The night was dark, the wind was strong, and the beauty was sultry.
Shangguan Yunying’s words were unquestionably the best catalyst, enough to set all reason ablaze.
But before Gu Chengyin could even say a word, Shangguan Yunying took the initiative herself.
Deep in the woods, beneath the moonlight, the beauty let out soft, breathy cries.
In the depths of the grove, moonlight flowed like water, spilling onto the ground, onto Shangguan Yunying’s shoulders, and across her loose strands of hair.
Flickering between light and shadow, she looked almost unreal in her beauty.
The wind swept through the treetops, stirring a rustling sound—the sort of melody only nature itself could hum—as though it were providing an accompaniment for this moment.
In the end, Shangguan Yunying’s moans scattered into the wind.
Like a wisp of smoke, they drifted slowly and lingered, unwilling to disperse.
They were sounds forced out from the depths of her soul, an unguarded expression released after every one of her senses had been overwhelmed.
But even now, Shangguan Yunying remained firmly suppressed by Gu Chengyin.
It was not something she could change, overcome, or conquer through sheer effort.
So, unsurprisingly, she was forced to surrender after only a few movements.
It ended even faster, more miserably, and more shamefully than before.
It was over before she had even experienced what it meant to face an evenly matched opponent.
It was so miserable that she did not even have time to beg for mercy before her eyes rolled back.
And it was so humiliating that she could not bear to recall it, leaving her with no choice but to bury her face in Gu Chengyin’s chest.
Like an ostrich hiding its head in the sand, she pretended that nothing had happened.
Only then did Shangguan Yunying’s consciousness return to clarity.
The fireworks that had exploded in her mind moments ago—the feeling that had robbed her of all reason—had completely faded.
Her thoughts slowly recovered from their blankness, like a drowning person finally rescued from the water and able to gulp down air once more.
She gathered the scattered fragments of her rationality, pieced them together, and reassembled herself into someone capable of facing reality.
Unfortunately, the only reality Shangguan Yunying could face was herself.
Reality was simply too cruel—so cruel that she did not want to confront it.
She had lost again. She had once again been unable to last more than a few movements. And once again, she had shown Gu Chengyin her most humiliating side.
Shangguan Yunying could only cling to him, unable even to lift her head.
Her face was buried deeply against his chest, so deeply that all her breaths were muffled against his clothes.
She was too weak. So weak that even she found it unbelievable. So weak that she wanted to cry.
So weak that she wanted to raise her head toward the moon and shout:
Why? Why am I so useless?!
At first, she had been worried that someone might see them.
Now, there was no need to worry at all.
It was already over.
From beginning to end, it had been so brief that she had not even had the chance to be seen.
“Waaah, I’m so angry!”
Shangguan Yunying finally could not hold it in any longer. Even this gentle and self-possessed beauty had begun to throw a tantrum.
She was genuinely furious.
Neither the trivial affairs of the court nor Lin Qingyan’s overwhelming strength had ever made Shangguan Yunying this angry.
The troubles of the court could be resolved little by little through wisdom and patience.
Lin Qingyan’s strength could be treated as a goal—a height she simply could not reach yet.
Those were external matters. They could be changed through effort, time, and accumulation.
But being useless was different.
This was not a matter of court affairs. It was not Lin Qingyan’s strength. It was not something that could be changed through hard work.
It was carved into her very bones, something that no amount of effort could alter.
“Don’t be angry, don’t be angry. There has to be a way.”
Gu Chengyin raised his hand and smiled as he gently rubbed the top of Shangguan Yunying’s head, comforting her.
“Don’t you believe me?”
Hearing his indulgent reassurance, the grievance in Shangguan Yunying’s heart vanished in an instant.
She obediently hummed in response and stopped making a fuss.
Not only because Gu Chengyin had said there was certainly a way to solve the problem, but also because she had realized something.
Something that made her heart as sweet as honey.
Gu Chengyin truly wanted to help her solve this problem. He had no intention of simply taking advantage of the situation and turning her into a sex slave.
After all, not just anyone had the opportunity to use the Shangguan family’s eldest daughter as a convenient tool whenever they wished.
He really does love me.
And so Shangguan Yunying quieted down.
She stopped crying, stopped complaining, and stopped fighting against herself.
She merely nestled in Gu Chengyin’s arms, feeling his warmth, listening to his heartbeat, and waiting for his solution.
Gu Chengyin leaned against the tree with Shangguan Yunying held in his arms and looked up at the bright moon hanging high in the sky.
His mind began racing.
The Azure Sword Art was the root of the entire problem.
The Azure Cloud Art itself was not at fault.
The problem was that the Azure Sword Art had fused with the Azure Cloud Art without disappearing.
So how could this be resolved?
The best solution would be to disperse her cultivation and start over.
Disperse the Azure Cloud Art. Disperse the Azure Sword Art. Disperse every trace of her cultivation.
Start from zero. Begin again from the very beginning.
That would solve the problem at its root.
Without those techniques, there would be no bloodline suppression.
And without bloodline suppression, Shangguan Yunying would not be so useless.
But the hidden dangers were enormous.
Dispersing one’s cultivation was no trivial matter. It was not something that could simply be done on a whim, nor was there any guarantee that one could regain one’s cultivation afterward.
The process itself was like walking through the gates of hell. A moment of carelessness could result in shattered meridians, a destroyed dantian, and a lifetime without the ability to cultivate immortality again.
Even if she succeeded, even if she safely dispersed all her cultivation, who could guarantee that she would not encounter other problems when cultivating anew?
So if there was a safer way, it was best to proceed cautiously.
One could not create an even greater problem merely to solve the first one.
Since the Azure Sword Art engraved in Shangguan Yunying’s very bones could not be changed, Gu Chengyin could only seek the answer in himself.
Gu Chengyin narrowed his eyes, and his thoughts became clear in that instant.
His Azure Cloud Art had been directly converted by the system from Dao patterns.
He had not learned it from anyone else, nor had he read it in a manual.
It had been engraved directly into his Dao Heart and had become a part of him.
That was why Gu Chengyin’s Azure Cloud Art was at the level of an ancestral grandmaster—more authentic than even the Azure Cloud Art passed down through the Azure Cloud Immortal Clan.
In that sense, he was not a successor of the Azure Cloud Immortal Clan.
He was their ancestor.
His Azure Cloud Art was closer to the essence of the Great Dao’s arcane patterns.
That was why it could suppress Shangguan Yunying—and the entire Azure Sword Sect—through bloodline dominance.
Therefore, if he wanted Shangguan Yunying to stop being suppressed, he had to begin at the source.
He had to change the way his Azure Cloud Art affected her.
And the best solution was…
Isolation.
Gu Chengyin’s eyes lit up. He knew how to solve the problem.
The key did not lie in their bloodlines, but in the suppression itself.
It was his Azure Cloud Art that suppressed Shangguan Yunying’s Azure Sword Art.
Only then had the chain reaction begun.
It was not that his bloodline suppressed hers.
This was suppression between cultivation techniques, not bloodlines.
The bloodlines were merely the vessels.
The Azure Cloud Art was the true source of the suppression.
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.
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!
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
