“See? Getting anxious again.”
Compared to Cui Shifan’s fiery temper, Gu Chengyin was far more composed.
His expression hadn't changed since the moment Cui Shifan glared at him.
His state of mind was so calm it didn’t seem like he had just been yelled at to his face.
Facing an old fox like Cui Shifan, Gu Chengyin handled him with ease.
The more anxious you get, the more stable he becomes.
The more stable you are, the more anxious he grows.
That was the basic rule of the game.
“Pavilion Elder Cui, I have no intention of being disrespectful.”
“Not only that, I hold you in great esteem, and I also hold Zilu in great esteem.”
“That’s precisely why I say this is a special case.”
When Gu Chengyin spoke of respect, he was telling Cui Shifan:
This isn’t a transaction, nor is it about weighing pros and cons.
You have your difficulties, and I have mine.
That was why he was speaking so plainly.
Cui Shifan’s lips twitched, and he understood the meaning perfectly.
He had known it ever since Gu Chengyin mentioned “special circumstances.”
It was clearly referring to Lord Jingzhe from the Celestial Master’s Residence.
Lin Qingyan, whether in status, position, or strength, was beyond anything the Cui clan could match.
The Celestial Master’s Residence was an entity that stood above the imperial court—under no jurisdiction, bound by no officials.
It answered only to Taihe alone.
The Cui clan might be a millennial-old lineage, with former students and old subordinates scattered across the land, their roots buried deep in every crack of the court.
But before the Celestial Master’s Residence—before Lin Qingyan—they were nothing.
Let alone mentioning the words “invincible at the Golden Core stage,” which could terrify countless noble houses.
Cui Shifan fell silent.
Countless emotions roiled and clashed in his chest, like a pack of trapped beasts desperately trying to break free.
But Cui Shifan suppressed them.
Not because he had seen reason, not because he had accepted it.
But because he knew that before absolute power, all emotions were useless.
Anger would not weaken Lin Qingyan; resentment would not make Cui Zilu more worthy; heartache would not change Gu Chengyin’s mind.
The only thing he could do was accept.
Cui Shifan opened his mouth, about to say something, but the moment his lips parted, he stopped.
He turned his head toward the palace gate.
Gu Chengyin also turned to look.
At the gate of the Crown Prince’s Palace, a carriage came to a steady halt.
It was small, with a plain black lacquered top and no ornamentation.
It looked no different from the ordinary carriages seen everywhere on the streets of the divine capital.
But the horses pulling it were sleek and muscular, their hooves gently pawing the ground in a rhythmic tapping sound.
These were palace horses—fine steeds carefully raised by the Imperial Stable.
The carriage curtain was pushed open from inside, and a face slowly emerged.
Lyu Fang.
He descended from the carriage, steadied himself, and didn’t immediately walk forward. Instead, he first looked around.
His gaze swept from the gate to the courtyard, from the courtyard to the corridor, from the corridor to the entrance of the main hall.
Lyu Fang’s eyes paused briefly on Gu Chengyin and Cui Shifan.
Then he nodded to them from a distance.
Gu Chengyin narrowed his eyes slightly and murmured,
“His Majesty moves faster than I expected.”
Cui Shifan nodded in complete agreement, his gaze still fixed on Lyu Fang.
Both of them knew why Lyu Fang was here.
From the moment news spread that Cui Zilu had proposed a marriage to Gu Chengyin, the palace would inevitably react.
Because this matter had touched Emperor Luo’s bottom line.
A marriage alliance between the Cui clan and the Crown Prince’s faction would shatter the balance of the court.
That balance was the very foundation that kept Emperor Luo securely on the dragon throne.
It was the capital that allowed him to mediate adroitly among all factions.
Now, someone was about to flip the table.
Emperor Luo would not sit idly by.
He was bound to act—it was only a matter of time.
But what Cui Shifan and Gu Chengyin hadn’t expected was how quickly Emperor Luo would act.
So quickly that Cui Shifan hadn’t even left the Crown Prince’s Palace yet, so quickly that the two hadn’t even finished their conversation.
And yet, Lyu Fang’s carriage had already stopped at the gate.
This meant that Emperor Luo had known from the moment Cui Shifan stepped into the Crown Prince’s Palace.
He had already been considering it the moment Cui Shifan made the marriage proposal.
He had made a decision the moment Cui Shifan and Gu Chengyin walked out of the main hall.
This speed wasn’t just quick reflexes—it was preparation.
Emperor Luo hadn’t started thinking about this just today. He might have been thinking about it from the day Cui Zhenji resigned.
He had merely been waiting.
Waiting for Cui Shifan to make his move, waiting for Gu Chengyin to respond.
Waiting for everyone to show their stance.
And then he acted.
Gu Chengyin and Cui Shifan had no intention of continuing their conversation.
There was no need.
Lyu Fang’s appearance meant today’s discussion ended here.
No matter what they had just been talking about, no matter how far their discussion had progressed, no matter what tacit understanding they had reached.
None of it mattered now.
Because the most important thing now was not whether Cui Zilu could marry Gu Chengyin.
It was what Lyu Fang would do next.
Both watched as Lyu Fang walked from the palace gate toward the main hall.
As he approached the doorway, he paused, nodded to the two men under the corridor, then continued straight into the hall.
He didn’t approach them. His goal was clear: he was heading to the main hall.
Gu Chengyin’s eyes flickered as he watched Lyu Fang’s figure.
This trip by Lyu Fang was neither for him nor for Cui Shifan.
It was for Luo Zhao.
He had judged this the moment Lyu Fang headed toward the main hall instead of toward them.
If Lyu Fang had come for him, he would have walked straight to the corridor.
If Lyu Fang had come for Cui Shifan, he would have done the same.
But no.
Lyu Fang walked to the main hall.
It meant his target was not under the corridor—it was inside the hall.
Gu Chengyin’s eyes narrowed again.
Emperor Luo was summoning Luo Zhao to the palace—right at this critical juncture.
Cui Shifan had just made his proposal, Gu Chengyin had just seen him out, and then Lyu Fang appeared.
The timing was too precise to be coincidental.
Emperor Luo had been waiting—waiting for Cui Shifan to finish speaking, waiting for Gu Chengyin to see him out, waiting for them to have their private conversation under the corridor.
Then he dispatched Lyu Fang.
Not to interrupt them, but to tell them:
I know what you’re doing. I know everything.
After watching Lyu Fang enter the main hall, Gu Chengyin withdrew his gaze and turned to Cui Shifan.
Cui Shifan also withdrew his gaze, and their eyes met in the air.
“Pavilion Elder Cui, I won’t see you out.”
These words meant one thing clear: You may go now.
Cui Shifan let out a soft grunt.
His expression shifted from the earlier gravity to an even calmer understanding.
If Lyu Fang hadn’t appeared, he could have continued talking with Gu Chengyin.
About Cui Zilu, about the marriage proposal, about the special circumstances, about whether she would be the primary wife or a concubine.
About whether there was any way to save face for the Cui family without costing Gu Chengyin anything substantively.
But Lyu Fang had appeared. So things had to be put on hold for now.
Before Emperor Luo’s stance became clear, everything they said was meaningless.
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?!
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
