The Four Doors

At last, Beidou came to a halt, staring at the tip of the blade. It took him a moment before he spoke. "You really want to join the Guiyuan Group?"

Guan Jinyue did not sheathe her sword.

"I want to see a path I can keep walking."

Beidou let out a cold chuckle. "You won't make it."

Chen Guan stood off to the side, not intervening.

Guan Jinyue refused to back down. "A lot of people thought I couldn't make it. But I walked out anyway."

Beidou looked at her and asked a very strange question.

"What do you consider Baal to be?"

Guan Jinyue answered, "A contract partner."

"That's all?"

"That's all."

Beidou nodded. "You're more suited to the Azure Dragon position than most. But you're not the right fit."

Chen Guan tilted his head. That statement sounded like Beidou's left brain and right brain were arguing with each other.

Was the old man really losing his mind?

Beidou turned to Chen Guan. "Are you thinking something disrespectful again?"

Chen Guan naturally denied it. "Of course not."

Beidou looked at him, obviously unconvinced.

On paper, Chen Guan was indeed the youngest. It wasn't surprising that a young man's mind wandered a little.

But the moment Beidou remembered that this kid was his teacher's reincarnation... something just didn't sit right with him.

Chen Guan quickly tried to cover his tracks. "I was just thinking that Guiyuan Group's onboarding process is very unprofessional."

To his surprise, Beidou actually laughed out loud, though it vanished in an instant.

"Indeed, it's unprofessional," Beidou admitted openly. "A lot of the time, we pick up whoever we find and let them start working first."

Chen Guan agreed.

No wonder.

His own appointment as Black Tortoise had been pretty slapdash too.

Beidou withdrew his gaze and looked back at Guan Jinyue. "But you—truly not the right fit. Suitable and fitting are two different things."

"The Azure Dragon position has been reserved for someone. Give it up."

Guan Jinyue tried to say more, but Beidou had already dispersed like the wind and snow around them. The scene raced backward in reverse, and in the blink of an eye, the two of them were back where they started.

The wind and snow receded.

Beneath Chen Guan's feet were black and white stone tiles. The dried circular pool remained in front of him, the blue stone lamps burning quietly along the walls.

The murals in the round hall had not changed.

Before that blank door, a child still knelt, their silhouette carved into the stone wall, seven dark clasps clearly visible.

Guan Jinyue stood at his side, her long sword still not sheathed.

Her breathing had calmed considerably compared to when she entered the illusion.

The Beidou she had faced earlier had placed enormous pressure on her.

That pressure didn't come from any attack—just his presence alone made you realize that time itself was a kind of power.

He was far beyond the Qi Kou figures in the illusion. Time had changed too much.

Chen Guan pressed his fingers to his brow.

Baal's voice sounded in his mind.

"Back?"

"Yeah."

"Missing any limbs?"

"You hoping I'd lose a few?"

Baal sneered. "Lord Baal is merely concerned for his partner."

Chen Guan couldn't be bothered to respond. Some demon lords just liked talking to themselves.

Guan Jinyue finally spoke. "Beidou said the Azure Dragon position is reserved for someone. Who is that person?"

She didn't want to lose to someone she had never met, without even knowing why.

Chen Guan thought for a moment. "Could be someone alive. Could be someone dead."

Guan Jinyue looked at him without responding.

Chen Guan added, "Could also be someone who hasn't been born yet."

Baal muttered in his mind, "Got any other options?"

Chen Guan's expression didn't change.

He didn't have an answer either.

Beidou had sounded far too certain.

The four sacred beast positions in Guiyuan Group—Black Tortoise landed on his head, Long Ao was rostered straight away, but the Azure Dragon position had remained vacant all this time. That couldn't just be due to pickiness.

Chen Guan walked to the edge of the circular pool.

Most of the silver-blue ancient characters at the bottom had dimmed, leaving only a few thin lines lingering in the etched grooves, like the last embers of a dying fire.

Guan Jinyue didn't press further.

She had just been rejected flatly by Beidou.

Yet there was no hint of defeat on her face. She simply stored the words away.

In the future, she would come to challenge that answer.

Chen Guan glanced at her. "Still want to join Guiyuan Group?"

Guan Jinyue sheathed her sword, without hesitation. "Yes."

"Beidou already said you're not the right fit."

"He said for now."

Chen Guan smiled. "You certainly know how to pick apart his words."

Guan Jinyue looked at the last mural. "He said I'm more suited than most, but not the right fit. The first half was true too."

Chen Guan didn't argue.

She was indeed suited.

Clear-headed, capable in combat, with steady goals.

Most people who signed a contract with a demon lord first lost their judgment, then lost everything else.

Guan Jinyue hadn't.

She even admitted to Baal's face that Baal was only a contract partner.

That sounded simple, but it was incredibly hard to do.

Baal, however, was quite displeased.

"What do you mean 'only a contract partner'? That little girl—if she ever gets beaten to a pulp, she'll still have to call on Lord Baal to save her."

Chen Guan replied, "She may not call."

Baal went silent for a moment. Indeed, it was hard to imagine that scenario.

"That's true."

A faint scraping sound came from the stone wall in the round hall.

Chen Guan and Guan Jinyue both looked toward the last mural.

Beneath the blank door in the painting, the stone bricks that had sealed shut were shifting apart again.

This time, the gap was narrow—barely wide enough for a hand to slip through.

Guan Jinyue raised her hand in caution.

"Beidou already left."

Chen Guan looked at the crack. "So whatever comes out now is probably not Beidou."

"And you're still going to touch it?"

"Might as well, since we're here."

Those four words landed, and Baal let out a long sigh in his mind.

"I knew it."

Chen Guan crouched down, first using the tail end of his scythe to probe the crack gently.

Nothing moved.

He then took out an ordinary stone and tossed it in.

The stone tumbled into the darkness, bounced twice with a soft noise, then went quiet.

Chen Guan waited ten breaths before sticking his hand into the crack. His fingertips brushed against a cold, thin piece of metal.

He pulled it out—a bronze plate with a verdant patina.

There were words below the bronze plate. Chen Guan read further.

[The second door is on land, the third door is in the sky, and the fourth door is on a person without a name.]

[Do not rush to open the second door. Once the doors are linked, the way home will reappear. When that happens, you must have enough strength to handle what comes.]

Chen Guan looked at the words, lost in thought.

The Endless Sand Sea, the Northern Ice Sea, the Eastern Nameless Isle.

These were the three places Yue Teng had mentioned. Now, it seemed the Ice Sea was likely the first door, the Sand Sea the second, and the Nameless Isle... would it be the third or the fourth?

After all, a person without a name and an island without a name—they were alike, weren't they?

Guan Jinyue noticed his movement.

"The way home has more than one door."

"So it seems."

Chen Guan looked around the round hall.

The blue stone lamps hadn't changed, but the light burning in their cores had dimmed significantly compared to when they first entered.

This place had been hollowed out.

The old dream had scattered, Beidou was gone, and now the place was empty.

Chen Guan flipped the bronze plate over to check the back. The smooth metal surface carried only a faint, shallow etching shaped like half a door.

Chen Guan tucked the bronze plate carefully into his storage ring. Thanks to the thorough cleanup inside the illusion earlier, the ring was now completely free of junk.