"I was thinking about my mother."
Lin Qingyan was stunned.
She had thought of many possibilities. For instance, that Gu Chengyin was thinking about Shangguan Yunying, Gu Xiaoli, Cui Zilu, or even Luo Zhao.
But this was the one thing she hadn't anticipated.
Gu Chengyin's mother.
She had never heard Gu Chengyin mention her before.
The slight vigilance in Lin Qingyan's heart, born of her intuition, was gently punctured in that instant, vanishing without a trace.
She opened her mouth to say something, but didn't know what to say.
Taking advantage of this pause, Gu Chengyin lowered his head.
His gaze fell upon Lin Qingyan's face. His usually deep and unfathomable eyes were now brimming with tenderness and longing.
The tenderness was so rich, the longing so profound.
So rich that it seemed to overflow, enveloping Lin Qingyan entirely.
So profound that it stripped away any worldly pretense, stirring a maternal wave of pity within Lin Qingyan.
"My mother's greatest wish," Gu Chengyin's voice was very soft, as if afraid to disturb something,
"was to see me get married and establish my career."
He paused, a trace of regret flashing in his eyes.
"It's just a pity... sigh..."
The sentence was left unfinished, but the unspoken meaning was clear enough.
It was a pity she didn't get to see it.
It was a pity she couldn't wait until this day.
This trace of regret from Gu Chengyin came from the bottom of his heart, without the slightest bit of falsification.
If it weren't for this damn time travel, he might have already achieved it, but in life, there are rarely so many "ifs."
Such genuine and sincere disappointment made Lin Qingyan's heart clench tightly.
She looked into Gu Chengyin's eyes; they were still as gentle as ever.
But beneath that gentleness, something was faintly trembling.
Like an undercurrent beneath the surface of the water, completely undetectable without careful observation.
But Lin Qingyan sensed it; her intuition had always been very sharp.
That was why she could perceive Gu Chengyin's thoughts time and time again.
And this time, Gu Chengyin was telling the truth.
He was truly saddened by his failure to fulfill his mother's wish.
Lin Qingyan's heart instantly softened.
She even began to feel remorseful—how could she have gotten angry over something like this?
She had clearly said she wouldn't mind such things.
Lin Qingyan buried herself back into Gu Chengyin's embrace, pressing her face against his chest.
Her voice was muffled, full of self-blame:
"I'm sorry... it's all my fault..."
Before she could finish, Gu Chengyin interrupted her:
"How could I blame you, Auntie?"
Gu Chengyin's voice drifted down, carrying a hint of a smile, as gentle as if he were coaxing a child.
"Just now, I was actually thinking that if my mother knew her daughter-in-law was this beautiful..."
"...as beautiful as a fairy descending from the heavens, she would definitely be overjoyed."
Hearing these words with their hidden implications, Lin Qingyan's face flushed bright red.
The redness spread all the way from her cheeks to the roots of her ears, and then burned down the side of her neck, so hot it felt like it was going to smoke.
She buried her face even deeper, wishing she could hide her entire self in Gu Chengyin's arms so he wouldn't see her like this.
But Gu Chengyin's voice continued, every word like a feather lightly tickling her heart.
The word "daughter-in-law" echoed repeatedly in her mind.
It made Lin Qingyan involuntarily raise her hand and lightly smack Gu Chengyin.
"Who is your wife!" Her voice was muffled against his chest, carrying a hint of coquettishness:
"In your dreams! I haven't promised you anything!"
Gu Chengyin chuckled softly, the laughter rumbling from his chest, making Lin Qingyan's cheeks burn hotter.
"Right, right, Auntie hasn't promised anything."
"But you really are as beautiful as a fairy descended from the heavens."
"You can't possibly hit me just because I told the truth, right Auntie?"
Lin Qingyan twitched her lips.
She wanted to retort.
She really wanted to retort.
She was Jingzhe of the Tianshi Mansion; what kind of scenes hadn't she seen? What kind of words hadn't she heard?
How could she be won over by a mere few sweet words?
