Chapter 1: After Passing the Level

"Big open counts as open, but small open doesn't count as open."

"Besides, the boss is so overpowered—how are you supposed to play without cheats?"

Chen Mo leaned back in his gaming chair, eyes bloodshot as he stared at the screen.

The game he was playing was called "Ultimate Immortal," a domestic single-player game blending action, cultivation, simulation management, and strategic puzzle-solving...

It had been on sale for less than a month, and he had already logged nearly three hundred hours.

To be fair, the game itself was of very high quality.

The plot was grand, with multiple main storylines intricately intertwined; gameplay, though suspected of being stitched together, was still commendable; the art design was top-tier in the industry, and the portrayal of several female characters was deeply memorable.

But it had one fatal flaw: the numerical balance was terrible.

The villain characters were all absurdly overpowered.

Especially the final boss—

【Grand Empress Dowager Wan Li Shuangxue Ji Hanxiao · Yu Youhan】.

When you finally, after countless trials, reached the last stage and faced her, you felt the helplessness of "You've mastered the basics—now try killing a god."

The vast numerical gap could no longer be bridged by skill alone.

"Isn't this just pure cruelty?"

After enduring endless torment, Chen Mo decided to defeat magic with magic.

As a seven-year veteran programmer laid off by a big tech firm and now unemployed at home, he spent half a day writing a cheat program, slightly tweaking the game parameters.

Including but not limited to: damage immunity, status effect resistance, absolute accuracy, one-hit kill...

All buffs stacked to maximum.

He began to torment Yu Youhan in reverse.

Every slash ignited flame, every appearance ended in instant death—he pinned her down and ground her into the floor over a hundred times...

"That felt good."

Chen Mo's mind cleared, his body and spirit relaxed.

At that moment, several prompts popped up on screen:

【Yu Youhan's "Submission Level" has reached threshold.】

【Hidden event unlocked: Jade Locks Deep Palace · Spring Tints the Phoenix Bed.】

"There's a hidden event?"

"Hidden too deep, isn't it?"

Chen Mo was baffled.

Suddenly, the screen shifted to a lavish, magnificent imperial bedroom.

The viewpoint became first-person.

Entering the inner chamber, he lifted the brocade canopy—and a slender figure lay upon a carved phoenix-and-phoenix embroidered bed.

A gossamer robe barely concealed her form, her skin smooth as jade, her figure full yet elegant, bound tightly by a red silk ribbon that accentuated her curves with breathtaking intensity.

Her jade cheeks flushed crimson, lips bitten lightly, legs restlessly rubbing together.

Her damp eyes gazed at the camera, holding seven parts humiliation, three parts resentful pout.

"???"

"Holy shit, this is too spicy!"

"No wonder it was hidden so deep... but this doesn't fit her character at all!"

In the original plot, Yu Youhan was a ruthless, bloodthirsty female demon lord!

She spoke with imperial authority, held royal titles, and though confined to the harem, dominated the court!

Her cultivation had reached a realm beyond gods and demons!

How could such a powerful woman possibly assume this submissive, yielding posture?

"This kind of blatant disregard for plot and character, deliberately catering to male players, is severe fan-service bias—on XHS or WB, it'd be grounds for immediate ban..."

"Wait, what? I'm a nerd?"

"Then never mind."

Chen Mo stood up and adjusted his trajectory.

He also went to the fridge for a cola, planning to thoroughly criticize it later.

But as he stepped forward with his left foot, he accidentally tripped over the power strip cord, lost his balance, and toppled forward—his skull slamming hard against the desk corner.

Boom!

A dull thud.

Chen Mo's vision went black—he lost consciousness completely.

Great Yuan Empire, Ducheng.

Inside Hanshao Palace, lanterns burned brightly.

A palace maid stepped in with light, quick steps, bowing her head: "Your Majesty, the fragrant bath is ready. Your servant will assist you with changing and bathing."

Long silence followed.

At this hour, the Empress usually finished her cultivation and went to the Begonia Pool to cleanse her jade body.

Today seemed different...

The palace maid summoned her courage and looked up.

