Lin Qingyan wouldn’t interfere—she would only keep him alive?
The cultivators of the Celestial Master Residence who had already concluded that Gu Chengyin intended to live off a woman now found themselves reassessing the figure standing in the center of the square.
Gu Chengyin stood with his hands behind his back, his spine straight. There was not the slightest trace of guilt or bravado on his face.
The Celestial Master Residence cultivators had initially reached the same conclusion with uncanny unanimity.
Gu Chengyin’s so-called public challenge was nothing more than a pretext. He intended to put on a show while having Lin Qingyan step in for him.
That had been almost everyone’s first reaction.
After all, in name, Lin Qingyan was now Gu Chengyin’s legitimate fiancée, as confirmed by the imperial decree. An imperial betrothal was the emperor’s word, and the marriage was therefore an established fact.
Husband and wife standing together was only natural.
If Gu Chengyin insisted on putting it that way—if he insisted on having Lin Qingyan fight in his place and counting her victories as his own—then the other members of the Celestial Master Residence could only pinch their noses and accept it.
After all, there was indeed a loophole in the rules.
The rules of the public challenge only stated that the challenger had to defeat all the honored elders. They never said the challenger had to fight personally.
If the challenger’s Dao companion fought in his stead, then in a certain sense, that could also be considered part of the challenger’s strength.
But the consequences were obvious.
Even if Gu Chengyin borrowed Lin Qingyan’s strength and truly became the Celestial Master Residence’s Grand Harmony, no one would acknowledge him.
Not merely in words—in their hearts, they would refuse to acknowledge him as well.
What sort of place was the Celestial Master Residence?
It was the orthodox authority of the Great Luo cultivation world, an existence transcending worldly power.
Every cultivator here, from Foundation Establishment disciples to Core Formation honored elders, had the same belief carved into their bones:
Strength reigns supreme.
A person without strength would remain nothing more than an empty shell, even if he occupied the seat of Grand Harmony.
No one would heed his orders, obey his decrees, or take him seriously.
Every word he spoke and every decision he made within the Celestial Master Residence would be met with whispers behind his back:
He’s nothing but a kept man.
Everyone understood this principle, including Gu Chengyin himself.
He knew better than anyone that the position of Grand Harmony was not so easily obtained.
What Gu Chengyin wanted was not the title of Grand Harmony, but genuine influence.
If influence were truly so easy to acquire—if Lin Qingyan could settle everything for him—then he would have had no need to spend so much effort at court.
He could simply have used Luo Zhao to force Emperor Luo to appoint him Grand Secretary of the Cabinet. Wouldn’t that have been easy?
Put a knife to Luo Zhao’s neck, force Emperor Luo to issue the decree, and rise to the heavens in a single step.
But would anyone acknowledge a Grand Secretary who rose to power that way?
Would the civil and military officials at court submit to him?
Would the great clans bow their heads?
Would the people of the realm accept him?
No.
They would fear him. They would endure in silence. They would gather strength in the shadows and wait for a chance to strike back.
But they would never offer him their wholehearted recognition.
Without wholehearted recognition, there could be no true influence.
Influence had never been something one could obtain through threats and opportunism.
It required real achievements and strength capable of earning the sincere respect of others.
At the most critical moment, one had to use the most indisputable method possible to prove to everyone:
I am worthy of this position.
That was why Gu Chengyin had never intended, from the very beginning, to have Lin Qingyan challenge the honored elders in his place.
The thought had never even entered his mind.
Not because Lin Qingyan was insufficiently strong. On the contrary, she was far too strong.
If she took the field, then although every honored elder of the Celestial Master Residence was a Core Formation cultivator, they might not be able to win even a single battle.
But Lin Qingyan’s strength belonged to Lin Qingyan. It did not belong to Gu Chengyin.
Gu Chengyin was standing here today not to have Lin Qingyan conquer a realm for him.
He wanted to earn recognition through his own efforts.
“Junior Preceptor Gu truly lives up to his reputation.”
Just then, a voice came from outside the crowd.
