Big brother Liu Chengjun was dressed in a tailored high-end suit, wearing a smile, his demeanor refined and courteous, as he thoughtfully set the tableware for Liu Tiancheng.
"Father, try this. The kitchen made it specially for you today."
Liu Tiancheng didn’t even glance at the bowl of soup, his gaze cold and distant.
Second brother Liu Xiao and third brother Liu Feiyu sat at the other end of the table, both with their heads down, silently eating the food in front of them, indifferent to everything around them.
Coldness was the main theme of this household.
Chen Guan’s eyes lingered on Liu Feiyu for a moment. He could sense that Liu Feiyu appeared calm, but the fingers gripping his knife and fork were tense.
Mrs. Liu stirred her soup with a silver spoon and suddenly muttered a complaint.
"The food is salty again today."
With a sharp crack, Liu Tiancheng slammed his chopsticks onto the table, startling Mrs. Liu.
"If you don’t like it, get out!"
The entire dining room went silent in an instant—even the clinking of knives and forks faded away.
Liu Chengjun immediately stepped in to smooth things over, his flawlessly genial smile still in place.
"Father, please don’t be upset. Mother was just speaking casually. I’ll have the kitchen remake the dishes."
An Changqing also spoke up at the right moment, his voice warm and steady.
"Chairman Liu, Mrs. Liu, it’s not good for your health if the food gets cold."
His words were appropriate and helped ease the tension, but they couldn’t dispel the icy chill that hung so thickly over the dinner table.
Chen Guan watched all of this quietly.
He noticed that although Liu Tiancheng lashed out at everyone, most of his vigilance was directed at his eldest son, Liu Chengjun.
Baal’s voice drifted lazily through his mind.
"What an interesting family dinner."
"This old man is about to crack. The smell of fear is practically pouring off him."
"Three sons—one wants to kill him, one wants to watch him die, and one... wants him to die slowly."
"Heh, what a loving family. You humans are endlessly entertaining."
As Baal chuckled to himself, dinner reached its midpoint.
Suddenly, Liu Tiancheng broke into violent coughing. His face flushed red, as if he couldn’t catch his breath.
The old butler, who had been standing nearby, quickly stepped forward, patting his back gently while pulling a small pill bottle from his pocket. He shook out a pill and fetched a glass of warm water.
"Sir, it’s time for your medicine."
Liu Tiancheng stared at the white pill in the butler’s palm, and the fear in his eyes erupted completely.
His face turned pale, and he swept the glass and pill out of the butler’s hand with a single motion.
The glass hit the floor with a sharp crack.
He pointed at the old butler, whose face was equally stunned, then turned to Liu Chengjun beside him, his voice trembling with terror as he rasped.
"You... you’ve conspired together!"
"You’re trying to kill me!"
For the first time, a crack appeared in Liu Chengjun’s usually flawless smile. He stood up, his eyes filled with pain.
"Father, what are you saying?"
His voice trembled, heavy with the grievance of being wronged.
"How could I ever harm you?"
The old butler also fell to his knees in fright, his face pale.
"Sir, you’ve been taking this medicine for years. How would I dare—"
Liu Tiancheng refused to listen. His shaking finger darted back and forth between Liu Chengjun and the old butler, his bloodshot eyes wild with madness.
"You’re all in this together!"
"You ungrateful son! You just can’t wait, can you!"
At the table, Liu Feiyu set down his knife and fork, letting out a soft sigh that cut through the deathly silence of the dining room.
"Father, please don’t get worked up. Big brother... I’m sure he didn’t mean it."
His words sounded like a placation, but they only added fuel to the fire.
Liu Xiao remained silent, deaf to the unfolding drama around him, quietly cutting into the steak on his plate as the knife scraped faintly against the porcelain.
He felt like that steak—just meat on a chopping board, waiting to be carved up.
The city was a maze of traps. If he could, he’d rather go back to the Academy.
"Get out. All of you, get out!"
Liu Tiancheng grabbed a porcelain plate nearby and was about to hurl it at Liu Chengjun.
