the pressure that he felt on his person, and even if he sat in one place, he had a nagging feeling that the roof would cave in on him.

Yao Jiamu had sent him a message earlier, informing him that Gu Xiqiao would be arriving soon, but he was still nervous as long as he didn’t see her in person.

"Yao Jiamu has arrived with some other people." Ah Gen knocked on the door frame after a short while.

Boss Bai stood up immediately. "Bring them in, quickly!" He had wanted to receive them personally, but thinking about his unlucky streak, he halted in his steps, not wanting to meet anymore misfortune.

"Boss Bai." It wasn’t long before he heard the clear, melodious voice ring out. He raised his head consciously, seeing the people who stepped into the room under the moonlight.

"Great Master Gu!" Boss Bai exclaimed with some unrestrained joy in his voice and face. "You’re finally here!"

Gu Xiqiao squinted slightly as she looked up at the moon in the sky, it was particularly round tonight, because it was the fifteenth of the month, and it excluded a faint silvery light. In contrast, Boss Bai was exuding a faint scent of death on his person.

Yao Jiamu was well prepared, having asked Gu Xiqiao earlier on what he needed to pay attention to. The yard had been cleared, and only a Yin-Yang Eight Trigram Array on the ground was present.

"Just what the hell is this?" Jiang Shuxuan couldn’t help the furrowing of his brows, looking at the shattered magnetic field around Boss Bai. It was similar to what had happened to Gu Xiqiao previously, and he still didn’t know what the cause of it was.

Even though he was a prodigy in ancient martial arts, and there were only a handful of people who were able to compare with him in terms of power, but in terms of formations and array, he had not touched on those before.

Not everyone had a virtual space like Gu Xiqiao, and had endless amount of time to explore things like she had done.

Gu Xiqiao instructed Boss Bai to sit in the middle of the Eight Trigram Array, then she turned to Jiang Shuxuan. "Brother Jiang, where is Xixi?"

Jiang Shuxuan raised his hand to draw a symbol in the air, and a black hole appeared suddenly, the huge form of Xixi coming out from it. "Chirp chiiiiirp! Beauty Qiao, Xixi has missed you!"

Xixi, who had been let out, didn’t hesitate to rush toward Gu Xiqiao, but was slapped to the side without mercy by Jiang Shuxuan.

Boss Bai felt faint watching the scene in front of him, these were all things that were beyond his imagination. But thinking back to the miracles that he had witnessed, he still couldn’t get over the marvel of them, and the bird that was bigger than a human was able to talk?

Didn’t they say that animals couldn’t become spirits after China was built?

In the end, Gu Xiqiao borrowed the power of the jade pendant on Jiang Shuxuan’s neck. She walked to the middle of the Eight Trigram Array, waving her hands casually to produce a few other jades with spiritual aura in them. She placed them in specific positions on the Eight Trigram Array, and when the ancient jade from Jiang Shuxuan was placed down, a blast of silver light burst out.

Countless of silver lights poured down from the moon, resembling a silvery waterfall.

"This... she’s changing the fates." Feeling the profound energy and chi radiating from Gu Xiqiao, Jiang Shuxuan finally realized something. When did that happen, she seemed to have advanced unknowingly?

"Xixi, fire!"

On her command, Xixi opened its mouth, spitting fire. Black? Ops, wrong one!

Withdrawing the black fire, it immediately changed it to the vivid, bright red flames instead. As a divine beast of heaven and earth, the energy in its flame was extremely pure.

The sky gradually darkened, and the people standing outside the Eight Trigram Array couldn’t see the two figures who stood inside it. Jiang Shuxuan could only rely on his connection to the jade pendant to assure himself that Gu Xiqiao was fine. Changing the fates... Jiang Shuxuan felt a stab of fear when he thought of these words.

Since ancient times, wasn’t being able to change the fates a great power of the ancient martial arts world?

How great was Gu Xiqiao, being able to take advantage of the power of heaven and earth, using Natural Force to forcefully change the fates?

Really, when it involved her, every day was a new surprise. One day, if she were to tell him that she would be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with him, he wouldn’t find it surprising at all.

The effect lasted for almost an hour before the silver lights faded slowly, revealing the slim figure behind it.

Gu Xiqiao held the pendant in her hands, coming up to Jiang Shuxuan and placing it around his neck once again. She then turned to Yao Jiamu. "Sit still for the night, Boss Bai will be fine."

"Thank you." Yao Jiamu said gravely, and then he remembered what Boss Bai had entrusted to him. "Boss Bai has prepared two boxes of antiques, I’ll get someone to send it over to you soon."

