After probing and obtaining the results, Gu Chengyin no longer dwelled on that bizarre nightmare, nor did he obsess over those inexplicable intuitions.
After all, the truth was right in front of him, outweighing any chaotic thoughts.
This damn broken system had finally been reliable for once.
Gu Chengyin stood up and strode down from the second floor. On the first floor of the Wenli Hall, everything was as usual.
Luo Zhao had already returned to the main seat behind the long desk, burying her head in the mountain of official documents.
Her posture was upright, her profile focused, and the vermilion brush flew across the memorials even faster than before.
It was as if everything that had just happened on the second floor was merely a trivial line of code in a running program; now that the code was executed, the system had returned to its main task thread.
And Shangguan Yunying had also returned to the stacks of files, continuing to sort and archive them.
Her figure looked exceptionally gentle in the morning light, as if the person who had just sat on Gu Chengyin's lap and taken the initiative to kiss him was another personality, and now she had switched back to work mode.
Gu Chengyin's gaze swept over the two of them.
He walked up to Luo Zhao, maintaining the proper distance of a subordinate, and said respectfully,
"Your Highness, I am preparing to go to the Ministry of Rites to take up the post of Right Vice Minister."
"His Majesty has ordered that the liaison affairs between Great Luo and the various cultivation sects will be handled by me from now on."
This was an important transfer of power.
The Great Luo Dynasty had a vast territory, and the large and small cultivation sects within its borders were countless, including top-tier sects like the Azure Sword Sect.
Liaising with these cultivation sects had always been one of the most important duties of the Ministry of Rites, involving resource allocation, disciple selection, sect tributes, and even the balance of power between the dynasty and the sects.
This also concerned Gu Chengyin's future plans; after all, starting from the Golden Core realm, he was no longer bound to individuals.
Hearing Gu Chengyin's voice, Luo Zhao did not even lift her head.
Her gaze remained on the memorial, and her vermilion brush did not even pause as she simply gave a faint "Mm."
Her voice was flat and devoid of any emotion, as if she were just listening to a subordinate report a routine matter.
Gu Chengyin did not mind it either.
Although Luo Zhao had been hypnotized, normal communication between monarch and minister still had to take place.
He turned his head and glanced at Shangguan Yunying, who was currently facing away from him, fully concentrated on organizing the files.
Gu Chengyin withdrew his gaze and strode toward the outside of the hall.
His figure passed through the boundary between sunlight and shadow, disappearing beyond the tall doors of the Wenli Hall.
His footsteps gradually faded away.
But the moment Gu Chengyin's figure completely vanished...
The atmosphere on the first floor of the Wenli Hall suddenly changed.
"Bang!"
A soft, muffled thud echoed out.
It was the sound of the vermilion brush being slammed heavily onto the desk.
Luo Zhao suddenly hunched over, pressing hard on her stomach.
Her face instantly turned pale, and then a sickly blush rushed to her cheeks.
Her pupils, which had just been as blank as stagnant water, now burst with a terrifying, icy glint. She stared in the direction Gu Chengyin had left, her teeth grinding loudly,
"Despicable! Shameless! Lewd! Bastard!"
Meanwhile, on the other side.
"Thump."
It was the sound of knees hitting the ground.
Shangguan Yunying leaned limply against the wall, then slowly slid down to sit on the floor.
She was also clutching her stomach, her entire face flushed bright red, spreading from her cheeks to the roots of her ears, down to her neck, and even her exposed wrists were tinged with pink.
But unlike Luo Zhao, it was not the red of anger, but the red of embarrassment and shame.
Hearing the commotion, Luo Zhao turned to look.
When she saw Shangguan Yunying's state, she was initially stunned, and then a flash of shock and complex resonance crossed her eyes.
She was about to speak out, but catching a glimpse of a few female officials still busy in the hall, she forcefully swallowed her words back.
She stood up and quickly walked over to Shangguan Yunying, squatting down and asking urgently,
"Yunying, did that bastard molest you too?!"
Luo Zhao uttered the word "too" through gritted teeth.
Shangguan Yunying shuddered all over.
She looked up at Luo Zhao, her eyes full of disbelief,
"Ah... could it be that Your Highness... also..."
The sentence was left unfinished, but the meaning was clear enough.
Of the two women, one was the Crown Princess of Great Luo, peerlessly magnificent, and the other was the Chief Female Official, gentle and beautiful.
Yet at this moment, both were squatting on the cold floor, one clutching her stomach and gnashing her teeth, the other clutching her stomach with a face flushed red.
They looked at each other in silence.
The air froze in this instant.
They remained silent for a full five breaths.
It was Shangguan Yunying who moved first.
The embarrassed flush on her face gradually faded, replaced by murderous anger, and she made a move to stand up.
"Your Highness! I'm going to kill him right now!"
"It's one thing for him to molest me! But how could he do that to Your Highness..."
Before she could finish her sentence.
A cold hand tightly grabbed Shangguan Yunying's wrist.
"Forget it, Yunying."
Luo Zhao's voice was very calm.
"This was just a test."
"Gu Chengyin is not that kind of person; he didn't truly want to molest us."
"As long as we make him believe that we are both under hypnosis, he definitely won't mess around again in the future."
"Going to kill him at this time would do more harm than good."
Luo Zhao's voice was filled with rationality.
"We must endure this for now."
"Wait until the future..."
"And then we will settle the score with him properly."
Shangguan Yunying sat blankly on the spot, her body trembling slightly due to emotional fluctuations.
She wasn't actually going to kill Gu Chengyin, at least not right now.
Her previous action was half out of embarrassment and half a posture put on for Luo Zhao to see.
She was testing Luo Zhao's attitude.
Testing what kind of choice this Crown Princess would make after experiencing such humiliation.
If Luo Zhao acquiesced, or even supported her in killing Gu Chengyin, it would mean that Luo Zhao had lost her head to anger.
But if Luo Zhao stopped her, calmly analyzed the pros and cons, and chose to endure...
Then it would prove that Luo Zhao had truly made up her mind and was truly determined to carry that crazy plan through to the end.
And now, Luo Zhao's choice was the latter.
Calm, rational, enduring, and waiting.
Moreover, if Luo Zhao truly resisted, she would have lashed out just now instead of letting Gu Chengyin do as he pleased.
This was also the main reason why Shangguan Yunying didn't actually intend to make a move.
After all, Luo Zhao was awake; she was not hypnotized. She was hiding behind a puppet of consciousness, witnessing everything with her own eyes.
From a certain perspective, it could even be said that Luo Zhao was willing.
Shangguan Yunying slowly nodded.
"Your Highness, I understand."
Right at this moment, Shangguan Yunying noticed the color of Luo Zhao's lips.
A thought suddenly flashed through her mind.
Shangguan Yunying's face flushed with a rosy hue once again.
This time, it was not out of anger, nor out of embarrassment, but because of a highly awkward association.
She raised her head and looked at Luo Zhao.
Luo Zhao was also looking at her.
The gazes of the two women met in the air.
Then, Luo Zhao also realized something, and her gaze fell onto the color of Shangguan Yunying's lips.
Her expression immediately became strange.
If Gu Chengyin had performed the exact same direct test on her and Shangguan Yunying...
Wouldn't that be equivalent to...
As expected, they really should kill that bastard right this instant!
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
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.
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
