He knew this was a sign that she was wavering. He only needed to push a little harder, and he would succeed.
Gu Chengyin paused for a moment, letting his previous words linger in Gu Xiaoli’s mind a little longer.
Then he delivered his final killing blow:
“Xiaoli, in your brother’s heart…”
“You’re not just my little sister. You’re family.”
That was more than Gu Xiaoli could withstand.
All her defenses, all her stubbornness, all the instincts heated to a fever by her period of rutting—
In that instant, they were swept away by a far more powerful force.
She suddenly lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Gu Chengyin, burying her little face against his chest.
She held him very, very tightly, as though she feared he might disappear the very next second.
Gu Chengyin felt the warmth and strength of her embrace.
Even the oppressive force that had rendered him immobile began to loosen.
He knew he had succeeded.
He breathed a sigh of relief inwardly, but showed nothing on his face.
Instead, he struck while the iron was hot, continuing his gentle offensive:
“So no matter whom your brother marries in the future, there will always be a place for Xiaoli in this family.”
Gu Chengyin rested his chin lightly atop Gu Xiaoli’s head. His voice carried a hint of longing, as well as the weight of a promise.
“But your brother hopes that place will belong to Xiaoli the little sister, not Xiaoli the fate demon. All right?”
After a moment of silence, a muffled “Mm” came from his arms.
Gu Xiaoli kept her face buried against his chest and refused to look up, but that single hum was unmistakably clear.
There was still a trace of unwillingness in her voice, but more than that, there was the compromise of someone who had been persuaded—and the satisfaction of feeling cherished.
She had agreed.
Gu Chengyin finally let his guard down. He was preparing to say a few more soothing words and completely stabilize the situation when Gu Xiaoli suddenly released him.
She withdrew from his arms and met his gaze once more.
Her delicate little face was streaked with tears, making her look like a kitten that had gotten its face covered in mud.
Then Gu Xiaoli pouted.
Her rosy little lips stuck out so far they could practically hold an oil jar.
Together with her tear-stained face and those large, watery eyes, she looked both aggrieved and stubborn.
“Xiaoli can stop being a fate demon, but Xiaoli doesn’t want to be your little sister either.”
At that, Gu Xiaoli paused, and her lips protruded even farther.
Then, in a tone brimming with resentment, she poured out everything in her heart:
“You made Xiaoli go into heat, so you have to take responsibility!”
Gu Chengyin fell silent for a moment, then smiled.
As long as Gu Xiaoli stopped being a fate demon, that was all that mattered. Otherwise, he would never be able to run away in the future.
As for what she meant by taking responsibility… Whether he took one, or four, what difference did it make?
He had already taken responsibility for three of them. One more bowl of rice would hardly matter.
With so many lice, one more itch made no difference; with so many debts, one more debt was nothing to worry about.
Besides, Gu Xiaoli was a loli in terms of looks, a loli in terms of strength, and a loli in terms of how clingy she was.
She could grow larger or smaller, and transform between cat and human form. She was practically the perfect companion for staying at home or traveling.
But just as Gu Chengyin was about to agree, a sudden change occurred.
A golden bolt of lightning descended from the heavens.
This was not true lightning, but thunderforce formed after spiritual energy had been condensed to its absolute limit.
It took the shape of lightning, yet its might far surpassed any natural thunderbolt.
It descended vertically from directly overhead, moving so quickly that the naked eye could not follow it.
It carried the overwhelming force of thunder and a terrifying pressure powerful enough to make heaven and earth change color.
With astonishing precision, it slammed into the spiritual barrier enveloping the entire rear courtyard.
The moment the two forces collided, the space throughout the courtyard seemed to shudder.
Golden lightning crashed against the barrier, erupting in blinding radiance, as though a sun had exploded in the middle of the courtyard.
The air rang with a piercing cracking sound, like breaking glass or an ice sheet splintering apart.
The spiritual barrier, which had reached the level of a half-step Nascent Soul cultivator, could not withstand even a single breath before this golden lightning.
