The reason work in the hall had not yet resumed was that the person in charge, Luo Zhao, had not returned.
The Crown Princess was currently holding a closed-door meeting with the Junior Tutor to the Crown Prince in the small lounge to discuss the arrangements that would follow.
The excuse was perfectly reasonable. Although the matter involving the Sunmoon Cult had been temporarily suppressed, its aftermath and the chain reaction it might trigger still required careful discussion. It was only natural for the Crown Princess and her tutor to confer privately.
Thus, apart from Lin Qingyan and Gu Xiaoli, who knew the truth, no one else found anything amiss.
Everyone was understanding and patient as they waited. No one urged them to hurry, no one complained, and not a single person showed the slightest sign of impatience.
What they did not know was that although things were indeed progressing inside the tightly closed door of the small lounge, they were not discussing anything.
They were undergoing training.
……
When the door to the lounge finally opened, everyone in the hall turned their eyes toward it as if by silent agreement.
Luo Zhao was the first to emerge. She looked poised and composed, her dark-black Crown Prince’s formal robes worn to perfection.
Her collar and lapels were so smooth that not even a single unnecessary crease could be found, and her hair had been neatly redone, without the slightest trace of disorder.
Luo Zhao stopped at the doorway and drew a deep breath, doing her best to make her expression stern.
But she failed.
At the very least, she could not conceal the delight in the corners of her eyes. The satisfaction seemed to radiate from her very bones.
She was like a flower freshly watered by spring rain, every petal plump and glistening as though it might drip at any moment.
Her skin was several shades fairer and rosier than before she entered the room, while her lips were lush, red, and dewy.
Everything about her—the color in her face and her bearing alike—was more beautiful than before by more than double.
Facing Gu Chengyin, who had followed her out, Luo Zhao spoke loudly in the proper tone of the Crown Princess:
“I understand, Junior Preceptor Gu. I’ll leave this matter to you.”
Her words were utterly serious, and their content perfectly reasonable.
To anyone listening, it sounded as though she were assigning him some follow-up work related to the Sunmoon Cult.
After speaking, Luo Zhao gave a slight nod and turned toward the seat of honor.
Her steps were light, as though she were walking on clouds. Only, her legs trembled faintly as she moved.
It seemed she had yet to fully recover from some intense exertion, and every so often they gave an involuntary little shake.
Fortunately, the Crown Prince’s formal robes concealed it well, and no one noticed.
Just then, Gu Chengyin noticed Lin Qingyan’s gaze.
Unlike everyone else, who were looking at Luo Zhao, Lin Qingyan was staring straight at him.
Her lips moved silently, forming an extremely brief message.
Gu Chengyin understood at once what Lin Qingyan was saying:
“Come find me first when you get back tonight?”
Gu Chengyin repeated the words in his mind and could not help pausing for a moment.
He did not think much of it, assuming Lin Qingyan was merely jealous. He immediately nodded in agreement.
When Lin Qingyan saw him accept, the smile at the corners of her lips deepened.
She shifted her gaze away from Gu Chengyin and glanced at Luo Zhao, who was making every effort to maintain her dignified bearing as she walked back to the seat of honor.
Then she lowered her eyes and muttered inwardly:
“Hmph. So you like sneaking a bite, do you? Just wait until tonight.”
Gu Chengyin then exchanged a greeting with Cui Zilu.
The newly appointed childlike female official was holding a stack of documents, her delicate little face filled with seriousness and concentration.
Yet her eyes were faintly red. When the Sunmoon Cult had forcibly stormed the main hall, she had been at Luo Zhao’s side. She had endured tremendous pressure, yet had not taken a single step back.
Gu Chengyin reached out and gently patted her on the head, warmly praising her for a few moments.
Cui Zilu’s fair little face flushed visibly, like a peach blossom suddenly blooming in spring.
Her heart was practically overflowing with joy, to the point that she could barely speak. All she could do was clutch the documents and nod repeatedly.
After bidding Cui Zilu farewell, Gu Chengyin left the main hall with Gu Xiaoli.