In order to collect all the items, Boss Bai had also exerted quite some effort, and Gu Xiqiao was well aware of it. "You’ve really put a lot of thought into this."

Yao Jiamu rubbed his chin. "This is nothing, really." When Boss Bai woke up tomorrow, Yao Jiamu would pester him send another sum along to Gu Xiqiao, he thought inside.

Boss Bai: Am I still your godfather or not? Why do you treat me like this?

***

Bai Xinran had been having bad days consistently for a while, what irked her the most was that Gu Xiqiao was still alive and well. Knowing that the master was coming to her house tonight, Bai Xinran went back to the dorms quietly and retrieved the talisman underneath Gu Xiqiao’s bed.

She not only wanted to kill Gu Xiqiao, she wanted all of those people who had laughed at her to also die!

The talisman was still at its original place, not looking like anyone had touched it. Bai Xinran let out a sigh of relief, and she picked up the talisman, writing the names of all the people on the back side of the paper.

historical

Clack!

The room light was turned on suddenly, lighting up the room instantly. "Bai Xinran, what the hell are you doing?"

"Ah." Bai Xinran was sitting on the ground, her expression horrified as she stared at the two people who had appeared in front of her suddenly. She scooted backward. "You, you... are you ghosts or humans?"

The two faces under the lights were gorgeous to the point that they looked a bit unreal.

Gu Xiqiao took a step forward, raising her hand slightly. The paper in Bai Xinran’s hands floated upward into the air. "Didn’t I warn you not to mess with me, otherwise I would take care of the entire Bai family?"

Bai Xinran leaned against the bed, trembling in fear. She could feel the frosty chill that radiated off Gu Xiqiao, the faint gaze piercing through her heart, she was serious about this!

She had never felt as much regret as she did in this moment, she watched as Gu Xiqiao turned the talisman, which was almost impossible to destroy whether by fire or water, into ashes with just a flick of her fingers, which leaked through the gaps in her hand.

Bai Xinran’s eyes widened at that, a look of disbelief on her face. The priest had mentioned before, once the array was successful, it was impossible for the talisman to be destroyed. No one in the world would be able to do it. However, the talisman was no different than ordinary paper in Gu Xiqiao’s hands!

Surprised, fear, and regret! Bai Xinran had no other thoughts, even knowing Jiang Shuxuan’s unmoving attitude, she didn’t have any awareness to notice that he was also present.

Run! That was the only thought in Bai Xinran’s mind!

She pulled herself up, seeing Gu Xiqiao still smiling and watching her without moving from her spot. Bai Xinran felt a burst of courage as she took off toward the door suddenly.

Jiang Shuxuan narrowed his eyes, and flicked his finger, a frost blade materializing and flew out.

Boom!

Before Bai Xinran could make it out the door, she was thrown back by a blast of energy.

"I’ve always carried out the words that I say." Gu Xiqiao’s complexion was eerily white under the lights, elegant eyebrows and a gentle smile on her face.

Bai Xinran could feel the coldness from the smile on her face.

With just a thought, a pale yellow talisman paper appeared in Gu Xiqiao’s palm. "I won’t let you die, I want you to watch with your own eyes as the Bai family comes to an end, while you can do nothing about it."

The yellow paper floated up, flying toward Bai Xinran’s forehead and merging into her brain in an instant. The expressions in Bai Xinran’s eyes faded away into emptiness, and her face became dull and jaw slacked.

No one would know, but her insides and mind could clearly see what was going on!

A normal person whose mind was extremely clear would seem to be someone with dementia, it was a cruel feeling. Bai Xinran wanted to shout and struggle, but the nurse that was assigned to her would only treat her more ruthlessly than the last one.

She would watch as the Bai family gradually sinks deeper into trouble, as her father got older and gaunt, and watched as those victims that had been cursed by them came back to life, one by one.

She would want to tell her father that the person behind the scenes was Gu Xiqiao, but all she would manage to do was let out a long string of garbles.

For the rest of her life, she would live in endless regret and suffering.

***

After dealing with Bai Xinran, Gu Xiqiao felt the air in the dorm room improved.

But in the following days, Sun Jiajia who previously only knew how to follow behind Bai Xinran had changed. She learned how to apply makeup, how to dress herself up in glamorous clothes, and when she had to deal with Gu Xiqiao and Xu Jing, there was a faint air of arrogance around her.

Gu Xiqiao was seldom in the dormitory because she was busy dealing with the Bai family affairs, but she had been pestered by Professor Jiang into coming today, and so she went to the labs.

In the laboratory, Lin Xia was busy carrying out his experiments. When he saw Gu Xiqiao, he paused in his work.

