He could hear Liu Tiancheng's labored, terrified breathing from behind the door—broken, rasping, almost painful to listen to.
Yet in the gaps between those breaths, another sound reached his ears. Faint, but steady and strong.
Thump. Thump.
It was a heartbeat.
Inside the secret room, besides Liu Tiancheng, there was a second person's heartbeat.
Chen Guan moved his ear away from the cold alloy door.
His movements were silent, but An Changqing, Long Ao, and Hong Yuan's eyes were on him the moment he turned.
Long Ao was the first to lose patience, keeping his voice low as he asked.
"So? Is the old man inside dead or not?"
Hong Yuan jabbed him in the ribs with the handle of her axe.
"Shut it. He's still alive."
An Changqing said nothing, only asking with his eyes.
Chen Guan walked over to him and spoke in a voice barely audible.
"There are two heartbeats inside."
The gentle smile on An Changqing's face vanished. "Two?"
Chen Guan nodded.
"One is very weak and erratic. That should be Liu Tiancheng."
"But the other—it's steady and strong. Must be a healthy adult male."
An Changqing's mind was racing.
"So you're saying Mr. Liu didn't lock himself in there, but rather went in to find someone on his own?"
This conclusion overturned every assumption they'd made so far.
If Liu Tiancheng had willingly gone into hiding with someone else, then how much of his earlier mental breakdown was an act?
Clearly, a veteran of the business world was not to be underestimated.
"Interesting."
Baal's voice echoed in Chen Guan's mind, dripping with undisguised delight.
"This old man is scared, but he's also putting on a show. He's both prey and would-be hunter."
"He's using himself as bait, trying to lure out the snake that most wants to eat him."
Chen Guan didn't respond to Baal.
He looked at the spark in An Changqing's eyes and knew this black-hearted schemer had already thought several steps further.
The night passed without a word.
The next morning, the first rays of sunlight fell upon the oppressive estate.
An Changqing found the old housekeeper, who hadn't slept a wink all night.
"Steward," An Changqing said, his face full of concern.
"It's been a whole night, and Chairman Liu still hasn't made a sound from inside. I'm worried something might have happened to him."
His voice was deliberately pitched—loud enough to carry to Liu Chengjun, who was just stepping out of the dining room.
Liu Chengjun paused mid-step, then strode over quickly.
His voice was thick with barely contained anger. "An, you're telling me this is real?"
"It's only a guess on my part." An Changqing sighed.
"The study is completely soundproofed. We have no way of knowing what's happening in there, but Chairman Liu's condition last night... I can't help but be anxious."
That sentence was like a stone dropped into still water.
Liu Chengjun's face darkened. He turned and marched off toward the study.
"Men! Get ready to break down the door!"
The guards behind him snapped into action, and the atmosphere grew taut as a drawn bowstring.
"Brother, what do you think you're doing!"
A sharp shout rang out.
The second brother, Liu Xiao—who had stayed silent until now—stepped forward for the first time, blocking Liu Chengjun's path.
Liu Chengjun frowned, his tone impatient.
"What does it look like? I'm saving Father! He could be in trouble in there—can't you see that?"
"All I see is a man trying to destroy Father's final sanctuary!"
Liu Xiao's reaction was abnormally intense. He stared straight at Liu Chengjun, naked hostility blazing in his eyes.
"Father has locked himself inside, and he doesn't trust any of us! If you break down the door now, are you trying to drive him to his death?"
Long Ao watched from the side, getting more and more irritated, and cut in directly.
"What are you two squabbling about? Just smash the door open and we'll know everything!"
"Absolutely not!"
Liu Xiao rejected the idea without a second thought, his tone so resolute it seemed almost unnatural.
Liu Chengjun let out a cold laugh.
"If you ask me, you're not worried about Father—you've got a guilty conscience."
"Or maybe... the reason Father ended up like this has something to do with you?"
"You're talking nonsense!"
Liu Xiao's face flushed red with rage.
