The Crown Prince's Palace.
"Who is Brother going to choose as his bride!"
Gu Xiaoli's voice was crisp and clear, like porcelain landing on a blue stone slab.
Bright and sharp, without the slightest hesitation.
No preamble, no probing, not even a hint of coaxing.
The moment she opened her eyes, she blurted the question out just like that.
Gu Chengyin's lips curved slightly into an ambiguous, half-smiling arc.
"And what does Xiaoli think?"
Gu Chengyin didn't answer. Instead, he tossed the question back at her.
Sunlight fell across his profile, plating half his face in a warm golden glow.
The other half lay hidden in the shadow of the ginkgo tree, the line between light and dark tracing from his brow bone all the way down to his jaw.
Gu Xiaoli's spiritual cat ears stood even straighter.
The fine fur at the tips bristled upright, like a sparrow fluffing up its feathers.
Gu Xiaoli knew Gu Chengyin was teasing her, but she still couldn't help following his line of thought.
Before she could come up with an answer, Gu Chengyin spoke again.
"What about little Aunt?"
As soon as those words left his mouth, it felt like something had been sucked out of the air in the courtyard.
The leaves on the trees seemed to freeze for a moment, and even the wind dared not blow.
Gu Xiaoli's reaction was faster than the wind.
"No!"
The word was squeezed out between her teeth—short, sharp, and full of resistance.
Her voice rose at least three octaves, and the tail end even cracked slightly.
At the same time, the fur on her spiritual cat ears puffed up into a fluffy ball.
Her ear tips pressed back flat against her scalp, the spitting image of a cat that had encountered a predator.
Gu Chengyin looked at her, the amusement in his eyes deepening.
He, of course, knew that Gu Xiaoli would react this way.
The fact that Gu Xiaoli and Lin Qingyan didn't get along was hardly a secret.
Ever since Empress Lin was still around, the two of them had been like a cat and a dog locked in the same cage—not a single day of peace.
Not because of any deep-seated grudge, but simply because their temperaments clashed.
Lin Qingyan was as cold as frost, meticulous in everything, insisting on precision in every move.
Cultivation had to follow strict order, never skipping a step. Even the angle of her chopsticks at mealtime had to be just so.
Gu Xiaoli, on the other hand, was naturally carefree. She learned everything through sheer intuition, never following the rules.
And yet, she could still learn faster than others, turning Lin Qingyan's rules into a joke in front of her.
If the two of them were to live under the same roof...
No, share the same bed.
Gu Chengyin could hardly imagine what a scene that would be.
"Really no?"
Gu Chengyin asked slowly, his tone carrying a faint hint of amusement.
"No, no, no!"
Gu Xiaoli shook her head like a rattle drum, her spiritual cat ears swinging left and right, stirring up a faint rustle in the air.
"Brother, you don't know, Sister Qingyan... she used to even stop Xiaoli from eating candy!"
"She said Xiaoli eats more candy in a day than rice, and that Xiaoli's teeth would rot out sooner or later!"
"Xiaoli is a cat, so how could a cat's teeth rot? She just has it out for Xiaoli!"
Gu Chengyin didn't argue, nor did he defend Lin Qingyan.
He just hummed softly, then offered another name.
"What about Yunying?"
Gu Xiaoli's spiritual cat ears stopped dead.
The fur that had just been puffed into a ball gradually relaxed, her ear tips shifting from pressed back to leaning forward.
They quivered slightly, as if catching some faint sound in the air.
Her big eyes darted around, once left, once right.
Her lips pressed into a thin line, her cheeks puffed out on both sides, as if she had a piece of candy tucked in her mouth.
Gu Xiaoli was hesitating.
That hesitation itself was an answer.
Gu Xiaoli's attitude toward Shangguan Yunying was completely different from her attitude toward Lin Qingyan.
Shangguan Yunying had never told her to stop eating candy, nor had she ever criticized her temperament.
On the contrary, Shangguan Yunying was very good to Gu Xiaoli.
She would often bring Gu Xiaoli especially delicious candied fruit—the osmanthus preserves from Ganlin Hall, an old establishment in Luodu.
Made with the finest golden osmanthus and acacia honey, steeped for a full three months to produce a single batch, sweet enough to seep from the tip of your tongue all the way into your heart.
Only a family with the wealth of the Shangguan household would give such a delicacy away as if it were an ordinary snack.
"Sister Yunying is nice."
Gu Xiaoli finally spoke, her voice much softer than before, carrying a rare seriousness:
"Xiaoli really likes Sister Yunying too."
She paused, and the light in her big eyes dimmed for a moment, like a candle flame flickered by the wind.
"But..."
The word dragged on, the tail note curling around her tongue before falling away:
"Sister Yunying's cultivation is too weak. She can't protect Brother."
Gu Chengyin's brow arched slightly.
He didn't respond right away. Instead, he shifted his gaze from Gu Xiaoli's face.
His eyes drifted upward to the corner of the sky, cut into fragments by the branches and leaves overhead.
The sky was very blue, blue like a flawless piece of glazed tile.
A few white clouds drifted lazily past, casting large, shifting shadows across the courtyard below.
Can't protect.
These three words carried extra weight when spoken by Gu Xiaoli.
Because Gu Xiaoli's judgment wasn't based on personal preference, but on cultivation.
Half-step Nascent Soul.
In the cultivation world of Daluo, setting aside age, those who could even touch the threshold of Nascent Soul could be counted on one hand.
Lin Qingyan was one, Gu Xiaoli was another.
As for the so-called geniuses that remained, compared to these two, they were no more than fireflies beside the bright moon.
So when Gu Xiaoli said someone's cultivation was too weak, she wasn't belittling them, she was stating a fact.
A fact observed from the heights of half-step Nascent Soul, stripped of all personal bias.
Shangguan Yunying might have a promising future, but at the present moment.
Her cultivation was indeed not high. That was the fact.
"If we're going by cultivation alone,"
Gu Chengyin said, unhurried and measured: "Then wouldn't Her Highness the Crown Princess also be out of the question?"
Gu Xiaoli's spiritual cat ears shot straight up, but not the same way they bristled before.
She shook her head forcefully, making the hair ornament at her bun clatter and jingle.
As if she could shake Gu Chengyin's words out of the air itself.
"That's different!"
Her voice suddenly grew louder, carrying a note of urgency, as if she needed to prove something.
She sat up from her reclining position, lifting her upper body straight.
"Even though Her Highness the Crown Princess's cultivation isn't high either, that's because she's the heir apparent. Her mind isn't focused on that."
Gu Xiaoli's words came faster and faster, as if chasing a thought only she could see:
"If Her Highness the Crown Princess seriously applied herself to cultivation, she would definitely be even stronger than Sister Qingyan."
Gu Chengyin didn't look at Gu Xiaoli. His gaze remained fixed on that patch of sky, fragmented by the branches and leaves.
But his expression changed.
The casual air from before faded away bit by bit, replaced by a focused intensity.
Like ripples on the surface of water suddenly settling, revealing the depths of the undercurrent below.
ver to a world of cultivation and returned invincible. Modern medicine is child's play compared to elixirs; technological might crumbles before true cultivation. My name is Qin Ning, Earth's sole cultivator!
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.
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?"
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!
