The Divine Capital. The setting sun scattered through the clouds, casting a mottled glow upon the bluestone slabs before the gates of the Celestial Master's Mansion.
The long inspection procession automatically disbanded the moment they set foot in the Divine Capital.
The experts from various departments and families gathered their belongings, preparing to return to their respective posts.
Strangely, however, not a single person left immediately.
As if by prior agreement, they all converged toward the Celestial Master's Mansion carriage at the center of the procession. Their expressions were respectful, their steps cautious.
"Junior Preceptor Gu, I take my leave."
"Junior Preceptor Gu, thank you for your care along the way. I am endlessly grateful."
"Young Master Gu, if you ever need anything in the future, please do not hesitate to command me."
...
Voice after voice offered their farewells, respectful and sincere.
The carriage curtains hung low, obscuring the scene inside.
But everyone knew that the generous Junior Preceptor Gu was seated within.
Throughout this journey, although Gu Chengyin had never personally taken action,
he never skimped on the rewards he doled out or the arrangements he made.
Therefore, regardless of which family or department they hailed from, they all held deep approval for this generous superior.
The carriage curtain did not move an inch, and no sound emerged from within.
The crowd did not mind; after paying their respects, they dispersed.
It was not until the final person took their leave that the surroundings of the carriage finally fell quiet.
Inside the carriage, Shangguan Yunying sat upright, listening intently as the commotion outside faded away.
Only then did she straighten her robes, cup her hands in a salute, and say, "I will be leaving first."
Her tone was calm, though her gaze paused slightly as it swept over Gu Chengyin's face.
Shangguan Yunying lowered her eyes and prepared to stand.
However, just as her hand brushed the curtain, it was firmly seized by another hand.
In the next instant, an irresistible force yanked her entire body back.
Before Shangguan Yunying could react, she met a pair of eyes that were mere inches away.
Lin Qingyan's face was almost pressed against hers. Those usually cold eyes were currently gleaming with a light that sent chills down one's spine.
She stared into Shangguan Yunying's eyes and said seriously, word by word:
"After you return, you are not allowed to mention those... those... you know what!"
Her voice was not loud, yet it carried an unquestionable coercion.
Shangguan Yunying blinked. She looked at Lin Qingyan, then at Gu Chengyin, who wore a look of complete innocence beside her.
Suddenly, she understood something. The aloof and detached Golden Core fairy before her...
acting like this right now, was clearly feeling... guilty?
But then again, what had happened was indeed far too absurd.
This realization almost made Shangguan Yunying burst into laughter.
However, she was the chief female official after all. A compliant smile instantly surfaced on her face.
Her attitude was flawlessly respectful: "Since Lady Jingzhe has commanded it, how could this humble subordinate dare disobey?"
Lin Qingyan stared at Shangguan Yunying for a moment, as if judging the truth of her words.
A moment later, she gave a slight nod and released her grip.
Except, the instant she let go, Lin Qingyan subconsciously glanced back at Gu Chengyin.
That glance held a bit of resentment and a bit of annoyance.
If it hadn't been for this bad man, how could she, a dignified Golden Core fairy,
possibly have done such an absurd thing in front of a junior like Shangguan Yunying?
Now she even had to personally issue threats to keep the secret.
If Luo Zhao were to find out that her aunt had gotten involved with her Junior Preceptor...
how could she ever show her face again?
"Mm. You may go,"
Lin Qingyan said faintly, withdrawing her gaze.
Shangguan Yunying nodded, stood up, and lifted the carriage curtain. Before stepping down, she didn't forget to throw a roll of her eyes behind her.
That eye-roll was meant for Gu Chengyin.
She had now spent time with both Luo Zhao and Lin Qingyan.
In the end, she had to simultaneously keep secrets from both sides, while also covering up for both sides.
What kind of logic was this? It was only because Gu Chengyin treated her genuinely well,
and truly protected her, otherwise...
As this thought flashed through her mind, Shangguan Yunying curled her lips and finally jumped off the carriage.
The curtain fell, isolating the inside from the outside.
The carriage started moving again. Its wheels rolled over the bluestone ground, emitting a soft rumbling sound.
Only two people remained inside the carriage.
