Shangguan Yunying’s mind went completely blank, as though someone had suddenly plunged her into icy water, freezing every thought in an instant.
She instinctively tried to raise a hand to cover herself, but stopped halfway.
Because she did not know whether she should resist—or whether she should not.
If she resisted, then what had been the point of dressing like this and sitting here today?
But if she did not resist, was she really going to let Gu Chengyin tear her clothes apart, one piece at a time?
Reason and desire collided violently within her, leaving Shangguan Yunying dizzy and breathless.
And Gu Chengyin gave her no time to hesitate.
His hand descended once more, this time reaching for the sash around her waist.
With a deft movement of his fingers, he loosened the moon-white belt. Its two ends fell at her sides, swaying lightly in the breeze.
Freed from its final restraint, her outer robe slipped from Shangguan Yunying’s shoulders and pooled at her feet like a patch of melted moonlight.
Then came her undergarment.
Gu Chengyin’s movements were neither rough nor hurried. They even carried a calm, measured rhythm.
Yet that very composure left Shangguan Yunying even more at a loss.
If he had been impatient, she could have told herself that desire had clouded his mind.
If he had been rough and overbearing, she could have told herself that he was venting some emotion.
But Gu Chengyin was not.
He was calm and unhurried, every one of his fingers seeming to know exactly where it was going.
That meant he knew what he was doing—and he knew exactly who stood before him.
Layer by layer, the fabric left Shangguan Yunying’s body.
The moon-white robe and the plain white undergarment fell one after another to the ground at her feet, piling up into a soft tomb of clothing.
The spiritual light within the Heart-Calming Pagoda was faint and gentle, shining across her exposed skin and bathing her entire body in a warm, lustrous glow.
Shangguan Yunying’s shoulders trembled slightly—not from the cold, but from the shame and panic of being completely stripped bare.
When the last layer of fabric slipped from her body, when she stood entirely exposed before Gu Chengyin, Shangguan Yunying no longer knew where to put her hands.
Covering herself would seem too deliberate.
Letting them hang at her sides would seem far too obedient.
All she could do was stand there stiffly, like a jade carving stripped of every ornament.
Naked, utterly unguarded, she stood before Gu Chengyin.
Her face had turned crimson, from her cheekbones to the roots of her ears, from her ears down to her neck and collarbones.
She looked like a painting steeped in the glow of sunset, so red it seemed blood might drip from it.
Her lips parted slightly as she tried to say something, but her throat felt clogged with cotton, and not a single word came out.
Just as Shangguan Yunying was so flustered that she could scarcely breathe, Gu Chengyin raised his hand again.
Her eyes closed instinctively, her lashes trembling violently like the wings of a butterfly caught in a storm.
Shangguan Yunying had no idea what would happen next.
Would he continue?
Would he treat her the way he had treated Lin Qingyan?
Would he use her as Lin Qingyan’s substitute and possess her here in the Heart-Calming Pagoda?
Her thoughts were a tangled mess. She could no longer tell which feelings were anticipation, which were fear, and which were resentment.
But Gu Chengyin’s hand did not land where she thought it would.
Instead, it reached around her back and drew her whole body into his arms.
His chest pressed against her bare skin, warm and solid, his steady, powerful heartbeat striking against her back.
His other hand covered the back of her head and gently pressed her face into the hollow of his shoulder.
Shangguan Yunying was completely enveloped in Gu Chengyin’s embrace—wrapped tightly, sealed off from the world.
Her bare skin rested against his clothing, her trembling shoulders against his chest, her disheveled hair brushing his jaw.
“Yunying.”
He called her by her name.
Not Auntie. Not Lin Qingyan. Not anyone else’s substitute.
Yunying. Shangguan Yunying.
“You are not anyone’s substitute.”
“You are Shangguan Yunying—the one and only Shangguan Yunying.”
Every word was spoken with perfect clarity, each one like a razor-sharp chisel carving itself into Shangguan Yunying’s heart, stroke by stroke.
As Gu Chengyin spoke, his arms tightened around her, drawing her even deeper into his embrace.
Her forehead rested against his shoulder. She could feel the vibration of his throat as he spoke, the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, and the rhythm of his heartbeat.
It mingled with her own until she could no longer tell which heartbeat belonged to whom.
Tears fell from Shangguan Yunying’s eyes.
They had been gathering there for a long time—ever since she had put on that moon-white robe.
Ever since she had sat before the mirror and begun to let her thoughts run wild.
Ever since she had heard his footsteps sound outside the pagoda door.
She had held them back all this time, using every ounce of her restraint, her pride, and her effort.
But when Gu Chengyin called her name, when she heard him say, “You are not anyone’s substitute,” when she heard him say, “the one and only Shangguan Yunying,”
the dam broke completely.
Tears slid silently down Shangguan Yunying’s cheeks and fell onto his robes, spreading into a small dark stain.
She did not sob aloud. Her shoulders merely trembled as her fingers somehow found their way to the fabric at his waist.
She gripped it until her knuckles turned white, burying her entire face in the hollow of his shoulder as though she wanted to hide her whole self inside him.
Shangguan Yunying had believed that she could only ever be Lin Qingyan’s shadow. She thought she had to wear Lin Qingyan’s clothes and borrow Lin Qingyan’s name to receive even a single moment of Gu Chengyin’s favor.
She had even accepted that reality. As long as Gu Chengyin would have her, then even being mistaken for someone else would count as being wanted.
“I thought you didn’t want me.”
Shangguan Yunying’s voice emerged from against Gu Chengyin’s chest, muffled and heavy, like distant thunder struggling to be heard through layer upon layer of clouds.
Gu Chengyin’s breathing faltered.
“Foolish Yunying,” he said softly. “You’re the person I like most.”
“I just didn’t think I should have you so easily.”
“That wouldn’t be cherishing you enough.”
Shangguan Yunying’s tears surged once more.
This time they came harder, fiercer, utterly beyond her control.
So Gu Chengyin had not been indifferent to her.
He had cared too much.
He had cared enough not to act carelessly, cared enough to give her the best.
He had cared enough to let her wait rather than allow her to suffer even the slightest grievance.
At that realization, Shangguan Yunying could no longer hold herself back.
Her hands moved from Gu Chengyin’s robes to his shoulders, her fingers interlocking behind his neck.
She stretched upward slightly, presenting herself to him completely.
She did not hide. She did not cover herself. She did not lower her head.
She simply stood before Gu Chengyin without holding anything back and let him look.
The spiritual light within the Heart-Calming Pagoda brightened faintly at that moment, then slowly dimmed again.
In the surface of the glazed crystal mirror, the blurred reflection of the two of them embracing could be seen.
They looked like two vines growing in a deep valley, finally entwining with each other at last.
......
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!
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.
e school belle recognized by the whole school, a genius girl from the kendo club. She also has a hidden identity, the youngest legendary demon hunter. Chen Shuo just transmigrated and found himself turned into a weak, helpless little vampire. He was caught by Su Xiyen and taken home at the very beginning. Since then, Chen Shuo's life creed only had two items. "First, classmate Su Xiyen is always right." "Second, if classmate Su Xiyen is wrong, please refer back to item one." Many years later, Chen Shuo, who had turned back into a human, led a pair of twins to appear in front of all the vampires to share the secret of how he turned back into a human. "It's simple, I tricked a female demon hunter into becoming my wife!"
