But no matter whether it was what Gu Chengyin had guessed.
No matter whether that so-called glowing box was indeed a hypnosis phone, it made no difference to the current situation.
The main problem was that no one even knew where this so-called glowing box was.
After Empress Lin died, the thing never appeared again. For all anyone knew, it might have been destroyed along with her.
So for Gu Chengyin, the most pressing matter right now was Gu Xiaoli.
The very fact that Gu Xiaoli had been willing to reveal these secrets today said a great deal.
These secrets weren't about some trivial matter.
They concerned the origins of Empress Lin and the hidden history between her and Gu Xiaoli that no one else knew.
Yet Gu Xiaoli had spoken anyway, and spoken with complete frankness.
What did that mean?
It meant Gu Xiaoli trusted him now.
That kind of trust hadn't come out of nowhere. It had been built up bit by bit, through countless efforts and endless trials.
From the world-weary loli who hoarded candy at the start, to the cat-eared loli who was now willing to place her secrets in his hands—
every step along the way had been hard-won.
Gu Chengyin knew very well that part of the reason Gu Xiaoli was willing to trust him was because of his deliberate guidance.
But more than that, it was because this cat had a near-childlike sincerity in her bones.
Once she set her heart on someone, she would gladly bare her very soul to them.
And that sincerity was exactly what Gu Chengyin needed most right now.
Just now, when they had been talking about Empress Lin, Gu Xiaoli had stolen glances at his expression more than once.
Her eyes carried a cautious, eager-to-please look, as if she feared that if she said something wrong or phrased it poorly, she might upset him.
That eagerness wasn't born of fear, but of a genuine desire to satisfy her master.
Gu Chengyin saw all of it, and his mind was already working.
But then again, trust was ultimately just words.
Whether it was belief or support, these were things you couldn't see or touch.
Gu Xiaoli trusted him today—that was today.
What about tomorrow? What about the day after?
If someone whispered something in her ear one day, or if something unexpected happened,
how much of that trust would remain?
Without something concrete to bind her, Gu Chengyin would never truly rest easy.
He was a cautious man, and he always liked to keep a card up his sleeve.
In a world filled with deadly traps at every turn, a single moment of carelessness could bring utter ruin.
So Gu Chengyin had to make sure every link in the chain was firmly in his grasp.
Gu Xiaoli was far too important to risk any misstep.
Fortunately, besides hypnosis, there was another thing that could serve the same binding purpose.
As Gu Chengyin thought this, his gaze fell on Gu Xiaoli's small face, still tinged with tension.
"Xiaoli, make another solemn vow."
He didn't say it with any heaviness, even with a hint of negotiation, as if discussing the most ordinary matter.
But for all its lightness, those words made Gu Xiaoli's already slightly pursed lips pout even more.
Still, it was only a pout.
Gu Xiaoli wasn't really surprised or upset.
She had spent enough time with Gu Chengyin to know this man's style very well.
He never did anything without being sure of it, and he never staked everything on another person's conscience.
What Gu Chengyin wanted was a substantive oath, a constraint that could be seen and touched.
A rope that would hold even if one day his heart changed or his intentions shifted, one he could not break free from.
So it was only natural that he wanted her to swear a solemn vow.
Besides, it wasn't as if she had never done it before.
Gu Xiaoli quietly calculated in her mind—she had already sworn two solemn vows to Gu Chengyin before this.
Going from zero to one was always the hardest part.
But the third time was different; too many lice and you stop itching, too many debts and you stop worrying.
What's more, Gu Xiaoli had another consideration in mind.
If she didn't swear the oath, Gu Chengyin might hypnotize her instead.
Compared to hypnosis, swearing a solemn vow was clearly the better option.
At least when she swore the vow, she would be fully conscious, knowing what she was doing and knowing what promise she was making.
Even if something happened in the future, it would still be her own choice, and she couldn't blame anyone else.
With that thought, most of the reluctant feelings in Gu Xiaoli's heart began to fade.
"Alright, what does brother want Xiaoli to swear this time?"
Gu Xiaoli nodded, her big eyes fixed unblinkingly on Gu Chengyin.
Her gaze was as clear as snowmelt just melting from the mountains, so pure that one could see straight to the bottom.
Her eyelashes were long and curled, trembling faintly, as if they were expressing the nervousness deep within her.
Gu Xiaoli had already prepared herself to swear the vow; she was even mentally bracing herself.
She thought that this time Gu Chengyin would probably come up with some condition that would make her heart race.
The last two times he made her swear, the oaths had been harsh beyond belief.
This time, it probably wouldn't be any different.
But to Gu Xiaoli's surprise, Gu Chengyin didn't say anything particularly harsh this time.
He just looked at her quietly, his lips moving slightly, as if weighing his words.
After a long moment, he finally spoke slowly:
"In wealth or poverty, in health or sickness, in good times or bad."
"Whenever I need Xiaoli the most, Xiaoli will never leave my side, until the very end."
His voice was not loud, nor was his pace fast; every word landed clearly in Gu Xiaoli's ears.
These two sentences were the third solemn oath Gu Chengyin wanted Gu Xiaoli to swear.
Gu Xiaoli understood.
But she didn't just understand—she also picked up on something more.
Because these two sentences, at first glance, seemed to have nothing particularly special about them.
They were just asking Gu Xiaoli to promise to always stand by his side, never to leave him.
She had said such things before, and had even silently resolved to do so in her heart.
But looking more carefully, the more Gu Xiaoli looked at these two lines, the more familiar they seemed.
In wealth or poverty, in health or sickness, in good times or bad...
Wasn't this the wedding vow?!
Gu Xiaoli knew about this because Niangniang had once told her.
It was on an afternoon a long, long time ago. She had gone to see Niangniang, and somehow the conversation had turned to matters of marriage.
Niangniang had smiled and told her that in her hometown, when people got married, they had to make vows in front of everyone.
And those vows were these very lines: in wealth or poverty, in health or sickness, in good times or bad, never leave, until the very end.
When the Lady said this, there was a light in her eyes that Gu Xiaoli could not understand at the time.
That light was very, very bright—so bright it seemed to hold an entire summer's worth of fireflies within it.
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!
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!
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
