A hint of a smile flickered in Lin Qingyan’s eyes.
It was faint, yet carried an unspeakable satisfaction.
She thought back to yesterday, when Gu Chengyin had lifted the hypnosis on the Heart Demon.
At that moment, though she hadn’t sensed any electricity from him,
Lin Qingyan still had her intuition—it told her what Gu Chengyin wanted to do, what he was about to do.
He wanted to hypnotize her.
Because she had lost control.
Because she had suppressed Gu Chengyin and tried to force herself upon him.
And indeed, back then, Lin Qingyan had been swept up in the heat of the moment. After the truth of the Heart Demon was exposed, fear gripped her.
She feared Gu Chengyin would despise her for it, would distance himself from her—so she acted impulsively.
But someone like Gu Chengyin could never be coerced.
So he needed to hypnotize her, to turn her back into a controllable Lin Qingyan.
Realizing this, Lin Qingyan finally came to her senses.
Her heart held no anger, no disappointment.
Only a strange stillness.
Lin Qingyan understood Gu Chengyin’s thoughts. She understood his choice.
This matter had indeed been her mistake.
Gu Chengyin was the one in control. Everything had to remain under his command.
Her offering herself to him was not happiness, not a good thing in his eyes.
It was a threat—an uncontrollable factor that needed to be corrected.
So, Lin Qingyan made a swift decision.
She pretended the Heart Demon was overwhelmingly powerful, beyond her ability to match.
In truth, she had long since used absolute strength to firmly rein it in, swapping it out to the forefront.
What Gu Chengyin faced was the Heart Demon.
What he hypnotized was also the Heart Demon.
The Heart Demon had no room to resist, turning once again into an obedient puppet.
And Lin Qingyan hid behind the Heart Demon, quietly watching it all.
Watching herself being returned to Gu Chengyin’s hands.
Watching everything fall back into place.
That dead indifference—caring about nothing—was real.
Because that was the Heart Demon’s natural state.
The Heart Demon carried all pain and hatred, unconcerned with anything, and uncared for by anyone.
Coupled with the vast gap in power, Lin Qingyan could dominate it so completely.
After the hypnosis, Lin Qingyan stayed hidden behind the Heart Demon.
She avoided letting any hint of a flaw slip through for Gu Chengyin to notice.
Only at the right moments would she switch back out to answer his questions.
Brief acts of disguise and performance—Lin Qingyan could manage that.
But she couldn’t keep it up for long. If she had to face Gu Chengyin continuously,
she couldn’t guarantee she wouldn’t let her true feelings show.
Because her love for Gu Chengyin was too intense—so strong that she herself could barely suppress it.
Yet if Gu Chengyin ever discovered she was faking it, the consequences would be unthinkable.
Their relationship and their feelings could shatter.
So, the hypnotized Heart Demon became the perfect cover.
As long as Lin Qingyan hid behind it, she wouldn’t be detected by Gu Chengyin at all.
No desire or love would surface; all Gu Chengyin would see was a hollow, uncaring stillness.
Lin Qingyan’s thoughts drifted a little.
Why had she turned a blind eye to Taihe’s orders?
Why did she only listen to Gu Chengyin?
Because that was the Heart Demon.
Its master was Gu Chengyin.
So it only followed Gu Chengyin—Taihe was nothing.
The master hadn’t ordered it to obey Taihe, so it simply ignored her.
That wasn’t an act; it was genuine disregard.
Lin Qingyan’s lips curled a little deeper at the corners.
Because of this, Gu Chengyin would be even more convinced that she had been hypnotized.
But in reality, she hadn’t been hypnotized at all.
Instead, she was hidden behind the Heart Demon, watching his every move with keen interest.
Just like back in Luoshui County, when she had observed Gu Chengyin from the shadows.
Only then, she had been curious—curious about why he was so formidable.
Now, it was love—love so overflowing she could barely contain it, love that longed to give herself to him.
That was why, when Gu Chengyin moved to hypnotize her, she hadn’t fought back.
Instead, she had pushed the Heart Demon forward.
Because she loved him.
Because she didn’t want Gu Chengyin to hate her.
Because she wished to follow his will.
At first, Lin Qingyan hadn’t thought this way. She had assumed that giving herself to Gu Chengyin
would make him happy—that he wouldn’t refuse.
After all, she was Jingzhe of the Heavenly Master Manor, and her feelings for him were genuine.
What sort of gift could resist that?
But later, Lin Qingyan realized she had been wrong.
Gu Chengyin didn’t like this kind of gift.
He was the one in control.
He was the active party.
Though his power wasn’t yet at its peak, though he still needed her protection for now—that didn’t mean she could force him.
Gu Chengyin would not yield to any pressure.
Any form of pressure made him wary, resistant, defiant.
A flicker passed through Lin Qingyan’s eyes.
She recalled her earlier tests—the subtle hints, the deliberately revealed affection.
Every time, Gu Chengyin’s reaction was the same.
Restrained, self-controlled, quietly creating distance.
But now, looking back, Lin Qingyan felt no anger, no disappointment.
Because she finally understood.
She understood what kind of person Gu Chengyin truly was.
She understood the right way to approach him.
She understood how to possess him.
So she had acted decisively, hiding herself away.
When the sun rose again, everything would return to its proper course.
Since Gu Chengyin wanted control, she would let him control her.
Since he wanted her to obey, she would obey.
Since he wanted things to return to normal, she would let them.
Deep within Lin Qingyan’s eyes, something gleamed faintly.
She didn’t dislike this—in fact, she even liked it a little.
She liked being controlled by Gu Chengyin. She liked being commanded by him.
Even more, she liked following him like this, inseparable, watching over him, protecting him.
Unseen by anyone, undisturbed by anyone.
Wasn’t this, in its own way, a version of their private world?
Though she couldn’t yet let her true self appear before Gu Chengyin.
Though she could only manifest from the void like this.
Though every time she switched out to answer a question, she had to be cautious, dreading a slip-up.
But Lin Qingyan wasn’t in a hurry. She had plenty of patience.
Besides, she wouldn’t have to wait long. Gu Chengyin had promised her—he would avenge her.
And Lin Qingyan would wait until that day came.
Wait until his cultivation surpassed hers, until his power exceeded hers, until he truly controlled everything.
By then, Gu Chengyin would no longer avoid her.
By then, he would take the initiative to own her.
By then…
A deep shadow passed over Lin Qingyan’s eyes, and something fierce churned within them.
By then, Gu Chengyin would surely claim her fiercely.
Just as she had always longed for.
Just as she had longed for since long, long ago.
Lin Qingyan withdrew her gaze, quietly fading back into the void.
No rush.
Patience was key.
She could wait.
After all, Gu Chengyin couldn’t escape.
From beginning to end, he could never escape.
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!
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?!
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.”
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?"
