But in the end, nothing happened.
Gu Chengyin did not let Lin Qingyan release her inner demon.
Even though if she did, Gu Chengyin could turn Lin Qingyan into a wanted criminal and ruthlessly arrest her.
But he still didn't do that.
Instead, he leaned against the carriage wall and held Lin Qingyan in his arms.
It was like holding a large doll, his movements gentle and intimate.
He held her with careful cherishment, without any inappropriate actions.
Lin Qingyan was also very obedient, quietly curled up in his arms, motionless.
Even though her heartbeat was still a bit fast, and her face still a bit hot, she didn't act recklessly.
Because she had promised Gu Chengyin that without his consent, she could not casually release her inner demon.
Even if Lin Qingyan didn't understand why.
Gu Chengyin clearly knew she liked him and knew she wouldn't refuse.
He clearly could have gone a step further, yet he stopped here.
Why?
This thought circled in Lin Qingyan's mind, but she didn't ask it out loud.
She could feel the electricity on Gu Chengyin's body; it was the fluctuation of his thinking.
She was already very familiar with it.
Gu Chengyin was thinking about something, something very important.
And just as Lin Qingyan sensed, Gu Chengyin was indeed pondering.
Pondering his future with Lin Qingyan.
Gu Chengyin did not agree to let her release the inner demon, nor did he go a step further.
It wasn't that he couldn't, but that he was keeping a distance.
Was Lin Qingyan truly awake?
She merely looked awake.
She merely made him feel that she was awake.
Gu Chengyin lowered his eyes and looked at the sleeping face of Fairy Jingzhe in his arms.
A ray of sunlight leaked through the gap in the curtains and fell on her cheek.
It made the faint blush on her face even more obvious.
Her eyelashes were very long, slightly curled upwards, casting fine shadows on her eyelids.
Her breathing was soft and even, as if she had truly fallen asleep.
Gu Chengyin withdrew his gaze and looked into the void.
Ever since he called her Lord Jingzhe once.
Lin Qingyan's reaction at that time served as a reminder to Gu Chengyin.
It also made him realize that his way of keeping distance was wrong.
He shouldn't deliberately distance himself, nor should he intentionally give her the cold shoulder.
Instead, it should be restraint, self-discipline, and stopping just before crossing the line.
They could hug, cuddle, and kiss.
But, nothing more than that.
This way, Lin Qingyan wouldn't get angry.
This way, it could also weaken the inner demon.
And only in this way would he not fall too deeply into it.
Gu Chengyin sighed deeply in his heart.
Lin Qingyan was truly too good, too perfect.
So perfect that Gu Chengyin had to constantly remind himself.
This was a transaction.
She was a soft spot, a weakness, a fatal vulnerability.
Just like Emperor Luo, this emperor of the Great Luo possessed brilliant methods, a vicious eye, and deep thoughts.
He turned the clouds and rain in the imperial court, navigated political schemes with ease, and gathered all the heroes of the world into his trap.
But Gu Chengyin never felt that Emperor Luo was invincible.
Because Emperor Luo had a soft spot.
And this soft spot was in his hands, firmly grasped by him.
As long as the soft spot was in his hands, Emperor Luo could do nothing to him.
Therefore, Gu Chengyin would never allow himself to be like Emperor Luo.
To have his soft spot grasped by someone else, leaving him helpless.
Even if this soft spot was the invincible Golden Core cultivator, Lin Qingyan.
But precisely because she was invincible at the Golden Core stage.
It was even more dangerous.
This danger did not come from the outside world, but from Lin Qingyan herself.
An abyss ahead, and hell behind.
The best method Gu Chengyin could think of right now was to keep his distance and stay exactly where they were.
Neither advancing recklessly nor distancing himself.
The rest, he would leave to time.
Right at this moment, Lin Qingyan felt a stir in her heart. She didn't open her eyes and maintained her posture.
But just now, she had a feeling.
Gu Chengyin had confirmed something, and it was something very important.
