Thousand Faces clutched his head and let out a pained howl, blood-tears streaming from his eyes. His mind had already been shattered.
"Chen Guan, how is it?"
An Changqing's voice came through. He had temporarily driven back Liu Chengjun, urgency written across his face.
Chen Guan shook his head. He looked at Liu Chengjun—by now, he already knew this really wasn't that man's doing.
He spoke, his voice carrying clearly to everyone present.
"The one who hired him isn't Liu Chengjun."
Liu Chengjun let out a cold snort and paused his attack. "Took you long enough to figure that out."
Liu Feiyu also halted. "If it wasn't you, then why didn't you say so? Do you enjoy being a scapegoat?"
"Would you have believed me if I had?" Liu Chengjun gave his younger brother a flat look.
He knew exactly what kind of reputation he had.
Liu Feiyu was left speechless. No, he wouldn't have believed it.
Because this wasn't the first time Liu Chengjun had done something like this. He had long since stopped expecting anything from that man.
In this family, the name Liu Chengjun had long been synonymous with schemes and conspiracies.
Just as the tense standoff threatened to ignite a fresh round of mutual suspicion, An Changqing stepped forward, placing himself at the center of everyone.
"Everyone, I don't think now is the time for infighting."
His face still wore that same warm smile, as if the deadly clash moments ago had merely been a misunderstanding.
"Behind Thousand Faces, there's a true mastermind still lurking in the shadows."
An Changqing's gaze swept across Liu Chengjun and Liu Feiyu, finally landing on the human-shaped hole smashed into the wall.
"Until we find him, any one of us acting alone could become the next target."
He paused, then spoke in a sincere tone of suggestion: "Why don't we call a temporary truce?"
"Our first priority is to open that study and confirm Chairman Liu's safety."
With those words, An Changqing skillfully pulled the conversation back, turning himself and the others from suspects into the initiators of a joint investigation.
Liu Chengjun stared at him coldly, offering no reply.
An Changqing's proposal seemed fair on the surface, but in truth, he was seizing control of this chaotic situation.
Only... he had no choice.
"Fine."
Liu Chengjun spat out two words, a grudging agreement to the truce.
But he immediately added, "That suspicious character over there—must be watched by the Liu family."
His gaze shifted to Thousand Faces, still unconscious in the corner. The implication was clear: he intended to hold onto the only lead.
"Of course."
An Changqing's smile didn't waver. He agreed readily, as if that was exactly what he wanted.
He went along with Liu Chengjun's words.
"Since Young Master Liu has also agreed to the joint investigation, our first step should naturally be opening the hidden chamber to confirm Chairman Liu's safety."
An Changqing's gaze landed on Liu Chengjun once more, his tone light.
"Young Master Liu, surely you can now admit that you have a way to open that door without resorting to force."
The air went quiet again.
Liu Feiyu's gaze turned sharp, fixed on his elder brother.
Long Ao and Hong Yuan also snapped to attention, looking at Liu Chengjun with undisguised contempt.
All eyes converged on Liu Chengjun, a barrage of looks he couldn't escape.
The composed mask he wore finally cracked, a faint fissure appearing.
Liu Chengjun's face darkened, his jaw clenched tight.
He knew An Changqing had outmaneuvered him.
If he admitted it, he'd confirm he'd been putting on an act all along—his image as a devoted son would crumble completely.
If he denied it, the first step of the joint investigation would fail, and the blame for the impasse would fall on him.
He let out a cold snort and ultimately chose the former.
"Someone."
Liu Chengjun called toward the door. Let it crumble—it already was a ruin anyway.
A guard hurried in and bowed respectfully.
"Bring the key."
The guard didn't dare ask questions. He turned and left immediately, returning shortly with a precision metal case, which he presented to Liu Chengjun with both hands.
Liu Chengjun took the case without even glancing at An Changqing again, striding directly toward the study.
Everything was said without words.
Liu Feiyu's earlier intel had been confirmed in full by Liu Chengjun's own actions.
Chen Guan stood at the back of the group, watching the bullet comments only he could see explode in a frenzy.
[The filial son finally admitted it.]
[HAHAHAHA, that slap to the face. Loud and clear, I can hear it from here.]
[Xiao An's a beast. A few words, and he pulled the rug out from under him. Total power grab.]
[This is way more entertaining than just brawling.]
[All the pressure is on the hidden chamber now. Hope the old Liu isn't actually dead.]
Chen Guan scanned the comments. Looked like the audience had no clue about the real culprit either.
In his mind, Baal's voice rang out.
"You really think opening that door gives you answers?"
Baal chuckled with the glee of someone watching a good show.
"Heh heh heh. The real show's just beginning. Don't let your guard down, boy. This will be a problem on par with Baal himself."
"After all... the Third One has his hands in this one personally."
...
The group gathered once again before that heavy alloy door.
This time, the atmosphere was heavier than ever before.
Liu Chengjun opened the metal case with a blank expression. Inside lay an instrument of staggering complexity, covered in buttons and ports.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, he pressed the device into a hidden recess on the door panel and began keying in a long string of intricate commands.
Click.
A single soft sound.
From within the door came the deep whir of machinery, a muffled rumble that grew layer by layer.
Click, clack, click, clack.
One after another, dull metallic reports echoed from inside the door.
Each sound wound the tension in the room one notch tighter.
Everyone's breathing unconsciously slowed, eyes locked on that door.
At last, after what felt like an eternity, all the mechanical sounds ceased.
With a low hum, the impenetrable alloy door slowly swung inward, opening a crack.
The instant the gap appeared—
A thick stench of blood, laced with biting cold, seeped out through the seam.
The moment the smell hit them, everyone's face turned deathly pale.
If nothing unexpected happened, something unexpected was about to happen.
Long Ao was the first to snap out of it. He cursed under his breath, his massive frame shoving through the crowd, lunging forward to force the alloy door open with all his strength.
The scene beyond brought the whole world to silence.
Inside the study, Liu Tiancheng sat slumped in his favorite leather executive chair.
His eyes were bulging, his pupils filled with an undissolved terror.
An ancient sword pierced straight through the center of his chest, its blood-flecked tip buried deep into the chair's backrest, pinning him to the throne of power.
He was dead.
"Father!"
Liu Chengjun's roar carried a genuine tremble for the first time. The color drained from his face completely. That eternally cold mask finally shattered—leaving only raw, unfiltered loss.
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.
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!
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!
