So when this worst-case possibility occurred to him, the first reaction that arose in Gu Chengyin’s mind was not scrutiny, but self-blame.
The reaction came so swiftly and unexpectedly that Gu Chengyin had no time to filter it through reason, analyze it, or question it.
It surged up directly from the depths of his Dao-heart, like a hot spring erupting from beneath the earth. In an instant, it flooded over all the doubts and defenses he had carefully built and grown accustomed to using for self-protection.
How could he think that way about Luo Zhao?
Luo Zhao had lowered every defense in front of him, placing her most vulnerable self entirely in his hands. In a manner that was almost devout, and utterly unreserved, she had told him: I trust you.
And after turning away from her, the very first thing he did was wonder whether she had been pretending.
What was that supposed to mean?
Luo Zhao had given him genuine trust, and what he had returned was suspicion?
That thought of self-reproach was like a red-hot iron rod, thrust straight into Gu Chengyin’s chest. The searing pain made even his Dao-heart tremble.
It also forced Gu Chengyin to temporarily shatter this worst-case possibility.
Yes—not bury it deep in his heart, but shatter it completely.
In the past, when Gu Chengyin dealt with thoughts that might harm him, he suppressed them.
He would press them down into the deepest, darkest corner of his heart, put a lid over them, and pretend they did not exist.
Because Gu Chengyin knew that those thoughts might be useful. At certain moments, they might become the final line of defense protecting him.
He would never destroy them outright. He merely hid them away, waiting until the day they were needed before bringing them out again.
But this time, he did not suppress the thought. He shattered it.
Because this possibility violated his principles and had begun to affect his Dao-heart.
What was his Dao-heart?
It was the very core that had gradually condensed within him from the day he crossed into this world, after enduring countless storms, schemes, betrayals, and acts of loyalty.
That core told him: You may doubt anyone, but never doubt those who have truly given you their hearts.
You may renounce emotion, but you must sincerely treat everyone who has given their heart to you.
You may guard yourself against anyone, but never guard yourself against those who have placed their most vulnerable selves in your hands.
That was his bottom line. It was the fundamental reason Gu Chengyin was still Gu Chengyin, rather than a pure machine of political manipulation.
A pure machine of political manipulation would care about no one. Everyone—whether good, evil, innocent, or guilty—would be nothing more than an ant, a stepping-stone on the road to ascension.
But Gu Chengyin was not like that. He truly would scheme against everything, but he would help the good, avoid implicating the innocent, and show no mercy to the wicked.
Then why was his path one of Absolute Detachment?
Because he could only forget emotion. Because he had to forget emotion.
It was not the emotions he possessed now that he needed to forget, but the emotions from before he crossed into this world.
Only through Absolute Detachment could he avoid being tormented by the memories of his former life.
Only through Absolute Detachment could he keep the ties of his former life from shackling his Dao-heart.
Just as Gu Chengyin would not suspect Lin Qingyan now.
Lin Qingyan had told him everything about the restrictions on the Tranquil Mind Pagoda, opened her magical treasure to him, and pushed Shangguan Yunying into his bed.
She had gone to find him in the ginkgo grove wearing Shangguan Yunying’s clothes, then willingly begged for mercy before him.
After Lin Qingyan had done all that, if he still secretly wondered whether she had ulterior motives, could he still call himself human?
Nor would he suspect Shangguan Yunying.
Shangguan Yunying had waited for him for so long and endured grievance after grievance. When she discovered that loyalty and love could not coexist, she had resolutely resigned from her position as Chief Palace Lady.
She had even cried before him like a child, revealing herself to him without reservation, rising onto her toes and taking the initiative to kiss his lips.
After Shangguan Yunying had done all that, if he still secretly wondered whether she had ulterior motives, could he still call himself human?
And now, Luo Zhao was the same.
She too had lowered every defense in front of him.
No—she had lowered them more completely than Lin Qingyan and Shangguan Yunying ever had.
Lin Qingyan still had her pride, her habit of refusing to yield, and her stubbornness—the kind that made her hurl threats even when she stood on the brink of defeat.
Shangguan Yunying still had her reserve, as well as the restraint she had endured for so long before finally allowing herself to let go.
But Luo Zhao had nothing left.
Before Gu Chengyin, she had no pride, no reserve, no dignity as the heir apparent, and no halo as a divine maiden.
Luo Zhao had laid her truest, most wretched, most shameful self bare before him without holding anything back.
And Gu Chengyin had told himself, I suspect you’re pretending.
Then he truly was not human.
Gu Chengyin drew a deep breath.
What did this mean?
It meant that his Dao-heart had already begun to regard Luo Zhao as the same kind of person as Lin Qingyan and Shangguan Yunying.
Not as the heir apparent. Not as a pawn. Not as a bargaining chip to use against Emperor Luo.
But as someone he should not suspect, someone worthy of receiving the same trust.
This realization made his Dao-heart tremble faintly before quickly settling back into calm.
It was not a tremor of resistance, nor one of doubt.
It was the tremor that came from finally confirming something that had always been inevitable.
Gu Chengyin’s expression grew more solemn than ever before.
His brows remained faintly furrowed, but the vertical line between them was no longer the crease of suspicion and distrust.
It was the gravity that appeared only after realizing the weight of something.
His gaze fell upon the gauze curtain over the carriage window. His pupils reflected a small patch of morning light shining through the fabric.
But his focus was not there. It was fixed on a place only he could see.
This was somewhat frightening.
What was frightening was not Luo Zhao.
Luo Zhao was not frightening. She was merely a princess who turned into a well-behaved little puppy before him—a woman desperately lacking in security and yearning for him to control everything.
What was frightening was Gu Chengyin himself.
It was the embryonic Golden Core taking shape within him, the Dao that was beginning to form, and the Dao-heart that had already begun to reject certain thoughts of its own accord.
His Dao-heart was no longer the shapeless thing that could contain everything, weigh everything, and scheme against everything.
It was beginning to develop its own edges, its own boundaries, its own likes and dislikes.
It would automatically reject thoughts that violated its principles. When he tried to suspect someone he should not suspect, it would answer him with self-reproach.
It would automatically place certain people—such as Lin Qingyan, Shangguan Yunying, and Luo Zhao—within the realm of those he must not suspect.
This was what it meant to form a Golden Core.
Not the condensation of spiritual power, but the condensation of the Dao-heart.
The condensation of spiritual power was a cultivator’s threshold.
The condensation of the Dao-heart was the threshold of being human.
It was the transition from being able to weigh, scheme against, and doubt anything for the sake of profit—
to beginning to have people one could not scheme against, people one could not doubt, and principles one could not violate.
From a state in which anything could become a pawn, to realizing that some people could never be pawns.
That was the transformation of the Dao-heart from formlessness into form.
If the transformation went well, the Golden Core would form naturally, and the Nascent Soul would be within reach.
If it went badly, the Dao-heart would shatter, and both body and Dao would perish.
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!
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.
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
