Yes.
Luo Zhao now knew Gu Chengyin’s greatest secret.
Emperor Luo had told her that Gu Chengyin’s cultivation had nothing to do with power or status. It was tied to influence.
He had also given her what Empress Lin had left behind.
And Gu Chengyin controlled her, attached himself to the banner of legitimacy she represented, and spared no effort in helping her.
The starting point of all these actions was benefit.
It had never changed—not from the very beginning until now.
Gu Chengyin had always remained the same, weathering every storm without wavering.
Yet when he heard her say this, there was no surprise on his face.
He nodded.
That was more powerful than any long-winded explanation.
He did not deny it. He did not defend himself. He did not make excuses.
You’re right. That’s exactly how it is.
Everything Gu Chengyin did was based on considerations of benefit.
His help to Luo Zhao. His control over her.
Every kindness he had shown her, and every cruelty.
Behind all of it, there was the shadow of self-interest.
But it was not the only reason.
“Yes, but that’s only half of it.”
Gu Chengyin paused.
Luo Zhao raised her head and looked at him.
Moonlight fell across Gu Chengyin’s face, coating his features in a layer of silver-white radiance.
His eyes appeared especially deep, like two bottomless ancient wells. They reflected her image, the stars filling the heavens—
and something Luo Zhao had never seen before.
“The other half is my worldview, my outlook on life, and my values.”
“All of them hope that you will become a wise ruler for the ages.”
They were very simple words.
There were no ornate phrases, no moving rhetoric, not even much inflection in his voice.
And yet these few plain, almost bland words struck Luo Zhao’s heart with tremendous force.
Gu Chengyin wanted her to be well.
Not merely because she could bring him something.
Not merely because he could gain something from her success.
He simply wanted her to be well.
Because of Gu Chengyin’s worldview, his outlook on life, and his values.
These things sounded ethereal and unreal, completely unrelated to practical interests.
And yet all of them wished her well.
Luo Zhao fell silent and slowly lowered her head.
She did not understand why Gu Chengyin was telling her this.
Especially now, at a time like this, when...
Just then, Luo Zhao suddenly realized something.
This realization did not emerge gradually. It did not surface little by little.
Instead, it took the question she had always been unwilling to consider, unwilling to face, and unwilling to acknowledge—
and laid it bare before her eyes.
Luo Zhao jerked her head up and asked in a trembling voice:
“Are you leaving?!”
Luo Zhao had realized something extremely important.
Something she should have understood long ago, but had deliberately ignored all this time.
Why had Gu Chengyin joined the Celestial Master Estate?
Why had he initiated the Taihe War?
Why had he become the Taihe of the Celestial Master Estate?
To maximize his influence.
To break through into the Golden Core realm.
Then what would happen after he broke through into the Golden Core realm?
Luo Zhao had never thought about that question.
It was not that she could not imagine the answer.
It was that she did not dare to.
Because somewhere in her subconscious, Gu Chengyin would never leave.
He would remain in the Crown Prince’s Palace. He would remain by her side. He would remain her Junior Tutor to the Crown Prince.
Luo Zhao had never considered what would happen if Gu Chengyin were no longer there.
She did not know, and she did not want to know.
But instinct was more honest than the mind.
Luo Zhao’s instincts told her that once Gu Chengyin broke through into the Golden Core realm, he would leave.
He would leave the Divine Capital, leave the Crown Prince’s Palace, and leave her side.
It would not be a temporary departure—not the kind where he would return after a few days.
He might never come back again.
Luo Zhao stared at Gu Chengyin without blinking, waiting for his answer.
There was light in her eyes: moonlight, starlight, and the countless lamps of the distant Divine Capital.
But there was no light in Luo Zhao’s eyes themselves.
What filled them was not light, but water.
Tears gathering, ready to burst their banks at any moment.
They swirled in her eyes and trembled against her lashes.
In the moonlight, they reflected a scattering of glimmers, like stars fallen into her eyes.
