In the photo, he stood by the training ground, carrying a coffin on his back and holding a scythe in his hand. The angle was pretty good, even better than his ID photo.
The only problem was, the photo was in black and white.
A student council member held the framed photo, his face cycling through shades of pale and red.
“C-Chen Guan, this...”
Chen Guan walked over and took the frame.
He looked at it for two seconds.
“Not a bad shot.”
The student council member looked like he was about to cry.
“We were going to take it down, but then someone said—since you came back in person, we could have you sign it and turn it into an exhibit for the academy crisis education display.”
“That suggestion got a lot of traction. Tons of students upvoted it.”
“We had no choice. The student council just does what it's told—public opinion is a hard force to fight. We had to follow procedure.”
The member quickly added a disclaimer: “Of course, you don’t have to if you don’t want to. We just came by to take a photo for the records.”
Chen Guan: “???”
An Changqing’s hand rested on his sword hilt, and he suddenly felt the urge to hit someone. “Who said that?”
The student council member’s voice grew quieter and quieter.
“An anonymous user on the forum started a vote.”
Long Ao frowned. “Anonymous users can still be traced.”
Sima Ming’s temple twitched.
“So the student council’s current focus is collecting signatures for the memorial portraits of the living?”
The student council member clutched his clipboard, not daring to speak. An Changqing’s face had long since turned as dark as the bottom of a pot.
Chen Guan, however, turned the frame around and looked at the blank back.
“Got a pen?”
The hallway fell silent.
An Changqing turned to look at him.
“You’re actually going to sign it?”
Chen Guan said, “Since I’m already here.”
Sima Ming felt his vision go dark.
“Chen Guan!”
But Chen Guan had already taken the pen from the student council member's hand and written a line on the back of the frame.
He didn’t write fast.
Everyone crowded around to look.
There, on the back of the frame, was a neat line of handwriting:
[Have reviewed in person. Not to be activated for now.]
Hong Yuan burst out laughing.
The student council member held the frame, not knowing whether to put it down or keep holding it. Awkward was an understatement.
Who the hell started that vote?! he roared inwardly.
And why is the Council President here too?!
An Changqing looked at the line of text and finally reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose.
Sima Ming pointed at Chen Guan, too furious to speak.
“You’ll be the death of me—mark my words.”
Chen Guan handed the pen back. “Teacher, we’re already at the medical building.”
Sima Ming: “...”
The hallway’s barely-recovered atmosphere completely fell apart at that line.
But before the laughter could fully fade, the phone in Chen Guan’s pocket buzzed.
He looked down.
It was a video call from Su Yuehe.
Chen Guan pressed accept, and the screen was immediately filled with the snowstorms of the northern border.
Su Yuehe’s face appeared on screen.
Her hair was slightly messy, snow dusted her cheeks, and behind her, the rune lights of a temporary war zone flickered in the distance. Yin Chen stood further away in a coat, head bowed, talking to someone.
When Su Yuehe saw Chen Guan, she didn’t say anything at first.
She stared at the screen for a long, long time.
So long that An Changqing noticed and took half a step forward.
Chen Guan spoke first. “I’m at the medical building. Got checked out.”
Su Yuehe’s lips moved. “What does the report say?”
Chen Guan looked at An Changqing.
An Changqing took out the report and held it up to the camera, giving it a quick shake.
After Su Yuehe saw the words “long-term observation recommended,” she finally spoke.
“Chen Guan, stop scaring people like that.”
Chen Guan held the phone. The hallway lights hit the screen, splitting his face into a sharp patchwork of light and shadow.
He was about to brush it off the way he always did.
Something like, the sea was too deep.
Or, my phone was broken.
Or, I made it back after all.
But Su Yuehe’s eyes looked at him through the screen, the corners tinged with red. She wasn’t crying.
And that was worse than crying.
Chen Guan was silent for a moment. Then he said, “I’ll try.”
Su Yuehe kept looking at him.
“Not ‘try.’”
Chen Guan corrected himself. “Okay.”
Baal went quiet for a moment.
Then the voice in his mind let out an unreadable laughter.
“Oh ho—so the kid knows how to bend, does he?”
Chen Guan didn’t answer.