A woman in a plain, pale-colored everyday robe sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion.

That usually cold-as-frost, breathtakingly beautiful face had now become extraordinarily vivid:

Thin lips slightly parted, phoenix eyes losing focus, her expression bewildered yet tinged with astonishment!

"Your Highness?"

The palace maid gave a shudder.

Although she didn't know the reason, for Her Highness to reveal such an expression, something earth-shattering must have happened!

……

"What… exactly is going on?"

Yu Youhan's moth-brow brows knit tightly.

Just now, she had been sitting in meditation, when her consciousness suddenly grew hazy.

At her realm, she had long since no need for sleep, yet she had involuntarily fallen into a "dream."

In the dream, a man whose face she couldn't make out had charged into the imperial palace alone, and defeated her with the greatest of ease.

—This was simply a fantasy.

With Yu Youhan's cultivation, looking across the entire Dayuan, the number of experts who could catch her eye could be counted on one hand.

Yet before that mysterious man, she seemed like a child too weak to truss a chicken; all her divine abilities lost their effect, utterly unable to inflict any harm!

His opponent's utterly ordinary slash had easily pierced through her Dao body!

It was even more terrifying than a Destruction Thunder Tribulation!

"My Dao heart is clear and bright, no evil can intrude, I absolutely cannot be swayed by illusion arts."

"Could it be that something went wrong in my cultivation, giving rise to a heart demon?"

Beyond this, Yu Youhan truly could not think of any other answer.

Victory and defeat had been decided.

Yet that "heart demon" did not stop there.

First using some method to restore her condition to its original state, then slashing her down again, then restoring her once more… over and over in this cycle, endlessly amused.

It was plainly toying with her!

Outrageous! When had He Ceng ever suffered such humiliation?

Yet no matter how she tried every method, even sealing her divine sense shut, she could not escape the dream.

Under repeated "trampling," Yu Youhan's mindset shifted from anger, to unwillingness, to defeat… and finally, numbness.

"Enough, let him do as he wishes."

"Just consider it a bad dream."

She couldn't win in a fight, and couldn't run away.

Yu Youhan simply gave up resistance, completely throwing in the towel.

She didn't know how long had passed before the nightmare finally ended and her consciousness cleared, giving her a feeling as if a lifetime had passed.

"Mm?"

Before she could even heave a sigh of relief, she suddenly sensed something.

She lowered her head to look, and her pupils suddenly contracted!

She saw a streak of red light materialize out of thin air, rapidly spreading across her body surface, passing through her hands, chest, inner thighs… like a red silk ribbon, tightly wrapping her up! And the way it bound her was extremely shameful!

"What is this thing?!"

She reached out to touch it—nothing but empty air.

Her divine sense swept over it as well, finding nothing amiss.

Yu Youhan turned her head to look at the palace maid standing nearby and asked, "Can you see anything on me?"

"Ah?"

The palace maid was startled out of nowhere.

After a moment's hesitation, she said tentatively, "Your Highness is… quite good-looking?"

"……"

"Anything besides that?"

"Besides a beauty that outshines the moon and shames the flowers, Your Highness also possesses a finely-wrought heart of seven orifices; beauty and wisdom combined, talent and grace in equal measure—the foremost extraordinary woman of Dayuan…"

"Enough, withdraw."

Yu Youhan rubbed her brow.

"This servant takes her leave."

The palace maid, as if granted great amnesty, quickly retreated.

In that brief span of time, the "red silk ribbon" binding her body had already vanished without a trace, leaving only a faint red mark on her left wrist.

Yu Youhan's eyes darkened slightly.

Although others could not see it, she could be certain—this was absolutely not an illusion!

And it had an inseparable connection to that "heart demon"!

"A heart demon is born from delusive thoughts, impermanent and unfixed, taking on ten thousand forms."

"For the greedy, the heart demon is a shackle forged of gold; for the lecherous, it is a net of desire woven from beauty; for those obsessed with power, it is a blade forged from authority…"

"Yet why is my heart demon a man?"

"And such a… despicable one at that?"

Yu Youhan racked her brains but could not figure it out.