“Pavilion Elder Cui, either it works or it doesn’t.”
The moment those words were spoken, all three Pavilion Elders froze.
Cui Shifan froze because Gu Chengyin was demanding an answer from him right then and there.
Not an answer after privately weighing the matter over and over. Not an answer after returning home to discuss it with Cui Zilu.
Now. At this very moment. In this council chamber, in front of Hu Juzheng and Shangguan Yuan.
The problem was that, although this matter appeared minor—wasn’t it merely a matter of changing the Chief Female Official beside the Crown Princess?—it was neither truly big nor truly small.
Personnel changes around the Crown Princess were significant in their own way. Compared with something as momentous as a vacant position among the Six Ministers, it might not seem like much of a disturbance to the imperial court.
But in reality, it was an extremely serious matter.
The Chief Female Official was the closest female official to the Crown Princess, a position watched by countless eyes.
When Shangguan Yunying had served as Chief Female Official, the Shangguan clan had become half of the Crown Princess’s faction.
Now, having Cui Zilu take the position would amount to replacing the Shangguan clan with the Cui clan and making the latter the new aristocratic pillar of the Crown Princess’s faction.
How could Cui Shifan possibly give an answer to such a major matter within the time it took to finish a cup of tea?
And so suddenly, at that.
How long had it been since Gu Chengyin entered the room?
First, he had recommended Xiao Yuliang for the vacant position of Minister of Rites. Then he had announced that he would be joining the Celestial Master’s Office that very afternoon. And after that, he had dropped the news that Cui Zilu was to take over as Chief Female Official.
Three matters, each more significant than the last, each more startling and unexpected than the one before.
They had come flying at them like a volley of arrows, leaving no time whatsoever to catch their breath or digest what they had heard.
As for Hu Juzheng and Shangguan Yuan, they had frozen because Gu Chengyin’s words seemed to imply that he wanted them to stay and serve as witnesses.
They had both understood that Gu Chengyin was not letting them leave.
This was not a polite request for them to stay, nor was it merely a show of courtesy. He genuinely did not want them to go.
But why did he want them to witness this?
What exactly was Gu Chengyin plotting?
The atmosphere became awkward.
Gu Chengyin stared at Cui Shifan, while Cui Shifan remained silent.
Hu Juzheng and Shangguan Yuan sat on either side of the room, caught between staying and leaving.
The morning light filtering through the window lattice had already shifted several degrees from before, casting slanted beams across the floor.
Dust motes drifted slowly through the shafts of light, as though mocking the predicament of these most powerful officials in all of Great Luo with their languid dance.
The heat had long since faded from the teacups. Not even the last wisp of white vapor remained.
In the end, it was Shangguan Yuan who broke the awkward silence.
His brows were still drawn down, but his eyes had emerged from beneath their shadow and were fixed directly on Gu Chengyin.
“Junior Preceptor Gu, may I ask you a question?”
Everyone in the room turned toward Shangguan Yuan.
Cui Shifan lifted his gaze from the teacup. Hu Juzheng, whose body had been leaning slightly forward, leaned back a little and directed his attention toward Shangguan Yuan, seated diagonally across from him.
Gu Chengyin shifted his gaze to Shangguan Yuan, then said without the slightest courtesy, “No.”
Two simple words.
Short and decisive, like a swift blade whose flash was invisible until it had cleanly severed the ladder Shangguan Yuan had offered him.
Shangguan Yuan, who had been about to speak, was immediately silenced.
His lips were already parted. The tip of his tongue had already touched the roof of his mouth. The first syllable had already taken shape, waiting only to be pushed out from his throat.
But Gu Chengyin’s “No” was like a fly that had flown straight into his mouth, blocking every word in his throat.
Shangguan Yuan’s lips remained parted, frozen in a ridiculous shape.
His eyes widened to nearly twice their usual size, disbelief written plainly across his pupils.
After all, he was a Pavilion Elder, a figure of considerable standing in the Great Luo court. Even when Emperor Luo questioned him, he was shown a measure of respect.
Yet Gu Chengyin had cut him off in front of Cui Shifan and Hu Juzheng, refusing even to let him finish asking his question and choking him off with a single “No.”
Shangguan Yuan nearly choked to death on it. His face flushed visibly red.
He slammed his palm down on the table.
The blow was so heavy that the instant his palm struck the tabletop, it produced a deep, thunderous crack, like a bolt of lightning exploding in the room.
The tea in the cups rocked violently from the impact. Several drops splashed out and fell onto the table, spreading into tiny round stains.
Cui Shifan’s brow twitched.
Hu Juzheng’s eyelid twitched as well.
Shangguan Yuan pointed at Gu Chengyin and shouted, “Gu Chengyin, don’t push your luck! This is the Grand Secretariat, not your Crown Princess’s Palace!”
His voice was twice as loud as usual. Every word seemed to erupt from the depths of his chest, burning with rage.
The moment he said it, the expressions of Cui Shifan and Hu Juzheng changed at the same time.
Shangguan Yuan’s words had been far too vicious.
He had actually called the Crown Princess’s Palace Gu Chengyin’s Crown Princess’s Palace.
What was the Crown Princess’s Palace?
It was the residence of Luo Zhao, the Crown Princess. It was the official office where the Crown Princess handled state affairs and received ministers, as well as the place where she lived her daily life.
It belonged to the Crown Princess—not to anyone else.
To call it Gu Chengyin’s Crown Princess’s Palace was to say that Luo Zhao was not the true master of the palace, and that Gu Chengyin was the one actually controlling everything within it.
But in reality, whose palace was it?
It was Luo Zhao’s.
What difference was there between Shangguan Yuan’s words and accusing Gu Chengyin of holding the Crown Princess hostage to command the feudal lords?
Luo Zhao was the Crown Princess, the future female emperor of Great Luo.
Holding the Crown Princess hostage to command the feudal lords was a prelude to holding the Son of Heaven hostage to command the feudal lords.
If that accusation were pinned on someone, the result would be execution.
Shangguan Yuan must have been blinded by anger to lose control of his tongue to such an extent.
Yet Gu Chengyin acted as though he had not heard him.
His expression did not change in the slightest.
There was no anger, no panic, none of the reactions one would expect when someone had been struck at a vital point.
He did not even look at the finger Shangguan Yuan was pointing at him. He treated those words—words serious enough to make anyone’s face change—as nothing more than an inconsequential breeze that had blown past and vanished.
Gu Chengyin even raised a hand and scratched inside his ear. Afterward, he pulled his finger out and examined it in front of his eyes.
Then he gently blew on it, as though brushing away nonexistent earwax from his fingertip.
He raised his head and looked left and right in confusion. His gaze moved from Cui Shifan’s face to Hu Juzheng’s, then from Hu Juzheng’s face back to Cui Shifan’s.
He deliberately skipped over Shangguan Yuan, who was still pointing at him, as though Shangguan Yuan did not exist in the council chamber at all.
Pretending that he had heard nothing, he asked, “Did someone just say something? Pavilion Elder Cui, Pavilion Elder Hu, did you hear anything?”
His tone was utterly sincere—so sincere that it was impossible to tell whether Gu Chengyin truly had not heard him, or whether he was simply such a convincing actor.
“You!”
Seeing Gu Chengyin act this way, Shangguan Yuan flew into a rage.
His pointing finger trembled violently, and he straightened it even more firmly in Gu Chengyin’s direction.
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down 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!
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?!
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.
