Shangguan Yunying slowly shook her head, choosing her words carefully. “There shouldn’t be.”
“I probed him. Gu Chengyin’s cultivation hasn’t changed much.”
“There’s no obvious decline either. For now, he’s still at the Great Perfection of the Foundation Establishment stage.”
Luo Zhao nodded, her voice turning even colder:
“That means this crackdown isn’t enough.”
“If we didn’t even bruise the flesh, breaking the bone is out of the question.”
A dark foreboding tightened in Shangguan Yunying’s chest.
She cautiously studied Luo Zhao’s expression, testing the waters.
“Your Highness… what are you planning?”
Luo Zhao didn’t answer right away. She rose and walked slowly to the window.
With her back to Shangguan Yunying, her voice carried forward, heavy with sovereign authority.
“An imperial edict from His Majesty.”
Shangguan Yunying’s heart jolted. She quickly stood and bowed her head in silent attention.
Luo Zhao turned around. The setting sun streamed in behind her, cloaking her face in shadow.
“With regard to Gu Chengyin’s usurpation of the position of the Qing Sword Sect’s Sect Master, this matter is to be placed under the Grand Secretariat’s coordination.”
“The Censorate, the Ministry of Rites, and the Ministry of Justice are ordered to hold a joint tribunal.”
“A deadline of three days is set. The truth must be uncovered without fail.”
The words fell, plunging the hall into dead silence.
Shangguan Yunying stood frozen, momentarily at a loss for words.
The Grand Secretariat’s coordination.
A joint tribunal of three ministries.
A deadline of three days.
She understood all too well what this meant.
The so-called usurpation of the Qing Sword Sect’s Sect Master was an old issue left over from when Gu Chengyin took over.
He had intervened with ruthless efficiency, and Jiang Qingshan had willingly stepped aside.
The outcome was clean—no bloodshed, not a single blade drawn, and the entire Qing Sword Sect secured.
But procedurally, there were indeed points open to criticism.
Under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t have been a major issue. But once it was brought to the public stage—
Once it became the subject of exaggerated scrutiny, before a joint tribunal—
It was no longer a question of procedure.
It was real suppression.
The previous imperial decree had merely cut off Gu Chengyin’s momentum, demoting him from head of the inspection team to a fugitive under imperial warrant.
It had been more of a posture, a warning—or perhaps a test.
But not this time.
The Grand Secretariat’s coordination and a joint tribunal meant they intended to take real action.
If found guilty, the lightest punishment would be stripping him of all titles and status. The worst…
Execution at the Meridian Gate.
And the three-day deadline left no time even to catch a breath.
Shangguan Yunying lifted her head to look at Luo Zhao in the dying sunlight.
Her face betrayed no emotion. But deep in her eyes burned a quiet, smoldering fire.
And then Shangguan Yunying understood.
Luo Zhao didn’t just want to suppress Gu Chengyin. She wanted to tear him down.
To drag him from the lofty height of the Crown Prince’s Grand Mentor into the dust.
Gu Chengyin had followed the previous decree by quietly confining himself to the Heavenly Master’s Residence, hoping to lie low.
But Luo Zhao wouldn’t allow it.
She intended to shatter his peace, to force him out of the Tower of Stillness.
To make him face this storm head-on, forcing him to act.
But…
“Your Highness.”
Shangguan Yunying spoke with difficulty. “If the joint tribunal does find him guilty…”
“And what if it does?”
Luo Zhao cut her off, her voice cold as a winter gale.
“You and I both know exactly who Gu Chengyin is.”
“If he can’t weather even a storm like this, then he doesn’t deserve my…”
Luo Zhao paused, leaving the sentence unfinished.
But Shangguan Yunying caught the unspoken meaning.
Deserve what?
Her concern?
Or her affection?
Luo Zhao turned back to gaze out the window.
“Yunying.”
Her voice suddenly dropped. “What do you think he will do?”
Shangguan Yunying opened her mouth, only to find she had no answer.
What would Gu Chengyin do?
Faced with this situation, what would he do?
Shangguan Yunying didn’t know. That man’s thoughts—she had never been able to fathom them.
