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.
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?!
iaobai: "Councilor Dad, front me some funds. I want to hire ten thousand professional miners for a project!" [Five-Star Mission Issued: Capture the leader of the Blood Heaven Pirate Gang, who is on the run in the Radiant Star Sector. It is said the gang has over a hundred members. Proceed with caution.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, lend me the family's hundred-thousand-strong Lu Army!" [Seven-Star Mission Issued: Subdue a juvenile Void Dragon Beast.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, I'm taking your tamed Void Dragon Beast King out for a family reunion!" I said, System, don't you have any slightly more challenging missions? You're just not up to par! [Nine-Star Mission Issued: Become the Human Councilor.] Lu Xiaobai: "Dad, there's a small matter I'd like to discuss with you..."
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
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!
