Chen Chang'an looked at the young man grinning foolishly at him, his expression deeply complex.
This person's face reminded him of Wu Mingdao, yet the two were vastly different in countless ways.
"I asked you—do you know him?"
Seeing the group of youths remain silent, Chen Chang'an's face darkened, frightening them to their knees.
"We... we don’t know him either. We just know he’s an idiot. We come by to tease him when we have nothing better to do."
"Sir, we never harmed him. In fact, we gave him food every day."
"At most... we just played a few pranks on him."
They didn’t know him?
Then was he not a native of this City of No Return? But if that were the case, how could a fool like him have entered the city?
According to the rules of the City of No Return, newborns here were exempt from any fees until they turned eighteen.
So, he must have been born here. But ending up in such a state meant he either had no family left... or had been abandoned by them from childhood.
Chen Chang'an slowly crouched down, gazing at the familiar yet unfamiliar youth before him, and asked with a smile, "Would you like to come with me?"
The young man simply kept grinning at him, showing no reaction, as if he hadn’t heard a word.
"You’ll have clothes to wear, food to eat, and no one will bully you anymore."
"How about it?" Chen Chang'an wasn’t impatient, repeating the question gently.
This time, the youth finally responded. Whether it was the promise of clothes, food, or freedom from torment, he nodded at Chen Chang'an with that same vacant smile.
"If you’re willing, then follow me."
Chen Chang'an stood up, and the youth followed suit. When Chen Chang'an turned around, he noticed the other boys hadn’t left—they were still trembling nearby.
"Can... can we go now?" one of them stammered.
"Originally, this wouldn’t have been a big deal. But unfortunately..."
Chen Chang'an glanced at them, then flicked his hand, striking them all down in an instant.
Their crimes didn’t warrant death—but they had humiliated someone they should never have humiliated.
"You went out and came back with... a beggar?"
The Boss Lady frowned slightly at the sight of Chen Chang'an returning with a grimy, foolish boy, though her eyes held no disgust—something that earned Chen Chang'an’s silent approval.
"Could I trouble you with something?" Chen Chang'an asked with a smile.
"Oh? A big shot like you needs my help?"
"Go on, I’m curious." The Boss Lady tilted her head.
"You’re well-connected here. Could you help me investigate his background?"
Investigate his background?
The Boss Lady studied the filthy youth, puzzled. What was Chen Chang'an’s motive? Did he have some connection to this fool?
"Fine, I’ll look into it. But no guarantees I’ll find anything."
"Thank you."
"Want me to have someone fetch him clothes and prepare hot water?"
"Yes. I’ll pay you back in spirit stones later."
"Don’t bother. It’s not like it’ll cost much."
Chen Chang'an nodded at her before leading the boy, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Wu Mingdao, back to his courtyard.
"Young Master, who is this?" Gu Xian'er was equally curious—how had Chen Chang'an returned with an extra person after just one outing?
"I suspect he might be Wu Mingdao’s reincarnation."
Reincarnation?
Back at Tianshui Lake, Gu Xian'er had naturally heard the rumors. But she never expected they’d find him so soon.
Wasn’t this too much of a coincidence?
"Just because they look alike?"
"But there must be people with similar appearances in this world, right?" Gu Xian'er questioned skeptically.
Chen Chang'an agreed. The Grand Mystic Realm was vast—doppelgängers surely existed.
But this boy resembled Wu Mingdao to an eerie degree. Whether it was true or not, Chen Chang'an didn’t want to miss the chance.
"Da Huang, can you figure out what’s wrong with him?"
"Or is there a way to confirm if he’s connected to Wu Mingdao?" Chen Chang'an asked.
At this, Da Huang’s expression turned solemn. After a moment of thought, he said, "Wu Mingdao was at the Immortal Realm when he died."
"Logically, someone of that level reincarnating would have a chance to awaken past memories."
"Even if he didn’t, he shouldn’t have ended up like this—a babbling fool."
"Unless something went wrong at birth... or Wu Mingdao’s soul was severely damaged before death."
"So, to confirm if this is really him, we’d need to heal him first."
"I just checked—this kid’s soul is indeed damaged. And all these years, as someone without cultivation, he’s been heavily affected by bloodthirsty energy."
"You’d need to repair his soul and purge the bloodthirsty energy from his mind."
"Got any ideas?"
Chen Chang'an frowned, then began rummaging through his storage for anything that could restore a soul.
While he searched, the Boss Lady had someone deliver fresh clothes and hot water, even assigning two attendants to help clean the boy up.
"What’s he doing?"
Noticing Chen Chang'an’s complete lack of reaction to her arrival, the Boss Lady turned to Gu Xian'er in curiosity.
"Young Master is looking for something," Gu Xian'er replied.
Something to heal the boy?
The Boss Lady didn’t press further, simply standing quietly to the side as she waited.
A long while later, Chen Chang'an finally withdrew his consciousness from his spatial ring.
"Strange. How could I not have anything like this?"
He was baffled. With so many treasures at his disposal, how was there nothing to restore a soul?
Then, it hit him.
Mu Yunyao had once told him that his soul was extraordinarily powerful, his mental strength bordering on monstrous.
That was why, even without cultivation, he could use spatial rings—something unimaginable for anyone else. Yet Chen Chang'an had done it effortlessly.
Because of this, Mu Yunyao had never worried about his soul being damaged and thus never given him such treasures. Chen Chang'an himself had never paid it much mind.
"Hm? When did you get here?"
Snapping out of his thoughts, Chen Chang'an realized the Boss Lady had been staring straight at him the whole time.
"You really aren’t afraid of danger, are you? Are you just careless, or do you simply not care?"
She couldn’t fathom how Chen Chang'an could be so absorbed in his own world, completely oblivious to his surroundings.
It was incredibly reckless. If danger struck, he wouldn’t react in time.
"I can’t die."
Chen Chang'an spoke this truth very earnestly, but the Boss Lady didn’t believe him, thinking he was just joking.
"The matter you asked me to investigate—there’s news already."
"Oh? That fast?"
"You’re really underestimating me. Did you think it’d take me days to dig up some information?"
"This kid was born in No-Return City. A pitiful case—his parents were killed on the very day he was born."
"Because No-Return City has a rule protecting newborns, he was spared. But as he grew older, the people who took him in noticed he was slow-witted and drove him out."
"All these years, he’s been wandering and begging in No-Return City. It’s a miracle he’s survived this long."
"As for the reason behind his mental impairment, it might be due to severe trauma in the womb, compounded by years of exposure to blood-fiend energy."
"You want to cure his condition?" the Boss Lady asked.
"Yes, but I don’t have the means to do so."
"Is that so? Well, I might be able to help you figure something out."
"Oh? You have a way?"
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