Just as the Liu brothers looked ready to come to blows on the spot, the butler stepped forward and tried to mediate.
"Young masters, please calm down. Arguing now won't solve anything. Our first priority is to confirm Chairman Liu's safety."
While the atmosphere in the hall was at a breaking point, Liu Feiyu quietly edged closer to Chen Guan.
He pretended to watch the drama unfold, but leaned his body slightly toward Chen Guan, speaking in a whisper.
"Chen Guan, my friend, let me give you a tip."
Chen Guan didn't move his gaze, still fixed on the two brothers arguing.
Liu Feiyu's voice drifted over, tinged with barely concealed glee.
"My big brother, he's the type to always keep an ace up his sleeve."
"From what I've heard, he's been getting pretty close to a master mechanic who goes by the alias Ghost Hand."
"Now, if this door was reinforced with Ghost Hand's personal involvement... don't you think he might already know how to open it?"
Chen Guan remained motionless, leaning against the wall, coldly watching the Liu brothers' farce.
Liu Feiyu's gleeful whisper landed squarely in his ears, but he pretended not to hear it, giving no reaction whatsoever.
Out of the corner of his eye, Chen Guan glanced toward An Changqing, who had likely overheard the same words.
An Changqing looked back at the same moment, and the two caught each other's gaze briefly in the air.
No words were needed—An Changqing had already read everything from the faint shift in Chen Guan's expression.
He stepped forward, positioning himself right between Liu Chengjun and Liu Xiao, his mild-mannered voice easily cutting through the brothers' quarrel.
"Young masters, please don't get worked up."
An Changqing wore a look of perfectly appropriate concern.
"Young Master Liu is worried about Father's safety, and Young Master Liu Er is worried that forcing the door open might agitate him. Everyone's intentions come from a good place."
Liu Chengjun gave a cold snort, not buying it.
"So, according to you, An, we should just stand here and wait?"
An Changqing smiled, his tone still warm, but his next words made Liu Chengjun's expression shift.
"I was just thinking of a solution that could satisfy both sides."
"Since breaking the door down by force isn't ideal, why not find a specialist who understands the construction of this door, and open it peacefully?"
An Changqing's gaze settled on Liu Chengjun, his tone as casual as if he were making a simple suggestion.
"I've heard that in Shanghai, there's a master mechanic with the alias Ghost Hand, and his skills are said to be extraordinary."
"Young Master Liu has wide connections—why not invite him over to give it a try?"
The air went dead silent.
Liu Xiao looked at An Changqing in surprise, then back at his older brother with confusion.
Long Ao and Hong Yuan were also stunned, unsure what An Changqing was really getting at.
The look of filial sorrow on Liu Chengjun's face froze for the first time.
Though it only lasted a split second, he quickly recovered his composure, even putting on a puzzled expression.
"An, you must be joking."
"How would I know any Ghost Hand master?"
"For Father's sake, I'll contact the best locksmith company in all of China right now."
Though he said so out loud, his instinctive reaction in that moment had already given the truth away.
Baal let out a triumphant whistle inside Chen Guan's mind.
ine. During your journey, you save an abandoned baby girl and become her elder brother】 【You rely on each other, becoming each other's support】 【At the end of the simulation, you shield the now-grown girl with your life, sacrificing yourself to block numerous demonic cultivators. You die, and the light in the girl's eyes fades】 …… 【Second Simulation: You are transported to a world where steam and magic coexist】 【You immerse yourself in the study of magic, obsessed with its research. One day, while out, you encounter a half-blooded demon girl wandering the streets. You take her in as your student】 【You teach the demoness what it means to be human, show her the beauty of the world, and nurture her into a miracle that surpasses even the gods】 【At the end of the simulation, you die of old age in front of the nearly immortal demoness due to your mortal lifespan】 …… One simulation after another, one encounter after another. Xu Xi suddenly felt something was off: "Wait, you said you're coming to the real world to find me?"
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!
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.
