It wasn't ideal to drag an old man out this late, but there was no other option now.
At night, the lights around Huaqing Academy were sparse. Most students were out on joint missions; those who remained were either asleep or in the training zones. Huaqing didn't require campus runs, so there was nobody outside.
The plane trees lining the road had shed quite a few leaves, and stepping on them produced a faint rustling sound.
As he neared the logistics department, he stopped in his tracks.
On the second floor of the warehouse ahead, one window was open.
The window was only cracked slightly.
No lights were on inside, but Chen Guan could see a shadow slip over the sill and drop in.
The logistics department at Huaqing Academy stored mission supplies, student files, and temporary holding items.
Someone sneaking in through the window at this hour—
It was hard to explain that as innocent theft.
Baal's tone was leisurely. "Well, well. You just got back, and the school's already serving you a midnight snack show."
Chen Guan glanced toward the dormitories, then back at that window.
Logically speaking, he should deal with the news of his own death first.
But a thief was right in front of him.
Catch the thief first!
Chen Guan circled around to the side of the logistics building, tapped his toes against the protruding edges of the outer wall, and quickly climbed to the second-floor window.
Inside, he could hear a cabinet door being pulled open.
And someone's suppressed breathing.
Chen Guan leaned against the window frame, in no hurry to enter.
Inside, the intruder worked skillfully—first using elemental power to sever the ground alert lines, then sending a thin stream of water into the gap of the safe.
The water snaked through the metal lock mechanism; moments later, the safe door swung open.
Chen Guan raised an eyebrow.
That ability looked a little familiar.
The person inside reached in and pulled out a black box.
The box had Huaqing Academy's temporary seal charm stuck to its surface.
Just as the intruder was about to tear off the seal, Chen Guan's voice came from the window.
"Need a hand?"
The intruder's hand froze on the box.
The next instant, a surge of water swept up from the safe door and slammed toward the window.
Chen Guan raised his hand, bracing the base of his scythe against the window frame as he leveraged himself inside.
The water rushed past his shoulder, struck the wall, and scattered a row of files into chaos.
In the darkness, the intruder spun and fled, water mist spreading underfoot, the body reduced to a streak of shadow.
Chen Guan didn't chase.
He planted the scythe on the ground and stood there, remarkably composed.
The intruder had just reached the door when the lock clicked shut on its own.
Not an ability.
Just a piece of iron Chen Guan had tossed ahead of time, wedged into the door gap.
Crude.
But effective.
The intruder turned back and sent a blade of water sweeping across the floor.
Chen Guan raised his scythe, pressed the water blade down with the flat of the blade, and snatched a stray textbook off a nearby desk, hurling it.
The book was shredded by the water mid-air.
Pages scattered everywhere.
Chen Guan walked through the rain of paper and stopped with his scythe pressed against the intruder's throat.
For someone like Chen Guan, who had fought plenty of final bosses, coming back to school made every opponent feel disappointingly bland.
The room fell silent.
Moonlight spilled in through the window, illuminating a face that looked strangely familiar.
Messy black hair, one side of his collar damp, the usual swagger of his brows dimmed by the night, leaving only a barely concealed gloom.
Liu Feiyu.
Chen Guan looked at him: "Did your family go bankrupt? Now you're stealing from the school's storage?"
Liu Feiyu recognized Chen Guan's face, and his expression was even more dramatic than the duty teacher's had been.
"You're not dead?"
"Sadly, I am not."
Chen Guan inched the scythe forward half a step.
"Want to start by explaining what you're holding?"
Liu Feiyu's fingers gripped the black box, refusing to let go.
He seemed to be calculating his chances of escape.
Chen Guan gave him a light warning: "Feel free to try."
Liu Feiyu glanced at the scythe, confirmed this was someone he couldn't beat, and finally set the black box back on the table.
"I'm not here to steal."
Chen Guan nodded, face full of belief: "Sneaking through the window into logistics, cracking a safe, taking sealed items—I guess in your book, that's called a tour."
Liu Feiyu, of course, caught the sarcasm in Chen Guan's tone, and his face darkened.
"This thing was never supposed to stay with An Changqing."
At the mention of An Changqing's name, Chen Guan's gaze dropped to the black box.
