Gu Chengyin emerged from the side hall and strode briskly toward the main hall.
The hall doors were wide open, and the morning light poured through the frame, flooding the entire chamber with brightness.
He could see the figure seated behind the long table—Luo Zhao had already changed into the crown prince’s everyday robes, her hair neatly combed, head lowered as she examined some document.
Several stacks of memorials were placed on the table, and the one spread open before her bore the cover format of the Ministry of Personnel.
Cui Zhenji’s resignation memorial was indeed in her hands.
Gu Chengyin quickened his pace.
He stepped onto the platform, crossed the threshold, and was about to speak when...
A hand suddenly reached out from the side.
It grabbed him by the collar.
Gu Chengyin felt a force yanking him sideways, his steps involuntarily diverted.
He was dragged away from the entrance of the main hall, pulled toward a small side room.
He didn’t resist.
Because before he even stepped into the main hall’s vicinity, Gu Chengyin had already sensed the owner of that hand.
It was Shangguan Yunying.
As he was dragged into the small room, Gu Chengyin caught a glimpse of Luo Zhao lifting her head in the main hall.
She seemed to sense something and glanced toward the doorway, but saw nothing, so she lowered her head again to continue reading the memorial.
The door of the small room slammed shut behind Shangguan Yunying.
The light abruptly dimmed.
The room was small—a storage side chamber next to the main hall, cluttered with seldom-used ceremonial regalia and implements. The space was so cramped it could barely accommodate two or three people turning around.
Shangguan Yunying’s face moved close.
Her nose nearly brushed against his neck, twitching slightly, as if she were sniffing something.
Gu Chengyin could feel her breath against his throat—warm and urgent, trembling with barely restrained intensity.
Then Shangguan Yunying’s expression changed.
It turned ugly.
She stepped back half a pace and grabbed his collar again.
This time, her grip was fiercer than before—her knuckles white, veins bulging, pulling his collar out of shape.
Her eyes were red-rimmed, her lips pressed into a thin line, and her voice squeezed out between her teeth.
It was both biting and dripping with a nearly tearful grievance.
“Lord Jingzhe slept with you?”
Gu Chengyin blinked. Was that really how you phrased it?
What did she mean by Lin Qingyan sleeping with him?
Shouldn’t it be him sleeping with Lin Qingyan?
After all, he was the one...
Gu Chengyin coughed and was about to explain when he saw Shangguan Yunying’s eyes redden.
It was as if something had burst inside her, splattering all the blood around her eyes.
Her fingers loosened from his collar, one by one, as if all her strength had drained away, falling limply to her sides.
Even her lips pouted, completely at odds with her usual gentle and capable demeanor.
She looked like a child whose candy had been stolen, utterly wronged yet stubbornly refusing to cry.
“I was here first!”
Her voice trembled, carrying a sourness that had been suppressed too long and finally breached its dam.
“I was the first to meet you! Why did you let her sleep with you!”
“Just because she’s the Lord Jingzhe of the Heavenly Master Mansion? Just because she’s at the Golden Core realm?”
Gu Chengyin looked at Shangguan Yunying—her eyes red, her lips pouted, utterly pitiful—and for a moment, he didn’t know what to say.
If you counted it out, Shangguan Yunying indeed was the first woman to have met him, even if she had been hypnotized right after.
Gu Chengyin knew the truth couldn’t be hidden any longer.
Not that he had wanted to hide it, but he had thought it would at least hold up until noon.
Yet he didn’t even make it through the main hall door before Shangguan Yunying intercepted him.
Gu Chengyin stepped forward and pulled Shangguan Yunying into an embrace.
His movement wasn’t particularly gentle, even a bit hasty.
Because he saw that something was already welling up in her eyes.
If he didn’t act in time, it would probably fall within three breaths.
Her body stiffened in his arms for a moment, and then she began to struggle.
Her hands pressed against his chest, her shoves weak—more like a symbolic resistance to state her position.
“Let go of me...”
“Yunying.”
Gu Chengyin spoke softly, a sigh of utter helplessness in his voice.
“To be honest, I didn’t want this either, but...”
“I was forced to.”
Things had reached this point, and Gu Chengyin wasn’t foolish—he hadn’t yet broken through to the Golden Core realm. He wasn’t at a place where absolute strength could control everything.
If he mishandled this, it would become a battlefield of hearts.
Shangguan Yunying’s struggling stopped.
It was as if someone had pressed a pause button. Her hands were still pressed against his chest, her fingertips digging into his robes, but she was completely still.
Slowly, she lifted her head, her gaze fixed on Gu Chengyin’s face, scrutinizing his expression inch by inch.
“Are you saying...”
Her voice came out hesitantly, slowly, as if processing something too absurd to fully digest.
“Lord Jingzhe... she knocked you out with lightning?”
Gu Chengyin didn’t answer. He neither admitted nor nodded.
But his expression was one of perfect resignation and restraint.
Her brows furrowed slightly, the corners of her mouth pressed tight, her eyes seeming to say: I don’t want this either.
At the same time, she let out a soft sigh, a breath escaping from her chest like the melancholy of being toyed with by fate.
“After all, you saw it with your own eyes, so...”
Gu Chengyin’s voice dropped a notch, like the lingering ache of an old wound being reopened.
Shangguan Yunying’s expression changed.
She had indeed seen it with her own eyes—that scene was etched clearly in her memory.
So last night...
Gu Chengyin had been forced!
Shangguan Yunying’s heart felt as if an invisible hand had gripped it, squeezing until it ached.
She recalled how she had berated him just now without distinguishing right from wrong, remembered grabbing him by the collar.
Her eyes reddened even more, but this time it wasn’t from grievance—it was from guilt.
“How could Lord Jingzhe do this!”
Shangguan Yunying threw her arms around Gu Chengyin, wrapping them around his waist, burying her face in his chest.
Her voice was muffled against his clothes, trembling with a mix of anger and heartache:
“She knew you didn’t want this... She knew it all along!”
Gu Chengyin’s hand landed on Shangguan Yunying’s back, patting it gently twice.
His voice was low and tender as he said:
“I’m sorry, Yunying. It’s all my fault. If only I were stronger.”
Shangguan Yunying shook her head vigorously, her hair brushing against his clothes in a faint rustle.
“No, it’s my fault!”
Her voice was choked with sobs: “I shouldn’t have said those things to you. You’ve already been through so much...”
Gu Chengyin’s hand paused on her back, tightening slightly.
“I should be the one saying that.”
“After all, you’re the one I love most, but...”
Gu Chengyin didn’t finish the sentence.
But precisely because it was left unfinished, it felt all the more real.
Shangguan Yunying lifted her head from his chest, her eyes red, her nose red, and her lips trembling slightly.
She looked at Gu Chengyin’s face and made a decision in her heart.
“It’s alright.”
Shangguan Yunying gritted her teeth, her resolve as firm as if she were burning her boats:
“Don’t worry. Once I break through to the Golden Core stage,”
“I will definitely rescue you from Lord Jingzhe’s ‘clutches’!”
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.
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
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.
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!
