It meant that the relationship between Gu Chengyin and Lin Qingyan was far from ordinary.
It meant that before making a move on him, one would first have to weigh whether they could withstand Lin Qingyan's fury.
It meant that from now on, if the Luo Emperor wanted to strike at him again, it would not be so easy.
This was precisely the main reason Gu Chengyin had brought Lin Qingyan to the joint court trial.
To tell everyone, including the Luo Emperor,
that he, Gu Chengyin, was under Lin Qingyan's protection.
As it turned out, the effect was far better than he had anticipated.
However, considering that he would soon be meeting Shangguan Yunying,
and that Gu Chengyin currently did not want to tell her about Lin Qingyan being swapped out—
not because he didn’t trust her,
but because he had a nagging feeling that if Shangguan Yunying found out, some unpredictable trouble would arise—
he decided that, for now, it was best if Lin Qingyan did not appear before her.
Given how sharp this chief female official was, she would surely notice that Lin Qingyan’s state was off.
Just earlier, she had been snatching delicious food with her; now she was as cold as a stone.
Anyone who wasn’t blind could see the stark difference.
Yet the issue of safety could not be ignored.
Gu Chengyin racked his brains, then suddenly had a flash of inspiration and asked:
"Aunt, can you protect me covertly?"
He had meant to ask if Lin Qingyan knew any method to conceal her presence.
After all, he didn’t know much about the techniques of a Golden Core Realm cultivator.
As soon as the words fell, Lin Qingyan looked up at him.
Her gaze remained still, as if she were staring at an irrelevant passerby.
Then, in the next breath,
Lin Qingyan’s figure suddenly faded away.
Like a drop of ink falling into water, it slowly spread, slowly dissolved, and finally merged into the surrounding air.
First her outline blurred, then her color faded.
At last, she vanished completely before Gu Chengyin’s eyes, as if she had never been there.
Gu Chengyin blinked.
In front of him, there was only an empty corridor and sunlight slanting in.
Lin Qingyan had been standing right there just a moment ago—such a large, untainted celestial maiden, and yet she had disappeared before his very eyes.
So this was the Golden Core Realm?
Gu Chengyin attempted to probe with his spiritual sense.
His Dao heart had reached the Golden Core level.
Although his cultivation was still at the Foundation Establishment stage, the intensity and sharpness of his spiritual sense were by no means inferior to a true Golden Core cultivator.
That was the hidden benefit of the Dao heart—it made no noise in combat, but was extremely practical when needed.
Yet after probing thoroughly, Gu Chengyin found nothing.
Everything around him was crystal clear: every pillar in the corridor, every blue brick on the ground,
the breath of every Golden Guard officer in the distance, even the traces of an ant crawling at the corner of the wall.
He could perceive all of it with perfect clarity.
All except Lin Qingyan.
There was not a single trace of her.
As if she had never existed.
Withdrawing his spiritual sense, Gu Chengyin couldn’t help but sigh.
When faced with absolute power, one’s cultivation was still far from enough.
If it weren’t for hypnotizing Lin Qingyan in the Silent Heart Pagoda, he probably would have ended up as her plaything.
No wonder he could never find Gu Xiaoli. That world-weary loli was at the Half-Step Nascent Soul stage, a full level higher than Lin Qingyan. If she deliberately hid, even if she stood right before him, he probably wouldn’t sense her.
Not that being a plaything was entirely bad, but Gu Chengyin still preferred to make playthings of others.
Perhaps that was just his nature—someone like him was born to be the master.
With this thought, Gu Chengyin shook his head and strode toward the Crown Prince’s Palace.
His pace was unhurried, his expression calm.
Yet, in a place where Gu Chengyin could not see,
in the void, a gaze was closely following him.
That gaze pierced through the sunlight, through the corridor’s pillars, through every barrier,
and clung like a tangible thread to Gu Chengyin’s retreating figure.
It was Lin Qingyan.
Her form was hidden in the void, flickering faintly, half-visible.
If anyone could see her at that moment, they would be shocked.
For on that cold, peerlessly beautiful face, the indifference that cared for nothing in the world had vanished.
In its place was an indescribable intensity.
Like embers buried beneath ashes—with no visible sparks on the surface,
yet burning fiercely, scorchingly hot within, hot enough to devour everything.
Lin Qingyan’s gaze slid from Gu Chengyin’s brows and eyes to his shoulders and back.
From his shoulders and back to his waist, from his waist to his stride.
Inch by inch, she traced every detail.
Like looking at a long-lost treasure, or like beholding a delicacy that belonged to her alone.
Infatuation.
Deep in her gaze was a naked, unguarded infatuation.
More than the desire between men and women, it was a primitive possession.
As if Gu Chengyin had always been meant to belong to her.
As if Gu Chengyin could only belong to her.
The corner of Lin Qingyan’s mouth lifted into a faint curve.
That curve was extremely shallow, barely perceptible, as if it might disappear at any moment.
Because she was hidden in the darkness, in the void, with no fear of being discovered by Gu Chengyin.
She could, without restraint, return to her true self.
If Gu Chengyin had seen that curve, he would have recognized it in an instant.
Recognized who this Lin Qingyan truly was.
Not the Lin Qingyan carrying pain and hatred.
But the one he had spent the most time with, knew the best, and understood the deepest.
The Lin Qingyan who possessed desire and love.
"Bad man,"
Lin Qingyan murmured softly, her voice so low it was nearly inaudible.
As if talking to herself, or as if speaking to the figure slowly moving away.
Her gaze still followed Gu Chengyin, infatuated and focused.
Yes.
Lin Qingyan had faked it again.
Just like the first time she had pretended to be a heart demon before Gu Chengyin.
Once again, she had deceived him.
That time, the heart demon carrying pain and hatred had been hypnotized by Gu Chengyin,
and she had made a deal with him to weaken the heart demon.
But this time,
the corner of Lin Qingyan’s mouth deepened by a fraction.
This time, the heart demon carrying pain and hatred had once again been hypnotized.
Only this time, she herself had pushed the heart demon forward.
The process was simple.
Because the current heart demon was so weak.
So weak that, before her, it was like a little puppet she could manipulate at will.
In comparison, she was far too powerful.
So powerful that she could effortlessly hold the heart demon in her palm and control its every move.
When she wanted it to come out, it came out.
When she wanted it to go back, it went back.
When she wanted it to do something, it did it.
Resist? That didn’t exist.
Because the gap in power was that vast.
So vast that the heart demon before her didn’t even qualify to struggle.
Why was this so?
Lin Qingyan’s gaze wavered for a moment.
Because her desire and love had both been satisfied by Gu Chengyin.
That was why she loved Gu Chengyin.
And because of this, she had become so powerful.
So powerful that, even with its pain and hatred, the heart demon could never overwhelm the desire and love she now held.
As long as Gu Chengyin existed, the heart demon could never grow strong again.
It would forever be pinched in her palm, a obedient little puppet.
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
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!
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.