Gu Chengyin maintained his previous posture, looking at Lin Qingyan with the corners of his mouth slightly turned up.
Feeling uncomfortable under his gaze, Lin Qingyan looked away toward the window.
Outside the window lay the familiar street scenes of the Divine Capital. She had lived here for many years and never found them particularly special.
But at this moment, the fleeting eaves, shops, and pedestrians...
made Lin Qingyan stare intently. In any case, they were definitely better to look at than Gu Chengyin.
The other three carriages belonging to the Golden Core enshrinements still followed closely, guarding the Celestial Master's Mansion carriage tightly from the rear, left, and right.
It wasn't until they drove through the gates of the Celestial Master's Mansion that these three carriages quietly disappeared, as if they had never existed.
The Celestial Master's Mansion in the Divine Capital was unusually quiet.
When Gu Chengyin stepped down from the carriage, his gaze swept the surroundings, but he barely saw a single figure.
The massive courtyard was empty; only a few fallen leaves swirled on the ground, blown by the wind.
Before he had the chance to say anything, he saw Lin Qingyan wave her sleeve.
A streak of flowing light flew out from her sleeve. As it landed, it transformed into a seven-story pagoda.
The Heart-Calming Pagoda.
The pagoda's body was entirely pitch-black, gleaming with a dark, cold light under the sun.
The pagoda doors were wide open. The inside was dark and gloomy, its depths obscured, with only a faint fluctuation of spiritual energy vaguely emanating from within.
Lin Qingyan turned slightly and made a gesture of invitation toward Gu Chengyin.
Her face held no expression, and her tone was perfectly flat.
But the words she spoke were impossible to ignore:
"Go in yourself, my imperial prisoner."
Gu Chengyin looked at the dark pagoda doors.
Looking in from the outside, it seemed like a bottomless cavern.
Or perhaps an airtight little dark room.
His mouth twitched slightly. Was Lin Qingyan hinting at something?
But Gu Chengyin said nothing and simply strode toward the pagoda doors.
As he passed by Lin Qingyan, he paused slightly and turned his head to glance at her.
Lin Qingyan met his gaze expressionlessly, though there was indeed something hidden in the depths of her eyes.
Gu Chengyin withdrew his gaze and stepped into the pagoda.
His silhouette was quickly swallowed by the darkness, and even his footsteps vanished into the silence.
Lin Qingyan stood outside the pagoda doors, watching Gu Chengyin disappear into the darkness.
The light hidden in her eyes began to flicker, a complex gleam.
It contained satisfaction, reassurance, and a trace of an imperceptible... morbidity.
But soon, Lin Qingyan lowered her eyelashes, completely concealing the strange look in her eyes.
She had originally thought that upon returning to the Divine Capital, Gu Chengyin would go off to busy himself with his own affairs.
He had always been like this—forever having endless things to do and endless people to see.
And Lin Qingyan had always watched from afar, silently paying attention, occasionally appearing only to quietly vanish again.
But that was all before the sect inspection. When she formally appeared before Gu Chengyin
and set off with him on the inspection journey, Lin Qingyan truly hadn't expected it.
When they left the Divine Capital, the distance between them had been so vast.
Yet now that they had returned, their relationship had become so close.
So close that Lin Qingyan was even willing to do something so absurd.
Fortunately, an imperial edict had given her an ample excuse.
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.
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.
ine. During your journey, you save an abandoned baby girl and become her elder brother】 【You rely on each other, becoming each other's support】 【At the end of the simulation, you shield the now-grown girl with your life, sacrificing yourself to block numerous demonic cultivators. You die, and the light in the girl's eyes fades】 …… 【Second Simulation: You are transported to a world where steam and magic coexist】 【You immerse yourself in the study of magic, obsessed with its research. One day, while out, you encounter a half-blooded demon girl wandering the streets. You take her in as your student】 【You teach the demoness what it means to be human, show her the beauty of the world, and nurture her into a miracle that surpasses even the gods】 【At the end of the simulation, you die of old age in front of the nearly immortal demoness due to your mortal lifespan】 …… One simulation after another, one encounter after another. Xu Xi suddenly felt something was off: "Wait, you said you're coming to the real world to find me?"
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!
