As the supreme ruler of Great Luo, Emperor Luo possessed the world and held dominion over all under heaven.
There was almost nothing in this world that he desired yet could not obtain.
With a single word, he could overturn the fortunes of a splendid realm and send the winds and clouds of the world into turmoil.
With one imperial edict, he could crush an entire cultivation sect until the whole cultivation world was forced to bow its head.
With a single glance, he could make the shrewd and calculating ministers of the court tremble in fear.
And yet there was one thing Emperor Luo had spent half his life seeking, only to remain forever unable to obtain it.
His Golden Core.
A flawed Golden Core meant an incomplete path to the Great Dao.
Those eight simple words were like an impassable chasm, severing his path to immortality once and for all.
Emperor Luo’s cultivation had remained forever at the half-step Golden Core realm, never advancing another inch.
He had tried countless methods, read through innumerable ancient texts, and consulted countless senior experts. Without exception, every answer he received was accompanied by a shake of the head and a sigh.
The Golden Core was the foundation. If the foundation was flawed, it was like building a lofty tower upon shifting sands. No matter how magnificent and splendid the structure above might be, it would ultimately be unable to escape the fate of collapsing with a thunderous crash.
And now, Gu Chengyin had placed that very bargaining chip on the table.
Emperor Luo narrowed his eyes.
The anger and amusement that still lingered in his gaze had now been replaced by something far more profound.
He studied the young man before him from head to toe, taking in everything from his open and composed eyes to his neither servile nor overbearing bearing.
He did not overlook the slightest detail, as though he intended to see straight through Gu Chengyin.
Yet the more Emperor Luo looked, the more he realized that he could not see through him.
Gu Chengyin was far more unfathomable than he had initially judged.
Even with his most fatal weakness in the other man’s grasp, Gu Chengyin had not panicked. Instead, he had countered by throwing out a bargaining chip Emperor Luo could not refuse.
Such cunning and courage were unmatched throughout Great Luo. He could not find a second person like him.
“Gu Chengyin.”
Emperor Luo spoke. His voice was several shades deeper than before.
“Do you know what you’re saying?”
Gu Chengyin met Emperor Luo’s gaze without the slightest fear.
His eyes were open and resolute, without a hint of evasion or concealment.
It was as though two evenly matched players were silently exchanging killing moves across a chessboard.
Even his tone was filled with sincerity, using only the simplest words to state a fact:
“Your Majesty, I never make empty boasts.”
A glimmer flashed through Emperor Luo’s eyes.
Gu Chengyin was not wrong about that. From the moment he had met this young man until now, he had never once seen him reach beyond his abilities.
Nor was he the kind of useless fool who only knew how to boast, revealing his true colors the moment it came time to put his words into action.
The most fearsome thing about Gu Chengyin was that he had fulfilled every word he spoke.
No matter how unbelievable those words sounded, they would ultimately become reality.
“You… have a way?”
A rare hesitation appeared in Emperor Luo’s voice.
At that question, Gu Chengyin merely smiled.
“Your Majesty, hasn’t the method always been right there?”
“Although I am not in the Golden Core realm, I still understand one of the most basic principles.”
“You replenish what you lack with what you consume.”
He spoke as casually as though he were discussing how to prepare an ordinary home-cooked dish.
Yet to Emperor Luo, those words were no less shocking than a thunderclap.
His expression abruptly turned grave.
The face that had still held a trace of hesitation and anticipation only a moment ago instantly became unreadable. In their place was an extraordinarily sharp scrutiny.
The invisible yet mountain-heavy pressure of imperial authority surrounding him suddenly spread outward as though it had become tangible, bearing down directly upon Gu Chengyin.
In an instant, more than half the air in the warm pavilion seemed to be sucked away. The memorials on the imperial desk were blown open by an unseen wave of force, their pages flipping noisily several times.
Even the surface of the tea in the cup rippled faintly, while the leaves of the ten-thousand-year-old evergreen in the corner trembled ever so slightly.
This was Emperor Luo’s test—and a solemn warning besides.
Are you certain you want to say that?
