"Guan Jinyue, take your people and leave the Northern Territory right now." The Bear King didn't spare them another glance, turning and dissolving into a flurry of snow that vanished into the air.
The dozen or so elite scouts on the ground were also swept up by a strange gust of wind and disappeared without a trace.
Only Chen Guan and Guan Jinyue remained on the snowy plain.
"That big boss is quite good-tempered," Chen Guan said with a soft laugh, looking in the direction the Bear King had vanished.
Baal's token had really come in handy.
"It's not that he's good-tempered—he doesn't want to gamble his entire clan's fate against a capricious demon god," Guan Jinyue replied, turning and walking toward the entrance of the massive ice cave.
"Let's go, before more trouble finds us."
Guan Jinyue led the way, and Chen Guan followed her into the enormous ice cave.
The entrance was wide enough for two trucks to pass side by side, with walls made entirely of deep blue, solid ice.
The deeper they went, the faster the temperature dropped.
The breath Chen Guan exhaled instantly condensed into white ice crystals that fell to the ground.
"This place is built quite grandly," Chen Guan remarked, breaking the silence in the tunnel as he examined the glowing ice walls around him.
"The demon clan's court has always been about ostentation. They think bigger means more royal dignity," Guan Jinyue said, walking ahead. Her footsteps echoed crisply on the icy floor.
Baal snorted inside Chen Guan's mind.
"These muscle-bound beasts with no brains love all this flashy nonsense."
Chen Guan ignored the complaint in his head and pointed at the massive totemic murals on the walls.
"What do these paintings depict?" he asked, gesturing at the fierce, clawing patterns.
"Those are the reproductive history and war records of the Ice Bear Clan," Guan Jinyue said, glancing at the carvings on the wall.
"They carve every battle they win on the walls—it's their most primal way of showing off."
"The First Bear King was a war fanatic. They say this Ice Crystal Sanctuary was built using the bones and blood of the defeated, mixed with the frozen layers of the Northern Territory."
Chen Guan paused to take another look at the wall. The First Bear King had a rather unique appearance.
"So this place must be heavy with resentment. What a shame," he said, raising his right hand to inspect it.
The black mark on his palm remained still and cold, with no sign of heat.
"Too much time has passed. The negative emotions of the dead were long ago frozen and scattered by the cold of the Ten Thousand Year Jade," Guan Jinyue replied, continuing forward. The thought of what awaited her ahead made her pace quicken.
They rounded a massive bend, and the space ahead suddenly opened up.
This was a domed hall the size of a football field, with no supporting pillars—carved entirely from a single, crystal-clear giant block of ice.
In the center of the hall stood a high, circular altar, on which rested an ice coffin emitting dense white mist.
The temperature here was dozens of degrees lower than outside, and the air was thick with visible frost.
"That's it," Guan Jinyue said, her breathing becoming rapid.
She hurried up the steps of the altar, ignoring the frost-covered ice steps and their slippery surface.
Chen Guan followed leisurely behind her. He could feel the emotional turmoil of the usually cold and distant woman ahead of him.
Guan Jinyue climbed the last step and stood before the ice coffin.
Inside lay a young girl in a white dress, her skin pale and translucent. Her features bore a resemblance to Guan Jinyue's, though softer and less sharp.
She lay there without even the faintest rise and fall of her chest, like an exquisite piece of art.
Guan Jinyue pressed her hands against the edges of the coffin lid. The icy mist crept up the back of her hands, forming white frost on her sleeves.
"Xiao Heng," she whispered a name.
Her face, always expressionless, crumbled completely in that moment. Her eyes reddened, warm tears slid down her cheeks, and fell onto the ice coffin.
The tears froze instantly into shimmering ice beads upon contact with the Ten Thousand Year Jade.
Chen Guan stood a few steps away on the altar platform, watching this scene without interrupting the rare reunion.
He saw Guan Jinyue take out the special container holding the soul. The faint light on its surface flickered in the intense cold.
"Big sister is here to take you home," Guan Jinyue said softly to the girl in the coffin, her voice trembling uncontrollably.
She had traveled everywhere for three years just to find this sleeping body.
She had risked everything to retrieve that lost sliver of soul, going deep into the deadly tower of the Demon Capital.
Now, she had finally assembled all the pieces.
"Do you need any help?" Chen Guan asked from a few steps away.
"No, it's fine. Sorry, I lost my composure today."
She steadied her uneven breath.
"It took me three years of waiting to retrieve this half-soul."
Guan Jinyue looked at the faintly glowing container in her hand.
"Three years is long enough for people to forget many important things."
"Remembering to come here and take her home already puts you ahead of most."
He offered this dry, awkward comfort as best he could.
As she touched the edge of the ice coffin, preparing to take the body, Baal's voice echoed in her mind: "Hey, little lady, are you just going to take her away like that?"
"Your spatial laws can't even create a stable physical storage space for the long term."
"If you bring her back to your leaky hideout, do you really think you'll be at peace? Don't make your Baal lord laugh."
Baal knew full well Guan Jinyue's situation.
"There will always be people—and even things not human—watching that place day and night, waiting for you to walk right into their trap."
Humans, demons, devils—Guan Jinyue had offended them all.
Only a kind demon like poor Baal would overlook her sins and generously forgive her grave disrespect.
But unfortunately, not everyone in the world had a magnanimous heart like Lord Baal's.
"Do I have any other choice?" Guan Jinyue gave a bitter laugh.
She knew it all too well.
If this world were a novel, she would probably be the villain who had committed every crime, waiting for the day the hero's sword pierced her chest.
Death was her destined end.
"Hehehe, I have a plan," Baal said, letting out an evil chuckle, oblivious to her pessimistic thoughts.
"That young man standing right in front of you—his purple-furred big cat has spatial abilities, doesn't it?"
"Your skill points went to teleportation and killing, but that purple cat is different. And that little leopard's spatial ability isn't the cheap kind found in mere storage rings."
"Its space comes with a complete, self-sustaining cycle and regulation system."
Baal had completely spilled the leopard's secrets.
It wasn't fair that Chen Guan always caused trouble for Baal—Lord Baal needed to save face too.
"The vitality-sealing power of the ten-thousand-year cold jade, combined with the natural law-nurturing environment within its space—this setup is simply a perfect match."
"Leave a person inside for a while, and it might just fatten up your little sister nice and plump."
Baal's laughter grew more and more unhinged.
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
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!
for mindless slaughter, this isn't for you.] My name is Ye Shu, and I'm a transmigrator. It seems I'm supposed to be the protagonist, but that feels pretty unlikely. This world has been invaded by a system. The antagonists on the other side have suddenly become pure, flawless saints. The female leads have been force-fed the so-called "original plot," making them think they've been reborn. Now, everyone thinks I'm scum. Including the old lady in my ring. And here I am, in the Monster Beast Mountain Range, braising pork. To put my situation in perspective— It's as if, the moment Xiao Yan stepped into the Monster Beast Mountain Range, the Soul Emperor already knew he would become the Flame Emperor, and Yao Lao had been turned to the enemy's side. I have nothing right now. Oh wait, that's not true. I do have a white-haired loli child-bride who's the Heavenly Dao, and her only skill is acting cute. So, tell me guys... what are my chances of making it to the end?
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.
