The air in the courtyard suddenly fell still.
Not the stillness of emptiness, but the stillness of someone deep in thought.
The leaves stopped rustling; even the wind, sensing the moment, halted its steps.
Gu Xiaoli's delicate, world-weary little face wore a rare expression of disdain.
That disdain wasn't aimed at Gu Chengyin, but squarely at those four words—Golden Core Invincible.
"Sister Qingyan really is impressive."
"But that's only because her opponents were all too weak."
She said these words with absolute seriousness—so serious that her spiritual cat ears stopped twitching altogether.
They simply stood upright, like two small, straight blades.
"If Xiaoli really got serious..."
But mid-sentence, Gu Xiaoli suddenly paused.
Her cat ears tilted back slightly, the tips drooping a little, as if she'd just remembered something unpleasant.
Her lips moved, and in the end, she forced out the second half of her sentence, her voice much quieter than before.
"Even if I might not beat Sister Qingyan, protecting big brother is still no problem."
As the words fell, Gu Xiaoli's spiritual cat ears drooped completely, pressed flat against her hair like two leaves soaked by rain.
Her gaze shifted away from Gu Chengyin's face, landing on the ground beside his knee, staring at the vein patterns of a fallen leaf.
Her words carried an unmistakable trace of guilt.
Gu Chengyin noticed it, but didn't call her out.
By now he had a fairly good read on Gu Xiaoli's temperament.
This little cat was fearless in most things, but only when it came to Lin Qingyan did she show this kind of guilty look.
Not because she was truly afraid, but because she genuinely wasn't one hundred percent sure of herself.
Cultivation realm and actual combat strength were, after all, two different things.
It was just that Lin Qingyan would never go all out against Gu Xiaoli.
No matter how much they bickered, they were ultimately allies standing on the same side.
Lin Qingyan's golden thunder could slay demons and monsters, could intimidate the cultivation world, but it would never truly fall upon Gu Xiaoli.
Likewise, no matter how sharp Gu Xiaoli's claws were, she would never really aim for Lin Qingyan's heart.
At most, she'd draw a little blood.
So in a sparring match with limits observed, Gu Xiaoli could definitely hold her own against Lin Qingyan.
"Then... what about Xiaoli being big brother's bride?"
Gu Xiaoli's big eyes lit up in an instant.
Her spiritual cat ears snapped upright, the fur on the tips standing on end.
But that excitement lasted less than a breath.
A breath later, the fire in those big eyes dimmed by half, replaced by a thin layer of wariness.
Like a cat that had been eyeing a fish suddenly realizing a trap might be sitting beside the fish tank.
Gu Xiaoli's spiritual cat ears shifted from upright to leaning forward, the tips trembling slightly.
She was catching any suspicious trace in the air.
She looked left.
On the left was a thick tree trunk, its bark covered in moss, with no sign of anyone hiding.
On the right were the vermilion pillars of the Crown Prince's Palace, the wood warm from the sunlight, polished and mirror-bright.
Behind her was the corridor leading to the main hall, empty except for a few leaves swirling in the wind on the ground.
The courtyard truly held only her and Gu Chengyin.
After confirming this, Gu Xiaoli turned her gaze back to Gu Chengyin.
Her head tilted slightly to one side, and her spiritual cat ears tilted along with it.
The wariness in her big eyes grew thicker, almost ready to condense and drip from her lashes.
"Big brother."
"Xiaoli feels like you're up to something sneaky?"
She asked this extremely directly.
So directly that if anyone else had said it, it might almost be considered rude.
But Gu Xiaoli asked anyway, because that was just her nature.
In a cat's world, there were no convoluted schemes, no beating around the bush.
If there was a question, you asked it. If there was a grievance, you voiced it.
Gu Chengyin looked into Gu Xiaoli's eyes and suddenly smiled.
He didn't deny it, and admitted it very frankly:
"Because... I want to hypnotize Xiaoli."
The moment these words left his mouth, the wind in the courtyard stopped completely.
The leaves no longer rustled, the wind chimes under the eaves no longer clinked.
Even the distant sounds of palace servants moving became remote and faint.
The entire world seemed to have been pressed by an invisible hand onto a pause button.
Only these words remained, slowly unfolding in the air, word by word.
Gu Xiaoli froze.
Her big eyes stared unblinkingly into Gu Chengyin's eyes, as if searching for the source of those words.
Her pupils slightly dilated, reflecting his image.
One breath.
Two breaths.
Three breaths.
After three breaths, Gu Xiaoli suddenly snapped back, violently tearing her gaze away from Gu Chengyin's eyes.
She turned her head left, then as if that wasn't far enough, whipped it right.
Finally, she lowered her entire face, her chin nearly buried into her chest.
Her spiritual cat ears followed this flurry of movements, flapping wildly, as if trying to shake something out of them.
Gu Xiaoli no longer dared to meet Gu Chengyin's eyes.
This cat-eared girl with half-step Nascent Soul cultivation, upon hearing the word "hypnotize," instinctively did the first thing that came to mind: she avoided Gu Chengyin's gaze.
Because she was Gu Xiaoli.
The Gu Xiaoli with rich experience in pretending to be sweet.
She knew very well the power of hypnosis.
It wasn't some immortal art, wasn't some divine ability, wasn't even any recognized technique in the cultivation world.
It was something more primal, more direct—like a hand reaching out from the depths of one's soul, casually pushing open that door you thought was locked tight.
So now, facing Gu Chengyin's sudden confession, Gu Xiaoli found herself in an unprecedented dilemma.
Demand an explanation?
On what grounds?
Whatever Gu Chengyin did was right—this was Gu Xiaoli's current belief, more deeply rooted than any hypnosis.
Get angry?
How could she?
He'd even said the words "I want to hypnotize you" right to her face. What was there to be angry about?
Someone who truly intended to do wrong wouldn't advertise it.
Play dumb and stab him in the back?
But Gu Chengyin had already shown his cards.
Gu Xiaoli knew he wanted to hypnotize her, and he knew she knew he wanted to hypnotize her.
Under such circumstances, any pretense became meaningless.
The two stood face to face, separated by a thin layer of paper.
And Gu Chengyin's words just now were the finger reaching out to poke that paper through.
Gu Xiaoli's big eyes stared at the leaf on the ground.
Her spiritual cat ears gradually calmed from their frantic flapping, settling into a slight tremor.
Her ear tips drooped downward, pressed against her scalp, like two leaves that had been soaked by rain and left to half-dry in the breeze.
"Big brother..."
Gu Xiaoli's voice was as soft as a mosquito's buzz, the tone dragging out long.
It circled on the tip of her tongue several times before reluctantly falling:
"Are you serious?"
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!
ts me of treason?" "Correct. The host must return to the capital and gradually build up influence." "Wait—I have half a million soldiers, and you want me to go back to the capital to 'build influence'?" "Host, you are currently the Northern Garrison General, loyal to the Great Xia Dynasty." "Of course I am loyal to Great Xia! Absolutely loyal!" "But you keep referring to yourself as 'We'..." "Never mind the details! Summon all the regional commanders and military officers! We suspect treacherous officials are manipulating the court! They shall march with Us to the capital and purge the corrupt!" "......"
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!