"Chairman Liu."
A voice rang out. It wasn’t loud, but it instantly cooled the boiling tension in the room.
Chen Guan had spoken.
Every pair of eyes turned to him.
But Chen Guan wasn’t looking at Liu Tiancheng. His gaze was fixed on the white pill lying on the carpet.
"Is this a standard prescription from your doctor?"
Liu Tiancheng paused mid-swing, breathing heavily and staring at Chen Guan, as if trying to figure out what this young man was up to.
Chen Guan continued. "We’ve taken on this security detail, so it’s our responsibility to account for every possible risk."
"That includes every bite of food you take, every glass of water you drink, and every pill you swallow."
He raised his head and looked at Liu Tiancheng.
"If you don’t mind, we can have this pill—along with the broken glass—sent for lab testing right away."
"That’s the most direct way to settle this."
An Changqing quickly added, his voice composed and convincing.
"Chen Guan is right, Chairman Liu."
"Rather than suspecting each other, let the facts speak for themselves."
"Until the results come back, the four of us will stay by your side around the clock, guaranteeing your absolute safety."
The logic was sound, giving Liu Tiancheng a way out while offering a concrete solution.
Liu Tiancheng’s chest heaved violently. He glanced at his eldest son, whose face was full of hurt, then swept his eyes over his other two sons, who remained silent, before finally settling his gaze back on Chen Guan and An Changqing.
The madness in his eyes slowly receded, replaced by bone-deep exhaustion as reason returned to him.
"Fine..."
The family dinner ended in disarray.
……
In the guest room of the Liu estate.
Long Ao paced the room restlessly.
"What a mess. This whole family is insane."
Hong Yuan leaned her massive battle-axe against the wall, equally baffled.
"That Liu Tiancheng looks like he could drop dead at any moment. Who would even bother to assassinate someone like him?"
"He’s not dying."
An Changqing sat on the sofa, his expression more solemn than they had ever seen.
"He genuinely believes someone wants to kill him."
He looked at Chen Guan. "Liu Chengjun’s reaction was too perfect."
"A son truly misunderstood by his father would react with shock and anger. Instead, his performance was the right amount of grief and grievance."
"Every word he said felt like scripted lines."
Long Ao stopped pacing. "So you’re saying he really wants to off his old man?"
"I don’t know."
An Changqing shook his head. "But someone in this house definitely wants Mr. Liu dead."
Baal’s voice echoed lazily in Chen Guan’s mind.
"This kid’s got a sharp eye."
"But the truly interesting thing isn’t something these pups could pick up."
Chen Guan asked mentally, "What did you find?"
Baal chuckled softly. "There’s a presence in this estate that doesn’t belong to anyone in the Liu family."
"Like a viper lurking in the weeds, waiting for its prey to come close."
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
y came from. The chests contained supplies, currency, class-change scrolls, skills, talents… and even godhood! The laws of the world were completely rewritten. This became a world where everyone gambled with their fate! Some people, despite having nothing, opened a divine artifact and rose to the top, eventually ruling the world. Others went bankrupt, opened nothing but worthless junk, and leaped from skyscrapers in despair. Lin Ye arrived in this world from another reality, utterly bewildered. “What is going on? Why is everyone a gambling addict?!” “Opening chests? No way. I refuse to gamble. I’ll start with myself!” Until— On his first chest, he obtained a Mythic Talent: Void Incarnation! He could become completely intangible, pass through all things, and reduce everything to nothingness! … On his fiftieth chest, he obtained a Mythic Weapon: Blade of Karma! With a single slash, karma shattered, twisting the universe and overturning the myriad phenomena of creation! … On his ninety-ninth chest, he obtained a Mythic Divine Treasure: Primordial Purple Energy! It could split open the heavens and earth, create all things, and evolve countless worlds with a single thought! Lin Ye: “Now that I think about it… shouldn’t someone have told me that every chest is guaranteed to contain something Mythic?!”
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!
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.