And it was about her.
This feeling was very subtle, indescribable, yet truly existed.
Because she could feel the electricity on Gu Chengyin's body.
This was an innate ability of Lin Qingyan's.
From childhood to adulthood, she could feel the electricity on everyone's body.
It was not the electricity of thunder and lightning, but a kind of fluctuation.
This thing was hidden in everyone, hidden in their gazes, hidden in their smiles, hidden in their every movement.
The electricity on some people was malicious, cold and clammy, making one want to stay far away.
The electricity on some people was greedy, scorching and piercing, making one feel uncomfortable all over.
The electricity on some people was hypocritical, warm on the surface, but hiding calculation inside.
Lin Qingyan hated the electricity on everyone.
Except for her sister.
The electricity on her sister was clean, pure, and carried the warmth of a family member.
And Gu Chengyin.
The electricity on Gu Chengyin was the best.
There was no malice, no greed, no hypocrisy, and no strange things at all.
There was only tolerance and closeness.
There was only the urge that made her want to cuddle with him.
This was also why Lin Qingyan kept everyone three feet away, yet always liked to stick close to Gu Chengyin.
Because she hated everyone's electricity, but only liked Gu Chengyin's.
But just now...
Lin Qingyan's eyelashes trembled slightly.
In that very moment just now, she keenly sensed it.
The electricity on Gu Chengyin's body had changed.
How should she put it...
It was still tolerant, still close, and still made her want to cuddle.
But...
There was no future.
Yes, no future.
It was as if it suddenly had an expiration date; when the time was up, this electricity would disappear.
Lin Qingyan's heart suddenly clenched.
She remembered saying just now that she wanted to release her inner demon; it was a probe driven by the restlessness of the inner demon, a hint that she wanted to take a step further.
But in the end, Gu Chengyin just held her in his arms.
He didn't agree, didn't make a move, nothing at all.
Lin Qingyan thought he was pondering things, such as the situation in the Divine Capital, Emperor Luo's intentions, and so on.
She thought that after he figured it out, something would happen.
But Gu Chengyin didn't. Not only that, the electricity on his body had also changed.
It had changed to have an expiration date.
A thought suddenly flashed through Lin Qingyan's mind.
This thought was like a bolt of lightning, splitting through all the fog and making her instantly wide awake.
Gu Chengyin... didn't want a future with her?
Once this thought emerged, it could no longer be suppressed.
Lin Qingyan began to recall.
Recalling every little detail from the time they met until now.
He hugged her, he kissed her, he said he missed her, he said he liked her.
But he never mentioned the future.
He never said what would happen later.
And he never promised anything.
Lin Qingyan's heart sank bit by bit.
She thought of the look in Gu Chengyin's eyes when he looked at her; in those eyes, there was gentleness, affection, and cherishment.
But within that gentleness, there was always a faint trace of restraint.
Just like the electricity on his body right now.
Tolerant, close, yet...
Without a future.
Only an expiration date.
Lin Qingyan suddenly felt a bit sad.
She was clearly nestled in Gu Chengyin's arms, his body heat clearly transmitting through the fabric.
She could clearly still feel the electricity on his body, the electricity she liked.
But Lin Qingyan still felt sad, a sadness seeping out from the bottom of her heart.
She opened her mouth, wanting to ask something.
But when the words reached her lips, she swallowed them back down.
Ask what?
Ask if we have no future?
Then how would she face his answer?
What if Gu Chengyin said yes?
Cheng's father told him he was getting remarried—to a wealthy woman. Cao Cheng realized his time had finally come: he was about to become a second-generation rich kid. Sure, it might be a watered-down version, but hey, at least he'd have status now, right? The wealthy woman also had four daughters!! Which meant, starting today, Cao Cheng gained four stunning older sisters?? But that wasn't even the whole story... "My name is Cao Cheng—'Cheng' as in 'honest, smooth-talking gentleman'!"
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.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
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!
