After these words fell, the surroundings fell silent.
So silent that one could hear the night wind sweeping past the palace walls, so silent that one could hear the distant watchman striking his clapper.
Shangguan Yunying followed by Luo Zhao's side, completely dumbfounded.
She looked at Luo Zhao.
Looking at that face in the moonlight, as cold as if it had been quenched in ice.
Looking at those eyes staring fixedly ahead—eyes filled with fury, killing intent, and a gnashing hatred.
Just what exactly had Gu Chengyin done?
Countless thoughts raced through Shangguan Yunying's mind.
Pondering what could have made Luo Zhao this angry.
To the point of stirring her killing intent once again.
Subconsciously, Shangguan Yunying glanced to the left and right of the palace path.
It was completely deserted.
There was only the moonlight, the night wind, and the faint sound of the watchman's clapper in the distance.
After confirming no one was around, she closed the distance, lowered her voice, and asked cautiously,
"Your Highness, Gu Chengyin..."
"Did he do something to you?"
Did what?
In Luo Zhao's mind, the scene from the warm pavilion just moments ago instantly surfaced.
She had held a sword across her own neck.
With the blade pressed against her throat, she had said to Emperor Luo:
"If Imperial Father insists on taking Gu Chengyin's life, then after he dies, your daughter will die for love!"
Die for love.
These words surged up from her memory, like a basin of boiling oil poured onto the fire in her heart.
Luo Zhao's jaw suddenly clenched tight, her eyes locked dead ahead.
As if she could see Gu Chengyin's detestable face hovering right in front of her.
That damned bastard.
Those eyes that always calculated without missing a single detail.
Those lips that always carried a hint of a smile and profound depths.
That...
That bastard who made her say the words 'die for love' in front of her Imperial Father!
Gritting her teeth, Luo Zhao squeezed the words out through her teeth, one by one.
"That bastard gave me a command."
"He made the consciousness puppet use dying for love to force Imperial Father to retract his order."
Shangguan Yunying, "..."
She froze there, as if struck by a bolt of lightning.
It took her a long while to recover from her shock.
Then, Shangguan Yunying suddenly realized the crucial point in those words.
"Your Highness... you mean..."
Shangguan Yunying paused, cautiously confirming,
"The consciousness puppet obeys Gu Chengyin's commands?"
Luo Zhao closed her eyes and took a deep breath, suppressing a fraction of her surging fury.
When she opened her eyes again, she nodded.
"Yes."
"I was forcibly switched."
"It was only after Imperial Father promised to let Gu Chengyin go that I was switched back."
Shangguan Yunying's eyes suddenly widened.
She opened her mouth to say something, only to find her mind completely blank.
How could this be?
Wasn't Her Highness's hypnosis already lifted?
Why would it still...
She suddenly thought of someone.
Gu Xiaoli.
Luo Zhao and her hypnosis were lifted by Gu Xiaoli.
The consciousness puppet was also preserved by Gu Xiaoli.
Initially, they thought this was to allow them to maintain a disguise in front of Gu Chengyin.
But looking at it now, that was not the case at all!
"Your Highness."
Shangguan Yunying's voice was somewhat urgent.
"Gu Xiaoli!"
Luo Zhao nodded. Hearing this name, a calm look returned to her eyes.
"Once we get back."
"Bring Xiaoli to see me immediately."
Shangguan Yunying knew the gravity of the matter and immediately agreed,
"Yes."
Then she heard Luo Zhao continue,
"Also..."
Luo Zhao's gaze grew even colder than before.
"Gu Chengyin, that bastard."
"I will definitely kill him with my own hands!"
These words carried immense weight.
Every single word was laden with deep killing intent.
But hearing this, Shangguan Yunying was not as shocked as she had been about Gu Xiaoli.
Instead, she was somewhat used to it. She merely looked at Luo Zhao.
Looking at that face in the moonlight, cold as if quenched in ice.
Looking at those eyes staring fixedly ahead.
She suddenly realized she had seemingly heard these words many times before.
Luo Zhao wanting to kill Gu Chengyin had started from their very first meeting.
Back then, Her Highness said she wanted to kill Gu Chengyin.
Later, Her Highness also said she wanted to kill Gu Chengyin.
Even later, Her Highness still said she wanted to kill Gu Chengyin.
