Gu Chengyin ignored the Emperor’s pair of tiger-like eyes fixed intently upon him and calmly picked up his teacup.
He blew away the tea leaves floating on the surface, then took an unhurried sip.
The tea was clear, sweet, and mellow on the tongue, with a lingering aftertaste. It was indeed a rare and exquisite brew.
His eyes narrowed slightly as he let out a heartfelt sigh of admiration.
“What excellent tea. Tea from Your Majesty’s collection truly is something else.”
Emperor Luo looked at the man before him. Gu Chengyin had been kneeling on the floor moments ago, requesting an imperial decree, yet was now sitting with one leg crossed over the other, leisurely savoring his tea. Suddenly, a laugh escaped through the Emperor’s nose.
In all his years, he had met countless people, but Gu Chengyin was the first to dare go this far in front of him.
The young man had been bowing respectfully just a moment ago. But after the Emperor saw through him, he had instead let go completely.
It was as though he had cast off some disguise, revealing the true soul beneath—a soul that was, in a certain sense, his equal.
Emperor Luo did not feel offended, however. He found it rather interesting.
After all, as an emperor, he had seen far too much obsequious flattery. Someone like Gu Chengyin was already rare enough.
Even encountering a subject who dared to speak frankly in a memorial was no easy matter.
Thus, Emperor Luo simply picked up the cup before him as well, leaned back against the throne, and began drinking slowly.
The two men sat facing each other, each savoring the tea in his hand.
Neither was in any hurry to speak. Instead, the atmosphere had eased considerably compared with the tense standoff earlier.
If not for the faint scratch left on the imperial desk by the broken teacup moments before, anyone witnessing this scene would have assumed that these were two old friends who had not seen each other in years, leisurely reminiscing together.
Not an emperor who had been angered to the point of nearly losing his breath, and a subject whose most fatal weakness had been seized, silently maneuvering against each other.
As Gu Chengyin drank Emperor Luo’s fine tea, he pondered inwardly how he could turn the tables.
With both sides holding the other’s weakness, the advantage he had gained earlier no longer meant anything.
And flipping the table would only leave both sides badly wounded. Emperor Luo, however, had a longer health bar than he did and could afford to take the hit.
Looking at it this way, Gu Chengyin was actually the one at a disadvantage.
If that was the case, then only one method remained.
“Your Majesty.”
Gu Chengyin was the first to break the silence. He gently set his teacup back on the table.
With his hands folded over his knees, he looked calmly at Emperor Luo.
“How did Your Majesty know that I cultivate the Supreme Emotionlessness Dao?”
This was the greatest question in Gu Chengyin’s heart.
It was only reasonable that Emperor Luo had guessed the nature of his Dao, yet it had still been beyond his expectations.
To throw that information out as leverage at such a precise moment meant that Emperor Luo had not guessed it on the spot. He had known for a long time—he had simply kept it hidden until now.
Hearing this, Emperor Luo set down his teacup and cast Gu Chengyin a glance.
Then the corners of his lips curled into a smug smile.
Such a smile was exceedingly rare on the face of this emperor, who was usually impossible to read.
Even Lyu Fang, who had served him for decades, could count on one hand the number of times he had seen Emperor Luo look so pleased with himself. Each occasion had been accompanied by an earth-shaking event.
Yet now, merely because he had gained the upper hand in his contest with Gu Chengyin, Emperor Luo—who had controlled the world for decades—had revealed such an expression.
But it was indeed worth taking pride in.
When two evenly matched opponents faced off, precisely identifying the other party’s most fatal weakness and striking it in a single blow was practically a divine move.
It had erased every advantage Gu Chengyin had accumulated and returned the two of them to an equal starting line.
“Because I walk the same path.”
Upon hearing this answer, Gu Chengyin’s pupils contracted slightly before slowly widening again.
All the doubts he had been unable to resolve earlier suddenly connected, forming a complete picture.
So that was it.
Only those of the same kind could understand each other best.
