Not in Character

Lin Qingyan pouted again, this time feeling genuinely wronged.

A layer of moisture covered her eyes. Against the backdrop of her blood-red pupils, the tears shimmered with an eerie crimson hue, resembling tears of blood.

Her fingers stopped drawing circles, and her whole body drooped.

Then she nodded, reluctant yet helpless.

Gu Chengyin breathed a sigh of relief.

He saw the red light in Lin Qingyan's eyes begin to fade gradually.

The glow dimmed bit by bit, and the blood color receded, revealing her clear pupil color.

Once the inner demon retreated, the real Lin Qingyan would return.

And then...

Gu Chengyin's train of thought came to an abrupt halt right there.

Because in the very last instant before the red pupils completely vanished...

Lin Qingyan moved.

Her speed surpassed the limits of Gu Chengyin's reaction time, so fast that his eyes couldn't even catch her trajectory.

Gu Chengyin only felt a gust of wind.

A wind carrying a cold fragrance.

Then, a softness on his cheek.

A warm, soft touch with a slight hint of moisture.

The sensation lingered for an extremely short time, so short that Gu Chengyin even suspected it was his imagination.

But the lingering faint tickle on the skin of his cheek, along with that fleeting soft touch...

...both told him it was no illusion.

Lin Qingyan kissed him.

In the final moment before the inner demon fully retreated, she kissed his cheek.

Then she pulled back, so fast it was as if she had never approached him at all.

Gu Chengyin froze in place, his mind going completely blank.

Because the red light in Lin Qingyan's eyes had completely disappeared.

Those eyes became clear and calm again, like a deep autumn pool without a single ripple.

Then, that pool of water froze over.

Lin Qingyan's gaze shifted from calm to icy cold.

She stared at Gu Chengyin, fixing her eyes on the spot on his face that had just been kissed.

Gu Chengyin finally snapped back to reality and raised his hand to touch the kissed spot.

Then he looked at Lin Qingyan.

A Lin Qingyan whose eyes were icy and carried a hint of disgust.

Gu Chengyin immediately put on the face of a victim and said with extreme grievance:

Auntie, I didn't do anything!

I was forced!

Lin Qingyan continued to look at him coldly and with disgust.

No response, no rebuttal, not even a change in expression.

Lin Qingyan, of course, knew Gu Chengyin was forced.

From the inner demon suddenly taking dominance, to pouncing on him and rubbing against him, to that unexpected kiss.

Every frame of those scenes was clearly reflected in her memory.

But she couldn't say it was her own initiative; she couldn't tell Gu Chengyin that the inner demon was actually herself.

That would break her character.

She was Lin Qingyan.

She was Jingzhe of the Celestial Master Mansion, a Golden Core cultivator, aloof and detached, untainted by the mundane world.

These labels had been attached to her for so long that even she herself believed them.

So long that she had to present this face to the world, even if the raging waves in her heart were about to burst through the dam.

So now, Lin Qingyan had to show coldness and disgust.

She even had to intensify this look, intensifying it so much that Gu Chengyin wouldn't get suspicious.

Lin Qingyan had to make Gu Chengyin believe that all of this was the inner demon's fault!

That it was that lewd, twisted negative consciousness acting on its own.

Thus, Lin Qingyan's gaze grew even colder.

The right corner of her lips lifted slightly, curving into a mean-spirited arc.

Her nostrils flared slightly, as if smelling something nauseating.

Her brows furrowed, squeezing out two fine, deep vertical lines between them.

Lin Qingyan looked at Gu Chengyin with eyes that seemed to be looking at trash.

This extreme sense of contrast would have sent an ordinary person flying off the handle on the spot.

One second she was a seductive figure with blood-red eyes clinging to him, and the next she was a frost-covered figure of disgust.

One second she was sweetly calling him Master, and the next she was looking at him like he was garbage.

This drastic emotional shift, this fractured personality presentation.

It was enough to cause cognitive confusion and subsequent self-doubt in any person of sound mind.

But Gu Chengyin was not an ordinary person, plus he already knew that Lin Qingyan had two faces.

Auntie.

You are a Golden Core cultivator, so she is a Golden Core inner demon.

Although I can control her, it's obvious that her actions are faster than my commands.

Lin Qingyan's eyes showed no fluctuation whatsoever.

Still cold, still disgusted.

Gu Chengyin felt assured in his heart and continued speaking:

So I think it's better to let her out less.

Gu Chengyin paused, observing Lin Qingyan's reaction.

No reaction.

So he decided to add some fuel to the fire, saying with a hint of malice:

After all, if the inner demon really comes to warm...

His words came to an abrupt halt right there.

It wasn't Gu Chengyin who stopped himself; he was interrupted.

The moment he spat out the word warm, Lin Qingyan moved.

She flipped her palm.

Her hand movements were faster than the limit of visual perception.

Gu Chengyin only saw a blur of afterimages. The hand that had been resting flat on her knee completed the entire process of flipping, raising, and forming a hand seal in the blink of an eye.

Then, a streak of golden lightning flashed.

Its target was clear, pointing straight at Gu Chengyin's lips.

Gu Chengyin was instantly alarmed.

His first thought was, she's going to shock me again?

But this time, the speed of the golden lightning was faster than any previous time.

So fast that Gu Chengyin had no time to react at all.

He could only watch helplessly as that thread of golden light rapidly expanded in his vision, finally disappearing at the spot of his lips.

Just as Gu Chengyin prepared to welcome the numbness spreading from his lips to his entire body.

Prepared to welcome the sharp sensation brought by the electric current running wild in his body.

Nothing happened.

The expected sharp sensation did not come.

The expected numbness did not appear.

Gu Chengyin blinked.

He saw Lin Qingyan still sitting upright there, her hand that had formed the seal placed back on her knee.

Gu Chengyin opened his mouth, wanting to ask what had happened.

But his lips moved, and there was no sound.

It wasn't that his voice was too low; there was simply no sound at all.

Air rose from his throat, his vocal cords vibrated, and his mouth shaped the syllables.

The entire process of vocalization was proceeding normally.

But no sound left his lips.

It was as if an invisible membrane had sealed his mouth.

Gu Chengyin tried again.

But it remained soundless.

The carriage was terrifyingly quiet.

Now Gu Chengyin was truly shocked.

This was the first time he truly understood what it meant to be a Golden Core Perfected One.

Before this, Gu Chengyin's understanding of the Golden Core realm was mostly theoretical.

For example, the Qi Condensation stage only opened the door to immortal cultivation.

Cultivators at this stage could shatter rocks with a single punch, travel three hundred miles a day, and hear low whispers from ten spaces away.

But strictly speaking, they still belonged to the realm of mortals.

Foundation Establishment was a qualitative change.

The true qi in the body would compress from a gaseous state into a liquid state, and the quality and density of true essence would leap exponentially.

Cultivators at this stage could already be called earthly immortals.

Although they couldn't fly yet, sprinting at full strength, traveling a thousand miles a day was not an issue.

Releasing true qi outwardly, splitting mountains and cracking stones was mere child's play.

Gu Chengyin himself was in the late stage of Foundation Establishment; he knew the power of this realm very well.

But these were still within the realm of physics.