Professor Jiang had given him Gu Xiqiao’s report to look over, and after reading it, Lin Xia only had one thought in his head, insane.

They weren’t sure how, but Professor Ban had gotten word about the report, and tried every means he could to get his hands on it. Professor Jiang kept everything tightly under wraps, and didn’t allow him to read it at all. The two could be regarded as friends for almost half their life, and in order to understand Professor Jiang, there came a day when finally, Professor Ban had stolen the report!

Professor Jiang was extremely angry, and severely scolded Professor Ban for his actions.

However, Professor Ban said nothing. After reading the report, he began to hound Professor Jiang to get Gu Xiqiao to perform the entire experiment in the laboratory in person.

Because if you were to mention the problems of the rejection period, almost everyone who studied biology would know that the cells of two different animals were difficult to fuse due to the cell surface protein and the difference in their nuclear DNA. Even if they were successfully fused, they wouldn’t survive long, and would quickly enter the aging stage. At most, they would survive for three days.

But the cells that Gu Xiqiao had left the last time were still dividing, acting no different than normal cells.

Disregarding Professor Ban, even Professor Jiang was surprised and doubtful. After a few more days, he finally agreed to the proposal, and started to badger Gu Xiqiao in coming back to the laboratory.

Gu Xiqiao, who had learned the truth from Lin Xia: "..."

Professor Ban and Professor Jiang arrived quickly, almost in tandem. Bumping into each other at the entrance of the lab, they didn’t even have time to quarrel before rushing inside.

"Professor Jiang." Gu Xiqiao glanced at Professor Jiang, and turned to the old man beside him. "Professor Ban."

Professor Ban looked at the girl in front of him, a delicate appearance and great temperament, no less than those noble daughters from the big families in the Imperial Capital. Who wouldn’t want such a well-behaved and beautiful apprentice?

"Old Jiang is too rigid in his work, would you consider studying under me instead? Pity an old man like me, I don’t have any students under me yet," Professor Ban said sadly.

The group of students who were under Professor Ban in the labs: ...Teacher, don’t treat your normal students like idiots that don’t exist once you see a genius. Although our intelligence is not as high, we still have our dignity!

Being able to enter A University was definitely something to boast about, but of course, these people also had times when they completely admired someone.

Firstly, this was an era of looks. Just based on Gu Xiqiao’s appearance, no matter where you go, it’s also particularly popular, right?

And then, what kind of insane person would be able to obtain a perfect score in the first test? What else could they say? There was only one test in A University, and the questions were extremely difficult, the teachers were merciless. Most of the students who could obtain 60 marks were already thanking the heavens and earth, even those who scored 70 marks. Only those with extremely good luck would make it into the bracket of 80 marks!

There were even some questions which the teachers didn’t know the answers to, and those were the medical questions.

However, this crazy person named Gu Xiqiao had actually managed to score an almost perfect score in the test, which was 95 marks. There were also rumors that there was a disagreement between the two grading teachers regarding the last question in the paper, and had in the end compromised by giving her an extra 5 marks.

In the Faculty of Medicine, Gu Xiqiao’s reputation was practically divine.

At the same time, Luo Wenlang from the Faculty of Management and Economics had also displayed the same kind of insanity, scoring an almost perfect score in the test.

As expected, the story of Shang Zhongyong was indeed just a myth, about how geniuses would eventually become ordinary people. These two insane people had tested into A University with such crazy results, and they still kept up their insanity after that!

In just an instant, the two had completely dominated the limelight and overshadowed the rest of the students in their year. Many people were crying, being able to be in the same generation as these two people, it was really such a sad thing, because other people who wanted to shine would be outshined by their glorious light.

The two people involved in this matter naturally were unaware of this, and Gu Xiqiao spent the entire afternoon in the laboratory, explaining the rejection period thoroughly.

Being constantly badgered by two old codgers to the point she wanted to puke blood, she was relieved to be finally set free after that. She dragged her feet back to her dorm then, looking like someone with nothing to live for.

"What’s the matter, you look like life screwed you over," Xu Jing said, looking at Gu Xiqiao’s appearance in surprise.

Gu Xiqiao sighed. "Buddha said, the less you desire, the less annoyance there is. Jing Jing, you basically mention desire in every sentence you say, could it be possible your life has deteriorated to this extent already?"

"No, no, no! On the contrary, I’m doing very well recently!" Xu Jing was proud when she said that, the two articles on Gu Xiqiao and Luo Wenlang had garnered a lot of popularity. There had never been a time on campus when the college magazine had sold more than a thousand copies.

But this time, more than ten thousand copies had been sold! This was the highest record ever, and it had all been thanks to Xu Jing’s two articles.