It carried a languid tone, as though someone who had just eaten his fill and was dozing in the sun had been disturbed and casually muttered a complaint.
Yet the moment the surrounding cultivators of the Celestial Master Residence heard that voice, they instinctively stepped aside and opened a path.
Perfected Spirit Pine emerged from the crowd.
He still looked as unkempt as ever. His dark-gray robe, the uniform of an honored elder, hung wrinkled around his body.
The sash around his waist was tied crookedly, while several ginkgo leaves and pine-nut shells clung to the hem of his robe.
He was round and plump, and the way he waddled made him look like a swaying duck.
But within those tiny eyes, squeezed into narrow slits by layers of fat, flashes of sharpness appeared from time to time.
Several direct-line disciples who had come to watch the spectacle followed behind Perfected Spirit Pine.
However, when Lin Qingyan swept them with her icy gaze, they tactfully retreated into the crowd.
Gu Chengyin turned to look at him. He had already done his homework.
The Divine Capital branch of the Celestial Master Residence currently had more than a dozen honored elders, with cultivation levels ranging from the early to the late Core Formation stage.
On ordinary days, these honored elders secluded themselves in their respective abodes and rarely showed themselves.
Five of them had appeared today. This alone demonstrated the magnitude of the commotion Lin Qingyan’s recommendation of a new initiate had caused within the Celestial Master Residence.
Among those five, Perfected Spirit Pine was the oldest.
He had spent the longest time in the Celestial Master Residence—nearly two hundred years, according to rumor.
He had risen step by step from a direct-line disciple to his current position as an honored elder. In terms of cultivation, he was only at the mid-Core Formation stage.
But in terms of connections, he had the broadest network in the Celestial Master Residence. He could speak with the major sects throughout the cultivation world.
More importantly, he had an exceptionally mild temperament and disliked offending people. His popularity within the residence was excellent.
Even the sect prodigies who normally held their noses high in the air would grin and call him “Uncle-Master Ling Song” whenever they saw him.
Gu Chengyin immediately clasped his hands and said, “This junior is Gu Chengyin. Greetings, Perfected Spirit Pine.”
Perfected Spirit Pine nodded with a genial smile as he looked Gu Chengyin up and down. The more he observed him, the more interesting he found him.
In his nearly two hundred years at the Celestial Master Residence, he had seen countless young people of extraordinary talent enter its gates. He had also witnessed countless proud geniuses suffer defeat and ruin.
But he had never seen anyone quite like Gu Chengyin.
He was clearly only at the Foundation Establishment stage, yet despite being surrounded and watched by so many cultivators of the Celestial Master Residence, he carried himself as though he were the strongest person present.
That composure and certainty were not something one could fake.
Perfected Spirit Pine was just about to speak when he suddenly sensed something.
He turned his head and saw Lin Qingyan staring coldly at him.
The smile on Perfected Spirit Pine’s face instantly froze.
Lin Qingyan stood on the stone steps, her robe stirring gently in the breeze. Golden lightning flickered around her body.
The lightning was not thick, but it was incredibly condensed. Fine crackles sounded through the air, casting shifting light and shadow across her cold, beautiful features.
Her hands remained clasped behind her back, and her spine remained perfectly straight. Even the slight curve of her lips had not changed in the slightest.
But her eyes, cold as frost, were fixed unblinkingly on Perfected Spirit Pine.
It was as though she were staring at prey that had mistakenly wandered into her territory.
It was unmistakably a threat.
A naked, undisguised threat.
transmigrates into the role of a villainous rich second-generation kid in an urban fantasy novel, and gets bound to a god-tier choice system. Right at the start, he catches the female lead stealing exam papers! This triggers the villain's choice options! [Choice 1: Pretend you didn't see anything] [Choice 2: Loudly call her out, drawing everyone's attention] [Choice 3: ...] And thus, a twisted villain is born. To avoid getting killed by the protagonist, he has no choice but to take down all the protagonists first. Jiang Che: Nobody understands being twisted better than me!
] [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!
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.
