The current Ye Family, though not severely weakened, has suffered significant losses among its members.
Fortunately, Chen Chang'an arrived in time, ensuring that most of their elite members remained unharmed—a favor the Ye Family would never forget.
Upon hearing that Chen Chang'an had a request, Ye Xun, the patriarch of the Ye Family, did not dare delay.
"Young Master Chen, I heard from Beixuan that you're searching for a fragment?"
"Is it this one?"
Seeing the object Ye Xun produced, Chen Chang'an smiled and nodded. It was indeed a fragment of the Law.
At this moment, Ye Beixuan was also deeply curious. He had never seen this item before, despite being part of the Ye Family.
"Patriarch, what is this? Why have I never seen it before?"
"You entrusted me with all the Ye Family's resources—why wasn’t this given to me as well?" Ye Beixuan asked in confusion.
"This is a fragment of the Law," Ye Xun explained.
"As for which Law it belongs to, I don’t know."
"Though it’s a valuable treasure, no one can use it."
"It has always been in my possession, and very few in the Ye Family know of its existence."
"Back then, Chen Tian entrusted it to me, saying someone would come for it in the future."
"Who would have thought it would be you, Young Master Chen? It seems fate had its own designs."
"Could there be some connection between you and Chen Tian?" Ye Xun asked suspiciously.
Given that both shared the surname Chen and were equally extraordinary, Ye Xun’s question wasn’t unfounded.
"Yes, there is a connection—I’m his ancestor," Chen Chang'an replied irritably.
Ancestor?
Hearing this, Ye Xun merely chuckled. Chen Tian had appeared earlier in history, while Chen Chang'an came later. If anything, Chen Tian would be Chen Chang'an’s ancestor.
But judging by Chen Chang'an’s tone, it seemed he harbored some resentment toward Chen Tian.
"This time, why didn’t the other eight families come to aid the Ye Family?"
"Don’t they understand the principle of 'when the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold'?" Chen Chang'an asked, puzzled.
"They do, everyone does," Ye Xun replied.
"The demons' attack this time was more of a test—a show of strength."
"Though their main force targeted the Ye Family, they also dispatched smaller units to harass the other eight families, ensuring they couldn’t intervene."
"We were too complacent. Had we noticed earlier, we wouldn’t have been caught so unprepared."
Chen Chang'an nodded. It seemed the other eight families had also been attacked, though not as severely as the Ye Family.
"The demons truly are relentless."
"Did Chen Tian really wipe them all out back then?"
"That... I don’t know. The Demon Realm was destroyed—otherwise, the Immortal-Demon Secret Realm wouldn’t have appeared. But the demons... it seems many escaped, including the Demon Lord."
"Ah, the Demon Lord was already incredibly powerful back then. It’s no surprise he slipped away from Chen Tian."
"Most importantly... the Demon Lord is nearly impossible to kill."
The Demon Lord of the Demon Realm was indeed a formidable foe. The demons were inherently powerful, and every member of their race offered their souls to the Demon Lord, making his soul extraordinarily resilient.
Even if his physical form was destroyed, his soul could survive, and even in fragments, it would slowly regenerate.
"How did you discover the demons' resurgence and warn Ye Beixuan to leave in advance?"
"When did you notice?" Chen Chang'an asked curiously.
"For the past ten thousand years, many Ye Family members have mysteriously vanished. Recently, I noticed strange behavior among some of our people."
"After capturing one, I realized they had no soul—that was when I knew the demons had returned."
"And the demon I interrogated... outright told me they intended to invade the Ye Family, showing no fear of us at all."
"Once I realized the situation, I contacted old friends from the other eight families. No doubt, they’ve also noticed something amiss."
"Right now, everyone is preoccupied with their own troubles. Since the demons chose the Ye Family as their first target, I decided to fight to the death—to buy the others time to prepare."
"But I never expected the demons to recover their strength so quickly. Without you, the Ye Family... would have faced certain doom."
Listening to Ye Xun, Chen Chang'an found some aspects puzzling. What was the demons' true objective?
It made no sense!
Why expose themselves so blatantly? What did they gain?
Just to boast?
If it were Chen Chang'an, he would have waited until he had overwhelming strength before revealing himself, ensuring the Nine Great Immortal Clans had no chance to retaliate—wiping them out in one strike.
This approach, however, only gave the Nine Great Immortal Clans time to prepare—and even alerted the demonic beasts.
"Don’t you find it strange?" Chen Chang'an asked.
"It is strange, but this aligns with the demons' usual tactics," Ye Xun replied.
"In the eyes of the demon race, they have never taken us humans or the demonic beasts seriously."
"The demons believe that both humans and demonic beasts should submit to their demands."
"Back then, Chen Tian annihilated the demon realm. They’ve probably been holding a grudge ever since. This time, they’re just trying to assert their dominance."
"However, with these demons wiped out, I believe they won’t act recklessly for a while."
"We… still have time to prepare." Ye Xun said with a solemn expression.
"Are you done talking?"
Huh?
Chen Chang'an's words left Ye Xun stunned. Wasn’t he the one who asked? Why did it sound like he was getting impatient?
"Yeah, I’m done."
"Then hand it over."
"What? Hand over what?"
"Oh… you mean this fragment of law."
Only then did Ye Xun remember that he was still holding the fragment of law and hadn’t given it to Chen Chang'an yet.
"And you."
"Me?"
"What about me?"
Ye Beixuan stared blankly at Chen Chang'an, confused—he didn’t have any fragments of law.
"Resources."
"Oh, right, I almost forgot."
Ye Beixuan laughed awkwardly, having nearly overlooked his promise to split half the resources with Chen Chang'an.
With the resources secured and the fragment of law in hand, Chen Chang'an prepared to leave the Ye Family.
"Are you planning to head to the Mu Family next?"
Since Chen Chang'an was searching for fragments of law, his next destination would naturally be the Mu Family.
"Yeah, I heard the Mu Family has one too, so I’m going there."
"Honestly… I’m a little nervous about the Mu Family."
Chen Chang'an’s relationship with the Mu Family wasn’t simple—it was his master’s clan, and now… they seemed to treat him as a live-in son-in-law.
"Brother Chen, be careful."
"Showing up at your in-laws’ place with a mistress? Dangerous move." Ye Beixuan warned in a hushed tone.
Mistress?
"What the hell? Since when do I have a mistress?"
"Still denying it? Seven days? Rock hard!"
"…"
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
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?!
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