But...
But being praised as beautiful by Gu Chengyin really made her so happy.
Lin Qingyan's lips moved again and again, but in the end, she couldn't utter a single word.
She simply buried her face back into Gu Chengyin's chest, curling up into a ball, refusing to say another word.
The sunlight spilled in quietly, enveloping the two of them in a warm golden hue.
Dust motes floated slowly in the beams of light, like countless tiny specks of light dancing silently in the tranquility.
Gu Chengyin looked down at the fairy in his arms, the curve of his lips deepening a few degrees.
His palm gently stroked her hair, over and over, gentle and patient.
At the same time, he gave himself a mental thumbs-up for his quick wit.
His mother's wish was real, and his regret and longing were real too.
But a person couldn't live in the past for their entire life, unable to move forward.
Only by looking forward and moving forward could one regain everything that was lost.
Lin Qingyan nestled motionless in Gu Chengyin's arms.
Her heart was far less calm than her surface appeared.
That bit of anger from earlier had indeed vanished into thin air.
In its place was something much deeper.
Guilt.
The more Lin Qingyan thought about it, the more she felt she had gone too far.
Gu Chengyin was so good, so devoted.
He had been honest with her from the very beginning, from the Meditation Pagoda to the Azure Sword Sect.
From facing inner demons to becoming intimate, he had never once lied to her.
When he said "I believe you," he truly believed her.
When he said "I miss you," he was truly missing her.
When he said his mother's wish was to see him settle down, he was genuinely sad about not being able to fulfill it.
And her?
She was fussing over him zoning out.
She was fussing over who he was thinking about.
She even got angry because of this.
Lin Qingyan bit her lower lip. How could she be like this? How could she be so awful!
Gu Chengyin was clearly so good to her, so devoted.
All along their inspection journey, let alone chasing skirts, he hadn't even spared a glance at another woman.
In a place like Luodu, the streets were full of gorgeously dressed female cultivators, their cosmetic fragrances wafting for miles.
But what about Gu Chengyin?
Besides cultivating, he just waited for her, not even stepping out the door.
Yet she was still bickering over such trivial matters.
Lin Qingyan felt more and more like she was simply a bad woman.
If this continued, what would she do when they returned to Shendu?
Shendu was not like the outside world.
There were many people in Shendu.
They were all waiting for Gu Chengyin to return.
Lin Qingyan's thoughts involuntarily began to spin.
Cui Zilu... forget it, Cui Zilu wasn't worth mentioning.
Even though she was the eldest young miss of the Cui Manor, even though she was cute, even though she also had feelings for Gu Chengyin.
But after all, she wasn't even in Shendu, so she could be ignored.
Gu Xiaoli... even less worth mentioning. She wasn't even human; on what grounds could a mere cat demon compete with her?
Shangguan Yunying.
Lin Qingyan's eyelashes fluttered slightly.
Jiang Qingshan's granddaughter, the eldest young miss of the Shangguan Manor, and Luo Zhao's chief female official.
To stabilize the Azure Sword Sect, Gu Chengyin would inevitably maintain his relationship with her. She could be said to be the biggest threat on the surface.
But Lin Qingyan thought about it and still didn't take it too much to heart.
At the end of the day, there was still a massive gap between them.
Jingzhe of the Tianshi Mansion vs. the eldest young miss of the Shangguan family.
How could she possibly lose?
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.”
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!
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.
lan, the Luo family, tracked him down - along with the babies in their arms. Mo Xuan stared pensively at the paternity test results from over a dozen top institutions, both domestic and international, showing a 99.99% match between himself and the two baby girls. At 23, Mo Xuan, a doctoral student, had become the father of two three-year-old children. The kicker? The mothers weren't even the same person! He gradually realized he was being lured step by step into an elaborate trap designed by these two yandere sisters. "Be good, little Xuan. Sister's life belongs to you entirely." "Brother, if you try to run away, I'll have no choice but to tie you up." Mo Xuan: "Do whatever you want, ladies. I give up."
