He merely cast a faint glance at the phantom of Baal in the illusion, then continued walking forward.
The phantom of Baal in the illusion gradually dissipated, and then, a gatekeeper formed from spiritual energy emerged.
This gatekeeper had no physical body, floating in mid-air like a ghost, possessing only a pair of hollow eyes.
It attempted to probe into the depths of Chen Guan's consciousness, digging out all his secrets and all his hidden disguises.
"You are not as you appear," the gatekeeper spoke. "Deep within your heart lies rigorous calculation and endless exploitation. You have absolutely no feelings for those who trust you..."
However, when the gatekeeper's spiritual tentacles touched Chen Guan's inner mind, they directly crashed into his main body slumbering within the coffin. The gatekeeper, which had been chattering endlessly, was instantly silenced.
Although the consciousness of the main body was asleep, its inherent power instantly and violently repelled the gatekeeper's spiritual probe.
The gatekeeper let out a sharp, explosive shriek.
Its condensed spiritual body began to tremble uncontrollably, suffering an invisible heavy blow, nearly collapsing.
For the first time, an emotion of terror appeared in its hollow eyes.
Chen Guan did not miss this opportunity.
The unconscious counterattack of his main body was the perfect chance for him to strike while the enemy was vulnerable. This was the blood-pumping combo skill between him and Old Me.
A pitch-black scythe materialized out of thin air, its blade gleaming with a chilling light.
He moved like lightning, like a ghostly afterimage. The scythe tore through the air, slashing straight toward the gatekeeper.
Before the gatekeeper could recover from the impact of the main body, it was struck by the scythe.
A spiritual body? What a coincidence, I'm here to collect you!
Its body, formed of spiritual energy, was instantly absorbed, dissipating into the space.
With the gatekeeper dealt with, the illusion of the Inner Demon Purgatory shattered along with it.
Chen Guan returned to a normal stone chamber once again. This time, in the center of the chamber, an ancient stone stele stood quietly.
Chen Guan's gaze fell upon the stele, deep in thought.
Meanwhile, outside the Xuanwu Tower.
Yin Chen had been sitting cross-legged in the ice cave for who knows how long.
He sensed the power of the wind, transitioning from initial resistance to gradual integration.
Following Wu Xuan's guidance, he merged his spiritual energy with the wind, attempting to touch the true essence of the wind.
His family's ancient texts had once recorded some mysterious characters related to ancient divine beasts.
At this moment, under the baptism of the wind, the characters in his mind began to come alive.
These characters bore a striking resemblance to the murals in the ice cave before him and the external patterns of the Xuanwu Tower.
They must be remnants of a bygone civilization, recording information beyond his comprehension.
On the other side, in the room where Hong Yuan was located.
The ice crystal behemoth had been torn to pieces by her countless times.
Her body was covered in scars, which rapidly healed under the effect of her bloodline power.
With every recovery, her muscles became more compact, and her bones grew increasingly resilient.
Her strength was honed on the brink of death time and time again.
She felt a power awakening within her body.
That power resonated with the Xuanwu Tower itself, making her feel as though the Xuanwu bloodline was flowing through her veins.
She could even faintly hear something letting out a low roar deep within her body.
Her physique grew tougher, and her temperament became wilder; every swing of her axe carried the might to cleave mountains and shatter stones.
Inside the tower, Chen Guan stood before the stele.
From behind the stele came a faint, almost imperceptible sigh.
The sound seemed to traverse through eons of time.
Chen Guan was certain that this sigh was not a hallucination, but some real existence.
He reached out and gently touched the stele, which emitted a faint glow beneath his fingertips.
That ethereal sigh was no longer distant, echoing right beside his ear.
The scenery before the stele rippled like water.
The surrounding stone walls turned into flowing light and retreated backwards.
An immense force gripped Chen Guan, pulling him into a bizarre and dazzling vortex.
This was no longer the dark stone chamber, but a chaotic void.
In the void, the concepts of time and space had melted away.
Only an ancient voice resonated within this endless darkness.
"You have reached the end, and the end is also the beginning."
His consciousness was stripped away, and the canvas of his memories was torn to shreds inch by inch.
The main body, the bullet comments, Huaqing, the Origin Return Group.
All the marks belonging to Chen Guan turned to dust.
He became a traveler.
A wanderer with no origin and no destination, drifting in the chaotic void.
He fell into reincarnation time and time again, searching for something with different identities and different faces.
He had been a blood-soaked warrior, a white-haired scholar exhausting himself over classics.
He had also been a wealthy merchant throwing money around like dirt, and a beggar with barely enough clothes to cover his body.
He tasted all of birth, aging, sickness, and death, experienced all love, hate, passion, and enmity, and saw through the myriad states of the world.
Through thousands of reincarnations, the only thing that had never been worn away was the instinct in his bones.
Time lost its measure.
Perhaps it was only a single breath, or perhaps seas had already changed into mulberry fields.
The traveler Chen Guan stood on a desolate land, gazing at the lone star on the horizon.
Something heavy sank in his chest, and an unwarranted sorrow soaked through him.
He did not know what he was waiting for, nor did he understand why he was here.
Wu Xuan's voice echoed in the void, solemnly saying, "Traveler, you have experienced the myriad phenomena. Now, I ask you, are you willing to wait ten thousand years for an ethereal hope? Are you willing to sacrifice yourself and dedicate everything for the peace of others?"
Listening to this voice, the traveler Chen Guan's memory fragments remained unpieced, but his pragmatic instinct rooted in his soul was completely intact.
Wait ten thousand years? Sacrifice myself?
His mind flashed with the futile efforts and ultimate disappointments from countless reincarnations.
He knew better than anyone that sacrifice was the epitaph of the impulsive, and waiting was the confession of the powerless.
"I will not wait ten thousand years for an ethereal hope."
The traveler Chen Guan's voice sounded unshakable.
"Ten thousand years is too long. I will go find a way to make hope concrete, to turn waiting into action."
"As for sacrificing myself..." He paused, his gaze patrolling the endless void.
"My life is very expensive. Any sacrifice must be exchanged for an equal, or even excessive return. Otherwise, out of the question."
Wu Xuan's voice fell silent.
It seemed like silence, but in reality, it was out of ideas.
This was not the testing method it had originally intended.
It was just that this kid was like setting exam questions based on the answers; he could find bugs in the Xuanwu Tower every single time. It was afraid that if this continued, the already dilapidated Xuanwu Tower would be completely ruined by Chen Guan, which was why it had no choice but to come out.
Now, a problem lay before it.
Should it accept Chen Guan?
Admittedly, the answer of the person before it did not quite fit its own wishes, but it was within reason, not to the point of being unacceptable.
However, there were some flaws after all.
As for the man and woman outside, to Wu Xuan, they were even worse. They had only been brought in as backups in case Chen Guan was completely hopeless.
Now, the choice was clear.
Accept the flaws.
Or wait for several years.
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...
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
