The next day.
By the time Gu Chengyin returned to the Crown Prince's Palace from the Heavenly Masters' Residence, the sunlight had already climbed to the highest point of the corridor pillars.
He came back alone. Lin Qingyan was still in bed.
After all, when this fairy maiden had taken the initiative to propose the wedding chamber, Gu Chengyin certainly wasn’t about to decline.
When he got up, Lin Qingyan was still curled up under the quilt, her long hair scattered across the pillow, her cheeks still tinged with a lingering blush.
She breathed evenly and deeply, like a sated cat too lazy to even stretch its claws.
Before leaving, Gu Chengyin sat for a moment on the edge of the bed. He reached out and brushed a stray lock of hair from Lin Qingyan's forehead back behind her ear.
Her lashes fluttered, but she didn't wake. She only burrowed deeper into the covers.
With a mumbled, unintelligible word, she fell back into a deep sleep.
Gu Chengyin looked at her soft, languid state and felt rather puzzled.
Was it that Lin Qingyan was too weak, or that he was too strong?
How was it that he could get up feeling as energetic as ever, as if nothing had happened?
Yet Fairy Jingzhe, who was supposed to be invincible at the Golden Core stage, couldn't even muster the strength to open her eyes.
This question circled once in Gu Chengyin's mind. Finding no answer, he set it aside for now.
The moment Gu Chengyin stepped into the Crown Prince's Palace, a young female official darted out from under the porch.
She was running so fast that her hat was crooked. Panting, she stopped in front of him,
gave a clumsy bow, and gasped out breathlessly:
"Ju... Junior Preceptor Gu, His Highness instructed that you are to come straight to the main hall upon your return. His Excellency Pavilion Elder Cui is here."
Cui Shifan had come?
Gu Chengyin nodded, asked no further questions, and strode toward the main hall with large steps.
His pace was as composed as ever, but his mind was already churning.
As the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, Cui Shifan rarely set foot in the Crown Prince's Palace.
This wasn't a matter of protocol; it was a matter of stance.
Cui Shifan was the head of the Cui clan, the representative of the great aristocratic families.
And the Crown Prince's Palace was Luo Zhao's territory, the stronghold of the Crown Prince's faction.
For Cui Shifan to come to the Crown Prince's Palace, regardless of what he discussed, gave outsiders the impression that he was the one making a move.
Given Cui Shifan's shrewdness, he wouldn't do something so pointless.
Unless... his purpose here carried more weight than the question of appearances.
Gu Chengyin walked along the covered walkway, crossed the central courtyard, and paused for a single step on the stairs leading to the main hall.
Sunlight slid down from the glazed tiles on the rooftop and landed on his shoulders, casting a thin halo around him.
Gu Chengyin narrowed his eyes slightly, then stepped briskly up the stairs.
Just as he was about to cross the threshold, a hand shot out from the side and grabbed his sleeve.
The grip wasn't strong, but it was tight—tight enough that the fingertips were trembling.
Gu Chengyin turned his head.
Shangguan Yunying was standing beside the threshold.
Her face was anxious, her lips pressed tightly until they were white, the rims of her eyes faintly red.
She looked like a drawn bowstring, taut to the breaking point.
She pulled Gu Chengyin into the shadow beside the door and said in a voice full of unmistakable panic:
"What do we do! Cui Shifan has come to propose a marriage!"
Gu Chengyin blinked.
A marriage proposal?
He stepped forward, pulling Shangguan Yunying slightly closer to him.
With his other hand, he covered the back of her hand, the one gripping his sleeve, and patted it gently.
"Yunying, calm down first. Tell me slowly."
"Is Cui Shifan proposing to His Highness?"
Shangguan Yunying shook her head. Her voice still trembled:
"Cui Shifan hasn't said it outright, but according to information the Palace Affairs Office received, it's highly likely he's come to the Crown Prince's Palace today to propose a marriage on behalf of Cui Zilong."
"It's just that, because I'm His Highness's chief female official, he wanted to give His Highness a heads-up first."
When Gu Chengyin heard this, he laughed. It was the kind of laugh an adult gives a child who's afraid of a monster that doesn't exist.
A laugh that was both sympathetic and helpless.
He pulled Shangguan Yunying into his embrace.
His arm wrapped around her waist, enclosing her completely in the small space between himself and the pillar.
"It's just a rumor. Since Cui Shifan hasn't said it yet, don't take it as true."
"Besides, I would never let you marry Cui Zilong."
Shangguan Yunying's body stiffened for an instant in Gu Chengyin's arms, then slowly went soft.
All her tension and panic, all the fear and anxiety she had built up, melted away into water in that moment.
Shangguan Yunying knew she had panicked.
She had started panicking the moment she heard the news that Cui Shifan might propose a marriage.
She told herself not to panic. She told herself that Gu Chengyin wouldn't let her marry Cui Zilong.
But it didn't work.
Because Gu Chengyin hadn't come back all night.
He was at the Heavenly Masters' Residence, with Lin Qingyan.
With that Lord Jingzhe, whom she couldn't compare to right now.
Shangguan Yunying didn't know what Gu Chengyin was doing. She didn't know what he was thinking.
She didn't know if he still remembered that there was someone waiting for him in the Crown Prince's Palace.
All she knew was that she hadn't seen him, hadn't heard his voice, hadn't felt his warmth.
So she was panicked.
And now, Gu Chengyin was back.
Shangguan Yunying's panic finally subsided at that moment.
Her lips moved. She wanted to say something, but didn't know how to say it.
Her throat was choked with many words. Every one of them wanted to come out, but every one of them caught.
She knew she shouldn't ask.
Asking would make her seem difficult. Asking would seem like she didn't trust him.
But if she didn't say it, it would eat her up inside.
Finally, Shangguan Yunying said in a small voice: "It's your fault for not coming back all night..."
When these words came out, her voice was so tiny it sounded like a cat that had done something wrong, mewling softly. Both aggrieved and guilty.
She wanted Gu Chengyin to know she was jealous, yet didn't dare to let him know she was jealous.
Her face was buried in his chest, afraid to lift her head, afraid to see his expression.
Gu Chengyin didn't explain.
Because explanations never explained anything properly.
So he just tightened his arms a little and rubbed his chin against the top of Shangguan Yunying's hair, accepting her words through his actions.
"In any case, I'll take care of this. You can rest assured, Yunying."
Gu Chengyin lowered his head, his lips brushing against her ear.
"You can only marry me. Understand?"
Shangguan Yunying's face instantly flushed scarlet.
From her cheeks to her ears, from her ears to her neck. She turned red all over, like a shrimp thrown into a steamer.
Every part of her was aflame.
Her fingers clenched the fabric of his clothes. Her lips were pressed tightly together.
As if afraid that if she opened her mouth, something she shouldn't say might come spilling out.
After saying this, Gu Chengyin released Shangguan Yunying.
He was clean and decisive, without any hesitation.
As if the tenderness just moments ago had been nothing more than a natural pause in the conversation.
When the time came, the curtain fell. The actor exited the stage.
He turned and strode into the main hall, leaving only his back, framed by the doorway like a painting.
Shangguan Yunying stood in place, watching that painting.
Her face was still red. Her heart was still racing. Her entire body still burned.
Only after Gu Chengyin's back had disappeared into the shadow of the hall did she seem to remember something.
She spat lightly in the direction of the hall entrance and muttered in a low voice:
"Who said I wanted to marry you!"
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.
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...
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.”
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!