Up until now, Her Highness continued to say she wanted to kill Gu Chengyin.
But every time...
Gu Chengyin lived on perfectly fine.
Shangguan Yunying lowered her eyelashes, the corners of her lips curling into a slight smile.
She knew Her Highness was truly angry this time.
The killing intent was stronger than any previous time.
But... as long as the result was achieved, that was fine.
What was the result?
It was that Emperor Luo had retracted his execution order.
It was that Gu Chengyin was safe and sound.
For Shangguan Yunying, this was enough.
As for the rest...
Shangguan Yunying raised her head and looked at Luo Zhao's back.
As for whether Her Highness would actually kill Gu Chengyin...
That was a matter for the future.
Who knew what would happen in the future?
Right now, Gu Xiaoli was more important.
.......
The Crown Princess's bedchamber.
Luo Zhao had returned, but she did not change her clothes.
She did not wash up, and did not even sit on the soft couch.
She merely sat alone on the edge of the bed.
Moonlight seeped through the crevices of the carved window lattices, laying out fragmented silver patterns over her body.
Motionless, like a jade statue.
Luo Zhao was waiting.
Before long.
Footsteps sounded outside the door, followed by the faint noise of the door being pushed open.
Shangguan Yunying stepped into the bedchamber first, then stepped sideways to make way.
Moonlight flooded in from behind her, illuminating the person following.
Gu Xiaoli.
She wore moon-white inner garments, with an outer robe haphazardly draped over her.
Her eyes were half-squinted, and her short hair was somewhat messy, bearing the marks of being dragged out of a deep sleep.
So she looked a bit groggy overall.
But this grogginess did not diminish her beauty in the slightest.
Instead, it added an indescribable layer of languor to her already exquisitely sculpted, world-weary face.
The moonlight fell upon Gu Xiaoli's face.
Outlining her delicate features even more distinctly.
And in those half-squinted eyes, there was four parts bewilderment, three parts drowsiness, two parts languor, and one part world-weariness.
Luo Zhao looked at Gu Xiaoli.
Looking at this groggy appearance, freshly dragged out of slumber.
Originally, Luo Zhao had trusted Gu Xiaoli deeply, as it was Gu Xiaoli who had freed her from the second hypnosis.
But the events that transpired today forced Luo Zhao to reevaluate this world-weary loli.
Thinking of this, Luo Zhao's gaze darkened as she spoke coldly,
"Xiaoli."
Her voice was like ice shards falling onto a jade plate, crisp and laced with a chilling frost.
"Do you know your crime?"
Gu Xiaoli's eyelashes fluttered slightly.
Those half-squinted eyes slowly opened.
She looked at Luo Zhao, who sat on the edge of the bed enveloped in moonlight.
Looking at those eyes as cold as if quenched in ice.
Gu Xiaoli blinked. The grogginess gradually faded, replaced by a strange expression.
Not fear, nor panic.
But innocence.
Gu Xiaoli tilted her head, the movement somewhat adorable, like a kitten that had just woken up.
Then she spoke, her voice a bit hoarse, carrying the unique languor of someone newly awake.
"Your Highness..."
"What crime has Xiaoli committed?"
The corners of Luo Zhao's lips curled up slightly, the arc very cold.
"You do not know?"
Gu Xiaoli shook her head, shaking it very sincerely.
"Xiaoli does not know."
Luo Zhao's gaze grew even colder.
"Gu Chengyin can control my consciousness puppet."
"This matter."
"You couldn't possibly not know, could you?"
【Prologue: The Beginning of It All – Use holy water to heal the saintess tainted by demonic energy, then converse with her.】 Shen Nian stared at his older sister sipping yogurt, lost in thought. So you’re telling me my sister is the saintess, and yogurt is the holy water? 【Main Quest 1: Brave Youth, Become an Adventurer! Reward: Rookie Adventurer Title.】 【Side Quest 1: Find the Adorable Kitty! Reward: 1000 Gold Coins.】 Shen Nian: "Wait, I’m a high school senior here—did some guy who got isekai’d accidentally bind his system to me?" Hold on, completing quests gives gold rewards? Titles even boost stats? Is this for real? (A lighthearted, absurd campus comedy—not a revenge power fantasy.)
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.
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.
