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.
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!
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
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.
