The Message

The light on the top floor of the administration building was still on.

The door to Situ Ming's office wasn't fully closed, and the hushed voices of several people drifted out from within.

Chen Guan reached the doorway, but before he could knock, the voices inside stopped.

A moment later, the door was pulled open from within.

It was a dean from the academic affairs office, his hair as messy as if it had just been blown by the wind, a cup of strong tea still in hand.

The moment he saw Chen Guan, half a cup of tea splashed onto the floor.

"How did you get here?"

Chen Guan glanced at the ground.

"Took the stairs."

The dean's mouth opened, then he turned and shouted into the office, "Dean Situ, he's back!"

The office went quiet for a beat.

Situ Ming lifted his head from behind a mountain of documents.

The old man was still wearing the same clothes as when Chen Guan had left the academy, except the sleeves were rolled up, and the desk was covered in maps of the northern frontier.

When he saw Chen Guan, he first took off his glasses, wiped them, then put them back on.

"Alive?"

Chen Guan stepped inside.

"At the moment, yes."

Situ Ming glanced at the coffin on his back, one eyebrow twitching.

"That's a rather qualified answer."

"One should be cautious."

"That's not caution."

Situ Ming set down his pen. "That's called scaring people."

He rarely dropped his familiar classical tone, opting for plain modern speech this time.

The other teachers nearby didn't dare to interject.

Chen Guan placed the black box on the table.

"There was an intruder at the logistics building just now. Water-type ability, carrying spatial transfer talismans. Target was this. The person got away. Didn't get a clear look at their face."

Situ Ming didn't touch the black box. Whatever it was, it didn't matter — no object was more important than a living person.

He stared at Chen Guan for a long while, as if trying to confirm nothing was missing from him. After a moment, he shook his head. "Let them steal whatever they want. The principal has money. As long as you're safe, that's what matters most."

By the end of his sentence, there was a barely concealed choke in the old man's voice.

Nothing mattered more than a student's life.

Since the founding of the academy, every student who had become a hero during their school years had ended up as a black-and-white portrait on the wall for people to pay respects to. Situ Ming didn't want to see another genius fall.

If they were still children, they should be allowed to grow tall and strong.

Situ Ming leaned back into his chair, the exhaustion on his face impossible to hide. "I've already sent word to An Changqing and the others, but haven't received a reply yet."

Chen Guan nodded. "Thank you, Professor Situ. I also have one more request."

Situ Ming picked up his teacup. After everything he had been through, he believed there was little left that could surprise him.

"Professor, do you have a spare phone?"

Situ Ming: "???"

A man who had just saved all of Shanghai, returned from the dead to stand before him, and his very first request was... a phone?

The subject change was a bit too jarring.

Chen Guan helplessly pulled out his wrecked phone and said, "Professor, my phone broke. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had to come here in person — I could have just made a call."

Hearing this, Situ Ming rifled through his desk drawer and pulled out an old backup phone. "It's yours. Use it for now."

Chen Guan took it, smiling. "Thank you, Professor Situ."

Stepping out of the office building, Chen Guan snapped his fingers.

"Storm."

The phone's battery instantly restored to full.

Even a move as devastating as that had become trivial for Chen Guan to control now.

He could wield immense power with finesse, and finesse with immense power.

Charging a phone with it worked fine — it just shortened the phone's lifespan a bit.

A roar echoed in his mind: "Who taught you to use my ability like that?!"

Knowing he was in the wrong, Chen Guan tuned it out and quickly turned on the phone, logging into his social accounts.

The moment he opened them, a wall of red notification dots flooded the message bar.

During the time he was out of contact, dozens of reminders had piled up.

An Changqing's last message was from two days ago.

[Chen Guan, if you can still see this, reply to me.]

Su Yuehe had even more messages.

[Don't scare me. Your heart will start beating again like before, right.]

[I used forbidden arts but couldn't lock your location. Doesn't mean you're dead. You're alive. At least, not dead, right.]

[Chen Guan, you're still alive, right?]

Long Ao's message was the shortest.

[Wait for me.]

Hong Yuan's was even more direct.

[Whoever touched you, I'm cutting them down.]

Yin Chen sent a long string of messages, but only the last sentence stood out.

[My grandfather said he still has a promise to keep, and you wouldn't be the one to stand up an old man, right.]

Chen Guan first replied to An Changqing.

[Still alive.]

After the message was sent, the top of the screen remained quiet for a long while.

No read receipt.

Communications in the northern temporary war zone were indeed unstable — Chen Guan knew all too well the pain of having no signal.

He then opened Su Yuehe's chat window.

Her last message was from early yesterday morning.

[If you come back, reply to An Changqing first. He seems calmer than all of us, but he's more anxious than anyone.]

Chen Guan looked at it for two seconds, then replied.

[I'm back. Don't use forbidden arts to track me.]

[Also, I answer messages pretty fast. The order I reply in doesn't matter.]

No sooner had he sent it than a red dot popped up on the screen.

Su Yuehe's status showed: typing...

Chen Guan raised an eyebrow.

That fast?

How come you're the only one with good signal?

A second later, over a dozen messages slammed in one after another.

[Chen Guan?]

[Is it really you?]

[Where are you right now?]

[Are you hurt?]

[How's your body doing?]

[Don't just reply with a few words. Say something.]

[Are you stuck in some weird place again?]

[I'm contacting An Changqing now.]

[Wait.]

[You have to wait.]

Chen Guan stared at the flood of messages, his finger hovering over the screen.

In his mind, Baal laughed loudly.

"Oho, Lord Xuanwu finally gets to experience the joy of being bombarded by human messages?"

This was absolutely entertaining — worth all the effort of fighting its way out of the sealed space just to witness this.

Chen Guan replied, "Still better than people burning incense for me."

Baal thought about it, then agreed. "True. What a shame. Lord Bael has never gotten to see your portrait hung on a wall with flowers beneath it."

Chen Guan ignored it, typing a reply.

[I'm at Huaqing. Just met with Professor Situ. My phone broke; got a new one. I'm fine.]

There was a pause of a few seconds on Su Yuehe's end.

Then a voice message came through.

Chen Guan tapped it and held it to his ear.

In the background, there was the howl of wind and the dull thud of distant impacts.

Su Yuehe's voice was lowered, but the urgency was unmistakable.

"Don't go anywhere. Wait for us to get back."

The voice cut off abruptly, as if torn away by some interference.

Chen Guan stared at the screen. Things in the north were worse than the duty teacher had let on.

An Changqing and the others hadn't just gone to take a look — they were already in the war zone.

Chen Guan then opened Long Ao's chat.

Long Ao's message bar only had that one line: Wait for me.

Chen Guan replied.

[No need to wait. I'm back.]

This time, Long Ao didn't reply instantly.

Hong Yuan was much faster.

[Alive, or back from the dead?]

Chen Guan answered.

[Warm.]

Soon after, Hong Yuan sent a picture.