A complete Flood Dragon Mirage Core was enough to make many people take desperate risks.
“I need you to help escort this.”
“From where to where.”
“From here to the No. 17 warehouse zone in South Harbor. It’s not far—about two hours by land.”
“Just me?”
“No. You plus two others, that’s three, and the driver makes four.”
“You can rest easy. What happened last night won’t happen again. The route is set at the last minute—only I and the receiver know it. No stops in between. From departure to delivery, it won’t take more than three hours.”
Hearing this, Chen Guan immediately grew uneasy.
If nothing unexpected happened, this was precisely the kind of situation where something always did.
Wang Dan continued, “You just need to take this box from point A to point B. No matter what happens along the way, the box must never leave your sight. Someone will meet you when you arrive. Hand it over and leave. Payment on the spot.”
“How much?”
“Eighty thousand.”
“A hundred thousand.”
Chen Guan countered casually. Wang Dan gave him a look.
“A Flood Dragon Mirage Core, fifth-tier. Lowest price on the black market is three million. Eighty thousand isn’t even pocket change.”
Wang Dan was caught off guard. This freelance worker had a sharp mind—not easy to fool.
“Ninety thousand. No more haggling.”
“Fine.”
Chen Guan nodded once, answering crisply. The bargaining was just a formality to him.
“When do we leave?”
“Tomorrow at four in the morning. The car will be waiting downstairs.”
Wang Dan straightened up from leaning against the doorframe. Before leaving, he gave Chen Guan another look.
“He Chenguan.”
“Yeah.”
“If you really are just here to earn money, make this job clean. We don’t lack freelancers, but we do lack reliable people.”
“I’ve always been reliable.”
Wang Dan said nothing more, turned, and walked away. His footsteps gradually faded down the hallway.
After the door closed, the room fell quiet.
Chen Guan leaned against the head of the bed, his gaze landing on the iron box on the table.
Bao Bao padded over, sniffed in the direction of the box, then sneezed and turned away, its face showing disdain.
A mere fifth-tier—it scoffed at that. Having long since super-evolved, it no longer existed in the same world as those fifth-tier beings.
Chen Guan ignored Bao Bao. He didn’t think Wang Dan would casually place a newcomer in a mission like this.
Especially after last night’s cold storage theft. The trust system inside the New Circus had just taken a hit, yet they were assigning a high-value escort mission to someone newly hired. Logically, it didn’t add up.
Wang Dan wasn’t naive enough to believe that Chen Guan’s displayed strength could defeat Guan Jinyue.
To be honest, even if he held nothing back, Chen Guan couldn’t say he was sure to beat Guan Jinyue. She had always been mysterious, likely holding multiple tricks up her sleeve.
Unless…
Wang Dan was using him as bait.
Or maybe it was just a simple test.
Chen Guan waited until Wang Dan’s footsteps had completely vanished down the corridor, then sat for another five minutes or so.
He sensed the surroundings. No one was spying.
Leaning back against the headboard, Chen Guan typed with one hand.
[He Chenguan’s identity has entered the periphery of the New Circus. Promoted from freelance worker by one level. He’s currently being led by a person named Wang Dan to a transfer station in the dock area. There’s an escort mission tomorrow early morning, transporting a fifth-tier Flood Dragon Mirage Core.]
After sending it, he added another line.
[Also, something happened at the docks tonight.]
Bai Hu replied almost instantly.
[Speak.]
[A person named Guan Jinyue showed up.]
Chen Guan didn’t hide the matter of Guan Jinyue. Telling Bai Hu served two purposes: to get some intelligence and to make Bai Hu think ahead.
This time, Bai Hu’s response interval noticeably lengthened.
The cursor flickered a few times, but no new message came from Bai Hu.
Bao Bao rolled over by the window, switching its lying posture. Its tail hung over the edge of the windowsill, a small section dangling, swaying gently with its breath.
The screen lit up.
Bai Hu’s message finally popped up.
[Guan Jinyue? Are you sure?]
[Yes. My eyesight hasn’t failed me.]
After sending it, he added another line.
[She stole the goods from the circus’s cold storage. Took the whole batch and even took the guards out.]
Bai Hu’s response interval lengthened again. About a minute passed before the next message came.
[Why would she appear in Rust Harbor?]
[Not sure. She didn’t state her goal, but she acted very purposefully.]
Chen Guan leaned back, the light from his phone screen reflecting off his mask. He didn’t take it off—it had become part of the identity He Chenguan, even when the room held only him and Bao Bao.
[Did she notice you?]
Chen Guan’s finger paused over the screen.
This answer required careful consideration.
Guan Jinyue had indeed sensed the aura of Bael on him, but he hadn’t admitted it, nor had he exposed Chen Guan’s identity. Throughout the encounter, he had responded purely as He Chenguan.
If he told Bai Hu that Guan Jinyue had detected the aura of Bael, Bai Hu would surely ask why he carried that aura.
Whether Bai Hu knew about this, Chen Guan wasn’t sure.
But he didn’t want to introduce unnecessary variables at this juncture.
[She passed by my position, glanced at me, but didn’t get suspicious. I was wearing a mask and acted like an ordinary freelancer.]
That wasn’t exactly a lie—he had just omitted the part about the aura of Bael.
After about two minutes, his phone vibrated.
[You’ve only been on the fringes of the New Circus for a day, and you’ve already risen from freelancer to an escort mission. That’s faster than I expected.]
[I have Guan Jinyue to thank for that. She killed people and stole a batch of goods. The circus was short-handed, so I lucked out.]
[She cleared the path for you.]
[Unintentionally. She has no idea what I’m doing, and I don’t plan on letting her know.]
Bai Hu was silent for a short while, then sent a longer message.
[Guan Jinyue is a complicated person. She has cooperative relationships with demons and the yao clans, but her own stance has never been very clear. She operates alone, unbound by any faction. If she’s shown up in Rust Harbor now, it means trouble is brewing again.]
After reading this passage, Chen Guan mulled it over. Bai Hu’s knowledge of Guan Jinyue ran deeper than he had thought. It seemed there were matters between them that Chen Guan didn’t know about either.
He replied.
[Will she come back again?]
[Hard to say. Guan Jinyue never takes a roundabout path. But if her goal intersects with the New Circus, you two might cross paths again later.]
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...
ap a wealthy young lady? Or else I'll be eliminated by the system? Ye Feng, who awakened the Kidnapper System, originally wanted to live a peaceful life but never imagined he would become a kidnapper of young women. However, after some time, he discovered that all the girls the system ordered him to kidnap were far from ordinary. "Big brother Ye Feng~ You've kidnapped my heart, and now you're not allowed to leave me ever again~" "Ye Feng~ You kidnapped me back then, now it's my turn to capture you♡" "Little Feng, you're mine! You can only be mine!" "Ye Feng, none of them deserve you. Only I love you the most♡" ... This is madness, they've all gone mad! Wait, what? Why are all the girls I kidnapped yanderes?!
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!