The detachment he showed toward everything, his contradictory attitude toward emotion—sometimes distant, sometimes close—and the extreme contrast between his occasional tenderness and his occasional mercilessness…
To outsiders, these traits would seem unfathomable. But to someone who cultivated the same Supreme Emotionlessness Dao, they were familiar marks that could be recognized at a glance.
Although Emperor Luo also cultivated the Supreme Emotionlessness Dao, he had not walked it to completion.
Gu Chengyin had sensed the contradictions within Emperor Luo more than once.
That was why he had never been able to determine the nature of the Emperor’s Great Dao. Instead, Emperor Luo had been the one to see through him first.
At times, Emperor Luo appeared to be a cold and ruthless ruler, capable of sacrificing anyone without hesitation for the sake of the greater picture.
At other times, he seemed like a deeply devoted father, his care for Luo Zhao unconsciously revealed in his words and actions.
There was only one explanation for this contradictory state: his golden core was flawed, and his Great Dao was incomplete.
Emperor Luo wanted to sever his emotions, yet he could not forget them completely.
Or perhaps he had forgotten some of them already, while the rest remained firmly embedded in his Dao Heart, impossible to pry loose no matter what he did.
Wanting to forget but being unable to; wanting to continue down the path but being unable to move forward—this state of neither here nor there was even more torturous than failing to walk the path at all.
And it was precisely this that had made Emperor Luo such a contradictory figure.
As for why he also cultivated the Supreme Emotionlessness Dao, Gu Chengyin did not need to guess.
It could only be because of Empress Lin, who had died young. Lin Qingyan had developed a heart demon because of her, and even Emperor Luo, despite being a mature and seasoned ruler, had been affected as well.
This could be seen from the fact that Da Luo had never established a new empress, while the imperial harem remained entirely empty to this day.
It could even be said that Emperor Luo was Da Luo’s Most Devoted Man.
“So that’s how it is.”
Gu Chengyin nodded in understanding, genuine admiration in his voice.
“Just as expected of Your Majesty.”
He no longer dwelled on the matter.
Since Emperor Luo had laid his cards on the table, there was no need to probe any deeper.
The two of them walked the same path. Emperor Luo knew his secrets, and he now knew the Emperor’s secrets as well.
With each holding the other’s weakness, continuing to entangle themselves over this topic would only result in mutual destruction.
After a brief moment of thought, Gu Chengyin rolled the teacup between his fingers.
Then he raised his head and looked at Emperor Luo openly.
“Since that is the case, Your Majesty, let us make a deal.”
A strange glint flashed through Emperor Luo’s eyes. He raised an eyebrow and shifted into a more comfortable position within the throne.
His gaze swept over Gu Chengyin, carrying both scrutiny and a hint of amusement.
A subject who dared to make a deal with him—or rather, someone who dared to take the initiative and propose a deal after having his most fatal weakness seized—
Gu Chengyin was the first, and the only one.
That courage earned him a measure of Emperor Luo’s appreciation.
“You are the first person ever to dare make a deal with Me.”
Emperor Luo’s tone was as calm as ever, but there was a faint hint of interest between his words.
“Go on.”
Seeing that Emperor Luo was willing to listen, Gu Chengyin knew that the matter was already half settled.
He set down his teacup, folded his hands over his knees, and straightened his back.
Then he spoke a sentence that made Emperor Luo’s pupils contract sharply.
“Your Majesty, would you like to complete your golden core?”
transmigrates into the role of a villainous rich second-generation kid in an urban fantasy novel, and gets bound to a god-tier choice system. Right at the start, he catches the female lead stealing exam papers! This triggers the villain's choice options! [Choice 1: Pretend you didn't see anything] [Choice 2: Loudly call her out, drawing everyone's attention] [Choice 3: ...] And thus, a twisted villain is born. To avoid getting killed by the protagonist, he has no choice but to take down all the protagonists first. Jiang Che: Nobody understands being twisted better than 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?"
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!
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.