Starting from the point of impact, it shattered in all directions. Countless fragments of spiritual energy flew through the air before rapidly dissolving into specks of light.
The entire spiritual barrier had been forcibly cleaved apart by the golden lightning.
Immediately afterward, an aura of utter frost poured in through the breach in the shattered barrier, instantly filling the entire rear courtyard.
Gu Chengyin was all too familiar with that aura: clear and cold as frost, sharp as a blade, proud as the snow high above the Ninth Heaven.
Free of all impurities, pure and absolute, it inspired an instinctive reverence deep within the bones.
It was Lin Qingyan.
Gu Xiaoli reacted even faster than Gu Chengyin.
She whipped around, twisting her petite body in midair and placing herself between Gu Chengyin and the intruder.
Her spiritual cat ears stood straight up, while her spiritual cat tail puffed to twice its usual thickness.
In an instant, all the demonic power in her body surged to its peak, instinctively entering a state of battle readiness.
High in the air, a green-robed figure stood silently.
Lin Qingyan had not landed. She hovered several yards above the ground, golden arcs of electricity crackling around her.
The remnants of the lightning whipped her robes about, while her long hair streamed behind her.
Bathed in the countless specks of light left behind by the shattered spiritual barrier, she looked like a thunder goddess descending from the heavens.
Her right hand still held the posture of a spell. Her index and middle fingers were pressed together, and a faint golden arc of electricity danced at their tips.
It was the lingering trace of the thunder technique that had just struck with the force of ten thousand bolts.
Lin Qingyan gazed coldly down at everything below, her expressionless face revealing nothing.
Her eyes, clear as an autumn lake, were now as cold as two slabs of ancient black ice.
Her gaze first fell upon Gu Xiaoli and paused for a moment.
That single moment contained far too much: the understanding of So it really was you, you damned cat; the fury of How dare you force Chengcheng; and a trace of jealousy so faint it was almost imperceptible.
Then her gaze passed over Gu Xiaoli and landed on Gu Chengyin, who was still completely unable to move.
Gu Chengyin raised his head. Through the catgirl with her fur standing on end and the shower of golden fragments filling the air, he met Lin Qingyan’s eyes.
He pulled the corners of his mouth into a smile that was somewhat sheepish, yet strangely open and unbothered.
His expression seemed to say: You’re here. A little later than I expected, though.
As for Gu Xiaoli, the moment she recognized who had come, her bristling spiritual tail slowly drooped, and her spiritual cat ears folded back.
Of course she recognized whose lightning it was. In the entire Great Luo cultivation world, only one person could wield golden lightning.
Although Gu Xiaoli’s cultivation realm was far above Lin Qingyan’s, and she might not necessarily lose if they truly fought—
That had been true before.
The current Gu Xiaoli could not defeat the current Lin Qingyan.
Especially not Lin Qingyan at full strength.
The golden arcs of electricity surging around her were even more violent than usual, at least thirty percent stronger.
That meant Lin Qingyan was extremely angry.
The pressure pinning Gu Chengyin down had completely vanished, but he was not happy in the slightest.
Watching the woman and the cat confronting each other from a distance, he could not help missing Luo Zhao.
A new battlefield of romantic conflict had appeared, but Her Highness was nowhere to be found.
Whom was he supposed to use to divert the disaster now?
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.
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...
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!
and couldn't return to the real world. Finally, I gave up and decided to go with the flow, only to discover that writing a diary could make me stronger. Since no one could read it, Su Luo wrote freely, daring to pen anything and everything. Female Lead #1: "Not bad. This diary helped me steal all the protagonist's opportunities. I just want to get stronger." Female Lead #2: "I don’t care about reaching the peak of the cultivation world. Right now, I just want to enjoy the chaos." Female Lead #3: "What? Everyone around me is a spy? I’m the Joker Demon Lord?" ... It’s so strange. Why is the plot completely off track, yet the ending remains the same? Are you all just messing with me?!
