Chen Guan: I'm Really Not an Old Monster

The wind and snow hung suspended in midair, every snowflake slowing down.

The old city had vanished without a trace, and deep within the frozen sea, only this frost-covered stone ground remained—the door, the bone well, the murals on the walls, and the figure that had been kneeling by the well just moments ago, all scattered away with the illusion.

But the person standing in the snow was still there.

He wore an old cloak, all seven hidden buttons on the front fastened, not one missing.

When the wind blew, the edge of the cloak lifted slightly, revealing a dark long robe underneath.

His face bore traces of what he once looked like, but the boyish naïveté was gone. His features remained slender, yet his eyes held the weight of years, bottomless and deep.

This was the first time Chen Guan had ever seen Beidou’s face—usually, he appeared as a small shadowy figure known as Xiaohei.

Guan Jinyue gripped her sword, unmoving.

Chen Guan didn’t move either, keeping his silence.

This Beidou before him... didn't seem like something conjured by the illusion.

A real person?

Beidou spoke first.

"Black Tortoise."

"Beidou."

Chen Guan returned the greeting. Sure enough, the man before him was the real deal, not a fabricated phantom.

Guan Jinyue studied the man before her. She could tell that the aura emanating from him was strange—he stood right there in front of her, yet he seemed to drift outside the bounds of this world entirely.

That sense of detachment came from having lived for so long that he had become fundamentally different from everyone around him.

Chen Guan looked up at Beidou. Since Beidou himself had shown up here, it meant the experiential part was over—time for the questions.

"The child in the mural was you."

Beidou paused for a breath, as if recalling something from long ago.

"It was me."

"And Qi Kou was also you."

"Also me."

"Then you brought us in here just to take a look at your past self?"

Beidou stepped half a pace closer, the frost beneath his feet making no sound at all.

"I'm waiting for someone."

Chen Guan looked at the approaching Beidou. "Does the person you're waiting for have something to do with me?"

He didn't think he was the one Beidou was waiting for. Simple logic—who would think their own grandfather was secretly themselves in disguise?

No, this was even more absurd than that. The era of this memory was practically ancestral generation. Besides, he wasn't even from this world; ending up here was just a twist of fate.

Beidou gazed at him, and only after a long moment said, "Your face... it's too much like my teacher's."

Chen Guan raised a hand and pressed it to his brow. "You've got the wrong person."

Since when did he have such a common face?

Beidou didn't acknowledge the remark. His gaze shifted to the coffin on Chen Guan's back, then back to his face.

"I didn't get it wrong," he insisted. "Back then, it was this same coffin, the same position, the same choice."

Chen Guan listened, then went quiet for a moment.

Then he tilted his head and looked straight at Beidou, his tone serious.

"Are you sure your memory isn't failing you?"

Beidou's fingertips subtly curled into his sleeve. The snow fell on his shoulders but refused to settle.

Chen Guan continued, "Me? Eighteen years old, never met you, never stood under any city gate with you. You're mistaking me for someone from a thousand years ago. Either you're losing your mind in your old age, or you're projecting someone else onto me."

Guan Jinyue glanced at him from the side.

Coming out of Chen Guan's mouth, that statement actually fit without a hint of awkwardness.

Beidou paused, as if trying to discern whether Chen Guan genuinely didn't believe it or was just pretending not to. After a moment, he suddenly smiled.

"You even talk like him."

"That just means you don't know many people," Chen Guan said. He wasn't about to claim anything that had nothing to do with him.

This was too terrifying.

Beidou didn't take offense. His gaze swept past Chen Guan to the scattered bones on the ground, then turned toward the fading remnants of the old city.

"You sealed the door."

"Just a habit," Chen Guan said.

"And you pulled a child out of the well."

"He didn't deserve to die."

Beidou's eyes lingered on Chen Guan's face for a moment.

"That person back then said the same words. Did the same things."

Chen Guan raised a hand and brushed the snow from his shoulder.

"If this is how you recognize people, I'd suggest you see a doctor. White Tiger has plenty of summon beasts—surely one of them has that skill."

Beidou looked at him, and in that glance, he seemed to be confirming across a vast stretch of time that a shadow he'd been waiting for had finally walked back.

"So similar..."

Chen Guan's eyelid twitched.

"Your brain really needs to be checked out."

Even facing a group leader from a neighboring project he couldn't beat in a fight, Chen Guan didn't back down. He wanted to use this approach to make Beidou give up.

I am not some ancient monster.

Beidou didn't respond to that. Finally, he shifted his attention to Guan Jinyue.

Guan Jinyue stood straight, silver hair blowing past her shoulders, her dark pupils devoid of excess emotion. She hadn't spoken this whole time, just listened.

Beidou looked at her for a while, then asked, "You're looking for me?"

Guan Jinyue didn't dodge the question. Her answer was straightforward.

"Yes."

Beidou asked again, "Looking for me, or looking for the Guiyuan Group?"

"Both."

"Why the Guiyuan Group?"

Guan Jinyue said openly, "I figured an organization capable of leading world change ought to have something extraordinary to offer."

At those words, Chen Guan glanced at her from the side.

Judging by Guan Jinyue's tone... she wanted to be his colleague?

Huh, that might actually be a real possibility, because the Azure Dragon position had always been vacant, with seemingly not even a backup candidate.

Guan Jinyue continued, "I want a chance to wake my sister up. And I want a place for myself to stand."

She spoke without a hint of hesitation, as if she'd polished these words in her mind countless times.

"I have no refuge left to fall back on," she said. "Rather than wait for death in an endless chase, I'd rather seek someone who can protect us."

Beidou listened quietly, not interrupting.

After a moment, he finally said, "You're direct enough. Isn't Baal's protection enough for you?"

"Demon lords are absolutely not to be trusted."

"Interesting." Beidou let out a soft laugh. "The contractor of a demon, and yet you're the one who trusts demon promises the least."

He had seen many who made pacts with demons, and most of them believed the demon's lies. Guan Jinyue's level of clear-eyed pragmatism was indeed rare.

It was also fortunate she had contracted Baal. With a different demon lord, they might not have been so tolerant of her undisguised wariness. Only Baal wouldn't care.

But then again, he knew this girl had approached Baal herself. So was it Baal who chose her, or was it she who chose the indiscriminate Baal?

Either way, this girl was no simple figure. To scheme with a tiger while being weak herself, growing through endless pretense and maneuvering—that was remarkable.

Chen Guan stood off to the side, not cutting in.

He could tell that Guan Jinyue's words weren't empty. She genuinely wanted to forge a new path. All this time, she had been moving between factions, maximizing her own interests at every turn.

Judging Guan Jinyue by simple good or evil was far too narrow.

Beidou watched her for a while, then suddenly stepped forward.

The snow made no sound. Each step he took was featherlight.