According to his original plan, Gu Chengyin would not return to the Celestial Master’s Residence until he had finished handling his business.
He had only made a temporary detour back because the Sunmoon Cult had unexpectedly appeared along the way.
Now that the matter had been resolved, he naturally intended to continue with his original plans.
“Xiaoli, I’m going into the palace. Do you want to come?”
At this, Gu Xiaoli tilted her head and asked in puzzlement, “Big Brother, are you going to see His Majesty?”
Gu Chengyin nodded. His gaze passed over the edge of the square’s enclosing wall and settled in the direction of the imperial palace.
The majestic palace complex gleamed golden beneath the sunlight. The radiance reflected from its glazed roof tiles resembled a golden sea suspended in midair.
“After all, His Majesty expressed his support during the Taihe Campaign.”
“So, whether out of reason or propriety, I should pay him a visit.”
His words were perfectly reasonable, but Gu Chengyin knew that this was only half the reason.
The other half was that he needed to find out what exactly Emperor Luo was thinking.
Ever since crossing into this world, whether it was the people he encountered or the events he experienced, everything ultimately led back to the same person: Empress Lin.
She was a woman who had died many years before the story began.
Yet she moved through every corner of the Great Luo Dynasty like a ghost.
Her shadow was reflected in Lin Qingyan’s thunderbolts, in Luo Zhao’s character, and in the choices Gu Xiaoli had made.
It was also reflected in all of Emperor Luo’s seemingly contradictory schemes.
Nearly everything, once investigated deeply enough, would eventually lead to the name Empress Lin.
And naturally, Emperor Luo could not be separated from it either.
Every summons appeared casual, yet every one was a silent contest.
Every time Gu Chengyin walked out of the Warm Pavilion, he found himself pondering the same question:
What, exactly, was this emperor thinking?
His attitude was far too contradictory and far too complicated—so complicated that even Gu Chengyin found it difficult to see through him.
At times, Emperor Luo seemed to be deliberately paving the way for him. At other times, he seemed to be testing the limits of his ability.
Sometimes he turned a blind eye to Gu Chengyin’s outrageous behavior; at others, he would suddenly issue an imperial decree that caught him completely off guard.
And on top of that, Gu Chengyin had already slept with Luo Zhao. So, before the Taihe Campaign officially began, he felt that he needed to meet with Emperor Luo once more.
Some matters had to be made clear face-to-face, and certain attitudes had to be confirmed in person.
Gu Xiaoli tilted her head and thought for a moment before shaking it.
She knew that Gu Chengyin would certainly be discussing serious matters with Emperor Luo. Following him would not only be of no help, but might even get in the way.
“Xiaoli won’t go. Sister Yunying should be at the Celestial Master’s Residence, right? Xiaoli will wait for Big Brother there.”
Gu Chengyin nodded, then told her where the Tranquility Pagoda was and how to open its door.
After listening, Gu Xiaoli nodded and turned toward the Tranquility Pagoda. Soon, she disappeared around a bend in the corridor.
After watching Gu Xiaoli leave, Gu Chengyin walked alone toward the main gate of the Celestial Master’s Residence.
This time, he was going to have an open and honest conversation with Emperor Luo.
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!
ine. During your journey, you save an abandoned baby girl and become her elder brother】 【You rely on each other, becoming each other's support】 【At the end of the simulation, you shield the now-grown girl with your life, sacrificing yourself to block numerous demonic cultivators. You die, and the light in the girl's eyes fades】 …… 【Second Simulation: You are transported to a world where steam and magic coexist】 【You immerse yourself in the study of magic, obsessed with its research. One day, while out, you encounter a half-blooded demon girl wandering the streets. You take her in as your student】 【You teach the demoness what it means to be human, show her the beauty of the world, and nurture her into a miracle that surpasses even the gods】 【At the end of the simulation, you die of old age in front of the nearly immortal demoness due to your mortal lifespan】 …… One simulation after another, one encounter after another. Xu Xi suddenly felt something was off: "Wait, you said you're coming to the real world to find me?"
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
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.
