In the world of demons, the strong devour the weak.
Even in failure, Chen Guan could accept the price.
He still had Baobao.
Yin Tianzheng's fingers were embedded in the fractured metal plates. "Everything you've said is based on the premise that you can survive. What makes you think you'll last a single second inside that thing?"
Chen Guan didn't answer him. Instead, he turned and asked back, "Do you want it to blow up half of Shanghai here, or gamble that I can take it away? Or perhaps you'd rather wait for some powerful rescue that might never arrive."
"Old Master, pick one."
Yin Tianzheng closed his eyes and then opened them.
"Do I even have a choice?"
He began adjusting his hand gestures, pressing his palms back into the shattered metal plates as spiritual power surged beneath the surface.
"I can tear the seal open one more time, but after this breach, I won't have the strength left to close it."
His gaze swept over everyone and settled on Chen Guan. In the old man's murky eyes, an indescribable emotion churned.
"What happens once you're in there, whether you live or die, that's your own affair now."
"Enough."
Chen Guan released Baobao. Fortunately, the inter-dimensional opening wasn't affected. After securing his main body, he said, "Guan Jinyue, can I ask you for one thing?"
"Go ahead."
Guan Jinyue had already guessed what he was about to say.
"If something goes wrong, move my leopard away from here."
"Leave it to me."
She agreed. Chen Guan had risked his life to bring back her sister. It was only right.
Still, Guan Jinyue watched that leopard. He could give his life for people he didn't even know, so why couldn't fate ever show kindness to good people? Her sister was the same... and so was he...
Yin Chen walked over and stood directly in front of Chen Guan, his expression complicated.
"Do you ever plan to consult us before pulling stunts like this?"
Chen Guan looked down at him with an amused smile. "Even if I did, you couldn't stop me."
Yin Chen gritted his teeth and shoved an ice-blue pearl into Chen Guan's hand.
"A Water-Repelling Pearl. There's ocean down there. Don't drown yourself."
Chen Guan clenched the pearl, pocketed it, and patted Yin Chen on the shoulder.
Long Ao approached, offering no sentimental words. "Come back alive."
Hong Yuan raised her battle axe and swung it with a flourish.
"If you die down there, I'll use this to carve your tombstone."
Her methods were as peculiar as always.
Su Yuehe silently cast a stack of buffs over him.
An Changqing sheathed his sword, slapped Chen Guan on the back, and said nothing.
Some words didn't need to be spoken.
The farewells were over. Yin Tianzheng plunged his palms back into the broken metal plates. The old man's body trembled violently as blood poured from both his nostrils and the corners of his mouth.
The moment his spiritual power sank into the earth's veins, every golden rune beneath their feet flared so brightly it stung the eyes.
"Seal breach in three seconds."
Chen Guan walked to the widest point of the crack, gazing down at the darkness below.
The darkness gazed back at him.
Hungry. Desperate. The anticipation of a creature that had slumbered for eons, finally catching the scent of prey—a longing that seeped from the marrow of its bones.
Baal's voice rang out one last time.
"I never agreed to collect your corpse."
Chen Guan smirked in his mind.
"Won't need you to."
"Three..."
"Two..."
"One..."
The golden runes shattered completely. Darkness surged upward from the depths of the tower.
Chen Guan took the final step, plunging headlong into the boundless chaos.
"He actually jumped."
Long Ao rushed to the edge of the fractured opening and peered down.
Thick black mist boiled upward like a rising tide, spilling madly through the cracks.
An Changqing stepped in from the side, grabbing Long Ao's shoulder and yanking him back.
"Don't get too close."
"Chen Guan took the most dangerous part with him. All we can do now is hold this platform and make sure the problem doesn't spread across the entire city."
He turned his sword blade sideways, blocking the wisps of black energy escaping from the gap.
"We have to trust that he has his own plan."
Guan Jinyue cradled the vessel holding her sister's soul, standing in the wind.
She looked down at the leopard lying quietly on the ground—the one Chen Guan had specifically entrusted to her care before he left.
"He won't die."
Her cold gaze slowly swept across everyone on the platform.
"A man like him, who calculates everything, doesn't fight battles he can't win."
"And there's someone he cares about, waiting for him."
...
At that moment, Chen Guan was accelerating downward through endless darkness.
The freezing wind roared past his ears, stripping away what little warmth remained on his skin. The chaotic black mist, which had been clawing its way up through the tower's cracks, shifted direction.
During the fall, Chen Guan released all suppression of his divine power aura.
The same-source energy of a demon god surfaced on his body, glowing with a dark golden sheen.
In that pure black abyss, the light was glaringly conspicuous.
He adjusted his falling posture, steering himself along the current of the black mist.
The surging fog around him paused the moment it touched this aura—as if its automatic target-seeking had suddenly developed a conflict in its perception.
But the hesitation was brief. In an instant, the black mist from all directions went utterly berserk.
It abandoned the cracks in the Oriental Pearl Tower, condensing midair into countless solid black tentacles that swarmed and lunged at Chen Guan from every side.
Chen Guan didn't dodge. He met them head-on.
The moment the black mist slammed into his body, all his physical senses were completely overturned.
The steel structure of the tower and the whistling wind vanished simultaneously.
He fell into a spiritual world made of blood.
Countless fragmented, brutal images raced through his nerves, forcing their way into his mind.
He saw a blue planet shatter to pieces in an instant. He saw countless living beings writhing and screaming amidst seas of fire. Ash stained with blood drifted from the sky, and beneath his feet piled mountains of bone.
Screams and wails of every kind struck directly at the core of his consciousness.
A pain like his soul was being torn apart surged through his nerve endings, spreading fast.
Baal's voice cut through his mind with unprecedented seriousness.
"Steady your will! Don't let these fragmented memories swallow you. These are the instinctual memories of the demon's remnant body!"
"It's trying to assimilate you with this tidal wave of negative emotions. If you can't hold on to your true self, you'll become nothing more than a mindless shell of hunger and devouring."
Baal's warning was quickly proven true.
Chen Guan could feel his once-sharp thoughts growing sluggish, bit by bit.
Those horrific images carried a powerful pull, trying to strip away his human consciousness.
"Right now, you must seal your heart. Cut off all external perception."
Baal's voice continued.
"Don't look at the images. Don't listen to the sounds. Imagine yourself as a stone without any emotion."
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.
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.
shall grant"] ["Inscribing the glory of our race upon tombstones"] ["All that is threatened, I shall protect"] How his younger sister sees her brother: A brother who only makes eye contact once a day, mostly fading into the background as he tinkers with who-knows-what in his room all day. Their life paths should have remained largely separate. Until one day. Su Qi created an equipment card for his never-met "online girlfriend." His sister fell into silent contemplation upon receiving the "white stockings." [Card can be upgraded] [Upgrade by fulfilling any of the following conditions] [Condition ①: Consume one hundred higher-tier cards] [Condition ②: Complete one 'Heart-Pounding Adventure'] What constitutes a Heart-Pounding Adventure? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Beginner Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to admire it.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Easy Level): Equip the card, invite 'Su Qi' to touch it, and analyze the equipment's texture.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Entry Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to...] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Challenge Level): Freely combine the words 'Brother' 'Out' 'Brother' 'Me' 'Please' into a complete sentence...] "Please help me analyze both teams' mistakes in this match, brother..." His sister exhaled in relief—surely... surely there couldn't be anything more difficult? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Suicide Mission Level): Sneak a peek at the names of the galgames in 'Su Qi's' hidden E-drive folder]
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!
