This Area Is Under My Control

Chen Guan looked at him. "Teacher, you've got a wide reach."

Chen Beixuan spread his hands. "Nothing I can do about it. This area's under my jurisdiction today."

Guan Jinyue suddenly spoke. "Chen Guan, get around him."

She stepped straight toward the other side of the well opening, a silver fissure spreading half an inch beneath her feet as her body shifted through space, skimming across the ice toward the sea-well's edge.

Chen Guan stepped forward at the same time. Seeing this, Chen Beixuan sat motionless on the rock platform.

He raised a hand and tapped the ice wall behind him with the back of his knuckles.

Thump.

At the first sound, a ring of silver-blue patterns lit up deep within the well wall.

Thump.

At the second sound, the silver-blue patterns spread downward along the circular opening, sinking from the well mouth all the way into the depths of the sea.

Thump.

At the third sound, the silver-blue light on the entire inner wall of the sea-well connected into a single sheet. The originally open circular entrance was covered by a transparent ice curtain, its surface flowing with dense runic symbols, completely sealing off the black seawater below.

Guan Jinyue stopped in front of the ice curtain and slashed the space fissure in her hand against it. The silver light touched the ice and was instantly devoured by the runes on its surface.

Chen Guan's scythe blade landed on the ice. The black edge scraped along the rim of the ice curtain, leaving a shallow white mark that was repaired by the silver-blue light in the next moment.

Baal cursed lowly in Chen Guan's mind. "Cognitive-type seal. He rewrote the fact that this is an entrance."

Chen Guan stared at the ice curtain. "What do you mean?"

Baal's speech quickened.

"Within this set of rules, it is no longer permitted to be an entrance."

Chen Guan looked up at Chen Beixuan on the rock platform.

At that moment, Chen Beixuan jumped down from the platform onto the ice. Smiling, he walked up to the ice curtain, raised a hand, and casually patted the silver-blue patterns twice.

"No rush."

"This door is under my watch now. If you want to get in, you need my approval first."

Chen Guan's scythe didn't press further against the ice curtain.

The black blade slowly lowered along the transparent seal. His left hand's fingers slipped to his storage ring, ready at any moment to pull out the spirit ball and hurl it at the other side.

Guan Jinyue didn't cut a second space fissure.

She stood half a step to the side of the ice curtain.

Her silver hair was blown behind her shoulders by the sea wind, and an extremely thin rift line crept along her wrist beneath her sleeve, revealing the hidden edge beneath the fabric.

Chen Beixuan observed their stances, his gaze landing on Chen Guan's hand, which wasn't hiding its intentions all that carefully.

"Don't even think about it."

Chen Beixuan's tone was leisurely.

"That little leopard in your ball hasn't even matured yet. Letting it out would just give your teacher some extra work to teach."

Chen Guan's fingers didn't leave the storage ring.

"Teacher knows even that?"

Chen Beixuan lifted his foot and stepped on the edge of the ice curtain. The layer of silver-blue runes glowed around his sole and quickly sank back into the transparent ice.

"Is it really that strange that a teacher knows what prohibited pets his student is carrying?"

Chen Guan met his gaze.

"Since when did Huaqing Academy start regulating prohibited pets in demon territory?"

Chen Beixuan raised a finger and pointed to the black rock shore in the distance, covered by wind and snow.

"You see, this is the difficulty of education work."

He let out a sigh.

"Student leaves campus thousands of kilometers away, and the teacher still has to clean up his mess by the icy sea."

Guan Jinyue's gaze swept from Chen Beixuan's shoulder to his feet, finally landing on the snow further away, where no footprints had been left.

"There are demon patrols on the outer layer of the icy sea, and ancient relic rules suppressing the inner layer."

She tightened her grip on her wrist.

"Space abilities are heavily weakened here, yet you sat silently beside the entrance, waiting for us to arrive."

Chen Beixuan turned to look at her.

"Miss Guan sure knows how to compliment subtly."

The silver light at Guan Jinyue's cuff tightened half an inch.

"I wasn't complimenting you."

Chen Beixuan nodded.

"Then you're hinting that even if I'm a master, I shouldn't be too flashy out here."

Guan Jinyue's face darkened. Why were all the Chens so narcissistic?

"This is demon territory. Anyone who can pull off something like this has a strength that defies common sense."

Hearing this, Chen Guan fell into thought.

He knew Chen Beixuan was strong.

After all, he was the combat instructor at Huaqing Academy, who routinely beat a bunch of prodigies senseless in the training grounds. He spoke like an unreliable middle-aged man in daily life, but when it came to a real fight, he never showed his full hand.

But showing up in the icy sea, waiting for them, that exceeded the scope of an ordinary teacher.

A figure like this didn't fit the profile of a simple school instructor.

Chen Beixuan pulled his hands out of his coat pockets and brushed the snow off his shoulders.

"Don't make me sound so terrifying. I'm just good at hide-and-seek."

Snow fell from his shoulder.

In that instant, the wind sweeping across the sea-well paused half a beat. The fine ice crystals swirling in the air stopped before him, and a formidable force crushed the entire snowstorm into his palm, smoothing it out before releasing it again the next moment.

Ice crystals continued to fall. A faint sound of flowing water came from the depths of the sea-well. That brief pause was easily mistaken for an illusion.

Chen Guan didn't mistake it for an illusion.

Guan Jinyue's rift line in her sleeve snapped cleanly in two.

Chen Beixuan looked down at his shoulder, then glanced casually at Guan Jinyue. "The snow up north is annoying—still doesn't come off easily after a pat. Also, during class hours, no using dangerous abilities."

Baal's voice finally rang out in Chen Guan's mind.

"Kid, don't start a fight. This guy is beyond what you can handle right now."

Chen Guan silently responded in his mind.

"You can't see through him either?"

"I can tell he's a pain. This place is also hiding his true nature, just like he said—this is his turf."

Baal lowered his voice.

"If you really fought, you wouldn't even touch his first layer of skin."

Chen Guan's gaze didn't leave Chen Beixuan.

"Tenth rank?"

Baal let out a soft laugh.

"At least."

His tone carried little amusement.

"And not only can you not beat him, he also knows how to get under your skin."

Chen Guan's thumb left the storage ring, but his hand stayed inside his sleeve. He looked at Chen Beixuan and spoke in his usual unhurried, toned-down voice, testing the waters. "Teacher, are you from the Great Wall?"

Hearing this, Guan Jinyue's expression showed no calm.

The Great Wall was the sharpest blade of the official government and the human defense line most feared by the demons.

If Chen Beixuan really was from the Great Wall, then she—having cooperated with demons before and even been involved in outer operations during the Shanghai incident—was now standing here as if delivering herself to a court of judgment.

But Chen Beixuan didn't look at her. He only stared at Chen Guan, a teasing smile on his face. "You guess?"

Chen Guan nodded. "When a teacher answers like that, it usually means my guess is half right."

Chen Beixuan raised a hand and stroked his chin.

"With reasoning skills like that, if you put them to use on exams, you could probably even surpass An Changqing."

Chen Guan looked at the sealed ice curtain. "I used to think Teacher was only strong in combat."

Chen Beixuan chuckled. "And now?"

He was genuinely curious about Chen Guan's assessment.

Chen Guan answered seriously.

"Now I realize Teacher has a lot of side gigs."

Chen Beixuan laughed. He'd never noticed this student had a sense of humor before.

Good. He hated silent types the most.