Yet in the face of the emperor’s pressure, Gu Chengyin remained utterly unafraid.
Seated in the rosewood chair, he remained relaxed and composed. His back was straight without being rigid, his hands folded over his knees, his fingertips lightly tapping the back of one hand in an unhurried rhythm.
Both his posture and expression made it clear that he was serious—very serious—and that he had not the slightest intention of yielding.
His eyes met Emperor Luo’s directly. Even beneath the enveloping imperial pressure, they remained as open and composed as ever.
His attitude was equally clear:
I know what I’m saying, and I know you understood me.
So, what is your answer?
The two of them remained locked in confrontation for quite some time.
The warm pavilion was so quiet that only the occasional crackle of the candle flame and the faint sound of footsteps from somewhere outside could be heard.
The ripples on the surface of the tea gradually stilled, and the memorials blown askew by the force settled back into place.
Only the invisible tension in the air continued to spread in silence.
At last, Emperor Luo slowly withdrew his pressure, like seawater soundlessly retreating from the shore with the ebbing tide.
The stern, cold expression on his face gradually relaxed as well. His brows were no longer tightly furrowed, and his gaze was no longer sharp as a blade.
In their place was a complicated, profound sense of emotion.
He looked at Gu Chengyin, his lips moving slightly before finally forming a helpless sigh.
“No wonder Zhao’er likes you so much.”
Emperor Luo’s tone carried the helplessness of a father, the emotion of an emperor, and an exceedingly rare trace of genuine acknowledgment.
“Even without the hypnosis, she would still obey your every word, wouldn’t she?”
Gu Chengyin did not respond.
He knew that Emperor Luo was not accusing him. The emperor was merely using a lament to acknowledge a fact.
If even Emperor Luo himself had nearly been driven into a rage by Gu Chengyin, only to be pulled back from the brink, how could Luo Zhao, the Crown Prince, possibly have resisted him?
But regardless of the circumstances, Gu Chengyin had indeed been the pig who had carried off the cabbage Emperor Luo had painstakingly raised for so many years.
And he had done so with extraordinary arrogance—even brazenly swaggering straight into Emperor Luo’s presence to flaunt his victory in the emperor’s face.
Such a thing could only be done by Gu Chengyin in all the world.
It was best not to continue that topic. Once one had taken advantage, one should not go on to flaunt it.
Emperor Luo did not dwell on the matter either.
He lowered his head and looked at the teacup before him. The tea remained a clear emerald green, with wisps of steam rising from it.
His gaze rested on his own reflection in the surface of the tea.
It was the reflection of an emperor whose temples had begun to turn gray—an emperor who was no longer young, no longer possessed of an edge sharp enough to cut through all opposition.
Yet the stubborn, unyielding fire in his eyes still burned fiercely.
What Gu Chengyin had said was actually correct.
The method of completing the Golden Core had always existed, and it was exceedingly simple.
One merely had to replenish what one lacked with what one consumed.
If the Golden Core was flawed, then use a Golden Core to repair it.
Just as an ordinary person who was weak and frail would nourish themselves with ginseng soup and velvet antler, or as a cultivator with damaged spiritual meridians would use spirit pills and miraculous medicines to restore and regulate them,
the Golden Core was the purest and most refined substance within a cultivator’s Dao foundation.
Naturally, then, it had to be completed with something of the same pure and refined nature—a Golden Core.
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.
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
with countless casualties. As a top-tier gamer, Liu Xuan volunteered to join the fight, intending to dominate with his skills, but instead he obtained the hidden class: [Pacifist]. Unable to attack. Unable to use active skills. Fortunately, with each level gained, he acquired a new passive skill. And so, armed with a body full of passives, Liu Xuan slaughtered his way through the battlefield of ten thousand races! [You attacked Liu Xuan] [You gained the debuffs: 'Poison', 'Fear', 'Burning', 'Bleeding', 'Freeze', 'Silence', etc.] [Your attack speed has been reduced by 99%] [Your armor and magic resistance have been reduced by 99%] Warriors of the Ten Thousand Races: How the hell am I supposed to fight this?!