He reached out and lifted the lid.
Inside lay a token.
It was neither metal nor jade in material, and aside from that, it looked entirely unremarkable.
Chen Guan recognized it.
The unidentifiable token they had stumbled upon in the Black Wind Ruins.
At the time, they couldn't figure out its use, so they'd handed it to An Changqing for safekeeping, planning to investigate after returning to the academy. Clearly, An Changqing had found nothing, and eventually probably forgot, leaving it here to gather dust.
Which had now prompted Liu Feiyu to steal it in the middle of the night.
Chen Guan picked up the token.
As it entered his hand, the faint patterns on its surface slowly revealed a dragon shape in the moonlight.
Blue-green.
Curving and winding.
Like a dragon with its eyes still shut, coiled deep within the token.
Liu Feiyu stared at that dragon pattern, throat bobbing.
"So it's true—you can activate it."
Chen Guan looked up, genuinely surprised this time: "You know what it is?"
Liu Feiyu didn't answer. Chen Guan raised the scythe an inch, reminding him he didn't have the right to stay silent.
"When I ask questions, I'd advise you to cherish the opportunity. I don't have much experience catching thieves at night, and it's perfectly reasonable if my hand gets a little heavy."
Liu Feiyu's face shifted through several expressions before he gritted out: "The Azure Dragon Token. Don't tell me you don't know what that is."
Chen Guan looked at the token in his hand. Quite a coincidence.
Beidou had just said that the Azure Dragon seat was being saved for someone.
And now, the Azure Dragon Token was in his hands.
Talk about timing.
But Chen Guan had a new question, and he wasn't shy about asking: "Who told you about it?"
Liu Feiyu gazed at the token, the greed in his eyes hardly kept in check.
"My older brother's notes."
"Your older brother?"
The eldest of the Liu family—Liu Chengjun—a well-known businessman.
Liu Feiyu's lips twitched.
"No need to fish for information, Chen Guan. I admit I took a risk tonight, but this thing matters to me."
"So all that time you spent getting close to me—it was for this too?"
Liu Feiyu didn't deny it.
"After the Black Wind Ruins, I found out the token was a joint find, but it ended up in An Changqing's keeping. You and An Changqing are close, so I couldn't get it from him directly. I had to get chummy with you first. And even if I got my hands on it, I couldn't activate it—I still needed you."
Chen Guan thought back to Liu Feiyu's earlier two-faced behavior. So that explained it.
In all his time in this world, this was the first time Chen Guan realized that the Guiyuan Group was a hot commodity. Guan Jinyue was dying to get in, and now Liu Feiyu wanted in too.
Beidou said he was holding the Azure Dragon seat for someone. Did that someone mean Liu Feiyu? Or someone else entirely?
Chen Guan also noticed that the token was missing a corner. That was probably why it had looked so unremarkable before.
The reason it had activated now, according to Liu Feiyu, was because of him.
"You went to the Northern Border back then—was that because of this too?"
Liu Feiyu shot him a glance.
"With the Azure Dragon Token, I can get into the real inner circle and change my fate."
With that, Liu Feiyu stepped half a pace forward: "Chen Guan, I'm begging you. Give it to me."
The scythe crossed in front of him once more, forcing Liu Feiyu to stop.
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!
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
ng to die together with you." Lin Xuan is dead, his body thrown into the river by his scumbag lover and her accomplice. She, the president of the Su Group, is decisive, ruthless, and ice-cold. For three days and three nights, she had his body fished out of the river, and without hesitation, she kissed the bloated corpse of Lin Xuan. She laid down beside him in a cold coffin, their fingers intertwined, a smile lingering on her lips as she closed her eyes. The noble and cold-hearted woman, only bending for one man—Lin Xuan. Lin Xuan, with his golden finger, is reborn and returns to the day of his wedding to the treacherous woman. Su Qiang comes to steal the bride. Lin Xuan's eyes light up, eager to pledge his loyalty on the spot, but instead, her kiss transfers a glass of drugged wine into his mouth, causing him to pass out... 【Male Protagonist with Single Female Lead】【Yandere Tycoon】【Action-Packed】【True vs. Fake Heir】
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.
