I left with my group.
This group consisted of two females and four males.
The highest cultivation was Feng Chen—Core Formation Great Circle. The second best was mine at Late Stage.
After me was Long Wei, Core Formation Middle Stage, then Ye Xiu and Ye Fei, twins with Core Formation Early Stage.
Lastly were Wei Han and Hei Ming, both at Foundation Establishment Great Circle.
The group was strong and well-balanced, but I still didn't trust them.
Even though I didn't know much about the others, Long Wei was famous for being a fraud. There's no way the others didn't know that, yet they still added him to this group.
I didn't mind as long as I could gain benefits from it.
What worried me more was Gu Chaun.
Even though I knew he wouldn't do anything reckless and would probably perform better than me, I still couldn't help but worry.
"To cultivate faster, huh…" I thought.
If only I could give him some of the Qi I've stored up, he'd at least reach Core Formation by now.
But the only way I know to transfer Qi… is through dual cultivation.
No, no, no—he'd never agree to that.
Even if I was fine with it, he wouldn't be.
He'd probably say something like, "We don't know the side effects of dual cultivation. What if, in the future, when we try to break through, we find we can't? I can't risk it."
Yes, something like that…
Wait—did I just say I'm fine with it?!
"Here's your room card."
I snapped back to reality when Wei Han spoke.
"Yes," Ye Xiu said, taking the key.
Me and Ye Fei followed her.
We entered the room. It was built for three people, much larger than the inn we stayed in before.
I didn't have any problem with that.
In fact, I liked staying with others—maybe it was a habit I developed after spending so much time around Gu Chaun.
That night, I slept—and again, I had nightmares.
For the past few days, I've been seeing my past memories, and most of them are terrible.
In those dreams, I'm being assaulted by my husband, used as nothing more than a cultivation furnace.
That means I was once a cultivator too—but I was completely used and discarded.
Now I understand why I never wanted to tell Gu Chaun about my past.
The husband I had married seemed flawless on the outside—he had the best talent on the planet, came from the second strongest family, and was their heir.
He was polite, humble, and caring—everyone thought he was perfect.
But I knew his true face.
Behind that perfection was a man with a superiority complex.
He wanted to be the best in everything and would do anything to achieve it.
He gave off the same feeling as Gu Chaun—that's why, no matter what, I couldn't tell him the truth.
Anyway, back to the story.
He used me and many others as cultivation furnaces.
But unlike the others, I was his wife and also a princess of the Planet Gu.
When my father, the king, found out, he tried to kill him immediately.
But their families were equal in strength, so my father couldn't act openly—he didn't want to risk the lives of others.
So, instead, he divorced me from that man.
And that's how I ended up here.
My father's name is Gu Xuan, also known as "that man" by Gu Chaun.
He is the current King of Planet Gu, and in a hundred years, he'll host the next King Selection.
I haven't told Gu Chaun anything about this because that event is on a completely different level.
No matter how hard he trains, he won't be able to close the gap.
Even if he cultivates faster, it won't matter—the others have lived for thousands, maybe tens of thousands of years.
There's no way to catch up.
I won't tell him.
If I do, he'll only push himself harder, maybe even more than before.
I don't want that.
It's better if he learns the truth only after he reaches Planet Gu.
Until then, I'll hide everything.
Sorry, Chuan… but even if you cultivate a thousand times faster for a hundred years… you still won't win.