Gu Chengyin continued to hold her as he spoke slowly:
“Once you break through to the Golden Core Realm, will you be able to take over the Azure Sword Sect?”
Shangguan Yunying agreed without the slightest hesitation.
“Of course.”
She did not even ask why. She accepted immediately.
As far as Shangguan Yunying was concerned, this was hardly a matter worth discussing.
The reason she was staying by Lin Qingyan’s side now was to break through to the Golden Core Realm.
But she could not remain by Lin Qingyan’s side forever.
Lin Qingyan had her own path to walk, and so did she.
Their paths had crossed at one point, and at another, they would inevitably part, each extending toward a different destination.
Sooner or later, she would leave. Sooner or later, she would have to find a place that belonged to her.
Originally, Shangguan Yunying had planned to think about what she would do after breaking through to the Golden Core Realm.
She was not sure what she would become after the breakthrough, nor how far her strength would reach.
She did not want to make a hasty decision before she knew for certain, only to regret it later.
But now, Gu Chengyin had given her the answer directly: take over the Azure Sword Sect.
It could be said that whether in terms of status, strength, or cultivation method, Shangguan Yunying was the best candidate to take over the Azure Sword Sect—without exception.
Gu Chengyin had considered this step long ago.
So this was not a spur-of-the-moment decision, much less a passing whim.
He had already been thinking about it from the moment he obtained the Azure Cloud Art.
Gu Chengyin paused, then continued:
“There’s one more thing. Yunying, after you take over the Azure Sword Sect, no matter what happens…”
“Even if something happens to me, you must take good care of the Azure Sword Sect.”
The implications of those words were so grave that Shangguan Yunying froze.
What did he mean by “no matter what happens”?
What did he mean by “even if something happens to me”?
Those two phrases echoed repeatedly in her mind, like an endless reverberation.
Again and again, they crashed against her reason, shattering every beautiful image she had formed of the future.
After thinking it through carefully, Shangguan Yunying abruptly raised her head.
She stared unblinkingly at Gu Chengyin, her eyes filled with wariness.
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
Shangguan Yunying truly did not understand.
But she could sense that Gu Chengyin seemed to be hinting at something.
It had not happened yet, but it was certain to happen in the future.
And it would be serious—so serious that Gu Chengyin had no choice but to make arrangements in advance.
Still, Shangguan Yunying could not understand what kind of accident could befall him.
With Lin Qingyan—the invincible Golden Core immortal—guarding him every step of the way, who could possibly make something happen to him?
No one.
She could not think of a single possibility.
That was why Shangguan Yunying said she did not understand.
She was not trying to avoid the subject. She genuinely could not figure it out.
She did not understand why Gu Chengyin would say something like this, or what he was worried about.
Looking at Shangguan Yunying’s bewildered and uneasy expression, so pitiful that it tugged at the heart, Gu Chengyin smiled faintly.
His hand moved from her waist to her face. His fingertips gently brushed across her cheekbone, then the corner of her eye.
They grazed the cheek that had flushed slightly from unease, as though she were about to cry.
“Yunying, don’t overthink it. I’m only preparing for the unexpected.”
Preparing for the unexpected.
His tone was casual and understated, as if he wanted to help Shangguan Yunying relax.
It sounded as though the matter was important, but not truly frightening.
Yet Shangguan Yunying did not relax. Her brows remained furrowed, her eyes stayed fixed on him, and her lips were still tightly pressed together.
She was not someone who could be brushed off with four words like “preparing for the unexpected.”
Because she knew Gu Chengyin very well. She knew he would not say something like this without reason.
More importantly, she knew he would not prepare for the unexpected unless it was necessary.
So this was not the sort of “preparing for the unexpected” that came from crying wolf.
A storm was genuinely approaching, and they needed to make preparations beforehand.
Gu Chengyin could see the disbelief on Shangguan Yunying’s face. He could see the unease in her eyes.
He could see the ten thousand questions hidden behind her tightly pressed lips.
He did not explain further, because he knew that under these circumstances, any explanation would only make Shangguan Yunying more worried.
She would pick apart every word he said, search for problems within those words, and then imagine countless terrifying possibilities from those problems.
She would go through each possibility in her mind and scare herself half to death.
So Gu Chengyin chose another approach: he would tell her the truth.
“How about this? I’ll tell you a secret, and then you’ll understand why.”
A secret.
The word was like a key sliding into the lock on Shangguan Yunying’s heart.
Her eyes brightened for an instant, filled with curiosity and anticipation, along with a hint of eager impatience.
Gu Chengyin glanced around.
They were deep within the Celestial Master’s Residence, in a dark, silent place where no one else was present.
After confirming that there was no third person nearby and no possibility of anyone overhearing them, he lowered his head and pressed his lips to Shangguan Yunying’s ear.
Then, in a breathy voice only the two of them could hear, he said:
“Once I break through to the Golden Core Realm, my cultivation will no longer be tied to my personal status and influence.”
“Instead, it will be tied to the status and influence of the Azure Sword Sect.”
The instant Shangguan Yunying heard this secret, her eyes widened.
She understood.
She understood everything—including why Gu Chengyin wanted her to take over the Azure Sword Sect.
She understood why he had said that, no matter what happened, even if something happened to him, she absolutely had to manage the Azure Sword Sect well.
Because as long as the Azure Sword Sect remained standing, and as long as its status was high enough and its influence great enough, Gu Chengyin would remain safe.
Nothing would happen to him. No accident could befall him.
At the same time, this meant…
He had placed his life in her hands.
Because she, Shangguan Yunying, would be the one in charge of the Azure Sword Sect.
He really does love me.
Shangguan Yunying now completely believed those words.
If he did not truly love her, how could he have told her such an important secret?
How could he have entrusted the equally important Azure Sword Sect to her?
And just then, Gu Chengyin added fuel to the fire:
“Yunying, even my aunt doesn’t know about this. At present, in this entire world…”
“You are the only one besides me who knows this secret.”
Shangguan Yunying froze once again.
This was not the first time she had learned one of Gu Chengyin’s secrets.
The last time, Gu Chengyin had told her about the Azure Cloud Art.
He had not made her swear a poisonous oath. Instead, he had allowed it to remain a secret between the two of them.
Afterward, he had even promised to make her the first person to learn the Azure Cloud Art.
And this time, Gu Chengyin had once again revealed a secret concerning his very life.
Even Lin Qingyan did not know. She was the only one who did.
The last time, Shangguan Yunying had been unable to withstand his direct confession and had run away without looking back.
But this time, she would not run.
“Master~ I want to have ten children with you~”
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.
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!
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
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.