Or like a galaxy hidden within them, poised to spill over at any moment.
Gu Chengyin looked at Luo Zhao and gently nodded.
After breaking through into the Golden Core realm, he would leave the Divine Capital for the Azure Sword Sect.
No one else knew about this. Luo Zhao could be said to be the first to find out.
But Luo Zhao did not know whether she should feel honored or heartbroken.
She was the first to know because she was the one who least wanted Gu Chengyin to leave.
Fate could be so cruelly ironic.
It delivered the most brutal news first to the person who least wanted to hear it.
Then it watched as that person broke down, wept, and found herself powerless to do anything.
As if it were saying: “Look. This is the fate you cannot change.”
Luo Zhao’s lips trembled.
She wanted to ask Gu Chengyin where he was going, how long he would be gone, and when he would return.
But she could not bring herself to ask a single question.
Because she did not want to hear the answers.
Each answer she received would sever another string in her heart.
And when all the strings were broken, her heart would shatter into dust.
Luo Zhao tightened her grip on Gu Chengyin’s robe.
She did not want to let go. She was afraid that the moment she did, Gu Chengyin would leave.
But what could she do?
Gu Chengyin was leaving, and there was no doubt that Lin Qingyan and Shangguan Yunying would follow him.
Wherever Gu Chengyin went, they would go as well.
There was no need to ask. There was no reason to doubt it.
But what about her, Luo Zhao?
Could she leave?
Her heart sank.
She was the Crown Prince, the future empress of Great Luo.
Anyone could leave. She could not.
Because she had to guard the realm of Great Luo. She had to sit upon the Dragon Throne.
She had to shoulder the responsibilities she had been taught to carry since childhood.
She could not go. She could not leave.
She could not be like an ordinary person, following whoever she wanted and going wherever she pleased.
Every step Luo Zhao took had already been ordained. From the moment she was born, the course of her life had been drawn out before her.
All she had to do was follow that line.
She could not turn aside, and even less could she turn back.
Because she was the Crown Prince.
Those two words were like shackles fastened around her neck from the moment of her birth.
She could not be willful like Lin Qingyan, nor could she be free like Shangguan Yunying.
She could only remain trapped within this gilded cage, becoming the future empress.
The night wind swept past, carrying a chill.
The stars still glittered in the sky. The moon still shone. The countless lights of the distant Divine Capital remained as brilliant as ever.
But from this moment on, after learning the truth—
Luo Zhao changed.
More precisely, she had fallen ill.
When Gu Chengyin had seized her by the throat, when she had become the most obedient little dog—
Luo Zhao had known that she was sick.
Very, very sick.
So sick that she could not accept Gu Chengyin leaving.
Even less could she accept that Lin Qingyan and Shangguan Yunying could leave with him,
while she alone could not.
Her god should belong to her alone.
shall grant"] ["Inscribing the glory of our race upon tombstones"] ["All that is threatened, I shall protect"] How his younger sister sees her brother: A brother who only makes eye contact once a day, mostly fading into the background as he tinkers with who-knows-what in his room all day. Their life paths should have remained largely separate. Until one day. Su Qi created an equipment card for his never-met "online girlfriend." His sister fell into silent contemplation upon receiving the "white stockings." [Card can be upgraded] [Upgrade by fulfilling any of the following conditions] [Condition ①: Consume one hundred higher-tier cards] [Condition ②: Complete one 'Heart-Pounding Adventure'] What constitutes a Heart-Pounding Adventure? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Beginner Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to admire it.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Easy Level): Equip the card, invite 'Su Qi' to touch it, and analyze the equipment's texture.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Entry Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to...] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Challenge Level): Freely combine the words 'Brother' 'Out' 'Brother' 'Me' 'Please' into a complete sentence...] "Please help me analyze both teams' mistakes in this match, brother..." His sister exhaled in relief—surely... surely there couldn't be anything more difficult? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Suicide Mission Level): Sneak a peek at the names of the galgames in 'Su Qi's' hidden E-drive folder]
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!
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
