Gu Changyuan was knocked slightly off balance by the sudden embrace, and his heart was immediately filled with boundless tenderness and a bittersweet ache.
He looked down at the disciple trembling with tears in his arms. The loneliness and hardships of a thousand years seemed to be washed away completely in this moment by her scalding tears.
He raised his left hand and gently patted Bai Ling'er's back, which was shaking from crying. His movements were soft and familiar, just like every time he comforted her when she felt wronged a thousand years ago.
His right hand rested on the soft crown of her head, gently stroking her hair stroke by stroke. His voice was deep and warm, carrying a soothing power:
"Alright, alright, Ling'er, don't cry. Your master has returned. I have truly returned. You all have worked so hard these past years..."
His comfort made Bai Ling'er cry even harder, but it also allowed the giant boulder that had been hanging in her heart for a millennium to finally crash to the ground.
Her master had truly returned.
It was not a dream.
It was real.
Dugu Shiling stared at the scene before her, dumbfounded, her brain completely short-circuiting.
What was she seeing? The lofty, god-like Third Ancestor of the Holy Land... throwing herself into a man's arms... wailing?
And calling that man "Master"?!
That mysterious senior who had reached the top of the hundred steps... was... was the Third Ancestor's master?!
Didn't that make him... the founding ancestor... of the Holy Land?!
This thought exploded in her mind like a thunderclap, instantly turning her hands and feet cold, filling her with a sense of absurdly profound shock.
Gu Xing'er tilted her little head, looking at the bawling Bai Ling'er and then at the gently comforting Gu Changyuan, seeming somewhat understanding yet somewhat confused.
She reached out her little hand, gently tugged at the hem of Gu Changyuan's clothes, and asked in a small voice:
"Daddy, why is this pretty sister crying? Is she hungry?"
The innocent words of a child made both Gu Changyuan and Bai Ling'er, who were immersed in the emotions of their reunion, freeze slightly.
Bai Ling'er lifted her head from Gu Changyuan's embrace and looked tearfully at Gu Xing'er, then at the shocked Dugu Shiling. Only then did she realize there were outsiders present, and two blushes immediately flew onto her cheeks.
She hurriedly released Gu Changyuan and frantically wiped away her tears, trying to restore her usual dignified image. However, her red eyes and nose made her efforts seem especially endearing.
Bai Ling'er sniffled her slightly red nose, shifting her gaze from Gu Changyuan to the little girl hiding behind him, who was clutching his hem and looking at her with clear, curious, starry eyes.
She hadn't paid much attention earlier due to her emotional state, but now she heard it clearly. This little girl seemed to be calling her master "Daddy"?
An indescribable emotion, tinged with a bit of sourness and tension, quietly crept into her heart.
Her master had been away for a thousand years... Could it be that he had found a Dao companion outside, and even had a child?
She bit her lower lip, trying to make her voice sound natural, but she still couldn't help but carry a trace of imperceptible jealousy and probing:
"Master, is this... your daughter? Do you... have a Dao companion?"
After asking, she stared eagerly at Gu Changyuan, her heart in her throat.
Gu Changyuan gently pulled Gu Xing'er, who was hiding behind him, to the front and warmly introduced her to Bai Ling'er:
"No. Her name is Gu Xing'er. I met her in Wind Ridge City... well, by a stroke of fate."
He briefly explained Gu Xing'er's situation. Hearing that her master did not have a Dao companion, the heavy stone in Bai Ling'er's heart instantly fell to the ground.
Her tense expression visibly relaxed, and a trace of relief and joy that even she didn't notice flashed across her eyes.
When she looked at Gu Xing'er again, her gaze had become incredibly gentle, even carrying a hint of sympathy and affection.
"So that's how it is... Little sister Xing'er has truly suffered."
She crouched down to be at eye level with Gu Xing'er, her voice soft.
"From now on, this is your home. If you need anything, you can always look for Big Sister Ling'er."
Although Gu Xing'er was innocent and naive, she was acutely sensitive to goodwill.
She looked at the pretty and gentle sister in front of her. Even though she had cried quite fiercely just now, she nodded and called out softly:
"Big Sister Ling'er."
"Yes!"
Bai Ling'er responded exceptionally crisply, a bright smile blooming on her face as if her previous loss of composure and crying had never happened.
She took out a jade pendant from her storage ring, which radiated a warm luster and was engraved with runes for calming the mind and spirit, and carefully hung it around Xing'er's neck.
"This is for Xing'er. Wearing it is good for your health."
Behind them, Dugu Shiling, who had been watching the drama unfold the entire time, listened to Gu Changyuan's story and couldn't help but feel a strong sense of sympathy for Gu Xing'er.
The pain of having her entire family wiped out, her soul injured, possessing a peerless holy physique yet being completely oblivious to it...
Even though such things were not uncommon in the law of the jungle of the cultivation world, falling upon such a young child still made one's heart ache.
Not to mention, it was just mentioned that Gu Xing'er possessed the "Primal Chaos Star Spirit Physique"!
She had seen brief descriptions of it in fragmented ancient texts; it was one of the supreme holy physiques of ancient legends, possessing an affinity with the Great Dao of Chaos and Stars, with truly limitless potential.
Although her own "Mystic Ice Jade Bone Physique" was also a rare encounter in a thousand years, compared to that, it was like a firefly to the bright moon.
As for that Heavenly Zenith Sect? Dugu Shiling didn't even put them in her eyes.
With the power of her Dugu family alone, casually sending out a few Tribulation Transcendence realm experts would be enough to crush the Heavenly Zenith Sect into dust.
However, now that Gu Xing'er had the backing of the Celestial Holy Land, there was no need for the Dugu family to act. The Heavenly Zenith Sect actually dared to touch someone from the Holy Land.
As long as the Holy Land willed it, a single Grand Yin Elder leading a team would be enough to completely erase the Heavenly Zenith Sect from the Northern Region of the Southern Continent.
"By the way,"
Gu Changyuan pulled the topic back on track and looked at Bai Ling'er.
"Where are Qingxue and the others? How come I only see you here?"
Through the synchronized disciple status information from the system, he could confirm that all thirty of his founding disciples were safe and sound, and their cultivation bases were profound.
If they were not in the Holy Land at this moment, they must all have important matters to attend to.
Now that he had returned, helping them resolve these trivial matters would be but a simple lift of a finger.
Bai Ling'er gathered her thoughts and began to report to Gu Changyuan:
"Eldest Senior Sister and Fourth Junior Sister went to the Outer Realm above the Northern Region of the Northern Continent.
A while ago, news came from there that they discovered spiritual energy fluctuations suspected to be left by you back in the day, so Eldest Senior Sister took Junior Sister Yue Lingxi and hurried over there personally."
Gu Changyuan nodded slightly.
His eldest disciple Ye Qingxue possessed the Supreme Void Sword Physique and a clear sword heart, able to use all things as a sword. She was the most steady and responsible among the disciples.
His fourth disciple Yue Lingxi possessed the Mystic Heaven Grand Yin Soul Physique, with vast and pure soul power, excelling in investigation, deduction, and soul secret arts. The two of them partnering up to go to such a place was indeed the most suitable combination.
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
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.”
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!
. 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!"
