can I choose the female leads?"
The System was silent for a moment, then, "Yes."
Hearing this, Gu Chenan jumped up in excitement.
"You are the most awesome, most powerful, most considerate system I've ever seen!"
"This System knows... Please make your choices quickly," the System urged.
[You know, huh? Praising you to high heaven and you act like it's nothing, what kind of entity are you?]
After mentally criticizing the System, Gu Chenan pointed at all the female leads and said, "I choose all of them!"
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.
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
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.”