So all she could do was answer truthfully:
“Your Highness, I do not know.”
Luo Zhao did not turn back, only uttered a soft “Mm.”
Silence settled once again over the hall.
After a long moment, Luo Zhao’s voice rose again, as light as a sigh:
“I don’t know either.”
She paused, then added:
“But I want to know.”
Shangguan Yunying looked at Luo Zhao’s solitary figure, and a pang of sadness stirred in her chest.
Her Highness, to the outside world, was always the image of aloof and untouchable pride.
But now, bathed in the dying light of the setting sun, she seemed merely an ordinary woman.
Tangled over a man. Tense over a gamble with an uncertain outcome.
Her Highness wanted to provoke Gu Chengyin into action, yet feared he might move too far.
She wanted to drag him down, yet feared she could not control him.
She wanted to prove that everything she had done was worth it, yet feared the proof would show it was not.
This contradiction—Shangguan Yunying knew it all too well.
Because she herself felt the same.
“Yunying.”
Luo Zhao spoke again, her tone reclaimed its usual calm:
“Go rest. You’ve traveled far, and you must be tired.”
Shangguan Yunying studied Luo Zhao, searching for some hint of emotion, but found none.
She could only bow and say, “As you command, Your Highness.”
The moment she stepped out of the hall, she glanced back inside.
Luo Zhao’s silhouette still stood motionless, carved like a statue.
Shangguan Yunying took a deep breath, then quickened her pace and disappeared into the distance.
Luo Zhao stood at the window, still and silent.
The setting sun sank inch by inch into the western hills, the last streak of gold and crimson clinging to the horizon,
yet at last it was swallowed by the creeping darkness of night.
And there, in the sky caught between light and dark, a bright moon had quietly appeared.
Cold, full, sovereign, looking down upon the world from high above.
Luo Zhao watched wordlessly.
Her gaze passed through the window lattice, across the courtyard, over the layered rooftops of the palace, and came to rest upon that moon.
If one peered closely into the depths of her eyes, they would see she was not looking at the moon at all.
But at a man. A man forever standing on a height, forever beyond her reach.
The silvery light fell like his gaze—indifferently covering all things in the world, yet never lingering on anyone.
Slowly, Luo Zhao raised her hand.
Her fingers spread open, reaching toward the moon in the sky, toward that distant, unreachable figure, grasping with all her might.
But only wind slipped through her fingers; her palm remained empty.
Once, twice, Luo Zhao grasped again. Her fingers closed uselessly in the air, seizing nothing.
In that moment, the calm in her eyes shattered.
Like dark currents finally bursting out from beneath a frozen surface. Like a lamp suddenly flickering to life in the deep of night.
Or like...
madness, finally tearing through its disguise.
Her ten fingers clenched violently. Her nails dug deep into her palms. Bones creaked until they became a fist bulging with veins.
Luo Zhao trembled all over—not from fear, not from sorrow.
But from a raging wildfire, long suppressed, finally erupting.
“Gu Chengyin.”
Her voice was soft, as if only to herself.
But within those whispered syllables was a razor-sharp coldness.
“I am the heir to Great Luo.”
Luo Zhao’s head lifted slightly. The moonlight fell upon her face, illuminating those eyes.
There was no trace left of that former calm—only a sick, consuming madness, burning to ashes.
“Why do you get to stand so high above?”
She clenched her teeth, as if crushing each word before swallowing it down.
“Why do you get to care so little about me?”
The corners of Luo Zhao’s mouth twisted into a smile that was not quite a smile—a crooked, eerie shape.
Her face, which should have been exquisitely beautiful, now bore a haunting, unnatural allure.
“Everything in Great Luo belongs to me.”
She paused, then her voice dropped to a whisper so soft it might have been a lover’s murmur.
But what that murmur harbored was far more dangerous than any scream.
“And that includes you.”
Then Luo Zhao smiled.
Like a child who had finally gotten the toy they craved.
Like a madwoman who had finally glimpsed the heart of her obsession.
“So.”
“I will surely drag you down.”
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