Ever since he’d come back, everything he did was really about one thing: he didn’t want people to treat him like something that would shatter at a touch.
On Su Yuehe’s end, it seemed like she had finally relaxed. She angled the phone slightly.
Yin Chen appeared on screen.
He was holding a document in his hands, his expression far more serious than usual.
“Boss Chen, something’s come up up north. You’re going to want to hear this.”
An Changqing’s brow furrowed.
“What is it?”
The wind behind Yin Chen grew louder and more chaotic.
In the distance, someone was shouting to tighten the containment line. Rune lights flashed on one by one.
Hong Yuan, her shoulder wrapped in bandages and her axe leaning against the wall beside her, leaned closer to the screen.
“Another beast tide in the north?”
Yin Chen shook his head. “The beast tide has retreated by half.”
That line made the people in the hallway tense up instead of relaxing.
If it were just another beast tide, Yin Chen wouldn’t have used that tone.
It must be something worse.
Yin Chen turned the camera towards his back.
The image cut through the temporary camp’s defenses, past a row of lit sealing runes, and finally stopped on a valley covered in snow.
In the middle of the valley, there was a coffin.
A black coffin.
Half-buried in the snow, the exposed part carved with old patterns. A ring of scorched black surrounded it in the white snowfield. Several northern border guards stood in the distance, none daring to approach.
The hallway was dead silent.
Chen Guan stared at the screen.
Long Ao looked at Chen Guan’s coffin behind him.
Then he looked back at the one on screen.
“That thing looks a little like yours, doesn’t it?”
Chen Guan was silent for a moment.
“You can drop the ‘a little.’”
Hong Yuan frowned. “You have a twin brother or something?”
Chen Guan glanced at her. “Even if I had one, coffins don’t run in the family.”
That being said, Chen Guan’s expression was still grim.
This coffin of his was given to him by the system. As far as logic went, there shouldn’t be another one like it in the world. And besides, this coffin was made of dark iron. Who had that kind of money and resource to forge a replica—and put it all the way out in the northern border?
Baal laughed in the mental space.
“Interesting. Very interesting. You just got your own obituary pulled, and the northern border sends you a matching coffin. Who’s this thoughtful? Sending a funeral gift right to the frontline?”
Chen Guan didn’t respond.
On screen, Yin Chen raised a hand to block a flurry of snow and continued. “Half an hour ago, the beast tide pulled back. We thought the line was stable. Then this thing surfaced from under the snow. Every beast nearby swerved around it.”
“Material—dark iron, no question about it.”
Chen Guan stared at the coffin on the screen and said nothing.
It was buried in the northern snow, its edges burned into a ring of black. The old patterns on its surface were worn dull by wind and snow. Even through the screen, it radiated a bone-deep cold.
An Changqing was the first to speak. “You don’t recognize it?”
Chen Guan steadied his grip on the phone, brows knit tight. “I don’t.”
Hong Yuan frowned, the axe still resting against her shoulder. “But look at it—it’s like yours, just older and more worn.”
agon king storylines. At the start, I obtained the "Ultimate Lackey System" - the more I act as a lackey, the stronger I become. What else could I do? I chose to become the personal henchman of the ultimate villain, Su Muwan. I provoke all sorts of chosen ones, snatch away their opportunities, and commit every evil deed imaginable. You ask who's behind me? Hmph! You're not worthy of knowing my lady's name! ...... ....... I am Su Muwan, the eldest daughter of the Su family. Since childhood, I've possessed extraordinary talent in martial arts, which led to my arrogant and domineering personality in my past life. I was even foolish enough to repeatedly challenge those favored by heaven, ultimately resulting in a tragic death. In this life, I must behave and absolutely cannot walk the same path again!! However... SLAP!! "So you're the Dragon King, huh?!" When I saw my little lackey swagger over and viciously slap the Dragon King who was hiding his identity, I felt my heart sink. Su Muwan's suspended heart finally died as she watched Qin Luo, her utterly loyal lackey, standing before her. She fainted on the spot from shock. Heaven is determined to destroy me!! (Pure love 1v1, light-hearted, no angst, single female lead, villain, reincarnation, lackey)
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
