Emotion

"Chen Guan!" He reached out instinctively, his voice hollow and powerless in the collapsing space.

Time seemed to freeze in that moment.

"He—" Su Yuehe caught the final scene before her eyes.

She clamped her hand over her mouth to stifle the cry rising in her throat, but tears burst forth instantly, scalding hot as they slipped through her fingers.

An Changqing slowly lowered his outstretched hand, clenching it into a fist so tight that his nails dug deep into his palm.

He turned away, unable to bear looking at that darkness any longer. The tip of the longsword in his hand drooped weakly, striking the trembling metal plate with a sharp clang.

"He's dead."

"Impossible!" Long Ao roared as he charged to the edge of the crack. His eyes bloodshot, he clung to the crumbling brink, desperately peering down, as if trying to find any trace of Chen Guan’s existence in that endless abyss.

"This can’t be!" He punched the metal plate with a thunderous boom. "He even devoured the remains of that demon god! That kind of monster couldn’t kill him—how could he die in a place like this?!"

But his outcry received no answer, only the swirling dust in the air proclaiming a cruel end.

Ash swept into the sky by the fierce wind, and the spatial barrier began to peel away in large patches.

The metal plate shattered completely. An Changqing grabbed Su Yuehe’s wrist; Long Ao seized Hong Yuan; Yin Tianzheng grasped Yin Chen.

"Let’s go! Hold on to me!"

An Changqing shouted, and everything descended into chaos.

...

The wind across the vast snowfield stung the eyes and made it hard to see.

A crack split open in midair, and Baobao tumbled out, rolling into a snowdrift.

It shook off its fur and stood up, patting its head in confusion.

Just now… hadn’t something flown into its space?

On the other side, Chen Guan sat up.

Because his avatar had been too far from his main body, it had directly dissipated, causing him to be reborn inside Baobao’s space.

"What the hell just whooshed past?"

Baal grumbled in his head. The demon could sense that he had been instantly transported to a remote location. What kind of bizarre ability was this? Baal had clearly detected that Chen Guan’s signal had vanished, only for him to suddenly revive and teleport.

"Baal, so what exactly is this?"

Chen Guan raised his right hand.

The black dot in his palm had deepened in color, with a dark-golden light moving beneath the skin.

No scales, no claws—those unhuman features were gone.

"Based on my experience as a demon, you’ve obtained a part of demonic power. It’s strange—I’ve lived so long and never seen a human like you," Baal commented in amazement.

Since ancient times, humans were humans, beasts were beasts, and demons were demons. But Chen Guan had gone and grafted half a demon’s body onto himself.

And it had caused no rejection, as if his very life essence had truly been transformed, yet not completely. He could still return to human form.

What kind of species was he?

Hey, what a peculiar kid.

Baal’s interest in him grew deeper. Perhaps he could achieve things even the demon couldn’t.

"Demonic power?"

Chen Guan looked at his hand, rubbing his chin. He could feel that, if he wished, he could access the power within that mark at any time.

"Baal, that dead demon—what was its name?"

"Let me think. I don’t recall the specific name, but it was assaulting the authority of emotion and failed, dying. I never paid attention to the reason, because too many demons of that kind overreach themselves."

Here, Baal paused, suddenly curious about that colleague’s death.

Dead yet still stirring up chaos everywhere—logically, that colleague’s strength in life shouldn’t have led to failure.

The scent of melon was in the air!

"Emotion?"

Chen Guan pondered all he had encountered. That fake demon god had never appeared without negative emotions, so emotion made sense.

Looking at the mark in his palm, it wasn’t a bad thing either way. With that thought, the next thing to consider was how to leave Baobao’s space.

Chen Guan started eyeing Baal again. "Baal, can you help me send a message to Guan Jinyue and get Baobao to open the door for me?"

Baal: "..."

Who taught you to treat a mighty demon god like a messenger boy?

Grumbling aside, Baal had no choice but to oblige; keeping this kid locked up here forever wasn’t a solution.

After a while, the door opened.

Chen Guan looked up. Ten paces away, Guan Jinyue stood in the wind and snow, holding a container.

"Miss Guan, thank you," Chen Guan said first.

"You… didn’t die?"

Guan Jinyue’s voice was swallowed by the wind and snow, her eyes filled with undisguised astonishment.

Although she hadn’t seen Chen Guan turn to ash with her own eyes, as someone who often dealt with demons, she knew he likely wouldn’t survive.

It had been his choice, so she could only honor it and fulfill the pact with him.

But she hadn’t expected Chen Guan to still be alive.

And even more than that, she was curious how he had gotten here.

He had stowed away through her spatial teleportation without her even noticing.

"Luckily, I was fortunate," Chen Guan said, surveying the surroundings. Everything was covered in snow and ice, wrapped in silver—a familiar climate.

"Is this the Northern Frontier?"

"Exactly."

Guan Jinyue nodded without dwelling further on why Chen Guan was still alive. "I plan to retrieve Xiao Heng’s body, so I directly teleported to the Northern Frontier."

"Sorry, I didn’t account for you suddenly appearing. This is the territory of the beast clans, far from the Great Wall domain. Getting back will be very difficult for you."

"Right now, I can’t send you back. Teleporting from the demon capital here was a huge drain on me. Besides, retrieving Xiao Heng might require a battle, and I need to conserve my strength."

After saying all this in one breath, Guan Jinyue paused. She suddenly realized she hadn’t spoken this much in a long time.

Living for so long in the beast domain, far from humanity, she now found even what used to be commonplace to be so precious.

"The Northern Frontier…" Chen Guan mused. "Is it close to the Ice Sea?"

Guan Jinyue was puzzled but still answered, "Not far. Xiao Heng’s body is by the Ice Sea, near its shore."

"That’s good." Chen Guan broke into a smile. "Miss Guan, I have a proposal for cooperation. I’ll go with you to bring back your little sister. In return, take me to the Ice Sea. How about it?"

Guan Jinyue considered for a moment. This upcoming challenge might involve combat, which was also why she hadn’t stayed to help An Changqing and the others leave.

But since she had already destroyed the spatial seal there, leaving wouldn’t be too hard for them.

Now, bringing along a top-tier fighter like Chen Guan seemed like a good idea.

His combat strength was well established, and the reward he asked for was nothing extreme—just a trip to the Ice Sea. Guan Jinyue had traveled there many times recently and knew the area well.

A very fair trade.

"Deal."

Guan Jinyue nodded in agreement.

Chen Guan smiled with satisfaction. "Then thank you very much."

What Guan Jinyue was thinking was exactly what he had in mind. The Ice Sea—that was the place Yue Teng had mentioned, the one connected to the door.

He was a top-tier enforcer, and as it happened, in his eyes, Guan Jinyue was cut from the same cloth.