It was inevitable, Luo Wenlang was mysterious to the point that even the teachers couldn’t find him.

Gu Xiqiao at least still attended classes diligently in the earlier stages, and disappeared into thin air at the later stages. A lot of students on the forums were yelling out for pictures of her, in high-definition or uncensored. However, don’t talk about high-definition or uncensored, you couldn’t even find the person’s silhouette!

That’s why, when the college magazine produced high-definition, uncensored pictures of the two popular students, the magazines flew off the racks quickly, running out of print every day.

Seemingly knowing that Xu Jing had an indescribable relationship with the two, the editor-in-chief had consistently brought up Xu Jing’s contribution repeatedly, how would you not feel proud about it? Clinging to someone famous suddenly didn’t feel very bad at all.

While the two were chatting, the door was pushed open suddenly, and Sun Jiajia stepped in with her high heels.

Just a few days of not seeing each other, Gu Xiqiao felt that Sun Jiajia had changed a lot. Disregarding her character, even her appearance had changed. She had permed her hair, turning those straight locks into wavy curls, with delicate makeup on her face that turned her initially dark, squarish looking face into a smaller, more dainty white face.

An ordinary, plain local girl had instantly transformed into a rich beauty from the city.

***

Seeing Gu Xiqiao, Sun Jiajia was startled for a moment. Gu Xiqiao had not been in the dorms for a long while. At first, she had been excited because she didn’t attend classes, that would mean that Gu Xiqiao wouldn’t be able to pass her exams when the time comes!

But when Sun Jiajia saw the results of the exams, her heart shattered.

On the report card which also displayed the class positions, Gu Xiqiao was still placed at the first, while she only obtained 60 marks, which was considered to be a lower grade.

Sun Jiajia, who had always prided herself on her achievements, couldn’t withstand the blow from this matter. She had gone to the grove to cry in secret, and then met her life savior during that time. She had taught her how to apply makeup, how to buy clothes, and how to change herself.

The first time she had applied makeup, Sun Jiajia couldn’t believe that the smiling figure on the mirror turned out to be herself!

Not long after, she had met her true love again, and when she thought of him, she couldn’t help the fuzzy warm feelings that bloomed in her heart.

"Gu Xiqiao, why are you back here?" Sun Jiajia sat on the stool, picking up her mirror to touch up on her makeup. "I haven’t seen your boyfriend yet. Bring him along when we go out for a meal, my boyfriend owns a bar, so you can open your eyes to the world when you come along."

Even though she had a boyfriend, her heart still throbbed when Sun Jiajia thought about Jiang Shuxuan. That perfectly cold face that looked like it was carved from ice, it was not one that was easily forgettable.

Thinking back to the surprised expression on Gu Xiqiao’s face when she entered just now, Sun Jiajia wanted to see more of it. What kind of expression would Gu Xiqiao’s boyfriend have when he saw a completely different person?

She reached up with her hands to stroke her white cheek, and for the first time, she looked forward to seeing someone again.

She no longer felt inferior nor less worthy of anyone else!

"He’s busy," Gu Xiqiao replied, glancing at Sun Jiajia again, her eyes narrowing slightly. There was something off about her.

"No matter how busy he is, there will always be time to spend with his girlfriend." Sun Jiajia turned and picked up her bag. "Look at my boyfriend, he’s busy running a business, but he still takes time out to accompany me."

"Oh." Gu Xiqiao turned away, making a noise of agreement.

"Oh? You give me just a ’oh’ after such a provocation from me?" Sun Jiajia looked at Gu Xiqiao, but didn’t say anything further, leaving in a hurry.

"Really, one day in heaven is one year on earth, I just left for a few days, and such a big change has occurred in the human world." Gu Xiqiao clasped both hands behind her head, letting out an overexaggerated heavy sigh.

Xu Jing couldn’t help the smile that stretched across her lips. "So then, Miss Immortal, what have you seen?"

Gu Xiqiao squinted her eyes at Xu Jing. "You will have a love affair."

Xu Jing: "..."

She felt like she still couldn’t win against Gu Xiqiao, her opponent was just too good. Every time she would be the one who was on the receiving end. "Sun Jiajia recently got a boyfriend, I heard that he’s the kind that has dealings with both worlds, and has quite a sum of money."

Xu Jing started to explain Sun Jiajia’s situation, and most of it was things that she had heard from others, but it didn’t seem to be too far off from the facts.

"I see." Gu Xiqiao rubbed her chin thoughtfully, and then she jumped down from the bed suddenly. "I remember something important that I needed to do, I’m leaving first then!"

Today was the day that Xiao Yun began her shooting, and she had promised she would be there!