The Return of the Dead

Chen Guan gave a half-smile. "And why should I? Also, what do you mean 'as a favor'? If you don't want to beg, then don't."

Liu Feiyu stared at him.

"You don't need it. An Changqing doesn't need it either. People like you have everything—connections, friends, mentors, resources. Losing one token won't cost you half a life."

Chen Guan looked at him without interrupting.

Liu Feiyu's pace slowed, but every word was clenched tight.

"I'm different. I've played the part of the useless member of the Liu family for all these years, just waiting for a chance to turn things around. And now that chance is right here."

Chen Guan tucked the Azure Dragon Token into his palm.

"Want to turn things around? Fine."

Liu Feiyu looked up.

Chen Guan continued, "But don't climb through my window or tamper with what my friend left in my care."

Liu Feiyu's eyes simmered with suppressed anger.

"You have no idea what this token represents."

"And you do?"

"It's the emblem of the Azure Dragon."

Liu Feiyu lowered his voice.

"Whoever holds it can be seen by the Big Dipper."

Chen Guan's mood turned complicated at that.

Being seen by the Big Dipper was hard to say whether it was a reward or a disaster.

He had just been hunted down by the Big Dipper earlier that day, trying to claim him.

The experience hadn't been pleasant.

Liu Feiyu, seeing him stay silent, thought he had convinced him and quickly added, eager.

"I can make a deal with you. Money, resources, information—I can give you all of it."

Chen Guan thought for a moment. "Do you know about the Nameless Island in the east and the Endless Sand Sea?"

Liu Feiyu answered instantly. "The Nameless Island was bought by my eldest brother. If you want it, once I overthrow him, I can give it to you."

"As for the Endless Sand Sea, I can find a way to buy it too."

Before Chen Guan could respond to the empty promises Liu Feiyu was dangling in front of him, every sealing charm in the entire logistics building lit up at once.

The alarm echoed through the hallways.

The duty teacher's voice spiked through the loudspeaker.

"Intruder on the second floor of the logistics department! All staff on campus, report immediately!"

Liu Feiyu's face went pale. Footsteps were already closing in from outside the door.

Liu Feiyu glanced at the window, then back at Chen Guan, his jaw tightening.

"Chen Guan, you're stopping me today. One day, you'll regret this."

"Then we'll talk when I do."

Chen Guan raised his scythe. "Now, get down."

Liu Feiyu didn't duck.

His hand pressed against his chest, where a water-blue talisman mark glowed beneath his clothes.

A ripple of spatial distortion spread from the mark.

Chen Guan reached out to grab him, but a mirror of water had already cracked open beneath Liu Feiyu's feet.

Just before he sank into it, Liu Feiyu looked up at the Azure Dragon Token in Chen Guan's hand, his eyes full of regret.

The water mirror closed.

Liu Feiyu vanished.

Almost at the same moment, the door to the logistics office was slammed open from outside.

The duty teacher rushed in with two resident teaching assistants. They saw the files scattered by water, the open safe, and Chen Guan standing in the middle of the room, holding a glowing azure token in his hand.

All three of them froze.

The duty teacher looked at the window, then at Chen Guan.

"Where's the intruder?"

Chen Guan put the Azure Dragon Token back into the black box, his tone casual.

"Got away."

The teacher stared at the box in his hand.

"And this..."

Chen Guan closed the lid.

"Stolen goods."

"Whose stolen goods?"

Chen Guan walked to the window, gazing at the lingering mist slowly dissolving into the night. "It's An Changqing's. I'm holding onto it for now. I'll give it back to him later."

The teachers exchanged glances, not suspecting anything. Everyone knew that Chen Guan and An Changqing were close, so they were fine with Chen Guan taking An Changqing's things.

By now, word of Chen Guan's resurrection had spread throughout the teacher circles, so these teachers weren't as afraid of him as the first one had been.

Then, the teacher on duty held up a clipboard: "Student Chen Guan, for you to run into something like this right after coming back, it's fair to say..."

The teacher searched for the right word but couldn't find one.

Chen Guan finished the sentence for him: "Bad luck."

The teacher was silent for two seconds, then figured that was one way to look at it.

Beside them, a teaching assistant crouched down, using tweezers to pick up traces of residual water on the floor. The water gave off a faint blue glow that dissipated quickly once lifted from the ground.

"Water-type ability, with a space-transfer talisman attached. Skilled handling."

The assistant looked up at Chen Guan: "Did you get a look at the face?"

Chen Guan closed the black box and answered very naturally.

"Didn't see it clearly."

Baal clicked his tongue inside Chen Guan's mind.

"The Black Tortoise is getting more and more practiced at lying."

Chen Guan replied even more naturally.

"It's called preserving the variables."

Liu Feiyu's actions tonight were indeed far from clean.

But if he handed him over, the matter would instantly become a huge mess tangled between the Liu family, Huaqing Academy, and An Changqing.

Chen Guan didn't have time to preside over someone else's trial right now.

He still had to take himself off the dead man's list first.

The teacher on duty visibly relaxed, though he also seemed a little disappointed.

"Not seeing clearly is normal. Since the guy dared to break into Huaqing's logistics department, he must have covered his tracks. The fact that you managed to secure the item is already a good outcome."

Chen Guan glanced at the black box in his hand.

"This is An Changqing's temporary sealed item. I'll take it to Vice Dean Situ first."

The teacher nodded, then remembered something and quickly stepped aside from the doorway.

"Right, right, go ahead. Vice Dean Situ should still be awake tonight—he's been looking into intel from the northern border."

Chen Guan had just taken a step out when the teacher called after him.

"Oh, and—are you feeling okay right now? Do you need to check in at the medical building first? Earlier, An and the others all thought you were..."

The rest of the sentence went unfinished, since saying it to the man's face would've been too rude.

Chen Guan turned back: "Thought I was dead?"

The teacher choked on a cough.

"Everyone was just worried about you."

"I know."

Chen Guan tucked the scythe back behind him, the coffin resting against his shoulder with the familiar weight he knew well.

"So that's why I'm going to stop them from worrying."

As he walked down the stairs, the alarm in the logistics building had yet to fully shut off.

The red warning light swept across the walls in circles, slicing his shadow into segments.

Chen Guan reached the ground floor entrance. Unfortunately, his phone had completely died before, so he had no choice but to rely on his own legs to find Situ Ming.

Should've borrowed a phone while he was at it.

"Hurry up and find that old man. Lord Baal wants to see their faces when they find out you're not dead."

Baal chattered on gloatingly in his head, and Chen Guan couldn't be bothered to respond. He followed the academy's main path toward the administration building.

The night wind passed through the empty training grounds.

In the distance, a few students staying on campus had come out to check the commotion after hearing the alarm. When they saw Chen Guan, their footsteps slowed.

One female student was still holding a short training staff from nighttime drills. Seeing the coffin on his back, her expression shifted several times.

Chen Guan recognized her. She was Li Muxue, from his class, a friend of An Changqing and the others.

"Chen Guan?"

"Yeah."

"You... you're back?"

"Yeah."

Li Muxue turned and ran.

As she ran, she shouted into her phone, "Wang Hanyue, stop the extra training — Chen Guan is back, he's really back!"

Chen Guan watched her retreating figure and figured that tomorrow he'd probably take up an entire page on the academy forum.