She felt terribly wronged, but stubbornly refused to cry.
Her eyes reddened again, her eyelashes fluttered, and her lips parted slightly as she was about to question him.
"Yunying, you need to calm down. You'll fall into Qi deviation like this."
Gu Chengyin's voice came faster than hers, low, serious, and deliberate.
His hands cupped her face, his thumb gently brushing across her cheekbone.
"Right now, your cultivation has advanced too quickly. Your Dao heart is unstable."
"If you act rashly again, forget breaking through to the Golden Core stage—even reaching the Great Perfection will be a problem."
These words came like a basin of cold water, pouring down over her head.
Shangguan Yunying's grievance and impulsiveness froze in that instant.
It was as if someone had pressed the pause button; her expression remained stuck in a pout of resentment.
Her mouth slightly open, her eyes rimmed red, her eyelashes bearing a trace of barely-there moisture.
But her gaze had already changed.
From grievance to stunned confusion, from confusion to contemplation, from contemplation to a dawning sense of fear.
Ever since Gu Chengyin had taught her the Azure Cloud Art, her cultivation had indeed skyrocketed.
Originally at the mid-stage of the Foundation Establishment realm, she had relied for years as the chief female officer more on her ability and loyalty than on martial power.
But the Azure Cloud Art changed everything—it was a top-tier celestial technique aimed directly at ascension.
Combined with her previous training in the Azure Sword Art, her cultivation surged like a bursting dam.
She broke through to the late stage of Foundation Establishment on the spot.
And the threshold to the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment was already within her grasp.
At most, she would cross it in three days.
This was the foundation accumulated over many years—not reckless growth, nor a castle in the air.
But... when cultivation advances too quickly, one problem almost always arises:
An unstable Dao heart.
This is also an important reason why Heart Demons appear after breaking through to the Golden Core stage.
The cultivation has advanced, but the Dao heart still lingers at Foundation Establishment.
Shangguan Yunying closed her eyes.
The matter between Lin Qingyan and Gu Chengyin had already shaken her mind deeply.
This was the first time she had lost her composure in front of Gu Chengyin.
Grabbing his collar, eyes red, acting like a child—both aggrieved and throwing a tantrum.
The feeling of losing control felt foreign even to Shangguan Yunying herself.
She had always been gentle, capable, and flawless in handling matters.
But before Gu Chengyin—before the fact that she was the first to arrive yet Lin Qingyan had stolen him away—
Shangguan Yunying's self-control shattered more thoroughly than glass.
If anything really happened between her and Gu Chengyin at this moment,
it would indeed be exactly as he said: Forget the Golden Core stage.
She might not even reach the Great Perfection before falling into Qi deviation.
Shangguan Yunying’s fingers curled slightly inside her sleeve, her nails pressing into her palm.
The force was neither too heavy nor too light, just enough to leave a faint white mark on her palm.
She took a deep breath, very slowly.
As if using the breath to press down all the chaos and restlessness in her chest, bit by bit.
Then a second breath, and a third.
Her heartbeat gradually returned from its wild sprint to a normal rhythm.
Like a wild horse finally tamed, willing to slip into the reins.
Once her mind had settled, Shangguan Yunying slowly opened her eyes.
Those naturally beautiful eyes had regained their clarity.
No longer the dazed, burning, beseeching look from before.
Instead, they held the gaze of the gentle, capable chief female officer.
Her spine straightened again, her shoulders relaxed again, and even her breathing became even and steady once more.
If not for the faint trace of red lingering at the corners of her eyes,
it would be hard to tell that this was the same woman who had just been red-eyed.
"I understand."
Her voice had also returned to calm, tinged with apology:
"Forgive me. I was too impulsive."
Gu Chengyin watched the woman before him—who, in just a few breaths,
had completed the journey from losing control to regaining composure—and his eyes were full of admiration.
This was Shangguan Yunying.
It wasn’t that she had no emotions, but that she knew better than anyone when to let them stop.
This restraint was not a gift but a self-discipline honed day after day, year after year.
Like a piece of iron tempered through countless cycles—cold and hard on the surface,
but only those who truly held it knew that its core could still be heated red; it just cooled faster than others.
Seeing that Shangguan Yunying had recovered, Gu Chengyin did not let go.
His hands still cupped her face, his thumb still resting on her cheekbone.
Instead of pulling away, he drew their distance even closer.
Close enough that the tip of his nose almost brushed hers, close enough for her to see her own reflection in his eyes.
"Yunying."
Gu Chengyin’s voice was as low as a plucked string, its resonance trembling softly in the air.
"You will always be my favorite person."
Every word of this sentence felt seared like a branding iron, scorching Shangguan Yunying’s newly stabilized Dao heart into a violent tremor.
Always.
Favorite person.
The combined impact of these two phrases was ten thousand times greater than any sweet talk.
Because the person saying it was Gu Chengyin.
The one who never spoke extra words, never did extra things, and every word carried weight.
When he said always, it meant always.
When he said favorite, it meant second to none.
Shangguan Yunying’s Dao heart felt as if someone had struck it with a hammer—still intact on the surface, but cracks had spread from the center to the edges.
Her breathing began to waver again, her heartbeat quickened again, her cheeks flushed again.
And at that very moment, Gu Chengyin let her go.
Clean and decisive, dragging no loose ends.
As if the heartfelt confession just now had only been a brief, precisely timed performance.
When the time was up, the curtain fell, and the actor exited.
He stepped back half a pace.
The tenderness and affection on his face shifted in an instant into his usual faintly careless smile.
"I still have something to discuss with His Highness. I'll come find you later."
With that, Gu Chengyin turned, raised his hand, and pushed open the door of the small room.
Morning light rushed in from outside, casting him in a radiant glow.
His silhouette, so clear and slender against the light, with sharp shoulders and a narrow waist,
looked like a fine-brush ink painting, every stroke meticulous.
Then Gu Chengyin stepped out.
The door closed slowly behind him, narrowing the morning light little by little,
until only a thin golden line remained on the floor.
Shangguan Yunying stood still, watching Gu Chengyin’s figure vanish through the gap in the door.
Her fingers still held the position from when she had embraced his neck, slightly curled.
Her fingertips hung in midair, uncertain whether to withdraw or continue reaching.
The warmth and softness of the kiss still lingered on her lips.
Like a piece of candy melted in the mouth, its sweetness lingering on the tongue for a long time.
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
with countless casualties. As a top-tier gamer, Liu Xuan volunteered to join the fight, intending to dominate with his skills, but instead he obtained the hidden class: [Pacifist]. Unable to attack. Unable to use active skills. Fortunately, with each level gained, he acquired a new passive skill. And so, armed with a body full of passives, Liu Xuan slaughtered his way through the battlefield of ten thousand races! [You attacked Liu Xuan] [You gained the debuffs: 'Poison', 'Fear', 'Burning', 'Bleeding', 'Freeze', 'Silence', etc.] [Your attack speed has been reduced by 99%] [Your armor and magic resistance have been reduced by 99%] Warriors of the Ten Thousand Races: How the hell am I supposed to fight this?!
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.
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!
